Most Embarrassing Moment in Church

As I got ready for church I looked in the mirror and thought, “Well you’re lookin’ pretty good ole gal.”  Beautiful? Maybe not, pretty, yeah, I’ll settle for that. My black and white paisley skirt, black shirt and silver belt were looking sharp on my 5’2 and one half inch body. I looked as slim as pudgy
could get, which is what I strive for with every outfit I put on my body.

Once at church I went to Lifegroup, that’s the new word for Sunday School, and then stopped off by the restroom.  As I stood at the sink checking to make sure I still looked “pretty”, a few friends came in and we talked a few moments. One of those sweet ladies was an avid reader of my blog and she told me how much she enjoyed my posts. Ahh this was a good day so far….

As I sauntered toward the sanctuary passing a multitude of people (male and female) in the
hallway, confidence and joy exuded from me. It had been a great morning with study, family, and friends and I looked forward to a good sermon from the pastor.



But you know how it feels when you know someone is watching you? I kinda felt this way so I began adjusting my black shirt and as I walked a little further I noticed my leg felt strange. Cold,
drafty... I reached around to the back of my leg and discovered to my horror my skirt was caught up in my panties! Well, all I could do at that point was pull it out and keep going.  As much as I
wanted to I did not look back to see who might have seen my pink panties, my upper thigh and whatever else was hanging out back there.

Once seated in the huge sanctuary of a few thousand my mind began to race.

1-Who could have seen my display?

2-Why didn't my friends in the bathroom notice? Or did they...?  Were they really my friends?!

3- Thank goodness I decided not to wear my full Spanx underwear.

4- Thank goodness I don't wear thongs. It might have terrified the whole crowd.

5- Why didn't anyone tell me my skirt was neatly tucked in my underwear as I made my way down the hall?

I really didn't hear too much of the first part of the service. Actually I felt a little self-conscious wondering who, if anybody seated around me saw my butt. Off and on throughout the service my
thoughts went back to this "mishap". I hurriedly left the church after the service. There was no sauntering; no confidence, no joy, no feeling pretty, and the thought did run through my mind, “Pride comes before a fall, in my case pride comes before a “tuck”.

Written for a prompt from The Red Dress Club. Show us how physical beauty can open doors or close them.  How can it make a positive or negative  impact?

Hey stop by my other blog Gracefullwomen and read my newest post What Do Women Want. Don't you want to know?

Say Now What Might Not Get Said Later

Here is the prompt we were given from The Red Dress Club  RemembRed memoir.

This week we would like you to write about how the show of affection has played a part in your memory. Choose a time when either the abundance or lack of affection (either by you or someone else) stands out, and show us.  Bring us to that time.  Help us feel what you felt.

He was tall, dark and handsome and I thought he hung the moon. It would have surprised me to find out he actually didn't because there wasn't anything my father couldn't do.

My mother, brother and I didn't see him much because he worked two jobs most the time but when he was there we made the most of it. Our family ate dinner together, watched Little House On The Prairie, Carol Burnett and Andy Griffith every week, we hugged, and said "I love you".

My mother tucked me and my little brother in every night. We said our prayers, kissed her and she told us how much she loved us. Daddy came in later too and there would be no "sweet dreams" for this little girl unless her daddy said so right before the lights went out.

4:00 am came early and Daddy had to get his day started in order to work both jobs. He was as quiet as a mouse as he crept around the house getting ready. But before he left he opened my door and slipped in. He kissed my forehead and said, "I love you sweetheart, see you tonight."

"Bye Daddy. Love you too."

I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep as my father went off to work at the car manufacturer for hours and then to pump gas at the filling station. He worked this second job one year so I could attend kindergarten. It wasn't free back in 1969.

Every morning of my childhood life I got that kiss and those words. After I grew up and moved out on my own I still heard those words every time I spoke to my Daddy. I don't hear them anymore because he slipped away to heaven in 1999 but I will forever hold them in my heart.

Growing up with love and affection displayed openly helped me be able to do the same. My husband and children never, if at all possible, go to bed without hearing how much I love them. Before we leave the house everyone gives the "I love yous" all around.

It may seem flippant and careless to some to use the words so easily but my Daddy said, " What if I left and never saw you again? I want you to know I love you." I feel the same. Say now what might not get said later.

