Choices

Based on what God has taught me in the past few weeks, I am changing this post a bit. I love that He continues to reveal His truths to me! And, I look forward to always learning more, changing views I've held, if necessary. He is so good like that!

What is this...the 4th sermon?

A gentle reminder: "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you."~Romans 8:9a

Every day, each moment, in every new circumstance, each time your mind wants to think the worst, to criticize, to judge, to be anxious, fearful, even when you are alone with your thoughts...you have a choice:

You can be fleshly (I Cor. 3:3)...independent from Jesus Christ, on your own.

Or...

You can walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25)...allow the Holy Spirit to live through you, in surrender to God's will, in complete dependence on Jesus Christ!

That's about it!

Oh, one last thing...The normal life of a believer of Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit is to be characterized by living in, walking by, a mind set on the Spirit!

You're dismissed.

oxo-Mom


Romans 8:6 (NASB)~"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace."

Galatians 5:16 (Amplified Version)~"But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).

People Magazine and Facebook

Yes, I admit it...Sometimes, when I am in a doctor's office (ours included) or on an airplane, I read, or really just look thru, People Magazine. I get glimpses into people's lives...I get to see photos of them at events, while on vacation, with their families...I can read about who is together with whom and who has broken up. Yes, sometimes I breeze thru People, gathering information on people with whom I have no connection, no interaction.

Anyway...back on track here...

Facebook... Your generation has their own use, and probably the intended use for Facebook. You all have 650, maybe 1000, maybe even 1500 fb friends. I don't know...Maybe you know these people, maybe you really care about what is going on in their lives...I don't know. And, maybe you have 1500 people who truly are interested in you! (I know I sure am!) Maybe you discover great, or funny, or insightful, or useful YouTube videos. Maybe you are more politically aware (or less) by viewing a link someone has posted.

I have decided...it doesn't work for me. I don't want to know all about some acquaintance, and even friends, without there ever being a connection. I don't want people knowing too much about me, without there being a connection, some interaction. I have been pushing buttons, particularly that "unfriend" one. You three know this about me...I want to know that people I am talking with want to be talking with me. :-)

Now, don't get me wrong...These people are still my friends. When I see them face-to-face, I will want them to share with me anything and everything they want to share about their lives, their kids, their jobs, their hobbies! If they have photos, I will want to see them! And, if they are interested, I will share with them. I will LOVE to connect with them!


Facebook is a weird thing...But, I love it! Here are some of the reasons why:

~Kim shares her and Kirk's lives from Cape Town!

~Lisa notifies us from Tanzania when she has a new post on her amazing blog!

~Even though I haven't seen Gayle or Lynn since our high school reunion, and I've seen very little of Jodie and Kim, I kind of know what's going on in their lives!

~Debbie posts beautiful photos of her kayak trips with Mike!

~I was able to be with Ruthie at Sam's (Ruth and Randy's beloved son) memorial service because on fb news travels quickly.

~I am learning about the kind of grandma I want to be, seeing and reading about Patty's adventure with Taylor!

~My neighbors share photos of their trips, their grandchildren, their celebrations!

~My nieces and nephews, sisters, some who live near us and some who don't, post great photos of friends, events, and Hank!

~My cousins, cousins' kids, and aunts in Ill. and Wisc. keep us, here in California, informed! Photos of Aunt Roselyn skydiving! Dave's cycle trip up to Alaska! Cousins' weekend at the cabin! Erik and Meaghan's wedding!

~The Olsons, the Byers, the Austins, the Garcias, the Douglas family...dear friends! And, I get to see even more of them because of fb!

~Even though I haven't met little August, I have seen him! Saw a video of him saying his first word, "Mama"!

~Your friends (and my friends!), Jamie, Jessi, Kristi, Natalie, Danielle, AJ, Keli, Maryann...I love glimpses of their lives, encouraging verses, fun pictures! (I originally had Kyle down, too, until I remembered that I had "unfriend"ed him. Don't tell.)

~Oh yeah...and...I love just one more way of connecting with you, Ali, in NYC...with you, Greg, out at Loma Linda...and, with you, Nick, way down at Pt. Loma!

oxo-Mom


ps~Okay...the truth is...I have fb stalked two people. And, no, I will not name names. :-)

Grandpa's Nine Lives

Your Aunt Debbi, Aunt Lori and I think that your grandpa may have that whole nine lives thing going on. He has used up several of them, but we think he still has some left! Twice in the past six weeks, since he has been in the hospital, we thought he was headed to heaven. And, both times he has gotten better! Thank You, Jesus, for added time!

