3/25/2017
His Amazing GraceA few of my children have suddenly been faced with life changing decisions that need to be made. Tough decisions. The kind of decisions where you just cry out to God and wish desperately that He would audibly speak to you and give you the answer you need. And during this time, as a mom it has been very tough for me as well. I want to help them. I wish I could make the correct decision for them, but I am not God and that is something only He can tell them. My selfish heart can be so deceiving to my thought process and all I can do is fall on my face in prayer and ask God to show my kids the answers, even if they aren't the answers I want. I have to beg God to give me the peace that passes understanding when I don't understand at all. And I have to pray that my children continually seek God with their everything as they look for their answers. You might be going through a time in your own life where a huge decision has to be made and you don't have any answers and you don't know what to do. Or, you might be like me, a mom who watches as her children have to make some very tough choices. Whatever your situation, you can take comfort in this. His grace is sufficient and He will ALWAYS help in a time of need. His grace is deeper, wider and stronger than anything my eyes can see. Let that comfort wrap around you like a warm blanket. Give that decision to Christ and leave it with Him. Determine in your heart that if the answer to the decision your kids need to make (or you need to make) isn't the answer you wanted to hear, it might not be easy but it will be okay because you already gave it to your Savior. Then watch as His grace amazes you.
3/18/2017
The Ones That Need A ConstantThe summer before I turned 13 was full of new beginnings for me. It was a summer I will always remember. My parents got back together after a bad split. We moved from a farm with a lot of land, to a ranch in a subdivision in the city. I met my first "city" friend, Geralynn, who lived right next door and would become my best friend through my middle school years. I read and reread 'Are You There God? Its Me Margaret'. The cute boy who lived down the street became my first boyfriend. The uneasiness inside of attending a new, huge school at summer's end. I can remember it all. I can still feel the warmth of the sun as I laid in my back yard daydreaming about that cute boy down the street. I swam all day and then I laid in bed with windows open on those long summer nights, listening to the hum of cars and crickets, daydreaming some more. The most important thing about that summer though, was that it was a new beginning with God. A new heart because He now lived inside it. A new hope for a new life and a new Love, God's Love, that changed me forever. A young lady in the church my parents started attending had a burden for me. Miss Nancy took me under her wing. She prayed for me. She loved me. She picked me up every Monday night to go to Sunshine Girls Bible Club and she answered all my adolescent questions on the way home. She listened as I jabbered on and never gave up on me. She never treated me as if I were silly or unimportant.
One of the many, many benefits of living in the same town for over 20 years is that you get to see your children's childhood friends grow up and turn into amazing adults and parents, with families of their own. But there is also the sadness in seeing some who get into trouble. Who end up in jail and in the news, and it breaks your heart. You can remember them when they were so young and innocent and full of life, and your heart cries out for them. This places a burden on my heart even more to be there for the kids in our area. That little boy who can't sit still and gets in fights with the other kids. That little girl who always seems to be talking and causing some kind of drama with the other girls around her. The ones that make you think sometimes that you surely don't have any patience left. They need you. They need your love and they need your prayers. The quiet ones, with sadness in their eyes, that never say a word and the ones that drive you crazy, those are the ones that are desperately crying out for help. The ones that need a constant in their lives. The ones that need you to lift their name up to an awesome God who loves them more than anyone could ever love them. Don't give up on those kids. Don't watch the years take a toll on them and find yourself reading about them one day on social media. I'm so glad Miss Nancy never gave up on me. I'm so thankful that my teachers in Sunshine Girls, Miss Helen and Miss Jane, taught a bunch of silly, pre-teen, giggling, boy crazy girls all about God's love and forgiveness and the amazing gift of His Son. I will determine in my heart to continually pray for, by name, the kids that God brings into my life. Please don't ever forget, they are just children. Young and in need of so much love and so many prayers. We don't know what their home life might be like. We don't know the heart ache they might be going through. We can offer them a new beginning, hope and a Love that will never go away. One day they will look back, just like me, and remember. They will be so very thankful to God for you. And 10-15 years from now, when you scroll across their Facebook page, you will smile and be so thankful to God too. Wednesday was my dads 80th birthday. This week has been a bit emotional. At what point does the care of our parents turn from "being taken care of" to "taking care of them"? Somehow it just evolves and life changes. This past