Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Two Blessings


My mom was talking to Noah about wanting to be a missionary when she was seven, but not being able to go on a trip until the age of 82. Noah said, "Well, I'm going to be a missionary when I'm in my twenties. God told me in a dream."



I was reading a book on prayer and the little girl was talking about her best friend, another girl, and Noah said that he didn't want to read the rest of the book because the girl's best friend wasn't Jesus.

The littlest one is cuddley and starting to talk. The first word I understood was duck. The next time he said, "ticka, ticka, ticka."

Digging Out

My mom used to have a bumper sticker that said, "God is my co-pilot." I think God was my pilot yesterday. I know my steering wheel was turning at 90 degree angles back and forth when I tried to go through the slush and snow piled in my long lane. As the weather warms up it seems the snow gets deeper and its like driving fast along a curvy road with pylons stuck everywhere. The car went wherever the ice took it. In some places the ice is 6 inches thick and slushy.

So when I get to the curve in the lane I know I can't get through that in my lightweight energy efficient car made by foreigners who obviously do not expect it to go through snow drifts. After spending a hour shoveling my back hurts too much to continue and I leave the car glaring at the drift.

Every snow storm brings ideas of selling this rural house and moving closer to a highway as I think how will I ever cope with this when we're older. I'm also getting frustrated that my husband took the 4-wheel drive, the salt and the good shovel.

And then I get online and read a prayer request for a family who has lost an 18 year old daughter in a car accident. All of a sudden the snow in the drive is a minor problem that will surely disappear soon.

Today when I hear my daughter's voice on the phone I'm grateful and when I spend another hour shoveling away the slush in the driveway it seems like a privilege.

Friday, February 16, 2007

After the Storm


Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:6-10, ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard VersionEdition: SecondCopyright: Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 2004, QuickVerse, a division of FindEx.com, Inc.

Blizzard 2/13/07 2pm


Sunday, February 04, 2007

Living Will


It used to be that we didn't have so many health decisions to make. The ambulance didn't get to the house in time to save the life of heart attack or stroke victim. But now that mom is eighty-three and traveling to four states my family has to decide what to do if mom needs immediate medical care at one of our homes. Each state has a different way of looking at this and so each of us has to have a different form signed and thought through, notorized and/or witnessed by two unrelated persons which is a chore as well.

And then to sit down with mom and figure out her true wishes brings about different thoughts on different days. One day she doesn't want extreme measures to save her life, the next day she wants to live no matter what. No matter about that I know I couldn't watch her suffer in my house and let her die. That's what the hospital is for. I'd have to call the ambulance. Besides that, I don't have a clue what the law requires.

A while back my daughter and I were eating lunch out and she started choking on a salad and I froze. She wasn't breathing and I just sat there watching. I'm not good in emergencies.

A nursing home is the place for the dying and the old. It's a clean, sterile place to visit and leave behind. That way your home won't have the memory of death.

No matter how old you are it's never the right time to die and it's never easy to let go of the expectation that those we love will live forever.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Sponsor a Child


This is my sponsored child through World Vision. For $30 a month the community of this little girl receives nutritious food, health care and a Christian witness.

If the child is old enough you receive written communication throughout the year.

The Fear and The Father

We would do well to take God out of the little, logical box we try to keep him in and worship him with the awe and reverence he deserves.

In Genesis 31 one of the names for God is “The Fear” as in Genesis 31:42. A great amount of fear in regards to God is healthy for our faith.

Genesis 31:42 (ESV) 42If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.”

If The Fear is on your side you have nothing else to fear. This God who is to be reverenced is also desiring to be Father:

Romans 8:12 - 17 (ESV) 12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

It’s a mystery that we will never completely understand, but then those of you who have known your fathers will see some parallels on how you can be respectful of someone but also have the intimacy to call him, “daddy.”

You will be like Jacob who wrestled with God and lived to be a righteous man of faith:

Genesis 32:28 - 30 (ESV) 28Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”