Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
~ Cecil Beaton

First of all, the radio show I was on last Sunday (Power Talk on PowerFM here in DFW) speaking on women & porn addiction is posted. You can listen to it by clicking here.

Moving on…Last night, Chris and I got to volunteer at the Livin It Skate Demo put on by Lake Pointe’s Skate Church. I’d guess there was a good 600 or so people of all ages – from little kids to a 70-something pastor I met. The skating was phenomenal (and I know NOTHING about skating).

They did a gospel presentation at the end of the demo, and I was able to talk to a girl named Sky who accepted Christ. Sky’s in foster care until her 18th birthday, which is Tuesday. After she turns 18, she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. I’ve talked to a guy on staff who helps resource people in her situation and he helped me get some things started for her. Please pray for her, if you have a chance. She’s terrified, depressed & lonely. Please pray God will surround her with people who will help her see her purpose in life.

If you want to see more pictures from this event, click on the guy below. I asked him to show off for me so I could get some cool shots. He did a marvelous job.

Who the heck gets a cold in the summer? Evidently, I do. Mine started Saturday night, June 24.

Check out this post from last year…and note the date.

Weird.

Prayers are appreciated. It’s not too bad – just sore throat, coughing, watery eyes, little bit of a fever. I just have a lot to do at work this week, and a great Skate Church event Thursday night I wouldn’t miss for the world.

(Today is our anniversary – three years!)

Food for thought…

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices…

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner…

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship…

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it, a man will gladly go and sell all that he has…it is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift that must be asked for, the door at which one must knock.

Words that could have been written today. But they weren’t. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote them in the 1930’s – when he was in his late twenties. A timeless truth that we should contemplate maybe more now in our commercialized, diagrammed culture.

*What does grace mean to you?

*How do you see the message of grace presented in our world today?

With all the reasons people come up with not to blog, I thought I’d attempt to reveal some positive aspects of blogging…

Why do you blog?

How has God worked in your life through blogging?

I look forward to your responses! And, if you could pose the same question on your blog and have people comment here, that would be great. I’m trying to convince a cynic and the more replies, the better!

When I had my wisdom teeth out a couple years ago, it ended up being a huge deal. Major oral surgery involving hammers, bits, drills, knives, and a couple surgeons. I was on a lot of pain killers the first few days. One of those days spent in the happy land of Vicadin, Chris went out to get some jello for me. I was laying on the couch watching When Harry Met Sally. You know, they hate each other, then they’re best friends, then they love each other.

So, Chris comes in the door and I’m all emotional from the movie. I look at him and slur, “I looovvvee you…..I’m (drool) so glad we’re friends….I love you!!!!” He just stared at me and laughed. I don’t remember this whatsoever, but he swears it’s true.

Today, I was checking out my friend Los’ blog, where he has a survey going on about what blogs you read daily. He posted his top three…and I was flattered this site was mentioned.

He says,

[I read] Flowerdust.net – http://www.flowerdust.net – Community.
The wierdos that end up there make me feel like there are more like me. She doesn’t have to post daily but her comments keep churning. That is a sign of good content.

Now, this gives me an opportunity to say something I’ve been trying to put into words the last couple of weeks.

THANK YOU.

If you read this blog, and comment, and discuss, and share openly, or share at all….Thank you. You guys have become a family to me – whether you have been commenting for 2 years or 2 days. Thank you for sharing in this journey with me, and sharing your lives with me.

YOU make FlowerDust.net the little community it is.

And I love you…I’m (drool) so glad we’re friends.

I promise to write something meaningful on here soon…it has been a busy weekend. I’m about to leave to meet a friend from Kansas City for breakfast who happens to be in town on business and then I have another meeting as Chris & I have caved in and are going to see a financial planner. Holy cow, that makes me feel really old.

Anyway…I have been inspired by my friend Crystal to ask this question:

-If you could ask me anything in the world, what would it be?

I’ll do my best to answer them all…

Silly or serious: What is your absolute worst church experience ever?

With online banking and my love of analyzing everything, I created a graph that shows Chris’ & my Starbucks Spending pattern. Looks like Wednesday spells trouble. Midweek slump maybe? Yikes.

Chris and I live in a newer area of the metroplex. Our apartments were built only a couple of years ago, and they are still building strip malls all around us. Everything has that new feel with the cooler brick and rock work.

If you’re coming from Wylie towards Sachse, there is a trailer park area on the south side of the road. Judging on looks alone, it appears to have been there for a lot longer than its newer surroundings. But the thing is, you can’t really look into the trailer park anymore. They built a wall around it.

The wall, of course, is fancy: large neutral stones with dark brown faux-finish textures. It looks like a wall that would be surrounding an expensive subdivision rather than fifty double-wides. And to be honest, I think the reason they built that wall was to eliminate the great american eye sore of a trailer park, and the low-status symbol stigma that it brings.

Today as I drove by, I realized how much this trailer park wall symbolizes my life at times. For the most part, I walk a pretty straight line and things are well kept. But then I have my trailer park. And it’s not that trailer parks are bad or ugly, people just perceive them as being bad and ugly.

Naturally, I want to put up a big, fancy wall to not let people see into my trailer park. Not only are my “skeletons” viewed as something to be ashamed of, but by putting up the wall, I am proving that false judgement correct by acting like I have something to be ashamed of.

The truth is we all have our sins. Whether it’s gossip, lust, anger, envy, materialism or pride, we all have them and no struggle outweighs another on the scale of shame. Instead of putting up our brick walls to hide them, maybe we should put out a welcome mat. As we each open up just a little bit by inviting others to see our not-so-perfect lives, others will follow suit and we can then truly begin to love our neighbors, regardless of where their home sits.