Lego My Potential!

My oldest son is quite the artist, especially for a 7 year old, and with that talent comes great confidence in his ability.  Unfortunately, when he is in Art class, that confidence contributes to doing his own thing instead of listening to the teacher.  

While I want him to have confidence, I don’t want him to miss out on getting better because he doesn’t think he needs to learn new techniques.  He has a stubborn streak a mile wide that he comes by naturally from both his mother and me, which often leads to not listening to us when trying new foods or experiences.  So this morning after a meltdown during lunch, a conversation about potential came about.  

We had built some spaceships with legos and they were still out and on the floor of the living room.  Big D asked what potential was, so I went and grabbed a handful of legos.  I said,”These legos have potential to be a cool spaceship, if I choose to put them together.  Potential is for nothing if we don’t act on it.”

I then told him we are like a single lego brick, we have the potential to be a part of something great, or we have the potential to get lost under the couch. To be a part of something great, we often need others to help us build on who we are.  Yes we need to be who God made us to be, BUT that often takes listening to others, even when we think we have the answers.  

Even as adults, we let potential get lost under the couch, because we get too busy working a job, or checking Facebook, or reading blogs (oh the irony.)  I believe that we all have potential to do great things. God has given us life and gifts and talents, and I don’t believe His plan was to give us these things so that they can sit on the bench. 

Ultimately, God is the master builder.  We hear this from King David in Psalm 139:13-15.  HE created our inmost being, HE knit us together in our mother’s womb,  we ARE fearfully and wonderfully made. He builds upon our lives, so that we can be a part of greater things and sometimes He builds on our lives using others, to teach us, to guide us, to love us, to make us stronger.

So back to my lesson with D, I began to use bricks that represented some of the people that would potentially, positively influence his life, and I built a small plane.  I told him, if you listen to those that teach and want to help you, you will create more awesome things, experience cooler adventures, and be a part of something greater than you could ever imagine.  

As we have been Reinventing the Blackwells, potential has awakened in our lives.  We are no longer going to sit by and let it pass or sit and sour.  WE  have chosen to allow God  to build upon our lives, we are listening, and ready for the new experiences God is bringing to us.

Remember the Bull

The Bull

We just got back from an amazing vacation. We travelled from East Texas to New Mexico, to Colorado.  Our first stop on our trip out west was Glorieta, NM, an encampment Robin and I grew up going to for youth camp.  This time, we went to Family Camp, a camp put together by the people of Glorieta geared towards families as a whole.  It was amazing; there were tons of different outdoorsy things to do; like mountain biking, mountain scootering, archery tagging, and much, much more.  Every night we had worship, and every morning we had bible study and family time.  We made wonderful new friendships that I'm confident will last a lifetime.  They even snuck in a date night for the parents.  It was truly one of the coolest experiences we, as a family, have ever been a part of.  I would undoubtedly advise anyone given the chance to go to Glorieta, go!  We grew closer as a family, and learned more so to trust God in all things.

On Thursday, they threw us a hootenanny of sorts, with tons of games, and BBQ, on the side of a mountain near a big red barn.  As I was walking around, keeping an eye and ear out for my children, I saw the coolest stick gun ever, simply a stick that had the perfect shape to be used as a pistol, and so I picked it up and put it in my pocket.  Daily at Family camp, we would have a craft to do with our children to help bring the lesson home.  This particular day, we had to create burden blocks.  Basically, we would write our worries, our concerns, and/or our burdens on this wooden block then carry it with us all day.  It was a symbol of how the things we senselessly worry about hold us back or weigh us down.  At the end of the hootenanny, there was a ceremony to burn our blocks, to represent giving our cares to God. Well my oldest gets attached to things quickly, especially if it is something he created.  So just like his drawings, he got attached to this block.  He all out refused to burn the block, to the point of almost making a scene, and it got worse, he didn’t want us to burn our blocks either.  I took a knee beside him, and told him that these blocks represent pain that is keeping us from our best.  Which reminded me of how WE as adults are with our burdens, as if to say we don’t want to give up our pain that we KNOW, in exchange for the future we don’t know. 

