Tag: Spiritual

Daily Thoughts

Small Blessings

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Happy New Year to all and hope that 2022 brings you joy, laughter and blessings, both large and small. As we took the lights off the tree last evening and carried the tree out to the garage to wait for the tree bag we ordered, I began to just think about this past year. I decided to just sit down and look back over the pictures from the year to see some of the events or people who had been a part of my 2021 year and some of the joys that brought a smile to my heart. Isn’t it wonderful that we have the capacity to do that. To just flip through our photos to see things that not only touched our lives, but people, places and things that give us wonderful memories. As i began to look, stating last January, it became evident that last year truly was a different year. I remember the first time we got to go back to church in person. What a joy to sit with others and hear people around you sing and then just the sweet feeling of fellowship that we could not get watching church online. In February, the weekend of the freeze we moved. Need I say more? We moved back to Frisco, from down in Dallas and was so thankful for the house that the Lord truly provided for us. As I look around and see some of the things I had ask Him for, and Him, “giving us more than we can ever comprehend or imagine” did just that.
Windows, lots of windows, had been a huge priority that I had ask for. A kitchen where I could see outside while standing at the sink. A pantry, and oh my if you could see my pantry. It is larger than I have ever had, even in larger homes we had lived in. Sitting here typing, there are 8 windows and a door I can see out of. We have neighbors who know us and we know them. We have a bedroom for Randy to office out of. These were all answered. Then we had our daughter, Jodi fly in to help us move in. By the time, her plane took off (4 days later than expected due to the freeze), she had emptied out every box. All I had to do was put things away. We had more family members move here from Austin, Jamin and Shannon. Blessing upon blessing has been seen this year. Of course, there are some times and circumstances which we would not have choose, but God is always faithful to see us through and as we continue to live and ask God’s guidance for our days, He does so.

This Christmas was very special. For the first time in about 24 years, all 5 grown children along with their kids were here for the holidays. We had a ball. We had a lady come to take our pictures and are suppose to be getting the pictures back today. we had meals together, the kids (and some of us who think we are kids) did some crafts together and even played outside. We loved hearing the laughter and sounds of them actually not being on their phones. All this to say that this past year, even though it was still different because of Covid, saw its blessings, large and small. But one of my favorite blessings was on Christmas Eve. It is something that will stay in my heart for as long as I have memory. Sitting beside our 12 year old grandson, Caleb during Christmas Eve Service, we begin to sing Christmas Carols. I couldn’t sing as I began to get chocked up from the sound that was coming from beside me. Caleb was singing every carol with such feeling and from his heart. He sang as if he were singing right to Jesus and it still makes me cry to just remember this special night. Thinking about this, it gave me such joy to know that he was not ashamed to be singing his heart out and how we should all be so grateful for the joy that is ours and for Christ who gives us that joy. Thank you Caleb, that even though he was spending his first Christmas away from his dad, he still had joy and was celebrating Christmas by giving what he had to give…..his heart. May I remember to do that as well in this new year, no matter the circumstance.

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Timing & Thankfulness

Chocolate Castles6 Comments

We are finally moved. It has been almost a month since I have posted anything. It is wonderful to finally be back in a house (no we weren’t living in a car) and Randy is most grateful for a garage again. It has always been such fun to move and have the adventure of exploring a new area and decorating a new house. But…I was never 70 before and I have to admit that this move was much harder than anticipated. Back in December, when we looked at this wonderful house that we now call home, I truly thought that this would be my most organized move. But here we were in February when we actually did move, and I felt that it was my most disorganized move. But I have to get to the core of this text. You will notice that the title includes the words “timing” and “thankfulness”. Let me begin about a year ago….

February, 2020, our landlord for the condo where we were living decided she was tired of being a landlord and called to tell me that she was going to put the condo on the market to sell. Well, because Covid had hit and Randy was now working from home, the condo truly was getting smaller and smaller by the day. In my mind, I just figured that because I really wanted out of there and God knew we needed a house that had 3 bedrooms for him to have a place to office, the place would sell quickly. After all, hadn’t I prayed that it would sell quickly and given God the desires of my heart? When will I ever learn to quit treating God like a Geanie? Our landlord had a tenant in another one of her rental houses that expressed his desire to move into our place. Well, my goodness, this was going to be great. He came and looked at our place and said, “yes, he wanted to move right in and would take over our lease so we could move”. I couldn’t wait for our landlord to call to tell us that indeed Tom would be moving in and we could begin to start looking for a place to move. So that night I began to box things up, just knowing that this was going to be easy and so much fun to look for a house. Well, as days turned into weeks, Tom could not get the financing he needed to “buy” the place and our landlord didn’t want to be a landlord anymore, but wanted to sell the place. So there we were, stuck in the middle of Tom wanting to move in and the landlord not allowing him to rent. Time after time, landlord would call and say, “don’t get your hopes up high, but I think Tom has worked out a deal and will be able to get financing. So I would once again, begin to pack more boxes, just knowing that we would be out of there. Summer came and went and fall was now upon us. Every once in a while, we would get a call that got our hopes up. The realtor only showed the place 3 times, but Tom was still in the picture. Only, he had given up trying to get financing. I kept thinking that maybe our landlord would give in to him leasing and let him move in, but to no avail. In November, Randy and I sat down one evening to talk about the situation. We knew our lease was not up until the end of April so we still had 5 months to go. After thinking and praying about this, we both felt that we needed a plan. Because Randy works all week, the packing would be pretty much up to me. So we decided to start looking for a place that would become available March 1st. We knew that would have us paying double rent for March and April, but we also knew that I would need time to look for a house, pack and get us out of there by the end of April. That would give us two months to do what we needed to do. And that became our plan. Well, December 4th, I was online looking, like I had begun to do the last couple of weeks. A house in a neighborhood that we had driven through many times, popped up and it was exactly what we had set our limit at. I showed it to Randy and he said, lets call our friend, Jack and ask him to call to see if it will be available March 1st. So I did. Jack called us back and said that the owner said it would be available Feb 1st and that he wouldn’t hold it until March. That if we wanted it, we would have to take it as of Feb 1st. We had counted on paying double rent for 2 months, but not 3. But we both wanted to go see it. So we did. As we stood out in the street talking to Jack about it, Randy told Jack that we would take it. I ask him if he was sure and he said, “yes, I think we need to take it, as it’s exactly what we have been looking for and it is one story and what we want to pay.” So Jack called the owner and told him we wanted it. As only God can do, on the way home that evening, we both remembered that Randy had received a bonus in the mail the day before that would almost cover February’s rent on the new place. As we continued to drive, I began to just tear up thinking about that and how God’s timing is always so perfect. But it gets better. We continue to pack up and December comes and goes. It is now the end of January and we are busy little beavers packing and getting things in order to move February 12th. Jodi, our daughter comes in from Phoenix to help with the move. We have Cameron and Jason who each came and began to move things into the new place as of February 1st. Well, and this is what amazes me. Our landlord from the condo calls to tell us that Tom wants to move into the condo and she is going to let him have a 6 month lease, if he will agree to buy it after the 6 months. And he wanted to move in March 1st. March 1st…..as I sit and type this, I can’t help but cry thinking of God’s goodness. We ended up not having to pay our out lease for March and April. Today is March 2nd and I received a call from the landlord who has become our friend. Tom was moving in today to the condo and she was typing out our deposit to sent back to us and needed our new address. Why do we ever doubt God’s timing or His goodness? Yes, it wasn’t in the time I thought it should be, but this was even better. It showed me just how amazing His timing is and how it is always perfect. We are truly so thankful for this house and for God’s provision to us. We cannot thank Him enough. When we let Him do things His way, they seem to always be so much sweeter than the plan had gone the way I expected it to. Am so very thankful for the best pantry I have ever had, a house full of windows that always is such a HUGE priority to me and Randy has his garage……God is so good and we are so thankful for the blessings He bestows upon us. I pray that we will be a lighthouse for Him and share the gospel when opportunities arise in this new place, which He has given to us.

