The Stars are made of lemon juice....

Have you ever heard a song and ever thought, "how do they know?" 

Each *verse is* describing you perfectly, each line reeks of you, when people hear it they automatically 

think of you. 

Well my friends, I have found just such a song! 

I heard this song a few years ago and really liked it. As I was listening to it today, I got really tickled...they should have titled this song "Ruthe"

....I'm just sayin'....

Imperfection

My hair's a wreck

Mascara runs
My feet get dirty
And my skin burns in the sun.
My lips they bleed
But I still sing my songs.
Takes me a minute
To admit it when I'm wrong.

Pretty is as pretty does,
But pretty's not my thing.

This is what you get.
This is who I am.
Take me now or leave me
Any way you can.
Sometimes I trip and fall
But I know where I stand.
And if you're thinking about changing my direction,
Don't mess with imperfection.

My back is weak,
But my will is true.
Got good intentions
But I never follow through.
I say too much,
And don't know when to leave.
In case you're looking,
That's my heart there on my sleeve.

Ego trips and stupid slip ups,
I'm a mess but

This is what you get.
This is who I am.
Take me now or leave me
Any way you can.
Sometimes I trip and fall
But I know where I stand.
And if you're thinking about changing my direction,
Don't mess with imperfection.

Scratched and bruised,
A little used,
But baby I work fine.
You might call me
Damaged goods,
But I'm one of a kind.

At the beach, yo!

Ok, so hurricanes, blah, blah, red flags, blah, blah...

we decide to go to the beach anyway...

It's not like those flags really mean anything, right?

So we're driving down the coast line and I'm not gunna lie, I was pretty excited! There were only like 6 cars in the parking lot! We basically have the beach to ourselves! (God must really like us, right?) 

My heart was incredibly happy!

Almost immediately, I went from elated to devastated...The waves were way too high to really do anything in the water. Everytime we stood in it, we got knocked off our feet. Sad....I felt like we had just wasted a whole day!

But James (who "tries" to make the most of any situation) decides that the weather may not be the best for swimming BUT it just might be perfect for skim boarding!

 I don't remember ever laughing so hard! It was one of the funniest thing I've ever seen! 

Here I was getting all down about the environment, feeling as tho I had wasted my time and my day. My friend takes the frown I had on my face and made me laugh so hard my gut hurt! 

As we were driving back later that night, I realized that we did waste time...we totally wasted a whole day! James spent most of the day falling in the water, dodging jellyfish. I got to sit in the sand and read, he got to sleep, we got sunburned...That wasn't a very productive day...

BUT I am so thankful that I have friends who enjoy wasting time with me :-)

God has totally blessed me with such an awesome batch...herd...whatever...of friends!

I would much rather waste my time watching the birds on the beach with my friend than be productive by myself...

Even Jesus recognized how great friends were, He had a posse of 12 guys follow Him around.

As I sit here typing, I remember Phil.1:3...And I do thank my God upon EVERY remembrance of my "most excellent " friends :-)

No! I've never seen a purple cow!

Ok, so this whole time I had a plan! I knew what I was doing...I thought I knew...

Sunday night I was supposed to talk about "Friends"..easy topic, right? I had an idea, I knew what direction I wanted to go in, I was actually prepared (i know that doesnt happen often) All the past week, I felt like God was trying to point me in a different direction. Me, being the (as some would say) stubborn person I am, didnt want to change...I was actually prepared in advance! So I stick my finger in my one working ear...

Saturday night I was praying and trying to get myself focused for the next day, when along comes a little tapping on my heart..."Ruthe, I still want you to go in a different direction..."

I try arguing with God. It doesnt work!

My brother gets frustrated with me when I have car problems. He'll ask me "how long has it been making that noise?" and of course my response is "what noise?"

Evidently when I hear something I dont want to deal with, I turn the music up until it drowns out the noise.

So I try this tactic with God.

Again, it does not work!

Ever notice that when God wants you to do something, no matter how far you run, He always gets His way? (i.e. Jonah and the big fish, or Ruthe and her sunday night talk)

How silly I am to think I could drown out the voice of God! 

The God who speaks things into existence! 

The God who breathed the very life into man!

How amazing is my God! A-MA-ZING!!!

I'm so thankful that nothing I can do can throw God off or mess up His plans! 

What a relief to know that there is nothing I can do screw up so much that He cant fix it with just the sound of His voice!

What a powerful God we serve!

Excuse me sir, I think you dropped your pocket...

Ok, so yesterday I was at home going thru my books, trying to figure out which ones I needed or should bring to my office....because everyone knows the more books one has on display, the more intelligent one looks. 

My goal in this endeavor is to appear intelligent. 

My dilemma....my choice in books.

I had everything from Religions of the World to How not to be an old lady to Rain Makes Applesauce to Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. Then to top it all off, I had a small collection of random poetry books....What does one do with poetry books?!

So much for appearing intelligent!

So there I sat, on my floor, slightly discouraged...Trying to rethink. 

What's a girl to do in a situation like this?! 

The obvious solution hits me, maybe I should just bring the books I'm gunna use....ahhh...

I begin to go thru my books, separating them into "important" categories: youth ministry, spiritual growth, intimacy with God, Character studies, bibles, dictionaries, concordances, blah blah blah...I come to the end of my pile and I have 4 little books that have no home...Bad Girls of the Bible, Really Bad Girls of the Bible, Desperate Women of the Bible, and Criminals of the Bible. I couldn't help but giggle at myself. We do all these studies on all the great men and women of the Bible...David, Abraham, Esther, Ruth, Peter, Stephen, James, Mary, Paul, John....But you never hear of a study done on Jezebel, Cain, Delilah, Sapphira, Athaliah, Aquila....right? I get tickled, because we skim over these people. We think, "they were misbehaving, we don't have to talk about them." 

Au contraire 

2 Timothy 3 says that ALL scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that every man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

Haha! So because Timothy says "all" that means that studying these biblical screw-ups is advantageous to us. The Bible villains are just as important as the Bible heroes!

Who would have thought that those stories were in the Bible for a reason :-)