Borrowed Time

Swirling shades of color

Surround my heart and soul

And captivate my memory

For the one I long to hold

Sounds of sweet surrender

Gently fill the air

The fragrance of the one

With whom my life I share

As precious as this moment is

It's one that shall not last

Except for the taste of his lips on mine

This moment will quickly pass

Tomorrow will bring questions

That I cannot truly know

The direction of my future

The amount of borrowed time

To live in heavenly rapture

For the one that I call mine

Yet will I keep on loving

Though only time will tell

The ending of this love song

Sung so bittersweet

Leaving traces of forever

In the tears that I shall weep

Sweet Sound Of Worship

Yesterday I sat on the pew dressed in jeans and wrapped in a blanket I shared with friends. After being out of church for over 10 days due to electricity, they found some generators and we had Church!!! I hate to sound old fashion, but there was something just sweet about the whole thing. First of all I have missed everybody. It's been cold, icy and it's just not the same without seeing those friendly faces every week. Second of all, church sure has changed since I was a kid. I remember when we used to sing hymns over and over till everybody knew every word of every verse. Now we learn new worship songs all the time. I play keyboard at church and the new worship songs aren't the 3 chord hymns of old. Musically the new worship songs can be very complicated... at least for me. Yesterday we sang some old songs and it felt so good. We had a limited sound system due to the electricity, so the music didn't overpower the voices. There is nothing sweeter than hearing hundreds of voices singing praise to the King of Kings. I can almost picture God bending over, listening to the voices with a great big grin on his face!!! I love that mental picture. I love my church and I love my church family. I'm glad that we are "Keeping things relevant" and reaching out to the media driven young people of today. I do, however, sometimes miss the simple, unrehearsed church of my childhood (sometimes). Yesterday felt good, it felt sweet. Next week I'll be back in church, dressed in my church clothes (adhering strictly to the worship teams color calendar), with no blanket in sight. The screens will have all of the words to the songs on them and I'll be able to feel the beat all the way to my bones. Next Sunday I'll probably imagine God bending over with a grin on his face right before he begins to do the happy dance, because he doesn't care how hip we worship or what clothes we worship in, as long as our worship is directed at him. Next Sunday it will be sweet.... only in a different way.

Proud Momma!

You know when you're raising your children you just do the best and pray God does the rest. As Bill Crosby says, "They don't come with an instruction manuel. My oldest son was a pistol, a fireball of energy. Some days he just totally wore me out with his endless questions about things like what if the sky were green all the time instead of blue, or what if the grass was always blue. These are typical kid questions, but he pretty much wanted an answer. The thing about Seth is he is and always was the best natured little thing. Regardless of how many obstacles life throws at him, he just looks at each and every one like an opportunity to do things in a different way. You'll never know how many times I wish I had that tendency. I'll never forget one time when he was in highschool I came home to find him with his head on the table. With him usually being so upbeat I knew something was wrong. I asked him what was bothering him and he kind of gently sighed and said, "Oh, I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to have enough money to make it till I get paid". Of course I immediatley offered him money, but to my surprise he turned it down and said "No Mom, it will all work out, it always does". That pretty much sums up how he lives his life. He is living proof that when are totally committed to Christ he will supply all of your needs!!!! Yesterday we got the opportunity to visit with him and see his new house for the first time. We had such a great time with him and all of they guys he hangs out with. They all are a living example that you can be young, stand for the cause of Christ and still have an absolute ball enjoying life. Everytime I'm around them they lift my spirits, give me hope and make this Momma a very proud woman. I may not have given birth to all of them, but I feel like they are all family. I am very blessed to have a Son that is such a blessing to others.

My Very Best Friend

In my version of Webster’s Dictionary under the phrase “Best Friend” is a picture of my very best friend, Charlotte Webb. No, I’m really not making things up that is really her married name. Charlotte and I met… oh my gosh I really don’t like to think about how many moons ago it was. I was working at a local insurance company and she applied for the job as receptionist. We have been best buds since!! When I still worked there our desks were right next to each other. Every single weekday she would come to work and ask me…. “Jaquetta, what did you do last night?”. When I attempted to skim the details she would stop me in my tracks and back me right up. “What did you have for dinner”, “Now, what made you decide to fix that”, “Where did you get that recipe”? Not one detail of my evening from beginning to end was I allowed to skip over… NOT ONE!!! When we finished with my evening (from beginning to end) we would then start on her evening (from beginning to end). It’s actually quiet amazing that we got any work whatsoever accomplished. On Monday morning the routine was the same but I had to start with Friday evening and describe every event and activity in detail through Sunday evening. After working together for several years I quit my job when I became pregnant with my 3rd and last child. I will never forget the day I told Charlotte I was leaving. She sat facing me, tears rolling down her cheeks and said… “Jaquetta, what will I do without you?” To this day I get teary eyed when I think back on how sad she was that we wouldn’t get to share every single part of our lives together. I remember telling her that we would make an agreement right then and there that our relationship would always be a priority with both of us. I wasn’t leaving town, I just wouldn’t be sitting beside her for 8 hours every day…. It sounded so simple. I had my baby and a couple of years later she began her family and before I knew it time had flown by. Did we keep in touch? Yes, we most certainly have. Do we still share every little detail of our lives? No, sadly we don’t. When Charlotte started her family and I took a very stressful job we suddenly found that it became more and more difficult to find time for an uninterrupted phone call much less the time to share details, exchange recipes and go shopping. In spite of that, we have kept in touch and regardless of whether it’s been weeks or months since we have spoken we pick up exactly where we left off. If you are a guy you probably don’t know how rare that is, but in “Girl World” that is huge. Women tend to drift apart easily (IMO) and when they do their imaginations run wild. I won’t go into details but I would say that most women would agree with me (and of course if they don’t that would make them wrong). Last week little Charlotte turned 41!!!! For the last several years I have always given her a Bible for her birthday. This year I gave her a different kind of Bible, the paperback version of “How Not To Look Old”. She was tickled pink after she found out that I had read it from cover to cover taking notes and passing the book on to all of my girl friends. I’m hoping her teenage daughter will appreciate the fact that I am trying to keep her Mom cool for her. Our lives may be on different paths now, our kids on different levels, but our hearts have always remained tied together with cords of love that cannot be broken by trial or time. That in my book, is the very description of Best Friend. I love you high as the sky Charlotte and always will!!!!

Tender Love,

Jaquetta aka JacJac

Adventures Of A Lifetime Through Another's Eyes

Woke up this morning to an email from my Daughter who is on deployment with the Navy. An email from her is better than Starbucks coffee any day of the week! She was excited to tell me about her latest adventure in Malaysia. After being cramped up on a destroyer for over a month with a bunch of smelly boys she was looking forward to getting on land and stretching her legs. The beds on the ship are sometimes referred to as coffins because they are probably a little smaller than a coffin and just as confining. After a prolonged period of sleeping on a ship the joints start protesting a little and an adjustment from the ship Doc may be necessary. The thing she was looking forward to the most on this liberty was getting a nice room at a 5 star hotel and being able to sleep in a real bed for a change. She said her room was amazing; everything was controlled by a remote control. It came complete with a big tub and a separate shower where the whole ceiling was a shower head and it felt like rain. She and a friend booked a massage and headed through the jungle to the spa. On the path to the spa you could hear monkeys, frogs and birds. She said it was so neat. They had private villas on the path to the spa that were secluded and adorable. Her day of sightseeing got canceled because of "hardcore" rain so she spent the day in the mall with friends and ate American food at the Hard Rock Cafe'. I love hearing about her adventures and her world travel. If I have one regret in my life it would probably be that I didn't take the opportunity to have adventures while I was young before I settled into family life. At 46 I think it would be very fulfilling to look back on things that are once in a lifetime adventures. That's probably why I love her stories; I have the chance to imagine myself walking through jungle paths, eating exotic food and seeing the world through her eyes as if they were my own.

Family, Friends And Thankfulness

Thursday was a cold yucky day! The weatherman was forecasting unprecedented ice and snow. My first thought was “Yeah, right we got record snow for Christmas, I’m not holding my breath that it’s going to be as bad as they predicted”. Boy was I wrong (That’s right honey, yet another admission)!!!! By 2:00 the electric had gone off in the office and they sent everyone home for the day. I’ll have to admit the idea of having a nice quiet afternoon at the house was a real treat… for a while. My husband and Son went to Wal-Mart so we wouldn’t starve to death that evening. They came home with enough chips to sink a battleship, a couple of flash lights, tons of canned stew and cookies (none of these things btw, are on my New Year’s diet). We began the task of rounding up every available candle that was in the house (the place smelled like a French brothel) and prepared to snuggle under until the power came back on. Before it was dark my Son left to spend the night with friends so they could be bored out of their skull together and we grabbed our books and began catching up on our reading. Thank God for cell phones! I got a text from a friend and neighbor inviting us over for a chat with some family so we headed over a couple of blocks to chew the fat with friends in the dark (It was so fun). Friday morning I woke up truly expecting electricity to be at my fingertips… Boy was I wrong! My husband figured he was “tough enough” to take a cold shower… Boy was he wrong! The look on the dogs faces when that ice cold water hit him was priceless!! His screaming made a 5 year old girl sound manly (so funny), but I’ll have to admit that he was wide-eyed when he came downstairs all squeaky clean. The rest of the weekend was spent with family or friends as we brought all of our survival stuff together to suffer through the loss of modern conveniences as one big family. It was a very good weekend! We might not have been basking in the comfort of modern technology and conveniences, but we were basking in the love and laughter of those we love. I’m thinking we should start a new tradition… A tradition that would make us more appreciative of the things we do have and more thankful for the ones we share our lives with. Today is Tuesday and yet again I woke up expecting electricity to be at my fingertips…. Wrong! But you know what, I’m not going to complain cause things could be a lot worse. I have a good life because I surround myself with good people…. It doesn’t get better than that.