Rather typical Friday today:

• 8.5 mile run with Ash today – not our best day… we were feeling all the crap we ate this week on staff trip
• quick clean-up of the house because Merlyn’s mom is visiting this weekend
• lunch at Calypso Cafe (one of my favorite’s) with Merlyn and his mom
• lots of catch-up: Junior League details, Google Reader, laundry, etc
• have a date tonight with Merlyn… don’t know what we are doing yet – can’t wait!

That’s about it! No big plans for the holiday weekend… which sounds so good to me right now.

What are you doing this weekend?

Here’s today’s Friday Fun:

• Mick woke me up at 5:30 a.m. to go outside
• Couldn’t go back to sleep so indulged in a fiction book for 45 minutes
• Blueberry bagel and Teavana English breakfast tea for breakfast
• Ran 8 miles with Ashley in Percy Warner Park; I’m nursing a sore calf muscle but did pretty well
• Went shopping with Ashley for staff trip; I can’t wait to share details soon!
• Catching up on some work this afternoon
• Meeting my sister for dinner at La Paz and then to see Made of Honor – total girl night… I’m so excited!
• Best of all, Merlyn comes home tonight after being gone ALL week!

What did you do today?

There has been a battling waging in the Catron house lately.

I have been accused of being a thief.

A thief of the covers during the night.

I live with a detective, so he can make a pretty compelling case, HOWEVER I have proof that I am not the thief that he claims….

Please note Exhibit A:

Side A:Side B

Side A is Merlyn’s side of the bed. Nice and tidy because he is out of town this week.

Side B is my side of the bed immediately after getting up this morning. Notice how the disruption of the covers is confined to ONLY my side of the bed. Wouldn’t a true “cover stealer” take advantage of all of the covers?

I rest my case.

What’s your recurring domestic war?

I read this post over at Gifted for Leadership and it reminded of a journal entry I made after watching Mary Poppins with my sister over the holidays. (FYI – Jes and I loved Mary Poppins as a kid so she bought me the 40th anniversary edition a couple of years ago.)

I’m kind of a geek in that I find a leadership example in nearly everything… even Mary Poppins.

Here’s why Mary is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:

• confident
• firm, but fun
• direct, but not the “b” word!
• no nonsense
• friendly, pleasant, happy
• not stressed
• not a people-pleaser
• comfortable with who she is and the role she is supposed to play

What do you love about Mary? Come on, I know you love her too!

Pat Rowland spoke today at Cross Point Nashville about “Leaving a Legacy”. Here are some highlights:

• Scripture reference was 1 Samuel 1:10-13, 28 about Hannah
• Legacy is not just how you are remembered, it is about how you have affected those around you
• Legacy doesn’t come just by chance
• Memories alone won’t have the same impact as the legacy you create

Oh and I have to mention that the highlight of the day for me was my husband singing the Sanctus Real song “Legacy”. I know I’m a bit biased but he is a rock star, isn’t he?

Seriously though, what are you doing to leave a legacy? How are you building into the lives of those around you?

Lately I have been hearing a lot of talk about Christians boycotting Oprah because of some of the people, products and things she endorses along with some of the spiritual language she is using. To be honest I haven’t really paid much attention to this, but I happened to tune in a couple of weeks ago because she featured Marcus Buckingham, one of my favorite authors.

In that episode Oprah made several comments to how “the universe speaks to us” or how “the universe guides you”. The language was a little odd and a felt forced.

Tonight I spent some time searching the internet and some message boards and found myself more upset with other Christians than with Oprah. I was troubled by the hateful, angry, judgmental attitude I perceived from a lot of Christians. We act hurt and appalled that a non-Christian is not sharing the Gospel.

No, I don’t agree with most of what Oprah endorses and we don’t share the same views on Christ or our faith, however as far as I know she doesn’t claim to be a Christ-follower so why would I expect her to do anything differently?

