This is a really beautiful song with a wonderful message.  It seems appropriate after last night's election.  A sweet sister in Christ sent out a message this morning calling us to turn to God.  I got the same exact message from Him last night while I watched the events unfold.  A peace washed over me that defies any human understanding. My hope is not in the next President of this country, it is in the Christ who has already saved us.

"Beautiful Letdown"

It was a beautiful let down
When I crashed and burned
When I found myself alone unknown and hurt
It was a beautiful let down
The day I knew
That all the riches this world had to offer me
Would never do

In a world full of bitter pain and bitter doubt
I was trying so hard to fit in, fit in,
Until I found out
I don't belong here
I don't belong here
I will carry a cross and a song where I don't belong
But I don't belong

It was a beautiful let down
When you found me here
Yeah for once in a rare blue moon I see everything clear
I'll be a beautiful let down
That's what I'll forever be
And though it may cost my soul
I'll sing for free
We're still chasin our tails and the rising sun
And our dark water planet's
Still spinning in a race
Where no one wins and no one's one

I don't belong here
I don't belong here
I'm gonna set sight and set sail for the kingdom come
I will carry a cross and a song where I don't belong
But i don't belong
I don't belong here
I don't belong here
Kingdom come
Your kingdom come

Won't you let me down yeah
Let my foolish pride
Forever let me down

Easy living, not much like your name
Easy dying, you look just about the same
Won't you please take me off your list
Easy living please come on and let me down

We are a beautiful let down,
Painfully uncool,
The church of the dropouts
The losers, the sinners, the failures and the fools
Oh what a beautiful let down
Are we salt in the wound
Let us sing one true tune

I don't belong here
I don't belong here
I don't belong here
Feels like I don't belong here
Let me down
Let me down
Feels like I'm let down
Let me down.
Cuz I don't belong here
Please
Won't you let me down?

On the eve of what many believe to be the most important election in our nation’s history, I am writing to every soul out there who longs for something more.  There must be a great many because “change” seems to be the only common thread between the parties.

You can believe “change is coming” because change is an inevitable part of life.  Change is all around us, especially now with leaves littering our lawns and the resetting of our clocks.  Change can be physical, fiscal, moral, emotional, psychological…  The only thing consistent about change is that it is always happening.  Even still, as much as we can appreciate positive change, we usually don’t have a love for change in general.  The words “I wish things didn’t have to change” have been muttered (or thought) by almost everyone on the planet at one time or another… A failed relationship, the death of a child, a diagnosis, stock market crash, war…

Since change is inevitable anyway, wouldn’t it be monumental for a candidate to promote consistency rather than change?  Can you even imagine a politician who was consistent in speech, action and beliefs?  Since most of our politicians claim to believe in God and the Bible, I thought that it might be fitting to point out His consistent record on two moral issues that are receiving plenty of press lately. 

God values life, even the unborn:

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.” Jeremiah 1:5a (NLT)

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!   Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out  before a single day had passed.”  Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)

“Now suppose two men are fighting, and in the process they accidentally strike a pregnant woman so she gives birth prematurely. If no further injury results, the man who struck the woman must pay the amount of compensation the woman’s husband demands and the judges approve. But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life,  an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,  a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.”  Exodus 21:22-25 (NLT)

“If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.”  Genesis 9:6 (NLT)

I am not listing these passages to condemn those who have had an abortion or who perform them.  That is not my place.  I am posting them in the hopes of clearing up the false words spoken by some that the unborn should not have the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".  God is quite clear on how He values human life, and He values the unborn no differently than the full grown man.  To say otherwise of God is not consistent with who He is.  To say you believe Him but to accept abortion as a choice is not consistent either.

God is clear on Homosexuality:

Besides being all over the media around here, I am including this because I heard a priest on the news the other day say that God was not clear in His Word about homosexuality.

“Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.”  Leviticus 18:22

If this isn’t clear enough for you, please feel free to check out these other verses: 

Lev. 20:13;  1 Cor. 6:9-10;  Rom. 1:26-28

God is pro-marriage and He clearly had a particular plan in mind:

“God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion. God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man. The Man said, "Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! Name her Woman for she was made from Man." Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame. Genesis 2:20-25 (The Message)

You will find plenty of websites out there justifying sin with a twisting of God’s Words.  It is the nature of mankind to justify sin.  We all do it, yes, I’m talking about myself too.  If you are shaking your head, believing you never have – consider for a moment where God stands on other issues such as: pre-marital sex, lying, stealing, cheating, overeating, self-righteousness, jealousy, greed, pride, hatefulness, unforgiveness, selfishness, anger… and the list could go on.  Most of this list isn’t even about what goes on in our thoughts or the shows we watch or the books we read.  God has weighed in on all of that as well.  You cannot know God and find Him inconsistent.  He is consistent on all of these topics.  He calls them sin, every time.

Fortunately, God isn’t just consistent about His judgment between right and wrong – He’s consistent with His love for you.  Those verses above about the unborn, those are about you too.  You are important to Him.  His Word tells us that “while we were still sinners” He sent His Son to die for our sin.  He is truly able to love the sinner and still hate the sin.  We are valuable in His eyes.  Isn’t that Someone you can believe in.  Someone who loves you no matter how badly you mess up.  Someone who loves us enough to tell us when we’re doing something we shouldn’t be.  He’s not about making us feel good in our sin because He wants something better for all of us.  If we rely on His consistency, we will see consistent change in our lives that would make the “change” offered by this world look like cheap thrills and temporary highs.

If you really just want some politician’s view of change, it’s coming no matter how you vote.  But, if you want some consistency you can believe in, rely on, and trust, you can’t find that anywhere but with God and His Word.

Beads that Lead

GAINchange is looking for women who would like to join an online weightloss team.  If you would like more information, contact me at j.blair.lane@gmail.com

Also, we will be hosting the online Bible study, "Believing God" by Beth Moore in January.  Participants will be asked to purchase the online version of the study from Lifeway at http://www.lifeway.com/bg - we will host weekly discussions at GAINchange for participants only.  The study group is open to women age 18 and over.  To be placed on the sign up list, email me your name, email address and the username you'd like to use.  I will send out login information at the end of December.

After reading over last year's start to my manuscript, and inevitably altering some words, the word count stood at 27,674.  I think that's only two words different as I tried to remind myself that I wasn't reading for editing purposes.

As Murphy's Law would have it, I began this challenge ill.  I tried to use this to my advantage though since I don't feel up to running about anyway.  Of course, cold medicine adds it's own challenges.  For one, keeping one's eyes open is kind of a requirement for writing.  I'm currently at 2,015 3,326 words for today, which did not seem to be easily achieved. 

The kids also began their own manuscripts today and are filling the pages of their spiral notebooks faster than I expected.  I plan to check their word count every few days.

In a few days (if not sooner) this blog will cease to exist as I know it.  Erik is in the process of converting us over to another format.  I can't say I entirely understand the who, what, where, when, why of it all.  What I do understand is that I will have a generic themed skin until I somehow find the time to build myself a new one.

It's times like these that I'm reminded of that wonderful little book entitled, “Who Moved My Cheese”.

Yesterday was an adventure!  We began the task of putting in an egress window.  Fortunately, the window was already there... unfortunately the area well wasn't deep enough to meet code for a bedroom window.  A general contractor told us it would run “under a thousand” to have someone replace the existing well with the correct depth well.  Figuring that meant at least $800 we opted to dig the thing out ourselves.

First, we called “811” to have the utility companies come out and mark before we started digging.  This took a few calls to get everything squared away as there was some confusion.  I was digging with a little hand shovel and Erik had the long handled shovel.  Fortunately our neighbor came over to see what the heck we were doing and he loaned us his long handled shovel and a cool ax-type tool for breaking up compacted dirt.  We were both surprised by how quickly we were able to dig out the hole.  Once we reached the bottom of the existing well we set about trying to detatch it from the foundation of the house.  The builder opted to use nails instead of screws (there were pre drilled holes for screws but they shot nails into it instead).  The two screws that were in it came out in seconds - the nails, well they were a different story.  We had rented a reciprocating saw in the hopes that we could cut the nails out but there wasn't enough clearance between the foundation and the steel well.  Erik decided to ask our neighbor if we could borrow his crow bar in the hopes that we could pry the thing away from the foundation.

Our neighbor loaned us the crow bar and brought over a cool little tool he uses to cut off rusty screws.  While the tool was really cool, our nails were a bit much for it because most of them were flush against the well.  We were able to cut off two of them but we were afraid we'd burn out his tool so we stopped.  He told us that he thought Home Depot rented an industrial version of it.  We climbed out of the hole (4.5 feet deep) and headed to Home Depot.  Sure enough they had this awesome piece of machinery called an Angled Grinder.  Once we got home we used the crow bar and the angled grinder on the nails.  The galvanized steel well was free in a matter of minutes!  Woohoo!!  We were able to get it out in one piece and are hoping to sell it on Craig's List.

Prior to beginning our dig we special ordered a new, correct depth area well.  It cost us $386.46 (includes shipping and tax).  So far, putting in an egress well ourselves has cost $461.68 for the following materials:

64“x36”x60” galvanized steel area well
2 pairs of safety glasses
1 pkg of ear plugs
1 pair of work gloves (we had 1.5 pairs already)
rental fee for reciprocating saw (which we didn't need)
1 reciprocating saw blade
rental fee for angled grinder
1 angled grinder metal cutting wheel (which we will keep in case we need to grind off any more nails)

These are the materials we already had or borrowed:

2 long handled shovels
axe-type tool
1 pair work gloves
1 crow bar
4 tarps (for holding all that dirt)
tape measure
extension cord
hammer
electric screw driver
sharpie (for marking foundation for new well height)
water bottles (we got thirsty)

We still need to purchase:

1 escape ladder
screws for installing the new well
landscape fabric for interior of well

We know we've saved money by doing this ourselves, especially when you consider the quote we got didn't include the ladder or the landscape fabric.  Plus, some of the items we purchased will be used in other parts of the basement remodel.  We're hoping the new well will arrive by mid week.

(Photos coming soon)

Good grief, what year is this?  Apparently this is or was true in some state or states.  Which is just another reason for me to ask “why are you voting 'straight ticket' in the first place?”  I realize it's supposed to make it easier or something like that.  Maybe you are someone who researched the candidates and every one of your choices is of a particilar party - ok, then what I have to say doesn't apply to you.  I'd be willing to bet though that most of the people (note: I'm not saying ALL) who use the “straight ticket” option haven't researched EVERY candidate on the ballot.  Just because someone claims they are part of a particular party doesn't mean their values(or lack thereof) match up with said party - in which case, you probably shouldn't be voting for them “just because” they are listed as said party.  I have never voted “straight ticket” and never plan to.  You can avoid any confusion (and apparently the possibility of negating your presidential choice) on your ballot by selecting each individual person you are voting for.

Don't know who is on the ballot?  Well, go to your county's election website and print off a sample ballot today.  More than likely there will be far more on it than the presidential race anyway.  As a responsible citizen you should be voting on those things too.  Print the ballot, read over it, mark your choices on it and take it with you to the booth as a reference.  I would also suggest that you take it one step further and read up on what you're voting for or against - some quick google searches will give you plenty of “pros/cons” sites to glean information from.

Don't vote straight ticket just because your great grand pappy did - know the issues, know the candidates and make an individual, informed decision.

Oh, and another tip - VOTE EARLY!  You never know what may happen on the 4th that might keep you from making it to the polls...

I am so ready for this election to be over - it brings out the ugliness (and ignorance) of Americans.

We stood in line for early voting on Monday.  We even took all four kids with us.  Our ballot was long - filled with amendments and judge retentions.  We were up late the night before researching every item on the ballot that we hadn't looked up yet.  We printed off sample ballots and marked them the way we planned to vote the next day.  This little cheat sheet proved to be a big help.  Once we got to the booths we were in and out in a matter of minutes.  This wasn't my first year to use a sample ballot cheat sheet but this was definitely the longest ballot I've ever seen :) 

I voted!  Have you?

It appears that our dog is more anxious than we are to get started on the demolition in the basement.  Now, in case you think he was just tearing it up for the sake of destruction, he was on a mission.  I've chosen to spare you the photo of the deceased mouse he retrieved from inside the insulation.