80's Hair Band Kinda Day

I only wish my hair had looked this good when I woke up this morning.  Do you ever get to the end of the day and think, "Is this my life for real?"  Today was one of those days. Well, it started out with me resembling the band Def Leppard. I actually have curly hair and decided to wash it before I went to bed.  See picture below and take a vote on which band member you think I most resembled at 6:43AM this morning.  Fabulous prizes will be awarded to the winner.  I think I have a Justin Bieber poster in my closet and a life sized cardboard cutout of Jesus. Your pick. 

 So here I am decompressing from a day of school and decided to look through my old cd's and low and behold here is a classic from high school days.  Doug Stone.  Pause for dramatic effect.  Anyway, I just popped in old Dougie and started playing track #3 called, "In A Different Light".  Long story short, he is basically saying he is in love with this girl who works in his office, but she is homely and other dude's don't notice her 'cause she wears a bun and glasses. Well, every female cast member on Little House on the Prairie is basically doomed unless Doug Stone comes along and saves the day.

If you picked the two on the right then you win. Ironically if you pull out my high school yearbook this is what the majority of us looked like. Who set this trend? It was a BAD one. Debbie Gibson and Tiffany rocked it with the addition of the black hat. My friend Christie and I bought the black hat and shared it.  We took turns wearing it on pep rally days.  We were that cool.

I guess I have been a bit nostalgic today.  I think it is good to remember.  Two years ago I studied the book of Joshua with my senior girls.  We talked a lot about stones of remembrance that the Israelites took from the Jordan river as they crossed into the Promised Land.  God knows how easily we forget His faithfulness to us, so he challenged the Israelites to build a place of remembrance so they could bring their children and their children's children back and retell the story of what God had done.  So I started this tradition of gathering stones and rocks and putting them in a vase periodically to give praise for God's faithfulness in my life and in the lives of those that I love.  I shared with my cousin Ami the other day that gratitude and perspective are powerful.  Reflecting on God's faithfulness is powerful because it makes me grateful and puts life in perspective.  What are your stones of remembrance? 

So glad to journey with you.

Beth



Healing Is In Your Hands

I've been talking to God a lot about healing.  After twelve years of sitting across from college women who have wounds that run deep I began to wrestle with what healing looked like. Being in school for counseling and having studied so many disorders and dysfunctions that appear hopeless has challenged me.  I guess it boils down to this.....if I do not believe that God can heal us no matter the affliction, addiction, loss, or the affect of someone else's decisions on our life then I think I would just go crawl in a hole somewhere and pray for Jesus to come back now.  However I believe He wants his kingdom to break forth here on earth through you and me.  I never really understood what "His Kingdom come" meant and was too embarrassed to ask until I heard a message on it a couple of years ago. God desires to make things right is a way to simply state it.  So many things are upside-down and I long to have him come set things in place and to allow his kingdom to break through in my own life.

I see Him doing this more and more. God allowed me the privilege of seeing a process of healing this summer when my cousin prayed over someone who had back problems.  I saw with my own eyes this friend's leg grow.  I do not think I will forget this for as long as I am alive.  Jesus used this to awaken something in me that had been dormant.  He has offered me an invitation to live with my heart fully alive to him and to continue to allow him to write a better story than I would ever write for myself.  Because God has wired me with curiosity and a voracious love for asking questions, I'd love to ask you two.....1.  What makes your heart come alive?  Be specific.  2.  What area of your life do you desire healing in?  Do we not pray for healing because we do not want to be disappointed?  Feel free to email me as some of your responses might be private.  Beth.Wayland@uscm.org  Thanks for being on the journey with me.

Beth

P.S.  I realize I did not talk about what happens when we feel that God did not heal in the way we had hoped.....I feel another blog coming on about that one.....