Daily Thoughts · Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

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This year is so different but as I sit here without being with kids and and family I can’t help but think of some of the gifts that I am treasuring this year. We went to Christmas Eve service last night! Did we wish we had family around us? Of course but, we are so blessed to be able to belong to a church that is open and has such new music! That is another gift! Ears for hearing the Carols of the season and eyes to see the gorgeous lights that sparkle in trees and outline houses and bushes! Yes we are missing being with family this year! But Joy comes in the Morning and “this too shall pass!” Rejoice in the God of our salvation and give thanks for the things that are given to us by our Creator! And of course, our greatest gift of All…Christ the King of Kings, who because of his birth, we have salvation!

From our hearts to yours, Merry Christmas! Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born! He is the True Light of the world!

Luke 2

Daily Thoughts

Not That God

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

A few years ago, a sweet friend, Janet, gave me a book which was written by her son– in- law, Ryan Smith. The name of the book was Not That God. This morning I again woke up around 4 am and could not go back to sleep so found myself once again up drinking a cup of hot tea . I began to read Not That God. It made me realize that my perception of God is quite often a result of how What I think it should be. In my desire to love God and trust Him I seem to fall into the thinking that if I am good enough, pray more and spend time in His Word, I will have a blessed life. (talk about “earning” your salvation) I was raised to fear God with a Holy type of fear. Not to be afraid of Him but to have a Holy respect which would make me realize that He is the Holy One! That He should be honored above all else and to obey His Word in complete trust. As I have grown in years and hopefully in my faith, it seems that I am doing just what I read. That my expectations of who I think God should be is a little off. At times, I think we all feel that if we walk according to His will and simply obey what we know we are suppose to be doing, that it will “get us something”! We begin to treat God like a genie. We obey, He grants our wishes! But as I continued to read, I realized that God is much more interested in our character than our comforts. He allows things to fall on us in order that our love, dependency, and faith in Him will grow. Those valleys that He brings us through are allowed so that we will grow our faith and begin to see that these times of sorrow, sickness or stress can be times of opportunity for us to reach out more to our Heavenly Father. We have a way of keeping God in our own little box of what we feel He should be and expect Him to do. We make our decisions and then expect Him to bless them. We pray and give Him our desires and our requests and then expect Him to answer in the way that we feel is best. So when He doesn’t answer in the way we feel He should, we become angry and wonder ‘where God is”? Not That God is a book that challenges us to rethink what we have always felt about God.

In this Christmas season, it is a great time to begin a new approach to how I really feel about God and His great love for all of us! We always hear that “He is the reason for the season” but as we heard in church last week, “we are the reason for the season” Jesus came to earth as a baby to save us from our sin. God was the first gift giver. We have Christmas because He came as a baby that we might have life eternal. He gave His Son willingly for us. He did it out of a great love for us. After His giving of His most precious Son, how can we not love Him enough to trust Him for the circumstances, the trials or valleys, which He allows to come into our lives? This season, may my heart be open to accepting that “His ways are not my ways, nor His thoughts, my thoughts”. That I will always remember that God is love, but maybe I need to learn to redefine ‘love” in order to understand a little more of what God is trying to do in my life.

