What a week....

Well....this has been an interesting week. A wave of emotions associated with big changes. My parents who have lived and pastored in Sparta TN for 16 years are moving. They are taking another church about an hour away in Chattanooga TN. This is so complex that it's been hard to wrap my mind around it all.
First, there is a personal level for my parents. They are about 6 years from retirement and already have bought a house in Sparta. So, they are moving back here in a few years. But, I am excited for them and this new change in their lives - they are such wonderful people and have so much love to give to people. They have built on a great foundation at this current church but I believe they have lots to offer in building on the foundation at their new church. I'm excited to see what God is going to do with them for His kingdom.
Second, there is a personal level for me and my family. My parents have never lived more than just five minutes away from me. This has meant so much as I got married, experienced job adjustments, gave birth to children, and now have kids starting school. They have been back up baby sitters when day care was closed or the kids were sick and couldn't go to day care. But even more then that is the ability to call them at the last minute to meet for dinner. Or to plan a spontaneous Saturday last summer for mom to go with me and the boys to Splash Country. Or for dad to call me at work and suggest eating lunch since he will be in Cookeville to pick up his suits from the cleaner. On a personal level....this is a HUGE loss.
Third, there is a level for us as church members. Our leadership will be changing. We have peace since we know that God is in control. And if He is leading mom and dad to a new place then we know that He has been working to bring the right person to our church. There is some fear associated with these changes.

So.....what does a person like me dealing with all of these changes do? Well, a person like me with a melacholy personality, an administrative spiritual gifting, and a little obsessive/compulsive disorder....I cry, I laugh, I remind myself constantly of the Word, I pray, I encourage myself, I surround myself with encouraging people AND I go to the book store yesterday. So, I went to the book store and bought three books. Two of the books I planned on purchasing and one was a spontaneous buy. First, I bought the book recommended by a friend called "Who Moved My Cheese". Now this is not a spiritual book. It was actually written by the same man who wrote "The One Minute Manager" and his books are read by many people in the business world. But it was given to them to read as church office staff when they experienced a pastoral change. I read it this morning and found it very insightful. I will probably re-read it again several times within the next few weeks and also give it to a few others to read. Short and easy but very insightful. The other book I purchased was "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day". Now that is a title that just jumps out at you. What? Well, it is written by Mark Batterson who pastors a church in Washington DC. I came across his blog (http://www.evotional.com/) while reading Beth Moore's blog (http://www.livingproofministries.blogspot.com/). I've been reading it for a couple of weeks and have really enjoyed his perspective. So, had to go get the book. He has another book called "Wild Goose Chase" but being a person with slight OCD (no comments!) I had to read the first book written first. I read the back cover and LOVED it. I've skimmed the first chapter and am ready to dive right in but this morning hasn't allowed for me to read two books and blog.
And the last book, the spontaneous one, is called "Velvet Elvis". It is by a man named Rob Bell who also pastors a church called Mars Hill. Don't know too much about him actually but I know my brother has read this book and watched some of his videos. I thought, why not?

So....here I am in the midst of big changes...and knowing that the process is not going to be over in a matter of a few days or even weeks. But, I'm prepared. I know the Lord is with us. And after reading "Who Moved My Cheese" this morning....I am reminded that change is constant and it's all about our perspective to change.

Reach for the Stars?

In the past week many young people graduated high school or college.  I personally had a son who graduated from Kindergarten.  Very exciting!  However, the high school graduation ceremony I attended got me thinking as I flipped through the program and saw their theme, "Reaching for the Stars".  As I listened to the Salutatorian and Valedictorian give their speeches encouraging the graduates to reach for the stars....it left me feeling empty.
What if you reach and reach and reach and still can't get there?  What if you reach and get your star and it ended up being not what exactly what you expected or wanted when you got it?  What if the sky all the sudden became black and you couldn't even see the stars?What if instead of reaching for the stars, we reached for the Star Maker?  The One who knows the entire universe inside and out and yet can still keep count of the numbers of hairs on my head.  The One who formed us in our mother's womb and sees our every hope, dream, struggle, failure, and loves us through them and in spite of them.  The One who gave everything for the ability to have a relationship with us.  Yes, I believe if we reach for the Star Maker instead of the stars then He can give us the stars and so much more

