and moved my blog to WordPress. I feel so grown up! Sort of like when I gave up MySpace and switched to Facebook entirely. That is where all the MATURE people blog. Right? Maybe not.
You can now visit me at www.dawnlovitt.wordpress.com
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
I had another dream
I had a dream and it was...scary.
In my dream I was H.O.T. - as I am in all my dreams, but I digress. That was not the scary part. In my dream it was just another Manic Monday (whooa ohhh... Monday is group night at GCC you know) and I was sitting at my desk at the church and my Director extraordinaire came in and told/asked me to prepare a curriculum for a new class that I would be teaching THAT NIGHT. Yes, that was the scary part boys and girls. I WOULD BE TEACHING!
The subject: Death.
"Finding hope in death" to be exact.
Like a good soldier, I did not blink an eye at the thought of researching and coming up with material for a class that would begin in less than 8 hours. My dream self felt VERY confident about being able to provide material for this class. What my dream self was NOT prepared for was.....drumroll please.... PRESENTING THE MATERIAL TO A ROOM FULL OF MIDDLESCHOOLERS! Yeah, you read that right.
The funny thing is...ever since I woke up, I have still been working on my "curriculum" as if it were an actual assignment.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Surrender....Not just a Cheap Trick song.
So, this is a big share for me. I have alluded a few times about a difficult relationship and my failed attempts at reconcilliation. Today I had a big DING! go off in my head. (again?) I had a few little dings pinging around here and there about it but today the big DING! hit me.
Dang! I AM a human being!
You see, my first mistake has been the fact that I believed that the descriptive word "difficult" or "strained" or "bad" that I put in front of the word "relationship" was a SHARED belief between me and the other party.
My second mistake...maybe there is no heirarchy or order of mistakes...my OTHER mistake was my timing in my efforts to "repair" or "reconcile" this relationship. Just because I thought the timing seemed appropriate does not mean that it WAS APPROPRIATE for that other person. Looking back at all this, that person has every reason to think, say, believe that I am a stark raving LUNATIC. That person did not know that I had been having "nudges" I believed were urging me to move toward "fixing" the relationship. For all I know, that person was able to put the past in the past and I am digging up corpses. To that person I look like an insane mechanic that is changing the oil on a car that just had it's oil changed and in the process replaces oil with transmission fluid and therefore creates a NEW (and/or worse) problem.
My big DING! though...this is what hit me...maybe all this time, these "nudges" I was feeling were more about NOT taking action. These nudges were more about me realizing that this is beyond MY control and that I should turn it over to GOD and pray...."Search me O God"...SURRENDER. This is bigger than me. I do not have the power to change anything or anyone other than ME.
(Trite cliche: Hindsight is 20/20.) Sometimes in my efforts to "be (or do) better" I need to slow down and examine the possible outcomes. (Glib response: Haste makes waste)
Dang! I AM a human being!
You see, my first mistake has been the fact that I believed that the descriptive word "difficult" or "strained" or "bad" that I put in front of the word "relationship" was a SHARED belief between me and the other party.
My second mistake...maybe there is no heirarchy or order of mistakes...my OTHER mistake was my timing in my efforts to "repair" or "reconcile" this relationship. Just because I thought the timing seemed appropriate does not mean that it WAS APPROPRIATE for that other person. Looking back at all this, that person has every reason to think, say, believe that I am a stark raving LUNATIC. That person did not know that I had been having "nudges" I believed were urging me to move toward "fixing" the relationship. For all I know, that person was able to put the past in the past and I am digging up corpses. To that person I look like an insane mechanic that is changing the oil on a car that just had it's oil changed and in the process replaces oil with transmission fluid and therefore creates a NEW (and/or worse) problem.
My big DING! though...this is what hit me...maybe all this time, these "nudges" I was feeling were more about NOT taking action. These nudges were more about me realizing that this is beyond MY control and that I should turn it over to GOD and pray...."Search me O God"...SURRENDER. This is bigger than me. I do not have the power to change anything or anyone other than ME.