*Not That God, written by Ryan Smith

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River of Blessing

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What a joy it was to visit my daughter and her family last week in Phoenix, AZ. Yes, it was very hot. But the times of laughter and just being with them after 5 months of not seeing them was such a delight. As we drove around with the younger boys (ages 8 & 11) in the back seat, they ask their mom, Jodi (my daughter) if we could listen to a couple of comedians who we have always enjoyed listening to. One is Brian Regan. He is one of those who just makes me laugh by looking at him when he is delivering his comedy routine. The boys also love listening to him. So as we drove around trying to find a restaurant that didn’t have an hour and a half wait, we listened and laughed. In fact, we were laughing so hard, we were almost crying. Our stomachs hurt, not from hunger, but from laughing. At dinner on Tues night with the whole family, we began to reminisce about when Caleb was born. We were there celebrating Calebs’ 11th birthday that night and as we began to think back about how we thought the first baby the nurse brought out was Caleb and we were all oohing and crying at how precious he was, only to find out that wasn’t Caleb at all, but someone else’s baby, we began to laugh, thinking back about that day. In fact, when the waiter came over several times, he told us, “every time I come back to your table, ya’ll are laughing hysterically” And we were. It was just one of those special times when everyone was in a joyful mood and everything seemed funny. Laughter is truly good for the soul. My last night there, I told Jodi, if laughter keeps a person from getting sick, I probably won’t be sick for the rest of my life, I had laughed so much. But this story is not complete until I tell about the river trip we made on Friday. It just was a reminder of what God wants from us….our trust.

As we were driving to the river, I began to ask Jodi all sorts of questions. I had never been on this river; much less ever thought about paddle boarding. At 70 years old, my idea of adventure is, well, not standing on a paddle board in the middle of the river, trying to balance so as not to fall off and then not be able to get back on the board. But as we drove, the questions increased. What if I did fall? What if I couldn’t get back up on the board? Would I be able to go the 6 miles that we would be paddling? Were there rapids, and if so how would I go over them without falling? Were there snakes in the river? What if I didn’t paddle well and couldn’t go in the right direction? What if I couldn’t stand up or sit on this board for 2-3 hours? On and on the questions flowed. Jodi kept assuring me that, “mom, I promise you, once you are there you will see that there is no need for you to be concerned.” Well, I could trust her or I could continue to allow the thoughts that kept creeping up in my mind, keep me from enjoying the moment. As soon as we arrived, the lady who was going to bring an extra paddle board, ended up bringing a huge float for me instead of the paddle board. So that took care of so many worries. It would allow me to just float behind them and I didn’t even have to paddle at all. All I had to do was sit back and relax and enjoy the trip. My float was actually tied to Jodi’s paddle board and she would be the one who would navigate us through the river. All I had to do was trust her to get us to the point of where we would end this wonderful trip and trust that she knew when to take us up out of the river. There were several places that had exit signs, but she knew where the car was and where we needed to be.
This is what I thought about this morning as I read Isaiah 41:18-20 “I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus. I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. In the deserts they will find pools of water. Rivers fed by springs will flow across the dry, parched land. I will plant trees-cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, fir and pine-on barren land. Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is the Lord, the Holy One of Isreal, who did it.”
This scripture brought back to my mind the beauty of what i saw last week, as I floated for 6 miles down the Salt River. Indeed, all I had to do was trust in the one that was caring for me that day. I didn’t have to worry about any of the concerns that I had had. But just like last Friday, isn’t that what the Lord wants for us every day of our lives? He welcomes our questions. He understands our concerns. BUT…..He wants us to trust Him to be our guide “down this river of life” that sometimes has fast currents, sometimes has “rapids” and rocks which are hard to walk over. No, he doesn’t promise us that we won’t go through these hard times in our lives, but He does promise us that He will be with us and guide us thorough. He is and always will be our Lord, our protector, our Shield. Isa 41:10 “Don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”

Yes, the unknown adventure can cause some worrisome thoughts. Just like the our futures are unknown. But isn’t it wonderful that just like being able to trust my daughter who has been on that Salt River more times that she can count, I can trust her to get me to where I needed to be; AND I can always trust in the God who created me and knows exactly how to guide me to get me to where I need to be…in his plan for His glory.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

