Okay, I admit it. As the Founder of the Boomer Babes Rock Blog I am a pitiful example of consistent blogging. Our team of amazing boomer babe bloggers get all the credit for keeping our Technorati search engine placement so high on the Blogosphere and I am forever indebted to them.
They’re the brains of the outfit…I’m merely the blonde…and a fake one at that! In fact, I just received a new book written by my dear friend Sue Buchanan titled: The Bigger the Hair the Closer to God. My kind of book.
But seriously…I do my best to stay on top of what is being posted by our team…even if it’s sometimes a few days (okay, so maybe it’s sometimes a week or two) between my posts and comments.
I’ve spent the last several hours (yes, I really mean that…hours) reading prior BBR posts and comments and writing my own comments and praying over the writers and the comment community. And yes, I’ve been feeling a bit of anxiety and anguish over my son being in jail during this holiday season…but through it all you know what I came away thinking about?
You wanna know? Really?
I came away thinking of how amazing it is that God works to orchestrate all the “stuff” of life. You know what I mean? How He gives us insight at the right time, the words we need to hear at the right time, the people in our path we need to see at the right time. All of it. He’s involved in all of our life—not just some of it and not just on Sundays or just on holidays.
And I came away thanking God for the ability to be vulnerable. For the ability to be transparent when we’re tired of the pretense. Suze wrote in her November 30th post titled “Comment Envy” that as writers we live in a solitary world, and she’s right. I spend days…sometimes weeks when the only person I see is my husband or the grocer. Then we have the times when we’re on the speaking trail and back to back events and interviews and appointments keep us busy and needing to be “on.”
Being “on” does not necessarily mean being vulnerable, or transparent. Or letting our guard down when the weight of holding it up and together becomes too much to bear.
Which brings me to the point I initially wanted to make.
Do you know what is happening all over the country in the world of blogging—all over the world, actually? It’s not just about the blogs being posted. It’s not just about the writers. It’s about the community being built around the comment portion of the blogs that is taking off like wildfire. It’s about the friends, family, strangers, and one-time visitors who happen by – who are building a grassroots movement that has, quite frankly, just begun to take off on the Boomer Babes Rock Blog.
Everywhere we turn we see fellow boomer babes (and boomer dudes as well) who are hurting from mental and physical anguish. We see families being torn apart and lives lost in a world gone mad. Yet here…in our protected cyber-environment…we can openly share the love of the Lord. We can walk our life journey alongside anyone who cares to read what we’ve written.
And we can encourage others to share their journey with us as well.
What is being written by the amazing women on this Boomer Babes Rock Blog is life wisdom and insight in its purest and most blessed form. God brought this team of writers together under this umbrella for a reason and the coming year is going to see a groundswell of lives being changed as more and more readers are touched and empowered by the Holy Spirit …as the Spirit comes through the voices of our writers and the voices of the “Comment Community” being brought together from around the world.
And so, dear readers, I encourage you to please share this blog link with your family and friends. If you have a newsletter or a blog of your own, please place a link to our site and encourage your readers to visit us.
I’ve been blessed this day as I’ve read the posts written over the past week. I know many others are being blessed as well. My challenge to all of us this coming year is to pray for readers from the four corners of the earth to visit our Boomer Babes Rock Blog. To become a part of our growing community. To grow closer to the God of Abraham who in all His wisdom has our highest and best interests at heart. Who loves us with an unconditional love that can bring hope and healing to a heart in need.
And that’s what’s on my mind today.
PS: For those of you who want to send my son a card or a letter, you can write to Christopher at the address below. He will be in jail throughout the holiday season. But don’t send stamps or packages, and make sure to put your full name and address on the card or letter itself, as they remove the envelopes from any mail received. He is a 36-year-old “young Christian” and welcomes spirit-filled, encouraging, and inspiring communication.
Christopher Smith
RCJ
P.O. Box 158
Faribault, MN 55021
12 Comments
We’re about ready to go to my son’s house for a Christmas party (one of the perks of being a boomer mom; they invite you to their parties). And then I read your post and was overwhelmed with what it must be like not to be able to go to parties, to celebrate with others, and to be with family. Okay, the tears are dripping like a faucet and I have to start all over again (wash it off and reapply!). But tears cleanse the soul, and who needs mascara anyway (it’s full of mercury and now it’s banned in the state of Minnesota–aren’t you glad you moved?!). Thanks, Allison, for being so vulnerable and allowing us a window into your soul. Okay, off to put on a new “face”!
Hugs and more hugs…cards are on the way!
Mascara is banned in MN? You’re kidding, right?
Thanks, Connie, for the lovely message. I’m going to be okay. We do have plenty of parties to go to…we’ve met a great many amazing folks here in Texas, and we do have a beloved Aunt and Uncle who live nearby…two sets, actually, so we won’t be totally alone.
Yes, I miss my son, and my heart aches for what he is going through. Yet I know that God will do something miraculous!
Now, go fix that face and have a blast! You are dearly loved.
