Today is Special

...because at about 5:30 this morning, I became conscious of New Mercies. (Meaning: I woke up. I didn't get up, but I woke up. There is a world of difference.)

Because this is a Tuesday like no other that has ever been, or ever will be.

Because God does not grow weary because God does not grow bored or indifferent to my ordinary Tuesday. He keeps cramming the day brim-full with tokens of kindness. He is eager to hear and be heard, on this day called Tuesday, May 17th. What in this world does He have to say to me today? Whatever it is, it will be a life giving word. Even His discipline (and oh, have I been receiving it lately!) is because of His love. I'd say I'm in a win-win position.

Tokens of His kindness to me, on this ordinary Tuesday, yet a day like no other:



The Preacher's first appointment wasn't till about 9:30. So he had time to make me a late-ish breakfast.


Big Band Swing on the vintage turntable. And I'm practicing my bokeh. (Google it, if you must...) This is bad bokeh, but bokeh nonetheless.


From where I sit, the world looks like this. (Oh, and that is the galvanized tub we use for ice and drinks for parties. Think Justin's college graduation. Would you believe there are still some cans, sitting in water, in that tub? Of course you would.)



The youngest son is going to appear in court, to try to keep his first speeding ticket off of his driving record. Just keepin' it real. This is his reminder.


The Preacher, making me the perfect cup of morning coffee, with the perfect amount of Bailey's Irish Creamer in it. The creamer, not the hooch. I am not drunk as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day...



"Come to momma..."


The King of the Cottage woke up wanting to play with Poppy, so I set the shutter speed to 5 per second. Good shot, and better bokeh. Can I hear an Amen?



Don't hate on me because I eat gravy and biscuits for breakfast. I live in the south, for crying out loud.


Ignore the mint condition antique typewriter, still in its case. Ignore the Mother's Day cards from husband and children, each one with a long message inside from someone declaring my worth and beauty. Ignore the beautiful painting, a Jonathan Howe original oil, on the wall. What I want you to focus on here, is the sketch in the center. Jonathan sketched Timothy, as a college graduation gift to Justin. It is Justin's picture...I'm just babysitting it. And the real baby, too, come to think of it. (His momma made a quick trip to the store for cookies, just now...)


He caught Timothy's essence, spot on!

I love this baby so much. I'm living a dream I don't deserve and have not earned. Grace, grace, gracegracegrace. Unmerited gifts. I am rolling in them.


This child is always thinking, always curious. Can you see it in his eyes?

This day is full of His mercy, and it isn't even lunch time yet.

Look over your ordinary Tuesday. I promise, you can find extraordinary gifts in it.

My Utmost For His Highest...

Below, is one of my all-time favorite entries in the devotional "My Utmost For His Highest". It comes from May 15th, and is summarily the grace message of the Gospel, in that "we work out what God has already worked in". What happens, when you don't functionally believe (Meaning: the way you actually function, versus your mental and verbal assent) in the Finished Work? You have nothing to set your feet on...nothing to work out, save your own behavioral modification...which always turns into the modification of others' behavior...which puts relationships at risk of control and manipulation.

Every person I know, who refuses to let go of the law as even a small means of relating to God, is a person who, in many obvious ways, are at the "same miserable cross patch, set on their own way."

How can you tell? The Son is not manifested in their mortal flesh. Specifically, they do their own will (do not recognize authority), and they have no love for the brethren. Two things that characterized Christ were His refusal to do His own will. He submitted to God without debate or complaint. And oh, how He loves us.

And I love how Oswald said that God never has "museums". This speaks to the fact that "now" is the only acceptable time to respond to God. You are not who you were in years past, and you are not who you intend to be...you are who you are, right now. You better get the revelation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, or you'll consistently revert to the same old chains of self will. A chain is a chain is a chain...just because you've developed such elaborate means to cope with it, doesn't make it not a chain. Just because you are completely accustomed to life with that chain, doesn't make it not a chain.

You can be free. You can work out what God has already worked in.

Don't stop short of full manifestation of the life of Christ. Work out what God has already, by grace through faith, worked in.

It's quite the adventure. No other way to live!



"That ye may know what is the hope of his calling..." Ephesians 1:18



Remember what you are saved for—that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.

You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Engineer, he allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly—"By my God have I leaped over a wall." God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of his. Peter says—"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest himself in your mortal flesh.

