One of the things I really do not like when Terry and I are at the cabin is our internet service. We have upgraded, twice, over the past couple of years. The last time someone was there for our internet service, he walked into the living room after installing the new modem and router and proudly said, “Try it now. You’re going to be amazed at the super fast high speed internet.”
I opened my laptop and waited for the Google search screen to load.
It is not super fast, nor is it high speed. Terry and I laugh, constantly, how slow our internet actually is. It’s almost like the old dial-up speed. But back then, we were just all amazed to “surf the web.” I remember logging into AOL, then getting up to make a cup of coffee and coming back to my computer, sipping my coffee as that loud, familiar sound rang through, as I was suddenly taken to whatever awaited me at the tip of my fingertips. (Which, back then was mainly email and not a whole lot more). Y’all remember, don’t you? It was incredible.
Now we are spoiled with high speed. We expect to type something or click something and immediately have what we searched, open before our very eyes.
I had a very rude awakening to my heart the other morning when I was searching for some dresses online. I clicked on an image, then had to wait for it to load. As I quickly grew impatient because I was having to wait for the image of the dress to open, I realized how impatient I am with God’s plan
Read moreDuring my break from writing, I began journaling. I have not done this in years, and boy howdy. It has been so therapeutic to pour my thoughts, feelings, tears and joys onto paper with a pen. I’m old school. I like to write lists and I like to write cards and letters, rather than just use my phone for lists or sending emails and texts. As I kept this journal, I made a note at the front of the book with the scriptures and songs that helped me on that particular day. As I entered 2020, I thought my “word” for the year would be, “Abide.” But the more time I spent seeking Papa, His Spirit nudged me with two more words during the month of January. Those words were, “Faithful” and “Restore.”
Goodness gracious, I needed those words. God is always faithful and He is always faithful to restore whatever has been broken/lost/stolen.
One morning Michala texted me and said
Read moreI have always believed I need to “be in the moment.” Have a heart filled with gratitude. Focus on the here and now.
But what if you don’t like the here and now? What if a loved one recently died? What if you are in a place where you are miserable? What if you don’t like where you live or you don’t like where you work, or your boss is horrible to you or your coworker hates you so the here and now is awful? What if you do not want to focus on the here and now and mustering gratitude feels like an impossible feat?
Read moreI want God’s will for Terry’s and my life. But I don’t just want His will, I want to *want* to want His will. I have to admit, I have not been doing a very good job with this. You see, I want God’s will as well as “Aimee’s” will. That’s just not how it works.
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT)
Being thankful in all circumstances is God’s will for me. So why do I struggle with being thankful in the unknown future? Why do I struggle being thankful in the midst of turmoil? I will admit, I have not been thankful in the circumstances we are in, due to the evil acts of others.
Read moreI love Dancing with the Stars. At least I used to; I will admit I haven’t watched it in several years, but I used to love watching it. I loved the way the “stars” who had no dancing background would get better and better each week, and I would watch them with awe, so impressed with their hard work and ability to change their awkward bodies into graceful, delicate moves on the dance floor. Though harsh sometimes, I love when the judges’ scorecards grow higher and higher each week.
When I was a little girl, I took dance lessons. As I got older and cheered, we did dances. In college, I studied and took the test and received my license to be an aerobic instructor. Remember when we used to call it, “aerobics?” Sounds so archaic now. About 11 years ago, I fell in love with Zumba. I love to dance. I always have, and I always will. Terry has even agreed to take dance classes with me, where we can learn to Salsa and Rumba! Some days when a song we love comes on, Terry will just reach out his hand to me and we will slow dance right there in the kitchen or living room. I absolutely love those moments, too.
I love to dance and I want
Read moreI love Christmas so much. I love the lights, the smells, the feeling, the sounds … I love it all. My oldest bonus son graduated from Auburn several years ago, but two years ago we all went to the Auburn-Alabama game in Auburn. (Where Auburn beat Alabama, might I add). Anyway, Travis wanted to show us where he used to live. As we pulled up to the buildings, I said, “Oh my goodness! The doors are green and red for Christmas! I love it!” The doors were all alternating colors; green and red. Travis looked at me and said, “Only you would recognize something like that!”
When we traveled up to Rhode Island last month, I wished someone in the airport a Merry Christmas! He looked at me and replied, “Oh. You’re one of those people. The kind who can’t wait for Thanksgiving so you rush in Christmas.”
Yep. I am.
