God is so cool

I admit to being a less than adequate individual at times. Yes, I know that statement shocks many of you, since you think I'm so awesome. -snort- Not that I'm berating myself here, it's just that I think it's healthy to recognize your short comings. The unhealthy part about that is when you continually beat yourself up over your lacks and, believe me, been there, done that, got t-shirt and commemorative coffee mug.

It's really awesome though, when the fruit of your life indicates that there are some areas where we have gotten a few things right. Fruit, in this instance being my beautiful daughters, they continually blow me away. It is by the grace of God that my husband and I managed to raise three such extraordinary individuals. Are they perfect, no, but I'm their mother so I choose to see their awesmazingness.

So, on this occasion when I point out one of my daughter's neatnesses, let it be known to the general cosmos that all three of my daughters are wonderfully gifted and talented ladies who know God and love the peoples around them.

That being said, I wish to toot my fifteen-year-old daughter's horn. She came home excited because the English teacher finally gave the class a free writing assignment instead of the usual 'write about this' assignments. Jetta was given the choice to write anything she wanted and she was told that the class would read their stories out loud on the day they were due.

Here is what Jetta wrote and read to her captivated audience:

Here I am, laying this down at your feet. All my thoughts and insecurities are for you to listen to. Please listen.
My heart aches, wanting to burst as the memories dance around as we once did. Slowly and gracefully you swept me away. All of me fills with longing now. All I want is to see your face. All I ask is for your arms to surround me and for your love to cover me with a strong embrace. All I need is for you to show me you, for you to show me, me. You reflect me, and I truly miss that.
  WHERE ARE YOU! I cry out, and I wait, but I hear no reply. I don’t see you any place. What am I doing wrong? Why do you ignore me? My eyes become the Nile after a long storm. You’ve shown me love before, so why is now different from then? HUH?! Has every good feeling you’ve given me mean nothing? What do you want me to do? Tell me.
 The thoughts of you are flooding my every pore. I love you, can’t you see that in the way I’ve chosen to live for you? I focus my all on living in your image, and you choose to ignore me now, when I need you most. The stress is destroying me. My mind hurts with every thought of you leaving me alone, of being alone. This empty void is now my chest. What can fill me now, after I know what its like to be with you, nothing can compare to the love you bring. My everything shakes as I think, “What do I do now?”
In this darkness I’ve created, I wait, I sit. What would you do. OF COURSE! You! YOU’re the key! This whole time I’ve been talking about living for you, but I never really was. New adrenalin runs through me as I hear faint whispers breaking the dark like a lighthouse.
“My love, my creation, why have you hidden your face from me? You say you love me, yet you did things that hurt me to see. Though you have not seen me, I have always been there for you, helping you. I love you more than you know, more than you could ever imagine. No matter what you do, there is nothing that can make me love you less, only more, and more and more and more. It truly broke my heart to see you broken, but now you realize how to love, not caring about yourself, but about the one who loves you back.”
These sounds rushed into my ears like a river of living words, with bright and colorful textures mixed in with the soothing, warm waters. These words took away my feet, as well as my breath, overwhelming me. My body crumbled under the beautiful feeling that covered me from head to toe, from skin to spirit. Together, we were dancing again, in this time that nothing can remove from my memory, from my being. We sat for hours, the light growing brighter every second you were with me, my smile growing larger with every word you spoke softly into my brain. Eventually, I had to get up and continue with life. But this time I know for a fact that you are never, EVER gone from me. You love me.
“In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song.”

Wow! Her story brought tears from some of her classmates, not jeers. It's so cool to see my kids knowing my God and expressing Him so amazingly.