Communication----Keeping the Good Stuff

Texting   
 The commercial comes on and says "the average kid texts 20 words per minute".  Yeah right.  I'm pretty sure most octogenarians can text faster than that.  Since first being given a cell phone, my kids have been able to text without misspelling a word while studying for a test, watching tv and playing video games all at the same time but never even looking at their phones!  If they ever got as slow as 20 words per minute I would think something was wrong. 
     Ever notice how fast you can text when you're mad?  Seems those words just fly from your fingers.  And then it happens.  The person who texted you doesn't understand what's going on and stops texting all together.   Maybe there was a text that you interpreted one way but the texter meant another way.  Or maybe you misread it.  Then it escalates and you both are mad.
     What would be different if real communication had happened?  If things were clarified.  If, instead of flipping out, the texter and the textee stopped to weigh what was actually being said and why.   Or if a phone call was made so the inflection in the words could actually be heard and not just assumed because the assumption was most likely wrong.  Let's face it.  Texting is NOT the best form of communication.

Mom's Losing It
     Recently my kids had a talk with my husband without me knowing it.  Because I seem to ask them the same questions over and over lately, they think I'm having memory issues and felt their dad needed to step in.   I had to laugh when they told me.  While I've heard from them several times that they are going to put me in a home as soon as I'm of age, I don't think I'm quite there yet!   The reason I ask them repeatedly their school and work schedules......well there are 6 of them and one of me!  Unless they write it down for me, keeping up with even two other schedules is tough.  But 5 or 6, please!   It's called being a mom.  We care if there is a family meal during the week.  We care if there is family time during the week.  We try to keep things together.   And since all but one of these people is male, I don't think they will ever understand.
     Speaking of being a mom, how many of you have saved things your kids made?  Pretty much part of the whole mom thing is keeping cards made by kids, awards they've won and papers they've gotten really good grades on.  But do we keep those papers covered in red marks or negative teacher comments?  Of course not!  Besides our kids thinking mom was losing it because she asked schedules over and over, they also decided mom was losing it because I seemed to not think about the bad stuff but remember the good stuff.   "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable---if anything is excellent or praiseworthy---think about such things."  Philippians 4:8.  This is the reason I smile and don't dwell on the bad stuff!  And that's what I told my family when they finally told me their concerns.
      Communication.  It takes time.  It takes patience.  It takes givers.  It takes receivers.  And it takes forgivers.  Haha....and sometimes forgetters!
      

   
  

   

You've Got to be Kidding! (Leather Jackets, Brett Favre and Hooters)

      While on our vacation/anniversary celebration trip last month, my husband and I were advised by a very nice hotel clerk in Jackson that a trip to the Outlet of Mississippi in Pearl would be well worth the trip.  Now I'm not really much of a shopper, well except for shoes of course, but when hubby and I shop together we usually have a blast.  It's like we turn into George Burns and Gracie Allen when talking with the clerk at the register.  (If you're really young, look them up.  You'll know what I mean.) Never knowing what the other will say yet being able to play off of pretty much anything, we leave the clerks laughing pretty much every time.

If it looks like leather and smells like leather, it's leather right?

     After going to a couple of high-end stores with high-end prices (it may have been an outlet but most of their prices were uptown prices) we found ourselves in a leather store.  It was so obviously a leather store by the smell that even blindfolded we would have known it was a leather store.  The prices were absolutely amazing and  we couldn't believe that they could sell leather at such low prices!
     Browsing through  purses and other leather goods,  I found an adorable red leather jacket that I just couldn't imagine leaving without.  I probably could have found a few more things but I really wanted hubby to get a jacket as well.  For the last couple of years, except while on duty, he's been wearing a gray furry Columbia jacket.  With dress clothes, jeans, or even wind pants, he would zip it up high, looking like a gray bear of some sorts.  And, as you can imagine, he has been called Mr. Rogers a time or two with that jacket closed almost all the way up.  So I convinced him to try on a jacket that was absolutely gorgeous on him!  The friendly clerk was so willing to knock off another 20 bucks from the already 75% off that we just had to go ahead and buy it.   As we had never had jackets quite that nice, I asked for care instructions.  The clerk readily handed out advise for our new leather purchases.  He also told us about his photo album of former girlfriends and about places he had visited in our state.
    We shared some laughs and left the store, proudly carrying our new leather jackets. We thought we had pulled off our usual check out counter show.  After all, we got a good deal and left the clerk smiling.  We continued to  think we got a good deal until we got home and I looked at the tags.  They looked like leather.  They smelled like leather.  They weren't leather.  Guess the laugh was on us.  But we'll look good this winter anyway!
    

He looks like who???????

