Category Archives: Family

Stay and Wait Here

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“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault

Isla Tulips

Stay and Wait. Please linger with me here.

Once upon a time I took the little things for granted. Watching you sniff a tulip’s perfume reminds me that I don’t know that fragrance.

I want to stay and wait here. Capturing every detail of you with my eyes, hearing every sound you make, feeling your small hand in the palm of mine.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to swing until we were swinging together and I began to laugh along with you.

Stay and Wait Here

Here is where I pray for you to stay and wait to see God’s wonder and know God’s grace. That you would stay close and lift up His name. To wait and hold fast to His Word.

Here is where the treasure is. You are a princess, a child of the King. Stay and wait here. You will see the King stretch out His arms for you; to clothe you in royal righteousness.

Here I will stay and wait.

A Walk With My Sister

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Charlotte Walk with Sister

Upon the end of my spring break away from spring in the Midwest , I had a few precious hours with one of my younger sisters. These hours are few and I treasure the time we have together. I wish to have the same amount of time, no matter how short and brief time allows, with my other siblings. Space in distance and expense upon travel does not help to make our visits frequent and planning ahead will be imperative.

This particular walk with this younger sibling was refreshing. Our conversation revolved around becoming more like Jesus and less about ourselves. I heard her voice and she heard mine. We both want more of Jesus.

We walked through her neighborhood while conversing about life. I told her about my angst in starting over in our new home and she told me how God is filling her life with more of Him. This was so encouraging for me! I thrill to hear my sister tell me how she is loving Jesus more; how God has transformed her heart. This sharpens me. Her steady and consistent relationship with Jesus motivates me to have the same.

A walk with my sister

We walked and  talked about all sorts of things that may bring angst and uncertainty to both of us. We stopped along our walk to soak in the beauty of God’s creation. I am in awe of God’s grace. So very thankful for a walk with my sister to help me focus on an omniscient God.

Our ups and downs have no comparison to those who struggle with much more. I feel less in character when I compare our [my] struggles with someone else facing far more than me.

This walk with my sister has caused me to think beyond my sweet home front.

Beyond…

Courageous for Something

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Devotions on the lake

A quick get-away to visit my family has been extended for several more days. I am not complaining! Lots of hugs, kisses, and laughing with my two granddaughters is the best! An unexpected few days on the beach with family was an added bonus too. And now, to be able to have some time on the lake is priceless!

This morning, I had the great pleasure of sitting on the back deck overlooking a gorgeous lake view. I grabbed a large mug of freshly brewed coffee and focused on some needed quiet time…devotions and bible study. Tomorrow, I will leave this place to return home…our new home, which is far away from this place. I’ve been asking God to give me courage during this transition and I’ve been praying for my husband, even more so to be strengthened in courage and resolve as a leader. I found what I was looking for in the book of Joshua.

This is the best leadership text and not for the faint hearted. It is as if God reaches out and shakes me to get my attention. For my husband and me personally, God has called us to a mission, this particular mission away from home and familiarity.  I am challenged that God repeats to us: “Be strong and courageous.”  I once read that nothing in life or in ministry ever happens apart from courage. There is no such thing as courage apart from mission, just as there is no such thing as faith apart from challenge. You’re not just courageous to be courageous, but you are courageous for something.[1]

I learned a few things this morning:

1. I must be courageous for something! God has given us a clear assignment. Joshua had no doubt what God called Him to do. There should be no doubt what we are called to do.

2. God promises that He is with us! God promises to never leave or forsake us. We have confidence that God will keep His promises! God will not leave us high and dry. Being courageous for something means that I fear God more than I fear my environment.

3. Be resolved! Be careful in making the right decisions. Be strong and courageous and do not sway or change course. Leadership is strengthened by acts of obedience. Being courageous for something means I need to take the first step and another step and another and another. I can not run away because of opposition.

