Thought for the Week-Def Leppard

Good Morning Girlfriends!

Well, it's early!  I've already been up a while...I figured I needed a little bit more caffeine before trying to hammer out coherent thoughts to y'all!  I've got some exciting news to share with you, and as usual, when I have announcements...I will tack those on to the the end...Settle in, today is a LONG one! 

I've been sitting on this Thought for a couple of weeks now.  Y'all have been on my mind.  Each day that went by, my heart sank a little bit.  I tried desperately to sit down and get this out to you, but, as your inbox has proven, that did not happen!  I was also waiting for just the right "tie-in".  That was not provided to me until this past Sunday.  Hopefully most of you are familiar with the heavy-metal-big-hair-band, Def Leppard.  Incidentally, when this idea first came to me, I shared it with my senior pastor, believe me, trying to tie an iconic 80s rock band to Scripture made the man go very green.  Sorry about that Pastor!  Here's my disclaimer: this is a loose interpretation, merely for visual aid purposes.  Have you ever heard their song Women?  I've heard it lots of times.  That in itself is very interesting, considering that I very seldom stray from my comfort zone of Willie, Waylon and the Boys.  For those of you who may not be well acquainted with this song, let me help you with a couple of lines pertinent to today's Thought.  For the rest of you: please be patient.

The singer opens with the account of Creation.  He then moves into the creation of Adam and Eve, and without sticking to actual Scripture, the account of the Fall is laid bare; here's where theology flies out the window, but creative license take over.

        "She fed him with a hunger, an appetite
         And fillin' with emotion he took a bite"

Now, let's got to the Book to see what really happened.  Genesis 3:6, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it."  And ever since then husbands and wives have been at odds with each other over the question of who the head of the household really is.  That verse right there, threw the biggest monkey wrench in Mankind's history.  Adam was standing right beside her.  His job was to protect and defend.  He failed.  As my son would say, "Epic fail, Adam!"  The truth hurts.  I've mentioned this point before.  When God handed down the punishment, the curse, for this--the first time man would disobey God, He slips a line into Eve's curse at the very end.  "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over over you." Genesis 3:16  What that really boils down to is this: We are always going to try and steal our man's thunder.  We are always going to want or try to be the dominate one, the alpha-dog, the big cheese--call it whatever you will, in our households.  Girls, we cannot fall into that trap.  Now, I told you that story, so that I could tell you this one:

This past Sunday, as we were getting ready to walk out the door for church, my sweet husband looks at me and says, "Woman! I'm running low on socks!"  Okay.  Let's hit the pause button right there.  First of all, he never calls me "Woman" unless he's kidding (or possibly has a death wish).  Secondly, he had no idea--I woke up cranky.  Enter the last line of Eve's curse.  The events that unfolded throughout the rest of that day (and into the next--if the truth be told), had my children, my dogs, and poor husband diving for cover.  I proceeded to tell Jeff where he could put the washer, and what he could do with the mountain of dirty socks.  Alpha-dog.  Big Cheese.  Bad Attitude.  At the end of the day (on Monday) I had to apologize to just about everyone I knew, beg forgiveness and pray that God would help me control myself.

Has that ever happened to you?  You see, way back in the Garden, after God handed down an incredibly stiff punishment to Adam and Eve, He promised them a Savior.  True, they had gotten themselves into a right unholy mess.  However, God was not going to leave His children there indefinitely.  He won't leave you in your mess indefinitely, either.  He's promised and provided that Savior.  Jesus' sacrifice takes my curse and makes it clean.  His Holy Spirit provides the filter that sits over my mouth and prevents me from saying everything that I want to.  Some days He has to work harder than others!  Do you feel like today or this week or this year, that your curse is getting the better of you?  God won't leave you there forever.  He loves you too much.  Even though the forbidden fruit looked tasty, I'm sure...the fruit that God has to offer is so much better!  Have a blessed day!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

My email address is changing.  I will moving to a new website in the next few weeks.  So, please update my email in your address books!  My new email is DALLAS@DALLASLOUIS.COM  I will let you know when the site goes live, so you can visit it.  It's not up yet, we are still in the designing phase.  But, I'm really excited about it.  However, the email is up and running.  Your next Thought will most likely come from this new address!  Please pray that the transition goes smoothly.

My Twitter name has already changed!  We did that yesterday.  Please follow me on Twitter!!  Most of you know, I'm technically challenged. But my new Twitter name is DallasLouis  Hopefully all of you who use Twitter are much more skilled than I am at following people!  Please tell your friends to FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER!

And last, but now least...I've been asked to HOST MY OWN RADIO SHOW!! Please pray for me.  There is a new Internet radio station call WOW (Women of the World) and the programming is all for women and about women.  It hasn't launched yet.  We are hoping to get it up and going in the next couple of weeks.  My show is called WAITIN' ON NAPTIME, and it is geared toward family and kiddo issues.  It will run four times a week, at various times.  I am beside myself thinking and watching how God is moving in my life!  The station's web address is www.wowradionetwork.com  Eventually we will have Iphone and Android apps for the station as well.  I will keep you all posted about when we go live!  Please pray for me as I begin this new phase of ministry.