Storm Shelter

I'm so over tornadoes.  This month has been intense and exhausting for most of Oklahoma.  The thunderstorms, hail, and especially the tornadoes have people on high alert.  Malori has talked about how safe she feels in her storm shelter, and how comforting it is just to know that it's there when she needs it.  My parents are putting in a safe room, and I called today to book an appointment to get an underground storm shelter... (that company is booked through November, but at least I'll be safe next year!)  After the huge tornado on May 20th, people across the state are seeking shelter and protection -- a place of refuge deep enough or strong enough to withstand a fierce, deadly, violent storm!

And of course, this got me thinking about God -- about all the verses where He is called our "shelter" or "refuge" or "place of safety."  I know it's an obvious metaphor to write about, but I'm going to write it anyway.  In the same way that the last couple weeks have been an extreme storm season for our state, we all have stormy seasons of life where it's just one devastating/difficult thing after another and we feel overwhelmed or anxious about what's coming next.  This year has felt a bit like that for me - the storms are quiet now, but who knows how long that will last.  Our hearts need a "storm shelter," a place of refuge deep enough and strong enough to withstand any crisis!  

Resting securely in a storm shelter in the middle of a major tornado is a perfect picture of what it means to 'abide' and take refuge in Christ as the storms of life whirl around us.  He is peace in the midst of chaos, and He preserves life in the midst of destruction.

“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him.”  ~Psalm 91:1-2

“How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.”  ~Psalm 36:7

“From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.”  ~Psalm 61:2-3

“The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.”  ~Psalm 121:5

“For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.”  ~Psalm 32:7

“You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”  ~Isaiah 25:4

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”  ~Psalm 18:2

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”  ~Psalm 32:7

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”  ~Isaiah 43:2

“But let all who take refuge in You be glad, let them ever sing for joy; and may You shelter them, that those who love Your name may exult in You.” ~Psalm 5:11

“You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”  ~Psalm 31:20

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  ~Psalm 46:1

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”  ~Psalm 62:8

“In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be ashamed.”  ~Psalm 71:1

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”  ~Psalm 118:8

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“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”  ~Proverbs 30:5

“For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat...”  ~Isaiah 25:4

“The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; 
He knows those who take refuge in Him.” ~Nahum 1:7

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

"I didn't watch the whole documentary.  After a few episodes, it was too painful - I kept wanting to scream at Pam!  It took me so long to do so many important things, it's just hard to accept that I spent so many years being less happy than I could've been! It'd be great if people saw this documentary and learned from my mistakes.  Not that I'm a tragic person - I'm really happy now.  But it would just make my heart soar if someone out there saw this and she said to herself:  'Be strong. Trust yourself.  Love yourself.  Conquer your fears.  Just go after what you want, and act fast, because life just isn't that long!"

~Pam Beasley Halpert

Loooooooved that speech!

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." ~Andy Bernard

(I know that pictures lie - that we look happier and remember past events as better than they actually were.  But oh, so many memories flood my mind when I hear the  phrase 'the good old days!'  So here's a reminder to look around and focus on what's good NOW - and be thankful for it!!)

"There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things.  

Isn't that kind of the point!?"

~Pam

Photo Friday!

Not one of these 4 pictures was taken by me, but I love them all - each for very different reasons. =)

1.  (From the National Geographic Photos blog I follow) - It's people at a park in Finland during a snowstorm in 1968... kinda random, but I love and adore this picture!  The muted park with the colorful balloons, the umbrellas everywhere, the falling snow, the park and trees, the hats and coats, little kids holding their parents' hands, a couple hugging to stay warm, etc.  That blog is fun for me.

2.  An iPhone pic of an encouraging Bible verse.  I usually only hear the last verse, but seeing it with the verse above it really spoke to my single self.  Jesus is announcing that His closest friends will be scattered and leave him and He will be alone... then He reminds Himself and them that none of us are ever really alone, and He said this "so that we can have peace in Him!"  Awesome!!

3.  A downtown OKC before and after shot I found on FB.  Transformation shots like this, even on buildings, are always cool and encouraging!

4.  And finally, a cruise group pic where Malori's expression and knowing what she was thinking reeeally cracks me up! :)

That's all.
Happy Friday and Happy Memorial Day weekend!!

Quotables

“Listen to Me… you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” ~(God)  Isaiah 46:3-4  

(This is my last memory verse for May.  I love the promise of it and chose it because I feel like I'm finally really connecting with God again, and this is a verse that strengthens that!)

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"The degree to which we’ll be honest with Him about our deep messes, our brokenness and intense struggles (as if He isn’t already intimately acquainted with every detail), is the degree to which we’ll be healed.  And the degree to which we’ll do what He tells us to do to trash the trash in our lives also holds some weight."  
~Lindsee in this awesome post!

"You mistake my choice not to feel as a reflection of my not caring, while I assure you the truth is quite the opposite."  ~Spock :)

The following are all quotes by Parker J. Palmer in his book Let Your Life Speak, the most recent book we read for class:

"The world still waits for the truth that will set us free... the truth that was seeded in the earth when each of us arrived here formed in the image of God.  Cultivating that truth, I believe, is the authentic vocation of every human being." 

"Authentic leaders in every setting - from families to nation-states - aim at LIBERATING THE HEART, their own and others', so that its powers can liberate the world." ~Parker J. Palmer

"I could feel nothing except the burden of my own life and the exhaustion, the apparent futility, of trying to sustain it.  I understand why some depressed people kill themselves: they need the rest.  But I do not understand why others are able to find new life in the midst of a living death, though I am one of them.  I can tell you what I did to survive, and eventually, to thrive - but I cannot tell you why I was able to do those things before it was too late."

"It is important to speak one's truth to a depressed person... In depression, the built-in bunk detector that we all possess is not only turned on but is set on high.  No one can fully experience another person's mystery... it was the empathetic attempt to identify with me that made me feel even more isolated, because it was overidentification.  Disconnection may be hell, but it is better than false connections.""

"Depression is the ultimate state of disconnection, not only between people, and between mind and heart, but between one's self-image and public mask."

"One of the hardest things we must do sometimes is to be present to another person's pain without trying to 'fix' it, to simply stand respectfully at the edge of that person's mystery and misery.  Standing there, we feel useless and powerless, which is exactly how a depressed person feels - and our unconscious need as Job's comforters is to reassure ourselves that we are not like the sad soul before us.  In an effort to avoid those feelings, I give advice, which sets me, not you, free."

"One of the most painful discoveries I made in the midst of the dark woods of depression was that a part of me wanted to stay depressed. As long as I clung to this living death, life became easier; little was expected of me, certainly not serving others."

"The spiritual journey runs counter to the power of positive thinking.  Why must we go in and down?  Because as we do so, we will meet the darkness that we carry within ourselves - the ultimate source of the shadows that we project onto other people.  If we do not understand that... we will find a thousand ways of making someone 'out there' into the enemy, becoming leaders who oppress rather than liberate others."

"When we are insecure about our own identities, we create settings that deprive other people of their identities as a way of buttressing our own.  This happens all the time in families, where parents who do not like themselves give their children low self-esteem... Your sense of self is enhanced by leaders who know who they are."

"A second shadow inside many of us is the belief that the universe is a battleground, hostile to human interests... The spiritual truth that harmony is more fundamental than warfare in the nature of reality itself can transform this leadership shadow."

"Because they were not driven by their own fears, the fears that lead us either to 'fix' or abandon each other, they provided me with a lifeline to the human race.  That lifeline constituted the most profound form of leadership I can imagine - leading a suffering person back to life from a living death."

"My delight in the autumn colors is always tinged with melancholy, a sense of impending loss that is only heightened by the beauty all around.  I am drawn down by the prospect of death more than I am lifted up by the hope of new life... in the autumnal events of my own experience, I am rarely aware that seeds are being planted.  I am easily fixated on surface appearances - on the decline of meaning, the decay of relationships, the death of work.  And yet if I look more deeply, I may see the myriad of possibilities being planted to bear fruit in some season yet to come."
~Parker J. Palmer

Back Already. :)

This post will be a few pics + a few thoughts + quotes!