Dang it.
(Trite cliche: Hindsight is 20/20.) Sometimes in my efforts to "be (or do) better" I need to slow down and examine the possible outcomes. (Glib response: Haste makes waste)
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." ~ Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
"Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong-
then guide me on the road to eternal life."
~ Psalm 139:23-24 (MSG)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Three small words. One huge statement.
"I'll go sleep in the woods with this dog before I give it away to a shelter."
(this comment delivered deadpan)
...from a gentleman going from A-Z under the heading of "churches" in the phone book. He quit drugs 2 years ago and is now suffering from cardiac sudden death syndrome and is awaiting his disability hearing. He and his wife of 17 years are facing eviction next week and his vehicle (a $150 beater that someone gave him) was totalled this past week. They have no income. He has nothing of value except the "$3000 dog" that someone gave him.
We (our church) is not in a place to solve his problem and part of my job - with the hope of finding help and the ability to resource them - is sometimes asking hard questions. After hitting many brick walls, it occasionally (more often these days) comes to the point where I have to ask the hardest ones:
"Do you have a place to go if you lose your home? Family, friends?"
I try to explain the tough reality that he may need to find a shelter.
Many people divert attention to the care of their pets. They love them and can't imagine sending them to the humane society where they could be euthanized or to a refuge organization where they will never get them back.
I have pets. I love them. If it came to it, would I give them up and take my family to a shelter?
At this point, he is trying to hold on to something, another living creature, for comfort when everything else is about to be lost.
I have never been in that place. I don't know the turmoil in the heart and mind of a person in this situation that causes this to be a tough decision.
It's hard being the voice of reality sometimes. It rips at my heart to have to tell someone that I can't help them. The only thing I can do is pray. This situation is beyond me.
I am seeing an increase in calls for assistance and this one made my heart hurt. I know, it could have been someone trying to "scam" the church. But I choose not to be jaded and err on the side of mercy.
So often people wait until the situation is past the point of repair before seeking help. Three small words, so hard to speak.
"I need help."
Monday, April 19, 2010
I had a dream
I had a dream....and it was silly.
In my dream, I was at my perfect weight and looking H.O.T. As I do in all of my dreams. They are MY dreams right? In this one, I was dating James VanderBeek (yeah, that guy from Dawson's Creek or more recently Mercy. In my dream, it was the Mercy version of him). It must have been Christmastime because he gave me a gift. It was a necklace with the initial D in diamonds. So, we spent my dream time visiting various people in his family and just random things weird things happened but what stuck out is one set of twin boys around the age of 3 or 4 followed us around for a little bit and as we were parting ways from them they made a point of each telling me "I'm 3rd" and the other said "I'm 4th" and James explained it meaning that in the heirarchy of favoritism within their family, that is the place that they hold. James proceded to tell me that he is first. Go figure. So, we are heading to the next family member and mind you, we are all about PDAs in this dream. (Holding hands, public smooching kind of stuff.) So, my dream self was a bit confused when James kind of wanted to be rid of me while visiting his father. His bedridden father. He actually told m
e, "why don't you go get your haircut while I am visiting with Dad" and when I asked him why, he told me "your hair is pretty robust" he apparently found it very important that I get my hair cut because he offered to cut it himself if I did not want to go have it done by someone. Oh, and he was NOT going to pay for the cutting of my robust hair. In my dream, I was alright with these things. I decided to go get my haircut. Pay for it myself - even though I was perfectly happy with my robust hair. Not to mention, my dream self was pretty confused as to why he wanted to get rid of me after what seemed to be a great day...
e, "why don't you go get your haircut while I am visiting with Dad" and when I asked him why, he told me "your hair is pretty robust" he apparently found it very important that I get my hair cut because he offered to cut it himself if I did not want to go have it done by someone. Oh, and he was NOT going to pay for the cutting of my robust hair. In my dream, I was alright with these things. I decided to go get my haircut. Pay for it myself - even though I was perfectly happy with my robust hair. Not to mention, my dream self was pretty confused as to why he wanted to get rid of me after what seemed to be a great day......and then I woke up. Pi$$ED! Dude, at no time in my life would I EVER date someone as self-absorbed as he was in my dream. Not to mention, manipulative and controlling. PLEASE!
