Down the Street Under a Mesquite Tree

I am always amazed when God comes through in the most unlikely of ways and speaks a word to my heart. OK - really, it is more like God thumps  me on the heart and says, "Do you get this, Alene?"

This past weekend I was having the most intriguing conversation with a man who had come to church and then afterwards shared with me a hand-written poem he had penned. The poem was unbelievable - totally God-inspired it seemed. After he bared his soul in this poem we began chatting about life in general.

I quickly learned he had only been in Corpus a few months. He had moved from Houston where he had lived and ministered on the streets. The God stories he told me were incredible. (Yes, I asked if he'd write those down too!) As he shared his life, I was so captivated by the peace he had.

I found myself asking, "Where are you living now?"

"Down the street under a mesquite tree," he answered.

Inwardly I gasped, I hope he didn't hear it. I wanted to shout "No, you need a place to stay. Let me find you a place. Do you have food? Do you need anything? You are too special to be living out on the street!"

The peace that exuded this man was beyond words. How could he be so at peace when he was out on the streets? Didn't he want a home? a job? a family? a hot shower? some nice clothes? transportation?

My mind and heart was racing with questions as our conversation ended.

Last night I returned to church for our weekly prayer night. During our hour together we had a time of quiet worship and prayer. The peace that fell on that building during that moment was, once again, unexplainable. My mind was quickly drawn back to my friend who lives down the street under a mesquite tree.

I wondered as I sat there in this unexplainable peace if this was the peace that this man experienced on the street. No phones, crazy and chaotic schedules or fancy gadgets to rule his life -- just peace and quiet time alone with God.

I am so thankful that I was reminded of this peace that passes all understanding. This peace you and I crave won't be found as we swiftly run through life from one chaotic moment to another. It will instead be found in the stillness and quiet of our hearts as we sit alone with God.

Thank you to my friend who lives down the street and under a mesquite tree!

Life Verse 2

I wrote yesterday about my daughter's life verse and that got me to thinking about my own verse. If you would have asked me a year ago what mine was, I would have easily quoted Romans 12:1-2 explaining that my whole life should be a living sacrifice to God.

For years I claimed it and took such great comfort in the Message version of that verse. Especially verse 1.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Because I felt like my life was so ordinary it was great to know that as long as I honored God with my ordinary He'd be pleased. But in wanting to live my life as a living sacrifice through the ordinary, I can see now where even those steps of obedience became old routine to God.

There is more to life than just living it for yourself, while claiming you are living it for God. Yes, He wants us glorifying Him in our ordinary lives. But I'm learning that what I thought would glorify Him, is not really how He intended me to glorify Him. Or maybe He has grown me to a new place of obedience? I think he has moved me more from verse 1, into verse 2. "Don't become so adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking."

Ouch! Nobody wants to stand out or I certainly don't. But as God continues to lead me I'm recognizing more of what He wants and trying my hardest to quickly respond. That definitely goes against our culture! As my thoughts become blurred and new habits come into play I really wonder what God is doing.

While my life verse might be changing me and still a little out of focus, my motto stands true. "I consider my life more like a mosaic than a puzzle. My life’s pieces don’t fit together nice and neat. However, God has used each piece to make something beautiful as He is the mortar that holds my life together."

Hallelujah for His mortar that holds all my crazy pieces of life together! Yes, and even those pieces where I don't see just how they are going to fit yet.

Interrupted . . . I'm at Mel's World Today

I love Mel's World. I can't believe I get to be one of her, Melissa Mashburn's, Godly Gals today!  When she wrote about this series she spoke my language . . . stories from everyday, ordinary REAL gals. Yep! Yep! Yep! That's me - everyday, ordinary curly-headed me from south Texas. Yeehaw!!!

Here in south Texas it is HOT, HOT, HOT!! While I am soaking up the sun, I'm remembering that seasons come and seasons go! And I’m not just talking Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall either. There are many types of seasons . . .

Seasons in your life. Seasons when it's hot. Seasons when it's cold. Seasons in your children’s lives. Seasons in ministry. Seasons. Seasons. Seasons . . .

Everywhere I turn these days it seems God is interrupting my life and bringing a new season. Although, most seasons come with anticipation – they certainly interrupt life as to the way we knew it before. I don’t know about you, but I don’t handle interruptions very well. I rebel. I squawk. I question. I kick and scream. Why? I have no idea, because what I’ve noticed is God usually gets His way. Yes, He interrupts our routined lives for a purpose.


