The nun replies that she was traveling at 40 mph, the stated speed limit.  The officer, understanding her confusion, explains that the speed limit is 70.  The 40 sign she saw was the interstate highway number.  “Ohh!”  The driver responds.

“What is wrong with them?” the officer asks, referring to the other nuns.

“We just got off Rt. 170,” the first nun replies.

You see, it is important to understand signs.  Not understanding them can be scary, even dangerous.  God sometimes uses signs to guide us.

How do you know a sign is from God?

If it is from God :

• It will not contradict God’s word
• It will not contradict the nature of Christ (God’s word in the flesh)

I also believe that God will always leave room for faith.  He is pleased with our faith and provides opportunity for us to grow and show our faith.

Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice.”  If we know our shepherd, his nature and his word we can know the signs he send us.

Staying within God’s presence is a way to help you recognize his voice and know the signs he sends you. Consider attending the final Wellspring Regional Conference on God’s presence.  It is scheduled for October 8 & 9 at Rockfish Church in Raeford.  There is still plenty of time to register and you still have a few days to enter the contest to win an all expense paid weekend to the conference.

Karen Sleeth

Karen Sleeth has lived in North Carolina for 26 years. She shares her home with two kitties who cause her to laugh every day. She firmly believes that a merry heart does good like a medicine and some days overdoses.

When I was a teenager he and I would load our gear, the dog, and Gram into a rusty Jeep Wagoneer almost every weekend in the summer and head to the Potomac River. Gram would sit in the Jeep and read or sew while we jumped in a little boat and headed up the river looking for a good fishing spot.

Pooka mostly brought home catfish, bottom feeders that are easy to catch. Then one day the line twitched, a manly fight ensued, and he reeled in a huge brown trout. He had finally achieved angler superstar status.  He reeked with pride.

Pooka stated it was time for Gram to memorialize the event with a picture of him and the trout on his  line. If he had not been senseless with excitement, he would have recalled Gram’s photography reputation.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t focus a picture; it was that she had a sort of framing-ADD (attention deficit disorder). It always seemed to possess her in that nanosecond before she snapped the picture. As her finger lowered on the button she would see a tree, rock, or flower that HAD to be in the photo.

That’s what happened with the trout. As her finger lowered on the button, she saw a tree and shifted the camera slightly left. If you are 29 like me (ahem), you recall that back in the late ‘60’s, when you took a photo you had to wait until the entire roll was shot before you could mail it off to be developed.  Then you had to wait several weeks for the results.  By the time you got to examine the picture, the moment was past and you could not retake the photo.

When Gram’s roll of film came back, Pooka was anxious to see and show his superstar status. He had told everyone about that huge brown trout. Gram shuffled through the stack. There was the beautiful tree, there stood Pooka, a proud smile on his face, there was his stretched out arm, and there was … no hand, no line, and no fish. Gram had cut off Pooka’s hand and fish for the sake of a tree.   Then Gram pointed out that you can see could see the shadow of the fish on the ground!  You could see how big the fish was by his shadow!  Pooka, who was born on Groundhog’s day was not impressed by this shadow. He looked at Gram, shook his head and walked out of the room.

Pooka wasn’t a superstar in fishing, but he was in my life and the lives of his family.  He was not perfect but he loved his family and he loved God.  He died young, age 64, a month before my sister’s first child was born.  And yet my three nephews all talk about Pooka as if they knew him and he is a part of their lives, as he has continues to be a part of mine.

What made Pooka a superstar in life?  My grandfather did not know a stranger, he always had a kind word for others, he grew up in a time of racial injustice and yet he did not see color, he was an imposing man and yet I often saw him brought to tears reading in the papers about the passing of a friend, he often told a little fat girl that she was pretty, he trusted and loved his Savior above all else, he knew that he was fallible and that God was not, and he trusted and leaned on God’s grace.   My Pooka loved God and he loved his neighbor as himself.  I pray that I can leave that kind of superstar legacy.

Remember to enter the contest for an expense paid weekend to the Raeford Conference (and other prizes).

Karen Sleeth

Karen Sleeth has lived in North Carolina for 26 years. She shares her home with two kitties who cause her to laugh every day. She firmly believes that a merry heart does good like a medicine and some days overdoses.

One evening the women decided to take a stroll down the beach after dinner.  My youngest nephew, at that time about four years old, desperately wanted to tag along.  His mother, however, knew that minutes into the walk he would be whining and begging to have her carry him.  She told him he could not come unless he understood that the entire walk was under his own power.  He promised that he understood and he would walk on his own two legs the whole walk.

