MyLeslieNotebook

Yesterday, my six-year-old son had a complete meltdown in Kroger for this very important reason: his four-year-old sister got on front of the cart to ride through the parking lot, and he wanted to be on the front of the cart.  (If you know my kids, this sounds perfectly legitimate. Right?) I mean, he was wailing and making a complete spectacle of himself. I took away the sucker he had gotten at the bank and made him stand next to Customer Service while I checked out. That way, maybe people would think he was just a lost child and not mine. (I AM KIDDING. A little. KIDDING!) When we got in the car, I gave him a speech worthy of a king. I told him, not so much in bullet form, but these main points: Your life is amazing. You have too many things to be happy about. You need to consider your entire life and how this one event  really affects it. [Not much.] You don't get your sucker back until you tell me 10 things you're thankful for. It took a while to get going on

[WARNING: This post contains links to some amazing  videos. If you click on one, you will want to click on more. It's recommended you don't start watching  all of them until you have some time to kill. CONTROL YOURSELF. Just watch the 2 that I link to!] I found out about Devin Super Tramp years ago with this  video . Completely amazing, right? He finds people doing crazy things and manages to put them on video perfectly to music.  Well, recently I came across this one . Please watch it right now. My first reaction was, "I WANT TO DO THAT!!!" It looked so fun! But over the next several days I kept contemplating that there was some deeper meaning of that video for me. And then it hit me: It's the perfect visual for Psalm 119:32 , which says, "I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free," (NIV) "I will run in the way of thy commandments, When thou shalt enlarge my heart," (ASV) "I will [not merely walk, but r

There are too many goodbyes around me right now.  My parents' church is greatly responsible for who I am today. I grew up going to every single service there. I was led to Christ in that church. I made lifelong relationships with that church. I loved SO many things about that church.  But the person I most associate with that church is the meek and mild pastor who came there 27 years ago and SET IT ON FIRE spiritually. He led that church from a congregation of a few hundred when I was in 4th grade to something like 1600 a week now. Yesterday was his last sermon. (You can--and should--watch it here .) He's retiring :(  And though I have been only a visitor in that church for 15 years, I am going to miss him. I wish I had the opportunity to review all his sermons. I wish I had learned Hebrew from him. This goodbye is not final, but it's hard. Then one of my favorite people in the whole world just moved to Florida. She is one of those girls who brought out the best in