#1 - I finally painted something I like on my canvas.  

I guess 4th time is a charm on this one! :)

#2 - A fun pic of Malori in her new storm shelter, or as her sister called it, "a Malori in the box!"  :)

#3 - Blurry pic of Rach and I putting up the fabric on her nursery wall... if I haven't mentioned it here yet, she's officially having a girl, due in August, and her name will be Kyndal Faith! :)  So exciting!!

#4 - New wreath Rach & Mom made for me - so cute!

New topic, but tonight is the grand finale of The Office!  Laura is coming over to watch with me, and I'm excited... more for the "Favorite moments" recap than the actual episode, but hoping both will be good.  I was a major fan for a while, and it really was fantastic then!

So without further adieu, a few Office quotes (mostly pulled from Laura's comment section):

"You put your heart out there like that, it's liable to just turn into this blackened carbon brick in a barbecue sauce of shame and rage. And two hot people with a perfect relationship would not understand that." ~Andy Bernard

"Guess what? I have flaws. What are they? Oh I dunno, I sing in the shower? Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car. So sue me-- no, don't sue me. That is opposite the point I'm trying to make." ~Michael Scott

"If I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Toby, I would shoot Toby twice!" -Michael

Michael: "Yeah, I went hunting once. Shot a deer in the leg. Had to kill it with a shovel. Took about an hour. Why do you ask?"

"That was an OVERreaction!" -Andy Bernard (after punching a hole through the wall) 

"Gift baskets are the essence of class and fanciness!" -Michael

Michael: "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!!!" 

Jim (imitating Dwight): Beets. Bears. Battlestar Gallatica.

"Finishing that 5k was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I ate more fettuccine Alfredo and drank less water than I have in my entire life. People always talk about triumphs of the human spirit. Well, today I had a triumph of the human body. That's why everybody was applauding for me at the end, my guts and my heart. And while I eventually puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out. I'm very, very proud of that."/"I can't beat rabies. Nobody can beat rabies. Rabies has been around for a thousand years. I was a fool to think that I could beat it."

Dwight: Yes, I have decided to shun Andy Bernard for the next three years. Which I’m looking forward to. It’s an Amish technique. It’s like slapping someone with silence. I was shunned from the age of four until my sixth birthday for not saving the excess oil from a can of tuna.

"So finally, I want to thank God, because God gave me this Dundie! And I feel God in this Chili's tonight!" ~Pam 

(Michael to Toby) "I hate....so much....about the things that you choose to be."

 "It feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears. And at the same time, somebody else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledge hammer. And then a third guy walks in and starts punching me in the grief bone, and I'm crying, and nobody can hear me, because I'm terribly, terribly, terribly alone."

"In the end, life and business are about human connections. And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake."

"Stanley! Stanley! You will not die! Stanley! Stanley! Barack is President! You are black, Stanley!"

(Michael upon Toby's return) "Nooooooooo! No, please God, no! No! Nooooooo! NOOOOOOOOO!" *cue theme song*

"I am single now. What we have here is the ultimate smack down between the Nard-dog and crippling despair, loneliness and depression. I intend to win!" ~Andy Bernard

I know a few things about love. Horrible....awful....terrible....terrible things." (NardDog)

Michael: I'd like everybody's attention. Christmas is canceled.
Stanley: You can't cancel a holiday.
Michael: Keep it up, Stanley, and you'll lose New Year's.
Stanley: What does that mean?
Michael: Jim, take New Year's away from Stanley!

Top Ten Tuesday!

Top 10 Endearing (Playfully) Arrogant Men!  ;-)

10.  Vin Diesel
(aka Dom Toretto)  He's one of few "muscle-y" guys that I find attractive.  He's hot and he's powerful and he knows it!  He gives off a strong 'Don't mess with me' vibe, and I like that.  :)

9.  Bradley Cooper
Helloooooo, blue eyes!  Love his eyes and his smirky smile.  He's great in the 'bad boy' role, and he's definitely got the effortless charm thing down.

