Fire Starter

And let the analogies roll...

Fire Starters don't wear their warning labels for everyone can see. In fact, Fire Starters usually sweep onto the scene as heroes first. They are the impetuous ones who jump in where they are needed so typically you'll find that one saved the day by filling an empty volunteer spot at just the right time or can carry a little more load than others.

Fire Starters attract other fire starters. In fact, they have a club. I'm sure of it. They have tv shows too. The Real Housewives of Wherever-ville. Fire Starters have other names: Drama Queen, Mouth of the South, Troublemaker. 

At first the fires are small. A snappy word you have no problem forgiving or unwelcome advice about how to deal with another person. When did you notice the fires were bigger and more frequent and you needed more than a big boot to put them out? Oh the drama! Why is drama so appealing to some people? If you have the answer to that one, I'd like to follow your blog.

A program I invest a lot of my time and creativity into, has really been attacked this week. My first thought was, what did I do wrong? Are these issues the result of bad decisions, poor planning, or did something I said get misunderstood? While all of those things can cause problems in a great program, sometimes it has been infiltrated by a Fire Starter. Every leader has experienced this. And every leader has had the gut wrenching decision of what to do with that person. Put on your smoke mask, make nice and keep the hole filled? Banish the Fire Starter to another ministry and cover up the warning label with a name badge? Or remove her from the program and trust God to fill the empty position with a dark and handsome Firefighter, oops! Analogies really got away with me.

Allowing a Fire Starter to remain is a stain on your whole program. James 3:6 says: And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,^[a] and set on fire by hell. 

Rescue your program by kicking out the Fire Starters. God says we don't even have to do it kindly. That's a joke. Kindness goes a long way toward putting out fires. What God really said was that He delights in kindness, "I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” Jeremiah 9:24.

So when you blast your Fire Starters, delight God at the same time.

Gumby

My roots are showing a strange color I haven't seen since middle school. I have what I call a "laundry couch" because it has never NOT had laundry on it waiting to be folded. Don't pre-judge, I do put make-up on...sometimes. Thanks to the Crock Pot, my kids get a home cooked meal 4 nights a week. Rainey will be skipping cheer practice tonight, because she just needs a bath and we won't be home the rest of the week. I have decided that none of this bothers me. I decided that this morning on the way to the office, actually.

Typically, I stress over my inability to make all of my ducks line up and quack in perfect harmonious unison. It has been a LONG time since all of my ducks have even shown up for roll call. Driving my "bus" in this morning, I was a little embarrassed over my naked face this morning and wished I put the effort in that I did 10 years ago. When I stop to compare the group of women who have it all together, clean houses, perfectly groomed face, hair, kids, etc and the group of women who stretch themselves to the brink of collapsing every day with foster kids, Dane rescue, ministry, teaching, I clearly see the group I want to be associated with. My brownish roots are battle scars of an intense life.

I Tweeted this last week, "I hope I stretch myself and my talents so far that I look like Gumby when I finally slow down long enough to be stuffed in a coffin."