May God not find the whine in us anymore, but may he find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything he brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to his Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to his will so that he may work through us what he wants. When we realize this, he will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.

What You Missed Today...

...if you were not at church with me...



A brand new Chinese believer, giving his testimony in sweet, broken English...






Going under - old life buried...


Coming back up - raised with Him, in newness of life!

Where I Was Today...

The view from my sister's deck, at her lake house...

Niece Erica and her girlfriends, all graduating seniors this weekend - about to go out on the jet ski...the pontoon boat wasn't uncovered just yet.

Flowers. Just flowers. Some might even say "weeds".

All in all, a great day. And now, back to the real world of ironing clothes for the Preacher, and prepping ingredients for Sunday morning's crock pot - so we can all come home after church happy, but hungry and a bit tired...to a hot lunch.

A whole lot of effort goes into making things effortless. A whole lot. I was glad for the brief respite today. The views at my sister's lake house heal me.

Congratulations, Justin and Hannah!

Yesterday, our son-in-love walked the stage at the arena of the University of Tennessee, to receive his Masters in Mathematics Education.

His Masters. 4.0 GPA. Top 15% of all who have ever..in history..taken the Praxis exams. While interning full time at a local high school. While working part time at a local fast food restaurant (some of the hardest work you can do, actually). While being a sleep deprived new father who (I can personally testify) would get up in the wee hours with his son at least once almost every night, while studying for his Masters, while interning, while working...you get the idea.

We are very proud.

Grace = high achievement. Grace has never been, nor will it ever be, an excuse for laziness or low achievement. In fact, a proper understanding of this doctrine (this way, truth, this life!)....a proper understanding of - an encounter with - the God of All Grace will ultimately motivate you to outwork and out-perform the performance-based. Because you care for the people God has placed in your life. And because you know you are fully accepted if you never achieved a thing. And because it isn't you, it is the grace of God - something the performers just don't (yet) have the faith to walk in.

The unlimited, abundant, abounding-to-you grace of God!

I'm so blessed to be able to say, honestly and frankly, that my family is well grounded in the grace and love of God...and every single member of my family has a well above average work ethic. We have found our identity in Christ Jesus, and a very hard day's work, to be completely compatible lifestyles. It is our understanding of who we are in Christ that enables us to do our stuff with all our might. My husband, both daughters, both sons, both sons-in-love...even the grandson will not stop working for something he wants badly enough.

He gets it from his daddy, I'm sure....





Justin, we are so intensely, crazy-proud of you! I am privileged to call you a "son".

May, May Go Away...

The month of May and I are not exactly on friendly terms. Every year, without fail, she over-schedules me. Every year, without fail, my Tourette's flairs up. (Not really...I don't have Tourette's. But I do wish I had an excuse for all the nervous twitching and the involuntary swearing.)

Not really. I don't swear. Much.

Busy is good, I know. An empty schedule equals an empty life, I have said that myself, and I believe it. The more involved you are in people's lives, the more full the days become. So if busy is good, then May should be my time to shine. Just please,Lord, help me get over this head cold.

The Mother's Day weekend was so, so good here at the cottage.
This is me, the night of the Art Walk. I look like I am mugging for my own camera, but really, I was trying to figure out ISO...really.

Bumping the ISO up, but the picture gets grainy...

I quit figuring out ISO, and chose instead to snap a photo of me, rocking the Maxi Dress. Boy howdy, though, do I ever need to get the ISO thing figured out...and looks like I am having a bit of a focus issue.

A snippet of life at the cottage on Mother's Day...Isaac and his girlfriend Emily at the table, and my man making coffee...


Two of my presents - a rose bush from the youngest, and gardening boots from Sarah...

(Hannah gave me books - two on DSLR photography, and one about slipcover making. I feel about forty projects coming on, everything from planting to pictures to parson's chair slipcovers! It is going to be a busy summer.)

If only I could get over this head cold. Sorry. I know I said that once already.

I would be remiss, posting about Mother's Day, without sharing about how I became a mother to begin with...

Isn't this the cutest piece of middle aged hotness you have ever seen? I'd have his babies again tomorrow, if he asked me to.

But he won't. He is loving the season of life we are in, way too much. For that matter, I am too. This was my first Mother's Day as a grandmother, and I gotta say...