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Here we are in week 7 of quarantine in 2020. So many of us are cooking and baking things we had never attempted before. But because we have time on our hands, we are trying new things.
Over the weekend, we were driving around looking at houses. We love to do. We have moved so many times due to work or just because packing and unpacking is a great way to burn calories, we have always just loved going to open houses and driving through different neighborhoods. Since the stores are not yet open, looking at houses, gets us out of this place and gets us out in the sunshine. As we drove through old neighborhoods where we use to live and some of where we might be interested when this lease is up, we noticed something spectacular.
In every neighborhood we drove, people were sitting out side in lawn chairs visiting with either family or neighbors. It was a sight to behold. It made me almost tear up. That was one thing I loved about living in CA. People sat out and talked to you as you would walk by. I have missed that so much. That is one thing that I hope doesn’t revert back to “normal”. It would be so great if we realize how much we have enjoyed meeting the neighbors and visiting with others on our streets. Even our kids yesterday when we drove to drop off cookies, admitted that they had enjoyed being outside more and had actually made friends with neighbors they had never met. That just thrills my soul. After all, how can we be a light to others when we don’t take the time to meet them? How can we show the Hope that is ours, when all we do is wave to people when we go to pick up our mail? Well, this post began as a post to give a recipe that is from my Italian neighbor back in the 70’s, but it has become a post of, like Gomer Pyle would say, “just flat neighborly” of ya!
I remember back in the 70’s, my next door friend, Dene and I would sit outside in chairs and our kids would go between her house and ours and run and play until we each had to go in to make dinner. In fact, because her husband owned a barbecue restaurant, she would sometimes call her hubby and tell him to bring enough barbecue for them and for us because we had stayed outside a little long to let the kids play and was too late to go make something for dinner. That was always a treat. The Italian neighbor lived on the other side of Dene and when she would come home from work, she would walk over, and visit with us. It was she (Cam) who taught me so much about cooking and to this day, any time I make spaghetti and meatballs or Chocolate Chip Pound cake, or Pecan Pie (her recipe called for a tablespoon of vinegar, which I had never seen in a pecan pie recipe before), I think of Cam and the friendship that lasted for so many years. It was such a blessing to grow up in a time when neighbors knew each other. Of course, there were always some “weird” or grouchy ones, but of course, that always gave us something to talk about. But our kids were so so blessed to have grown up playing ball in the front yard, and riding their hot wheels up and down the sidewalks. Knowing that when it was dark, or your mom yelled out the door, it was time to come home. They were great growing up years. This last 7 weeks, may we realize that maybe our kids and grandkids need those kinds of days. In fact, we, as adults, need these types of days. When we learn that “just call on me brother” to “lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll help you carry on”. Oh may that not be forgotten in these days of learning just what we are made of and for.

It is my prayer that we don’t go back to the old “drive in your garage, close the door and go inside way of life” Let’s continue to “love thy neighbor as thyself” and care for each other. May we never forget after life gets busy,that this time has shown us just how lovely and loving our neighbors can be. We do need each other. We were not meant to live a life of solitude. Begin now to commit to staying connected to the people you have met during this time of difficulty.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Freely Give

Chocolate Castles7 Comments

Not sure exactly how to begin this post. It is 1:00 a.m. and I’m awake. It’s so very interesting when I know the Lord is nudging me to write. Sometimes,  I’m in the middle of something and I know that the feeling won’t go away until I stop and write. Then again, in the middle of the night when I have these thoughts that I know will become a story and they just won’t allow me to sleep until I get up and go write. This is one of those times.

All of us these last 40 days or so, are doing some soul searching. We have been given the task of accepting some new difficulties that we have not had before. There seems to be so many people who are asking lots of questions about God. They have lost their joy, possibly their jobs, or people who they love, due to the virus. What people depended on has maybe been stripped from them, leaving them wondering about a lot of things. Were we depending on activities that are not there right now? Was it our jobs that gave us security, or hope?  Was being able to go sit in a church building what brought us peace that we all long for? Is God present during these difficult times? Does He truly care what is going on in my life and if so, why does He allow things like this to happen? So many questions and “inquiring minds want to know” all the answers. Well, I don’t have all the answers, but this I do know. God is here and He loves you and me.. We hear folks say, “well, I don’t like religion” or “oh, I believe there is something bigger out there” or even “why do I need God, I’m in control of my life”

God is real and He wants a personal relationship with you.  When this all began, we, as older adults began to hear about all the things we could not do, or should not be doing. It was then that I began to think, “what can I do then to serve someone”. And that is where this story begins.