For the rest of this story . . . let me interrupt you and ask you to visit me over at Mel's World for Godly Gals today for a little Jail House Rock.

If you are wondering about the season God has called you to and why your life seems interrupted, I invite you to join me next Thursday, July 1^st, at the Women of Passionate Purpose Online Conference. I’ll be speaking of . . . an interruption . . . a season . . . A Different Kind of Summer!

Let me interrupt you again to say, I've got 9 free tickets to give away. Take this quick survey to be entered.   Drawing will be held June 27th.

New Seasons are Springing Forth

What an incredible Spring season! Not only is the weather perfect here in south Texas, but God's goodness and love is springing forth.

I've been amazed these past few months at how God blesses when you just step out in faith and obey what He says to do and where He says to go. My personality screams I want to know all the details first, but God never reveals them until I take my first step.

After speaking at the A Women Inspired online conference, I was contacted by Kristen at Exemplify Magazine Online. She said the magazine wanted to interview me and WOW was I blown away. You know me and my crazy thinking, "What could I have said that makes her think I have anything intelligent to say to her magazine readers? What could I possibly share that could benefit others?"

I stand in awe that the magazine is out and that the interview is included. (Can you believe it? pinch. pinch.) I am blown away to get to serve beside some incredible Godly girls as we serve our Lord, each in our own unique way.

To read the May issue of Exemplify click here. It is fan.tab.u.lous!

BTW - stay tuned - I'll be beginning a column at Exemplify for Empty Nesters called Wings, Worries, and Worms. Amazing, I know, amazing!

Here's to new seasons!!!

And Then There Were 11

Every year Internet Café Devotions hosts Blessed Aroma, a call out to blog readers to nominate their favorite blogs, in specific categories, written by Christian Women. What an honor to have been chosen one of The Most Joyful among the Top 100 Blogs!!! Thank you! I'm blown away.

Last Tuesday evening totally rocked. It was the beginning of our online Bible study of I'm a Fixer-Upper. (more information here)

There are 65 on the roster and girls from all over the US and Canada showed up for our first gathering. It was unbelievable - God was surely raising up His girls! We had a great time studying and being encouraged by one another. When our time was up I wanted to end us in prayer. As I switched to my last screen layout - unbeknownst to me I lost my attendees -- I asked for prayer requests and waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

No one was acknowledging me, so I thought maybe my group had gone shy - even though they had chatted up a storm all evening. So I began the most precious prayer for them, our studies and where God was leading us thinking they weren't ready to share since it was our first time meeting.

When I said Amen and looked up there were only 11 gals left in our online group. I was taken back. My mind first went to "Oh my lands - this isn't touching anyone. They were so ready to get off and get on with their life. Lord, what have I done? They surely will not come back net week. blah, blah, blah . . ."

About an hour later, I received the recorded transcript of the chat and as I read through it for the first time these gals had me laughing, crying and amening their comments they had posted all through the night. I kept wondering "Lord, they chatted like they were touched and yet they all bolted."

Then all the sudden they start writing, "Where did Alene go? Can anyone hear her? Is she coming back?"

I lost it. I have laughed for days. Here it was my mistake. I left the class in a lurch and yet my crazy mind was wondering where they went and what I did.

I'm so thankful for the replay of the chat, otherwise I'd still be sitting here beating myself up!

I can not wait for our second class this next Tuesday. These gals rock!!!

Functioning Happy

I conquered one fear of mine this week. I finally decided “to put on my big girl panties” and go get my eyes checked with hopes of getting contacts.

It’s a horrible story -- I had to start wearing glasses for reading a few years ago. I was teaching and speaking weekly and didn’t want to be toying with glasses the whole time in front of people, so I decided on a cute pair of progressive lens spectacles. I have battled those things ever since, even though I adjusted to the progressive lens pretty quickly.

I did NOT want to wear glasses. Seriously, I really didn’t want to wear glasses so I just started printing out my notes and outlines in 97 pt. print. OK it wasn’t that big, but big enough for me to see it.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, this past year even that 97 pt. print was getting hard to see as I glanced at it while speaking. Mercy sakes, I had to begin wearing those glasses while speaking. Urgh! Call me a brat and tell me to get over it, but I don’t like wearing glasses when I’m speaking. So, with everyone betting against me, I gutted it up and went for an appointment for contacts this week.

