Also, my wonderful Mother posted pictures on Facebook…

Wasn’t I cute? Ha!

So I turn 40 yesterday and then today I put my baby (ok she’s 13 now) on a bus to go on her first school field trip without me — a multiple-overnight field trip.

Two milestones within 24 hours. Prayers for Duck are needed in case I lose it!

I handed that over to the lady and she said “God bless you.” Thoughts started running through my head about what I should have said to her – ask her if she truly knows God or if that’s just something she thinks sounds nice. Then I started beating myself up for giving away that much money like that. We just found out that we owe a lot in taxes and have other bills coming up. Hadn’t I just been thinking we need to be more careful with our money?

I said a quick prayer for her that God wouldn’t let her do anything bad with the money and that He would use it to bless her that she might know Him. Then I let it go.

This morning I stopped for gas. The pump wouldn’t take my card like normal – it just said “Remove nozzle.” I figured the credit card part was broken and I would just need to pay inside. So I pumped the gas. It stopped at $10 and wouldn’t go further. I went inside to pay for that and then come back and fill up. The cashier said that a man had just prepaid for $10 on that pump and must have left without actually pumping the gas.

I smiled as I walked outside because I knew God was just showing off. When I’ve been listening to the radio and praying for what happened in Boston, God is still watching me and with me. Sometimes I forget that He’s big enough that He’s everywhere and not just with those going through a crisis.

Here I am supposedly a WordPress wizard, and my WP sites got hacked. Most likely because I didn’t keep them updated.

And because my sites got hacked? There was an overload on the server that made everyone’s sites come to a screeching halt if they loaded at all. That’s what I’ve been dealing with the past two weeks.

Lovely.

On top of that, I got an iPhone 5S for Christmas that stopped ringing. It would only vibrate. After missing an important call last night, I finally Googled the solution. There’s a little switch right above the volume buttons on the side. It should not be showing orange. Seriously? A switch on the side of the phone? I never even paid any attention to it.

So…if I had a geek card, just know that I would relinquish it without a fight.

The pastor preached out of 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 about division in the church. Even though he was talking about division in your physical, local church, I started thinking about how applicable this all was to the online church. You. Me. Other Christians who blog. Other Christians who just hang out on Facebook and Twitter.

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. — 1 Corinthians 1:10

The pastor went on to say God made all of us different — there are Duke fans, UNC fans, and State (go Pack!) fans. We can disagree about a lot of things, but how we deal with that disagreement says more to people who aren’t Christians than anything else we can do. Bad news travels a lot faster than good news, so when church members disagree about whether or not people should watch the Super Bowl commercials, that gets a lot of attention.

But the one thing we should agree on is the Good News. What we say about Jesus. How we live that out online and in person. We should speak the same thing — and that same thing should be what the Bible says.

Online it’s easy for us to hide behind our screens, our keyboards. We say things that we wouldn’t say face-to-face. We judge others — call them stupid for watching the commercials or “I can’t believe you let your kid do that.” There are people who thrive on drama. You can love them without getting caught up in the drama. I quit blogging for a long time because I was tired of the drama — the promotions — all of it. I miss the conversations. Conversations on blogs in the comments. Conversations on Twitter. I miss hearing about my online friends’ families.

Before you like or share a post on Facebook, or share a blog post with others, think — is this tearing down someone else? Or is it building them up? Is it sharing Jesus or criticizing someone who may not even know Jesus? So, before we concern ourselves with “did you let your kids watch the half-time show?” Maybe we should be concerned with “do you know Jesus? When’s the last time you talked with Him?”

There’s a lot to catch you up on. I’ve been going through a reverse mid-life crisis:

• November 1, 2012 : I stopped drinking Cokes. Cold turkey. Just stopped. Now it’s just water.
• December 2012 : I sold my Harley.
• I’ve been letting my bangs grow out. I’ve never not had bangs.
• January 2013 : I started as a full-time employee with Proverbs 31 Ministries.

So while most people who go through a mid-life crisis start doing unhealthy things, buy a motorcycle or quit their job to pursue their dreams, I’m going in reverse.

The thing is I’m going through an identity crisis as well. I’m no longer a Coke addict. No longer a Harley Mama (though I still love riding with Duck on his motorcycle — I just don’t have my own anymore). No longer a business person.

I really am looking forward to the work I will get to be a part of at Proverbs, and I hope to have a little more time to blog than twice a year. Maybe I’ll even blog through a bit of my identity crisis

Oh! And I picked my one word for the year. It seems to be the “thing” to do. My word is DISCIPLINE. Well, self-discipline but I don’t know if hyphenated words count as one or two. I don’t want to break the rules! I’m praying this year that God will show me how to be more disciplined with my time — spending time in my Bible, working diligently, and playing with my family. I’m even praying He’ll show me how to be more disciplined blogging

So, how do you describe yourself? Who are you?