BFS--Don't Leave Home Without It!

In an attempt to streamline my blogging and give myself a tad more structure, I chose recently to be part of just a few select "fun" things within the blogosphere on a regular basis, and I just could not pass this one up--the Blogger Friend School looks like so much fun, and such an antidote to my occasional writer's block! So here goes!

Memory Verse: Matthew 28: 20 - Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen.
Intro: Never Leave Home Without It (Marketing Credit: American Express) Diapers, bottles, wipes, bibs, pacifiers, extra clothing, cell phone, PDA, ipod, iphone, credit or debit cards … what would you never leave home without?
Assignment: In the memory verse Jesus tells us that He will never leave us, not even at the end of the world. He assures us in this verse that He will be with us and that means through everything we go through in life. I thought it would be interesting to write about the things we would never leave home without. For some it might be baby needs, others it might be a gym bag and bottle of water, and for some it might be your Bible and a notepad or small journal, maybe even your son or daughters favorite blankie! I’d like for you to write about something that you would never leave home without.

What would I never leave home without? With six kids, any outing nearly requires the use of a luggage rack, but some are a bit worse than others. For instance, not EVERY time we leave the house looks like this:(For reference, this was us in the Frankfurt International Airport on June 13th, toting 10 checked bags, 3 car seats, 6 carry-on's, a diaper bag, and a cat! You don't even want to know how tightly those bags were packed!)

No, most times it's just a short-trip thing, to the store or a church meeting of some sort. And inevitably, it takes me at least ten minutes to get my act together. Pete has told me I'd have made a great Boy Scout, because when it comes to outings, my motto is "Be prepared"...sometimes a little OVER prepared. I don't like getting stuck in a situation when I might need something that I didn't think to pack! So of course, my purse includes a DayRunner, checkbook, wallet, cell phone, gum, chap stick, and a small "girly necessities" pouch. I don't leave home with just my wallet and keys--ever! I just can't imagine it.

When I've got the littles with me, it gets more complicated. We have two in diapers, so the diaper bag is pretty full. Two sizes of cloth diapers, a wetbag, cloth wipes, a squirt bottle with wipes solution, at least two bottles, formula, pacifiers, a drooler bib, burp cloth, and a first aid kit. Overkill? Maybe, but if you knew my almost-two-year-old, you'd know why I felt the need to be uber-prepared!

There is one thing, however, that I can never leave home without--my military ID card. I can't get on base, and therefore HOME without it. I got used to that in Germany, we had to take our ID's everywhere, and losing it was a big, fat, HUGE deal (we know...Kelsey lost hers three times in six months, I thought the MP's were going to eat us alive that third time we reported it missing). Thing is, every time I put that ID card in my pocket, purse, or wallet, I remember something my great-grandmother said to me when I left home for adulthood:

"Remember whose you are."

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20