8.  Justin Timberlake
Love him... seeing him in concert this November!  He's a talented singer and actor and he most definitely knows it, but he always manages to make other people like him as much as he likes himself! lol  (Adam Levine just doesn't pull that off.)

7.  Schmidt (New Girl)
How adorable is he!?  So playfully arrogant it's ridiculous - he gets away with saying things no one else could pull off.  My favorite fictional metrosexual. lol

6.  Zac Efron
After seeing 17 Again, I'm definitely a fan!  It's obvious that he's totally aware that he's hot and charming, and yet he doesn't annoy me, so he makes the list.

5.  Alec Baldwin
Yes, seriously. lol  I know he's old, but he's also hilarious and so charming!  He has an arrogant smirk and condescending laugh that I somehow find really attractive. 

4.  Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls)
Oooooh, Jess.  Of course he makes this list!  Not sure why I'm so drawn to the overconfidence that borders on total arrogance, but I am!

3.  Simon Cowell
You knew that was coming. lol  Oh, the mischievous smirk of Simon - love it!  Love his laugh, his condescending judgmental tone, his British accent, and the twinkle in his eye in the rare moments when he's truly impressed with someone!!  He commands respect - everyone waits on edge for his opinion, because he's blunt and direct and always certain that he's right - and I love it! :)  I crave that kind of confidence (or the approval of someone who possesses it)!

2.  Bruce Willis!
(aka John McClane, aka Harry Stamper, aka Jimmy the Tulip, aka Elizabeth's Dad on Friends) -- I've always thought he was hotter than Ben Affleck in Armageddon.  I've often said that he has "a quality." And that quality is this natural haughty smirk.  Mildly intimidating, somewhat superior, very likable. lol  Yippee-ki-yay...

1.  RDJ!!  
Robert. Downey. Junior.  (aka Tony Stark, aka "Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist!")  At the beginning of Iron Man 3, he attends a huge party where all the guests are wearing nametags, and his just says "YOU KNOW WHO I AM."  :)  Mmm, love it!  I feel like he's basically playing himself in that movie, and the playful arrogance is fantastic!! 

The end.  That was fun! =)

Photo Friday ~ OKC Race

Hilarious greeting quote from Lauralai Allison when we went to walk at Crescent Park recently and she came in a very modest tank top and shorts (rather than the usual pants & t-shirt):  "I really apologize for the gratuitous nudity happening here!" lol

A happy Les Mis inspired poem I posted to her FB the day before her race:

One day more!
Another day, another destiny!
This never-ending road to OKC;
(And soaring through the finish line
We’ll cheer you on a second time.)
One day more!

Tomorrow you'll be miles away

Go boldly; finish what you’ve started!

Your time is now; your day is here!!

One day more!
One more day to the big finish,
You will nip it in the bud!
You’ll be ready, bright and smiling,
There will be no tears or blood!

...Do you hear the people sing?
‘Maybe next year, I’ll run with you!’ ;)

One day more!
You will join these pace group coaches;
You will follow where they go!
You’ll know all their little secrets;
You will learn the things they know.

Tomorrow we'll discover
What our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn,
One more day,
One day more!

And now, two picture collages from last Sunday's OKC Memorial "Race to Remember" - Laura ran the Half and set a new PR! =)

"Over halfway through, I was thinking, I paid hundreds of dollars to want to vomit all over Classen Boulevard!  Whaaat am I doing with my life!?" ~Laura :)

"I prayed for strength and grace and sassy-ness and finishing strong!"  ~Susie (Laura's Mom) =)

This was pretty awesome and surprisingly emotional to me (not that it shouldn't be emotional - I just wasn't expecting it in myself) ...but we walked through the Memorial after the race, and several runners had put their race medals and #s on the chairs in honor of certain bombing victims... mmm, yeah, that still gets me.

Anyway, Happy Friday, friends!  Enjoy the weekend!!