On FB I begin to read all the comments from some of the moms who had school age children and how frustrated they were at trying to do homeschooling and cook 3 meals a day and everything that goes along with this pandemic. The thought that maybe I could cook and take some meals to some of these moms would not leave me. When I mentioned this to our Sunday School class women, some of them got on board and said they would love to take a meal a week to a young mom, some of who were still trying to work while they had kids at home and still trying to home school.  So we all received names that we could connect with and take them a meal each week. We were so excited to be able to do this.

Then last week, a couple of young moms had emailed or texted me and began asking for some recipes that would be easy to make. One of the young moms, who has kids at home and is, like so many of you, home schooling, different age children, had ask me if I still sold the frozen casseroles I use to sell.  I knew that if I were one of those moms who was trying to cook 21 meals every week, plus home school children and keep up with daily chores of running the house, I would be so grateful to have some help with cooking. So yes, I would be glad to make her some casseroles for her to buy.  We agreed about how many she wanted and I began to plan what casseroles I would make for her. That night when trying to sleep, I just felt once again, this stirring in my heart. I sat up and thought about what I had said to her, that I would “sell” her the casseroles. That really bothered me for some reason. I began to pray and ask the Lord should I just give her the casseroles, instead of having her pay? “Lord, You know that we are already taking some meals to others right now and this would just be more food that I (yes, I still argue with Him sometimes when I don’t want extra responsibilities) would need to worry about getting and making more grocery orders and trying to find meat (which I had not been able to get in the last two grocery orders). Well, knowing the Lord would answer my questions in His timing, I finally fell back asleep. The following morning, I shared all my thoughts (can’t you just see Randy’s eyes rolling when I begin my stories of what has kept me up at night?) with Randy at breakfast and when I relayed my concerns about adding another person to our “meal delivery”,  and what if, once again, I was not able to get the meat that I had ordered? He looked at me and said, why don’t you just cook for her and give them the food instead of selling it to her? Well, Ms. Pious, as I like to call myself, told him that I had been up during the night and prayed and ask the Lord to tell me if that’s what He wanted me to do. (why don’t we as wives know that sometimes, the Lord speaks through our precious husbands and why don’t we just accept what they say to us?) But before Randy got up to go to his office (which is our 2nd bedroom right now), we had our morning devotion. As I picked up the book and began to read, I began to weep. The more I read, the more my heart just began to leap with joy. How does God do what He does? Because of time, I won’t quote the entire devotion, but the subject was about the different bodies of water in Israel. There is the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee has an inlet and an outlet and the Dead Sea is just that, Dead, only an inlet. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. The  devotion was this: (Taken from the Passion Code by O.S. Hawkins)

“So  it is with the vibrant believer who not only receives God’s fullness but also gives it away– and then, like the Sea of Galilee, is constantly being refilled with the Spirit. Let this remind you of these two very different bodies of water and of God’s desire for you to be like the Sea of Galilee, receiving His fullness and giving it away.”

And yes, the scripture of the day was Matthew 10:8 “Freely you have received, freely give.”

Well, you don’t have to tell me twice (ok, maybe He does with me) but I knew then that I was suppose to cook for this precious family a meal each week and “give it away”. And isn’t it just like the Lord, all the meat I had ordered this time, was in the order when I went to pick it up.

This story is not being written to tell you about me cooking for someone, but to show that the Lord does speak to us individually and He does want a personal relationship with us. He is not an absent God, nor does he expect us to live here without His love, His guidance or His protection. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He lives, so we can face tomorrow.  He wants to be our strength, our hope, our all.

“On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That is our promise from God, our God, who loves each of us personally!

 

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!

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

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

#Blessed

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

It has been a few days since I last posted. Life seems to have escalated in activity ever since Randy went back to work.  After admitting to him that I truly did miss our mornings together just sitting and having our coffee (well he has that while I have by Diet Dr Pepper) and just talking about everything under the sun, we decided to try to get up a little earlier to still have that time before he heads off to the jungle out there.