Of course we were less than a forth of the way into our walk when he began complaining about being tired, holding his mothers hand, dragging on her, talking about how his legs were aching, moaning, then crying.  His mother held firm and made him walk on his own.  Now he was angry.  His tears came harder and he was striking out through his words about how nobody cared about him.

We continued on our walk, ignoring his tantrum.  Suddenly we heard the angry declaration behind us, “What kind of vacation is this, anyway!”  Of course we all burst out laughing.

I wonder how often we seem similar to God.  We know the rules going in, make promises to God and then get angry with him when he stands firm?

Lord, help me see your love and provision. Help me to understand that if I’m angry at you, it is because I’ve failed and not that you have failed me.

Karen Sleeth

Karen Sleeth has lived in North Carolina for 26 years and in her house for nine years. She shares her yard with a herd of about fourteen deer, a raccoon, a family of possum, a hawk and her young, a wise old owl, many birds, snakes, and a bunny she has seen only once. “I assume it took the warning I gave ‘Run for your life!’” This is Karen’s first year attempting to convince the deer that the yard is not their salad bar. Karen is a member of Christian Assembly Church in Durham.

I the Lord do not change…(Malachi 3:6).

I took a human growth and development class in college where the instructor told us how important consistency is when raising children.  Children are comforted when they know what to exprect and can, thus, excell.  I don’t have children, but I was a child and I can attest to consistency through a particularly vivid memory from my childhood.

I was the youngest in my family, and as such, the most likely to spill anything. Add incredible curiosity and the limited attention span of a five year old to that equation and the result was generally soggy.

This day must have been a stressful one for Mom because, as she placed our soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and cups on the lunch table, she made a pronouncement to my sister and me. When she poured the milk into our cups, she promised to spank the first one to spill any milk. I remember my stomach clenched up and food no longer held an appeal. I sat as still as I could and waited for her to finish pouring. As I watched, my mouth formed a large “O.” My Mother had gotten distracted, missed the mouth of my cup, and poured milk all over the table.

I don’t remember for sure, but I believe there was an “ahhhh-ah-ahhhh” you’re-in-trouble sound that automatically went with the facial expression.

Without cleaning up the mess and without a pause, my mother reached around and spanked herself to the delight of my sister and me. Part of the pleasure was in the slap-stick humor of watching an adult spank themselves, but the major delight to me was in seeing the impartiality of the act. It didn’t matter that she was the adult, that she held the role of mother, her words were true and trustworthy, regardless of who she was. That act made me feel connected to my mother because she demonstrated that she understood my plight.

God recently reminded me of this event in my past. Because there was a consistency in my mothers words and her actions that day, I was comforted.  God reminds us of His consistency throughout His word and through His presence in our lives.  God created us for relationship with Him.  When we sinned and made fellowship with His sinless purity difficult, God made a way through the sustitutionary sacrifice of His perfect son.  By accepting that gift,  God says that He continues that relationship by residing within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, also known as, interestingly enough, the Comforter.  That is consistency and comfort to me, to know that God wanted a relationship with me so much that He would make a way.  You can trust that consistency…build on it.

Karen Sleeth

Karen Sleeth has lived in North Carolina for 26 years and in her house for nine years. She shares her yard with a herd of about fourteen deer, a raccoon, a family of possum, a hawk and her young, a wise old owl, many birds, snakes, and a bunny she has seen only once. “I assume it took the warning I gave ‘Run for your life!’” This is Karen’s first year attempting to convince the deer that the yard is not their salad bar. Karen is a member of Christian Assembly Church in Durham.

Companion, confidant, lover and friend;
The mother of all living, both now and then.

In her heart were many treasures placed there by God;
Beautiful, precious, designed to bring Him glory as she traveled this sod.

Just stay in His Presence, love Him and obey;
That’s all He asks of us, even today.

But the struggle remains, it was at the first;
Our enemy, Satan, brings lies, pain and hurt.

His deception’s strong, we cannot deny;
But our Savior, Jesus, He came to die.

We are His daughters, beloved and approved;
He has equipped and enabled us not to be moved.

We need each other and His Word that is true;
Sisters overcoming, as our minds are renewed.

God ordained Wellspring  a few years ago;
A ministry teaching women to grow.

Becoming tools of the Lord to set women free;
From deception and bondage some couldn’t see.

