Third time's a Charm

I have had a lot of 3's in my life:
(especially in sports)

I was a:

3-Time NCAA National Champion at Arizona

3-Time NFCA Academic All-American

3-Time 1st Team All-American

3-Time 1st Team All-PAC 10

3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist

&

I am a Mom to 3 BOYS:

Here is boy #3 (Luke)

with Mom's 3 Gold Medals:

God Meets Our Needs

Acts 20:35 says:
"In everything I did, I showed you that by
this kind of hard work we must help the weak,
remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself
said: 'It is more blessed to give than to
receive."

Last night for my Birthday we went out
to Ganesha Park and fed a group of about
30 homeless. We go there every other
Thursday night. We bring food and dessert
and we sit and talk to these men and women.
Usually our friend, Robert, shares a message
from the Bible. Our heart is to help those
in need and to show them the love of Jesus
so that they may know Him as Lord and Savior.

This week it happened to fall on my birthday.
When we got there Robert asked me if I would
share my testimony and I said I would love to.
My very best friend, Kristi, made cupcakes
and sent them because she couldn't make it.
They even brought candles and sang "Happy
Birthday" to me. I was so blessed by it all.
I truly experienced what the Bible teaches
about being "more blessed to give than receive".

One thing that I wanted to share is this:

Last week I had gone through my drawers and I
found a bunch of lotions, lip gloss, make up
that I don't use and put it aside to give to
Debbie (one of the ladies who is homeless).
I brought the stuff last night and Debbie
wasn't there. There was another woman, Diane,
who is also usually there so I asked her if
she wanted the stuff. She gladly took it and
said she would love to have it. After a few
minutes with tears in her eyes, she said, "I've
been really needing this stuff, and I'm so
thankful that now I have it." I told her that
God knew that she needed it and that's how
much He loves her!

You see, I was going to give the stuff to
Debbie. And I didn't even know if she would
want it. But God knew that Diane was "needing
it" and He used me to give it to her.

Here is what God has put on my heart:
"Bless others with the Blessings I have given
you."

And to think that I could have just gone out to
dinner and celebrated with food and dessert
and skipped feeding the homeless. I would have
missed out on these blessings as well. Thank
you God for meeting all our needs, including Diane's.

What should Jake read?

Jake loves to read and when we would go to
the library we would try to find books that
were good for his age and interest. We have
found some with good messages in it, but
it is hard to pick out something when I don't
know what is inside. I loved the "Left
Behind" books when I read them after I
became a Christian. I know they are fiction
but there is also a lot of truth from
the Bible ("Revelation") in there and I
would read something and go to check and see
if that part was true in the Bible. I
learned a lot from doing that. Well, this
series for the kids is about some teenagers
that were "left behind" after the rapture
and Jake is loving these books. It is
bringing up some really good conversations.

The best part is that there are 40 different
books in this series so I don't have to
worry for awhile what we will read next!

Books of the Bible Song

I thought I would share this song that
I couldn't get out of my head the other
day. I sang it all day and I have to
say I now know all the books of the Bible!

I watch this with the boys to learn the
books and the order and I needed it too.
It's a catchy tune- so if you watch it,
be prepared for it to play inside your
head over and over :)

*Make sure to hit pause on the music
on the top right hand side of my page

Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the 1st day of Pre-School
for both Drew and Luke! I remember
taking Jake and dropping him off
and walking away with tears in my
eyes. But for some reason, I don't
think I'm going to cry this time.
I may jump up and down, run to
the store just to walk down the
aisle by myself or just go read
a book, but I don't think I'll
cry. ha ha OK, maybe it will
hit me tomorrow that my kids are
really growing up and I know I
will miss them, but I am excited
for them to experience pre-school.
I will be able to homeschool Jake
on Tuesdays all by himself and
that will be very good for us both.
Jake takes classes on Thursdays
so I will have 4 hours to myself
each week: oh, what to do? I'm
sure I'll find plenty to do.

Last Thursday we went to meet
their teachers and the boys are
now very excited to start.
They found their desks (they
are in different rooms with their
age group).


They like to tell people that they have
trains in their classroom.


And each room had a Bible chart for
memorization. We were happy to see
that Drew already memorized Genesis 1:1:
"In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth."


Big Day Tomorrow!

Living By The Book

My husband, Tommy, is in a Bible
study right now and they are going
through the book, Living By The
Book, by Howard and William Hendricks.

Today I just opened it and started
reading a few pages and I can tell
it's a KEEPER. It's one that EVERY
Christian should own. I think this
and I'm only on page 23. It's all
about helping you to learn to read
and apply the Bible so that you can
see that life as a Christian is
the greatest adventure there is.
To many people, calling it a great
adventure just sounds weird, but
I have experienced this and I try
to get others to understand why
I feel this way too.

One part I just had to share is this:

Bible Study is Essential for Growth:

1 Peter 2:2:
"Like newborn babes, long for the pure
milk of the word, that by it you may
grow in respect to salvation."

They talk about your appetite for the
Word. You should "long" for it.

The book says:
"Now to be honest, that's a cultivated
taste. Psalm 19:10 says that Scripture
is sweeter than honey, buy you'd never
know that by judging some believers. You
see, there are three basic kinds of Bible
students. There is the "nasty medicine"
type. To them the Word is bitter- yech!-
but it's good for what ails them. Then
there's the "shredded wheat" kind. To them
scripture is nothing buy dry. It's like
eating a bale of hay.

