Tag: Biblical Truths

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Through It All

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Well, if you are like us, you are probably about 7-9 days into being stuck in the house, oops, I mean, being blessed to be privileged with your precious husband, and/or kids/or both.  For some reason, when I got up this morning, the old song, sung by Ray Boltz but written by Andre Crouch, Through It All, was running through my mind:

‘I’ve had many tears and sorrows

I’ve had questions for tomorrow

There’re been times, I didn’t know right from wrong

But in every situation, God gave blessed consolation

That my trials come to only make me strong.

Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus I’ve learned to trust in God, Through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.

I’ve been to lots of places, and I’ve seen a lot of faces, There’ve been times I felt so all alone, but in my lonely hours, yes, those precious lonely hours, Jesus let me know that I was His own. Through it all, yes, through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.’

This great song just keeps going through my mind as we wake again each day not knowing how long this trial and difficult time will last. But….we need to also remember that Joy Comes In the Morning!

This morning as i sat and watched GMA for a few minutes while drinking my Dr Pepper, it was just so sweet to see families who were coming together in ways that they had not done previously. As I sat there and watched, I was struck by the memories of years ago when my daughter came back from a very difficult time in our lives. She and I would sit and think about those hard years but also for what those hard years taught each of us. As she and I looked back at that time, we both, were thankful for the things we learned about each other and about relationships and the work that it takes to grow them and to allow each other grace. That was what I thought about this morning as I watched these precious families on TV. The laughter that was coming from the homes. The closeness and the togetherness that was so evident. Yes, we will all be so thankful when these hard and difficult days are behind us. But….may we come out on the other side being different people. People who are grateful for the little things, once again. People whose hearts are bent toward showing thankfulness and grace and enjoying others. For  awhile after 911 churches were filled and Bibles were being read. That didn’t last very long. My prayer is that this time, we will truly learn that the things we are experiencing are hard; but they are good in that it is teaching us to look through the eyes of others. To appreciate people and to share our hearts and God’s love and kindness to people.

Truly, may we never forget…….never!

Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in God!

 

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Artificial Light

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Isn’t it amazing how the Lord puts an idea in our hearts when we least expect it? This morning as I turned on a light that I  have turned on for the last 8 months each morning on my way to the kitchen, this thought immediately came to my mind….artificial light! Then walking into the kitchen, because that thought had clearly been given to me, I knew the Lord had put that little phrase in my mind, to then go and write this story.

When we were in Italy last summer, we began to look at places online. We knew where we wanted to live and so the search began. About once a week or more, I would go online to search out the possible places that would be available in July , back in Dallas, in our price range. Because we had friends who were living in the area where we wanted to be, they had told us that they would be on the look out for lease places which came up. One day, as I looked, the place where we are now living appeared on the search. Showing Randy the pictures of the place, it looked like something that we would love and we called our friend who not only had been looking here for us, but was also a realtor. Jack called us back and told us that he would contact the realtor and get the details. Well, from the pictures on line we saw that it was light and bright and had a great kitchen and a large living room. It was in our price range and we grabbed it. We were able to move right in when we moved back in July. The day we walked in to see it in person for the first time, we noticed that it wasn’t as light and bright as the pictures that we had seen on realtor.com. In fact, it was obvious that they had brought some professional lighting in to make the pictures look bright and sunny. In fact, the condo is in the corner of a building so it never gets direct sun in the living area, which causes the living room to be quite dark with only one corner window.  As we walked through the condo, I kept telling myself, ‘well, I can just use a lot of lamps and so the lack of windows won’t bother me.” The furniture arrived a few days later and we began to unpack. My son, Jamin, came over that same day and as he walked through, it was obvious that he didn’t like the place. That evening i texted him and told him I could tell he didn’t like it. He texted back to me, “mom, it’s not that I don’t like it, it is just that I know you and what a window person you are. You are not going to be happy in that dark house.” I assured him that I would just use all the little lamps that I have and always keep them on so it will be light. He told me that that was well and good, but I was still not going to like  not having windows and sun, like I had always been use to. Well, we had a two year lease that we had signed before seeing it in person and it was just going to have to be ok.

It is now 8 months down the road and I have to admit that it has been difficult to adjust to never seeing the sun out the living room window. The room is dark, in spite of the lamps. But it has also been a great reminder of so many times in my life that I have tried to substitute artificial sun for the real Son. When difficulties come, as they do, or circumstances arise that are beyond my control, what do I use for my strength, or my power? Am I looking to other things that try to grab my attention or stir my thoughts and affections off of the true “light”?  When days become monotonous or ordinary, what do I turn to? In these challenging days of trying to adjust to the new normal until this crisis passes us by, what is taking the Son’s place in our homes and lives?

As I look around this pretty dark room today, and with the rain, the 6 lamps that are turned on at this very moment, it is still very dark. But…..when my heart focuses on Him and I turn my thoughts to God, this room seems a little brighter to me. I take my focus off of me and turn it to Him and surrender my day and how I can reach out to others. Automatically, the room begins to lighten.

Isn’t it amazing how the true pure light of Christ can brighten up any corner of not just a room, but our hearts as well.  In this trying time, let’s keep our thoughts, our hearts and our minds on the true source of light…Jesus Christ. The dark days of confusion, fear and challenges will become a little brighter.

John 8:12 ” When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Lord, may I quit trying to fill my life with artificial light ,the things of this world that vie for our attention but look to the true source of light, Jesus Christ.  May my mind and heart stay on You and my mind be filled with “whatsoever things are pure, of good report and true” that I will think of these things each moment. Use me to share Your love and gospel to those who are hurting and needing  You. In Jesus Name, Amen

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Sweet Tea & Jesus

Chocolate Castles12 Comments

We are finally back in Texas. It has been a month since I last posted and so much has transpired in this month. We are settling quickly into our new place here in Dallas and am quickly adjusting to all that Texas has to offer…great restaurants, great churches, great friends and of course, some of our family.

The last post was written as we were leaving Italy. As we look back at where we were just a month ago today, we realize our lives have already adapted back to how we lived before going to live in Italy for 3 months. We are once again driving instead of walking everywhere or taking buses. We have a dryer again and fast food on every corner. But we hope that some of the changes which we made overseas will stay with us…like giving up diet drinks and lots of meat. But that is for another story.
Upon leaving Dallas back in February, we had stopped at Buckee’s for gas, Dr. Pepper and snacks before heading down the road to begin our adventures. While looking over the kitchen items on each of the aisle’s at Buckee’s, there staring back at me was a pillow with this on the front; “I was raised on Sweet Tea & Jesus”. But because we already looked like we were road hoarders with every inch of our car loaded, I told Randy I would not buy the pillow on the way out, but would stop coming back into Texas and buy that pillow for our new place. Well, I’m sure you can guess what occurred…the pillow is no where to be found. I have searched hi and low and every web site I can think of but to no avail. Thinking back over my life, there have been very few days when I did not have sweet tea to drink and since I was raised in Church from the time of my conception, Jesus has been a part of my every day life as well. This pillow was right up my ally. Plus it was just so cute.

As the last box of items have been finally unpacked and our home is finally taking shape, we have had several things occur that has kinda blown us away. The first story I want to tell you about is how God gave us a most amazing table and chairs set for our new place.
Because we were storing all of our belongings in pods for 8 months, we decided before leaving AZ that we would sell as much as we could to avoid having to have multiple pods, so all of our tables and chairs were sold as well as living room couches and chairs. When we arrived here two weeks ago, we began to search for a dining room table with chairs. Because this condo is small, there is only one eating space in the dining room. Not wanting a table that looked like it belonged in a kitchen or wanting a formal look that didn’t go with our antiqued washed cabinet which is black, I went looking for a black table and chairs. After hours of looking at Pier One, Rooms to Go, Weirs, Ashly, and several web sites, I decided to start looking on Facebook Market Place. After searching for a couple of days, one popped up that would be perfect. It was an antique Farm House black Duncan Table with 6 chairs. I immediately texted her to see if it was available but the lady told me it was pending pick up for the following day. I ask her to please let me know if for some reason the buyers did not show up or decide not to buy it.(it had been posted for a 2 weeks I believe already), Honestly I did not expect to hear back from her, however, the next morning, she wrote and told me that they indeed did not show up. So we quickly drove over and fell in love with it the minute she opened the front door. The table and chairs were $100. We couldn’t believe what we got for the money. We found the perfect material already to recover the chairs and am in love with how it goes so beautifully with all of our things. God was so good to give us this great set.
The next story is about a set of chairs which we got yesterday. We have been looking for a chair for the living room to replace some chairs which we sold due to the fact that they were needing replacing long before now, but because they were so comfortable and they were my chairs where I would sit each morning for my quiet time with the Lord, It was so hard to actually sell them, knowing the sweet times of prayer that had taken place while sitting in them. In fact, I called them my “meet with Jesus chairs”.
There were times and seasons in our lives, when, like most parents, we needed to just pray for our kids for difficult times in their lives. Prayers were said for new grand babies being born, or jobs which had ended or changed and we were praying for God’s direction or wisdom before making decisions. Health issues were prayed over, aging parents and how to care for them were prayers which were said some times with tears in our eyes as we sat. There were certainly nights when we sat in these precious gold chairs while we would be reading God’s Word and praying for friends or family as they went through difficult days. When we had Bible Studies in our home, usually one of us would be sitting in one of these chairs as we would lead or discuss God’s Word with others. Yes, the chairs that we were now replacing had so many precious memories and were missed.
But, as we know, material things do not last forever. It was time for a new chair. Making a note to myself and out loud to Randy that the chair would need to be deep enough to sit back and curl my legs back under as that is how I sit when I read. It needed to be comfy and soft and yet, needed to go with the furniture we had already purchased. So this last week, after we would unpack during the day, we would sit at night and look at different web sites and at FB Marketplace. We went and looked at a few that looked promising, but nothing ever materialized. It would either be the wrong color, size, not comfortable or was to big or to small. Just like Goldilocks. Well, yesterday, after taking one chair back to Weirs which ended up not being the right color or size once we got it up here, we went to see a set of chairs which we had found on FB. On the way to look at them I told Randy, “I’m done. Im tired and if these chairs don’t work, let’s forget about looking at chairs for a few days and just concentrate on finishing up the little things which we need to do and take a few days off from looking. I was getting frustrated. Well the set of chairs that we looked at were not what we expected. So we got back in the car and I said, “ok that’s it, no more looking at chairs for a few days. Let’s go home.” it was hot, 104 and we were both exhausted from carrying the Weirs chair back down the stairs that morning. But as I got in the car, I felt led to go to FB and open the Marketplace. As soon as I did, there were two chairs, staring back at me and I quickly showed them to Randy. They looked exactly like what we would want. He told me to quickly text the guy and ask if we could come look at them, so I did. I noticed that they had posted one hour before and as before, I quickly went to the guys FB page for security reasons. We always do that. The mans’ name sounded familiar to me and I looked him up and noticed that he was friends with so many of our friends from Prestonwood. He quickly texted back and said to come right then and look at them. So off we went to the address he gave us. As we drove over there, it dawned on me that the address we were given was the address of First Bapt Carrollton and the man was their pastor.
As we pulled up to the church, we introduced ourselves to Pastor Taylor and in the next 15 minutes we had loaded one of the chairs into the back of our car. The other one will be picked up tomorrow, as we could’t fit both of them in. The church is moving and selling lots of furniture. As we drove the one chair here, I told Randy, isn’t it just so precious that my “meet with Jesus” chair is being replaced with a chair that we bought from a church. And the Lord gave them to us for once again, $100 for both.
God’s Word tells us that when He blesses us, we are to tell others of those blessings and gifts and to give Him the glory. Dear sweet friends, I pray this post today will not only remind you of God’s love but also that God cares and knows our needs, no matter how small. He is faithful to meet those needs. Yes, He even brought us back to Sweet Tea Country and gives me stories to tell others so that He will be praised.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Table Time

