Shannon Yee

When I was 5 years old, I sat my little sisters down in the basement and told them about the love of God for them and that they needed to believe that Jesus was the Son of God who died for them so that they could go to heaven. I told them that they needed to be friends with Jesus starting right then. So, they did. With a successful first missionary experience (that I honestly don’t really remember), I began a life long mission to help others know and grow in faith and friendship with Jesus Christ.

We often had missionaries in our home for dinner when I was very young. I enjoyed hearing stories of where they lived and what they did. I don’t recall any details, but this small thing was something that stuck with me. I would imagine myself traveling around the world and doing all kinds of missionary things… whatever that was. In my mind, missionaries simply flew on planes and then lived in really beautiful, but far away, parts of the world. They didn’t really do much aside from reading or maybe teaching and, of course, they went to church and sang. It seemed the ideal life for me.

One of the church activities that my sisters and I were involved in was Awana. I loved earning my badges by memorizing verses from the Bible. I was really good at it and got lots of candy and had my vest filled up. I still know many of those verses today.

There are some memories from my childhood that I believe have shaped who I am today. I remember people praying at church and so many times hearing amazing answers to those prayers, as people would report back and praise God for the way he worked. Most of all, I remember the ways that my mother trusted God. There were many times when she did not have enough money to cover expenses, but we were always cared for. I know how one day, someone at church stuck a large bill into her coat pocket just when it was most needed. I’ve heard about how for Christmas, my mother didn’t have extra money to but gifts, but miraculously a huge bag of gifts perfect for 3 little girls was left on our porch. There were several families who lovingly came alongside us and cared for us, cut our hair, encouraged and equipped my mother and her girls. And, of course, there’s the story of my favorite blue station wagon. It was beyond it’s last leg, but still barely running. My mom knew the end was near and took it to the car shop to trade it in for a new (to us) vehicle. That little blue car made it all the way into the car lot and broke down in the driveway. God answered prayers and showed himself in mighty ways in my childhood and my mom made sure that my sisters and I saw God’s hand in our lives, protecting and loving us.

This is a big part of who I am and how I started on the journey toward God and His way, no matter what or where.

With the start of the new year, 2015, I had every intention of making some resolutions and so on and so forth. But, here it is nearing the middle of February and I am still putting it off in favor of other things to do. Those other things are fun, of course.

I just celebrated my 37th birthday. I would lie and say that I’m 27 again, but my kids keep telling me how old I am and as I’m getting used to hearing it, I’m not as scared as I was by the number that sounds a lot closer to 40 than I ever imagined myself. I still feel 27, and yet I’m a lot smarter and kinder and thoughtful than I was at 27. I think I look pretty close to how I did then, but my eyesight isn’t all that great and I don’t have a lot of time to stand around staring at my reflection in the mirror. So, I could be much prettier.

I think I’ll stick with that version. Smarter, prettier, nicer than ever before.

Let’s hope it just keeps getting better.

Honestly, things don’t get better without a fair amount of work and a decent plan. Now, it’s time to come up with a plan for this year.

More…
This year, I’d like more celebrating the little things. More time spent playing and talking with my family. More relaxing. More working. More thinking of others. More helping. More trust. More clarity. More moving forward. More of God.

Or

Less…
This year, I’d like less complaining and whining (from my kids especially but also from me). Less time wasted on the computer. Less stress over meals and cleaning. Less arguing. Less trying to make myself appear _____ (good, perfect, successful, wise, beautiful, happy.) Less worry. Less doubt. Less figuring things out. Less of me.

The gist is this: more of God and less of me.

That is a pretty lofty goal. And, not very concrete or well-defined. It’s not really measurable or attainable either. But, with God all things are possible. More of God in my daily life might look like more of all the other things I want to see this year. It might also look like what I cannot yet imagine. More of God will definitely look like less of me. More of God might also look like less of things that I might want more of.

So, this year I resolve to pray, serve, teach, love, and live for God and with God, and to forget about me… More or less.

I’ve been trying this new thing for the past few weeks. It’s crazy and really unbelievable that I would attempt this sort of thing. I am a woman who values sleep and does not care very much for the morning. I was also a little girl, teenager, young lady, etc. who had strong opinions regarding the high priority of resting until the last possible moment. For some reason, my children (well, my sons) do not share this love for lazy mornings in bed. Over the past several years, I have been awakened quite regularly at a very early hour by a small boy (or two). Just this past month, I decided to stop fighting this awakening and actually get up and enjoy some morning reflection and prayer time. So, I’m getting up when it still dark as night, because it really is still night, as far as I’m concerned, and enjoying a little quiet time reading the Bible, praying, journaling, and occasionally reminding my boys that it’s still night time, which means quiet time. And honestly, it is going great.

