Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

The Wreck

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Well, if a wreck isn’t bloggable I don’t know what is. 

This evening we were out shopping.  I took the girls to Justice at Blakeney to use up a coupon that was expiring today.  We then decided last minute to pick up some cupcakes for dessert.  We came out of the shopping area and onto a side road to an intersection where our light was red.  We stopped at the light where it soon turned green.  There was a van across the intersection from us planning to cross the intersection and we stayed put, waiting to turn left.  Just as the van got halfway through, an SUV came barreling about 40-45 mph from our left, ran the red light and t-boned the van.  It pushed the van over onto the driver’s side and the two of them came barreling towards us.  With a front row seat, I saw it happen and as they came towards us, it really was like slow motion and I remember grabbing Scott’s arm and yelling something like “Oh my gosh, they’re coming.”  The hood of the gray van was like a huge gray wall coming towards us.  In the split second, I prepared myself that they were going to hit and possibly come through the front. Part of me braced to get really hurt in the face.  They did hit but the right front of the van mostly took the brunt and thank goodness they had already impacted once and it wasn’t enough to even move our van much.

As soon as it hit, Lexi was crying.  Scott, with instincts from his job, jumped out and ran to the lady whose van was on its side.  It took me a minute to even move and I jumped out and got the girls out and to the side of the road.  It was like an ants’ nest got kicked as people started jumping out of the cars and from parking lots close by to help.  Scott and another man helped the driver crawl through the top of her car and she was amazingly unharmed.  The driver of the SUV was a mother and she had her teenaged kids with her.  They all were ok except the one girl was crying and seemed to have some pain behind her knee.  The driver didn’t even know what happened and asked if the van lady had run the red light.  I guess she wasn’t paying attention since it had been red long enough for the other car to get halfway through the intersection.

Several people stayed around until fire, medic and police arrived. 

One funny sidebar:

As we were waiting, the people that were parked behind us that were witnesses had their dogs waiting in their car.  Suddenly, their car horn starts beeping and we all look to see their Beagle standing on the horn on the steering wheel in the car.  Everyone in the area laughed, lightening the somber mood.  It got really funny though when the couple went over to stop them and realized the dogs had locked themselves in the car.  The firemen there for the wreck had to use a jimmy to get them in their car.

Lexi calmed down pretty quickly.  I was pretty shaken and got teary when I realized just how much we were all spared.  Emma had a little breakdown while we were waiting.  She needed a hug from Daddy and she was ok.  Thank goodness he was there. Really, I would have been frozen.  Mom came to get us to take us home.  Scott was going to get a ride home with our wrecker but the girls insisted they wouldn’t leave Daddy so we all stayed until our van, which was the last piece of the wreck to leave, was towed away.  None of us are sure if our van will be totaled. It looks pretty bad but you never know.  To be honest, I’d like to see ours fixed up. 

I am just praising God no one was hurt.  As we were waiting we were talking with the witnesses and we all marveled at how “good” it went considering.  God is good whether anyone got hurt or not but I sure am thankful to Him that we aren’t.

TV Confession, not Obsession

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It’s taken a long time but I honestly think I can say that TV is not an obsession these days.  I know, I know.  I ran TV blogs for years, blogged about The Bachelor more times than I count and still do my fair share of GetGlue check-ins.  And I do love a great TV show.  Not much else can move me like a poignant CODA or a great father-daughter moment with my favorite characters.  But something has changed in the last year or so.   As this fall season is taking off, I find myself apathetic. 

During the summer I took a complete TV break.  I could have canceled DirecTV, thrown out the 52” and never have known the difference.  I’ve really enjoyed the time in the evenings, particularly since I’ve started working out of the house more and I need that time to be productive.

I only have a handful of shows that are on my radar and even then, there are none that can not wait for DVR.  A few years back, I had 2-3 shows every night and was sure not to miss it live.  It kind of makes me sad all the time I spent parked in the recliner.

So here’s where I stand.  This season, on the short list is Parenthood, Modern Family, The Vampire Diaries and Chuck and One Tree Hill when they come back. I look at that and the TV guru in me wants to shout what a weak line-up that is.