Everytime I begin to whine about having to get up early and make breakfast, pack him a lunch and still have to come up with something for dinner, Randy just looks at me and says two words, “dry cleaners”.  Yes, that’s right, dry cleaners. As many of you know, when people retire, there are just some things that you give up, unless you have won the lotto, or hit it big in the stock market. For us, dry cleaners, was one of those things that we gave up. We could have continued to use them, but after all, we were retired and because he wasn’t going to work, he had no use for starched shirts or suits. So we began buying short sleeved shirts for him to wear around the house. The only thing was, Randy is not a T-shirt kind of guy. In 25 years, I have never seen him in a t-shirt with any type of saying or logo. Casual to him is wearing penny loafers without the penny in them.  So for him to be home, he still wore polo style shirts or little Hawaiian shirts that had button down collars. So guess who bought an ironing board and iron 5 yrs ago? That’s right…little miss “I hate to Iron”. But he kept telling me these past few years, “you don’t really want to waste money on dry cleaners when you can use that money to buy a hot fudge sundae at BR, do you? Or my favorite, “just think, the money you save doing “our” (out of the 15 shirts I would iron, maybe 2 were mine) own laundry and ironing, you can go to Stein Mart or DSW and buy more shoes. Well, you don’t have to tell me twice. So iron I have been doing for 5 years.  With every shirt I ironed, I would just say to myself, “this one is for the new pair of shoes I want” or “this week, I’ll get a 3 scoop hot fudge sundae”.

In February when Randy went to work, I have to admit, I whined and complained about getting up early. I fussed when it was now up to me to carry up the groceries up to the second floor  all by myself. I cringed when it dawned on me that I now had to pack a lunch EVERY DAY….but after a week of him listening to me, as soon as I would open my mouth to grip, he just looked at me and says, “dry cleaners”. Plus, we are a two car family again. #Blessed

Last week, I drove my own personal little new car, thank you very much, to church where I sat with about 100 other women  listening to our sweet Women’s minister talk to the young moms (no, I don’t consider myself a young mom, just because I still carry my baby weight around, they actually allow me to be a mentor mom, which truly is a little scary if you think about that for a minute) about how everyone always post #blessed, under pictures of families smiling and boarding beautiful boats, or skiing down a snow laden slope in Vail, or holding a new born baby, Yes, we all do want a blessed life. And when our lives are going through seasons when they aren’t #blessed, we have a hard time admitting to others that we are going through difficult circumstances. As I sat there and thought about that, it dawned on me that she was right. We all want everyone to think we are doing just fine, while holding our pinkies out holding our cup of tea. But many are truly struggling with sickness, loss of jobs, loss of spouse or a medical diagnosis that we certainly didn’t want to hear. This week, we are hearing so many reports about the corona virus that is stirring up panic. Last night Randy and I listened on-line to a preacher talk about the fear that is spreading around the world right now. As we listened to him talk about this fear that is overtaking so many, it reminded me of scriptures that have been given to us in times like these.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Proverbs 3:25-26 “Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.

Psalm 56:11 “In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

It is so easy to get caught up in the fear that creeps in on us. We sit and listen to report after report and that is exactly what Satan wants us to do…after all, he is a deceiver, the author of lies and confusion.

In those times when you are tempted to allow fear to overwhelm you, remember to give that fear to the Lord and read this Psalm. It will remind you just whose you are and to Whom you belong. after all, to know this, you are truly #blessed.

Psa 91:4-7
“He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night. Nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side. And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.

Have just finished putting away groceries and trying to catch my breath from hauling them upstairs. Of course, there was no toilet paper or hand sanitizer at the store, except a couple of single rolls which had been left on the shelf, so if we aren’t quarantined for over 2 days, I think we should be ok. I did, in fact, buy a lot  of Dr Pepper. Might not have toilet paper, but I have 2 months of Dr Pepper on hand #blessed!

If we do get stuck at home for a few days, I will be posting some recipes because I will be cooking ALOT! Can’t watch tv all day and I’m certainly not going to iron!