I am one of “those”
Read moreWhen I was a little girl, going to our grandparents’ house meant we were about to be spoiled! I can still remember being really little, and our grandparents would meet us out on their porch, so excited to see us. My precious grandmother would take my little hand and lead me to her kitchen. There she would open the yellow or orange Tupperware container filled with her M&M cookies. And she would smile so big and say, “Go ahead! Take one!”
I miss her so much. Her sweet smile just exuded Jesus to everyone. I don’t think that precious lady ever had an enemy.
Anyway, to this day when I look at M&M’s,
Read moreBoundaries can be a difficult thing for some of us, but they are imperative for protection.
A friend of mine told me, “You don’t owe everyone an explanation. No can be no and yes can be yes and no follow up required.” I have learned the hard way to simply tell someone, “I’m sorry, no,” or, “yes, that is my final answer.” Sometimes I do not engage further if the person is being combative or inappropriate.
I used to feel the need to over explain. To overstate what was on my plate and why I responded the way I did. I would offer lengthy explanations for the reasons behind my
Read moreA friend shared some very sad news with me the other morning. As I read what she sent, I could feel my heart breaking into pieces. Another Christian marriage, broken. I do not know details, nor do I know if the brokenness is irreparable. I just know what I told my friend, “What a reminder for us - marriages, Christian marriages especially, are vulnerable and Satan wants them.”
As I had my quiet time that morning, I wept for this couple. I prayed for miraculous healing and breakthrough with the prayer for healing for each of them … no matter what. Some marriages do not make it. Some are broken beyond repair. Infidelity, abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, anger issues often cause marriages to crumble and for protection, one spouse has no choice but to file for divorce.
When you read Broken Strength, you will know more of my
Read moreI get super emotional sometimes. I spent a lot of years very sad. I used to read about the Israelites wandering and how miserable they were, and I felt like I could kind of relate. At least to the being miserable part. But they complained so much.
So. Much.
About everything.
“Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!" - Numbers 20:5
They had been in captivity; slavery and bondage, yet they acted like that was better, because at least there, they had pomegranates!
Good grief.
Read moreI am so excited to share today’s devotion with you. Y’all know how much I love Christmas. It’s no secret. I don’t even try to hide it. Not even in June. Nope. I wear my Christmas joy, all year long!
You might have seen the article about Linus and his security blanket that many people are posting again. I believe the article was written in 2015. The article pointed out that when Linus gets up and recites Luke 2:8-14, and says the words, “fear not,” he drops his security blanket. Pretty powerful, right? Charles Schulz was a bold, brave man of faith, and obviously made no bones about it, when he wrote “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Granted, in 1965 when this came out, it was a much nicer time, I believe, with more of a focus on why we celebrate Christmas. (I was not yet born, but I know from history, Christian faith seemed to be more prominent then). But even back then, not everyone was raised in a Christian home, and Charles Schulz knew he had an incredible opportunity to reach young children and teach them the meaning of Christmas!
Okay, so our pastor, Steve Lawes, has an incredible, incredible gift and talent of pointing to Jesus. One of the things I love most about Steve is his humility. Everything is about Jesus, not him. But I want to brag on him for a minute because this was another one of those, “game changers”
Read moreHave you ever noticed how truly intelligent people believe they have so much more to learn? And the kindest people you know have a tendency to say things like, “I need to be better?” Or the people who do things away from the spotlight are so humble and would never want their acts of kindness to “go viral?”
I have shared this before, but it makes my stomach turn when I see social media posts about “giving.” It’s people tooting their own horns, which takes away from their generosity. A couple of years ago, a pastor of some sort was out to dinner with his family and using his phone, recorded giving his waiter a $100 tip, and the waiter’s reaction. Was it generous of this man to tip his waiter $100?
Read more“Nothing I can do about it now,” has become a commonly used phrase in our house and a family inside joke I am about to share with you. Terry ran over my foot ... twice, now, with a lumber cart at Home Depot. The first time it happened, Michala was home for break and the three of us laughed so hard, out of shock, we could not move. Well, they couldn't move from laughter, I couldn’t move from immobility. Terry's comment was, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now." So, it has become a running family joke. "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now."
The second time it happened was back in September and Terry
Read moreMy mom taught Michala what, “I’ve got your six” means, years ago. We try to remind Michala constantly to keep her head on a swivel and be aware of everyone and everything around her. Last winter when we were traveling to the cabin, it was late and Terry wanted to get some fuel. The only station that had diesel looked kind of sketchy. The only real lights were directly over the pump and shortly after he began fueling, we all watched a drug deal take place at the pump next to us, and the guy walked off into the darkness. Convinced something was going to happen, I told Michala I didn’t want to take my eyes off Terry and I wanted to watch his six. To Michala, I said, “I need you to watch my back, Michala, so I can watch Dad’s. Let me know if anyone is coming up to the truck.”
