It's a Sin to be Boring.

I know.  Be careful what you state in your title, RJ.  Be careful what you state as fact...

Sin... 

It's missing the mark, isn't it?

It's being off the track, off the path, NOT in God's Way.

I've recently finish a study on Inheritance by Beth Moore.  I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the costs to study through and from her, but I understand that the woman has to put food on the table, and I'm not sure that the Church is functioning in a way at present that allows for her to do that without charging for her studies, so I'll put my fat judgmental finger away, and just talk about the things I'm learning.

The biggest thing.  The most important thing is...

You and I are heiresses.

Full blown, off the charts, filthy rich heiresses.

You and I.  Are heiresses.

The Bible is clear.  We have a beautiful inheritance.  An inheritance from The Father to Us. 

Psalm 16:6
"The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance."

It's David speaking, but it applies to all of Mankind.  Those of us who choose to accept this Gift from Our Father.

If you have an inheritance, that makes you an heir.  Since most of you readers are women, that makes you HEIRESSES.

And it's funny.

Beth Moore brought a book to the first week of the study:

 Ah yes.  Paris Hilton explains how to be an heiress.

But it was interesting.

The first 10 things about being an heiress...well...the biggest thing was that your life can't be boring.

I think many of us girls and women think of our lives as nothing special.  Pretty boring, if we're honest with one another and ourselves.  But the thing is, our lives are SUPPOSED to be AMAZING.  ADVENTUROUS.  DARING.  

Everything the opposite of BORING.

We serve a God who is Bigger.  Who is More Powerful.  Who is Almighty.

He is not Boring.  And so...if we are walking in His Way, and we are Heiresses to this Inheritance, we should not be walking around the world like there isn't much to do, say, offer, explore...

God made this great big world and He set us in it to Have our own Adventure.

He is calling each one of us to jump in and experience it!

If we are willing to listen...then...  we will Hear Him.  We will Be Called.

And maybe for some of us our calling will be to do something that other people wouldn't see as adventurous, but for us, it is a HUGE adventure.

For me, having kids is a HUGE adventure.  Every day is different.

I can say a lot of things about my life, but I can't say that I am bored.  That it is boring.

If you are bored.  If your life is boring...  perhaps...  you are doing the wrong thing.

And if you are not on The Path set for you by The King of the Universe...  then perhaps... that boring path... isn't only boring... but is also... a sin.


Is your life an adventure?  Why not?  What is holding you back from living out the adventure set before you?  Do you believe that God has an adventure for all of his Children?  Do you believe you are an Heiress?  What does adventure look like for you?

Inspired Monday...wait...

I made it!  I am actually writing an Inspiration Monday blog on Monday!

It is also No Make-up Monday.  Which, for those of you who don't know, is a day to just not wear make-up, and see what happens.  Will anyone notice?  (If you don't usually wear make-up anyway, then this isn't so much fun for you...sorry about that.)

Okay.  SO.  Inspiration Monday!  Here I am!

I had the greatest weekend of all time.

I know.  It sounds exaggerated.

But it is not.

So here are all of the weekend happenings that are still inspiring me today!

1.  My husband and I went to a local coffee shop for a date night on Friday.  It was so nice to be together and talk without interruption.  We stayed for 2.5 hours and it felt like twenty minutes. We haven't had a real date in months.  We MUST do it more often.

2.  I went to a Women's Wellness clinic at my church on Saturday morning.  It wasn't really a lot of new information, but it was really good for me to hear AGAIN that it is really good to take time for yourself.  It isn't selfish if it makes you a better person when you come back to your family and friends.

3.  Sunday.  I went to Vinyasa Flow Yoga.  It was fantastic and wonderful and amazing.  It was my second "flow" class, and it was just as great as the first one, maybe even better, because I knew what to expect and my body was much more cooperative.  I'm having trouble walking now...but it's worth it!

4.  My husband took the kids to the local Earth Day Celebration after my yoga class.  I hung out at the new Arts Center in town to hand out fliers for the acting class I'll be teaching this summer.  It's a Movement Class - always therapeutic, fun, and useful.

5.  We went out for Mexican as a family after the Earth Day Celebration.  I love going out to eat.  And I love hanging with the fam.

6.  We had an amazing service at The Refinery Sunday evening.  We sang hymns without instruments and had a brief Tenebrae Service and our pastor taught about the crucifixion.  I was wowed to hear about the dual meaning of some of Jesus's final words from the cross.  When he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he was referencing Psalm 22.  In Hebrew culture at the time, most everyone had the scriptures memorized.  When a rabbi wanted to reference a specific passage, he would call out the first line of the passage, and everyone would automatically know to what he was referring.  Jesus was doing this from the cross.

