Bibles

As any good Southern Baptist girl does, I have Bibles all over my house from my whole life, because I just don't know what to do with an old Bible. I would never be able to get rid of one. I'm sure I could give it to someone who needs one, like some powerful moment in the airport or something, but that's never happened to me, so my Bibles pile up in a bookshelf. I have my pink Precious Moments Bible from Elementary School. My beautiful green Bible from high school that the cover came off of so its in a green Bible cover. I have a Women's Devotional Bible that was given to me from a sweet family I babysat for as a high school graduation gift. We have a huge Family Bible that was given to us as a wedding gift. I have a couple of tiny Bibles that I bought throughout the years to travel with because I thought it would be easier, but the font is so small, how can anyone read those things. My current Bible I take to church is a fairly recent purchase before Lifeway stores went out of business (don't get me started on that, that's for another blog post.). I love it, my current favorite color of turquoise and in the same version our pastor uses to preach out of. But this post is really about my favorite Bible.

Jason's first church as a youth minister was Trinity Baptist Church in Henderson, TX. When he was interviewing with them he took me with him on the interview, and we weren't even engaged yet, but close. While we served there, we got engaged and married. The church pianist and organist played at our wedding and their kids were our ring bearer and flower girls. (Goodness, those kids are in their late 20s now!) And our sweet pastor did our welcome. And every Sunday while we attended there, Jude and Gaynell Glascock sat behind us in church. They were the sweetest older couple who I know genuinely prayed for us and our ministry there.

When I graduated from college, Jude asked me what I wanted as a graduation gift, and I said a new Bible that had my new married name on it. He brought me money and told me to go pick out a new Bible. I picked out a navy NIV Study Bible and was so proud to engrave Christy Gadman on the cover. I remember how excited I was so show it to them and wanted them to sign the inside of it, but they were afraid their elderly handwriting wouldn't look good, so they watched me write in the cover that they had given it to me on that date.

I still use that Bible for most of my quiet times in the mornings, 22 years later. Because its so big, I haven't taken it to church very much, so its still in good shape. But it has so much underlined in it. I did use it in Seminary and so the 20 verses I had to memorize in my Biblical counseling class are underlined in a different color. I'm not one to write too many notes in the margins, I fill up journals instead, so you won't find too much written there. But if I only had time to grab one Bible if we had to leave quickly that would be it.

I did a search of those sweet people awhile back. Jude passed away in 2004 at 89 years of age. He had been a Baptist pastor. He had married Gaynell after his first wife died and they had been married 14 years when he passed, but when you met them, you would have thought they had been married forever. Gaynell passed away in 2007 at 91. I will always remember their kindness and support of this young newly married couple at their first church who didn't know what they were doing. And I treasure that Bible they gifted me. I hope I can pass on that kindness to the next generation.

How to fight my critical spirit

Its been over two years since I blogged last. That shows you what a full time job and three kids will do to you. But I've been itching to start back. I think my brain might work better if I take time to be creative and process things in writing. And God teaches me so many things that I might journal for myself, but I think other people might learn from them too if I'm willing to share. So here goes.

I'm at a conference this week in Orlando, ALL BY MYSELF! I am an introvert and enjoy having quiet time, but its almost been too much. I have seen my brother for dinner and ran into a former staff member, and have of course talked to my hubby on the phone, and that's been just about enough to get my word count up to an acceptable level. I'm enjoying my conversations with the Lord too. He's been talking to me a lot.

What I did not enjoy was what he told me yesterday morning in our first session. We were having an extended prayer time where there were stations around the room and we were supposed to go to the stations or have prayer and worship in our chairs. I was journaling and praying and having a perfectly wonderful time between me and the Lord when I was rudely interrupted by these two ladies behind me who had apparently decided they were not going to participate and proceeded to talk to each other the whole time, not particularly quietly either. The longer it went on the madder I got. I fumed and said unkind things to them, in my head. I prayed and told God how rude they were. And then I was mad at myself for being so critical of people. I am a critical person by nature. Its why I'm good at my job, because I'm always looking for how things can be done better.

As I complained to God about the women and my own critical spirit, He gave me a blue print for how to deal with my critical nature in very practical terms.
1. Fix the problem. (I could have told the women to be quiet or take it somewhere else. But since I would never do that, on to #2)
2. Change yourself. (I could have moved somewhere else. But since I was comfortable where I was with all my stuff out, I didn't, so on to #3)
3. Deal with it. Fix your attitude. If you aren't going to do #1 or #2, then you just have to figure out how to over look it or change your attitude.

Seems simple. So I tried it the next two main sessions. The next one I ended up sitting by a women who made up motions to the songs, not sign language (which I love watching), but motions like she was in a youth choir in the 80s. She was breaking chains, and counting the 3 parts of the Trinity. So I tried my new blueprint. I can't ask her to stop worshiping in whatever way she wants to worship. So I did a mixture of #2 and #3. I shifted enough where I was standing so that I didn't see her out of the corner of my eye and then I just thanked God that I was next to someone so passionate about worshiping her Father.

Session three, I sit down and not five minutes later a couple of ladies sit in front of me and one of them has their child with them, maybe a 3 or 4 year old. Now I love kids, its what I do and I'm at a Children's Pastors conference. But that's one of the reasons we come to things like this, to GET A BREAK FROM KIDS! So nope. So I did #2. I got up and moved far away. No reason to sit and be distracted and fume the whole time about why she brought her kid. And it worked. I had a great time of worship and wasn't worried about that sweet child and his momma.

So that's my blueprint for dealing with a critical nature. Its helping so far in this bubble of a Christian conference. We'll see how it works in a few days when I get back to the real world!

I'm glad to be back in the blogging world. It feels good.