God Stop

Have you ever had one of those moments when you know God is giving you a glimpse of His Glory?  Beth Moore calls it a "God Stop"--when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is revealing Himself to you.  It can be an answered prayer, a warning, a glorious sunrise or sunset, protection, or just about anything.  But you know.  This morning I had a God stop.  Our cat, Annie, wanted to go outside, so I went to the backdoor to let her out when all of a sudden a glorious light came in the room.  It was really strange, because it happened all of a sudden.   I turned around to see what it was.  My living room was filled with the most spectacular, warm light!  It was beautiful and I wanted to capture it.  Of course, nothing can do justice to what I saw, but I think I got pretty close to it in the picture I took.

My "living" room light

This experience made my quiet time so much more glorious this morning!  Interestingly enough my New Testament reading was about Jesus' crucifixion.  As I read, "and when the sixth hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,"(Mark 15:33), I thought about the light in my living room.  Jesus is our living light.  Without Jesus, there is darkness.  I think when the earth went dark, it was a prelude of what it is like to be without Jesus.  We are to be a reflection of Jesus' light in this dark world, and even though I know all this, I think it was God's way of reminding me to be about His business.  To God be the glory!

Earthquake, March 11

At 2:45 a.m., I heard my phone tone alerting me I had a text message.  I did not bother to get up to check it, thinking I could do so when I started my day in a few hours.  I got another text message at 6 a.m.  This was very unusual for me, and it bothered me that both came so early in the morning.  I decided I had better check things out.  My 6:00 message was from Jordan asking when Mark and Amber were coming home from their honeymoon.  I replied on March 12.  Then I noticed my message from 2:45--it was from Amber saying, "evacuating Kauai."  Hmmm.  Obviously something had happened and I did not know what.  Since I am electronically challenged and cannot turn on the TV in our bedroom, I asked Warren to turn it on for me.  There it was, an 8.9 earthquake in Japan.  It was the 5th strongest earthquake in history.  The evacuation Amber had texted me about was because of a possible tsunami expected to hit in their area.  I am sure Mark was thrilled to be evacuated from their nice hotel--not something you want to happen on your honeymoon.  They spent the night in their rented Jeep in the evacuation area.  Fortunately, the tsunami was very small and they were able to return to their hotel a short time later.  I am glad they did not choose Japan for their honeymoon.  The devastation is incredible.

The aftermath of the earthquake in Japan

On a cheerier note:  I have finally caught up on my 365 project--I take a picture a day and do a weekly page for the pictures.  I was behind because of our trip to California.  Rather than post all the weeks, I  will only do the one I just finished.  It is not altogether accurate, because some of the pictures were taken all in one day.  I figure, "hey, it is my project and I can do what I want."

Week 10 of my 365 project

Pillows, pillows, pillows everywhere!

We have a pillow graveyard at our house.  Warren has always had trouble finding the perfect pillow, but his obsession has escalated to greater heights.  I think his back surgery is what triggered this episode.  Last Monday night, February 28th, he had an unusually bad time getting comfortable in our bed.  In fact, when he got up, he made the announcement that we were getting rid of our present bed and would be getting a new one--today if possible.   I had been telling him for several years, I  would like a tempurpedic bed, but he said he felt like he was in a hole and had to crawl out of it before he could turn over and nixed the idea.  (He wanted a sleep number bed, which we found out, could not be delivered in our area.) Desperation made him surrender to even considering this type of bed.  He managed to get home early from work, so we went to "All about Spas" to try out the beds.  We were there for two hours, and finally decided on a bed... to be delivered the next day.  Included with the bed were tempurpedic pillows.  Warren seemed to like them, and I was shouting for joy on the inside thinking our search for the perfect pillow was over at last.  My celebration was too early.  After two days of trying out the pillow, he took it back and got a different tempurpedic pillow.  He didn't like that one either and got up in the middle of the night to change to a down pillow he had recently purchased from Target.  He says he's still going to work on the tempurpedic pillow to try to make it soft. (Tempurpedics have to be "excercised" to make them softer, so we walk on our mattress and pillows to break them in.  It is a sight to see us walking on our bed, plus it really is quite a workout for us.)  Now I know where Ian gets his obsession with "uncomfortable" car seats and mattresses--from his father.  It must be in the genes.  I wonder if he has trouble with pillows as well.  Watch out Laurie, if he doesn't have this problem now, it might be just around the corner.  Here's what you might be looking at as well.

These are the pillows by Warren's bed.  He's trying them out.

These are his rejects and are in a closet.