A $2.50 Ball

It was one of those balls at Wal-Mart that you have to like hit up and over the cage that they reside in. It took a couple attempts to hit it up and over the metal but once the blue and white swirls came down and took a couple freedom bounces, Tracen's eyes widened with glee. And then I didn't see his cute little face again until I had to pry it out of his arms to pay for it.

This morning was beautiful. So I decided to ignore the laundry and the crumbs on the counter and the syrup from the pancakes that was dripping off the high-chair and get some shorts on to play with all four boys in the backyard. Several hours before my decision was made to enjoy the fellowship of my children outdoors, I was inside my bedroom among the darkness of the night telling God a piece of my mind. And since He knows the number of frizzy hairs on my head then I figured He also knew how big those tears were that were falling before the sun showed up.

The Pastor told us we need to give God our good side AND our bad side. So, I obeyed the Pastor. I yelled, or some might call it "cry out" but I yelled at God for being so stinkin good at playing hide-and-go-seek. I told Him that He is too good at the hiding and I'm not that great at seeking...Or at least that was the way I felt. I told Him that when I play the game with my boys I try not to hide where it takes them forever to find me because I get the most pleasure in the part where they find me. (Mainly because I like to scare them half-to-death, but that is irrelevant.) And I have to be honest, it felt good. And by the time I was done releasing my anger toward the One who is thankfully S-L-O-W to anger, the sun was rising and it was as if God was smiling into the darkness of the fading night. So that is when I decided to embrace the warmth of the day and play. Sometimes when life is really hard and complicated...Just play.

And that is what I did. I took my four blessings out to enjoy the sun...The Son who is right there waiting with us to make it through another trial. We played with that Ball we got from Wal-Mart for hours. We found new ways to play with a $2.50 ball. And I learned that day that when life is complicated it is the simple things that remind us what really matters the most.

Thank-you Father for that Ball and for your Son.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: A refusal to accept responsibility.

Why is my very first blog post entitled disclaimer?
I'll tell you.
Number one: I refuse to accept any responsibility when it comes to staying up-t0-date on this blog. I have no intentions of staying current and because I am being up front about this I am free to take on yet another project in my already crazy busy life with no time crunch.
Number two: Ask my best friend, Amber Komdeur...I am a writing freak. I write everything down. I don't just have a prayer journal, a journal for each of my children, a journal about my marriage, a journal about any thoughts or ideas I have, a journal of dreams, a journal about topics that concern me...But I also write down anything and everything that I might want to remember. And one thing that I like to remember are words. You would think nearly thirty years of speaking English would provide a plethora of intelligent words flowing from my mouth but that is definitely not the case for Christine Martinson. Ready for me to expose my first weakness? My tongue. Not only do I have an embarrassingly insufficient supply of vocabulary stored in my brain but what vocabulary I do have I too often use in the wrong way or at the wrong time. BTW this feels really good getting this out. Maybe I will blog a lot. But I don't have to because I have that disclaimer. Writing is a release for me. As I am sure it is for many of you bloggers out there. But honestly, I don't care if zero people read this or a million people. I'm not writing this for you. It's for me, my family if they want to know what their wife and mother is thinking, and God. I communicate with God through written words almost as often as the spoken word. I don't know if that is a good thing or bad thing. You tell me. Oh, that is another thing about me. I am very open to "constructive criticism" as long as your goal is to help me. So by all means put me in my place if you need to. But just say something nice afterwards. You know the sandwich method? Nice slice, critical slice, topped with a nice slice again. That seems to go well when I give people a piece of my mind. Which here we go again...Is another weakness of mine. Honestly people, I'm doing this whole thing cause I want to be real. No masks, no hats, just me. If I annoy you...Don't read it! It's a free country. At least for a little bit longer. Can I say that?
So in conclusion for tonight...My wonderful husband is at Wal-mart getting last minute items for Kyler's sixth birthday tomorrow. Kyler's love language is time, physical affection, gifts, words of encouragement, holy moley almost all of them! Anyways we have a frame of Kindergarten wrapped with a "Happy Birthday" banner sitting alone on the counter for him to wake up to. Then we will have a jelly filled doughnut with a number 6 candle on it for breakfast. He will then give us a big hug and say "I love you" six times in honor of his birthday. Then throughout HIS day as he keeps reminding us, we will give him 6 little gifts. And I mean little. Like a whoopee cushion, a pack of gum, an action figure, a bouncy ball. Just to keep the excitement going until we end the day with a family get-together with a taco bar and cake and ice cream. Then the older boys will go to VBS at our wonderful neighbor church. And that will be the end of his sixth birthday which ended up being pretty significant with the grand-parents sending him and his older brother to day camp. Which brings me to what I am thankful for tonight...Supportive, loving, nurturing family.
In my blogs there will be me being me. My prayer is that for anyone who takes time out of their own crazy busy life that they will be encouraged knowing I am a normal Christian woman who struggles too, but I am also in this race to win and I hope you are too.

God says in his living Book, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) Let's receive this gift of life and live it to its fullest people. And I don't mean go and get drunk all the time. I'll save that for another day.