I’ve left so many shows on the chopping block (Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy, The Office, Private Practice, Desperate Housewives), some have left me (LOST, Friday Night Lights), there are so many more I would like to get into (The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Parks and Recreation, Community, Sons of Anarchy, The Good Wife, Hart of Dixie) and I’ve even checked out some new ones (XFactor, PanAm, Revenge).  Those are some FANASTIC, Emmy-winning shows in my wish list. The bottom line though is I’m one person with one life and I can’t do it all.  And honestly, I’m not sure I want to anymore (I didn’t even get into the spiritual aspect of this!).

But I have to ask, are there any shows you feel like I just HAVE to give some recliner time?  A post like this a few years ago is how I found Friday Night Lights and I would be super sad not to have some Coach T in my life.

Filed Under: tv

Weekend Recap

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(we got new lights above the sink.  love.)

Well, this was the weekend I was supposed to spend at Women of Faith but didn’t.  I’d like to say there was a light bulb moment to why that was but there wasn’t.  But that’s not to say there weren’t many small moments that made me glad to be home.  Friday, when no one showed up at the office, I got to spend the afternoon working from home and be there when the girls got home.  And I was home through Friday evening so I could drop the kids off at Scott’s mom’s and go out to eat with a great couple.  Saturday morning I got to put in some volunteer time and then was available when the girls wanted to come home at 10am, much earlier than they normally do.  I did a lot of laundry and I really did clean out my pantry too.  There may have been a bigger reason for me not to go but I loved all the little ones.  I was home, my favorite place, with my favorite people who wanted to be there too.

I got so caught up Saturday that I even had time to start priming the girls’ bathroom.  I finished that up last night and now I’m having anxiety about what to repaint it.  I had planned purple this whole time but we had repainted  the cabinet black when we had it red.  Now, a light purple just isn’t going to look right.  *sigh* I think I’m going to have to repaint the cabinet as much as I don’t want to.

Sunday we watched a friend’s son.  A boy, just a few years older then my girls.  A boy, who my girls think hung the moon. It’s a good thing I got some quality time with them on Saturday because they barely knew I existed yesterday.  After church and lunch, they had him busy playing house and school and even wrote a script for them to perform.  They jumped on the trampoline and played games and watched TV.  The barely visible bedroom floor proved all the fun.

And with that, we are on to a new week. I hope you had a great weekend and started your week well!

My {Current} Take on the Topic

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Latest Update:

OK, after the disclaimer I wrote below on the original, original post way below, I decided to take down the post, even with the disclaimer.  I felt like I was putting confusion out there and while I completely believe in asking questions and not knowing answers, it just didn’t feel right.  Mostly because the more I thought about it, the more I could not agree with Justin’s interpretation of Scriptures.  Specifically, it came down to the meaning of verses in Romans and Corinthians and more importantly, marriage and how that should look.  I went back and finally read the other side of the argument from Ron and I have to say that it was spot-on to the way I am feeling.  Yes, homosexuality is a reality but acting out is a sin and that marriage is a picture of Christ and the church and meant for a woman and man.  I beg you to read both sides.  I can not handle when people blindly accept a truth just because they don’t care to learn about the other side.  Given that, I simply could not find peace about Justin’s side and felt like it took a lot of flimsy arguments to let homosexual relationships be acceptable.  On the other hand, Ron looks at Biblical history and Christianity as a whole and honestly, a whole lot of common sense.  So, with lots of struggling, I am still back to my original stance that I can not support gay marriages (and of course any sort of sexual activity outside of marriage). 

To those that are not Christians, feel free to do whatever you want.  I don’t expect you to live by God’s law when you have no interest in following Christ.  I still love you and God does too, though.  For the record though, I think you’re missing out.  God rocks pretty hard.  For those that are Christians and struggle with this, I come to this conclusion with love and a hurting heart.  I rest my hope in the fact that God knows best and that He will not give us any temptations from which we can not find a way out.

Everything below is the post I took down which also had a disclaimer about the ORIGINAL post I wrote:

I feel the need to preface this and say I did not mean to publish this. Well I did and then I didn’t. I thought I had moved it to a draft stage but then it ignored that and published at it’s scheduled time. I still am not settled on this issue. The more I wrestle with it the more I can not feel peaceful that practicing is not a sin, particularly after rereading the Corinthians passage. Still, there are other valid points in here that are worth the read.

