Robbie Seay Band

When I'm feeling really proud I like to say that without me there would be no Robbie Seay Band - well technically there would be no Robbie Seay - I can't take credit for Dan and Ryan.
Not meaning to sound cheesy, but, this morning, after enjoying three straight days of RSB concerts, I have to say that it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with God. Their spiritual journey expressed through the new album - Give Yourself Away - is amazing and the talent and giftedness that God has poured out on these guys is evident.
Yes, I am proud and I often call myself the "obnoxious mom". But more than anything I pray that God will lead these guys exactly where He wants them - that the dreams that we have for Robbie and the guys would match the plan that God has and that in all of this God would be glorified and people would be pointed toward Jesus.
I had to post the picture I took at the KSBJ Free Concert in the Woodlands Tuesday night. It was so cool to see the sun come out and a rainbow appear over the stage. I was so amazed at the hundreds of people who came out that night and sat in the rain for at least an hour and still stayed for the whole concert. I loved watching people worshipping God with no inhibition. It was a sweet time!

What a day!

Today was a big day for us. We took our "baby girl" to college. Granted it's only a little more than an hour away and she is not really a baby, but for us this is huge. We know that God gave Jess to us to nurture - to help her grow in her walk with Christ and then to ultimatley "launch" her so that she could fully become what God wants her to be. She has been a special gift to us and now after 36 years of parenting we seem to be ALMOST done.
I am so proud of Jess. She has worked hard to overcome obstacles in her life. She loves the Lord and truly desires to serve Him. She has a sweet and tender heart. I can't wait to see what God has for her.
Please pray for her as she starts this exciting college adventure.
I love you, Jess!
Check out her blog at seay-pictureperfect.blogspot.com

Storm or No Storm - Here we come!

Yesterday we made our way to Galveston Island. It seemed like a safe decision as far as the hurricane goes. As we crossed the causeway there were lots of cars going the other direction - leaving the island. This would just leave more of the island for us.

I know that many people find Galveston beaches disgusting. I get a little defensive when people say bad things about Galveston. I am a native Houstonian (there aren't many of us around) and the only beach I knew growing up was Galveston. The beach is my "happy place". It doesn't matter that the sand is not white or that sea weed is abundant. I go for the beauty and sound of the waves and for the feel of the wind blowing off the water. I just love it! (yes, I have been to great beaches - Destin - Cayman - Jamaica)

Today we spent the day on the beach with Robbie and his kids and Chris and Lisa and their kids. It was an awesome day. The sky was blue - the breeze was nice - the waves were amazing (for Galveston). The kids went crazy on the boogie boards and it was just plain wonderful hanging out with my family. I love my family!

We finished up our family day at Rain Forest Cafe. This is not just a restaurant - it's an experience. You have to love the looks on the kids faces when the elephants and gorillas come alive. It was all topped off with the VOLCANO! If you haven't tried it you really should - brownies and ice cream with a sparkler on top.

I hope that you all have opportunities to simply stop and enjoy the important things in life - like family. I am a task-oriented person so I often find it hard to sit, relax and do nothing. Today I did nothing (except take pictures of my beautiful grandkids) and I was reminded of the importance of just being still in the moment - talking to my kids - enjoying the grandkids and living in the moment. Don't miss your opportunities!

Raising Spiritually Healthy Children

Raising Spiritually Healthy Kids

1. Start praying for your child’s salvation and relationship with Christ before they are born. Prayer will intervene in the spiritual realm where the enemy battles for the souls of our children!

2. Start early
Begin to tell your child that God loves them, God made the flowers and so on. I have heard parents say, “My child is too young to understand about God”. How sad! Children accept what we teach them by faith. The scripture speaks of child-like faith. This faith comes easily for them. Their innocent minds are not overcrowded with reason and doubt.

3. Be real
Our faith in Christ does not mean that life is without difficulties. Children need to see how our faith helps us handle tough times. They need to understand that having a relationship with Christ does not mean that we are immune to illness or people being mean to us.
The key – how we respond to these events teaches our children how they can deal with life.

4. Model your love for Christ
Do you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
Our children will not know what a true love for Christ looks like without seeing it in us.

5. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me!”
Do your children see that God is a priority in your home and in your life?
Is it understood that you and your family will be in Bible study and corporate worship every week?
Do your children see that everything in your lives center on Jesus?
Do other things in your world interfere with the things of God?
For instance, do you allow your children to miss church due to sports events or other activities?
Do you plan your church life after you plan your kid’s activities?
We allow “things” in our lives to become gods. If they are more important than God – they have become gods or idols.
Idols can be TV, an obsession with appearance, a desire to have “things”, or simply placing our own children above God.
Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not saying you can’t have a TV or fun things. I’m not saying that your kids can’t play sports or wear cute clothes. I’m not saying it’s wrong to love your children.
I am saying that in everything there should be a balance with Christ at the center.

6. Love the Word.
If you aren’t already, fall in the love with the Word of God. Teach your children the beauty of getting to know our God through His Word. If you don’t understand the importance of this, read Psalm 119.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

6. Be consistent.
In everything you do – your relationship with Christ, the discipline of your children, your marriage, your friendships – be consistent.
We should be examples of integrity – the kind of people who always keep their word.
The scripture speaks of the double-minded man being tossed back and forth by the waves. Don’t let that be you.
Know what you believe, live it, teach it to your children!