...I'm diggin' it.

Now, if I can just get over this head cold...and fast-forward the calendar to June...

Deut. 1:32

"...yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God..."

Our relationship with our God is always defined by the "this thing" in our lives. The "now" thing. God said these words to a people who were His unique possession, who knew Him, who had seen His mighty works, and who had won many victories...in the past.

Past obedience does not accrue in some imaginary scale, absolving us from present obedience. Faith for the past thing does not accrue, offsetting the urgency of trusting God in the "this thing".

The New Covenant magnifies the sacredness of the Now. "Now" is forever the acceptable time. We can only act into the present moment. Neither guilt regarding the past, nor good intentions regarding the future are of any worth whatsoever.

Believing God in "this thing" is altogether the issue. It is easier than you could ever imagine to believe that God moved on your behalf in years past, but is for obvious reasons less pleased with you today, and therefore less inclined to bless and deliver you.

Obey God in your "this thing". Believe and apply the grace of God in your "this thing". Is there anything too difficult for Him?

Jonathan's Downtown Art Show...and Art In My Living Room

Our son-in-love has an art show downtown this evening, so Tim and I thought it'd be a wonderful night for a stroll on the streets of Knoxville.

Jonathan makes his living full time with his art. If he were not my son by marriage, I would still tell you that his work is better than most. I am quite familiar with many, if not most of the Smoky Mountain based artists, and Jonathan's landscapes excel most of those artists' paintings. And his portraits practically breathe and speak to you. (If you have ever considered having a commissioned portrait done of someone you dearly love, Jonathan is your artist.)

Having an inside view, as I do, of the life of a full time artist, they pour their hearts and souls into the work of their hands, and they have rent to pay and they get an electricity bill each month. Their art pays the bills. I want to enthusiastically encourage you to become a patron of a Christian artist...and why not Jonathan Howe?



This is after the crowd thinned a bit...for awhile, you could not walk easily through this shop...




Jonathan had several portraits of musicians on display. The top painting, up there, is actually of my son Josiah, playing at one of his local gigs last year.




Josiah, and his beloved acoustic - it used to be his pastor-father's.

This portrait is of my daughter...Jonathan's wife Sarah.

The name of Sarah's portrait...

A grouping of Jonathan's landscapes...


Jonathan and Sarah, who are still at the show, even as I type this...

It was a fun evening for Tim and I. We are proud of both our sons in law - both highly accomplished young men, who would lay their lives down for our daughters.

Last, but far from least - you will not believe what was brought to my house today, and hung in my very own living room:

Oh yeah. A Jonathan Howe original oil painting. Huge. Sofa-sized. Look at that moody sky, and those colors! I know this exact spot, too...I recognized it instantly. My beloved Smokies, from the vantage point of an overlook on Rich Mountain road, in Cades Cove.

Happy Mother's Day to me, for so many, many reasons...I'm blessed. Living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve.

Abundant grace is mine.

I Think I Wanna Tweet

I think you should follow me on Twitter. I can be very entertaining. And I promise to keep it to no more than a couple of tweets a day...

(It's easy. On your cell phone, just text "follow sheilaatchley" to 40404.)

Playing With Paints

I got my paints out this evening...so relaxing.

Jamie and Ryan...

Finally, a picture from our evening we spent with Jamie and Ryan Weeks!

After being on the road since early that morning, driving non stop (and I do mean non-stop, so help me, I do...) to Le Jeune, an emotional dropping off of our son, and GPS'ing our way to the Raleigh area, these two were a sight for sore eyes:

sorry for the low light...that's Jamie and Ryan, on the right. Tim and I on the left. In the background is a restaurant called The Angus Barn.

The angels love The Angus Barn, I promise. I heard them singing when I took the first bite of my ribeye. Jamie and Ryan were extremely gracious to treat us to such a great meal!

The conversation was so, so rich. I mean, the four of us went places some people never go, not even after a decade of knowing each other. We went there within a half an hour of meeting face to face for the first time, and felt completely relaxed and safe.

Jamie was tossing around terms like penal substitution and stuff. How fun is that?

The warmth of their love for Jesus lingers in my memory, along with the chocolate chess pie I had for dessert. I have the recipe, and I am so gonna make it, soon. Momma. What a pie.