4. Anchored in Truth! Success (or failure) in a mission is tied to my relationship with God. I need to be immersed in knowing, really knowing, God’s truth. When trials come, and they surely will, being courageous for something means I must be able to practice and apply that truth. Love God’s book. Live it. Be totally immersed.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8

“Read the Bible praying, ‘Father, hold my mind’s attention. Wake my heart’s affection. Speak for your glory and my holy joy.’ – John Piper

[1] The Call to Courage │Two Ways You Can Become a Cheerful Person (“The Cheery Tree”)

 

After Memories Fade

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After the Storm

My father’s swing in his back yard

He holds fast to the memory attached to this swing. He would watch his beloved read books in the shade while gently swaying. He would sit beside her in the evenings while sipping on cool ice tea. Friends and family would arrive for visits and race to be the first one to sit on the swing. Folding chairs were hauled out from the garage and placed in a half-moon circle facing the swing. Sweet times and pleasant memories.

There has always been a wooden  swing in the back yard or one hanging on the back porch. Pillows were added for a comfortable touch and cozy enough to lay down and take a nap. He would tie a rope on a branch of a tree or from a corner of the porch, long enough to reach the person sitting in the swing. We would stretch out on the swing, give the rope a tug and rock ourselves to sleep.

Things happen and life changes. She was no longer around to enjoy the swing with him. The rhythm of conversation taking place around the swing stopped because she was not there to talk. He never noticed how old the swing was and how badly the paint had chipped around the edges, until after she was gone. He noticed the swing more after the memories began to fade.

He fought back to keep the memories from disappearing. He bought lumber and set out to build a new swing. He created a swing like the original one he gave her years and years before. He built bird houses near the swing because she always loved to watch the birds. He is pleased with his carpentry  knowing how thrilled she would have been and so proud of him. After memories fade, he sits on the swing he built for two and is flooded with peace that he will be with her again one day.

The tree dad planted

The tree dad planted

My Dad

My Dad 

Two Ways You Can Become a Cheerful Person (“The Cheery Tree”)

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Spring Time in Charlotte

This is why I love Charlotte in the Spring Time! Yoshino Cherry Tree (iPhone Photo)

When the sky remains gray, I am compelled to do what everyone else does to soak up the Vitamin D…leave for Spring Break!

Actually, I am not on a spring break. I’m on a “break-away-from-spring-weather” break, that is. The cold snowy gray kind of spring that the Midwest is known for. I longed for a change of temperature and wanted to see a different landscape plus I had become quite homesick for my family. I began to feel grumpy and tired; not fun to be around.

So I packed my bags and headed to the place I love the most. Home!  I love this place where the sun shines bright and the sky is the color of my granddaughter’s eyes. As I was pulling into our neighborhood,  there is no way this beautiful Yoshino Cherry Tree would go unnoticed!   I rolled down the car window and snapped the above photo with my iPhone. The sky was indeed as blue as it is in the photo.

I felt so happy to be home and had a lump in my throat pulling into the drive. Ah, the sweet pleasure of cheerfulness filled my being! So much so that I nicknamed that cherry tree, “The Cheery Tree” and I am more than grateful to gaze at it everyday from my kitchen window.

The next day after that first photo of a bright blue sky, the weather changed to windy cold, rainy and quite dreary. Exactly what I was wanting to get away from! Would I grumble and complain or choose to be cheerful?

Rainy Cheerfulness

The view of my “backyard”

The more I looked at that simple (and magnificent) cherry tree, while layering up with an overcoat and grabbing an umbrella, I began to consider what it means to be truly cheerful. It’s not totally wrapped up in a blue sky with cherry blossoms and warm weather any less than those cold, rainy gray days. All of those things are temporal.

Here are a two lessons I learned about cheerfulness from “The Cheery Tree”…

1. A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

(Proverbs 17:22) It’s amazing how much joy and hope you can find when you look hard for it. Look for the “good medicine” all around you. And when you have tasted the sweetness of God’s grace in the beauty of His creation, praise His name for all that! Joy in the Lord is what being truly cheerful is all about. I also began praying for opportunities throughout the week to be a source of encouragement and good cheer for my family. Within a few hours of praying that prayer, I received a phone call from a family member needing urgent help. Helping them was just as much good medicine for me as it was for them. A broken spirit refreshed by a cheerful heart, even on a bad weather day.

2. Sing more. 

There is a short phrase from James 5:13 that I’ve been repeating over and over again. It goes like this: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” The more I sing spiritual praise songs, the more cheerful I am. Being cheerful produces more cheerfulness. Like the “cheery tree” just keeps on giving  gorgeous blooms, my heart will overflow with overwhelming joy and praise to my Savior! There are two awesome stories in the Bible that are worth reading and thinking about. Both stories are full of adventure, warfare, and victory. I remembered reading in 2 Chronicles 20  about a choir  singing spiritual hymns on the front line of the battle field. Their voices of praise and songs of worship was so honoring to the Lord of Hosts that [His] enemy was thwarted and terribly confused. So much so that upon hearing the loud choir, they were easily defeated by the good guys on God’s side.

And there is another lesson I read in Acts 16 regarding Paul and Silas, who were stripped and beaten with rods and then put in stocks in the inner chamber of a prison. They had reached rock bottom. The lowest possible place. They did what any of us would do in that situation…pray and cry to God for help! As the night progressed, they began to sing. I imagine their voices were loud and possibly cracking from shivering in the cold. Their legs and arms tensing in pain from being locked in the stocks for hours, they chose to sing. I love reading how God came to their rescue and freed them from the enemy and saved many others in the process.

The Cheery Tree

“The Cheery Tree”

Yes, I am grateful for the “Cheery Tree” and the simple lessons God has revealed to me about my heart. This place I call “Home” is not really my home. Home is where ever we live and with friends in our community. Coming away for family time is sweet and brings much cheer and respite, but it’s not the cure-all for lasting joy…true cheerfulness. I’ll head back to the Midwest in a few days, ready to sing and be cheerful through the grayness while hoping for blue skies too!

Easter Favorites 2013

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Easter Favorites 2013

Here are some of the favorite things that made me smile, laugh, worship, sing, during this Easter season. I hope you enjoy this recap of Easter Favorites 2013. By the way, you know we never stop celebrating Easter! We can’t pack up this day like a used Easter basket filled with torn candy wrappers and plastic colored grass. Easter should cause us to come to grips with the power of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ in a way that is not abstract, but rather touches us in our deepest selves…

Until we experience this love not only intellectually and cognitively, but also in a way that invades and permeates our minds, our affections, and our actions, we are going to lack the joy and power to live the Christian life God intends for us.
– Paul Kooistra

Favorite Quote:

“We don’t really NEED anything. I mean, people “need” water and food and stuff to live, but if we die it’s ok because we just go to see God. He says we never REALLY die.” –Colsen Frank, age 6 years

Favorite Video (Listen to Matt Papa tell The Story of God)

Favorite Blog Post: Thoughts About Easter

The day had been planned. She wakes up early before the sun has brightened the sky. Her heart is broken. She is weary from grief and each time she closes her eyes, she has the mental images of Jesus being tortured and brutally crucified. There is no rest from her sorrow. Mary is approaching the tomb in the dark hours of the early morning. She sees that the large rock, sealing the tomb where Jesus is buried has been moved! The tomb is opened!

I think she reacted like I would have…with panic! Confusion! Doubt! Unbelief!…continue reading

Favorite Cartoon

BC Easter

Favorite Holy Week Devotional: Love to the Uttermost

[PDF or Free eBook] There’s nothing intrinsically holy about particular days, but for most of church history Christians have set aside eight days between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday for solemn focus (Romans 14:5–6). This string of days provides an annual interval for us to focus intently on the greatest events in human history, the acts of our Savior Jesus Christ. “Fix your gaze steadily on him,” John Piper writes of Holy Week, “as he loves you to the uttermost.”

Favorite Easter Opener

Easter Opener 2012 from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Another Favorite Cartoon (I’ll be singing this rendition to my grandchildren!)

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Favorite Passion Week Infographic: Josh Byers (Click on image to enlarge)

The-Passion-Week-Letter-Light

Favorite Song: Beautiful Rescuer by David Walker

(A good friend emailed this link to me, because she knows I refer to Jesus as “my Rescuer.”)

