I think what I would consider an ideal weekend might disappoint the majority of the world. Travel doesn’t appeal too much to me, no big parties, even sleeping late isn’t so exciting as long as I get what sleep I need.
Friday night we’d start with babysitting James and Laura, as we always do. It would be even more fun if our daughter Emily and son-in-law JB could stay and we play games after the little ones go to sleep.
Saturday morning, up by 8am and time to do prayer and Bible study at leisure. Grab coffee and breakfast and settle in! Subway tuna salad for lunch with my honey and have our oldest daughter Hannah join us. For the afternoon Hannah and I could paint or color together. During our visiting, Hannah would have her eyes open and accept Jesus as her Savior! Supper that evening could be gluten-free pizza and salad. Then Dave and I watch a good murder mystery. (Unless Hannah wanted to stay to talk of course!)
Sunday morning we rise and shine and go to church with our son David and his wife Shelby AND their little darling Noel. Then lunch together at Olive Garden. Some good theology discussion for the afternoon would be great fun. Around four when the Wilson kiddos get up from their nap, they and Hannah join us all for supper at Furr’s Cafeteria. Then the families can skedaddle to get little people to bed, and Dave and I watch a good Agatha Christie movie before turning in.
To many people that may sound boring, but to watch my adult children interact with each other, their own children and each other’s children is the highlight of my life! We worked hard and went through a lot to get where we are today and I could live in that moment forever! And to have Hannah accept Christ, well, that’d be the highlight of my life and the only reason to have the Lord tarry. And if that did happen on Saturday or Sunday, then Jesus could come for us Sunday evening and we could all go together! Awesome! That would be the absolutely most ideal weekend ever! Amen!
My son isn't a child anymore, but I want to follow his faith example. He and his wife are really struggling financially. He was the day caregiver at home since he could work from there while she went out to her job. He has recently had open heart surgery (at age 30) and cannot hold the baby for several more weeks. Friends have graciously helped with child care. They couldn't find anyone for today or tomorrow so I was taking today and she'll just take off tomorrow as her day off. Right after we set that up, I re-injured my shoulder and can't lift anything! I'm miserable for letting them down. My daughter-in-law has to take today and tomorrow off. Now they're losing an extra day of work because of me! My son's attitude? God has a reason. It's ok because they did all they could and this is what God has chosen. He'll take care of it.
I want faith like my son's!
In nostalgic moments we all would like to re-live the good times. In desperate moments we may be gripped with fear for the future or possibly giddy with excitement in the drawn out moments of waiting.
However, we can’t jump to the future or fall back to the past. That leaves us stranded in the here and now. So, how shall we handle the present?
May I suggest we first and foremost put our times in God’s hands. He’s the Great Director of this orchestra called life and He has the best credentials! I tried to direct it myself for 29 years. Let me tell you, my life was the illustrated definition of disaster. So I turned it over to God trusting in His love and goodness.
Second, I highly recommend reading the manual, the Bible. It gives great insight in wise daily living. I found it to be a great attitude adjuster too.
Another great help with that was prayer. Talking to God and talking through scripture with Him was quite enlightening. Really set the mood for the day. It even took away the fear of the future.
The best time of life is today. There were times I wanted to speed things up or make moments last forever. But really, the sweet minutes of now I wouldn’t change for any reason.
My grandson will never be a newborn again. Those days were glorious and I savored every second. But now he’s almost three! If I stayed in the past I would not have those thrilling goosebumps when he lights up as I enter the room. Or melt when he runs towards me to throw his arms around me. Miss that? No way! Keep it forever? Always in my heart. But if I stopped in today to pass up tomorrow, I’d miss his sister's kisses and their cousin's smiles. And who knows who else is coming? Well, God does.
God has given me so many beautiful today’s. I’m keeping the present, each day as it comes.
“Most people are good.” Are they? The Bible tells us something quite different! Romans 3:12 tells us, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” That's pretty clear. Not only are we not good, but we've become worthless. That seems so harsh because people do perform good deeds. Unfortunately, those same people do not so good deeds as well. The thing is, people love to go their own way and do their own thing their own way. They live by their own wisdom. Proverbs 14:12 explains why that is a problem. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Of course here man means mankind which is males and females.) The reason the Bible sounds pretty negative, is unfortunately because it is reality.