Can You Lose Your Salvation?

A question has arisen several times lately so I have decided it's time to discuss it.
Question: Can I lose my salvation?
Answer:A true believer, meaning someone who is one with Christ, who has accepted Christ as Savior in faith,  can not lose salvation.

Establishing that one is a true believer is important to understand because if not then of course loss of salvation does not apply one way or the other because it has not been obtained yet. These Scripture verses helped me nail down my own salvation: The whole book of 1 John is pretty clear about who is a believer and who is not and John 10 gives a good picture of Jesus as Shepherd and believers as His sheep.

Understand in 1 John when he speaks of "the one who believes does not continue to sin" he means sinning as a way of life, meaning this is the pattern. Of course we cannot judge the motives of another's heart and we do not know why someone may be sucked in by addictions and such, so read these verses in examination of your own salvation. Search your own heart and motives.

Proof from Scripture that we cannot lose our salvation: 1 John 5:18-20, John 10:25-30. Both of these passages are clear about what true salvation is and that we are secure in salvation once we receive it.

Romans 8:38-39 promises us that nothing can cause God to stop loving us once we are His children. Nothing!

Some say if we hold to the doctrine of eternal security we will be prone to "have a license to sin." However I disagree with this belief because it is obvious to me that anyone who lives under the belief that God's grace and salvation is given as a gift and is permanent, knows that we live for Him out of our love for Him. We love because He first loved us. The understanding of God's great love for me draws me  into an intimate, close relationship of trust with Him. Out of this relationship flows a love that causes me to WANT to live for God, not sin because I can. It is exactly the opposite of what the followers of the doctrine that one can lose salvation describes it to be. Even the Apostle Paul had something to say about this in Romans 6:2-6. Read it.

I hope this has answered some of your questions. Please feel free to post comments or ask questions. Email me anytime at julieemoore@bellsouth.net.

Prison Cell From Hell

This week's prompt from The Red Dress Club is all about character development.
We'd like you to write about what your character wants most. Today I'm building on my character Lina. She was introduced in my last prompt I Never Left Her.



The prison cell was frightening most the time. But right now in this perfect moment Lina lay on the bottom bunk thinking about Lacey and Ben. Her kids were all that held her together. Her cell mate left for a few hours for laundry duty and this was a good thing for Lina. It gave her a break
from Sheila’s constant berating.

Lina thought maybe the warden would transfer her to another cell after the last incidence but it never happened. So she lay there waiting almost holding her breath knowing Sheila would be back soon. But for now Lina could get lost in her memories of the good times before life went wrong.

The night her sister Lynn came to pick her up from Eckerd was a turning point in her life. Cross Point Rehab Center agreed to admit her that night. Lina worked the program for 3 months and has stayed clean since then. Her life was being rebuilt and Lacey and Ben were living with her again.

Then the day came, the dark, horrible day when she had to begin paying for her past mistakes. Lina was arrested for selling drugs 4 months after coming out of rehab. She wasn’t selling drugs at that time but in the days when she was addicted Lina would have done anything for a fix.

The police detective offered her a deal. She would give the authorities information about the drug ring in Atlanta in exchange for a much lighter sentence.

Her main concern was that if she became a nark it would put her life and the lives of her entire family in jeopardy. She knew the consequences she would pay for giving information to the government. So she didn't do it. Lina was sentenced to 2 ½ years in a federal penitentiary.

She lay there crying, debating with herself, “Did I do the right thing?”

“Would God have protected us against them?”

“No I had to do it this way to protect my family.”

As she was pondering these things Sheila was brought back to her cell. Lina pretended to be asleep.

Sheila had the urge to humiliate Lina once again. “ You know little girl, they ain’t never lettin’ you outta here. You gonna mess up again right here in this prison and get more time.”

Lina laid there, eyes still closed, breath held, not acknowledging a word Sheila had spoken.

“Did you hear me little girl? They gonna make you stay right here in this cell with me for a long, long time.”

Lina continued in the same sleeping position, not moving nor saying a word. At this point Sheila grabbed Lina by the back of her shirt and jerked her out of the bunk onto the floor. Looking Lina dead in the eyes as if she were about to kill her prey she screamed,  “I said you are stuck with me for a long long time!”

