For my birthday last year I posted a list of things I would NO LONGER do now that I’d turned 50. This year I decided to go with the thought of listing some things that I’m really GLAD I DID, now that I’m 51:

1. Graduated college – I wrote my first tuition check for $249 which was graciously paid for by a scholarship from the American Business Women’s Association of Terrebonne Parish. Dave Ramsey states, “You will finish college in 4 years if you are paying for it.” A drive-through bank teller by day. A mall branch teller by evening. An A&P grocery checker on nights and weekends. A few trips to the blood bank to pay for my books. I lived by the mantra of “Educate a man, you educate one. Educate a woman (remember this was the 80’s), you educate a family and everyone who follows her.” Geaux tigers!

2. Give people the benefit of the doubt – People do the best they can with what they know. When you know Jesus, you can’t help but want to see people through His eyes. Releasing others from meeting my needs lets me live life with few expectations. Fewer expectations make for fewer disappointments. Living without the fear of disappointment allows one to celebrate the gifts and graces of everyone. Forgiveness makes everyone look mah-velous!

3. Learned to cook like a Cajun – I moved to South Louisiana when I was 16. I learned to shell shrimp one-handed, chop onions with a paring knife, cook outside, and make a roux. When someone asks where I can find the best Cajun food in the Atlanta area, I tell them, “My kitchen.”

4. Moved north of Interstate 10 for a time – Born a southerner, I had no idea what the world looked like for those who must buy clothes for each of the 4 seasons. A season without Rotel tomatoes, Dukes Mayonnaise, Red beans from Harahan, and Jimmy Dean Sausage opened my heart and my stomach to the creativity of God and His people like nothing else.

5. Let my picture be taken when I was younger even when I thought I didn’t look good – When I look at these photos now, I see a beautiful young woman who just didn’t know she was at the time.

6. Built a relationship with my Mother In Law – It wasn’t easy and we are two different people from different eras and different locations of the country. We are as opposite as they come. Yet, after 27 years there is much to be said for not having to explain everything. And my man says, “Thank you.”

7. Wore shoes that fit my feet no matter what the number was – My wedding shoes were a size 8, had Baby Girl and grew to a size 9. After #1 son, I started wearing a size 10 and they felt so good after I turned 40 that I just went ahead and began wearing size 11. The only problem I have with my feet is finding pretty, flashy shoes with a low heel in a size that reminds me of a canoe…there is a lovely Shoe Town between Canton & Griffin, Georgia that caters to chicks just like me.

I have balled my eyes out all day as I have finished the 5th Chapter of James. Not because of the answers it provides, but these questions:

– What is the line between hoarding and saving? I’ve watched the TV shows Hoarders and Extreme Couponing. One looks messy and the other has some sort of order to it. One is usually a result of a hurt or loss. The other a result of wanting to do something good. One makes me hurt inside. One makes me wonder.

– If I grew my own food, would I be more patient? I recall watching episodes of Little House on the Prairie when Pa and the family were anxious every time bad weather came for fear of what it’d do to the crops.  The many references to a agricultural life throughout the bible cause me to do more research, because it’s not what we do today.   But haven’t we all spent time “between the rains” of God’s blessings?  Some call it a wilderness time.  Others call it a desert time.

– What should I do when I am in trouble?  I grab a girlfriend-in-the-Lord and I pray.  I confess to seasons when staying in bed was my preference, but I keep practicing to “count it all joy (James 1:1)”  How else will I ever know what He’s going to accomplish if I don’t have seasons of “living by faith, and not by sight?”  More importantly, how will Satan otherwise be proved a liar in my own head?

Melissa offers some timely interruptions with the James: Mercy Triumphs study. Her information usually flies right over my head. But today she offers a legendary quote by Mark Twain for a filter for chapter 4: “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”

This I understand…

1.  Submission is a position thing – a reminder that I have a part and God has a part.  God doesn’t need me to do my part, but I need Him to do His part.  When I do my part, it goes better for me.  And I learn my lessons a lot more quickly.  Healthy communication is the key.  I can cry out to my God in the midst of life, but it’s just not right to be fussing and whining at Him for not giving me what I want when I want it every time I come to Him.  I don’t think it pleases Him for my every communication to sound like the temper tantrum of a 2 year old.  He knows the big picture and the other side of the fiery furnace.  James Chapter 1 says to “Count it all joy…”

2.  Being deliberate in what I resist and what I draw near to is a free will thing – Although saved and blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, He still gives me choices.  These are choices I make deliberately or by default every day.  Dare I say aloud, this chronic people-pleaser finds resisting the Evil One an easier exercise.  I flee from getting into trouble.  Always have.  I pray for a Holy Spirit alarm to go off like a loud, flashing siren when I step over the line of what is right in His sight.  However, I am easily ensnared by what I draw near to.  This takes more discernment.  I have an “all in” personality that doesn’t always give me the “proceed with caution” sign until I am in so deep that I can’t touch the bottom. 

3.  Judging things and not people is the result of regularly walking in the Spirit and it’s a love thing – More than my share of blessings-from-disappointments has taught me to give folks the benefit of the doubt.  Sometimes Godly people do ungodly things.  But we serve a God of redemption.  One who specializes in putting broken people back together.  Let me recognize the broken ones, Lord.

4.  Making future plans in a uncertain world is a hope thing – I may not know what will happen tomorrow, and my life is a mist that appears for a little while (4:14).  But I have a new baby boy about to enter this world this Spring direct from the creative hand of God.  He will know a Grandmother who is “clothed in strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”

I will address the parts I don’t understand another day.  I have more than enough to fill my cup to overflowing.  It’s time for a cookie.