So anyway....just had share.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Finding peace in 21 words
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared
for those who love Him"
~1 Corinthians 2:9
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
...To Return to Facebook...or not.
It has been over 40 days. I "signed off" the Monday before Lent began and it is now the Wednesday after Easter.
I don't miss it.
I have had such a nice time not being there.
I have reordered my life without the distraction. I know, I am a grown up and I should be able to do both/and - to that I say "WHATEVER"
Obviously, I am not that responsible.
Let me tell you what I realized. Before my Facebook vacation, the first thing I did in the morning was get up with the alarm and then get Paige up for school and while she was showering and getting ready...I was on Facebook seeing what everyone was up to and when she was done about a half hour later I would hit the shower and get ready.
I replaced that time - with reading my Bible. I fell in love with that pretty fast. Even so that now on the weekends it is the first thing I do in the morning. I have read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and the first 4 chapters of Romans. Quite often, I take a full hour of it because really, I do not have to look pretty to go out to the bus stop with Paige.
I also feel like I am spending more time with Dave and the girls. Well, actually, physically it is the same amount of time, just more present.
I have also had more time to read other things. It has been awesome.
So, what am I to do?
#1 I am deleting my Twitter account. Don't need it.
#2 I am going to go on Facebook and post this message.
"I don't hang out here very often anymore. I won't be updating my status. If you want to see what is going on in my life go to my blog. If you really are my friend, you have my number, give me a call to chat or maybe we can do lunch."
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
I drank the Kool-Aid
and moved my blog to WordPress. I feel so grown up! Sort of like when I gave up MySpace and switched to Facebook entirely. That is where all the MATURE people blog. Right? Maybe not.
You can now visit me at www.dawnlovitt.wordpress.com
You can now visit me at www.dawnlovitt.wordpress.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
I had another dream
I had a dream and it was...scary.
In my dream I was H.O.T. - as I am in all my dreams, but I digress. That was not the scary part. In my dream it was just another Manic Monday (whooa ohhh... Monday is group night at GCC you know) and I was sitting at my desk at the church and my Director extraordinaire came in and told/asked me to prepare a curriculum for a new class that I would be teaching THAT NIGHT. Yes, that was the scary part boys and girls. I WOULD BE TEACHING!
The subject: Death.
"Finding hope in death" to be exact.
Like a good soldier, I did not blink an eye at the thought of researching and coming up with material for a class that would begin in less than 8 hours. My dream self felt VERY confident about being able to provide material for this class. What my dream self was NOT prepared for was.....drumroll please.... PRESENTING THE MATERIAL TO A ROOM FULL OF MIDDLESCHOOLERS! Yeah, you read that right.
The funny thing is...ever since I woke up, I have still been working on my "curriculum" as if it were an actual assignment.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Surrender....Not just a Cheap Trick song.
So, this is a big share for me. I have alluded a few times about a difficult relationship and my failed attempts at reconcilliation. Today I had a big DING! go off in my head. (again?) I had a few little dings pinging around here and there about it but today the big DING! hit me.
Dang! I AM a human being!
You see, my first mistake has been the fact that I believed that the descriptive word "difficult" or "strained" or "bad" that I put in front of the word "relationship" was a SHARED belief between me and the other party.