It was also interesting to really think about how tall the cross was, and how close indeed people were to the face of Christ as he was hanging there.  Since the cross was only about eight feet tall, and the head of a crucified person would be hanging far below his arms, Jesus would have been able to look into the faces of those at the crucifixion, including his mother.

7.  After The Refinery my husband and I discussed the possibility of me acquiring one of the studios at the arts center to do my art, writing, and teaching.  I was so excited I didn't but about three hours Sunday night.  I've since realized that I will probably be unable to commit the hours required of the artists to be in their studios, but it was a lovely thought, and something I will be keeping in the back of my mind for the future.

8.  ...whoa...I just realized...today is Tuesday...did I miss all of yesterday?  No, no...I taught an acting class last night and we did the farmer's market and went to the local organic market and got some local honey and organic lollypops and medicinal tea for my son's asthma.  Yesterday was fantastic and I didn't even realize it happened!

Energy giving activities - doing things about which we are passionate, that get us jazzed - when we do these things on a regular basis, even sleep becomes optional.  Today is one of those days where I quite simply love my life.

the good with the bad.

Tonight I talked to this woman at church before the cantata, in which my husband and I are singing, about my hair.

It's interesting to watch people react to my hair.

I'm really trying to practice what I preach and get over what people think of me, but it's tough when people are staring at you in the store, and just randomly at church and other places.

I took my daughter to the doctor the other day and a little girl, I would put her at about age six, leaned over and whispered (like kids do): "Why is that lady's hair so short?" Her mom looked at her very seriously and said, quietly, but still unintentionally loudly enough for me to hear, "That lady is very sick, and she can't have long hair."

I wasn't sure what to do in that moment. Correct the woman? Lean over and tell her daughter, "Hey, I'm not sick, I cut my hair this way because I WANTED to" ? I'm not sure. My response was to sit there quietly and smile to myself. I admit it made me a little upset. I guess it's just stereotypes in general upset me to no end.

I'm not claiming I'm above them, because I'm sure I think of them from time to time and apply them to people I don't know without even thinking, but this one is hitting me right in the chest. I don't have cancer. Never did. I hope that I never will. But either way, can't a girl cut her hair the way she wants to and not be sick? Who knows.

Anyway, back to my conversation at the cantata.

The woman actually had cancer, I think two years ago, and lost all of her hair. She hasn't really talked to me before, but having the haircut has been a conversation starter for us. She asked me why I cut it and I told her, and then she told me that she really liked her hair when it was that way, so I asked her why she grew it out again. She said that she wanted to grow her hair for Locks for Love, the organization that takes hair donations of ten inches or longer to make wigs for people who can't grow hair due to radiation treatments. I nodded because I understood. She said, "I can't fix them, but I can grow my hair, that's my way to help."

I recently donated ten inches of my own hair to Locks for Love. I just got a postcard in the mail from them thanking me for my donation.

It was a really nice card - personalized and everything. I wish that I could somehow meet the girl who gets my hair.

It sort of sounds a little weird and creepy, but I think it would be so cool to know exactly where it went, you know?

I thought it was really neat that the woman from church was growing her hair for Locks for Love, and I told her so, and after the cantata we talked again. She said she was really tempted to just shave all of her hair off when she looked at me because she remembered how easy it was to care for and how freeing it was to not worry about it. She said, "That's what cancer does, it strips you of everything - how you look, all you have is what's inside, and you can be bitter about that, or you can refine the inside to be something worth looking at." She also said she loved having her hair short because people looked at her face and eyes - she felt like people saw HER, and not just the effort she put into herself in the morning.

I said, "So, something good came out of the bad thing."

She said, "There are no bad things, just learning experiences."

This is a woman who had cancer. A woman whose brother committed suicide at the age of twenty-four. I think her outlook on life is pretty amazing.

Oh, and I'm pretty much selling the hairstyle to everyone who asks now. They ask why and I tell them my son told me I looked like Grandma with the hair cut I got, and so after spending twenty minutes or so sitting in our walk-in closet, I came out and told my husband to "just shave it off." Which is basically true. I'd really been wanting to do it for years, but never had the guts. I always had some excuse - "oh, I'll get fired" (I was a teacher in the public school system) or "Oh, I have a show I'm auditioning for and don't want to look weird," or whatever. But now I had an excuse TO do it, and no one to stop me, no reason not to do it. So there it is.

After I tell the story then I tell them it's amazing, low maintenance, and every woman should try it at least once in her life.

I think, eventually, I'll have some takers.