Grandpa knows where he is going when his time here on earth is done. He doesn't seem fearful. Secretly, I think he would like more time to spend with us, with you, with Grandma. He kind of has a hard time pulling himself away from projects to be with his loved ones. Did you know that? :-) I think he would like to have another chance to work on that! He also wants to get back to the YMCA and walk Mandy on the beach.

Death...passing from this life to our true, eternal life...It's a strange thing. So...during my morning coloring time awhile back, I looked into this. In my journal, I titled this, "My Desire for My Perspective on Earth"...(again, just looking up some really cool verses and jotting them down...very creative and insightful of me! Right?!)


Phil. 3:20~"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

Hebrews 13:14~"For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come."

John 17:3~"This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

I John 5:20~"And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."

I John 2:15,17~"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him...The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

Matthew 16:24,25~"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'"

Luke 12:34~"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

II Cor. 4:16~"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."


Hope...hope for our lives here on earth today...hope for an eternity with our God! Cool, huh?!

oxo-Mom

ps~Ali, so glad that you got to see Grandpa before heading back to NYC! Hopefully, that won't be the last time you see him!
Nick, thanks for coming to see him when I was at the hospital the other day! Fun getting yogurt together!
Greg, wonderful that you will see your Grandpa tomorrow! Should be a bit different than last time. ;-)

Josh's Girlfriend

I know...This blog is typically written for you three, Ali, Greg and Nick. Today, with Jessi (who we have known longer than she has known herself) and Josh's wedding right around the corner, I thought I'd share with Jessi my prayer for her as she is about to become Jessi Agadoni...

So, Jessi, you went from being Josh's friend, to his girlfriend, and now his fiance, and on Saturday, his wife! Greg and I have loved the times we have been together with you two!

Jessi, God has given you a wonderful, good, strong, hard working, intelligent, loyal, family-oriented, Jesus-focused, and, by the way, a very good looking man to be your husband...the person with whom you get to do life!

My prayer for you, Jess, is that after you become Mrs. Agadoni, you will daily remember that you are Josh's friend. But more importantly, you are and always will be his girlfriend! I pray that you will act like his girlfriend! Brag to your friends about him, flirt with him, smile around him, joke with him, hold his hand, stop what you are doing when he walks through the door, or when you walk through the door, (or just any old time) wrap your arms around him, and give him a kiss! (And, enjoy those added benefits of being his wife!) Leave the changing in Josh's life to the Holy Spirit. That's not your responsibility. Yay! You get to be his wife, his friend, his biggest supporter... his girlfriend!

Jessi, I love your tender heart and your teachable spirit! I pray that you will always seek to know what God wants for you...what He wants to teach you...how He wants you to look to Him, to be dependent on Him, to desire Him as your very Life!

So, almost-Mrs. Agadoni, I pray for you...Jesus! (You know me...it all funnels down to being about Jesus!) As your Enough! As your Love! As your Strength! And, as you look to Him, He gives you His love, His strength, His tenderness, His compassion, His patience to be the best lifelong girlfriend Josh could ever desire!

You are going to be a beautiful bride! Can't wait for Saturday!
oxo-Alisa

"An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life."~Proverbs 31:10-12

Funnel

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life."~Jesus Christ (John 5:39,40)

I love how our Bible is a book that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to us! Kind of like a funnel...All flows down (and points to) Jesus, Holy Spirit, our Father!

While journaling awhile back, these were my thoughts on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 14 to 17:

"Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth..."
~"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."-John 14:5
Truth=Jesus!

"and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,"
~"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,"-I Corinthians 1:30
Righteousness=Jesus!

"and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;"
~"For He Himself is our peace..."-Ephesians 2:14
Peace=Jesus!

"in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
~"...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..."-Hebrews 12:2
Leader and Source of our faith (Amplified version)=Jesus!

"and taking the helmet of salvation..."
 ~"The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; Whom shall I fear?"-Psalm 27:1
My Salvation=The Lord!

"...and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
~"He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God."-Revelation 19:13
The Word of God=Jesus!

So, seems to me that putting on the full armor of God is JESUS!
 "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."~Romans 13:14.
"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."~Galatians 3:27

Ali, Greg and Nick, my prayer for you today and always is that you daily put on Jesus Christ, that you are clothed in Him...And, I thank Him that you three have come to Him to have life, to know Him as your Life!

oxo-Mom

Ali~Tomorrow!!! NYC here I come!!!
Greg~Looks and sounds like you are having a blast in Colorado with Dad! Can't wait to hear more about your trip!
Nick~Thanks for staying over last Saturday night to protect me! Hope your week is going well! Yay, Organic Chemistry!