My second mistake...maybe there is no heirarchy or order of mistakes...my OTHER mistake was my timing in my efforts to "repair" or "reconcile" this relationship. Just because I thought the timing seemed appropriate does not mean that it WAS APPROPRIATE for that other person. Looking back at all this, that person has every reason to think, say, believe that I am a stark raving LUNATIC. That person did not know that I had been having "nudges" I believed were urging me to move toward "fixing" the relationship. For all I know, that person was able to put the past in the past and I am digging up corpses. To that person I look like an insane mechanic that is changing the oil on a car that just had it's oil changed and in the process replaces oil with transmission fluid and therefore creates a NEW (and/or worse) problem.
My big DING! though...this is what hit me...maybe all this time, these "nudges" I was feeling were more about NOT taking action. These nudges were more about me realizing that this is beyond MY control and that I should turn it over to GOD and pray...."Search me O God"...SURRENDER. This is bigger than me. I do not have the power to change anything or anyone other than ME.
(Trite cliche: Hindsight is 20/20.) Sometimes in my efforts to "be (or do) better" I need to slow down and examine the possible outcomes. (Glib response: Haste makes waste)
Dang! I AM a human being!
You see, my first mistake has been the fact that I believed that the descriptive word "difficult" or "strained" or "bad" that I put in front of the word "relationship" was a SHARED belief between me and the other party.
My second mistake...maybe there is no heirarchy or order of mistakes...my OTHER mistake was my timing in my efforts to "repair" or "reconcile" this relationship. Just because I thought the timing seemed appropriate does not mean that it WAS APPROPRIATE for that other person. Looking back at all this, that person has every reason to think, say, believe that I am a stark raving LUNATIC. That person did not know that I had been having "nudges" I believed were urging me to move toward "fixing" the relationship. For all I know, that person was able to put the past in the past and I am digging up corpses. To that person I look like an insane mechanic that is changing the oil on a car that just had it's oil changed and in the process replaces oil with transmission fluid and therefore creates a NEW (and/or worse) problem.
My big DING! though...this is what hit me...maybe all this time, these "nudges" I was feeling were more about NOT taking action. These nudges were more about me realizing that this is beyond MY control and that I should turn it over to GOD and pray...."Search me O God"...SURRENDER. This is bigger than me. I do not have the power to change anything or anyone other than ME.
Dang it.
(Trite cliche: Hindsight is 20/20.) Sometimes in my efforts to "be (or do) better" I need to slow down and examine the possible outcomes. (Glib response: Haste makes waste)
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." ~ Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)
"Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong-
then guide me on the road to eternal life."
~ Psalm 139:23-24 (MSG)
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Three small words. One huge statement.
"I'll go sleep in the woods with this dog before I give it away to a shelter."
(this comment delivered deadpan)
...from a gentleman going from A-Z under the heading of "churches" in the phone book. He quit drugs 2 years ago and is now suffering from cardiac sudden death syndrome and is awaiting his disability hearing. He and his wife of 17 years are facing eviction next week and his vehicle (a $150 beater that someone gave him) was totalled this past week. They have no income. He has nothing of value except the "$3000 dog" that someone gave him.
We (our church) is not in a place to solve his problem and part of my job - with the hope of finding help and the ability to resource them - is sometimes asking hard questions. After hitting many brick walls, it occasionally (more often these days) comes to the point where I have to ask the hardest ones:
"Do you have a place to go if you lose your home? Family, friends?"
I try to explain the tough reality that he may need to find a shelter.
Many people divert attention to the care of their pets. They love them and can't imagine sending them to the humane society where they could be euthanized or to a refuge organization where they will never get them back.
I have pets. I love them. If it came to it, would I give them up and take my family to a shelter?
At this point, he is trying to hold on to something, another living creature, for comfort when everything else is about to be lost.
I have never been in that place. I don't know the turmoil in the heart and mind of a person in this situation that causes this to be a tough decision.
It's hard being the voice of reality sometimes. It rips at my heart to have to tell someone that I can't help them. The only thing I can do is pray. This situation is beyond me.