Back To School I.N.C. (in the name of Christ)

It's been an amazing day! Every year in August our church women's ministry organizes a project called Back to School, I.N.C. (in the name of Christ). This is an outreach to our community. We offer free tennis shoes and backpacks (these are all new) and haircuts. Today we saw almost 1300 kids smile and show off their new tennis shoes and backpacks. The faces tell it all. They are always so excited.
This is our 5th year to do this. We open the doors at 8 a.m. but by 6 a.m. the people are lined up outside the church. We don't require that these families meet any kind of criteria, we don't use this as an opportunity to add their names to a database, we require nothing of them. We believe that the families that need these things will have their needs met. We share Jesus with them through the written gospel but mostly we share the love of Jesus through our touch, our smiles and our sincere concern for the welfare of these families.
Before the day ended I had an opportunity to pray with a single mom who had just lost her job. She stood on our sidewalk, tears flowing freely, overwhelmed with her life. Afterward we talked about ways that we as a church would like to help her. To do ministry the way that Jesus did ministry is to touch people's lives at the point of their need. I pray that God will continually convict me of this every day - not just on the occasion of a single event. How are we being Jesus to the world closest to us?

8 Random Facts & Habits about Me

I've been tagged by my daughter-in-law, Liz!
Here is some info you may or may not care to know about me...

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (**if you’re a non-blogger, you can email them!)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


8 Random Facts or Habits about me:
1. I don't like to make left turns. I plan my route for the day with ways to avoid them .
2. I love the ocean - don't really like to swim in it, but I love to listen to the sound of crashing waves and I love to cruise on it. I call the beach/ocean "My happy place"
3. I am a recovering Diet Coke-aholic. No Diet Coke has touched my lips for 5 years.
4. I am addicted to Ms. Pac Man and The Amazing Race.
5. Deep inside me I want to dance - ballroom or two-stepping. I feel like if I could dance it would be the most freeing feeling ever.
6. I'm afraid of heights but I wish that I had the nerve to do one of those bungee jumps on The Amazing Race.
7. Relaxation to me is playing the piano or deep-cleaning closets and re-organizing stuff.
8. Someday I hope that Ed and I can take a sabatical and live in New York City for 3 months. I want to know how New Yorkers live in the city. I love New York!
This is the bonus fact:
I have the most amazing husband and kids-including son-in-law and daughters-in-law - and 15 beautiful grandkids. I am so blessed and I love my life.

Now, tag you're it! Jenn, Jess, Amy, Holly, Sara, Susan, Liz and Michelle

Temperaments: Part 4 None of us are Perfect (though some of us think we are close)

In the last discussion of temperaments I shared all the wonderful attributes of my very own Phlegmatic. He is wonderful! But, we all have to be aware of the weaknesses of our temperaments so we can strive to improve and be more of what God designed us to be.

Phlegmatics tend to be indecisive procrastinators with no real need to set goals. Some phlegmatics could even be accused of being lazy. As a husband, a Phlegmatic could easily surrender his role as the spiritual leader to his Choleric wife. This is not what God had in mind when He created us. All temperaments, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses are called to be holy, seeking righteousness and following the scriptural guidelines set for us as husbands and wives. God doesn’t exempt us from those directives just because we are not natural leaders or because, as a wife we are strong-willed and opinionated. Thus, the challenge – to surrender who we are in our flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to use our strengths and minimize our weaknesses.

I am a full-on Melancholy with a bent for perfection that could drive all of those around me crazy. I am so blessed to have a husband who so gently knows how to handle my craziness when I have over-extended myself or my outrage when things are not done right. In Florence Littauer’s book she summarizes Melancholies like this…

The depth to see into the heart and soul of life.
The artistic nature to appreciate the beauty of the world.
The talent to create a masterpiece where nothing existed before.
The ability to analyze and arrive at the proper solution.
The eye for detail while others do shoddy work.
The aim to finish what they start.
The pledge, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”
The desire to “do all things decently and in order.”

Because Melancholies are so analytical, we have a tendency to be pessimistic – not because we just want to be negative, but because we think consequentially – we can look ahead and see the problems before they ever happen. This can feel like a curse. Sometimes I just want to not think about things so I will not be critical.

We like schedules, lists, order and bargains. We expect our friends to be loyal and we don’t understand when others don’t have the same high standards that we have. The very things that make Melancholies so valuable are the same things that make them almost intolerable. Our strengths can kill us.

We often have the gift of mercy. We see things in people – their fears, their needs, their pain and we are moved to tears for them. We are often very sentimental and have difficulty throwing things away because of the meaning and the memories.

We make good leaders, organizers and counselors. We will often give up our own plans to help someone else. We are creative and appreciate beauty. You would want to have a Melancholy around if you are planning an event. For Melancholies the joy is in the planning and the execution of the plan.

Next time, we will look at the weaknesses of the melancholy and how our strengths and weaknesses affect our relationships.