To walk in His Presence, love Him and obey;
That our lives, would bring glory to Him every day.

There’s a Wellspring conference coming up quick!
Planned to cultivate you as righteous chicks.

Kernersville CC- the happening place;
May 21, hurry, reserve your space.

To God be the Glory, now and evermore;
Together, excited for what’s in store!

Saundra Littleton

Saundra Littleton is in charge of hospitality for Wellspring, which is appropriate since she has a gift for hospitality. If Saundra could give one piece of advice, it would be to put Jesus first in everything you do! Submit yourself to Him wholly. Delight in Him, your Saviour, your friend, the Lover of your soul, your Priest and Intercessor, your King, and out of this will come blessing, strength, health, love, peace, endurance, wisdom, discernment, everything you could ever want or need to walk through this life in victory and glorifying God.

Now what is really amazing is that I am actually enjoying it! I have enjoyed connecting to people I haven’t heard from in ages. I am enjoying being able to carry on short conversations with people I love but don’t see often. I am loving the opportunity to deepen some casual friendships that I haven’t had time to develop through in-person contact. I am fascinated and surprised by the intimacy of some of the immediate-message moments that spring up. I love the comments friends make about the pictures I post on my wall, and I love being awakened to the reality of their lives as I look at their photos. I am shocked to find that I am really delighting in my Facebook experience!

I was expecting something superficial from Facebook and part of my resistance to joining was that I didn’t want to trivialize my life or the lives of others. Instead, I have found just the opposite. I am getting to know people at a deeper level, getting to know what they really think about things, and being introduced to the thoughts and opinions of so MANY different people! It’s a strange phenomenon, don’t you think?

And the young people are amazing! There is something about Facebook that makes them banter with me (an old lady of 62!) and also carry on serious conversations like they have never done with me face to face. What a hoot that is!

So I am eating my words. I am trying to do it graciously, but I am jumping up and down inside with the thrill of doing something “techy” and enjoying it! I don’t even mind admitting I was wrong! And I hope you will all sign up and be my friend on Facebook — right after you make a comment here on the blog!

1.  Huge tracts of land, rolling green hills filled with wildflowers and Christmas tree farms that amazingly were not being taken over by townhomes and condominiums.  Here in Greensboro, everywhere I look they are building new apartments or condos.  I don’t understand why a city needs that many!!!  Just keep the trees up and let us breath a little but, for cryin’ out loud!!  :-)

2.  Seeing my brother’s land for the first time.  We went down one road, then turned onto his “street”, which is just a gravel pathway big enough for one car to fit on, and drove up and around and around again until we saw his cabin.  It was the cutest thing ever!  So tiny, but just perfect for him.  He has his own vegetable garden growing out in the yard, and he has a storage shed that he uses to, well, store stuff obviously, but also to set up equipment to record music.  So cool.  Lots of trees all around, a nice view of the mountains beyond, and total peace and quiet.  He’s done pretty well for himself.  I was proud of him.  

3.  One of my worst fears came true.  I forgot to pack my underwear.  Yes, I did.  And yes, I said it for the whole blogosphere to read.  I’ll say it again.  I forgot to pack underwear.  Now, remember, this was only a 24 hour trip, so although you might scoff at the idea, I am not too high maintenance to wear the same pair of underwear 2 days in a row.  Sometimes you just gotta live a little.  And live I did, with the same dang pair of underwear I arrived in.  I thought it was funny, and thought that us sharing a laugh together would make it even funnier!

4.  Nature.  I love being outdoors, so I had the best time walking around the Appalachian Trail, climbing up rocks to see a waterfall, sticking my feet in the clearest, cleanest, freshest water.  It was so beautiful.  

5.  Nighttime.  FREAKY  Seriously, it was a little creepy at night when we went to bed because it was so quiet and so dark.  I turned off the lights and thought, “Is this what it’s like to be blind?”.  I had my eyes open but could not see ANYTHING.  It was pitch black.  So eerie.  And on top of that it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.  Took me a while to go to sleep because I like a lot of noise while I’m sleeping.  

Those are the main highlights of my 24 hours deep in the mountains of Tennessee.  Not a very gripping tale, I know, but at least the part about me forgetting my underwear was interesting.  There I go bringing it up again.  It must have been really life-changing for me to think about it that much!

What did you all do this weekend?

