Posts

Growing Up Takes Work

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  Rec league to captain on varsity. It has taken a LOT of hard work. Growing up in any area takes work. Learning is a life long process. Academically, the course load and homework requirements get a little tougher each year. Athletically, there is sweat, sore muscles and sometimes defeat. The 2025 season of fall sports is upon the Andrews grands and we are attempting to head to as many football/field hockey bleachers and cross country courses as possible.  These athletes are learning that varsity teams have a tougher training regiment than their recreational leagues and not everyone gets a trophy or a starting position. In life there are lessons to be learned in the process of living, but we don't always grow from the process.  Look back at the Israelites who grumbled and complained for 40 years on what should have been a 12 day journey. Most of my greatest lessons from the Lord, his growing me up in His ways,  have come through painful times. He tends to get more of...
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First Things First

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Something awakened me at 3:30AM and the anxiety of things I cannot change set in. My hot water bottle of a husband was already up. About 6:20 I called to him saying I was not going to make our morning walk. I brought up that it had been several weeks since we'd done our morning prayer books for our marriage and reflected on how easy it was to get out of the habit.   He responded, "You are trying to go back to sleep, so why don't we do them tonight."  I challenged, "If I had said let's praise the Lord would you say, 'Nah let's wait?'" "Here's a compromise," I continued, "I'll keep my eyes closed and you can read the entries in both books out loud." God showed up, for what I was to read for him was what my heart needed to be reminded of. The one I was to read over him, he read to me... "Lord, I pray for Your protection on Boo's mind. Shield her from the lies of the enemy.  Help her to clearly discern between...
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Come What May

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Our daughter's 33 year old concert harp holds such beauty in both sight and sound. The dream was horrible, glimpses of what Job endured. I prayed it was not a foreboding of things to come.  Wanting the thoughts held in my mind to vanish, I turned to praise and heard a new song called "Come What May," which had Psalm 23 sprinkled into the lyrics.  It is below and I hope it ministers to any heartache or sorrow you are experiencing.   Come what may, I know I will end up in the arms of Jesus. Opening my email moments later, there was a prayer from Psalm 23. God had my attention! "God, Abba, Father, Thank you, Lord, for being our shepherd. You guide us along the path of life with love and care.  We truly have everything we need.  Thank you for giving us places and seasons of rest and quiet when we need it.  Help us to make time for rest.  Thank you for refreshing our souls when we take time to drink of your living water.  Help us make time for you...
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Build Me Up Buttercup

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  A Buttercup My paternal grandparents lived hours away in PA on Lake Erie.  Granddaddy's nickname for me was "Buttercup."  He was a meek, soft spoken, kind soul, much like my father.  Even at 68 years old I still long to sit in the love of my grandparents. No matter our age we all need to be built up like the song lyric which says, "Build me up Buttercup." My whole life I've recognized the blessing of having the knee of an older wiser woman to sit at and listen.  The older one gets the harder it is to find that older, wiser, godly person, but I have one I cherish. She lives away down in Dixie. We don't have the blessing of chatting in person, but emails of encouragement are a treasure. Miss Janie This widow has had health issues the past several years which have her in excruciating pain. A few weeks ago, her daughter texted me to let me know hospice had been called in to help with the level of pain she was experiencing.  I immediately emailed her a pray...
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Age to Age

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Young and old crafters learning tricks from one another.   Only God knows where the thoughts come from that enter our minds. This one of mine was on how our opinions change related to others' age. When we are seeking a surgeon we want one with lots of experience, which equates to having a little age on them.  After my stroke, which occurred in Nashville, I needed to find a PCP back home to take over my care, because mine had moved out west. My husband was charged with that responsibility and I remember saying, "Please find me a younger one who will outlive me, so I don't have to change doctors again." Being called to pastor a church whose majority of congregants were 45 years old and under, I wondered why they wanted my husband who was in his 60's.  We quickly learned that with age comes wisdom that has served both of us well in this ministry. What is your preference for your children/grandchildren's school teachers? Young and vivacious or older with experienc...
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How Far Will Your Love Go?

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Sitting Beside Still Waters at Shiloh on a Lovely Fall Day Why are we so much quicker to recall the negative? You know, the times we have been wronged or hurt by someone we thought would always be there for us. Rejection, being discarded, cuts deeply into our hearts. A mother's love goes a long, long way....forgiving quickly, because no matter how old she grows she longs to hold her child in her arms.  But there is a love that goes even further than that.  Check out these song lyrics below from the song "How Far".  "A million miles from my mistakes, couldn't keep your love away, however far away I am from home....that's how far your love will go." Thank You, Father for this kind of love.  Going to Biblegateway I searched steadfast love  in the ESV and 219 verses came up. A very familiar theme in David's Psalms is "The steadfast love of the Lord." But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.   Psalm 13...
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Higher Than I

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When someone receives a medical diagnose that seems hopeless what is often heard?  "We are going to find you the best doctor." The computers come out and the search begins. When I listened to the song below and pulled up the lyrics: "So much stronger, so much greater, so much wiser, so much higher" I thought, "Why are we ever slow to run to God for help and advice." The opening lyrics say: "When my heart is overwhelmed, when I barely trust myself, lead me to the Rock Higher than I. My mind flashes to people in the Bible who went to the Rock on behalf of others. Mary and Martha when Lazarus was sick unto death. They knew who they needed. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." John 11:21-22 Moses  crying out for his sister, Miriam, with leprosy. "Lord, Please, God, heal her!" Numbers 12:13 Jairus, the Roman soldier, c...
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