Allison, I want to thank you for putting together your website and while your ladies are the ones keeping it “rockin’” you have given it energy and heart. In leadership being vulnerable is such a tricky balance–if you bear your soul with too much heaviness, you can discourage those you lead, if you don’t bear your soul, you can appear unemotional and removed. I am so impressed with how you are able to balance leadership, vulnerability and spiritual encouragement. Thank you for sharing your heart and thank you for encourage others like me.
I also want to tell you that your website was our inspiration for blogging and we set it up in like manner because we were so encouraged by your site. Although we are not having much success with people responding, the ladies are loyally writing and working to be an encouragement to others in a similiar way. so thank you for your inspiration and passions.
Finally YES!!!! God will show your son His miraculous presence. With 5 sons myself I can so relate to what you are dealing with and I have seen the hand of God in WONDERFUL ways as a result.
Merry Christmas!!!
Allison, I’ll be sending your son a card. I was separated from my parents for 15 years, so I understand just a smidge of your heartbreak. There have been many times, as a parent, that I’ve wondered what it would be like if my children were in a situation like your son’s, or if they decided, as adults, to write me off. We’ve had quite a bit of adult children writing off parents in my and my husband’s families. Thinking about my kids making that decision has given me compassion and grace with family. But like your decision to let your son pay the consequences for his actions, I’ve chosen to let some family members live with their decisions, putting distance between us.
It is hard to think that no matter how much I love and do as a parent, my kids are individuals, capable of hurting me, and that I have and will mess up, making future misery for them. I hate that thought. But when I look at so many of the biblical greats, then look at their kids … we don’t control our own futures, much less our children’s. And then I look at the life of Judah, the MESS he made of his life, selling Joseph, living with that guilt, short changing his daughter-in-law, Tamar, then she bears his children. WOW. And what happens? God blesses him, he’s a Lion, a multiple great grandfather of David and Jesus. God CHOSE him to be.
It sounds like God has also chosen your son. That’s fantastic! You have much to be thankful for.
Thank you, Denise and Flea for your words of love and encouragement. Wow! Words cannot express how you have blessed me this day. Truly, God is in this place as He has brought us together for “such a time as this.” Thank you again. Thanks you.
And, Denise, what is your blog URL? Please share it with us.
Allison, I will also send your son a card. I’ll pray that God works his miracles thorugh him in 2008. THis could be his year to grasp the gospel, and what a blessing that will be to all his loved ones, especially his mom who has probably been praying for this for years.
Allison, I’ll send a card to your son today. I have a young woman, who I dearly love, in my life who is sitting behind those cold cyderblock walls and unyielding steel doors this Christmas. It’s so hard to watch and my husband and I have discussed bailing her out many times, but those from whom we’ve sought counsel have advised us to let her remain there, and knowing we are way too emotionally connected to the situation, we’ve decided to follow the wisdom we’ve been given. It’s hard, but we’d be fools to go against the wisdom of many.
I will also pray for your son as I pray for my Sarah. I’ll pray that this will be the last time they have to be held captive by their bad choices and wandering hearts, and that for the first time, they will be wholeheartedly captivated by the only One Who can truly set them free.
Warm hugs and blessings to you from chilly Philly.
Thank you Allison for asking. Our URL is http://www.christlifementoring.org. Hopefully, it will be a joy to someone here as well.
Merry Christmas from Michigan!
What a beautiful post; required reading for anyone who is breathing!
I came by BBR to check in…and once again, I was more than blessed by my visit. You have a mighty thing goin’ on here….even if there is that nasty rumor about “mascara being banned in Minnesota” !!!! As I live and breathe…and sit by my fireplace in Minnesota….I can attest…it is just a rumor. Although–I have seen a few drooping jeans that should be banned when I picked up my son from school today!
I will send your son another card this Christmas Season…..I hope he received the letter I sent while we were in Ireland. Thanks for offering his address and letting us minister to him. It is a blessing to send him support and encouragement.
God Bless you this first Holiday Season in your new home. May your heart be comforted and filled with joy….knowing that our God not only works in Cyberspace….He lives in our hearts! You are so right….this blogging thing is so much more than an internet connection–it has the power to connect lives for Jesus.
Blessings!
Diane
Hi Allison,
It was good to hear from you on your blog
I just picked up a special Christmas card for your son. It will be in the mail later today. Your famliy is in my thoughts and prayers.
In Christ,
Susan Kelly Skitt
Contributing Author, God Allows U-Turns for Women
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1,2
P.S. Allison, I never heard of the word “blog” until I wrote for U-Turns. It’s been quite an amazing adventure for the last year writing my own blog. My hope and prayer, like yours, is to reach people with the love and hope that only Jesus Christ can bring.
Have a blessed Christmas!
Allison, I’m sorry that your son is spending this holiday in jail, and for the heartbreak of a mom, but I’m also encouraged by your open love and hope and faith in the midst of the situation. I truly love you, friend.
Suzie Eller