Welcome to the Club

A few of us in our family have become members to "clubs" that we didn't really want to join...

Some clubs are fun to join. Some clubs have steep membership fees. Some clubs are exclusive, others let you choose between active, social or honorary member.
Sometimes we are forced to join clubs we don't want to belong to!

For example, back in the early 80's I had a mole behind my knee that turned out to be Melanoma. Doctors hadn't developed the new Mohs technique that saves surrounding skin so my doc took quite a chunk (think lid-of-a-Mason jar-size.) I did not want to join the Cancer club again. Two years earlier I'd had a tumor removed from my bladder. Despite a painful month it was also an exciting time~scars and all Michael asked me to marry him!

I blame my Melanoma on the Spring Break trip to South Padre Island in Texas that I took with three of my Chi Omega Sorority Sisters. That sun was HOT. This girl got FRIED! Sunscreen? Yes, but not enough. There were also the previous 19 years of laying out with Baby Oil occasionally on a foil towel.... 

Fast forward 30 years. I make sure to get my moles checked every year. I always wear moisturizer that contains SPF. Too bad I didn't realize that bleeding spots aren't normal even when they aren't moles. By the time I got my funky spot on my nose checked it had become a Basal Cell Carcinoma. 

When I talked to one of my big sisters her response was "welcome to the club." Wait! I didn't want to join their club! Both my sisters have had MANY Basel Cells removed and they have the scars to prove it. Dang that Norwegian DNA! 

When I finally go get the procedure done next month, I am counting on the reputation of the doctor to do a wonderful job since IT'S RIGHT ON THE END OF MY NOSE AND KIND OF HARD TO MISS! 

Yikes! What is going on with my turkey neck?

My insecurity and vanity kicks in and I worry about what others see. This is when God nudges me to focus on what is really important. Looks? They come and go. Not much we can do about genetics and sometimes circumstances or the aging process just changes our reflection in the mirror.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."

Proverbs 31:30

Guess I will up my sunscreen protection, and wear more hats. I got a hideous olive lovely protective one from Costco~figured it will be good for when I'm lounging poolside in So Cal in a couple weeks when I get to join my hubby for his business trip and visit my L.A. boy and daughter-in-law.

 I think the baby SPF hats I unpacked at Charlie Barnes Kids yesterday are way cuter, don't you?

My second to youngest child was NOT going to follow in his Dad or older brother's footsteps and lose his hair. After all, I thought the Mom's side of the family determined hair and my daddy had great hair and a LOT of it! Apparently this is false information. About half-way through college my son's bangs were thinning. A stressful mission trip last summer to Burma caused a lot more hair to disappear. Now it's a fact. He has become a member of the club he didn't want to join: Carver men who go bald...  

Tigger the cat has also joined the Carver men cats go bald club. His balding is down by his tail though~not supper attractive (but he is 14!)  The vet says he is "over-grooming" due to stress. What stress?! He sleeps all day and his Dad put in a cat-door to the garage so he can get to his food and potty whenever he wants!! Perhaps the stress was brought on himself when he ran away for 24 hours. He must have had the cat-version of Ferris Bueller's Day Out. What isn't Tigger telling us?

Surely it's not caused by Sydney. (This isn't unique to our household.)

Oh Sydney, leave him alone!!

It's a hard lesson, but I'm slowly learning that neither our memberships nor appearance matters.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? When God looks at you, what does He SEE?

Have you suddenly become a reluctant club member?...

In His Grip,

Jane
xo

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