100 Things to Do Before I Die

On my 40th Birthday I created a bucket list, consisting of one hundred things to do before I died. It was a hard list to make, I mean it was hard to come up with one hundred things that I really wanted to do before I died. Mostly I really wanted a lot of quality experiences with my family....but I had to put some pretty bizarre stuff on there to get to one hundred. At the same time, my daughter and I compared lists and it was funny to see some of the contrasts on our lists. For example; I wanted to "be picked from the crowd to get a kiss from Shamu" and she wanted to, "dive with killer whales." This clearly demonstrated the difference between our ages - and our different levels of willingness to risk in life. My daughter is brave and also she is willing to try things I am completely unwilling to. For example, after we became certified, the first dive she did was a night dive! So courageous, for me - I was certain I would be eaten by something in the deep dark sea, so I stayed behind; and after 4 years still haven't mustered the courage to do it, but it is on my bucket list.
Lately since leaving Worship Leader Magazine, I am working on a new list; my gratitude list. Things I am grateful for in my life. It is easy when you are going through hard times to become angry and bitter. And I am revising my bucket list. Some of the absurd items are coming off, and I am adding things to my list that really matter to me, like, "learn to forgive my enemies." That one may come as I draw my last breath, but its certainly worthy of the list! A couple weeks ago a friend of mine, Tracie was diagnosed with cancer. She has given me permission to share her amazing story. She is at the beginning of her cancer journey. She is working on her lists with me; and one of her bucket list items is a tattoo at LA Ink, and to be on a TV Show, also to be on a Radio Show. We are working together to get her in Mid-March of this year to LA Ink. So yesterday while in LA we went up to LA Ink and did a little scouting trip. It was so different than I thought it would be.
We walked in to this little tiny shop and I guess I thought I would see Kat Von D right there, my husband took a seat in the pink coffin window seat with Gigi while we talked to the gentlemen at the front desk. It was very surreal.
All this to say, its good to have goals and things to live for, little things like LA Ink, and big things like, "learn to forgive my enemies." What is on your bucket list? What is on your gratitude list? These two lists are what I am meditating on right now and working to stay focused on because the distractions of life tend to want to pull me into the wrong focus right now, they want to pull me into my fleshly nature, into all the trappings of life - not at all where God intends or desires me to be.
I am so proud of my friend Tracie for starting her bucket list. It doesn't take a cancer diagnosis to start fighting for your life.....or living for life's little and big adventures - intentionally. I guess some people don't even need lists; but its nice to have one and to document the journey along the way that the Lord is taking you on as you see Him work in and through you accomplishing your bucket list!

Here are a few of the items that I have finished on my list;
See Christiana Graduate High School
See Trevor get into a college
Get Gigi to 40lbs.
Learn how to text message
Get Scuba Certified

Here are a few on my list that I still have to finish:
See a cure for AIDS in my lifetime
Learn to forgive my enemies
See Greece with Mark for our 30th Anniversary
Do a night dive


Why not start a bucket list for yourself, its a great way to see and acknowledge a life lived with intention, and all of the blessings that the Lord is bestowing upon you as you move from one adventure to the next.

Be blessed.
Julie

Empty Nest - Full Nest

The process of gathering back together our family - all of our families for Thanksgiving requires both grace and patience. May you be blessed with an abundant measure of both.

Today I went and saw the movie Bolt, with my six year old and my eighteen year old, and what a great movie it was, fantastic. I give that one a five on my highest rating. It had it all, though the story line was reminicient of the Truman Show it was worth the effort and money, and we all laughed a lot.

We spent today remembering, putting back together our little family, the kids are coming home, we are all going to be back under the same roof together for the first time since July of this year. And it feels great. As I type this I can hear laughter around our little neighborhood of patio homes as others do the same, and begin celebrating the holiday.

All I want to do this holiday though really is remember to be so thankful that it drips off my lips to God every second that I am so grateful for my family, for my life, for what He has given me - though I cannot comprehend what my life is at this moment or the twists and turns of our current path or journey, He knows and He is faithful and I thank Him for that.

May you have a cup that overflows this holiday, remember your God, and rejoice and be thankful!

More to thank God for;

Redvines
Popcorn
Rain
Jude & Brenton Brown
Iphones
Blogs
Facebook
Christiana Reid
Fingers
Turkey

In no particular order, what are you thankful for?

Julie Reid

Its all about Thankfulness, right?

This week we are of all weeks to be thankful. Have you been thankful for your job this week? Do you have a job? So many Americans in the past couple months have been laid off or let go, and just before the holidays find themselves unable to feed their families, or pay the bills - entire industries coming to a halt, or disappearing. Have you given thanks for your industry, your boss, your markeplace? Give thanks! You may have the most boring job, the worst boss, the most horrible industry, but you have one. Give thanks. A lady got up in church and asked for a blessing a few weeks ago, she had been looking for a job for 10 months and you could tell it had really taken a toll on her spirit, she was wanting to work - and asking for prayer for a new job. I think about her as I type this out and I thank God for her asking for prayer, she makes me thankful tonight as I pray and thank God for His provisions - I know as he has provided these past 10 months for her, He will also provide a job.

The news is so depressing. Its all going terribly wrong, the economic news is worse every day, there isn't much to be glad about, but we have so much more than what you can find on CNN or Fox or whatever station you tune in on. Believe me, I cannot be accused of being an optimist; those that know me know that isn't where I tend to be in life. But today one of our traditions is to sing the Psalms as a congregation. Its not pretty, but its beautiful - so we sang this - and I was hit with the beauty of these words:

PS 85: 8-13
I will listen to what the LORD God is saying
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

Truly his salvation is very near to those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring up from the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.