Sometimes it’s laziness that keeps us from our best but other times it’s fear.  Fear that we don’t know what’s next.  Fear that the next step will be hard, or take us out of our comfort zone.  With much reluctance, Dodge finally came to the fire pit. Away from the fire, I told him he didn’t have to throw it in, but that I really thought he should.  I threw mine in, and then Truett followed suit, as well as Robin.  Then I looked over and saw Dodge sitting closer to the fire, and could tell he was thinking about letting go.  So he looked at the fire, and went to toss the block, and the string caught his finger and the block went behind his head.  I thought for certain that was it, but he went, picked it up and tossed it in. I pulled him aside immediately and hugged him and told him how proud I was of him. You could tell he was upset, and then I remembered the AWESOME stick gun in my pocket.  I pulled it out and handed it too him.  I told him, “ This is The Bull, the gun that killed the evil mountain goat.” He grinned from ear to ear.  I then told him, Dodge this represents what happens when we give God our burdens.  He replaces it with good. 

It was an amazing object lesson, which happened in the moment.   Pretty cool how God works.  To finish out the week we had to come up with a family motto, so we painted, Trust God All Things, then off to the side, Remember the Bull.  I asked Dodge a couple of days ago, what that meant, and he told me that it represents that when we trust God in everything and give him the hard stuff, he’ll take care of us.

God is bigger than our burdens, and sometimes we don’t realize just what that means.  Until we fully realize that, we’ll never fully experience what God has in store. 

 Thank you Glorieta staff, and Josh Baker, y’all were a blessing!

Check them out at Glorieta.org.

Sleep is a gift from God too!

This may come as a surprise to my family and friends, but I am not a morning person. I know, I know, I am always so cheerful in the morning, right???  I should be on Good Morning, America!  Maybe this isn't completely true....I'm not sure I hide my disdain for getting out of bed so well...  As soon as he hears me stirring, my husband pours the coffee and holds it outstretched, looking at the ground, avoiding eye contact...I thought he was just being sweet, but it may be due to my winning morning attitude....

Mornings are a blessing from God, so why do I have such a hard time with them???  Well, one reason is, I am a night owl.  I get it from my mom. I do believe we both could clean an entire house, finish a school project and write a blog all after 8 pm!  This, however, does not make for a chipper morning. My husband looks at me like I'm crazy when I get a burst of energy when he is ready for sleep.  I would rather tackle a big project after I put the kids to bed, he would rather start it before they wake up!  Over the years we have learned to split it up when we can. He takes morning shift, I take the evening.

I have had people try to make me feel guilty for liking/needing sleep and/or staying up late and then sleeping in, but I'm over it now. This is how I function. However, I will admit, there have been times I have gotten up early and experienced a beautiful sunrise, time with God before the kids are up, prayer time with my man, and extra coffee!

Therefore, in the spirit of reinvention I am going to be transparent with you. All you crazy morning people, don't judge me!  This summer, I will (try) to actually be out of bed by 8 am. You thought I was going to say 6 am, but let's not get crazy, it is summer, after all!!!  Stephen will already be up, (how did I marry a morning person???:). We want to have our bible study and prayer time together, in the mornings this summer. We want to have time together to plan, pray and talk alone and with our boys. They will be in on family bible study too. We usually do this in the evenings, but we are going to attempt mornings!

Stephen wants to workout in the mornings too, but let's take this one sleepy step at a time...  And, thank you Stephen, for loving your night-owl!

Sleep is a blessing too!
Ecclesiastes 5:12
People who work hard, sleep well!

Mornings!
Psalm 143:8
Let me hear from your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.  Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.

My new mantra....I will.

Yesterday I ran!  Well, jogged and walked... No one was chasing me, except two cute little boys, not random boys, they belong to me.  There wasn't an emergency or anything!  And, today I am sore. I mean, even my feet are sore.  I didn't know that was possible!  I was an athlete back in the day. I remember being sore after a tough workout or long day of tennis, but nothing like approaching 40, overweight, haven't exercised consistently in a very long time kinda sore! 
In reinventing the Blackwells, we realize that it must include all areas of our life, thus the exercise.
Spiritual exercise can be the same. Opening your bible and reading daily, praying with purpose, and seeking God's face can make you spiritually sore, whether you are out of practice or not.  But, oh the rewards will be evident and abundant!  My new mantra is, " I will". I will read, I will study and I will pray over God's word.  I will run, er....jog/walk...  I will NOT make excuses. 
I am physically and spiritually sore!  I am pushing through to be transformed!  Will you join me?
Today...I will, again. 

Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good pleasing and perfect will.

Jim Croce, Cyndi Lauper, and The Rolling Stones walk into a bar... and all they can talk about is time.

As Robin mentioned in the last post, our world over the last 2 years has been rocked, and not in a good way.  But in the last 6 months we’ve been working on moving back toward some normalcy.  For instance, we took last year off of youth sports, and now we are getting the boys involved in some extra curricular activities.  

Our youngest is old enough to start soccer this year, so we plan on getting him and our oldest plugged in to that.  Our oldest signed up for Tae Kwon Doe, Piano, and Basketball.  From the beginning of both TKD and Piano, he has been knockin’ it out, figuratively speaking.  He just has a natural talent for both.  Basketball is another story all together.  When we started, he couldn’t dribble, couldn’t catch a pass, and is truthfully not extremely aggressive, but he does have a natural shot. In basketball though, if you can’t dribble or catch a pass, the likelihood of getting a shot is slim. What we’ve learned is with our busy schedule, it is hard to find time for us to work on basketball.  

The fact that he doesn’t know how to dribble or catch a pass is on me.  I was emotionally scarred in youth sports growing up.  I had coaches that played favorites, and cared only about winning, as opposed to truly teaching fundamentals that younger children need to learn.  Don’t get me wrong, I like winning, but I like playing even more.  So, I let that curb a lot of my enthusiasm for youth sports, I was at the point that I didn’t care if my kids ever played.  Now this blog isn’t about the evils of youth sports,  in fact overall they are good for kids.  This is about my error.  You see the error that I found, was that you can’t find time.  Finding time means, if there is anything left at the end of the day we’ll use that.  What I was seeing was at the end of the day, there was none.  It would either be too dark, too cold, or I’d be too tired.  Then I had a revelation, I needed to make time, not just find it, because I was becoming skilled at finding more excuses than time.

So Monday hit, we have TKD on Mondays, so it’s easy to say we’ve already done something that day, but I decided to ask if he wanted to shoot hoops when we got home. He said yes.  We spent the next hour working on drills. We shot, we laughed, we dribbled, and we passed.  He is getting it.  He’s working hard, and wants to go do that rather than just sit inside and watch TV.  We did the same thing yesterday.  I saw that putting in the practice is helping him to develop.  It’s all about making time.  Then I was hit by another revelation.  Am I making enough time for God?  

Like I said in the beginning, and what our title entails, we are reinventing the Blackwells, and sometimes I have to reevaluate hard things in my life.  I have to admit to mistakes and things that are improperly prioritized.  I get up early everyday, I leave the house by 6 so I can be at work by 7, and then I usually get home by about 4:30.  Then I leave to go take Dodge to TKD.  Then we get home by 6 and usually eat dinner. Play, give baths, and go to bed.  I was struggling to find time to spend with God and we know what happens when we try to find time.  It sounds coarse and irreverent to say I have to make time for God.  A few years back if I read this very blog, and that statement, I would be indignant at someone that “finally decided to make time for God.”  As a Christian, we know that God is our reason for life, so why aren’t we making that time?  I spend time in worship, I spend time in prayer, but as a human I have to make a conscious effort to spend time in the Bible and alone with God.  It’s all about being intentional with our love and walk with God.  Just like I have to be intentional with my walk with my sons.  I have to teach them the fundamentals of basketball, because they are not going to miraculously wake up one morning and know every skill.  I have to be intentional with helping around my home, I can’t say we need to clean the house then go take a nap and expect the cleaning fairies to have made my house spotless.  And in the same way, I can’t expect growth in my relationship with God, if I don’t intentionally listen and put time, and effort into what my savior has for me. Hosea 6:3 says it best:

“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

Our Path

Girl meets boy at youth group. Girl thinks boy is young and goofy (14 months younger seems like a lot at 15), but there is something about him...Boy thinks girl is hot!:). They flirt, a lot. He asks her out, but says she will have to pick him up because he isn't old enough to drive yet...she thinks this is hilarious and laughs...they don't go out then. Fast forward 13 years, as they both live and learn, fail and succeed and grow in Christ. That dorky boy Googled me and asked me out again. This time I say yes. On our first date he says we are getting married. I laugh again, but secretly I think he is the one!  Two months later we are engaged and ten months later the dorky, but hot boy marries me!  I'm very thankful God had a plan bigger than us!  He knew I needed this man's gentleness and strength to walk me through many joys and an extreme heartache. Reinventing the Blackwells comes from a place of really having to trust and know that God is good in all things, even in death.  
     I was sitting on the couch on a beautiful Saturday morning, after a Friday at the lake with our little family and a night of backyard camping. This morning Stephen had made pancakes and we were planning our day. I had texted back and forth some with Zach, my twin brother, about our plans. About 30 minutes later I got two texts in a row from friends. One saying just that they would keep our boys. I told Stephen, "Hey!  This is weird, but we might be getting a date day!"  Then, from another saying they heard about Zach's wreck and were praying for us. I remember just freezing. I instantly knew he was on his motorcycle and this was bad. The rest is a blur. Maybe, Stephen can share that part sometime. Within 10 minutes, I found out my best friend from the very beginning of life, my twin and womb-mate, was dead. Instantly, from a stupid motorcycle wreck. 
      It has been 1 year, 10 months and 13 days. It has been horrible, stressful, and tear-filled, but also it is bringing me to a place of real truth, life evaluation and complete trust in God. A beautiful and scary place. We hope to bring you on this journey with us. The walk isn't easy, but I do believe Romans 8:28, All things work for good for those who know God and are called according to his purpose. 2 Corinthians 1:3 tells me God is a God of comfort, and I can testify to that.  Life is hard, life is messy, life is sad, but with Christ it is joy-filled!  We are reinventing our lives because Christ reinvented us!  Thanks for walking this journey with us!  

In Christ alone,
Robin Blackwell

In memory of my Zach Sewell

An Introduction

It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention.  People were tired of reading and working by candlelight and lamps so Edison invented the light bulb.  People needed a concise, immediate way to contact someone across town, so Bell invented the telephone.  People needed a way to find out who was the lead actor in the Gremlins, so IMDB.com was created.

If invention comes from necessity, one could deduce that reinvention comes from a flaw in the system.  Take the beeper/pager.  In the 80’s and 90’s, this was the be all, end all in contacting your friends, family members, and business associates.  The problem was you had to find a phone to call that person back.  We didn’t “need” the pager, unless you were a doctor.  The need was for us to be able to contact someone while mobile; there was no immediate feedback via the beeper, so cue the mobile phone.

We, the Blackwells, have pinpointed a flaw in OUR system.  We are the typical middle class, Christian, American family. A husband, wife, 2 sons, and a dog, living in a 3 bedroom, 2-bath home in Small Town, TX, USA.  We go to church almost every Sunday, and worked for years as teachers.  Sounds normal (granted we are anything but) but here’s the kicker; our flaw is that we are typical.  God didn’t call us to be typical middle class, American Christians.  Typical is going to church because it's on your Christian Checklist.  Typical is singing Christian Karaoke on Sundays and being mute of the Gospel the other 6 days of the week.  Don’t mistake what I am saying.  Corporate worship is not Karaoke, but when your life doesn’t reflect God the rest of the week, are you truly spending that time in worship or are you just singing the songs you’ve heard on Christian radio? And the crazy thing in this is the devil usually leaves the typical alone, because they aren't a threat.

Now no one sets out to be typical. We go to church, because at the heart of it, we do love our savior, and we want our children to love our savior.   But somewhere we got comfortable, and sometimes with comfortability comes laziness, which leads to just showing up to church and make excuses on how not to commit.  The biblical word for typical is lukewarm.  I’ve always envisioned this verse like God biting into a have cooked hot pocket.  It’s just warm enough to fool you on the outside but when you get to the meat its almost cold, and it makes you just want to throw up.  Makes my stomach churn just to think of that.  I can’t go back to that, The Blackwells can no longer stomach being typical, or lukewarm. 

Reinventing the Blackwells isn’t going to be a self-deprecating look at our flaws, or a social media experiment.  We are finding who God made us to be, our pursuit is real and this is our journey, and we’d love to see you journey with us as we discover how to no longer be typical.