I am seeing an increase in calls for assistance and this one made my heart hurt. I know, it could have been someone trying to "scam" the church. But I choose not to be jaded and err on the side of mercy.
So often people wait until the situation is past the point of repair before seeking help. Three small words, so hard to speak.
"I need help."
Monday, April 19, 2010
I had a dream
I had a dream....and it was silly.
In my dream, I was at my perfect weight and looking H.O.T. As I do in all of my dreams. They are MY dreams right? In this one, I was dating James VanderBeek (yeah, that guy from Dawson's Creek or more recently Mercy. In my dream, it was the Mercy version of him). It must have been Christmastime because he gave me a gift. It was a necklace with the initial D in diamonds. So, we spent my dream time visiting various people in his family and just random things weird things happened but what stuck out is one set of twin boys around the age of 3 or 4 followed us around for a little bit and as we were parting ways from them they made a point of each telling me "I'm 3rd" and the other said "I'm 4th" and James explained it meaning that in the heirarchy of favoritism within their family, that is the place that they hold. James proceded to tell me that he is first. Go figure. So, we are heading to the next family member and mind you, we are all about PDAs in this dream. (Holding hands, public smooching kind of stuff.) So, my dream self was a bit confused when James kind of wanted to be rid of me while visiting his father. His bedridden father. He actually told me, "why don't you go get your haircut while I am visiting with Dad" and when I asked him why, he told me "your hair is pretty robust" he apparently found it very important that I get my hair cut because he offered to cut it himself if I did not want to go have it done by someone. Oh, and he was NOT going to pay for the cutting of my robust hair. In my dream, I was alright with these things. I decided to go get my haircut. Pay for it myself - even though I was perfectly happy with my robust hair. Not to mention, my dream self was pretty confused as to why he wanted to get rid of me after what seemed to be a great day...
e, "why don't you go get your haircut while I am visiting with Dad" and when I asked him why, he told me "your hair is pretty robust" he apparently found it very important that I get my hair cut because he offered to cut it himself if I did not want to go have it done by someone. Oh, and he was NOT going to pay for the cutting of my robust hair. In my dream, I was alright with these things. I decided to go get my haircut. Pay for it myself - even though I was perfectly happy with my robust hair. Not to mention, my dream self was pretty confused as to why he wanted to get rid of me after what seemed to be a great day......and then I woke up. Pi$$ED! Dude, at no time in my life would I EVER date someone as self-absorbed as he was in my dream. Not to mention, manipulative and controlling. PLEASE!
So anyway....just had share.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Finding peace in 21 words
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared
for those who love Him"
~1 Corinthians 2:9
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
...To Return to Facebook...or not.
It has been over 40 days. I "signed off" the Monday before Lent began and it is now the Wednesday after Easter.
I don't miss it.
I have had such a nice time not being there.
I have reordered my life without the distraction. I know, I am a grown up and I should be able to do both/and - to that I say "WHATEVER"
Obviously, I am not that responsible.
Let me tell you what I realized. Before my Facebook vacation, the first thing I did in the morning was get up with the alarm and then get Paige up for school and while she was showering and getting ready...I was on Facebook seeing what everyone was up to and when she was done about a half hour later I would hit the shower and get ready.
I replaced that time - with reading my Bible. I fell in love with that pretty fast. Even so that now on the weekends it is the first thing I do in the morning. I have read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and the first 4 chapters of Romans. Quite often, I take a full hour of it because really, I do not have to look pretty to go out to the bus stop with Paige.
I also feel like I am spending more time with Dave and the girls. Well, actually, physically it is the same amount of time, just more present.
I have also had more time to read other things. It has been awesome.
So, what am I to do?
#1 I am deleting my Twitter account. Don't need it.
#2 I am going to go on Facebook and post this message.
"I don't hang out here very often anymore. I won't be updating my status. If you want to see what is going on in my life go to my blog. If you really are my friend, you have my number, give me a call to chat or maybe we can do lunch."
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