Riley

Well, my baby has turned five years old. Wow...it is hard to believe Riley is already five and we are doing the preparation for school. I remember when we found out we were going to have another baby. My oldest had just turned 13 months old. Yes, I had a one year old and we were going to have another baby. It was just a little overwhelming. I remember wishing it would be a boy. We hadn't really cared with the first one and we didn't find out before hand if it was going to be a girl or a boy. But with the second baby and them being so close together, we told them that if they were 100% percent certain of the gender during the ultrasound then to go ahead and tell us. And they were 100% and it was another boy. I think I literally breathed a sigh of relief. Having two boys would certainly make it a little easier since we already have boys clothes and toys. And we kind of know what to expect with a boy, right?
Wrong....these two boys are night and day different. Jonah came out a very smiley baby however Riley, well, I think he saved his smiles for the first two years of his life for just a very few special people. He would go to various family members or friends and sit in their lap and watch others with a very somber face. He wasn't a baby who just laughed and smiled alot. About the two year mark though he must have decided that he had soaked in enough of the world and his personality begin to burst out. He is one of the smilingest (that's a word in blog land, right?), loveable, funny kids you will ever meet. He is friendly and never meets a stranger. If no one is around to talk to, well he will just talk to himself. I've watched him many times in his bedroom or on the porch, pretending to "work" on something and carry on complete conversations with himself. I do believe that his imagination is endless.
Riley loves to help. He loves to help daddy when he is mowing the grass; he loves to help mom cook in the kitchen, wash dishes (this would equal putting them in/out of the dishwasher), even clean up the house. He enjoys helping because that means there is someone to keep company and of course conversation. And as you know from my second blog post, the conversations can be quite interesting.
Riley is a home body too. One of his favorite things to do is to make brownies or cookies and then watch a movie in mom & dad's room. He loves water. He would spend hours in the bathtub if he could. And Splash Country in Pigeon Forge TN is his favorite place on earth. Even better than Disney World.
Riley loves to make me people laugh. And if he knows that something is "funny" then he will keep doing it or saying it as long as you continue to laugh. He love to tell a joke. Two of his favorite - one that Pastor Mike Campbell taught him about Pete & Repeat sittin' on a fence and the other one from the Madagascar 2 movie about good news and bad news. This enjoyment of making people laugh will probably lead him to being the class clown in school and getting in trouble. He will probably have hundreds of friends though. He's not normally one to get in trouble. However there are many times that he fails to listen to the instructions or warnings because he's making someone else laugh or talking. Lord help us!
Another neat thing is that Riley loves to be held. Still. My oldest son, Jonah, rarely wanted to be held at five years old. Even now, he doesn't spend much time sitting in your lap. He likes to sit beside you and is great at giving hugs. But Riley loves nothing better than to crawl in your arms, lay his head on your shoulder and be held. He thinks nothing of laying his head over on your lap in the restaurant booth and going right to sleep knowing that you're going to carry him to the car too. And when he looks up at you and asks to be held it makes you want to hold him. He has the most precious little face.
Wow....what a gift to be Riley's mom and enjoy him every single

Thoughts about heaven.....from an almost 5 year old

In our current daily routine, I leave work and pick up my almost five year old son (next week), Riley, from day care and then drive less than fifteen minutes and pick up my six year old son, Jonah, from school. In the few minutes that we have in the car together alone before we pick up Jonah, there is usually a discussion about how the day went, if you went outside and what you did outside, who was there and who wasn't, and how many "feet" you had left and why. For those who haven't heard about the "feet" system, let me explain.
At our day care, everyone starts the day with 3 feet. These 3 feet have your name on them and are hanging on a string on the wall. Now, if you misbehave then you have to remove one of your feet and put it in the boot. Cute, huh? If at the end of the day you have at least one foot remaining, then you get a prize from the treasure box. Literally, some days there are kids just hanging by a toe.
So....you can imagine that the entire ride from daycare to school pick up is full of conversation....especially if you have met Riley. He enjoys talking. Last week we quickly covered all of the normal topics of afternoon conversation very quickly in our ride. And there were a few moments of quiet and then the discussion began....

