Boojoyful

At a recent church luncheon our 10 year old grandson showed an older church member great respect by rubbing her back while she shared a thought. She was emotional and struggling to get her thoughts out. It stirred his heart to compassion. Some of our grandchildren visiting their paternal great grandparents several years ago. There seems to be a day set aside to celebrate everything.  My parents used to say that was to keep Hallmark in business. I think my parents would shake their heads to know there is "donut day". While working on a piece to teach children to respect their elders, I came to find out that the United Nations established October 1st as "International Day of the Older Persons"!  At our Fall Festival, October 1st one of the craft projects us for the kids is to paint little pumpkins. With that project the parents will get this note below. Today is "International Day of the Older Person."  Please have your child give the pumpkin they have paint...

  Storm resilient children. Thank You, Lord. Where did the day go? Did it not start with the Lord? I know I was praying throughout the night.  I totally forgot to post a devotional I was so busy texting with friends and family in Florida and helping work at church most to they day preparing to move out huge out door fall festival inside this weekend. Forgive me Lord, for going full steam ahead without you. It's so easy to do. Our son texted this morning that they were out surveying the damage in his in law's neighborhood in Sarasota and it was pretty bad.  Tree's and fences down everywhere. He said most everyone had power out, but they were somehow spared.  Opening this site I saw the beginnings of an old devotional I had never posted. It's definitely what God wants me to hear. Once again I have allowed myself to be way overbooked and I will be of no good to anyone.  Tomorrow, before the weekend chaos at church begins I am praying I will choose to take a Sabbath...

It was obviously God's will for our third born and his wife to make it to the top of Mt. Witney.   #7 "Beholding and Becoming God's Will in Every Circumstance".   The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. In light of Proverbs 16:9, Simons challenges her readers to: "Make a decision (get off the fence), stop worrying about the future, let go of your tight grip, recount all the times God's plans were better." She breaks down my life verse,  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, saying we can please and honor Christ with: "Our lips by praising and giving thanks in all circumstances. Our hearts by praying continually. Our countenance by rejoicing always." Rejoice always,   pray without ceasing,   give thanks in all circumstances;  for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Years ago, my husband trained up our children to never panic in Sunday school when asked a questio...

Our Tampa grands watching for the storm Making root beer floats now because if they lose power that ice cream won't keep!                                                                 Snack and game preparation. We have 16 family members who live in Florida and oodles of close friends who call Florida home as well.  They are all making decisions related to hurricane Ian. One son and his family of four live in Tampa where mandatory evacuation orders are in place.  Our daughter in law has been food prepping in anticipation of losing power. She's Florida born and bred and knows how to prepare. She shared that the public schools announced Sunday that they would be closed all week as they transform into shelters.  Some people were leaving buckets of snacks and nec...

  At the Science Museum in Roanoke, VA you can hold live parrots  & dream of becoming one. It's not of eternal value, but accidentally  I posted #6 before #5.   The title of chapter 5 is "Beholding and Becoming God's Example For Family." Simons says, "Keep rehearsing the truth of who God is and what's He's done, so that not a moment goes by in your family's everyday life without a reminder that God is good and God is near." I think I've recommended Chris Tomlin's children's book The Good, Good Father  to you before.  It's a wonderful read for any age. Just as parents are kind to their children, the Lord is kind to all who worship him." Psalm 103:13 Years ago, I had a friend who moved to a new neighborhood.  Her husband, a physician, had an early morning habit of sitting at the kitchen table and reading his Bible before he left for work.  Several months after their move the next door neighbor inquired if that ...

  This emotional Mama Boo wept pacing the sidelines in VA Beach as I watched our son coach our grandson in a rec league football game this morning.  For 20 years I slept with a football coach and most of those games had one of our sons playing for him. Time goes so quickly y'all. I'm thanking God for sweet moments like these. Praying for our super supportive daughter in law who will carry the sideline torch this fall with boys playing on different teams! Three generations of football! In the meantime, in Tampa, our baby coached his oldest child on the baseball field. At the same time up in Wisconsin another devoted daughter in law watched her youngest pull in the ribbons in the ring!  A text just in that our Minnesota son coached his son's soccer team to a big win! I guess it's good they aren't all local. We'd never make it to every event. Life will go on when we are long gone.  Such peace knowing all these sweet families love Jesus. The Song "See a Victory...