Snow in the Season of New

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It is cold outside. The wind bites my face. The sky is gray.

We have Snow. This is the Season of New.  Spring is the Season of New.

Spring and the Season of New

Job 37:6-7 (NLT)

He directs the snow to fall on the earth
and tells the rain to pour down.
 Then everyone stops working
so they can watch his power.

This is a new day. Warmed by the sun. It brightens the gray.

Buds break free. A drop of rain has a life of its own. This is the season of new.

Snow in the Season of New

Deuteronomy 32:1-2 (NLT)

Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say!Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew.Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants.

The ground nurtures the seed. The roots grow deep. We wait for the harvest.

The tares will be tossed. There will be grain. This is the season of new.

Snow in the Season of New

John 4:35b (NLT)

But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.

We honor you, oh God. You are the giver. You are the life.

The snow with its care. Our barns will be filled. God brings the season of new.

Snow in the Season of New

Proverbs 3:9-10

Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the best part of everything you produce.
Then he will fill your barns with grain

The snow covers the gray. A song bird sings. My soul is renewed.

My Savior redeems. He rescues me to live. Welcoming the season of new.

Season of New

The Saturday Assortment #8

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The Saturday Assortment

The Saturday Assortment is a collection of unrelated and random things that I find interesting, challenging, motivating and sometimes quite out of the ordinary. It’s an assortment of things that caught my attention throughout the week. I bet you will find them equally engaging.  There are no affiliate links on this page. Read and Enjoy!

From a father to his daughters :: The most beautiful thing that I read on the internet this week

To My Daughters on Being Pretty via A Deeper Church.

Remember how Peter warns: don’t get bogged down with trends and keeping up with fashion. Rather, keep up your spiritual beauty—cultivate and prune so the garden will grow. For what glows your countenance is a clear conscience and a pure heart. Worry and stress darken and drown.

Imbibe in the beauty of your youth. But always hold it loose—it flees and withers. If you let it define you then you’ll wither with it, on the inside.

Though your body dims and moves toward the grave, your soul thrives and moves towards eternity. It is like a deep red wine, it’s savory nature deepening over time.

Forget the legalists! They will try to hide all that’s good and beautiful and pure. But do not lash out at them, they, your weaker brothers and sisters. No, you instruct them in your grace and charm and in the stewardship of your beauty.   ~by Timothy

For your family :: A Free eBook for Holy Week

Love to the Uttermost via Desiring God

The devotional begins Palm Sunday (March 24) through Easter Sunday (March 31.) A lovely and special way to focus on the self-giving love of our Savior.

To love to the uttermost is to love freely, without reserve or limit, and without flaw or failure. As we watch his arrest and trial and death unfold for eight days, we gaze on a God-man who begrudges no pain or reproach on his pathway to redeem lost sinners. This is the man who “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

A good word for parents :: 1 Thing you need to give yourself immediately

Give Yourself Grace! via Jon Acuff

If you’re a parent and you have young kids, don’t for a second be ashamed that you’re not working on a dream. You are. It’s called “kids.” You are raising humans. Do you understand how crazy that is? You don’t need to go kill yourself looking for a big new dream, you have one. You’re raising humans! ~Jon Acuff

Start conversations that end bullying :: Bully in a Box

Bully in a Box ❘ Solving it together via live.bullyinabox.com

It’s a sad and harsh reality that we need to address the problem of bullying, but here is a very helpful collection of iBooks to assist parents and children identify feelings and resolutions surrounding the situation. My daughter alerted me to this great resource (“Thank you, Leslie!”) The  iBooks, written by a mother and daughter duo (Cheryl Tunno and Michelle Tunno Buelow) cover topics such as: respect, compassion, loyalty, confidence, honesty, fairness and more!

“As a retired Superintendent of Schools I am all too well aware of the issues posed by bullying and harassment among and between students. The Bully in a Box program provides young children with ways to recognize inappropriate behavior and the tools to manage the behavior.”

—Mother of 2, Grandmother of 2 with over 30 years in the NJ public school system ~via Bully in a Box