I'm Going to be a Mother-In-Law!

Hopefully...Maybe...Someday...

Nick and Greg, this one's for you...

Thinking about, dreaming about, praying about the type of spouses our children will one day marry is, I think, a common mom thing. Even I do that...

Later, I will share more about the type of husbands I pray that YOU will be. Right now, I am going to share my mother's heart about my desires concerning the wives you will one day marry.

First, I hope my future daughters will love your mother and love to be with our family! (Not really the top priority, but I thought I might forget to mention it if I wait until the end.)

We have talked about this often. My prayer is that you both choose women that love Jesus Christ passionately! Believing in, trusting in, and relying on Jesus Christ makes a huge difference in how you view life, how you handle difficulties, your perspective on "happiness", and, most importantly, where you spend eternity. Choose wisely!

You already know this, but, in my opinion, the second most important thing is being teachable, a willingness to learn, the opposite of "this is how I am, so you better just accept it" attitude. God is always at work in us, growing us, changing us. I pray that you have wives that are sensitive to the Spirit's working in their lives, yielded to Him, growing deeper into the love of Jesus!

My "internship" in marriage was not good. I was modeled some bad habits. I carried those bad habits into my marriage. Your dad was patient. God was good. The Holy Spirit used that bad to work together for His good. Thank you, Jesus! So, if you are considering a woman whose "internship" was rocky, God can redeem that, if, going back to my last point, the woman is surrendered to Jesus. Yes, it really boils down to that!

Common interests are a great, added bonus! Your dad and I love so many of the same things. We love taking major long walks, stopping along the way for dinner or rehydration. I have learned to really enjoy skiing. And, I even tried fly fishing. We love to swim, hike and bike together! Traveling together is a blast! A side note: I have friends that married mostly because of their common interest who have struggled greatly in their marriages. And, I have friends that have very different interests than their spouses, yet have fabulous marriages. So this, like I said, can be an added bonus, but not a deal breaker.

A few issues I hope you do not have to deal with...A nagging spouse. (Sometimes we women think we are so smart and together, that we don't call it nagging.) Also, a wife who treats you more like a child than a spouse. (We get use to being a mom, and that can spill over into how we treat our husbands.) Also, a wife who treats her children better and of greater importance than you. (An accepted trend is to think that our children are our number 1 priority, over and above our husbands.) A materialistic person. A disrespectful wife. A controlling wife. A wife who feels it is her duty to be the Holy Spirit in your life, instead of trusting Him to do the work. Wow...that's a long list...

Basically, what I hope for you is a wife who habitually walks in the Spirit! Content, joy-filled, crazy about you! Yeah, that's it in a nutshell!

I have observed that there are two things going on when people originally connect. There is this objective list of what each is looking for in the person they hope to share their life with. That's good. But, also, something that cannot be ignored is that "spark", that feeling, that connection. For some people this comes quickly. My first day at Westmont, I saw your dad, and I got that "spark". Actually, it's much stronger now, 33 years later! Sometimes I get this "butterflies in my stomach" feeling, a funny feeling for which I do not want a cure! :-) For others, this feeling can develop slowly. Very slowly. Five years after we met, five years of a pretty close friendship, your dad got the "spark" for me! Yay!

Many other things come into consideration when choosing that special person. The most important advice I can give you is to be chatting with God about this. He will lead you. He will guide you. He will speak to you. He, after all, knows best! My prayers have shifted from giving Him my list (kind of like the one I just gave you) in regards to your future wives (my future daughters...yay!), to thanking Him for who He has picked out for you!

oxo-Mom

ps~Ali, I KNOW that you will be this type of wife for some lucky guy some day!!! And, you will make amazing, healthy meals and keep him laughing at your cute "Ali-isms" and challenge him spiritually and intellectually (in a good way) and have a warm, cozy, neat and tidy home and surf with him and hike with him and travel with him! Lucky guy!

Between the Lines

You three know how much Dad and I love having you around...Our house full of laughter, your friends, mess, noise. We love that!

It's a good skill to learn to read between the lines...

_________________________________
this empty-nest thing is okay....
_________________________________
actually, we're having a blast!
_________________________________
please warn us when you will be coming home...
_________________________________
we may be playing ping pong or something...
_________________________________

Love and miss you!
oxo-Mom