Shannon Ethridge's Blog

It’s Wednesday after my weekend in Oshawa, Ontario (Canada) at the “Beyond Beautiful” Conference, and my head is still spinning over the fact that I get to do this for a living.  Really.  I enjoy it so much, I feel as if I should be paying them to let me come!  I get to speak several times on my favorite topics – God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the ways I pinch myself every day over the incredible miracles they’ve done in my life & marriage.  Then I get to stand at a table and autograph my books for audience members, listening to any tidbit of their life that they take time to share.  And I get tons of hugs – not just “pat on the back” or “neck hugs,” but really tight ones, like sisters who haven’t seen each other in a long, long time and who may never see each other again this side of Heaven.  These hugs often make me cry, but I’ve come to accept the fact that “leaking” is just one of my spiritual gifts.  And then I get to board yet another airplane with Terrica, my events manager who travels with me, and share stories with each other about the amazing women we each had the chance to meet.  I get home exhausted, but overjoyed, like a marathon runner who just finished the race and is completely wiped out, but too high on adrenaline to rest just yet.

And after I crash and burn for a couple of days and laugh with my family about how giddy AND brain-dead I appear to be, I begin unpacking my suitcases.  That was last night.  And the three things that I unpacked from my Oshawa experience that made me cry all over again were:

• A stack of prayer request cards a mile high, with secrets scrawled on the back that some have never told a soul.  I’m so honored to have them “entrusted” to our awesome ministry prayer team of a dozen ladies, who will most certainly storm the gates of heaven with these petitions!
• The most stylish pair of black high heels you could imagine.  I sat next to a stunningly beautiful woman in the front row of the auditorium, and couldn’t help but notice them on her cute little feet.  When I complimented them, she responded, “They may be yours before the weekend is over.  They’re really too big for me.”  The next day, she gave them to me in a gift bag, which yes, made me cry, and they fit me perfectly.  Now I get to “walk in Wendy’s shoes.”  What a privilege.
• At the last session, the conference leadership team presented me with a gift that almost made me bawl like a baby, especially in light of its’ meaning.  The theme for the weekend was how we are called to be a “warrior bride,” submitting to Christ as a holy helpmate and embracing our feminine side, but also accepting our call to wage spiritual warfare against Satan’s schemes.  The speaker’s room was adorned with a beautiful bridal gown cascading across the floor, with a mighty sword laid across the hem of the garment.  When no one was there, I mustered the courage to pick up the sword and declare, “I’m going to slice you and dice you tonight, Satan!  I’m going to chop off your head… and scramble your guts… and castrate you!”  This wild display of fury was to remain a secret between me & Jesus.  But when the leadership team presented me with a REAL SWORD on stage to express their appreciation for what I’d shared all weekend, I confessed my actions, which elicited much laughter and many cheers (which sounded like a high-pitched “battle cry” coming from this group of 400 ladies).  Hopefully every woman present will continue fighting her own spiritual battles with her “sword of truth” – the Word of God.  Of course, getting that sword past the customs agents and on to the plane was quite the interesting experience in and of itself!  Thank you, Lord, for favor!  Now I’ve spend the last two days watching my 14-year old son sword-fight with imaginary demons in our back yard.  What a joy to pass on this spiritual heritage to him!

And I get to spend the rest of my life doing this – speaking about, writing about, and publicly proclaiming the good news of God’s grace, mercy, and lavish love!  Listening to, hugging, encouraging, and praying for others who are passionately pursuing a more intimate love affair with the Lord.  Dang.  I feel like the luckiest woman on the planet.

And tomorrow I get to pack my bags for yet another airplane ride – this time to Overland Park, Kansas with my husband to lead a marriage retreat.  I’ll be encountering a whole new set of strangers Friday afternoon that no doubt will become friends by Sunday, and I’ll come back with a new set of prayer requests to lift up to my Heavenly Father, and new memories to cherish in my heart.  Thank you, Lord God, for allowing me to serve you in this way!  It’s been a difficult road at times, but oh, how I’m enjoying the divine destinations!