week I've been looking through stacks of old pictures to put a slide show together for him for his party today. It's funny when you're younger, you think 80 sounds so old. Then you blink and time has flown by and it doesn't seem so old after all. I'm 52 and inside I still feel like that little girl in all the pictures. Daddy's little girl. This old body might be telling me otherwise, but as I look at the pictures I can remember those moments in time like they were yesterday. I remember my younger years being so full of "my life" at the time that I didn't take the time to really get to know my grandparents and many relatives like I wish I would've. I would love to sit down with them today and just listen to the stories of their youth, but that chance is long gone. I see pictures of my grandpa in the garden with my dad when my dad was only 2 or 3 and can't help but think of my grandson Ethan who is the same age, right along side his daddy. The bible tells us our life is a vapor. One day Ethan's children and his children's children will be celebrating his 80th birthday with him. He will remember that time with his daddy like it was yesterday. He will remember his mama singing to him and holding him, and hopefully his grandparents too. I'm sure my dad feels just like me. My dad came over on his birthday and I asked, "how does it feel to be 80?" He replied, "just like it did when I was 30!" Time flew by. Where did it go? Just yesterday he fell madly in love. Just yesterday he was proposing to my mom. Just yesterday his firstborn son made him a proud daddy and then a little girl stole his heart. Just yesterday his youngest son was born and then he blinked and they graduated. They got married. They went through heartache. They gave him grandchildren. They had to say goodbye to their mama, the love of his life. They watched him go through life threatening surgery and almost lost him. They watch as his great grandchildren smile up at him. Just yesterday. And so, I am going to make the most of the time I have today. Family is so important. Don't allow your "now" to consume you so much that you miss out on opportunities to love deeply those who may be gone before you know it. Opportunities that someday you will wish you could have again. One more visit. One more talk. One more hug. One more "I love you". Love is God's greatest commandment and one that we often overlook, without ever realizing it. We look at our grandparents and just see "old" but that moment of your life that you are living right now, that was their yesterday and one day you will be living their todays. I am a grandma now and the love I have for my grandkids can't even be put into words. I know it would mean the world to me if someday, when they are old enough, they asked me to tell them the story of me. To tell them the story of my daddy. With a heart over flowing with love, I want to tell them every single detail before my yesterdays are gone and I will be ever thankful to God for my todays.
3/4/2017
HospitalityI've been reading a study on hospitality and have a very sad confession. I am not hospitable. I'm more like a hermit. This is an area in my life that needs a lot of work. I enjoy having people over for an hour or two, but then I'm ready for them to leave so I can put on my pajamas and chill out. In fact, I wouldn't mind never leaving my house. Yep, like a hermit. I use my shyness as an excuse when in reality, God has all the power in the world to help me overcome this. Too often I choose to stay in my little bubble. Hospitality is mentioned often in the Bible. I just read a devotional about a family that had missionaries stay with them for a month and all I could think was " I could never do that" and immediately felt conviction. Especially when God brought to my mind those who did it for me. When Mike and I felt led to look for a church for him to pastor, my parents opened their home to us and we moved in with our 4 children for almost a year. From there we moved to Caseville with the pastor and his wife and lived in the upstairs of the parsonage for 6 months. In my small, selfish mind I always looked at these times as "my poor family~no home, our things packed away in garages for a year and a half, our family crammed in tiny rooms..." it was always me, me, me. I never opened my eyes to the hospitality of these precious people. Both had kids that were long gone. Happy to have their own schedules and the quietness of home to themselves. And then total chaos moved in. Two young people who were excited about the ministry and future ahead, constantly babbling about ideas, along with 4 children all under the age of 6. Noise and fingerprints and fights and sickness, not to mention toys everywhere. The fact of the matter is, if we have accepted Christ's wonderful gift of salvation~ our amazing Father has opened His magnificent home to us, for eternity. This house I live in is not really my home, it's just a rental for my time here on earth. God gives us opportunities to share with others the comfort, peace and love we feel when we think of home. What a beautiful picture of what our heavenly Father has done for us. True comfort, true peace, true love can only be found in His presence. The mortgage has been paid in full on the cross and a home in heaven can be ours forever. What a lesson to be learned. Today is a good day for me to start my real estate training and open my eyes to those who need that comfort, peace and love that a home can bring. Mine can be just the beginning.
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