Thank you again, Jamie and Ryan. It is nice to find grace-people who don't hate on pastors. (Believe it or not, a lot of saints who are well taught in grace, encounter a glitch in their grace when they encounter pastors...to them, grace should equal no established order whatsoever.)

I keep thinking of the old saying ~

"Make new friends, and keep the old. One is silver, the other gold."

Here's hoping that silver turns to gold...

Puppy Life Jacket

Well, we have a new boat in the family...I say "in the family", because it belongs to Jonathan and Sarah.

Jonathan, his Nissan, and his boat he got from Alabama last week...


Nice boat! Runs great! They don't have a hitch on their Nissan yet...

...but we have a hitch on our old Toyota Previa.

Which means, bless their hearts, they get to share their boat with us, since only our vehicle can tow it. For now, anyway.

::grin::

Soon, I am sure, they'll have a good, sturdy hitch on the back bumper of their SUV. And they'll be able to hit the water with no help from us. But in the meantime, we will be so sorry and upset to have to haul their boat to the lake for them, and take turns riding that boat with them.

Rambo hates it most of all. My man says "rules are rules", and the teacup poodle must also wear the proper safety vest...along with all humans, regardless of their size.

Anyhoo, everyone got out in the boat over the weekend...

....and my man insisted on taking his Little Buddy with him...




And here is Rambo, ready and darlin' and rarin' to go ride dat boat wif hiz pappa!

.
And we did. And all had big fun. And Rambo was promoted to Puppy Safety Patrol. And we are very proud.

An 0verview of our weekend would not be complete without one of my famous, shameless, grandmommy plugs:

His very first bite of cereal: before.

Now...wait for it....wait for it...

That same bite of cereal after. Bleh. It will take some gettin' used to, doncha think?? As the bib says: "Grandma's Sweetie".

This child lights up my life. And boat rides are the bomb diggity, and my puppy looks way too cute in his life jacket to even be real. But he's real, allright. Just reach down to pet him, and see for yourself. BE CAREFUL.

Life is good, when God is good, and when you KNOW that He is good, always.

Of Fate and My Friend

By this time tomorrow, I will have gotten to meet this beautiful woman (and her husband) for the very first time, even though I have known her for a few years:

One of my first encounters with Jamie, she had my back when someone tried to plagiarize my writing. She flat out called the person out for it, and let me know immediately. I was in love, right then and there. I mean...what kind of cosmic sign is that? Before you even meet someone, they have your back? It was full-on fate. I knew right then, and this was several years ago, that I would meet this woman one day.

Jamie is a grace girl's grace girl. We know a few of each other's secrets, yet we haven't even met in the flesh. She has prayed for me during some of my worst seasons...the internet is a crazy and wonderful thing like that. We have sampled one anothers heart, and I think she rocks. I love her writing style - you'd enjoy her blog, Better Than We Know.

No, wait. If you are a legalist, you'd hate her blog. And she'd consider that a badge of honor.

I hope to get some pictures, even though I'm not packing my camera-camera. I will hope and pray that the camera phone gets some good shots...I can't wait to meet my friend.

Confessin' My Sin

Forgive me, Cool Police, for I have sinned...

For I am forty-something years old, and I am experimenting with a Bumpit...

Don't judge me, like my daughter did.



I just snapped her picture, and note: Alas, she has no Bump.

What can I say? I was in Wal-Mart last night, and there it was...one lone Bumpit-in-a-Box on an end cap, clearance priced. I could not resist the siren song of sporting That Cool Bump.

But apparently that Bump is only Cool if no one knows you are wearing a Bumpit.

Well, I am a full disclosure girl. Always have been.




My name is Sheila Atchley. And I wear a Bumpit and self tanner.



And I sometimes wear a perfume that has a borderline naughty and disreputable name. (I wear it for the smell, not for the name...)



And the nail color is Sally Hansen...



"Mauve It"...

Last but not least, if I am quiet for the next few days, it is because my Man and I are going out of town, to visit friends in Pleasant Garden NC (isn't the name of the place just happy???)

...and to bring our son home from Camp LeJeune for the Easter Weekend. I'll be taking my trusty Netbook, so I might blog from the road...then again, I might be too busy showing off my Bumpit to have time to chat.

I leave you with the following powerful visual:

Bump...


No Bump.