The Scales of a Dragon

My friend, Lindsey is also a leader in our Celebrate Recovery Group. She is awesome and I love her spirit and her heart. She sent the ladies we are working with in CR the best letter and I asked her if I could share it on my blog...it is such a powerful image.


Ladies:

For those of you who were there last night thank you so much for sharing and for those of you who were not we missed you badly and need your voice in our group. I receive so much healing by listening to others stories. I just wanted to share a little something this morning too. Several years ago I read C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader... its one of the Narnia Series. We mentioned The Screwtape Letters last night... C.S. Lewis is one smart guy. Anyway, There is a passage that has been on my heart from that book for the last couple of days, so many of the images from that book speak to me at various times. Anyway, let me give you the back ground in case you have not read it because I want to share with you an excerpt... it's so beautiful and relevant to our work @ CR.

The character's name is Eustace and he is a brat. He is a cousin to the crew of kids from the movies ( cause this one is later in the series) and he is whiny and annoying and ....you can get that image in your head no problem. They land on this island to explore and he finds a dragon. He watches it a first. Goes back again to watch it a little closer. Sneaks into it's lair, plays with it's stuff, puts on his bracelet, and slowly begins to realize he is growing scales. He continues to visit the dragon, never associating his scale growth with the dragon and long story short over a period of time grows more and more scales... isolates himself from the group because the whole scale thing is a little hard to explain and, well, embarrassing and eventually just disappears and becomes a dragon. In the story you hear all of this from his own mouth.. as a testimony, and only after he is found by Edmund one morning sitting by the fire. Edmund asks how he became un-dragoned and here is the story.... He keeps trying to "wash off the scales" one night he is so fed up and tired and looks at himself and does not recognize who he is. He hits bottom. He tries to remove the scales three times himself. Each time he does it it comes off and then right back on. He is frustrated. Finally, Aslan who is waiting patiently on the bank thru this process says.... I have to do it. Isn't that beautiful? Aslan is the God figure in the book, just FYI. Here is the passage.

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off -- just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt -- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. There he caught hold of me -- I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on -- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phony if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they're no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.
"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me . . . in new clothes -- the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here." [116-117]

Oh man I love that picture. I have prayed it lately. God, please peel this mess off. Forgive me for playing with that dragon. Remove my scales and chunk me in the water... naked and pink with new baby skin and all.... and let me swim until the pain is gone. You can do this for me. I'm tired of pulling off my own scales only to watch them re-appear. It's a waste of time. You do it. You are the only one who can.

Well that was a long intro and a whole lot of words but I just wanted to share with you that picture and invite you all back to CR next week, baby skin and all. Maybe that picture will help you think thru the week about your dragon and remind you that God is the only one who can peel those scales off.

Cute little guys! Pictures galore.

Picture Day!

Today was a much needed picture day with the boys. We loaded up and had a fuss-free picture session then hit Johnny Rockets for lunch.

Now I am trying to upload pictures while chasing Colin around the playroom. So...it looks like posting actual pictures will have to wait for a couple hours until Daddy gets home.

Speaking of...John came home from work early and took Patrick and Josh to see a movie. He doesn't know it yet but I got a picture made of me and all 3 boys for one of his Father's Day presents so SHHHHH!!!!

Tonight I am cooking fish for dinner. I hate seafood but I am making an effort to cook it at least twice a month. We'll see how it goes.

Pictures very soon...

Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago today I married a man I was very much in love with.

And we've gone through many trials and bumps in those nine years.

He drives me crazy at times and some days I wonder if we are going to make it but those days are very much few and far between since God restored our marriage and we learned how to really communicate.

I came in from running this morning and he had a dozen roses and a card sitting on the kitchen counter for me. Then when I walked into our bathroom to take a shower he had left another card for me on the bathroom counter. When I got into the van to go to VBS today he had left another card for me in the driver's seat of the van.

And nine years later I can tell you I'm married to my best friend. He isn't perfect and neither am I (FOR CERTAIN) but I love him and I love our family and our life together.

Little Sponges

Today, our church kicked off our Vacation Bible School. As of last count, we had 700 kids registered! How awesome is that!

I am teaching 2-3 year olds and I love my little group. They are just precious and had a great first day at VBS. I love to see them soak up everything. I had one little guy tell me today that I needed to push him so high on the swing "that I could touch Jesus."

Patrick is volunteering all week with various classes and so far so good. His baptism is scheduled for this Sunday and I am so excited to watch him take this next step. He has his moments and tries my patience, daily (much as I'm sure I do God on a daily basis as well) but overall he is a great kid and I am proud of him.

Josh seemed to really enjoy his first day of VBS too. Last year he went 2 days then told me he didn't want to go back. I'm not sure if he was too shy or something happened to hurt his feelings or what but I'm glad to see him enjoying it.

Colin did well at Teacher Kids Care so that was a relief. I was worried that since he has been out of daycare for a few weeks that he would have a hard time of it but he seemed to be happy as he could be when I picked him up.

In running news, today marked the first day I ran a complete mile without stopping to walk at all. I've upped my total distance to almost 2 miles and I'm running at least 6 days a week. I tend to take either Saturday or Sunday off to get up with Colin and let John sleep in a bit since he gets up with him every other day.

Anger

I'm much better than I use to be but I still have moments where I completely blow my top. Lately I'm running into so many people that share with me they have problems being in control of their tempers.

I ran across a verse that I'm memorizing to help keep me in check when I feel myself start to explode.

James 1:19-22

19 My dear brothers and sisters, pay attention to what I say. Everyone should be quick to listen. But they should be slow to speak. They should be slow to get angry. 20 A man's anger doesn't produce the kind of life God wants.
21 So get rid of everything that is dirty and sinful. Get rid of the evil that is all around us. Don't be too proud to accept the word that is planted in you. It can save you.
22 Don't just listen to the word. You fool yourselves if you do that. You must do what it says.

When did I ever find the time?

I swear it seems like I had more time to get things done when I worked full time!

Colin keeps me on my toes. Our first adventure this week consisted of him getting into the pantry, finding a can of root beer and somehow puncturing it just enough for a fine spray to come out. By the time I got to him he had it up to his mouth, slurping up the root beer with a huge grin on his face. Had it not been also spraying onto my pantry door and the floor I HAD JUST MOPPED I would have grabbed the camera to capture that sweet face.

Mr. Man has also started climbing stairs so I purchased 2 baby gates yesterday to block off access to our upstairs and downstairs.

He just laid down for a quick morning nap so I have about an hour to get things done before we head out for our errands for the day.

The older two boys are in YMCA camp this week. Patrick is doing Waterpark Camp and hits a different water park every day. He is wiped out by the end. Josh is doing Wacky Science at the McWane Center everyday so he comes home with experiments galore.

Next week is VBS at church and I have 2 year olds so that should be a long but fun week.

Things to do in the next few weeks include getting the dogs bathed and groomed, getting new pictures of the boys, updating said pictures on my blog and working on summer reading lists with both older boys.

All in all just enjoying the first few days of summer with my boys.