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!

Sarah... and Sonja...

Even in the times when my faith seems too small for the needs of life... He is holding me and growing me.

When I think of Sarah and Abraham, and how in their old age they conceived not only a child, but the child who would lead to future generations of children, I am so encouraged.

The lesson:

If He did it for Abraham and Sarah, He will do it for me.

I heard David Jeremiah on this subject a few weeks ago, it was spot on.

Sarah laughed at the promise of God that she would have a child... until she did. All the while, God had chosen Sarah to perform His miracle. He built her faith as she went through life, years later, she delivered Isaac.

I  see myself in this story. 

When I would doubt and almost laugh at the future, as Sarah did, based on where she was, and on where I am... God says NO... I am still at work, and I have many promises yet to be fulfilled through your life.

Did Sarah deserve it? 

Do I deserve it? 

Did it ever depend on either Sarah or Sonja? 

NO...

It's so amazing when God gives us a view into His heart.

God understands me when He sees that I desire more faith, deeper faith, and He sends a reminder to my heart of someone He carefully chose so long ago, Sarah. 

As He chose Sarah, He has also chosen Sonja... and you.

Do you ever get encouraged by the fact that God chose (and chooses) ordinary WAY less than perfect people to fulfill His plans? I sure do. If they were all saints that never had a doubt or made a mistake, it would never make God as real to me as it does when their stories are just like mine. 

It always goes back to who God is, not who I am, 

He continues to do His thing in me... in spite of me.

Dad's typewriter...

This is the kind of typewriter my dad used all through his life. It was the kind that didn't accidentally print, you had to push hard all the way down on each key to print the letter.  I can just see him there, in his office (the room my brother shared with him as his bedroom... dad's desk and bookshelves lined 2 walls, my brother's bed and stuff took up the other half.

We tried to 'modernize' dad when electric typewriters came along. He resisted. When computers began to be a normal part of life, he still persisted with that old Smith and Corona.

When I review all he accomplished with that old machine, it is pretty amazing. He did years of ministry on that typewriter. Every speaking engagement was done by snail mail, back and forth, to pastors, conferences, etc. He wrote his books and articles on that same old machine, day after day, for a lifetime, none of it with a secretary or a computer, just hunt and poke.

And the best part... Dad liked it! That typewriter was his friend, just like his books were. He didn't need a secretary, just his faithful typewriter.

I often find it difficult to sit down, and with full use of computer and software, put together more than a simple blog. 

The ones that came before us were a hardy stock, they would say the same of their own parents. From horse and buggy to jet airplanes, from old typewriters to Apple, IPads and all the rest...

I wonder what life will look like 50 years from now or 100. One thing will never change...

"Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday today and forever."

Cups of blessings...

My mother has been in heaven for more than 10 years, but her teacups continue to minister...

Here is the background on those cups. All through the years as we were growing up, my father traveled around the world preaching. In each country where he preached, he would buy a beautiful china teacup and bring it home to my mother. There were a LOT of teacups!

My mother used them constantly. They entertained all the time. She was known among the ministers and their wives for being a wonderful hostess, and they always knew they would get a good cup of her Norwegian coffee. The coffee was served in those cups all through her life. The teacups sat there on the coffee table as those ministers and their wives joined in laughter, prayer and fellowship. 

Just for the sake of interest, many of those who were in our home were leaders in the Christian world that we have listened to, heard about, read their books or books about them. I call them my heroes of faith...

Those were sacred cups!

When my mom and dad both went to be with Jesus, I grieved so deeply and missed them so terribly. That first Christmas, I went into the garage and dug out some of her teacups. I made my sugared pecans, filled the cup with a bag of them, and wrote a note to each recipient about the journey of that teacup and why I had selected them for a special blessing. 

I gave them away that Christmas, to my wonderful friend at the local bank, my sweet friend at the post office, one of my first friends when we moved to Dallas, and many others. It helped my healing process. It also continued the journey of those teacups... spiritual teacups is the way I think of them, with a ministry all their own, that has continued long after the initial gift of my dad to my mom.

I hope and pray that my hospitality will continue to bless others as my mother's did during her life. Each of us have different gifts, but even a simple teacup is a blessing when it is used to share His love.

The blessing that goes on and on...

Gracie & Snuggly...

 I recently watched Gracie, my 1-1/2 year old granddaughter, and her puppy in a tug of war. The little cloth doll was the object that day, and both of them were trying to win. Every time snuggly got the doll, Gracie crawled with determination right over to snuggly and started pulling it out of her mouth. We sat and chuckled watching this.

Gracie didn't even care about the doll... until snuggly had it. 

Do we ever do that?  Get 'territorial' about things. It doesn't matter, unless it starts mattering to someone else, and then we quickly feel like jumping in to claim our rights.

Example:

Knowing you have done something well and then watching as someone else get the praise.

It's happened to me, and probably to you. The temptation is to want people to know that YOU did it. Of course, we are too 'humble' to say it out loud... but do you ever think it??

There have been times when a genuine effort and desire to unselfishly do something for someone has gone without notice, when hearing a simple thank you would have felt good.

My mom used to say..."God keeps the records."  He is watching when no one else is, He doesn't miss any of it, good or bad.

I don't grab for the doll anymore, but I feel like hiding my smile when I see Gracie do it. I recognize that behaviour, that little bit of Eve... even in this adorable little cowgirl.  

little foxes...

Have you noticed how one particular weak area in your life keeps rearing it's head? All through life, there are 1 or 2 things that keep showing up, to pull us down, and they are the same old things...

They are the 'little foxes'.

Through the years, those little foxes have appeared in my life, the same little foxes. Not the major sins... I know God has already dealt with those and my life is different because of it. It's a strong testimony I live with every day.

But...

Those little ones, the ones that 'spoil the vines'...they persist, and slowly I realize 'it's that fox again'!

What are some of the little foxes?

. Quick and unfair judgment of another.
. Critical spirit.
. Talking too carelessly about someone.
. Resentment.
. Not speaking when we should speak.
. Speaking too much when we shouldn't.
. Overeating
. Negative spirit.
. Worry instead of trusting.

And there are many others.

Why does God say that those little foxes spoil the vines? After all, they are small... not big and glaring.

He says it because He knows that eventually if we don't cut off the path of the little fox, they grow into bigger foxes, and even in their small state, they nip away at the condition of our hearts, and they damage our attitudes and our peace.

We can't compartmentalize sin... 'If we do all of this right, one or two little areas aren't going to make so much difference.'

Oh yes they are!

God is holy. He lives in my heart, and His greatest desire is for me to walk in holiness with Him. 

He doesn't want those little foxes to gain any entrance into our lives, and if they do, we are to deal with them immediately.

I want my vine to be healthy and strong, it's a daily thing, dealing with the little fox as he appears... not waiting until he begins to spoil the vines.

Once more, it's a deliberate choice on my part.

Foxes... GET AWAY FROM MY VINE! :)