  Beholding one of Mama Boo's knitted monsters, but not becoming one. #6 is title "Beholding and Becoming God's Transformation in Rebuilding."  Perfect timing as we are visiting our son in VA Beach who is a home builder.  They are about to embark on another top to bottom home renovation. It's exiting, because their interior designer will be  our talented daughter in law who lives in Tampa. In this chapter of Beholding and Becoming , Simons poses two questions:  What are your greatest earthly treasures? Which of these treasures cannot be destroyed or stolen? Starting my list there was my husband, children, grandchildren, friends, church, Shiloh, and family heirlooms.  Everyone of these things can be removed from my life.  But my eternal life, secured by Christ's sacrifice will never be taken from me!  Amen Don't store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them.  Inst...

Here we are at our reception at the Hotel Roanoke 44 years ago. My favorite thing looking back on our wedding photographs is how my husband is holding onto me with a huge smile!  He still holds onto me, more so now in hopes I will not fall down.  When we are out on our 3 mile neighborhood walks, people sometimes comment how cute it is that we are holding hands. Holding on is a good thing. (Particularly when you wobble like a webble that might fall down.)   Today's song is "Hold onto Jesus, Because He's Holding on to You." Choosing to hold on  can take effort.  It's a dying to self and thinking of the other as more important. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Philippians 2:3   The actions and daily routines that hold us together can subtly get shoved away.  Just the other night I said, "We aren't praying together anymore.  We have stopped reading our Sto...

  Our two year old granddaughter gazing at the Mill Mountain Star, Roanoke, VA The call came and one of my favorite teenagers in my life was screaming "You need to pray, just pray right now! The ambulances are here!"  Trying to calm her down through the sobs and understand what was going on,  I realized I needed to get my husband to the hospital to meet a family from our church.  This young woman and her siblings had witness a tragedy and I was just as concerned about them.    I shouldn't be driving.  I was worn to exhaustion and had broken out with shingles the day before and was in awful pain. Fortunately there were adults with these children.  Just as my husband left the hospital, he received a call about another church member and had to turn around and go back. That made me think about how a stop light works. We likewise get warnings to slow down , stop and rest in the Lord and then go following His plan, which will not ex...

  A friend sent this sketch of Jesus laughing and it brings me joy. God created laughter! Opening my eyes and looking for my morning devotional I felt the Lord was saying, "Let's get is started in here."  Now, I had no idea who the Black Eyed Peas were and certainly had never seen their music video of a song by the same name as what I'd heard.  Somewhere along the way I must have heard that song though. The Lord made me chuckle for sure, as he started our praise time together with that phrase. Hmm. I wonder how it would go over if I used that as my greeter phrase at church!  We''ve told our greeters to never greet with "How are you?"  My go to is "Are you ready to praise the Lord together?" Each morning we should awaken with attitudes and heart conditions that say: "Let's get started with whatever you have in mind Lord, but first I bring to you a praise party!"   Hallelujah!  It's time to start my day with H...

                                                      A new season of life!  They won their first game 14-13. Do you remember how I wrote a couple weeks ago about rejoicing in all things?  The test are getting harder.  We were heading out the door to drive a friend an hour away to an appointment for a wig. All her hair had fallen out, due to chemo for her Stage 4 cancer.  My sweet husband went to pull my car out of the garage and I was coming out the front door.  All of a sudden from the car he shouts, go back into the house!  He starts backing up the car, crashes into our landscape lighting and smashes into the rail of our stairway putting a dent in our car. I am looking at him in disbelief. If it had been a shooter I would have been dead for sure. SLOW obedient. A...

Thankful for our wonderful local Homestead Creamery  The Song " Look What You've Done" by Tasha Layton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWHJC7PyYY How could you fall so far You should be ashamed of yourself  So I was ashamed of myself The lies I believed  They got some roots that run deep I let 'em take a hold of my life  I let 'em take control of my life Standing in Your presence, Lord I can feel You diggin' all the roots up I feel Ya healin' all my wounds up All I can say is hallelujah Look what You've done  Look what You've done in me You spoke Your truth into the lies I let my heart believe Look at me now  Look how You made me new The enemy did everything that he could do  Oh, but look what You've done Suddenly all the shame is gone I thought I was too broken, now I see  You were breaking new ground inside of me Standing in Your presence, Lord  I can feel You diggin' all my roots up I feel Ya healin' all my wounds up  All I can say ...