Lina looked up at Sheila as if she were a  vulnerable, frightened lamb going to the slaughter. Somehow an  inner strength rose up within and she said, “ All I want is to get out of here! I will get out of here and nobody can stop me not even you Sheila.”

The prison clinic was cold and dark. Lina lay there wondering why she was there on a gurney. The clinic nurse came in and asked how she was feeling. “My head hurts and it hurts to breath.”

“You got a pretty bad beating, but you’ll be fine. You have a concussion and a broken rib.”

Lina began sobbing. With every sob she wanted to scream from the excruciating pain shooting through her body.  “All I want is to do my time so I can go home to my babies.”

I Never Left Her

I wrote this as a prompt from The Red Dress
Club. Write a short piece 600 words or
less beginning with This was absolutely
the last time and ending with She was


wrong.





This was absolutely the last time I would pick her up. I tell myself this every time.  My stomach knotted up the instant I saw her name come across my phone.

She was stranded at a drugstore in Atlanta. I don’t usually drive in Atlanta because it makes me nervous, so many one way streets and people standing on the street corners. Could I call her back and tell her I was lost and just not go this time?

My old 2002 Taurus was on its last leg but it was my only mode of transportation. After getting in I realized there was very little gas. Pumping gas for 3.98 a gallon put a sour taste in my mouth
knowing I was about to waste it driving to Atlanta to pick her up again. I thought about telling her she’d have to pay me for the gas but I knew my sister had already spent her entire, measly little paycheck.

Lina was standing by the doorway of the Eckerd’s smoking a cigarette when I pulled up. I waited in the car and thought she’d come get in but she just stood there in a daze. Getting out of the car frightened me, especially in this part of town, but I did. She offered me a cigarette which I happily took. Somehow a cigarette comforts me, calms the nerves.

“You know you didn’t have to come.”

“Then why did you call?”

“There’s nobody else.”

“What happened to Jared? Isn’t he still living with you?”

“He left me Tuesday. Said he couldn’t stay with me like this anymore.”

We stood outside the Eckerd until they locked the doors a few minutes later.

“You ready to go now. I have to get home and get ready for work.”

“I can’t go home. I can't be alone. I don’t want to be like this anymore.” It sounded as if those words were choking her.



At that point Lina began sobbing. She sat down on the curb and put her face in her hands and cried like I’d never seen her cry. It was as if I was looking at a small, frail, lost child that didn’t know how to get home. Then she said something that broke my heart but gave me hope. “I need help with this. My life sucks. Everybody leaves me. Jared, Cindy, Mom, Dad, you.”

This was the first time she had admitted she needed help, that there was a problem. Until now.

She was so right, she desperately needed help. However I never left her, I was always, have always been there. Maybe not in a physical way because there came a time I had to give her tough love. But I have been with her every day, sometimes every minute, with my thoughts, my tears, my
love and my prayers. Waiting to hear those words. But to say I was one of those who had left her, well she was wrong.

This short story is fiction. I do not have a sister but if I did this would probably be the way I'd respond in this situation.

We Southerners Have A Need to Feed... Everybody!

Here in the south we feed people. A lot. We feed people when a loved one passes on, when a loved one is in the hospital or comes home from the hospital. We feed pregnant moms who need some rest, those who are caring for sick loved ones, and small children. We feed people before church, after church, and during Sunday School. If we get together for any reason the first thing we do is plan the menu and have everybody sign up to bring something. If it’s homemade you get a great big ole star, if you go to Publix like I sometimes do, people will begin saying “Honey why don’t you just bring the ice, plates and cups.” That cut me deep, for just a minute, but once I got to the "get together" I forgot all about it. Although the "F" word came to mind a few times. Family, Friends, and Food.

When I was a little girl my family drove to Pendergrass, Georgia where we visited my Grandmother.  We affectionately referred to her as “Grandmother”  but she wasn't an eloquent, well spoken, elite woman of the community living in a wealthy neighborhood. No not quite, she was large, barefoot most the time, usually dressed in a big baggy house dress, a few whiskers above her lip if she forgot to shave, and a lower lip full of chewing tobacco. However, she had a lap that was a perfect fit for my brother and me and we loved to snuggle with her.