The Dr. began asking me about my “living style” and what I did. She wanted to know specifically why I didn’t like the glasses. We visited quite awhile about me speaking, writing, etc. and how my glasses affected that . . . (quit laughing)

Finally, she said she’d work with me until I was “functioning happy!” I almost hugged her. I told her that was just the phrase I needed to describe this dilemma to my hubby. “I’m just not functioning happy!”

Girl - I can’t tell you how excited I am to be working with someone who is going to help me “function happy.” Can you feel my silly giddiness building?

The thing is we should all be helping each other function happily in this world. We each battle our own struggles and burdens. This week I attended and spoke at A Woman Inspired Online Conference. WOW, what a way to help each other function more happily. I spoke on our “dirty laundry” and how we let so many things hinder us, slow us down, and burden us until we can no long function.

Christ came to help us function happily! He wants our struggles - no matter how big or small - our burdens and our frustrations. He wants it all so we can rejoice in Him and be happy.

To build upon my talk I offered a give-away of three of my Dirty Laundry Secrets Bible studies via random drawing. And I am thrilled to announce that the winners are: Denese Waddill Barber via facebook, Nicki Chevalier Koziarz of Three Girly Girls, and Susie Terry Mozisek of A Pink Carnation in Bloom. If you are interested, I am going to leave the $5 EBOOK special up on my blog until Monday. Check the top right hand column out.

Blessings my friends as you splash around in God's sudsy bucket of grace!

Amazingly, it is time we all come clean and begin functioning happy!

Pruning Creates Growth

As I entered middle school – way back when – my dad had just completed building a new house for our family. We moved in and all seemed so bare. The inside of the house needed to be decorated and have things hung on the walls. As well as the outside of the house that needed grass, trees, and landscaping.

Years later we had settled in and it felt like home. Mom had done an awesome job. The inside was beautiful and the landscaping was immaculate. It was gorgeous. Our trees were no longer little twigs - they were full grown beautiful trees that provided a lot of shade.

One day Daddy announced he needed to prune the trees so they would grow back even fuller. He went about his business and I continued to jam out to my 45’s in my room. Those were the days, right?

Later when I went outside, I about croaked! The trees were pruned alright. Heavens, they were branchless. I was so embarrassed. Our beautiful shaded yard was now just bare with tree trunks standing. Of course, I gave my dad grief. But he assured me that those trees would grow back even fuller than before.

Months – MANY months – later I learned what pruning was all about – growth. Daddy was right. The trees were bigger, fuller, and producing even more branches than before.

The dictionary describes pruning as: To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches to improve shape or growth.

Just as I witnessed my daddy improving the shape of those trees, I am now witnessing my Heavenly Daddy improving the shape and growth in my life. I’m being pruned.

First I want to scream “Ouch! This is embarrassing. Quit cutting branches off my tree trunk.”

Second I feel naked as I stand branchless. In every aspect of my life (family, church, and ministry) the past few months the branches have been shaken or cut off.

I’m banking on my daddy and Heavenly Daddy being right. I will be a new creation full of new sprouts.

Through this process, God has brought many landscapers into my life to assure me the pruning will bear much fruit. I am growing ever how slowly it may be.

Pruning does create growth! Amazing, I think I see a new sprout budding.

Paper Mate

I have been fretting the day my FAVORITE pen runs out of ink. It’s the last pen I have and PaperMate doesn’t make them anymore.

But today I can breathe a little easier for awhile. I was cleaning out a closet. Gasp-I know! There it was buried deep DEEP down in a basket full of old cards.

Should I treasure this last pen, set it on a shelf or use it?

What good is a gift if it just sets on a shelf?

God might ask us the same thing. Remember the servants who were entrusted with gifts/talents?

The servant given one thousand said, 'Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.'

The master was furious. 'That's a terrible way to live! It's criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest. Matthew 25:24-27 The Message

Seriously, I am so thrilled. Although, this is the last of my favorite pens (barring any more closet cleaning and awesome surprises) I will use this ink. I will use it wisely.

Yes, PaperMate medium point pens are my fav! I’ve realized I’m just as picky about my pens as I am my journals.

