Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Praising My Man

As referred to in the last post, this is my personal 'praise your man' week. Most of you know Nathan~ I have been privileged to be married to him for the past 7 years. I'd like to share a few things about him that make him my wonderful man:

~ His goal is my happiness (let's start off with my selfish side ;o). If I ask him if he's happy, he most often responds with, "Are you? If you are, then I am, too."

~ He took the early years of his adult life to study Carnegie, and people, in general. On top of his uncanny ability to psychoanalyze people, he is a brilliant conversationalist and deep thinker.

~ He is thoughtful. When he comes to bed late, he tiptoes around the room with a flashlight so he won't wake me up.

~ He is clean and orderly. Thank God from Whom all blessings flow! Cleaning up after Nathan is practically unheard of, and I'm never embarrassed to be seen with him in public.

~ He says I'm beautiful. What woman doesn't like to hear that?! And he's a 'hot hunk' (as Kathryn has been taught to say ;o), so we make quite the pair...

~ He loves our children, and sees his life goal as training/teaching them to be a part of God's kingdom.

~ He's affectionate and kind to our dog. (Don't laugh: men who kick the dog, or otherwise take out their frustration on weaker creatures scare me)

~ He's like his father. (Here's a little embedded tribute to Dad Brown: thanks so much for teaching your sons to be such great men, and I'm truly blessed to be married to a man who's often considered to be like you)

~ He is a valuable employee at his company, provides a beautiful and comfortable home for us.

~ His provision allows me to be home with the children. This is such a blessing! He could be sending me out anyways, to pull in the extra dough for an 'enhanced' lifestyle. Instead, he fully supports my role at home.

~Last, and most important, he is godly. He bows his knee to the word of God on all of life, and truly treasures his study in it. He is sensitive to God's voice, and I have full confidence in his spiritual leadership.

Some of you have posted/have said you will post a tribute to your man. Check out Messner's blog below for a sweet tribute from Lisa...

Friday, July 25, 2008


Calling All Wives!

I'm giving you heads-up regarding my posts next week. I've been reading a new-to-me book that all wives should have in their library. If you don't have the $ to own it right now, run, don't walk to your nearest library and ask for an interlibrary loan if they don't have it on hand. Much of it I've heard before in some form or another, but I'm only through four chapters and I'm so challenged to be a better wife and mom.

So!!! I'm challenging you as well. You've seen how denigrated men are in our society. I'd like to proclaim a "Praise Your Man in Public" week, and challenge each of you to post a little (or large) post on your blog next week telling us all how privileged you are to be Mr. X's wife. I've seen more than my share of women's groups fall into 'bash your man' groups. And 'if you think that's bad, listen to what MINE did' groups. Ugh! Let's be godly ladies, gals, and raise our man up in the process!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008


Surprised By A Smile

How shall I say this without murmuring? (See Holly Walker's blog below ;o) Let's say my life right now is a bit on the downside. Nathan's been sick, our best friends are on the world's longest vacation, and it's Alabama-summer hot. You know it, you southerners. The pulsing sound of cicadas in the trees that mimic the heatwaves floating across the road. I broke a sweat carrying trash down to the bin this morning. I'm longing for the cool breezes of fall.

So! I thought maybe some of you are in the doldrums just now, and I thought I throw some happy thoughts your way. What makes you smile? You know, those idiosyncracies (we all have them?). Those fun little things that bring a little cheer to your heart on the rough days. I had a group of happy moments hit me the other night. I was on the way home from a child's birthday party, where I got to hang out with good Christian friends (number #1), when suddenly I passed a parade of antique cars on the interstate (number #2), when I found a Christmas in July special on the radio and heard Nat King Cole and Karen Carpenter belting out holiday tunes (number #3). I turned the a/c up high until I shivered, and my child sat happily looking at books in the backseat (number #4). Who cares that you now all know my dream car is something along this line? Anyone got $50,000 to donate to your favorite 'charity'? (I know, that's the oldest line going). Who cares that you now all know that I'd listen to a crooner any day, any time over any other genre of music? Who cares that you now know how really strange and retro I am? Find some fun things that make you smile today! For starters, may I suggest this delicious homemade dressing to drizzle over some ice-cold lettuce wedges? It doesn't hurt that the title is the name to an oldies song ;o)

***p.s. I would also like to introduce the latest project of the Browns to my readers: http://pensamientosexegeticos.blogspot.com This blog is/will be a compilation of my brother-in-law, Philip Brown's articles, some previously printed in the Revivalist, and some of my father-in-law, Allan Brown's written sermons. All of these will be translated into Spanish by yours truly. We hope this will be a blessing to Hispanic pastors & students in the future. Feel free to check it out and recommend it to any Spanish people you may know...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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Self-Centered: It's Just What We Are

Kathryn and I had a teachable moment today. Upon leaving ALDI Supermarket, we saw a woman rummaging through her purse, presumably for the quarter to release a shopping cart (hereafter referred to as a 'buggy') from the rack-thingie. Kathryn had just rescued our quarter, which she deemed a 'miracle!' By this, I'm assuming she did not see me put it in. Anyhoo, there's this poor woman who has succumbed to the 'carry-no-cash' mentality that I also suffer from on most occasions. After all, I only bought hamburger buns, because I only had 95 cents on me in the first place. Pity welled up, and I instructed Kathryn to give the lady our quarter for her buggy.

We got all strapped in the car, and I launched off on this teachable moment. You know how it goes... The Bible tells us that if we have the means to do good to someone who needs it, we should... and this poor lady needed a quarter, and we had one, etc. etc. Quietness ensues. I imagine deep truths of compassion and generosity sinking into the fertile heart of my child. Then a little voice pipes up from the back seat, "Mommy? I need a quarter, too." Ah, well...

Saturday, July 12, 2008


And Now For My 100th Post!

This post is a rather random collections of my recent thoughts/doings...

* Number 1: Guess what arrived in my mail yesterday? Here's a hint: black with eight legs and a red hourglass on its middle. Yep. A black widow spider. Thankfully, I saw it crawl toward the corner of our mailbox. Using spider-killer spray made specifically for those of us who like to keep our distance, I annihilated the evil creature. It gave me two thoughts: one, thankfulness for the protection from who-knows-what that our Father continually provides, and two, a desire to blog on our family's history of spiders. We'll get to that later...

*Number 2: Mom and Dad Brown, Phil, Marianne and their boys were here for several days recently. I didn't get my camera out once. So shoot me. I'm awful about that. I really wish I had, but we're going up there in 5 weeks or so; I plan to correct this oversight. We had such a wonderful time with them. Lots of food, fun and great fellowship. I wish you all had the opportunity to sit in on a Brown family discussion of the Word. Wow! What a privilege to be a part of such a knowledgeable and wise family. I think they should do a radio call-in show on Bible questions. I will care for the children and provide mail-order snacks to the 5th caller ;o) We also were able to go the Pell City Camp for a few days. What can I say? I love that place!

*Number 3: Mom fixed my pitiful begonias. She gave them dirt. Yep, they were looking quite sad. She noticed my potting soil was a little low and filled the container back up. Up they popped, happy as can be. And now they're thriving. OK, here comes the cheesy application. I was thinking about how sometimes in our spiritual walk, God gives us a little "dirt"~ some grimy trials, filthy tribulations to help us thrive. It takes more than sunshine and a gentle shower to grow things. It gave me a new perspective on being thankful for all things.

*Kathryn told me today that she's for sale for 'twenty bucks and a half.' After today, what can I say? Any takers? ;o)

Have a wonderful Sabbath!