When we walked in Grandmother’s home there was a table full of food. Fried chicken, biscuits, cornbread, fresh green beans, butter peas, mashed potatoes, homegrown tomatoes, and fried okra.  Until she got too sick to cook for us my grandmother made sure we ate well.

I’ve lived in Georgia for almost my entire life but have travelled a bit.  I've tasted delicious cuisine while in Germany  to Mexican last summer in Cancun and almost everything in between. But just as Dorothy says,"There's no place like home." I say," There's no food like down here in Georgia."

Recipe for Southern Cornbread
Large bowl
Pour in cornmeal until it fills maybe about 2/3 of the bowl
Pour in 1 cup cooking oil. Use Crisco shortening if you want, my family always did.
Add 2 or 3 eggs and salt and pepper to taste.
Pour in some buttermilk until it's a moist consistency like that when you are making pancakes.
Mix it all together and pour into greased black cast iron skillet that has been seasoned.
Cook for approximately 30 to 40 minutes.
Now enjoy with a good home cooked meal or crumble up in a bowl and pour some buttermilk or sweet milk over it then add a little salt and pepper. Delicious

If you want a more exact recipe read the back of the cornmeal bag.

Have you been the recipient of some good ole southern cooking? Care to share?

Is There A Stairway To Heaven?

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I was thinking about the song Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin yesterday. So I pulled up the words on Google and read back over them, they really didn’t make much sense to me except when he said, “and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.” It makes me think of the times in my life that I thought I could buy my way on up that stairway.

For years into my Christian life I followed the Savior pretty steady by my standards. I made my way up the stairway just fine without much looking back. I put one foot in front of the other and marched up each step by living according to the rules, having my children in church every Sunday, living as the submissive wife (well outwardly), and serving in the capacity anyone asked me to at the church. Personal time with the Lord was hard to come by but I was “doing” everything I was supposed to be doing. I just kept dragging myself up that stairway so I could hear the words “Well done good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:23

Eventually there came that time when I could no longer climb those stairs and I stumbled and fell to the bottom. As I lay there crumpled up in a heap, I felt completely defeated. Now I would not hear those words I had so longed to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Where were all those “rules”, “obligations”, and “works” now that I needed them most? The truth is they were dead….they had always been dead, I just didn’t know it.

For some reason salvation for me included working to make God proud of me, working to keep up appearances for other Christians, and striving to serve and prove my love for God. But after lying in a pit of deep despair and sin for a while, I finally gave up and came to the end of myself.

Flash forward to a new day, today! What have I learned about that Stairway to Heaven? There’s not a stairway to heaven, there’s no drudgery, working, striving, pleasing to get to the top to hear those words I so wanted to hear. Amazingly enough the Father is pleased with me as I am because when I became His child He created me new, complete, whole, beautiful, and precious in His sight. God’s Holy Spirit lives in me giving me a “want to” to want to be like Jesus. I don’t have to work at it to make it happen. However, I do have to rest in Him and let it happen. Surrendering to be a Spirit-controlled woman is the best thing that I’ve ever done. It has freed me to be the woman of God I was created to be. I can take off the masks that I’ve been hiding behind for so many years and when I listen to the Spirit I naturally or should I say supernaturally do what He’s calling me to do. My love for Him is the motivation for serving Him now, and oh how I love Him because He first loved me. 1 John 4:9

When Your Friend Hurts....

I have a friend in great emotional pain because someone is purposely hurting her. She is experiencing such loss at this moment. The tears she cries could fill a lake, no, an ocean because they are constant.

What can I do? I am helpless to do anything but listen. That's what I do when she calls, I listen. Somehow it seems to ease her pain for just a moment to talk about something other than the situation. But eventually conversation comes back around to the problem. So I listen, and cry with her and try to be a shoulder for her to lean on.

And I pray. I lift her and her family up to the Father knowing He has the answer. And though the answer may not come as quickly as we would like He is working it out because I know it just can't stay like it is now.

Sometimes in the middle of a bad situation it's hard to step back and see the big picture, it's hard to pray, it's even harder to believe there's something good coming. But thank the Lord for family and friends that believe for us, that pray when we can't and stand with us during this time of despair.

