Thursday, May 04, 2006

Thursday A.M. Musings

In a sad twist of fate…my desire for an odometer to get accurate mileage for Mike’s challenge…COST ME 13 MILES!!!! I told Mike that I was thinking a nice reward for riding 50 miles the first week would be a bike commuter. They are inexpensive and would track my speed, distance etc. He told me that the GPS would do the same thing! Duh. So today…looking ever more like a techno- geek attempting to get fit…I took off on the route with a GPS around my neck. I decided to check the accuracy of the 3 mile route….it was 1.5 miles!!!!!!!! Mike and Jamin knew that you had to run it TWICE to get 3 miles….I simply thought I was hot stuff. :::snort:::

My goal was 50 miles a week. Yesterday I was at 42.5…..I rode 10.5 miles this a.m. and now I’m at 39.5. Jamin says “You can ride 13 miles tomorrow!” Ugh. I was dreaming of sleeping in and giving my tush a rest….I suspect it’s good that I’ve been doing about 8 miles a day instead of 10 miles a day – slowly working into it and all that jazz “they” tell you. OK – what’s done is done and now I’ll ride tomorrow and be up to par for next week.

I had a BLAST riding wherever the fancy struck. I chased squirrels, I checked out landscaping and I got stuck on two very busy streets….in fact the school crossing guards stopped traffic to let me walk across Southwest…and then chided me because they thought I was a “little girl”…..I thanked them profusely and rode on. I’ll be more careful about that next time. Girls, the highlight of this ride was riding DOWN the hill that the little ones have told me you used to “play rollercoaster” on in the van last summer. {clearing my throat with a big smirk on my face}. I FLEW….and it was GREAT FUN!!!! The GPS clocked me at over 450 mph….couldn’t be that fast - but it WAS fun. My average is a plodding 8.6 mph so the ticker is back at a snail.

I really am enjoying having the time in the fresh air. I do Bible study before I leave and then I can pray and think it through while I enjoy the quiet a.m. air. Today I thought I’d enjoy the sunrise but I ended up squinting into it for about ½ a mile…wasn’t the experience I was anticipating.

I discussed with God the fact that I’d like to attend a Bible Study off base. Actually I have prayed through this issue before. I dearly wanted to join a Precept study in town when I found there is none on base and not really a desire to have one. I miss being intimately involved with one book of the Bible. At that point I KNEW that God wanted me to commit to being HOME for school and not planning to be gone one school day each week. It isn’t fair to ask the high school boys to do a full AP load of school AND baby-sit one a.m. a week so that I can go to Bible Study. I could probably make up the school for the younger ones with little trouble. I also knew we had speech twice a week and should stick with those priorities. I knew that if I found a women’s group to meet all my needs off-base I would be less motivated to serve a women’s group on-base.

Yesterday, I heard of a study starting today. “The Power of Motherhood” by Nancy Campbell. This study appeals to me for two reasons 1. I would like to compare it to “The Mission of Motherhood” by Sally Clarkson (which I loved) and 2. I would like to get to know some of these women better. BUT it begins today…and I still have 4 – 6 weeks of school left. I also just began teaching a 5 week study on base. I can’t commit to leading one study and preparing for another one…..I need to keep my focus. I may order the book by Nancy Campbell. I’ve never read any of her material…have some of you? What do you think? How does it compare to Sally Clarkson? I suspect from my studies of the Word, my own readings, and from being a mother for 21 years, that I really know the mission and power of motherhood…but I’d still like to check it out. {G} Maybe, I’ll have to see how long the study will run….maybe I could join them in June when I won’t be teaching a PWOC study. I did notice that Nancy has some material on being a “gate keeper” and “guard” on her website that may really go along with what I’ve been saying and teaching for years….that women are missing the full implications of being a “house KEEPER (guard)”

Hmmm….now that I’m on a roll maybe I should share about a conversation I had a few weeks ago that has been rattling around in my mind. I was told that a woman should only have “one master”. I agreed. The conversation goes on that for a woman to serve in ministry under a man other than her husband is therefore having two masters and not Scriptural. I was told that Mike should be my master. (BTW since Mike is the SR Prot any ministry I do in a chapel would be under his mastership in her eyes I suppose; I’m not sure WHY I was having THIS conversation in the first place! {G}) Well….Mike informed me that he is NOT my master – he is my HUSBAND. God is my one master. I asked for chapter and verse. I was given Matt 6:24. I’ve studied and taught the Sermon on the Mount inductively and I thought I knew where we were going. This verse says that it is impossible to serve two masters. BUT CONTEXT IS KING! This verse is specifically talking about trusting God for financial provision. Jesus says that you can’t serve GOD and Money…the point being that I’m to have NO EARTHLY MASTERS! GOD is to be my one master. The very next verse goes on to tell me not to be worried about my life, what I’ll wear etc…because GOD HAS IT IN CONTROL! I pointed this out and that this verse is not meant to say that my husband is my master or that serving under a man in ministry makes him my master….I asked for another verse. I wasn’t being contentious. She was serious and concerned for me. I wanted to know what she was basing this on. This was the only passage she gave me. I’m still a bit shocked about this being the verse that “proves that your husband is to be your one master”. It saddens me that it has been taken so out of context to “prove” such things as it is wrong to teach a study if a man is the authority, it is wrong to work if your boss is a man, it is wrong to attend a class if the teacher is a male….the verse simply doesn’t prove those things at all and when we apply Scripture wrong we miss the application that we ARE supposed to be making.

What other thoughts have I been having???? Hmmm…I’m so glad MIKE is the head of this home because I don’t want the responsibility. :::snort::: I’ve been incredibly blessed to have Mike as a husband. God did a good thing when he brought Mike into my life.

I’m ticked right now at the USAF for cutting the chaplaincy so heavily and so quickly…and I’m praying that God will have his hand in all the cuts. (Duh like He would be sovereign over the world and not the Air Force LOL). I’ve been thinking a lot about how this will change the way the AF chaplaincy ministers. We have really had a dual focus. We have a family/parish focus and a military unit focus. Such deep cuts may force a shift in the way an Air Force chaplain ministers…..the focus may become “military unit” – sort of like the current Army Chaplaincy. Of course, keep in mind these are the thoughts of one spouse and not official thoughts of my husband, any other chaplain I know or the chaplain corp. (In case my blog is being monitored). I also wonder why in the world the AF is cutting manning during a war…but hey….the Pentagon did NOT ask for MY input. Though, I’ve said all along that a few godly mamas could solve most of the world’s problems.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day. Why can't I find a cut bike slider for my ticker????