It’s Jana (not Janet or Hannah, it’s Jana)

Today my sister, Jana Beth Hooten, will celebrate her birthday!  I will not tell you how old she is; just that she’s older than me!

Growing up, my sister and I could fight with the best of them.  We had some knock down drag outs!  However, we were always quick to stick up for each other if anyone else tried to hurt the other one.  We would stand strong and not dare let the enemy breach our camp.

When I was younger, my family had some weird rules, which sounds scary but considering that we are no longer like that, it’s a lot less frightening then it sounds.  You can search and search the Word of God and never find anything to back most of these rules.  They were rules like: women are not to wear pants (because riding a horse or a bike in a skirt is much more modest, and yes, I did both in my young childhood). Men were not to have long hair (this just made men look like women as did the pants on women make them look like men).  There were a lot of other rules, but I find these two rules particularity interesting.  I mean did they (they=whoever made up these rules) think that if men had long hair and women wore pants that we would all get confused and have to start asking, “I’m sorry, I see that you have pants on, but I’m not entirely clear, are you a man or a woman?”

Brian, Jana & Amber (no idea what my bro is doing in this pic)

Well, when I was about 8 years old I had on a snazzy pair of culottes (no, that’s not a typo, that’s a real word).  Culottes are basically a skirt with a split down the middle.  I remember these culottes well, they were thick fabric and they were bright yellow-I know they just keep getting better and better.  Well, I loved to ride my bike and I could fly on that thing.  It was blue with a banana seat and streamers on the handle bars and yes, you guessed it a white basket on the front completed this amazing bicycle!  Well, one day I was out riding my bike and some older neighborhood girls came over and started picking on me and my culottes.  I didn’t even know that my sister was outside but before I knew it, there she was standing tall right beside me in her amazing culottes.  A heavenly glow shone down on her and I promise there were angels singing.  She was my savior!  She looked at these girls, named Tawnya and Valerie (the mean girls of the neighborhood) and told them to, and I quote, “Leave my sister ALONE!” They responded with “Whatever. Hey did y’all know that we were on TV?” We had no idea where that came from.  Looking back I suppose it was their sad attempt to make themselves look cool.  Well that’s when my sister said IT!  She looked them both up and down and said “Yeah, I saw you on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.”  BAM!  THROW DOWN! Yes, we did realize later that this revealed to them that we actually watched Mr. Rogers, but in the moment, it was awesome!  They didn’t know how to respond and so they just walked away!

My sister stood up for me.  My sister was proud to stand next to me and tell the world (okay well, just two neighborhood girls) that I was her sister and that she loved me and that she would defend me against anyone who messed with me!  I went from feeling low and embarrassed to feeling like we could rule the world, or maybe just our street!

I want to encourage you all to love your family!  They may not always be easy to love but they’re the only one you have and remember the more that you put into any relationship the more you’ll get out of it.  Remember the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.  Love the ones that God has given you!

To my sister, I say Happy Birthday, thank you for being in tune with Mr. Rogers and thank you for always standing up for me!  I love you!

Me and Jana looking cool!

Blinkers & Dreams

A blinker tells people on the road that you’re about to make a move.  What are you doing in your personal, spiritual & professional life that tells people you’re about to make a move?

I have a good friend who is obsessed with blinkers.  She hates it when other drivers don’t use them and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen her not use her blinkers at the appropriate times.  *She has what is known as BOCD (Blinker Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It’s a serious condition that affects 0.0003 of all Americans.  This disorder affects no one in the great state of Texas, and that is where my friend currently lives.  She just believes that we have blinkers for a reason so use them.  I have to admit, since I’ve become friends with her, I do find myself using my blinkers a lot more than I used to.  I guess riding with her and hearing her complain about other drivers has affected me more than I realized.  I also have a Volkswagen Jetta and VW did something very interesting with their cars.  It’s something that might help someone with BOCD – if I tap my blinker it will blink three times – giving me just enough time to change lanes.  I find myself using my blinker a lot when lane changing now that I have that feature in my car!  Well played V’dub, well played!

As I was driving the other day, and blinkering (is that a word?) my way around town, I thought to myself about the blinker.  It lets other cars know that I’m about to move – either turn or change lanes.  What am I doing in my life to let other people know the same thing?  Am I living my life in such a way that others could understand if I came to them with a big dream or a big idea and told them that I am about to make a move?

We all have people in our lives who seem relativity unmotivated (and no doubt they probably never use their blinker).  These people are the ones who would shock us, give us a heart attack and possibly make us pee our pants if they ever started talking about turning a dream that they have into a reality.  Most of the time, these people are complacent and they are okay with average. 

I’ve decided, in my life, that I don’t want to be average.  I want to be awesome.  The Bible tells me in Psalm 139 that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  The way I see it, if God thinks I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I better do something for Him with all this wonderfulness!  It’s not okay to just sit around never dreaming and it’s not okay to dream and not try with everything that you have to not make that dream come true!

A blinker is really not for the person in the car, it’s for the people in cars around her car.  It’s letting them know that she is about to change lanes or turn.  When you turn on your turn signal you are recognizing that you’re not the only person on the road and you are showing respect for those around you (okay I may have gone a little far with that, but you get the idea).  Other people are waiting for me to make my dream a reality!  People who love me and care about me, they want to see my dreams come true.  Then there are others (no, not “The Others” on LOST) who will benefit from my dream, they’re just waiting for my (turn) signal!

So, let’s do this people!  Let’s dream big for God and use all the talents and skillz (yes, that’s with a “Z” because I know they’re mad skillz) that God has given us for his glory!  It’s time to signal and let people know that you’re moving.  For some it might just be a change of lanes, others you may need to make a turn and for others it might be making a full u-turn.  Whatever the case may be, let’s move and let’s dream!

God has given me a huge dream in recent days and I’m excited to see what he has in store. 

*Blinker facts and spastics are not true and are completely made up for your reading enjoyment)