I've been on both sides and God has always been faithful to me. Let me encourage you to be the friend someone needs but also be sure to take the hand of friendship when you need it too.

Is It Okay To Question God?

If God were sitting right beside you now, on the couch, the bed, in a chair or in the kitchen on a bar stool watching you cook, what would you talk to Him about?

Would you ask Him questions about world peace and if or when it will come? How about the Japan earthquake and tsunami?

Maybe you'd ask Him why questions. Why did she die? Why did my marriage end? Why can't I find a job? Why do I feel so lonely? Why are my kids so far from you when I raised them in church? Why can't I have children?

Maybe you'd ask how questions. How did you make this body that works so perfectly in tune? How is it the ocean waves come to shore then carry me back out into the water? How can I go on when my world is falling apart? How can You stand by and watch innocent children go hungry?

Who questions. Who will I marry? Who will save me from myself? Who am I? Who are You?

Conversation with the Father can be full of difficult questions or it can be easy talking about everyday life. It's whatever you need it to be. He is there to listen and build a relationship with you.

Is it ok to ask the hard questions? Sure, He knows our questions before we ask them. Is it alright to be angry at life and at God when things don't turn out the way we want them to? He knows that too. Just tell Him how you feel, get it out in the open. It's not like we can hide it from Him.

When my father died in 1999 I had never lost anyone that close to me before. My heart was broke in half and it literally hurt. I did not know how to express the hurt, pain and anger I felt. One night before the funeral I went to daddy's house alone and sat down with a pad of paper and a pen. My thoughts and feelings flowed as I wrote everything I felt. Everything! I told God how I felt He betrayed me by taking my father, how angry I was, how I wasn't sure how I would go on, that I didn't know how to do this thing called "living" without my precious hero. When I was done, I was done. It was over, the anger subsided and I had resolved many of the issues that troubled me. As I read the words I wrote I saw that I began to accept his death a little more as I expressed myself on paper. I needed to tell my heavenly Father what was going on in my heart and mind to be able to move to the next step. He listened, He comforted and He loved me that night. Don't misunderstand me, grief is a long process for some of us and it was for me but that night was the first step for me.

Tell God whatever you need to tell Him, ask all the questions you want, He will never turn His back on you. He is faithful, He is love and He understands.

2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Identity Thief: Will You Let Him Keep Stealing From You?

Do you get your identity from others? It's a thoughtful question isn't it? Think about it. When someone says something about you that is negative, such as, you're stupid, you can't succeed at that, you are such a loser, you'll never make anything of yourself, when a lie comes out of another's mouth about you what do you do? If you believe it you can begin to take on a false identity. You are not stupid, you can succeed, you are not a loser and you are already someone special and precious.

Your identity is found in a loving God who gave His Son for you. You are as valuable to Him as His own son Jesus. So valuable that He allowed Him to die in your place on a cross over 2000 years ago. Is this just for the believer? No, He gave His son because He loved the world. Each one in the WORLD is valuable to God. John 3:16 It's when you believe and receive the gift He gives that your identity becomes one with Christ.

Your identity is wrapped up in the goodness of Christ not the bad of the world. You are whole, complete and full in your spirit. It may not feel like it, or look like it on the outside but it is the TRUTH. As believers we are to live out of the truth.
Do not let someone else define who you are. Combat their lies with the truth. You are loved, special, precious, worthy. You are allowed feel your feelings, even if someone else thinks you shouldn't be feeling this way or that way. Go ahead feel it, deal with it, know who you are in Christ, and move on to the next thing.

I read that in WWII while in the German concentration camps the Jewish people were forced to feel inferior to the Nazis. This was done by shaving every prisoner's head, man, woman and child, dressing them all in the same prison uniforms and by branding each one with a number. The purpose of this was to make them all feel the same, to take away their individuality, and uniqueness. They were called by numbers not their names in order to give them even less value. This is the way our enemy works to give us a false identity. He wants us to feel inferior to others, nameless, never unique or special. What does this do to us? It keeps us ineffective in life, especially when it comes to following Jesus Christ.

So the next time you are tempted, and it is the enemy tempting you to feel unworthy, ask these questions:

Is this truth?
What is the truth?
What will I do with this truth?

If you believe truth then walk in it and live out of your real identity not the identity someone else tries to give you.