I started this list in early June, but am just now getting around to making it legible…

Here are some things we’ve already checked off the list:
Plant Garden
Pick Strawberries
Make Jam
Go Camping
Watch Race Cars
Play at Beach
Swim with Friends
Attend Car Show
Visit Rouge Factory Tour
Go to Carnival
Visit Zoo

Remaining Fun To Be Had:
Watch Fireworks
Go to MLB game
Attend Foster Care Info Meeting
Have a BBQ
Organize Storage Room
Host a Game Night
Watch Olympics
Visit Hands-On Museum
Hike at State Park
Ride Bikes
Visit Farm (for milk, produce &/or animals)
Work on House Projects
Play Tennis
Visit Titanic Exhibit
Go Putt-Putting
Visit Art Museum
Print Photo Books for Kids
Go Rollerskating
Tour Botanical Gardens
Pick Blueberries
Vacation without Kids!

That’s what we’ve been doing for a very long while and apparently recently it takes up all my time and energy. That, along with all the other stuff related to living life to the fullest! (Hence, the lack of activity here.)

As previously mentioned, over the past year Eila, my beloved 7 year-old daughter, has been complaining almost daily of stomach aches that she describes as constant, extremely painful and unbearable (with a very whiny voice). We took her to the doctor who said she has no obvious problem that he could fix, but it could be anxiety or she could out grow it or he could run lots of test or refer us to some specialists to try to figure it out more. So, on his recommendation, we tried to eliminate gluten, which didn’t really help and then dairy, which also didn’t make any difference. We prayed and waited and then did a few more tests with some specialists and eventually decided to change her diet to exclude wheat and corn. Now, we have been very proactive in trying to treat the cause of her complaints rather than just alleviating the symptoms and the main tool that we rely on is prayer. I believe fully that God made Eila and He is able to heal her. I also know that His ways are not my ways, which is why we have prayed for wisdom and guidance in addition to requests for complete health for her. We have also asked others to pray for her and we have seen great improvement in her health. There have been a few complaints, but 1-2/month compared to 5-6/day is great. The fact that she is not 100% better leads the doctors to believe that there are likely other issues too and so we are still pursuing complete health and healing for Eila, who would really like to eat in a restaurant again or have a piece of candy one day.

NB:If you think you eat a lot of wheat, check again and see how much corn you ingest… It is everywhere! And we haven’t bought things with HFCS for years, but we do like to eat out. 🙂

Well, maybe book review is a bit ambitious of a title for this post. At any rate, I just finished a worthwhile reading of Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter and found it very interesting. It was not quite as preachy as I originally expected it to be. There is definitely a bias in her writing, but I guess I shouldn’t have completely judged the book by its title. This book was full of research, references and historical information about trends and toys where girls are concerned. I really appreciated that the author freely admits that the questions she poses and ponders are ones that we all sort of know the correct textbook answer to, but that answer cannot really play out in real life – ie. life as a mother is complicated. I found it a very quick and informative read, which also helped me to remind me and make me more aware of the impact of the media and peers on my daughter.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of mourning with those who mourn. But, tonight I am rejoicing with those who rejoice. I hope you will join me too!

Here is the good news.

Sometimes I know we are doing too much and need to slow down. I know that we aren’t eating as well as we should and aren’t getting enough sleep and yet we just keep going and plod on as if all is fine. Until, we are forced to stop and stay home and relax. When all of us are struck together, we have no choice but to cuddle up, read lots of books, watch a few movies, take naps together and spend hours laying or sitting around playing, talking, singing, doing laundry. While relaxation is not bad, I would rather not be forced into anything and hope that I finally have learned to look at all the warning signs and take corrective action before it’s too late.

I wasn’t going to make any New Year’s Resolutions this year, just because I hadn’t thought about it at all before New Year’s Eve when Brian and I were talking about it. However, I think there are a few changes I like to see in myself this year…

So, I plan to be intentional in finding and then restoring a treasure that I lost some time ago. (not my wedding ring… that has already been replaced!)
I would like to review my life goals every month, so that I can remember what I want to do and who I want to be when I grow up.
And, I want to stop waiting and start doing.

Sometimes there just aren’t words to describe how we feel.

Sometimes there just isn’t an adequate explanation for why.

Sometimes there just won’t be a way to make things better.

Always, there’s a choice of how we respond to the sometimes…

“This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.”