But the third is what I call the "strawberries
and cream" folks. They just can't get enough
of the stuff. How did they acquire the taste?
By feasting on the Word. They've cultivated
what Peter describes here- an insatiable
appetite for spiritual truth. Which of these
three types are you?" (pgs 21, 22)

Wow- powerful statements but so very true!
Something for all of us to think about. And
when the Bible starts to become like "shredded
wheat", let's be reminded that it's really
supposed to be very sweet and ask God to help
us to dig back in to His Holy Word!

So Blessed

OK, I just had to share what this wonderful
woman of God wrote to me after my event:
"Going for the Gold". I was so blessed by
her and her love for Jesus!

"My Dear Young Lady,
Thank you so much for sharing a
part of your life.
I loved baseball when I was young,
so everything you said was interesting.
I was thinking how important it is,
for following our life in Christ.
I accepted Christ when I was 13 in
church. What an experience! It was
real. I am now 85, loving a wonderful
Savior and loving His Word.
Life is a race also and I liked your
points of being your best, preparing
for life, being what He intends us
to be, and having fellowship with
others and being accountable.
The Lord bless you and use your
experience to guide many lives.

In His Service,
Katherine"


Lord, thank you for EACH and
EVERY opportunity to share your
truths. Thank you for Katherine
and her encouragement. May I shine
your love the way she does when I
am 85 years old!

And how cute is it that she was
wearing a jacket with the Olympic
rings! Love it.

I've joined Twitter!

OK, so now that I will be speaking this
school year with Sports World, they asked
us to sign up on Twitter. I mean, Facebook
was a huge deal for me a couple years ago
when I started that and Twitter was nothing
I wanted to do. But now that they have
asked us to join, they have challenged us
to get 1000 followers before the others.

This is a contest and we are ALL competitive.
Here's the situation- these guys are all
former NFL athletes, and I was an Olympic
Softball Player. I have been asking my
Famous former teammates for help, because
I don't have a chance in this competition
if I do this on my own.

So if you have an account on Twitter, please
follow me at leah20usa. If not, wish me
luck! :)

Be Still, and know that He is God

It is almost impossible it seems these days
to BE STILL!!! We are sooooo busy all the
time. Our schedules are packed, our plates
are full and there never seems to be enough
hours in the day. And yet, if we take a
step back and look at things, we will see
that we all make choices in these busy
schedules. We can look at our schedules
and see what is most important to us.
Obviously we have to pay the bills, so
we are busy with careers, we are busy with
our kids (a top priority), sports, church,
friends, trips, homework, TV, computers,
emails, texts, facebook, etc. The list
goes on and on.

I've heard the saying, "God made us human
BE-ings, not human DO-ings" and yet we all
feel like we have to DO everything. I get
reminded what is most important when I am
spending time with God. But even in my
time with God, I am more blessed when I
just sit and listen to God. When I am
alone, by myself with no distractions
is how I have learned what it means to
"Be still and know that I am God" like
the Bible says.

It is so good to DO, in fact the Bible
says, "Faith without works is dead" so
we are to ACT on our faith. But in order
to act, we need to first receive. God
needs to work IN us BEFORE He can work
THROUGH us. I am guilty of getting too
busy to SIT with God. When I slow down
and get still is when I am able to get
REAL with God in ways that I can't when
I'm busy. I ask God to forgive me and
suddenly I get thoughts of ALL the areas
I need forgiveness for. I start to PRAISE
God for WHO He is and all the sudden the
Names of God come to mind (Creator, Father,
Redeemer, Rock, I AM, Alpha and Omega, Lion
of Judah, Ancient of Days and so on). Wow,
the BIG-ness of God comes to mind. And I've
learned to hear from God as He impresses
thoughts on my mind and heart that can only
be from Him. Like my Pastor says, "You'll
know it's God because it's your voice in
your head, but it's something you wouldn't
say (always aligning with Scripture and
confirmed when it is God)". I have
completely experienced this. And yet,
I have an amazing experience sitting at
the feet of God and I still struggle to
get back to that spot regularly. I am
thankful that God is faithful even when
I am not. Just today I had a great quiet
time and I'll share what I wrote down from
it in a later post. I am always so encouraged
after a quiet time. I will do better to get
that alone time with God: I know I need it!
I want God to work in me so He can work
through me more.

Random

Random thoughts and pictures from the summer:

I am reminded with Drew that everybody has their
own style:


We celebrated Jake's 9th Birthday in July
(Thanks for the ice cream cake Heather!)


Happiness is. . .kids playing and laughing
together


Friends make life better

Sometimes when you see somebody take a
LEAP of faith. . .

It helps you to take a LEAP too. . .

and sometimes we might need a little nudge
to do it :)

Luke is "beary" happy

Camping:
These boys fell asleep while they waited
for me to shower!

They are like me- they can sleep anywhere!

Congrats:
I am so proud of Laura (my roommate from
Team USA for 10 years and the only softball
player to play in 4 Olympics!)- she just got
finished with the LAPD Police Academy and
she's a cop now!

Here's the proof!

Date night:
We RARELY go on dates with just
Tommy and me- we are too busy with all the
other things we have going on! But we
finally did and we used a gift card from
5 years ago. I really need to get out
more with my husband!

Life is good! We've been able to go to the
beach the last few weeks of summer with
friends. Nothing better than enjoying
beautiful weather in So Cal at the beach!