Close Only Counts...

... in horseshoes and hand grenades...

... and life.  Close counts in life.

It's been one of those...

Hmmm...  It's difficult to finish a complete thought right now.

Phil and I were talking, the other day, about how boring (and maybe insignificant) life would be if we got everything we wanted, whenever we wanted, from whomever we wanted, all the time.  And you know, if we're going to take Scripture seriously, then I think we have to think twice about the way we perceive suffering... affliction... and maybe even just not getting what we want...

Our family has had an awful lot of those "close" moments lately.  I am chuckling to myself as I write this, because I realize that there are a lot of people out there who could read this and say, "Oh, she's talking about (fill in the blank)," and they'd probably all be right!  The real irony is that if you know about one (or more) of these moments, they are probably not the ones that have hit the hardest.  And now I realize that I've probably left a few of you feeling pretty special, because you think you're the one who knows...  Ah...  this little conversation with myself could go around in circles for a long time.  But I digress...

Sometimes I am baffled that I get to mother the most amazing kids in the world.  In the midst of my  struggles, it sort of blew me away when my 12 year old daughter, who was referring to her own "close" moment, not any of mine, said to me (and I paraphrase), "Mom, I think I have a responsibility to lead from where I am."  Uh...  OK...  Maybe there's a reason that Jesus encourages us to be like little children...

Things are not always going to go the way we had hoped.  I am counting my blessings that they're close, because not everybody can say that, either.  Carry on...

L.