I Don’t Want FRA!

By Janet Morris Grimes –

She walked her daughter gingerly into the school for her first day of Kindergarten. Other students dwarfed the tiny girl, and her new school uniform was bigger than she was. Her eyes widened as she took in all that surrounded her. Brightly colored letters splashed across the walls, more intimidating than welcoming, as they announced things she could not yet understand.

The teacher knelt to meet her face to face. She seemed friendly enough, but the girl buried herself into the legs of her mother. She attempted to climb up her mother. To squeeze tighter. To somehow regain the life that she felt slipping from her fingers.

How had she gotten here? Just yesterday, her days were filled with playtime with her baby sister, splashing in the backyard pool, or riding her bicycle. Popsicles dripping down her chin after lunch, staying up late and sleeping as late as possible. Just yesterday, her home was the center of her universe.

Each day, the same scene played itself out. Tears, sobs, and unanswered questions. Why did it all have to change? What happened to the way things used to be?

Every day, as she put on her uniform, she cried all the way to school, saying over and over again. “I don’t want FRA! I don’t want FRA!”

A dear friend shared this story with me about her daughter’s first week of Kindergarten. It took them most of the week to figure out what she was saying. And why.

FRA, as it turned out, stood for Franklin Road Academy, the name of the private school where she attended. Those initials were on the sign in the front, on the uniform shirt that she wore each day, and on the shirts of her classmates.

She didn’t even know what to call it. Her unexpected surroundings. And though she couldn’t read, she was smart enough to know what those letters said. And to know that she wanted no part of it. Whatever FRA stood for, she wanted out.

I fully understand how she feels. There are many times when my surroundings were changed without notice. My life shifted to a completely new direction, without my permission.

There are many days I feel like screaming, “I don’t want FRA!” Whatever this is, even if I don’t know what to call it, I want no part of it. I want everything to go back to the way it used to be.

The good news is that Jesus is already there, in the midst of our FRA’s. He makes a way for us. He is never surprised by our circumstances. When we face them, and it’s all that we can do to cling to him and cry, he is there.

This beautiful girl went on to adore her Kindergarten experience. As a matter of fact, she thrived.

Jesus wants the same for us. And He knows us well enough to know that it may be our unpleasant and unexpected circumstances that cause us to reach out to Him.

“You hem me in, behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5 NIV).

Too Intense

By Peter Lundell –

Minneapolis Airport. In front of restrooms. A man walked by talking intensely on his cell phone. Some kind of processor reacted differently at higher temperatures. Really important stuff. The man was intense.

So intense that he marched right into the women’s restroom.

My jaw dropped, along with the jaw of another guy who was watching. “Did he just . . . ?”

“Yeah, he did.”

A lady walked out. No guy. Another lady, straight-faced as the first. Were they as obliviously focused on themselves as he was on his conversation?

Finally the guy came out. Still on the phone! My jaw dropped again.

He skulked around the corner of a service entry and appeared to hide, probably embarrassed. At least I hadn’t heard any screams. We continued to gawk as I imagined it wouldn’t have gone very well for him to admit during such a serious business call that he’d just walked into the Ladies’ room. I briefly meditated on that thought.

I saw a sharp contrast: On one hand, we can get so serious about ourselves and what we think is important. On the other hand, we can do mindlessly dumb things in the process.

Have you ever done something dumb, or made a bad decision, or hurt someone because you took yourself and what you were doing too seriously?

I’m all for striving and achieving, but not at the expense of family, or faith, or fully living. Try this: If you’re in danger of getting so focused on yourself or your own interests that you lose sight of things and people around you, ask yourself this question:

“What is God’s perspective on what I’m doing?”

PRAYER: Lord, work in me a heart of wisdom that I would live each day with Your perspective. May I see as You see, and may I think and act as You would have me.

“The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. . . .Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:10, 12 NIV).

When Life Gives You Lemons make Limoncello

By Elaine James –

When my family and I arrived in Naples, Italy we found out our luggage was lost. We had to leave to get to Sorrento. After 24 hours, we got back from a tour and were ready to change clothes, but to our dismay our luggage was not there.

Immediately, I was freaking out inside. Trying not to yell at the front desk girl, as she was our interpreter, but it was becoming increasingly harder. She presented the only solution, which was for my husband to travel an hour to the Naples Airport. But, not only would they not bring the luggage, they refused to pay for the driver.

Still, I could not calm down. I wanted to be a good sport in front of the front desk girl and my children, but was failing. I hid in the bathroom, praying that God would help me to let this go and accept the situation.

My husband left with the driver. My kids said “Mom, stop. What is the big deal?” I yelped back “The big deal is we only have so much time and we can’t miss being together. Time is wasting.”
I was so disappointed in myself that I just couldn’t get it together, but we decided to go to dinner while my husband was gone, leaving a note for him to explain where we were.

My mood lightened as we ate delicious food. We actually started to laugh. As we finished, my husband appeared in the doorway with a huge grin and spring in his step. “What is going on?” I asked.

He told us about his adventure with an Italian driver. There were no glitches to get the luggage, they were just in and out. The driver, with his broken English, reported on the history of the town and their great produce: lemons.

What seemed like a “sour” part of our trip suddenly turned around and become quite “sweet.” The driver offered his family’s secret recipe of Limoncello. My husband was so excited, and I was filled with peace when I saw how God took care of everything.

I apologized to my family. I learned that when life gives you lemons, you can either get emotionally worked up or wait it out and accept the things you cannot change. And my husband learned when life gives you lemons, make Limoncello!

