Another blessed Sunday

One year ago today my family joined me for church because we had just buried Jason the Friday before, and I needed their support. Today Allison, Mike, Crystal, Erica, and their kids joined me again. Crystal's and Erica's kids are so cute and sweet. They all crack me up. For some reason Kiersten had a blown up balloon. I kept thinking that it would pop during service and scare everyone to death. In today's climate everyone would hit the floor and think that a gunman was in the building. The balloon stayed intact all through service, so everything was all right.
After church we went to Bethel to Anthony's third grade football game. What fun. Those little guys are serious. Anthony's team won in the fourth quarter. A defensive battle. The game stayed tied 0-0 until close to the end. Then Bethel scored a touchdown and a 2 point conversion.
We all came back to the house and ate chilli dogs while the kids played in Allison's room. The girls went home with pom pons, and the boys had a video game that was sent to me by mistake to take with them. They were playing with the barns, trucks and horse trailers, animals etc. that all belonged to Jason. The animals were all branded with either his brand JH or Kirby's H. Cracked me up. Jason was never a kid; he played very serious games.
I have a very busy week. I'm serving on a committee in OKC this week and have to be in the city Tue., Wed, and Thurs. The committee's purpose is to review test items for the end-of-instruction English test. When I was asked to serve on the committee, it was summer, and I didn't really think it through. Now I'm wishing I had said no. Nothing is worse than getting abunch of English teachers together to review something that someone else has written. My plan is to go spend one night at my friend Cindy's so that we can catch up. That will be the bright spot of the week.
I'm blogging right know to avoid doing lesson plans. I hate to be gone for that reason. It is 10x easier to teach school than it is to plan to be gone.

Our current sermon series is on Joshua. It has been very challenging to me. Today Jimmy asked us how much time to we spend reading the Bible for our own benefit, not to prepare a lesson, but to challenge and enlighten ourselves. Man, that hit me right between the eyes. I used to do that. Before Jason's death (and this is no excuse) I read a passage and journaled on it each morning. One complete year has passed since my last journal post because I know how much I prayed for my kids in that journal. When Jimmy shared this morning that his kids would have a stack of journals to read that would reveal his strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and struggles, I realized that I used to say that too. I haven't been able to read those journals because I keep seeing the daily prayer of "keep my children safe, physically, spiritually, and emotionally." All I focus on is the unanswered part of that prayer. Jason died physically, but spiritually he is complete. Allison and Carson suffered the worst loss of their lives in losing Jason, so I keep thinking of their emotional pain, but their spiritual lives are secure.
I'm going to "screw my courage to the sticking place" and begin journaling again. in my own hand as I always did. I've been living between the Red Sea and the Jordan. I'm ready to live in the promised land.