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The following is an excerpt from author Stanley Leffew’s “Sugar for My Coffee” e-newsletters, which I enjoy immensely! If you like this article as much as I did, check out others like it at http://www.advice-for-lifetime-relationships.com/Sugar_For_My_Coffee-backissues.html

Thanks for letting me share this with my readers, Stanley!

The Next Time You JUMP into Bed with Someone,
Take Along a Parachute!

You ever notice how skydiving seems to come up on peoples list of things they want to do before they die? You saw this in the movie “Bucket List”, as the main characters included it in their list of things they just had to do before they “kicked the bucket.” Before long in the movie, you see them experiencing the thrill of tandem skydiving.

Those of you who have already embarked on this journey yourself can identify with what I am saying. For those of you who have not, let me tell you a little bit about what tandem skydiving is all about, and along the way share a secret to great relationships.

Some realities of tandem skydiving you may be curious to know:

• You only have to have about 20 minutes of instruction prior to going up
• You experience anticipation from a 15-20 minute flight to reach ideal altitude
• You will be jumping from heights around 13,000 feet
• You will get to enjoy around 3-minutes of free-fall time
• After the parachute opens you get to float around in the air and see visuals you will never see from the ground

Oh, yeah! One more thing about tandem skydiving!

YOU DO NOT HAVE A PARACHUTE!

Yes, you are reading that correctly! The person wearing the parachute is a trained instructor, usually with hundreds of jumps under their belt. They wear the parachute and pull the release at the proper time.

So, how are you kept from getting permanent grass stains on the inside of your spleen?

EMBRACE!

The instructor will attach his/her parachute to the safety harness you’re wearing. By doing so, you don’t get to see if the earth’s core is habitable for a human body at speeds up to 120 mph.

Now, you may be wondering; what does this have to do with taking along a parachute the next time I jump into bed with someone, and just what is that secret to a great relationship you mentioned?

Let me ask you a question. If you are going tandem skydiving, what is more important for you in the scenario described above,

RELEASE or EMBRACE?

For those who said RELEASE, meet your new internal bosom buddy- EARTH!

A successful tandem sky dive is less about release and more about embrace. Without the instructor’s embrace through your harness attachment, the release cord only benefits the instructor. Without EMBRACE, you might as well prepare yourself for a very hard fall.
Human sexuality is just like that!

The human body’s sex drive is powerful on purpose. It is designed to pull couples together for the establishment of a family and as PART of the foundation of intimacy for that couple in marriage embrace. The sex drive, by design, is really less about RELEASE and more about EMBRACE. Let me state this again in case you missed it!

The sex drive, by design, is really
LESS ABOUT RELEASE and MORE ABOUT EMBRACE!

Culturally, we have elevated RELEASE and put down EMBRACE. Now listen close, because here is that secret to great relationships you’ve been waiting for.

What we ELEVATE becomes what we CELEBRATE,
and what we PUT DOWN becomes what we KICK AROUND.

It used to be that life was about marriage and family principles. In other words, it was about “EMBRACE”! Familial relationship-building principles for living was the norm, and great value was placed on marriage and family life.

Then came The Beatles, Elvis, Rock-and-Roll and yes, Hugh Hefner and Playboy. Gradually our society began to shift its thinking and embrace a mindset for “RELEASE” over “EMBRACE.” The sexual revolution stepped onto the horizon and became the focus, and sadly, to our demise I might add, “EMBRACE” has been placed on the shelf and even mocked and ridiculed.

For over sixty years now we have been a world dominated with a fascination for “RELEASE”. Playboy, Penthouse, strip clubs, porn movies, Girls Gone Wild, Spring Break, the music industry lyrics, etc. all display this same “RELEASE” mentality.

What we have lost in the process is EMBRACE. Culture is selling us the sizzle of relationships but stealing from us the soul of relationships. We have lost our value of LEG-A-CY in exchange for how much LEG-I-SEE.

