Mother's Day, sickness, and forgiveness

Today is Mother's Day. I am so blessed to have a few different mother figures in my life.

First there is my biological mother. I called her on Skype today (I set it up with my brother, since my parents don't have a computer (the computer we got when I was in 6th grade no longer counts as a computer. . . I think it's running on Windows 98 haha) or high speed internet), and I know that really meant something to her. We talked for a while, I showed her my school picture and a couple other things, and otherwise it was just like a phone call except in person. We'll probably do that more often, which will be neat for her and me.

Second is Tracey, one of my OTP connections. She generally directs the musicals, and since that's what I did with OTP primarily (though I was involved with two stage plays). She's very insightful and one of the funniest people to be around (let me put it this way- you can detect her laugh from about 5 miles away haha). The OTP gang is like a second family. I saw her (along with Kim, Victoria, and Kristina) for lunch when I was up for my brother's wedding. I left her a phone message; I may not get a call back for a while, but if I don't talk to her before June 13 I'm sure I'll see her when I'm up for Gilbert's wedding.

Third is Mrs. Disterheft. The mother of a good college friend, I got to know her and the whole Disterheft clan between staying with them for the MMC and living at their house for a week when I tech'd the Homeschool Band's drumline. She's such an awesome person and has been very supportive of my move down here and all the exciting things happening spiritually in my life.

Fourth isn't really one person (and not all female either) but a bunch of the people at SBC take such great care of me, and there are some great mother/father/brother/sister/cousin figures there for me. I couldn't have asked for a better church to be a part of after uprooting and moving to Florida.

So, to all those people, thank you so much for all the different parts of my life that you fill and are a part of.



It seems my crazy lifestyle finally caught up with me, and I got sick this week. I went back to school Friday, and plan to continue to go (because at this point, it's just a little sniffle and a very small sore throat), but it was sad/nice to have those couple days off. But I got to thinking (you know me; I never really stop): whenever I get physically sick, I tend to have some weird thoughts and even feel just a little crazy. I wonder if when our bodies are sick, our personal spiritual defenses also droop in strength and more of those invading thoughts and emotions seep into our brains and mess with our mental health. Just an idea.



Finally, a quote from Bob Mumford's "The Purpose of Temptation" that I found to be rather interesting/encouraging:

"Today multitudes of Christians are struggling in their first wilderness of doubts about forgiveness of sins. They come to the altar again and again saying, 'I just don't know. Maybe I better ask God to save me again." They have never fully understood the principle and they are totally unprepared for the problem. There is no way to get to the provision of real peace in God except through the problem of doubt. You must come to the point of deciding- in spite of some convincing factors of feelings and rational doubts- that God's Word is to be trusted. You must choose to believe that Christ is indeed God's Son who died for your personal rebellion and sins. You will never be convinced or have peace with God any other way. No overwhelming proof will come your way before you make your decision. The peace and assurance can only come after you have decided to trust God's Word in the midst of uncertainty. That is faith."