Here is the original post:

If you aren’t around the Christian and/or gay circles you probably haven’t seen this interview with a gay Christian. I’ve written about my viewpoint on same sex marriages before and I just have to say my viewpoint is changing. It’s been 7 years since I posted that. I’ve met people, mentored people and done a lot more reading.

And here’s the thing. I’m more convinced than ever that homosexual tendencies are not simply a choice. Justin and others who are Christians willed themselves to not have these tendencies and could not. Some of these I think could be caused by emotional and relational trauma but reality is reality. They are attracted to the same sex and even when willed they can not stop.

So the question is what to do with that?

Justin called this decision Side A and Side B. He believes in a monogamous, Christ-centered same-sex relationship. The other side believes the person should be celibate.

I have no idea what I believe anymore.

I err on the side of celibacy. I’ll be honest and say I have a super hard time believing that Christ-centered same-sex relationships exist but you know, that doesn’t mean much. Up until as recently as a week ago I would have said acting out on those desires was sinful. After reading the interview and further on his site, I can follow his logic. I’m just not sure if I follow that logic and can make the same conclusions from Scripture. The point of the matter is it’s all interpretation.

But I do know what I’m pretty sure my mind is turning about…whether government should restrict same-sex marriages. IF there are (and there are) people out there like Justin that have whole-heartedly searched God’s word and still do believe that homosexuality is ok then who am I to stop them from marrying? What if their interpretation is right and I’m wrong? I don’t know that I’ll ever push for it and be able to say that practicing homosexuality is ok but that is between them and God.

Sarah Mae published her thoughts on Justin’s interview and I love that she is wrestling with this too. And my comment to her was this: Christians need to figure out what we believe and in a much more loving way than we have to date. The face of homosexuality has changed a great deal in the last decade or two and it’s not something that is just behind doors now. I figure my views will change, maybe even as soon as I publish this, but one thing isn’t changing. These people need LOVED. Period. The hate has to stop. Even if homosexuality IS a sin, we don’t turn people away that are alcoholics or drug addicts or obese or cruel or whatever their struggling sin might be.

Hating them is only turning them away from the one thing you’re wanting them to follow.

James Read-along Week 3

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I know that I need to control my tongue.  Setting out for this week of James, I knew it was a weakness and I figured that these first set of verses about taming our tongue would be where I concentrated.  But for some reason the second half of this chapter about wisdom has grabbed my time:

Who is a wise man endued with knowledge among you? Let him demonstrate it by his manner of life, by his works, with the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying or strife in your hearts, that’s not wise, don’t glory in it, and lie not against the truth. [That is a lie against the truth, the bitterness and striving and envyness within your heart.] For this kind of wisdom descends not from above. It’s not Godly wisdom, it’s earthly, it’s sensual, it’s devilish. For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then it is peaceable, it is gentle, it is easy to be intreated, it is full of mercy and good fruit, it’s without partiality, and without hypocrisy (Jam 3:13-17).

And this commentary for some reason hit home with me:

Now, what marks your life? What kind of wisdom comes forth from you? He says that you should show forth the wisdom by your manner of living. Demonstrate the wisdom. In reality our manner of life does demonstrate the source of our wisdom. And if I am constantly in strife, constantly in turmoil, constantly stirred up, constantly, you know, bad mouthing this person, that person, this thing, that thing, then that wisdom that I have is not of God. For the wisdom that comes from God has such marvelous characteristics, it’s pure, it’s peaceable it’s gentle, easily intreated.

The thing about wisdom is you try to measure how much you have by how much you know and what Scriptures you understand and what great advice you tell people.  But wisdom is about DOING.  Not just knowing.  Not just telling.  If you are wise, the choices you make will be wise.  Like the commentary says, wisdom is measured by the manner of living. 

And I can not let this second idea go: I see so many people, particularly on social media, that are always talking about this person and that person and this thing and that thing and it’s never uplifting.  And they think they are being so wise because they are smarter and have everyone’s life figured it out but really these verses are saying that is not wisdom at all.  And it’s easy to point fingers and say they need to take a look at themselves but then I’m convicted to look at my own words.  Is what I’m saying, in writing or in person, really wisdom or am I just convinced I am right?  It’s so ironic that this study on wisdom comes back to taming my tongue.