I recently finished reading the book UnChristian and this issue with Oprah got me thinking about how we as Christ-followers should respond. Here are a couple of quotes from the book that have me thinking:

• Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.
• Outsiders (non-christians) believe we are more interested in proving we are right than that God is right. They say Christians are more focused on condemning people than helping people become more like Jesus.
• When it comes to our interaction with outsiders, we have to realize that our relationships, our interactions with people, comprise the picture of Jesus that people retain.
• To rebuild our lives and restore our nation, we have to recover love and concern for others.

I encourage you to read this book. It will challenge you to rethink how you are interacting and communicating with people who don’t share our faith in Christ. In so many ways our judgmental reactions have alienated us from building relationship and earning influence by which we can display the love and grace of Christ.

No, I don’t support Oprah. I don’t watch the show. Oprah, however, has an amazing amount of influence in our world. Yes, I believe that we should be concerned that the message of the Gospel is lost and possibly even directly opposed by Oprah, so here is my question for you…

How do we as Christ-followers show the love of Christ in this situation? How do we make sure we are known for what we are for rather than for what we are against?

I’m a little bit late in posting these, but nevertheless here are a few race day pictures. I finished in 2:16:03. I was pretty pleased with that time, but am already itching to improve it – that competitive streak always gets the best of me!

Thank you to everyone who cheered us on and thank you to my running partners – I love you guys!

Ashley, Shelby, me & Rachel wearing our ponchos waiting in the porta-potty line before the race.

My sister Jes came out to support us at the starting line & the finish line.

We did it and we have medals to prove it!

Completing this 1/2 marathon was a big accomplishment for me.  I’ve never considered myself a runner, but my friends inspired me to train and to do something I never thought I could do.

What major goals or accomplishments have you tackled?

It’s less than 36 hours until the race! I’ve been training since December and can’t believe it’s time. Over the last several months I have talked to so many people at Cross Point that are also running, so I thought it would be fun to create a list of all the runners. If you attend Cross Point and are running the Country Music full or half marathon, post here to let me know.

Good luck everyone!

My husband is out of town this weekend for his Spring Volleyball Tournament in Destin, FL (still not sure why I’m not on the beach!), so I’ve got the weekend to myself and I’ve managed to book it with a bunch of “girl” stuff.

• Ran 8 miles with Rachel & Shelby this morning – the race is one week from tomorrow!
• Ate a great salad at home for lunch consisting of: lettuces, broccoli, corn, peas, tuna, almonds, pickles & carrots – no dressing – so healthy!
• Doing laundry and some house cleaning
• Reading & writing
• Knocking out my to do list
• Going to check out this new store in Nashville my friend Holly told me about. I think it’s called UAL and it’s on West End.
• Buying some birthday presents and baby gifts for friends
• Stopping at Target just because
• Going to dinner with Melissa
• Picking up Ashley and Miranda from the airport. They’ve been at Granger Community Church for a conference.
• Starting to redecorate guest room #2. It’s going to be a girly shabby chic room. I’ll share before and after pictures soon.
• Hoping to go see the movie “The Other Boleyn Girl” Saturday afternoon.
• Eating a pizza Saturday night – my favorite food!
• Somewhere in all of this I need to see my sister.  A girls’ weekend is not complete without her!

What are you doing this weekend?

We made it to New York City today and enjoyed an afternoon getting acclimated to where we are and where we are supposed to be tomorrow.  Even though I have traveled to many large cities, New York City always stuns me when I get here.  The picture doesn’t do justice to the lights and stimulation of this place. 

I’m traveling with two of our Elders at Cross Point, Brian Dishon and Dave Senes.   We’ll spend the next three days at the Q Conference, immersing ourselves in discussion about how the church can and should be influencing culture.  I can’t wait! 

Here’s a pic of Brian and Dave near Times Square grapping some Starbucks. 

Since our conference schedule will be packed for the next three days, our main mission today was to head to China Town for some shopping.  Dave had some specific instructions from his wife about a purse that she wanted and for those of you who know me, I always need a new purse.  Mission accomplished!