God is Good

Our preacher, Brian Mashburn, spent the summer preaching about the Anatomy of God. Our friend, Gregg Paxton, either painted the following paintings while we sang, while Brian preached or one time before the sermon. Jason and I fell in love with the paintings and commissioned him to make us a set suitable for our living room. I LOVE THEM! Oh, and a great story to go with these paintings....three or four weeks after the series ended my second grade class was able to name all nine paintings! God truly gave these two men a great gift and we are so blessed to now have them be a part of whatever home in which we live.


The Ear of God


The Mouth of God


The Eye of God

The Finger of God.

The Heart of God.

The Hands of God


The Mind of God.


The Face of God.


The Nose of God.

Jesus tells a parable about a widow who time and again comes to a king begging for justice. Eventually, this king who neither fears God or man gives in and give the woman what she wants because she is so persistent.

Twelve years ago today, I finally gave up and agreed to go on a date with Jason. He asked me on a regular basis since March of 1997 and even though he spent the summer in California and I spent the summer in Austin, he did not let up. This man would write me letters that would go unanswered (thank you, Tarese) and yet, when we returned to OKC, he still asked me out.

I only agreed to go out with him thinking that if I said yes, he would leave me alone. And I only agreed to go out with him on a double date. So his best friend at the time, Tom and one of my girl friends, Tara agreed to go with us.

Our first dat was to the Oklahoma State Fair with the intention of going to a concert there (I don't remember who it was, but Jason will). We hadn't been walking down the fairway more than seven or eight minutes when one man yells out to Jason "Win something for your wife!" I was mortified. We kept walking and ended up at the concert site which was not a pleasent experience.

Some how or another we sat in front of some teenage kids who were smoking. And they weren't just smoking good ole nicotine. No, they were smoking weed. The first act came out and completed a nice set. The lead act came out and he had overnight lost his voice. He played two songs and then excused himself from stage for the rest of the concert. Nice, huh?

As we walked the rest of fairway, Jason did eventually win something for me in a baseball pitching game. We then headed home.

The nice, easy, tidy ending would be that since that first date I was taken by Jason and we have been together since. But come on, you know me, right? I don't do anything nice, easy and tidy do I?

After the date, Jason and I stayed up talking for while. He was still determined as ever that I was who he wanted to be with. I on the other hand was still determined as ever not to date him. Don't get me wrong, I liked Jason. He was sweet, compassionate, and doted on me. However, I had just always assumed for so many reasons that dating/marriage was not my "thing" so why bother. Besides, I had so much to balance between school work, basketball and church I could not see how he could possibly fit into my life.

I don't remember the details the conversation and I don't think Jason does either (I consider that one of the many ways God has been gracious to us) but I do know that I said some hurtful things and he responded in kind.

The problem was that following weekend we had both signed up to attend a church retreat. I was hoping that Jason would decide since I was going he would not but being the stubborn man that he was he was determined to go enjoy the retreat anyway. Again, I don't quite remember details (Jason does), but the van ride to the retreat was uncomfortable.

All of our friends had decided that the two of us were should be dating and they pretty much all spent the retreat weekend trying to convince of us this. I remember one conversation with Tom, Cedric and Anthony that lasted long into the night. It was that conversation that turned me around and convinced me that I needed to give this man a chance.

Years later those three men would stand as witnesses in our wedding.

The past 12 years have been a whirlwind. Our relationship has included miles of distance between us, hundreds of basketball games, miles traveled cross country together, more than 70 kids, a couple of very hard funerals and the ups and downs that come with marriage.

Recently in the course of one of our Bible Classes at church, we were challenged by our preacher to find out the meaning of our names. I think the defintions of our names shows how Jason and I were made for each other.

My name means "Pure Archer".
His name means "Healing Brave"

I thank God on daily basis for Jason being persistent in pursuing me. I thank God that we had friends who were willing to fight for a relationship for us even when we had both determined it was not going to happen (okay, me more than him).

Thank you, Jason, for an amazing 12 years of life together. I pray that God grant us dozens and dozens more. I love you!

I had the privilege of sitting with a "special needs child", whom I will call "Tammy". She is nine. I am not at all familiar with this child, her disablity, her family situation or anything about her. I was asked to sit with her so that her parents could attend a class we have at our church for parents with special needs children. This is a great blessing to these parents as it allows them time to connect, learn, talk, and just be with others who are having the same struggles they have. So, when I was asked to go sitting with Tammy, I immediatly said yes.

In this quite little room, Tammy and I sat watching Dumbo. Tammy's brother was there, reading a book. He acknowledged my presence but stayed very focused on his book. Tammy made eye contact with me, smiled and turned around. I opened my Bible with the intention of reading Luke. However, I was easily distracted by Tammy and her interaction with the movie on the small TV.

You see, I was in Tammy's world. My presence there was of no consequence to her. This movie was on a for many puroses but as with most 9 year old children who have seen a movie more than twice, she was almost constantly doing something else - playing with toys, wandering the room, messing with the clock- while watching Dumbo. It was obvious that this is a movie Tammy watches on a very regular basis. She would quote pieces of the movie about 1/2 a word ahead of the movie. That was not the interesting part. She had control of the VCR (yes, we were watching a VHS tape, crazy, I know). And I became intruiged in watching her rewind this movie. There were times that she would rewind the movie for the sounds the animals or people would make. She would imitate these sounds. This would probably be considered "normal" for many children, especially one with special needs. It was the other times she rewound the tapes that took me by surprise and made me think.

The first time she rewound the video, it was watch Dumbo, who had just gotten out of the tub, dance and play with his mother looking on lovingly. We watched this scene three times. She sat quietly, contenedly and still all three times.

The next time she rewound the tape was when Dumbo's mom "goes mad" because the kids at the circus are picking on Dumbo. Seven times, count them seven times, she hit the rewind button to watch as one little boy was yanked back, bent over the ropes and spanked by Dumbo's mother. Again, she sat still, quietly watching the TV each time.

A few minutes later, Tammy rewound the tape as the adult elephants were ignoring Dumbo. This time, though, Tammy pointedly immitated Dumbo's sadness and loneliness.

And finally, as Dumbo triumphately flies over the circus, disrubting the clowns routine and shooting peanuts at the adult elephants. Again, she imitated Dumbo "flying" the elephant in her hand around the room. As she did her circles each time, she very clearly made eye contact with me and gave me a big smile (and that was just an added blessing).

Interestingly, there were two parts she skipped, neither of which I blame her for. The first is after Dumbo drink the alcohol tainted water. Yes, Dumbo and his pal, Timothy mouse are slightly inibriated and hallucinating. It is a bit scary and kind of creepy if you really watch it. But again, this is the part she fast fowarded through. The other part she skipped was when the birds are making fun of the him and being mean and ugly to him. During both these times, while she was distracting herself with toys and such, she was also imitating some of Dumbo's reactions in these scenes.

Do I need to point out how her heart was very much expressed and protected in these scenes? Do I need to point how this child is obviously relating to the "underdog", Dumbo? Should I reveal how deep down, I too enjoyed watching those same parts over and over again because there was a since of justice? Or how I too wanted to imitate Dumbo and his sadness? And how I long to fly over the clowns and be the star of show, triumphing over all who said I would be nothing?

"...I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3