Jessica

okay… last summer Thom spent a lot of time painting the outside trim of our house. (I only helped him on one of the four weekends that he spent doing it, and then only for a few hours….was it my fault he picked weekends that I was busy?  or that the temperature was in the 90′s??   Yes, I thought you would see it my way!)  Also, unlike the lady in the “Love and Respect” videos, I didn’t sit outside and watch him do it either… which would have been quality time I suppose.   

 When he finally finished, he came into the kitchen and informed me that it was all done.  To which I replied, “Great!”  But I guess my response was not what he was hoping for… he looked at me and wistfully said, “Gee, I wish service was your love language.”  Which made me laugh out loud and I told him I would work on it.

Ever since then we have looked for opportunities to do acts of service for one another..large and small things…out of a motivation of love.  It is amazing how much it makes you appreciate one another simply by acknowledging that the other person didn’t have to do the dishes (or whatever) but that they did it because they love you!  Of course, we are constantly saying to one another now (no matter which end of the giving/receiving we find ourselves on), “well, you know that service is my love language!”  

Try on some of the other love languages…do it deliberately…do it because Jesus loves us in every one of them and we should be able to speak them all (and receive them all too!!)  It is pretty fun I think.

Which one are you?

Quality Time?  Acts of Service?  Words of Affirmation?  Gifts?  Touch?  

blessings,

Sheri

Back to last night.  I was craving some ice cream as we were sitting on the couch watching some online TV.  I did a quick mental checklist of everything I had eaten that day to see if I “deserved” a bowl of ice cream.  How many vegetables had I eaten?  How many fruits?  Well, yesterday my diet consisted of cereal, pizza, and some beans, rice, and a little bit of broccoli.  So I knew I hadn’t eaten enough “good for me” things to deserve the ice cream.  

But deep inside I knew I didn’t care.  

So I said to Joseph, “I’m really craving some ice cream but I know I should have some fruit instead.”  He didn’t really reply so I knew I was on my own in making the decision.  I thought a little further about it and decided to just go for the ice cream.  I knew I needed the fruit, and that it would make me feel better, but I couldn’t resist my cravings!!  What is a girl to do?  Well, choose the craving of course!  But here’s the thing.  I didn’t stop at just ice cream.  Oh no.  I scooped the vanilla fudge swirl in to my bowl and it looked lonely.  So I added chocolate fudge sauce.  Then I decided there was an absence of color and texture in the bowl, so I added colored M&M’s to it.  As I’m making the sundae, Joseph walks in and starts laughing.  At me.  Because when faced with the decision to have fruit or ice cream, and KNOWING I should have the fruit, I choose not only the ice cream but the fudge sauce and the M&M’s.  I piled on everything that is the total opposite of fruit.  Anything that is not fruit basically went into the bowl.  

I mean, what else was I supposed to do?  Seriously!

All of my sons and their wives have facebook pages. My husband has a facebook page. Our office has a facebook page. You probably have a facebook page too. And everyone I know who has a facebook page is bragging about how many friends they have. Some are brazen braggers like hubby Michael. Others are more casual with their boasting, finding subtle ways to drop their numbers into a conversation. Still others never mention how many friends they have but invite you to visit their page where the number of friends is posted prominently — not exactly humble but at least a passing nod in the direction of humility.

Michael says, “It’s all about how many friends you have on facebook.” He even said this while he was preaching in a guest pulpit about a month ago and got 3 invitations to be friends (I called them sympathy invitations) from people in that congregation. I think he has mentioned his need for more friends every time he has been in a pulpit since then and his numbers are rising exponentially. (Christians are really soft touches!) One teen friend recently accused him of cheating, using the pulpit to get friends, but he is unflinching in his pursuit of higher numbers.

What is this new phenomenon? Several of our family have not only facebook pages but also myspace, and something called Twitter pages. Two of them have personal blogs in addition to the public pages. And another two have additional blogs connected to their professional life and webpage. What is it that motivates all this communication? When I ask my family members, they say, “It’s fun.” When I ask Michael, he says, “It’s a way to connect with a lot of people at one time. Just look at all the old friends I’ve been able to reconnect with!”

A few months ago, when we started this webpage for Wellspring and the blog, I was quite proud of my 61 year old self for being able to adapt to the new technology. Well, facebook has given me a come-uppance. I am not adjusted at all! I find that I am very resistant to this new thing! It looms like a bottomless pit into which I could throw inordinate amounts of time!

But then, perhaps I am being short-sighted and much too rooted in outdated modes of communication, even, perhaps, a fuddy-duddy?!?

After all, maturity is flexibility!