What I did not
Read moreOne of my favorite songs of all time is, “Better Than A Hallelujah.” Amy Grant sings it, but it was written by Sarah Hart and Chapin Hartford. “We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody. Beautiful the mess we are, the honest cries of breaking hearts. Are better than a hallelujah.”
Grief is an unbearable emotion and the holidays can make it seem even more unbearable. We long for the loved ones to sit on the floors and sofas with us and open presents on Christmas morning. We miss the jokes and wisecracks around the table. We miss the texts and phone calls. The hugs. The laughter.
I shared with a friend recently, “Some days I can talk about it and it is just like mentioning a scraped knee. Other days, it’s reliving the death as if it just happened, all over again, and the pain is so fresh
Read moreHave you ever had someone save your life? I have. Her name is Penny Williams. When you look at her face, she just looks like a cherub. A beautiful angelic face, never without a smile. April 23, 2007 I was in a terrible car wreck. A man ran a red light and broadsided me. He was texting and witnesses said he smelled like alcohol. It was 8:00 in the morning. I had a broken back, part of my clavicle was fractured, I had severe head and neck injuries from the closed head trauma and my left arm was paralyzed for three months.
It took almost one year of physical therapy as well as speech therapy to relearn how to form my words again to feel “right.” It was an extremely difficult time. Once I was released to go back to the gym, I discovered yoga. Not only did I discover yoga, I discovered a
Read moreWe recently had a whirlwind travel week. We drove for about 15 hours to the cabin, (had to make several stops along the way) and arrived at 2:30 in the morning. It looked like an Alfred Hitchcock movie because there were dead bugs all over the hardwood floors; it looked like we had black floors. So we spent the next half hour vacuuming and doing bug removal. A day later, we went to pick up Michala, then drove another two hours to the airport. We flew out at 7:00 the next morning, so we had to be up at 4:30. Someone was kind enough to call Terry’s and my hotel room at 1:50 and again at 2:20, so we didn’t really go back to sleep after the phone woke us. We flew to Rhode Island, and it was go-go-go all day and night until we crashed. The second night in another hotel was pretty sleepless as well, and we had to be up and at ‘em bright and early the next morning.
I bought some super cute heels that had great reviews on Lulus for the events. Let me be clear … if I only had to wear these for a few hours, they would be perfectly fine. Wearing them for 14 hours, walking on cobblestone streets and pavement, however, was no
Read moreOne of my least favorite things about flying is the take-off. Terry knows how much I dislike this part, and recently when we were flying back to Florida, we were both engrossed in the books we were reading. Without saying a word, he reached over and held my hand tightly. Even better? Our personal photographer was with us on this trip and was able to capture the moment without my even knowing it. Doesn’t that sound so fancy? The fact that we travel with our personal photographer? Yeah. It’s Michala. She’s our personal photographer. The candid shots she takes are always my favorites.
Anyway, the point I am making is Terry knows me, inside and out; backwards and forwards. I did not have to say to him, “I hate take-off. It makes me so nervous,” because he already knew. Later on during that flight when I closed my book and tried to close my eyes for a nap (which never happened, because I can’t seem to sleep while flying) I realized I did not have to articulate my emotions to Terry. He knew. Just like when I am at the end of my rope, sometimes, and do not have the words to pray, The Holy Spirit does it for me. He just knows, and He carries my thoughts, my fears, my worries, my concerns, my frustration straight to God, and He expresses all of it, for me.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” - Romans 8:26 (NIV)
Okay, before you think I am being disrespectful, please do not think I am comparing Terry to The Holy Spirit. I am, however,
Read moreInappropriateness and laughter. That pretty much sums up our family’s Thanksgiving this year. We have one crazy family, let me tell you. For three years now, I have been trying to think of a way to pay back my brother for giving our parents sex toys, and writing, “To Mom and Dad, From Aimee” on the wrapping paper. I have yet to get him back. This year, they played another practical joke on me … this one was HUGE. My 16 year old nephew and his 15 year old girlfriend were coaxed by my brother, sister-in-law and get this … my mother, to play this joke on me. They thought it would be hilarious to tell me they were pregnant. They had a sonogram (that they found on the internet) and everything. I was in total shock. But in my mind, what’s done is done! No sense lecturing them about their age and future … I needed to be supportive.
Imagine my shock when I realized it was a joke. AND that my very own mother was behind it all! (Some day, some way, I will
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