Riley: Mom, do you know that you don't have to have money in heaven?
Me: Really, why?
Riley: Because Jesus will just give you whatever you ask for. If you ask for something, He'll just ok, here it is.
Me: Wow, that's pretty cool. (few moments of silence)
Riley: Mom, you know that you don't have to cook in heaven.
Me: Really....that's cool.
Riley: Yeah, if you get hungry, you just ask Jesus and He'll say, ok, here it is. And it's already cooked. That's kind of magical.
Me: Yeah, that is awesome.
Riley: But, if you're bad you get kicked out of heaven and have to go live with the devil. You only get one chance you know.
(Theological discussion begins....)
Me: Well, I don't think that we will want to do bad things when we get to heaven. You see, when we go to heaven, we're going to get new bodies and in those bodies we will not want to do bad things anymore.
Riley: New bodies...oh....then we won't have to get kicked out.
Me: That's right. Once we get to heaven then we never have to leave.
(Few moments of silence)
Me: Riley, what do you think heaven looks like? Do you think it has green grass, a sun and clouds?
Riley: No...it's gold.
Me: Wow, that is amazing.
Riley: Yeah, so it's really sparkly. And silver. That's sparkly too. And you know, that when you get to heaven....you can touch the sun?
Me: Yeah, I guess you can touch the sun because you'll have that new body.

Part of this conversation, I'm sure is his imagination - how he pictures Jesus in his imagination cooking his food in seconds and just giving it to him. He may be thinking that when he asks Jesus for something to eat, that he won't get the response "No, you don't eat that for breakfast" or "No, you can't have that before dinner". However, his idea of the closeness of Jesus and how beautiful heaven will be....now that is right on.

My name

When I finally decided to make the leap from putting thoughts in emails to actually trying a blog, I had to come up with a name. I thought about when my mom named me. She said that she searched hard for a name that wouldn't have a nick name. She went through college year books and found the name Melanie. Try as she might, she could not come up with a nick name. However there ended up being a show on television just a few short years after I was born about a restaurant called "Mel's Diner" and you guessed it....my nickname became Mel. My mother hated it at the time because Mel was a man. But....it didn't bother me. And now my own mom calls me Mel.
Throughout the years there have been a few other nick names added. My dad calls me MG (short for my full name Melanie Gean). My best friend in high school called me Mellie. One of the guys at work calls me Melvin. I've also been called Smelly Melly, Water "mel" on, Melanie Felony (this one doesn't make any sense since I've always been a goody two shoes.). My brother's nick name for me was "Princess" but he used that mainly when he was mad because I was going somewhere and he wasn't. I believe the words were "The Princess always gets her way!"

When my husband Jason and I started dating most people called him by his name. However there were some friends that used his middle name, Argo, and another group of friends that called him Ray Ray. Still not sure where that came from? And after we'd been to a couple of family gatherings, I had to ask why some of his uncles called him Jake instead of Jason. No good answer....they just always did.

Now...I have two sons - Jonah and Riley. I never did think about whether they would have nick names or not. I assume at some point everyone has a nickname. However, I don't think that my oldest son Jonah has ever had a nickname. He's always called Jonah. Sometimes he mistakenly is called Noah since it is a more common name than Jonah and sound similar. But, it is not a nick name. But my youngest son Riley has had many nicknames for his young five years. We started out with the nick name Rooster. This came from the fact that he was up at the crack of dawn ready for the day. That name was eventually shortened to Roo. From there we added Ri. Since we've started playing sports and there are either multiple Riley's (boys and girls) or Briley, Bailey, Kylee, etc. we either use Ri or use his full name, Riley Austin. The other day he decided that he wanted to add a second name which I informed him was known as a nick name. He said that he wanted to be called Piglet. This actually is very appropriate since he can sometimes remind you of Piglet - he is a little small, cuddly, and has a lot to say but sometimes gets all tongue tied trying to say it all.

So...maybe some names are prone to nick names....or maybe some personalities are. Not sure which one is the case but either way....you can call me Mel.