The Lord will indeed grant prosperity,
and our land will yeild its increase.

Righteousness shall go before him
And peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

Okay, so now I want to encourage you to try and sing this Psalm when you maybe aren't feeling thankful this week, or you are feeling afraid or anxious - and you will feel peace, and then probably soon the thankfulness will come. How cool is that line, "mercy and truth have met togethter, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Man, that just made me so grateful for the Psalms and what we have in the ability to sing them and they bring such peace and beauty into our hearts.

All this to say, I don't know what your week looks like - but I am going to try and stay away from the news,seek peace, thank God for all of His provisions, and enjoy my family. Sing the Psalms and enjoy the Lord in all that you do. Try and read these scriptures this week: Hebrews 11: 8-16 - Our God has an amazing future planned for us.

I am mediating on a list of things I am grateful for this week, top among them, and after God are the following:
Apple Pie
Warm Baths
Turkey
My Children
My Husband
Therapy
My Church
Hope
Gratitude
My Friend Tracie Martin
Prayer
Martini's
Scuba Diving
Girlfriends
Family
Art

And a whole host of friends, by the way this is in no particular order......of course I love my family more than apple pie :) What are you grateful for?

Anything is possible in America....National Adoption Month

Four and a half years ago our family received the call to adopt our little African princess, Geraldine.....and almost three years ago we brought her home to America, full of hope for her future. The reality was, she wouldn't have had much of a future had she remained in Africa. She was suffering the effects of malnourishment, and many of her specialists have assured us that she has beat the odds, and now she is living on what we like to call "God time." Beyond her life expectancy in Africa....

But when we brought her here, to America, our hope for her wasn't simply for her to live. It was for her to thrive. We believed anything would be possible for Gigi. Anything. She would be able to do anything she put her mind to, but until last week -when Barack Obama became President - Elect; I guess I didn't realize that I had a doubt in my own heart that in our world that really wasn't true because of her racial make up.

Now this poses a couple problems for me; spiritually it just doesn't line up with what I know to be true - because of what the Word tells me, in terms of all things being possible! But the realities are we live in a country that has yet to have an African American or Mixed race President.

Secondly, the level of racism that we have personally experienced as a result of having a bi-racial family has shown me and our family how far our country still has to go. As a white family we never had to face any type of racism, now because of our adoption of Gigi we've brought her into a largely white world; and we see how people engage with us; and we have many opportunities to "turn the other cheek." Most are gracious, many our curious, some are ignorant, but a few are racist.

Something in me honestly broke when Barack Obama became President Elect, because I knew that now when I tell Gigi she can become anything in America, she has a person who she can identify with that looks like her that is American in the highest office in our land....

So November being National Adoption Month is a big, huge, enormous deal for me and my family. I am so proud to be the mom of an adopted daughter, a daughter who happens to be from Africa! Mark and I would love love love to adopt another child. Gigi asked Mark and I the other day if we would, "get her a brother from Africa."

Who knows, anything is possible, right?

Election Season

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted,a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace,
and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

And yes folks, a time for elections! My six year old made this announcement at the dinner table the other night, "the twins are voting for McCain, my best friend is voting for Obama, the neighbors are for McCain, and of course I am voting for Obama." This was very important for her to announce to us, so important all conversation had to stop at the table. You see even our six year old wanted her vote to be counted. It was important that she let us know that her other six year old friends had all been talking about the election, and she wanted us to know they were in the "know" as well. You know what, something interesting was happenning there that we weren't experiencing....they had not been fighting, they had simply talked, and then went back to the playground and laughed and went back to being friends again.

Oh how I wish it were so for us grown-ups. One person reported to me she had been told if she voted for Barack Obama she wasn't a Christian! I myself have had my own nightmare recently in the September issue of worship leader magazine our staff used a photo of my daughter who was wearing an Obama for your Mama shirt. We used that as a photo illustration to make the point that kids have not left the church for lack of time, but rather lack of interest. It wasn't a photo endorsement, as I don't ever share my personal views, however, rather than get the point, I got hate mail. That mail was so hurtful, calling me and my daughter left wing, abortion loving, femi-natzi's...well folks here is the truth, and you may want to brace yourself for this: I am a democrat and I am going to vote for Barack Obama. However I am capable of disagreeing with one or even two issues with a person or president and still being for that person, if I wasn't I would basically have no friends. But I am not abortion loving, trust me on this one. I am a lover of my three beautiful children, and I am a lover of adoption, life, children, and most importantly the Lord. You could accuse me of these things. We've lost the ability to disagree civilly with our brothers and sisters. We have become mean spirited even with our christian brothers and sisters.

It is amazing how mean people have gotten over this election, we really need to check ourselves people! In about 3 days we will have a President that we will have voted for, but God will have chosen. Yep, he chooses, and affirms our leaders. Like it or not, this democrat has had to pray for a Republican president for 8 years that my Lord affirmed. Romans V. 1, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority excpt that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." In other words, we vote, we show up and do our thing but God is the author of outcomes. And we don't get to not behave in accordance with scripture along the way! Acting horribly towards each other, or towards those we don't agree with (and I am guilty even last night of this), isn't glorifying our Lord in the process.

Lets make this next 3 days a sweet election season, and whoever the Lord puts in authority, lets make it our steadfast commitment to pray for them, submit to their authority - later in Romans it says that He is Gods servant to do good....for those who do what is right......lets be those people.

Anyway, enough on this, except to say, whoever reads this, even one person, be kind to your neighbor on the left of the aisle or the right, and stop the mudslinging. If John McCain wins, I will commit myself to pray for him and his wife and family for all his days in office, and if Barack Obama wins I will do the same - will you?

Let kindness and peace rule in your hearts!