Chocolate Castles9 Comments

We sold our dining table & chairs yesterday. We have tried several times to sell it, thinking we wanted a round table instead of the rectangle one which came with our house we bought back in 2001 when Randy’s job took us to California. So 17 years, family and friends have gathered around that table. So much food has been served and so many memories of different groups have sat around that sweet table. Isn’t it so strange that for some reason, I always thought I would be so glad when it sold, but as we sat there looking at the empty space last night in the dining room, so many memories came flooding back to me.
When we bought our home in California back in 2001, God was so gracious to us to provide so much furniture that had been left in the new house. Jodi and Jaden were coming to live with us and since it was a model home, they had left the nursery furniture, the dining room furniture and so much more. In fact, the builder left so much of the furniture, we had to sell some of ours as there wasn’t room for all of our things. We have told the story so many times of God’s blessings to us as we moved from Texas to CA and how He went before us and provided for all our needs, even a nursery.

When we moved back to Texas in 2003, of course that beautiful table went with us. A dear friend, Debbie, our Women’s Minister called one day with a question. Would I consider having teacher training in our home and cook for them to have lunch. Would I….wow, that was such an answer to prayer that I could have ladies in our home and cook for them. One of my favorite things to do. After a couple of years, she had another great idea. (Yep, thats Debbie, lots of great ideas that involve food). HA.She suggested that we have the minister wives meet together for a luncheon once a month, at our house. We lived right across the street from the church (which that is another story of how God closed the door to one house and opened the door for one right across the street from our church) This would allow them to get to know the other minister wives and just be loved on, as we would cook and serve them each month. We realized that sometimes minister’s wives have so much ask of them: lots of time away from their husbands always being called up to serve in different capacities, not many chances to get to know other ladies who have the same responsibility of always being on call and having to sometimes “be on” and feeling like they had to be perfect. So once again, it was a privilege and blessing to just cook and serve these precious ladies who have been such an influence in my life over the years.

The times of meals being cooked and served to family gathered around the table when their lives were so hectic and hurried, and yet, when they sat down to eat maybe a roast with mashed potatoes or turkey & dressing, ham at Easter, beans and tamales at Christmas….there was always a calm that presided over our time together. It was always such a treat when one of our kids and their spouses would call and ask if they could come over for dinner. Always gave me an excuse to bake and cook a lot of food. So much more fun to cook for more than two. One of my prayers for our kids and their families is that they relish their time around the table and realize that it isn’t the food being served that is important, but the laughter, and the time spent in conversations about what is going on in their lives at the time.
When I think about all the blessing that have been spoken, some unspoken, around that table the last 17 years, it brings tears to my eyes to think about all the ways God has truly blessed our families and the ones who have gathered around. There have been prayers which have been answered. Relationships mended,kids sharing stories of setbacks or awards. These are such gifts which we treasure to this day.

Today, both Randy and I paused and prayed for the family that will now be sitting around that table. May they feel the prayers that have been said. May the Lord shine His face upon them that they would sense His presence and come to know Him personally, if they do not already.

Yes, it didn’t bring me the joy that I had anticipated I would have selling it, but…may God grant us in His time, in His place where He takes us to begin a new season of once again, gathering around a table, whether it be round, square or rectangle, which will bring honor to His name.