PaperMate doesn’t even make this pen anymore. I don’t want the new Erasermate or Write Bros. NO! I WANT THE PLAIN JANE PAPERMATE!!!

Amazing, there is always something to be said about an original. There’s none like it!

If you happen to see this original anywhere PLEASE let me know.

Fried Fish

Why do crazy things always happen in this house?

We had a fish fry and this wasn’t your normal fried fish with French fries.

We have three 30-40 gallon aquariums in our house. Each tank has a different kind of fish. I love watching them all. These are my graceful and gorgeous pets.

Hubby was at work the other night so I made the rounds to turn off all the aquarium lights. As I approached the tank in the kitchen I noticed all the fish were swimming at the bottom. That was very unusual. That tank had at least 15 bottom, middle and top dwellers in it. But that night, they were all swimming slowly at the bottom.

When I got to the tank I could feel the heat radiating off the tank. It had to be over 110 degrees – it was off the thermometer charts. The fish were lethargic. I unplugged the heater in the tank and did all I knew how to do (which wasn’t much).

A side note – these crazy things always happen when hubby is gone. I SO don’t get it.

As I crawled into bed, I was thankful I had caught the disaster just in time.

Or so I thought . . .

Upon waking the next morning I went to turn on the tank light and check on all my little friends. I didn’t see anything at first. Then three little spastic Glo Fish came flittering by as if they had gone crazy. Hey, there was life in the aquarium. Yeah!

Where were the rest? I thought maybe they were all still lurking at the bottom, until the Plecostomas came stiffly bobbing by. As I looked harder Big Blue, a gorgeous Gourami, came shooting by as he had got caught in the water current. Not Big Blue!

I about lost it. The Krebensis were inside their log, as if that would shield them from the heat. The rest of the fish were caught in the plants, stiff and dead. Each fish had their eyes open as if they were looking for help.

Oh my . . . we had fried our fish.

I bet you won’t ask me to pet sit, will you?


Cindy over at Life is Good tagged me for six random things about me:

Weird things happen at our house. (see story above)
I could drink coffee all day long.
I don’t – did I say DON’T – like cold weather.
My hair is naturally super curly.
I miss playing the piano and guitar.
I love photography and my Canon EOS 20D.

Faith Lifts

One of my favorite things when I was elementary age was “coffee breaks.” Every Saturday, Mom would set an allotted amount of time for cleaning and chores. Once my sister, brother and I were through and our jobs passed inspection we could have a coffee break.

Of course, Mom fixed the best coffee ever! It was mostly milk with a smidgeon of coffee, but that didn’t matter – it was a treat!

This morning, why don't you treat yourself to a hot cup of coffee and join me over at Faith Lifts? I'm a guest filling in for Shera. If you ever wonder what's your purpose or if your daily chores matter, hop on over and you’ll realize you are not alone.

Embracing what God does for you is amazing!

What do you think?

Deep-Sea Fishing

After stressing out about meeting a writing deadline (thank you for your prayers), it was great to get away and enjoy family, friends and the outdoors.

My nephew said Friday, “Aunt Alene, it would be great if you took pictures and posted them on your blog.” So nephew, I hope you enjoy the recap and pictures.

Waking up at 4:30am is really not my cup of tea, but a cup of coffee helped me endure the early morning Saturday. I have to admit I was a little excited because I hadn’t been deep-sea fishing in twenty years or so.

Hubby, Linz and I made it to Port Aransas where we met up with my brother, his family and a group of his friends. We were all anxiously awaiting this BIG trip. We load the boat promptly at 7am.

I should have had a clue we were in for an adventure when the shipmates circled all 22 of us up in the cabin as we were pulling out and gave us the run down.

“We have some good news and some bad. The fish are biting today and we’ll be catching Red Snapper and Shark. The women’s restroom is broken, but the men’s is functioning. (ugh! Clue 1) We will be traveling out about two hours, if our Captain makes it. He is very sick and is waiting results of a MRI he had done yesterday. (ah! Clue 2) For your safety stay away from the bough of the boat and hang on we will be experiencing six to seven foot swells out in the Gulf. (Cool! Clue 3)"

We take our places. It is beautiful and calm. The sunrise is gorgeous.

Maybe the Captain was wrong. This wasn't so bad. We relaxed. Sister-in-law and niece caught up on their sleep.