We are creatures created by God. Our Creator is not a god, but THE God of the universe. Psalms 9:7-8 states “The Lord sits enthroned forever; He has established His throne for justice, and He judges the peoples with uprightness.” God is the standard. His world, His rules. But God is fair and God is just and God is perfect.
So if God is perfect and He's requiring that of us, how is that fair? Did I mention God's good and kind and merciful? How sin entered the world is another story, but it did and it corrupted people making it impossible for us to meet the standard. However when sin entered, God also announced His plan of redemption. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son to earth to live as a human man and also as the God He is. Fully man and fully God. The reason for that is sin has to be paid for. Romans 3:23 states “The wages of sin is death.” We earn death by our sin. However Jesus chose to pay for the sins of believers. Jesus died the excruciating death of crucifixion on the cross, went to hell and returned coming back to life conquering death. Jesus was the only person who could live a sinless life which qualified Him to pay for our sins. He took them on Himself. In doing that, He also imparted His righteousness to those who believe in Him as God’s Son, His sacrifice, and accept Him as Lord of their life.
“Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18) You see, we are born condemned. In His grace and mercy God sent Jesus to make a way for us to become righteous and therefore qualify to be with God forever and to live in heaven.
Any person can do good things. No one would ever be able to work their way to heaven because they will always have the sin nature messing it up. But it’s not hopeless! We have Jesus. Thank God we do! "How then shall we live?" is for another day.......
We've had to move out of our house temporarily to have major repair work done. We know we'll be gone 2 or more weeks so that's a lot for me to pack. I have many projects I'd be working on during that time! So it took a while on my feet to sort things and move them. All the rest of our belongings had to be packed and stored without access to them. So sorting was time consuming. All that to say that moving out and then moving in the temporary home kept me on my feet quite a bit! Well, my ankles and lower legs have been red and swollen more than I've ever seen them for a week now. Actually lost their shape! I googled what that could be. Couldn't be heart failure so I went to my primary patient portal to my health history. Ventricular HF. What! My left ventricle has thickened walls. I knew that. I didn't ever put it together. Heart failure is your heart not pumping to capacity. Game changer! Unfortunately I don't do what I should just because I should. But now I see the why behind it I am newly motivated. Shame on me and hurray for me. It's about time! I will do my part that my heart failure doesn't go to the next stage. God has been gracious so far. I will no longer take advantage of His grace and mercy!
There is a great book out called A Grandmother's Prayers by Kay Swatkowski that has 60 days of devotions and prayers for your grandchildren. Each prayer suggestion comes from scripture which is also given. She even goes on to offer suggestions of things to do with your grandchild to introduce or reinforce the point with them. The activity/book recommendations are directed at varying age groups. The one suggestion that has had the most impact on me and my family is to start a Grandmothers Prayer Group myself. So, through my church I did!
We meet most every week to read through one of the day's devotional, prayer and activity suggestions, and then we share our personal requests. Besides the joy of opening our hearts to the Lord, we've opened our hearts to each other. Through that one learns how common problems are. Encouragement as well as sometimes solutions are shared. There is such comfort in coming before the Lord being joined in heart with dear friends on behalf of those you love most.
Besides concerns, many joys and laughs are also shared. Fellowship is rich. Lessons learned have enriched ourselves and our families. With our without this book I strongly recommend a grandparent's prayer group for any grandmother or grandfather. Sharing our hearts with God is the greatest blessing because you know He's listening and already working in or previous ones's lives.
Yesterday was Mother's Day. Mine was wonderful! We joined my son and daughter-in-law for church and the dedication of our beautiful Noel. It was lovely! That afternoon my eldest called to visit because her migraine kept her away. But it was nice to talk to her of course! That evening we went to the other daughter's for gluten-free pizza, a game of Scrabble, and the gift of Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Before all that we played with two of our precious grandkids.
This morning as I reflected on the joy of yesterday, I realized I waste a lot of time and energy pining about where I failed my family. My kids are great people. Maybe I did fail in areas, but God has not! Despite my imperfections as a mom, God has certainly filled in with great character of integrity in each, good attitudes, generous hearts, fun personalities and kind people. I love my kids and who they have become. And each made it clear their love and appreciation for me. I am rich! I am so blessed and so grateful to God for giving me my heart's desires!
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