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 9 NIV)

Curly or Straight?

By Janet Morris Grimes –

Hair. Have you ever wondered if we put too much thought into it? Pay too much attention to it? Discuss it too often?

I have. As my daughter and I discussed how we have to yield to the power of our curly hair, especially next week while we will be at church camp for the week, away from mirrors and conquered by humidity, I decided to make a list off the top of my head, (pun intended) of terms that have to do with our hair.

An A-Z list, if you will.

Adorned. Ash. Auburn. Askew. Accessorized. Asymmetric.

Bold. Beautiful. Banded. Bandana-ed. Bushy. Broken. Banged. Bi-leveled. Bleached. Black. Buttercup. Braided. Bunned. Baby soft. Baby fine. Baby fuzz. Barreted. Bowed. Beaded. Bonded. Blonded. Balded. Blue. Bed-head. Blunt. Beveled. Blunt. Barbed. Bump-it.

Clamped. Combed. Crowned. Crispy. Conditioned. Covered. Coal black. Creamed. Curly-fried. Coiled. Curled. Crimped. Coated. Cropped. Copped. Cupped. Cowlicked.

Dangling. Dolloped. Down. Dry. Departed. Decorated. Dull. Dented. Dread-locked. Dishwater Blond. Diffused. Detangled.

Extended. Egged. Eared. Edged.

Flat. Frizzy. Flossed. Fake. Flowered. Fingered. Flowing. Fuzzy. Feathered. Fixed.

Goldi-locked. Golden. Gelled. Glossed. Glazed. Gnarled.

Highlighted. Halved. Heavy. Hung.

Inter-twined. Ironed.

Juiced. Jaded. Jeweled.

Kept. Knotted.

Long. Lotioned. Light. Layered. Luxurious. Loosed. Low-lights.

Misted. Moistured. Mayonaised. Moused. Milked Missing. Mulleted. Made over.

Neat. Not. New. Naped.

Oiled. Orange. Oval.

Pencil straight. Pinned. Permed. Pig-tailed. Penciled. Parted. Purple. Platinum. Pink. Pony-tailed. Perfumed.

Quiet. Quelled. Quilted.
.
Red. Rolled. Riced. Ribboned. Razored. Rubbed. Raven.

Sprayed. Shellacked. Surrendered. Sideways. Scissored. Stroked. Soft.. Sweated. Sweeted. Scented. Scarved. Sculpted. Silver. Salt and Peppered. Shiny. Soaked. Sprinkled. Sparkled. Shaped. Spiky. Split. Shaved. Short. Stripped. Smoked. Snow-covered. Strawberry Blond. Swept. Sectioned. Scrunched.

Teased. Tapered. Trimmed. Twisted. Thick. Thin. Tow-headed. Tousled. Toupe’d. Topped. Tossed. Tea-ed. Textured. Tucked. Tangled.

Up. Under. Uncombed. Uncovered. Undone.

Veiled. Viled. Vexed. Vined. Volume.

Wet. Waved. Worded. Wrapped. Wound around. White. Wind-blown, Wigged. Wagged. Weaved. Wild.

X – Factor.

Yellow. Yanked. Yucked.

Zoned. Zinged. Zany.

Wow! Is it really worth all of that effort? That list makes me tired just thinking about it. And personally, it makes me thankful to have a week when we won’t have to worry about it. What you see is what you get, especially at church camp.

Jesus mentions hair in two different places in the Bible, using both to remind his disciples, and us, that we were created by God, and that we are always in His care.

“And do not swear by your own head, because which of you can make your hair either white or black?” (Matthew 5:36 NIV).

“And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30 NIV).

PRAYER: Thank You, God, for creating us as individuals. Curly or straight, we are your craftsmanship and long to represent You in all that we do. Forgive us when we try to bring glory to ourselves, instead.

Goin’ Fishing

By Susan Dollyhigh –

“I’m going fishin’, Nana,” KK, my three-year-old granddaughter said.

I smiled to myself as KK walked out of the kitchen where I stood washing dishes. How cute. I imagined KK casting out an imaginary fishing line and reeling in her plastic fish. Suddenly, my smile vanished as I recalled some of KK’s previous escapades. With sudsy water dripping from my hands, I dashed down the hall to the bathroom, all the while envisioning the tub overflowing with water and plastic fish.

Instead, I saw KK slowly emerging into the hallway – from the den. As she walked toward me, she cautiously placed one small foot down and then the other. In one hand she held a paper cup while her other hand covered the top. Upon reaching me, KK removed her hand from the cup and said, “Look Nana, I caught a fish.”

Peering into the cup of sloshing water, I recognized a fish that had been kidnapped, or fishnapped, from its home in the aquarium. KK was serious about her fishing. She never intended to use a make-believe fishing pole to catch plastic fish.

KK was determined to catch real fish.

Simon and Andrew were fishermen casting their nets into the lake when Jesus came along. These two men were serious about their fishing. They were using nets and catching “real fish.” Yet Jesus told them he had a more important fishing assignment for them – to be fishers of men. What did they do? They immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

Even today, Jesus calls us to do the same. Do we hear His voice saying, “Come, and follow me.”? Are we willing to leave behind our busyness as Simon and Andrew did? Are we willing to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a lost and hurting world? Are we willing to be serious fishers of men?

PRAYER: Father in Heaven, please open our ears to hear Your voice. Please open our eyes to see the lost and hurting in our world. Please help us to be obedient and lay aside our busyness so we can be fishers of men.

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him” (Mark 1:16-18 NIV).

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