  This is our precious grandson  who went through the  copperhead bite and vicious pit bull attack two years ago. He's able to keep loving life in the place those horrific things happened.   To God be the glory for all he can redeem. In the song, "WayMaker" there is a lyric that refers to the fact that God is working even when we don't know that he's working. FaithGateway author, Jennifer Tucker wrote: "The way of God may not always make sense to you, but you can trust Him without fear...At the root of my fear is a lack of trust in the heart of God" It made me think about a prayer group I was in this week and we were talking about how we daily have to surrender to God and lay down what we think we have under control.  One friend said, "It's a continual recycling process.  Fear, trust, repeat."   Do we believe that God is always up to good, the kind of good that brings Him glory?  ( Romans 8:28) Do we believe He neither slumbers...

  This granddaughter is beholding a beloved old pony and becoming confident in the show ring.  Chapter 4 in Beholding and Becoming   is titled "God's Perfecting Work Through Daily Practice." I chuckled how Ruth Simons compares a beginning pianist plinking away on piano keys trying to learn to hear the melody, to us leaning how to walk by faith.   She says, "Practice makes progress, not perfect." That is so true of athletes as well.  Our grandchildren are  learning  jujitsu,  surfing, horseback riding,  golf, soccer, and football this fall and they all  have lots to learn. It is the same with us in this faith walk desiring to overcome sin. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,   looking to Jesus ...Hebrews 12:1-2   With endurance we can keep ru...

Somewhere over the rainbow. While babysitting at our daughter's new home, which is just 2 minutes from ours, I took more than a moment to gaze upon the rainbow in her front yard and then 20 minutes later stepped  onto her back deck and watched the sunset. Her boys kept saying "Where are you going Mama Boo?" And I'd reply, "I just have to see what God is up to with this sunset." The middle of the night tends to be a good time for me to take a moment  to hear from the Lord.  Those are not good times to text the people He brings to mind though as I could cause their phones to ding  and awaken them.  After I awaken the day gets going and I forget to take a moment and reach out to those who were on my heart. Sunday, after church, God thrilled my heart as I looked upon all his people enjoying one another after the service. It's easy to  take for granted some of our greatest gifts like living in a country where we can freely gather to worship, prai...

These granddaughters flipping out at Smith Mt Lake Paige Brown, a Nashville Bible teacher is at it again this fall teaching on Elijah and Elisha in a series called "Standing Alone."  Her lessons are only up for 1 week on YouTube and then she takes them down when she puts up the next one.  Today is the last day to catch Session 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPhDqXvSR44 If you choose to watch have your Bible open to 1 King's 16 and a pen with paper ready to write down a lot of nuggets from 1 Kings 16:29-1Kings 17:24. It is as exciting as any novel you may be reading and holds some mighty good teachings on several levels.  You will encounter some miracles in this historical record. Brown teaches: "Miracles are a revelation of God.  Their purpose is to reveal God, his power and his glory as he executes judgement and brings salvation.  Miracles are pointers to his promises and always show his redemptions.  Miracles are little whispe...

  Becoming a competitive surfer girl.  And  whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,       giving thanks to God the Father through him.   Colossians 3:17 "Everybody has things to do. Lean to love what must be done!" Ruth Simons Unexpected messes, that throw off my plans because they have to be dealt with, tend to steal my attitude of thanksgiving.  How do you thank the Lord for the invasion of ants in your cupboard or mice in the bread drawer?  Just the other day, after doing 8 loads of laundry and rejoicing in the completed accomplishment  I walked into one bedroom to find a pile of sheets and towels on the floor.  My gears did not immediately shift into thank You Lord for more laundry mode. For years, when I'm tackling the mundane, I think...I bet the Queen or 1st Lady aren't emptying the dishwasher this morning, changing a bed a child wet, packing lunches or heading to the groc...