Then about an hour into the trip the waves really begin kicking up. After an hour and a half we witness our first causality to motion sickness. The Captain begins kicking off the motor so our boat doesn’t slam into these 6-7 foot waves (HA). Seriously, they were between 10-15 feet.

Finally, a little after two hours out we stop. Captain says let down your hooks here, you will catch fish. I let down my hook as I’m being slammed into the side of the boat and within minutes I have something BIG. The reel was spinning and I begin to reel in – then snap! The big rascal got away. I'm sure I would have had the biggest one!!!

The shipmate took my hookless rod and brought me another all baited. (Ladies, if you've never been deep-sea fishing these shipmates are awesome. They tend to your every need. I guess they figure if they can keep you happy, hubby is happy and will want to come back. ha)

I put down again and within minutes I’d caught something so big I couldn't reel it in. I’m being slammed against the side of the boat. Hubby comes to my rescue and reels in TWO Red Snappers at one time. WOW, I must be good.

Shipmate is there again to help me. I love it! As he got the fish off my hook I began to feel a little woozy. I was being tossed all around. I figured if I sat down a minute and got some fresh air it would pass. I rounded the corner to the other side of the boat, only to witness people barfing over the boat. Needless to say that just compounded my wooziness into full blown nausea.

Oh the joys of deep-sea fishing! Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of the story.

This is amazing -- as I'm retelling this story I'm begin to feel those waves again! Crazy.

Ordinary is Amazing

Like this new look? I LOVE it! Thanks to Amy over at Split Decisionz. She is very talented as you can tell. It was hard to believe she didn’t even know me, but yet captured my personality on these pages. Yea Amy! If anyone is looking for a new design or great blog tips check her out.

Many of you know that I’ve been on a journey to know more about this person God created me to be. Trust me, it has been a journey. I’ve had coaches, mentors, three accountability partners, and a wonderful husband by my side the whole way to discuss issues and ideas. Believe me, I was hesitant to reveal my weaknesses along the way.

It’s amazing, though, how people close to you can see you better than you can see yourself at times. Your loved ones can see your strengths when you can’t and they can see your weaknesses – the ones you know are there but try to hide. As I struggled to know more about this person (me) God created, I became aware of my battle with self-doubt and my insecurities from feeling just plain ordinary.

I had become an ol’ pro at hiding those feelings. I was very good at putting on a mask to cover those ordinary feelings and inadequacies.

It all came in to perspective a few years ago when I was asked to speak. At this conference there were incredible speakers – you know, the ones with testimonies that leave you sitting on the edge of your chair. As I took the stage, I remember thinking what do I have to share that these ladies would want to hear. I remember thinking, “I’m so ordinary, I don’t even have a testimony!”

A year later I was asked to give my testimony at a church service and as I prepared I realized how sinful my thinking had been. I had to beg God to forgive me. I had a testimony. I had a story. It was God’s story; one He had planned for me before I was born (Psalm 139). So, I knew I’d better get busy telling of all the wonderful things God has done in this ordinary girl’s life.

I began to take special notice of ordinary things and events, especially pertaining to the stories of the Bible. My heart just sang as God’s word revealed over and over how He uses the ordinary. Ordinary sticks become staffs that parted the waters. Ordinary fishermen become fishers of men. An ordinary towel became a servant’s cloth in Jesus’ hand. The ordinary was useable – rocks, aprons, basins, keys, coins, and even bread. Ordinary people were on every page – the young, the old, the rich, the beautiful, the barren, the poor, the carpenters and the tax collectors. The stories are countless.

I knew then that God wanted, and still wants, my everyday ordinary life. See my life verse in the right hand column (Romans 12:1). It was when I surrendered to the very fact of being ordinary that I finally realized how amazing the ordinary could be.

Jesus taught with ordinary stories so we could relate to His teachings more readily. As I go through my day, I love finding the ordinary in the days happenings and routines then relating that to a Biblical lesson. I think that is why I enjoyed writing Dirty Laundry Secrets, it’s a Bible study about ordinary stuff. It's the ordinary routine of doing wash that we can all relate too!

I’ve finally learned that if I open my eyes God is all around in the ordinary. I love telling stories and letting God shine through in the most common of circumstances.

How dare I not stand amazed?

Friends, open your eyes! The ordinary is amazing! Be amazed!