God is Like Donuts Devotion

Good Monday morning!

What a weekend! The Showcase Pic is of Roxie and friends goofing off after the Pageant. As you can tell, they had a pretty good time.

The Gallery Pics are Pageant Pics, After-Pageant Pics, Day-After Pageant Pics and a little JSU Lovin' with Josh. So you would think that was our weekend, wouldn't you? But you would be wrong. So very, very wrong.

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! After much thought, I have decided the Contest winners celebrating my 300th post of A Simple Life will be awarded their very own Mystery Bag Party. That's right! We had such a good time in October, I have decided to have another Mystery Bag Party in January... and the six women who will accompany me on this "journey" will be selected from the women who enter the contest.

Just leave your name under my Comment Section, on Facebook or my e-mail with the word "CONTEST" beside it, and I will put your name in the bowl. I will draw SIX NAMES December 18... the day of my 300th post. You have a little over a month to enter. It will be a very fun party! I've also changed things a little from the first party, so it will be unique and different. I'll be reminding you once a week or so until December 18, so go ahead and get your name in today! A good time will be had by all who win!

Monday Mayhem

I'm hoping to get to something of substance in this post, but we'll just have to see. I have dull, but entertaining to me, stories to tell... and tell them I will!

Thursday afternoon around 4:45, I broke my tooth eating an Arby's sandwich. I was in immediate pain (not severe, but worrisome). I have never had a toothache before, and I was going for a record. The "No toothache until I'm 80 or dead... whichever comes first" record. I immediately called my dentist who said he would see me first thing Friday morning.

I showed up 10 minutes before opening time Friday morning, and he took me back right away. I was lucky. I didn't need a root canal, but I did need a crown (an earthly crown).

But wait, there's more! This wasn't your ordinary broken tooth/get a crown scenario. Oh, no. Something was wrong with the bone under the tooth, so I have to go to a periodontist and have my bone scraped BEFORE they can fix the tooth and give me the permanent crown.

You know that verse, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Sometimes, I think my life verse should read, "I am freakishly and wonderfully made." I just don't fit the norm.

"How long will that bone shaving thing last," I asked.

"Not long. About an hour," the dentist replied.

Now I'm new to all this, but bone shaving for an hour sounds like a long time. PLUS, it sounded painful, too, so I asked another question. "Will I be put to sleep during this procedure?"

"Well, we have a lot of drugs like Novocaine which we usually use, but I guess I could request that for you."

"Yeah. I'm going to need you to put in that request RIGHT AWAY. Very important. Mark it URGENT."

What I haven't told you is when he was giving me Novocaine shots before he drilled near the nerve, he kept asking if I could feel anything... and until I felt my left eye close, I kept saying, "Yes." The numbness finally left me completely today. But bone shaving? That just screams "Put me to sleep."

I left his office with a temporary crown and the promise of not one, but two, very miserable dental visits this week.

Is there anything "glass half full" to this story? He must have felt sorry for me because he gave me 16 Loritabs. Good dentist. Good, good dentist. (Now I've only used 2 1/2, but just knowing I have them gives me some peace of mind.)

Tooth problems aside, the rest of Saturday was very much pageant-oriented. Hair, make-up and interviews in the afternoon with the Pageant itself beginning at 6:00 in the evening. The girls all looked so beautiful and grown up. It would have been impossible for me to pick a winner. At the end when they announced the Top Ten, I wanted to yell, "Pick ten more!" It just wasn't enough. To all the winners AND participants, I just want to say I was very proud of you... and I'm glad it's over for another year.

Austin and Josh were very good brothers, and after driving in from the JSU game they sat through 1 hour and 45 minutes of the Pageant before Miss Congeniality and the Top Ten were announced... thus missing 1 hour and 45 minutes of the Auburn game. Roxie's name was called for Miss Congeniality, and as soon as she received her award, Mike texted the boys in the back of the auditorium to tell them they could slip out. He started chuckling, and I looked over to read a text he had received from Josh. "We're already gone." If only Auburn could have won to reward them for being good brothers, but that obviously was not to be.

Sunday was spent at church, taking more pictures, more church and The Amazing Race. Typical Sunday, but an extremely beautiful November day.

Speaking of Sunday, yesterday morning Pastor Kevin preached a sermon on Jonah and the whale, and I realized which Bible character I am most like... Jonah. No doubt about it. I AM Jonah. (For a long time, I was afraid I was more similar to Job's wife, so as you can imagine, this was a relief for me.)

To prove my point, beginning tomorrow I am going to re-tell The Pigeon Story. It's been awhile and if you've heard it before, feel free to skip... but if you're a Newbie, I think you'll see the similarities between me and Mr. Jonah quite clearly.

God is Like Donuts Devotion

This devotion comes straight from Object Talks That Teach the Gospel by Zach Hapeman. I chose it for today's Party/Event/Devotion because it teaches thankfulness in an unique (and delicious) way.

Theme: When we only see the bad in life, it's because we have forgotten how much greater the good is.

Supplies: At least two donuts of varying sizes. Most grocery stores carry small sugar donuts that can be dwarfed by any donut from a donut shop.

Point: Compare the holes in two donuts. The bigger the hole, the bigger the donut. Same way with God. When we are focused on what's missing in our lives and the troubles we bear, we often forget what's not missing. God is like donuts because the more difficulty we have, the more present he is. The bigger the hole in our lives; the bigger the donut God holds out for us.

Do you ever feel like nothing is going your way, like the whole world is out to get you? Have you ever had a bad day? Have you ever gotten up in the morning and just felt like being blue, kind of sad?

I think it is easy for us to look more at the bad things in our lives than the good things. We always notice the bad things that happen to us. We always notice when we hurt ourselves or lose a favorite toy, or when we get into an argument with a friend. But we don't always notice the good things in our lives, like the fact that God, the Creator of the universe, has a special place in his heart just for us.

The Bible tells us that because God loves us so much, he has created a great reward for us in heaven. So we should rejoice and be glad... not glum and full of sadness.

We have the biggest, best, most powerful and awesome person on our side -- God. How often when we're feeling bad do we forget that?

I think God is like donuts. (Pull out a small donut.) We are always looking at the hole, saying, "I wish I had more of this," and "I never have anything good happen to me." But the whole time we look at the hole, we forget about everything that is around that hole: all the blessings God has given us in our families, our friends, our health and best of all, our Savior Jesus Christ and the reward we have in heaven.

Now that's all fine and good, but here is the best thing about having God in our lives: (Pull out a big donut.) The bigger the hole, the more donut there is to be thankful for. We forget that as God's children, he is blessing and protecting us even more when times are bad. When we're feeling like the whole word is crashing down, that's when God really gets close and says: "Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven." We have much to be thankful for!

After your devotion, pray with your family thanking God for all your blessings. Finish this devotion by having a big, cold glass of milk with one of the donuts you didn't use for the illustration!

Have a lovely Monday. I may or may not be having my bone scraped. I'll let you know tomorrow. I've got a great dessert to try for Thanksgiving Tuesday, and don't forget The Pigeon Story. I can tie everything in with this past Sunday's sermon very neatly, I think.

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda