What A Week!

We have had quite an exciting week around here! On Monday, our oldest daughter was inducted into the National Honor Society. As if that isn't neat enough on it's own, it is also the very first NHS group for Boulder Creek High School. Cool! She was also elected to the Student Government for her senior year. Since Boulder Creek is a new High School, she'll get to participate in many "firsts". In fact, her class next year will be the first seniors to graduate from Boulder Creek.

Last night, our youngest daughter graduated from 8th grade and is now officially a freshman in High School! (I still can't believe I have two kids in High school now!!) She had a great year at Gavilan Peak. She was on the yearbook staff, played Basketball for the Lady Firebirds and was a manager for the girls Softball team. She also received the Firebird Spirit award. This award was voted on by the teachers, so we were very proud of her for receiving it.

Since this was our first year in Arizona, our biggest worry was how the girls would adjust after such a drastic move. Well, they've both done great! They both have jumped right into the youth group at church, have made lots of friends and done well at school. We could not be happier and we are proud of them both. Today is the last official day of school. We are now ready to enjoy the summer!

On another note, I'm thrilled that Taylor won American Idol! I have to admit that I was totally hooked on AI this season. There were lots of good singers on the show this year, but Taylor was the only one that I could imagine actually buying his CD. Yea, Taylor!!!

My favorite show, "24", also wrapped up this week. I was a little disappointed with the wrap up of this story line. I wanted to see the bad guy get punished! But they did give us a HUGE cliff hanger. Now we have to wait until next January to see what happens to Jack. Oh well, I just hope he gets a little sleep before his next "worst day ever" begins! ; )

Even my guilty pleasure, "Smallville", is over for the year. Now I have to wait till the fall to watch Clark Kent move even closer to his destiny as Superman and to see Lex Luthor become the evil villain we all know he is!

Don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that my three TV addictions are over with for the year. On second thought, I hope I'll spend lots of time traveling and hanging out by the pool with my family and friends! Happy summer, everyone!

Hi-Ho! Kermit the Frog Here

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know. You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems. Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green. Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

I LOVE Kermit, so I was pleasantly surprised with my results. Take this short quiz and tell me which muppet personality you share.

Idol Chatter

After the serious topic of yesterday's post, I thought I'd just post some random goofiness today. (SPOILER ALERT! If you don't want to know who was voted off American Idol last night, READ NO FURTHER!!!)

Can you believe that Chris went home last night? He wasn't even my favorite, but I was absolutely stunned, as was he it seemed. Even Katherine looked stunned. I had predicted that it would be Chris and Taylor in the final two. What happened??? I could swear that the studio audience even went silent for a second or two. I was sorry to see Chris go, but I'm still rooting for my man, Taylor!

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Now for something completely different! If you have five minutes to spare, check out this clip from the show "King of the Hill". (Seriously, the clip is about 5 minutes long.)

In the clip it seems that someone has stolen the Hill's pew at church. I admit it made me laugh, but it's really one of those "sad, but true" kind of things. I guess that's why it's funny. Don't they say that all good comedy has a grain of truth to it? ☺ A good illustration of how we miss the point about church sometimes. I'll be interested to hear what you think about it.

Loving Those You Don't Like

Today I was skimming through a little book called "Learning To Love People You Don't Like" by Floyd McClung and this passage caught my attention:

I was deeply hurt once by a friend. I could not get over the anger and disappointment I felt every time I thought of him. Another friend advised me that I should tell the Lord I forgave the friend each time these feelings surfaced and say, "Lord I choose to do this with your love, and I will not give up until you put love in my heart for him. I receive that love by faith."

And then:

When someone irritates us, or his personality rubs us the wrong way, we tend to avoid him. When he comes into a room, we avoid looking in his direction and move to the other side of the room. Some of us go so far as to steer clear of events or gatherings if certain people will be there.

Ouch! That hurt because both of those passages could have been written about me. This is something I've struggled with for years now. I never have trouble forgiving anyone who is repentant, but I do if they are not. I do catch myself avoiding people who "rub me the wrong way" rather than trying to work past those feelings. Why is that?

The Bible says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that" (Luke 6:32-33). Again, ouch! Praying to have a heart of forgiveness and acceptance toward someone sounds so simple, but is it really?

For me, this is one of those hard teachings of Christ. Ok....confession time: I find it hard to love those who don't have a repentant spirit. I know it's wrong, but I'm afraid that being hurt by a Christian brother who showed no repentance and no interest in reconciling has jaded me somehow and made me, on some level, afraid to build new relationships. I want to forgive this person (even though he hasn't asked for it, nor was he willing to give it in return) and be free of the bad feelings about them, but I'm really having a hard time letting go of the hurt and resentment. And, I must confess, I have steered clear of events because I knew this person would be there.

I also catch myself feeling afraid anytime a "difference of opinion" comes up when I meet someone new. I can just feel myself wanting to disengage. Something inside of me just starts screaming, "Abort! Abort!" Maybe this comes from the church split I witnessed where I saw life-long friendships severed over differences of opinion. Scary stuff and unbelievably painful!!! I saw much damage done to individuals and to the reputation of the church because of that split. It was hard to get over the hurt and disappointment in some people who I had truly admired but I felt had let me down. In that situation, I justified my feelings by saying that my faith was in Jesus, not in people. But it's hard to feel that way yet still love, I mean really love, these people who have hurt you! I've also told myself that you can love people without really liking them, but that's hard for me to accept. Anyway, I think I let these experiences create a spirit of fear in me and I know that's not from Jesus, so I want to get rid of it!

Does anyone else struggle with this?

The author went on to say, "Sometimes forgiveness is a process. If we have been deeply hurt, it takes time for the wound to heal. In this case forgiveness acts as a continual cleansing of the wound so that it can heal properly. As we think about a person who has hurt us or sinned against us, feelings of resentment and emotional pain well up. Then we must reaffirm our commitment to forgive them. It is not that the first act of forgiveness was invalid, but that an ongoing process may be necessary until we are completely healed."

That gives me hope! I have prayed and prayed about these feelings and, while the pain and resentment have lessened, they still come up from time to time. I am always feeling like a failure because I can't just pray, snap my fingers and be over it. I'm still working on it and praying about it. I truly desire to have the same spirit of mercy and forgiveness that Jesus has. I'm so thankful that He forgave and continues to forgive me and I know he wants me to forgive others. In the meantime, I'll read further in this book and see what advice it has to offer about loving those you don't like. I'll also take comfort in this:

"The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (I John 4:4). Praise God!

Just Wondering....

My friend, Danny Sims, asked the following fun questions on his blog today (http://simsdanny.blogspot.com/). So I'm being completely unoriginal and copying him because I thought it would be fun to see your answers. I'll post mine for you in the comments.

Do you hit the snooze button?

At what stage in a banana’s life does it become too old to eat?

What’s the lowest price you can recall ever seeing for a gallon of gas?

Do you have a tattoo, and if so did it hurt?

If you had to do one, would you prefer to sing the anthem or throw out the first pitch at a MLB game?

Have you ever found money, like a $10 or a $20, maybe on the sidewalk or somewhere?

If your neighbor told you he was abducted by aliens, would you feel differently toward him?

For a vacation, mountains or the beach?

What’s you favorite yogurt flavor?