Big little words...

Sometimes the deeper I feel about something, the more words I use to explain what I'm thinking...

Not God.

His word is loaded with tiny words, pivotal words that have huge meanings.

Take the little word IF...

There are many scriptures where that little word IF is the condition on which the promise hinges.

"IF my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, THEN will they hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and heal their land."

The promises are gigantic, but the realization of those promises are based on the IF...

Another one is WHEN...

"You shall seek me and you shall find me WHEN you search for me with your whole heart."

Again, the promise is huge, life changing, but the condition is based on the WHEN.

What are those loaded little words... really?

...They are God's instructions to us. 
...They are words that require our obedience.

I have been guilty of reading, claiming, and even declaring those promises, without always DOING what He has instructed. You already know where this is going...

IF we fail to do it God's way, per His instructions, even though His words may be small, we miss the full blessings and the answers that He has promised. 

My parents used to always say "Little is much when God is in it".

God is in those little words, He gave them to us for very good reasons. God says what He means with crystal clarity, in very few words. 

We can never claim that He is too complicated and hard to understand. 

Aren't you glad for that? I sure am.

Life Chain...

Our son Joe's birthday is coming up this month. It was fitting, since he is working with the Texas Right to Life and the Life Chain in October, to show this short video which their good friend Melissa has put together. It's a labor lf love.

It's very clear, and a voice for all of those babies who have no voice.

It's short, so turn your volume up and listen for a minute. You will be touched.

Happy Birthday Joe... keep pursuing the desires of your heart, God has placed them there.


Love, 

Mom & Dad

The Holliston's...

Every Sunday morning on our way to Sunday School, we drove past the Holliston's house, and every single time, my mother spoke out loud with a short prayer that God would save that family.

He did.

She also prayed for our neighbors, Nettie & Daniel, and Miss Conn. She shared her faith with them many times, and they called on her when they needed prayer or answers.

Those prayers were not long, just to the point, and to The One she knew would answer.

I know that my prayers today are much like hers. I don't pray all around the mulberry bush, but to the point. When someone is on my heart, I lift them up right then. There are times when long and detailed prayers and time alone with God are what I must have, but many times it's what is on my heart as I go about the day.

I've never questioned why I pray that way, but I can look back and know that it's because my mother taught me by how she lived and prayed.

She kept a prayer journal. I often wish I had done that. I wrote about her prayer journal and seeing my own name in it here. I also saw her tears, and the worn thin pages where she had gone back and prayed again, over and over. I'm sure I added some tears of my own the day I read it.

I know that the Holliston family are checked off in that journal, and many many others, including some special prayers that had my name on them.

Do you pray that way, and are there many names of family, friends and neighbors that you lift up as you think of them? 

God hears every prayer.

The paint cans...

I always knew I was in for it, but I could never seem to stop myself!

My dad's paint cans sat in our garage when we were kids. There was something about them that called my name. They were filled with the paint colors that decorated our home, and they were sealed up tight... until I came along.

My favorite thing to do was take one of those paint store sticks, and begin to mix some of the colors... it made such interesting designs and new color combinations. To make it all much worse, when I ran off to play, I left the lids off and the paint brushes I had done my art work with, sitting beside the cans, so the paint got hard and dry on the brushes, and the paint in the cans was now a rainbow of colors, and drying quickly.

Later... my dad came into the garage, after I was long gone, and he knew I had done it again. He was not happy... times 10!

From my much older and hopefully wiser viewpoint, I have to wonder what I was thinking. That, of course, is the problem... I wasn't.

Years later, we all laughed at those 'paint' stories. I grew up and started my own shelves of paint cans in the garage, neat as a pin with the lids shut tight!

The moral of the story...

Don't get into your dad's paint cans without cleaning up your brushes and sealing the lids.

or...

Don't take the lid off of what is calling your name when you know good and well that trouble is sure to follow. 

Slipping through my fingers...

I love the music from Mama Mia.

One of the songs is in my mind this week as our grandkids begin another school year.

...Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile...

This is our 3 kids, on THEIR first day of school, way back when...

And now it's THEIR kids, on their first day of school...

                                                 

                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                           

See what I mean?? The days, the years are slipping through my fingers...

I'm so glad to be a part of every one of them, including the 2 whose first day of school is still in the future...

We are so blessed!