Truthful Tuesdays is something Elizabeth from "Confessions from a Working Mom" has come up with. Since I have nothing to say this morning of great value, I'm going to try my hand at this game...for the first time, I might add! Here goes:

Tonight, the folks at "The Biggest Loser" are back for another season.

Make sure to tune into
your local NBC affiliate at 8pm...

Today, in honor of one of my favorite shows, I want to know:


Have you ever lost something...
And came out a winner?

Wow, how well do I want you to know me? :) I've lost a lot of things - especially in this process of becoming more Christ-like. When I started out, I certainly didn't look like I do today, and I imagine I have a whole lot more to shed, to tell you the truth, before I'm done. So, I have quite a bit of material to work with, because I'm all the better for having lost what I have.

But, I guess in this game I'm being asked for a specific thing. I'm going to look past the obvious - the relationships that I've lost that were not good for me (I could write you a book!). I think one thing that was really difficult for me was a lost opportunity I had a few years back. The year was 2005, and my life was less than calm. Frankly, my life is NEVER calm, by most people's definition, but my life was downright chaotic - we had moved for the third time in three months, my husband was in a hospital bed in our rented town home, we were in a new city, my daughter became ill and landed in that hospital bed with him, we were in a car accident...the list went on and on. I didn't think I'd survive that year - really. There seemed to be a ray of sunshine in all that muck. I was offerred a position as a denomiational Bible study teacher and I would travel around the state and teach women's groups in their denomation's churches. Two snags - I had just started attending that church's denomination (for the first time), and I needed to fill out an application and resume' that they were sending out to a group of women for a teaching team. They had to write up the resume' yet. It was fairly extensive. I called several times and emailed to check in, and they were excited to have me on their team. I lost touch for a brief time in the conversational loop when my husband landed in the hospital and we moved for the third time during a crisis that year, while I was handling things in our personal life, enrolling our children in their new school, helping my husband conduct his business from the living room of our home, etc. The denomination dropped the ball and did not send me the resume' in time, and I missed the deadline to have it returned. They could not make an exception, even though I never received it. I was devestated!

Looking back, I don't know how my family could have survived, had I received that position. I would have been travelling. My SAMmy's ministry expanded from being solely in Eau Claire, WI now to 7 cities in the midwest and we are continuing to expand. I continue to have speaking engagements at churches of all denominations, putting on various women's retreats and conferences all over. I learned to trust God and realize that He sees the bigger picture.

Oh, and 2006 was the beginning of much better times. But, we were sure happy to usher out 2005!