I Heard This Today ...

You Tell On Yourself.

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek
By the manner in which you speak
By the way you employ your leisure time
By the way you make use of your dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the clothes you wear
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear
By the kinds of things at which you laugh
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You show what you are by the way you walk
By the subjects of which you like to talk
By the manner in which you bear defeat
By the foods you choose and the way you eat
By the books you select from the library shelf.

In these ways and others you tell on yourself
So there is not a bit of common sense
In trying to keep up a false pretense.






Marie Losavio

Celebrating Papa

During the weekend of January 19-20, my grandfather, Rev. Gene Horton (aka: Papa) and the Rio Hondo Baptist Church will be celebrating his 40th anniversary as pastor there. Our entire family will be together along with many friends from around the country, gathering to celebrate all that God has done in him and through him over the last 40 years. I have been sharing with a few friends recently what a huge milestone this is and how eager I am to be a part of this time with my grandfather. There is no way that we will ever be able to count this side of eternity the impact that his faithfulness in ministry at the Rio Hondo Baptist Church has had around the world.
Papa is the most faithful prayer warrior that I know, and I believe the secret to God's blessing over the longevity of his ministry and the secret to the well-being of our family has been the hours he spends calling our names out before the Lord. It's an incredible thing to know with all my heart that there has not been a single day of my life that Papa has not prayed for me, specifically, by name, with specific petitions. I am utterly convinced that much of who I am today and the ministry that God has allowed me to have is due in huge part to those prayers on my behalf.
So, I've been thinking a lot about how in the world I am going to do my part to express to Papa how thankful I am for his life and ministry and demonstrate (at least in part) the impact it's had on me. That's where you come in. Because so much of who I am comes from his influence in my life, if you've been touched or impacted in anyway by me, you're also part of his legacy.
What I want to do for Papa is collect from you any stories, quotes, thoughts about scripture or Christian living, etc., that you've have heard from me. I'd love it if you can think of things I've told you specifically about him over the time we've been friends, but even if it's just something memorable you've learned from me, it probably originated with him in some way, shape, or form.
I know the celebration is still a couple of months off, but I'd love to start assembling this special project very soon. So, please, take a minute or two even now to stop and send me your thoughts about this.
40 years ago, Papa was a 33 year old man, married with 3 kids. He had seen the Rio Grande Valley devastated by hurricane Beulah and felt compelled to move there and minister to the people there. I don't think he had any clue what God would do over the next 40 years, that his children and their spouses and their children and now, even his great-grandchildren would call Rio Hondo home. I don't think we'll ever know how many people have heard and responded to his simple presentations of the gospel week in and week out, from his pulpit and through his weekly television broadcasts. How I pray that we'd be so faithful.

Thanksgiving

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to stop and really give thought to the ways God has been insanely good to me in the last year and throughout my life. So, without further explanation, here are my ABC's of Thanksgiving for 2007:

A: Appendage Friends
B: Breaking Free
C: CCWJC, Crazy or Jesus moments, and my Chauffer (Erin)
D: D'Ann (especially unscheduled Monday visits)
E: Eleven Fingered Charlie
F: Freedom Writers
G: Godly parents
H: Holly Lake, Hannah
I: Isaiah 43
J: Jonah 2:8
K: Kindness that leads me to repentance
L: LittleHead (BigHead and LoveHead, too)
M: Mimi
N: Nephew (and Niece) Cousins, Nu Thangs
O: Online Florists
P: Podcasts
Q: Quiet Time Chair
R: Roses on my birthday
S: Super Group, Sibling Friends, Speaker of the Truth
T: Tuesday's at JJ's, Taryn's influence
U: Umbrellas of Grace
V: Volunteers!, Veronica, and Valerie!
W: Wonder Women (and Wonder Dave)
X: eXamples of Courage
Y: [YOOJ] and Yupp's
Z: Zephaniah 3:17

I Like My Eggs Scrambled

In the movie "The Runaway Bride" Richard Gere's character confronts Julia Roberts' on the issue of how she orders her eggs. He points out that each of her previous fiance's told him that she liked her eggs just like he did because she never bothered to have her own opinion, just ordered whatever the person she was with at the time preferred. I remember being facinated as I watched that scene and the one later in the movie where she goes into a diner, orders several different plates of eggs, tries them all the triumphantly proclaims exactly how she prefers her eggs. You see, I've always been more than a little bit of a geek, and particularly in my teen and younger adult years, I did my best to hide that by going along with what others deemed "cool" rather than just owning up to my own preferences. As I've matured, it's still difficult to be honest about the fact that I hate loud music, prefer to be in bed by 10:00 p.m., and genuinely enjoy breakfast meetings - oh, and country music!, but I haven't come across anyone yet who rejected me or my friendship over any of my goofy preferences. I had a conversation about this with a dear friend the other night, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Ginger wrote a blog last week about the things she loves but can't necessarily explain. Maybe it's something like that. And, maybe we posts lists like these in a place like this because we want to be known for who we really are. If you say you love me, I want you to love my inner geek as well. ;-) She's the one that likes to read way more than she likes to watch movies or television. She's the one that listens to sports talk radio and live broadcasts of games during football season. The one who checks the weather forecast and plans accordingly. The one who looks everything up on google maps and has more addresses, zip codes, and phone numbers memorized than she'd ever admit. She likes reading the newspaper and researches most of her purchases online. She enjoys any opportunity to take notes and try out new office supplies. She gets a kick out of scripture memory contests, and prefers just about any group activity to watching movies with a room full of people. She hates roller coasters, but rides them for the bonding experience. She kinda hates girls nights, except about three times a year and only when it includes doing something out of the ordinary. She likes singing, a lot, especially pop songs and old hymns. :-\