     We had just about shopped til we dropped (doesn't take us long)  when my husband spotted a kitchen store.  We had visited one at another outlet last year and found some interesting gadgets so he asked if I wanted to go in.  At first I declined.  But it seemed like he really wanted to go in so we did.  Now this is where it gets good.  The clerk looked at him and gasped.  Staring right at my husband she asked "Are you Brett Favre?"!!!!!!  I busted out laughing!  Now that was one we had never heard before!  Of course we were in Brett Favre country so it wouldn't be impossible for him to be there....unlikely maybe but not impossible.  As I shopped, hubby talked with the clerk, occasionally joining me briefly before going back to talk to the clerk some more.  As we were checking out, we started our usually check out counter banter.  But this time I added a little twist.  I looked at my husband and asked "Brett are you paying for this, or am I?" Hubby grinned and yes the clerk caught what I had said.  She gasped as she looked at me and then at him.  Of course I added "Oh I wasn't supposed to say that was I?"  Then I told the clerk she would know for sure when she looked at my credit card because my husband and I had the same last name.  She was absolutely holding her breath as she looked at my card and saw, alas, that our name was Parks and not Favre.  I explained to her though, that my husband was much more of a hero than Brett Favre could ever be.  But I do still occasionally call him Brett of course!

Yeah right!!!!!
   
     I work in a bank.  No surprise.  A few years ago we were told we could wear jeans on Friday.  A bonus, during football season we could also wear a t-shirt supporting our favorite team.  Now I prefer stilettos and skirts, especially when the weather is warm, so I usually don't participate in jeans day until it gets really cool outside.  Last week we had one of those cool days so I broke out the jeans and the Arkansas Razorbacks shirt.  Because we had an occasion to eat out that night and I didn't have time to change, I went to the restaurant wearing my jeans and t-shirt.  Apparently the neckline was lower than I realized because even our daughter told me more than once to adjust it.  My husband, however, had a different take on the subject.  Grinning, he suggested that we should have gone to Hooters where I would have been mistaken as a waitress and we could have been able to  pay for our meal with the tips I would have made! 
     Now I've never been inside a Hooters and have no desire to go.  I think it's horrible that women are required to dress in revealing clothing for their jobs.  If you've read my blog for very long, you know I am 53 years old so I don't think being mistaken as a Hooters waitress is really something that would happen.  The topic, however, came up several times during the evening, always with my husband starting the conversation.  Until our sons got home from work that is.  Don't know if they had discussed it already or not, but suddenly one of our sons also decided to announce that I would fit in as a Hooters waitress!  Yeah right.  Waitresses.....you have nothing to worry about.  I won't be joining you.  And if I did, I would be telling you to put some clothes on and telling the customers to get home to their wives!
     Knowing how the men in our family would rather get on my nerves as to eat (and that's saying a lot!), I later quizzed my husband as to why they kept saying that.  Apparently he really thought it was a compliment!  So, I guess I'll take that as a good thing.  I think.  I don't know.  But I didn't wear that shirt on jeans Friday this week. 


    

Are You Gonna Throw That Rock?

     "Did you hear what she did?"  "I can't believe he said that!"  Sound familiar?  Just why is it that we are always so shocked about what others do and say but don't consider our own actions anything but normal and honorable?  Is the person we see in the mirror really better than everyone else?
     John 8 offers an amazing lesson about judging others.  A woman was brought to Jesus after she was caught in the very act of adultery.  According to the law of Moses, those caught in adultery were to be stoned.  Seriously.  Hit with rocks until they died.  No trial.  No defense attorney.  That's how serious the sin of adultery was considered. 
     So there she was.  In front of Jesus.  Surely she thought He would be picking up a rock.  But He didn't.  Instead he challenged her accusers.  "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  Wow.  Not only was He not throwing rocks at her, nobody else was either!  Was she getting by with her sin?  Not exactly.  And neither do we.
     But let's look for a moment at another aspect of this story.  Recently I had one of those ah-ha moments when thinking about what Jesus said that day.  "He who is without sin......."  He didn't say "he who hasn't committed adultery".  He said "He who is without sin."  Oh my......  That means if someone had lied, if someone had stolen something, if someone cheated, if someone gossiped, coveted, and so on and so on and so on.  Jesus' challenge to them was that if anyone had not sinned at all, in any way, not just adultery, in any way, that person was to throw the first stone.  Well, that leaves me out, how about you?  So right there, Jesus put all sin on the same level.
     I had never thought about it just like this before.  For some reason I always considered this more of a defeat for the accusers.  More of a lost argument than anything else.  Can't you just see them walking away, tails tucked between their legs, kicking the dirt and mumbling?  And some of them probably did just that.  But there was a much bigger lesson here.
     The Law had been given to Moses.  The Law had specific punishments for specific sins.  When Jesus came, things changed.  Jesus' blood covered all sin.  Jesus' blood still covers all sin!  There is no sin too great.  There is no person too bad.  Ah.....but there is also no person too good.  Ever been the one to say "did you see" or "did you hear"?  Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Three chapters later, Romans 6:23 tells us that "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  In fact the whole chapter instructs us not to continue in sin.  Like Jesus told the woman brought to him, "go and sin no more".  We have a new life!  We are a new creation!
     What did she do?  What did he say?  What did I do?  What did I say?  Doesn't matter to Jesus as long as we come to Him.  His blood, His precious blood, covered it all.  Do you know Him?  Would you like to?  You haven't committed a sin that He can't forgive if you ask Him.