So I’m challenging myself and would challenge you to step back, go look at our last 10 Facebook statuses, tweets, blog posts, blog posts comments (!) or think about our last 5 conversations.  Is there envy? Strife? Confusion?  Bad-mouthing?   Truly wise people will be peaceful, considerate, humble and sincere. If we are not characterized by these, we can turn back to James 1:5 (thank you, Marla) “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”  And in the meantime?  

Source: blogaholicdesigns.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

Amen.

Read other posts on James over at Marla Taviano’s.

Not on the Honey-Do List

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Remember that honey-do list I mentioned?   Well, next on the list was the pool cover stand.  Just 2 4x4s and a metal bar could have done the trick so we could roll the cover off the pool onto it for storage instead of dragging it off.  But Scott says, “Why don’t I take our swing set down and use the 4x4s from that for the pool stand and build a whole new swing set?”  Well, um, ok, honey, but you could just go buy 2 new 4x4s.  Look, I’m not complaining that he wants to build the kids a new swing set and honestly the steps were in bad repair but it seems a little much to do the WHOLE thing.

But, guess what I came home to today?  Wait. Here’s the before of our swing set.  It’s a 3 year old picture of Scott’s mom pushing them but you get the drift.  Simple, standard swings and slide.  PS Lexi’s hair was oh so long and cute and her wegs are so teeny tiny.  Lexi!  You’re distracting mommy!

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Well, here’s the ginormous swing set I found in my back yard this evening:

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Apparently he realized a little too late he got 10’ 4×4” boards instead of 8’ boards.  Just a wee bit different.  I have to give him props for getting all this up in one day and the kids are ecstatic.  But dear mercy, I just hope I get my pool stand out of this.

Weird and Mysterious

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God is weird sometimes.  Mysterious.  Weird.  Whatever you want to call it, God is THAT.    I’ve been scheduled to go to Women of Faith for nearly two months.  BookSneeze graciously offered me a set of tickets in exchange for a review post.  I’m a little bit of a conference junkie so I was psyched to go.  But then God started tugging on me to weeks ago that I shouldn’t go.  Which is WEIRD.  I mean, why wouldn’t God want me to spend two days learning more about Him and sharing that with others?  But still, the nagging wouldn’t go away.  I think I’ve mentioned God can be quite the nag.  I even went so far as to text Dani last week and tell her exactly that: it’s weird, but for some reason I’m feeling like I shouldn’t go, please pray.  Being the awesome friend she is, she said do whatever you feel God wants you to and who knows what the reason might be.  I didn’t tell anyone else about my reservations and still planned on going. Hence, the blog post yesterday.  My mom calls me out of the blue mid-day yesterday and basically tells me she had a catch in her spirit about me going.  I was little dumbfounded.  Well, uh….me too.  OK that is WEIRD.  Mysterious.  Whatever.  But I love when God confirms things like that.  None of us were clear though whether I should skip the whole thing or only a few sessions.  The girls would be at Scott’s mom’s for their usual biweekly sleepover and Scott was not going to be home either.  I really had no reason NOT to go Friday night and Saturday morning.  Except as I prayed over the past 24 hours, I could never, ever find peace unless my mind settled on the fact that I shouldn’t go AT ALL.  So I called Women of Faith, confirmed it was ok that I gave the tickets to someone that wanted and needed them (Heather!) and also confirmed with Dani it was ok.  And I found peace with my decision.

See, I have NO IDEA what God is up to.  I could be spared a car accident. I might need that last vacation day at work for something else (Relevant, I hope!). Heather just might need their messages more than me.  My kids might not need me gone that extra time.  Or maybe He’s trying to keep me home so I’ll finally organize my recipes.  Look, I have no clue.  But that’s the weird and mysterious thing about God.  He has a huge clue and He doesn’t have to let me in on it.  I just have to obey. 

In the end, it’s ironic that I’m having to be a Woman of Faith by not going to Women of Faith.   It’s weird.  And mysterious.  I know. But don’t ignore weird and mysterious. I hear God works that way sometimes.

If you can get to Charlotte, I do hope you’ll consider going (if He wants you to).  Enjoy the promo video below: