Kissed by God...

Traffic. On the parkway, it's a bad thing, on a blog it's lifeblood.

I went and I looked around. I've read some great blogs this past weekend. I have just about decided that I want to be besties with some of these extraordinary woman of faith. I am encouraged by the number of believers out there blogging on the life and times we live in through the lens of Christ. Good for us! There are more of us then I thought there were and I take great rest in that. Can't you just imagine us all in Glory together?

"Ohh, I read your blog about X,Y, and Z! I am so happy to see you here and it is so good to meet you!" Glory.

One thing I learned as I poked and looked was the number of blogs being followed out there....thousands from one blogger, hundreds from another. Each blogger follows blogs and it's reciprocal. I follow you, you follow me. Somewhere in between other bloggers or readers find your blog...

Sigh.

I am not so sure how I will do at the game of blogging. I love this...let me say that again...I LOVE THIS!

I want to edify and be edified. Yes, I so want that...

But life calls so often. I am pretty sure I am a little stuck in a 1960's sitcom, where the dad goes off to work and the mom stays home to make the meals and fuss on the house. Warm plates of cookies wait for children when they arrive home. Husband is met at the door with a martini and the dog brings his slippers and pipe...


Okay, so that is pretty much my life! And I want it to be.

I don't want a career...

I am going to let that dangle out there for a moment or two. Let me say that again:

I don't want a career.

I have a profession: RN.

Being a nurse was a calling from on High. I can honestly say it is a vocation. I have no doubt that I could be working tomorrow in a nursing position if that is what I wanted to do...

I've even offered (full heartedly I might add) John to let him take some time off after retirement and I would go back to work as a nurse. Being a smart man, he said no! I would like to insert a "LOL" here because sometimes I think I am a riot, but I think it may be bad blog form.

No, honestly, we like our very traditional roles as homemaker and breadwinner. We have settled into it and we do it pretty well. It's not to say that we will never mix things up, but for right now, neither of us doubts the fact that my being home is somehow ordained for this season.

I love being a wife and mommy. I love doing the most important job in the world: Mommyhood. I don't need to make a mark on the world in any other way. The kids are not an interruption of my life...I guess the theme of children not being an obstacle to ministry is back again.

Every once in a while John will love some amazing thing I have made and insist that I must open a cafe' some day...no thanks. I think I am a pretty darn good cook, and I am, thank you very much! But ultimately it won't be the smell of pulled pork that pulls the kids home for Sunday supper with their own families someday. It will be the love and comfort of a home~coming that will pull their hearts.

This past weekend we got to go to the birthday party of John's Uncle Joe. I love visiting this part of the family! The Irish-ness of it all makes me want to learn Irish step and know all the terms of the music and I suddenly want another baby or six and name them, "Sean" and "Nula"...even though there are already Seans and Nulas in that part of the clan...I adore them.

What strikes my heart to the cockles is their absolute and genuine love of Jesus. We all may politely not discuss some of our doctrinal differences, but there is no doubt that Jesus is at the core of this family. He is the warmth and the light in each of John's cousins. There is no doubt at all that He is King Jesus in this clan!

I loved the slide show of Uncle Joe's life. There were pictures from Ireland where he grew up, wedding shots and wonderful music playing to back it all up. It was his bride that got me...John's Aunt Eileen. She was my MIL's sister.

Aunt Eileen never had a blog. If she had a career, I don't know of it. I can be almost positive, she never wrote a book that was featured on Oprah...

I've never even met Aunt Eileen because she was gone before I met her nephew, John.

I found myself missing her. Maybe because my own Liz looks so much like her from the pictures I have seen.

And at the same time, what I can tell you is that she was a woman of great influence in our world today. She has affected my life exponentially. Because Aunt Eileen was a praying wife and mom, because she put Jesus first, Uncle Joe second and her kids next...she could raise great kids, I remembered what I want to be once again.

Maybe my blog will go viral and I can enjoy the fruit of it all. No way can I visit so many blogs and keep my priorities. Maybe some can, but I know my own frail heart. My writing, my blog, my book...Maybe the book will be kissed by God and it will cease to be listed at 346, 298 on Amazon and shoot to number one. Don't know, but after this weekend, I don't care again.

I will meet this great hero of the faith someday, on a street paved with Gold by the very hand of God and when I do meet Aunt Eileen, I am going to thank her for raising children unto the Lord. I also want to be remembered for loving Jesus and raising kids to do the same just like Aunt Eileen.

Yes, that is what I want my career to look like...yes, when I grow up, I want to be like Aunt Eileen.