So, the next time you consider jumping into bed with someone for sex, take along a parachute. It’s a great way to help you remember that sex is less about RELEASE and more about EMBRACE.

You can ignore my words and go ahead and jump if you want to, but I would strongly advise you to make sure your harness attachment isn’t being overlooked. This advice might just save you from one of life’s hardest falls.

©Copyright advice-for-lifetime-relationships
by Stanley J. Leffew
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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I love the word “retreat”… or “re-TREAT”… or “retr-EAT!” depending on how you look at it!

With the launch of our first BLAST class this past Sunday (which was a huge adrenaline rush for us all), I’ve spent the past several weeks preparing like crazy. And the immediate future looks just as crazy, with speaking engagements almost every weekend from September 24 through November 15th. SO, I’m taking full advantage of this THIS weekend, running away by myself tomorrow for a private 24-hour retreat at one of my favorite Texas State Parks. Then my family and a handful of dear friends will join me for a camping extravaganza the rest of the weekend – kayaks, campfires, wild-n-crazy card games, etc.!

Thanks for your prayers that this would be an incredibly refreshing time as I gear up for a busy fall, speaking first at the Beyond Beautiful Conference in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada September 24-25th – join us if you can! Go to http://www.shannonethridge.com/speaking.shtml for more information.

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As I’ve explained in my post-summer sabbatical blogs lately, my June highlight was speaking in Mexico, and my July highlight was traveling to Colorado, but my August highlight happened right here in Lindale, Texas…

Since the days of singing into my hairbrush microphone in front of the bathroom mirror as a little girl, I’ve always dreamed of being a musical artist making her big debut in a recording studio. In August, I came as close as I probably ever will to fulfilling that dream — I had the opportunity to sing background vocals on Paul Baloche’s upcoming CD entitled “Glorious!”

Okay, that’s an “edited” version of the truth. I was only 1 out of about 500 background voices on the album. I have the awesome privilege of attending church at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas, where Paul and his equally-as-talented wife, Rita, have been leading worship for years. Although they were invited to record the project at much larger congregations such as California’s Saddleback Church or New York’s Brooklyn Tabernacle, he chose to do it “at home with his family,” and we were so grateful!

In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, Paul & Rita have written some of the most famous worship songs of our day – songs you sing every Sunday, like:

• Open the Eyes of My Heart
• Praise Adonai
• Above All (Michael W. Smith’s huge hit)
• I Will Celebrate
• Your Name
• Our God Saves

and dozens of others!

But as I’ve told Paul & Rita over and over, “Glorious” is Paul’s BEST album yet! Every member of my family has their own favorite song from the project:

• Shaken (My theme song lately!)
• We Will Hold On (Greg’s latest fave, but he can’t make up his mind!)
• Just to Be With You (makes Erin swoon over Jesus!)
• How Great is the Love (Matthew has wore that track out on the CD!)

Go to www.leadworship.com for more information about Paul’s music, and watch for GLORIOUS in stores November 3rd! I guarantee it will quickly become your new favorite worship CD as well! Oh, and be sure to listen really closely for my voice in the background!

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Nothing beats a fun Mother/Daughter road trip, and my late-June journey from Texas to Colorado with my amazingly-beautiful-inside-and-out-17-year-old-daughter, Erin, was definitely a highlight of my summer.  We went to visit her boyfriend’s family while they were vacationing in the mountains, and we had such great conversations in the car the whole way there and back that we barely listened to the radio at all — moments that a mother stores in her heart forever!

Highlight of the trip:  our 4-hour hike straight up a HUGE mountain!!!  Getting to the top is such a feeling of victory, and the breathtaking scenery from up there is proof-positive that there IS a mighty, majestic God who is a Master Artist!

While up there, I was reminded of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs by Third Day — “I must go through the valley to stand upon the mountain of God.”

Indeed, life feels HARD in the valleys… but glorious mountaintop moments like these make all the pain worthwhile!

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