Boojoyful

  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...

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...

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...

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...

Cheering on Cross Country runners is a work out for the fans. As I say too often say, "Life is a lot. A lot of joy and a lot of heartache." One day last week,  I got a call that a friend's father was traveling with his wife out west and died in his sleep. This same friend lost her son to suicide a year ago. That same day was the one year anniversary of another friend's son's horrific murder in their driveway. She held her dying teenaged son in her arms.  That morning I had awakened to a really fun dream about a friend's mother inviting me to visit her in Florida where she had booked a retirement home for the winter months. The dream was so vivid. We took water aerobics classes, took an Uber to a wonderful seafood restaurant, went to a concert, the beach, it was fabulous.  This woman got pedicures every month with her daughter and in the dream our beds were reclining pedicure chairs with fabulous linens, sans the water tubs.  I couldn't wait to call the mom...

Currently, I am in a 9 month study of the Psalms through the international program, Community Bible Study. Again and again the Psalms reference creation. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.  You have set your glory above the heavens. Psalm 8:1 Sitting out on our screened porch, doing my lesson, I was mesmerized by all that was occurring in creation.  Leaves were falling, billowing clouds were passing by as the wind caused the tree branches to bend and the river to ripple.  Crows were cawing and a fat baby ground hog ran along the grass as a squirrel scampered up a tree. Then the rain began to fall. The magnitude of God hit me as I realized He was aware of it all. "Everything God has made is preaching, with loudspeakers, cranked high and embedded everywhere we turn, and yet we often have our heads down, scrolling on our phones, almost nodding off."  Marshall Segal Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together. Psalm 98:...

  Pulling into the parking lot of our grandson's debut as a middle school football player, I didn't realize we'd need to pay to go to the game and hadn't brought my purse. I asked the woman at the ticket table how much the fee was and explained I'd have to go back to my car and scrounge up some money.  I explained I had a secret compartment that holds a note which says, "Jesus says, "Do not steal." The man behind me in line said, "If my son saw that note he'd take the money and leave a note saying, "I owe you Jesus." We do owe Jesus. We owe Him everything but "Jesus canceled the record of debt we owed by nailing it to the cross."  Colossians 2:14 The Song "Jesus Paid It All" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9d9a13YUP8

Beauty can be found in the simplest things. Awakening on a lazy Saturday morning, I did my morning stretch on our bed and out of my mouth came the words, "Oh, my soul." Then, down the rabbit hole she went! Even if  it takes you two days, hang with this one, because it helps us in knowing how to answer the question "When I die, am I with Jesus?" First, I Googled to see if the "Oh, my soul" phrase was a song tucked into my brain and sure enough it was a goody! Check out these lyrics: "Oh, my soul.  Oh, how you worry.  Oh, how you're weary, from fearing you lost control. This was the one thing, you didn't see coming. And no one would blame you, though.  If you cried in private.  If you tried to hide it away, so no one knows.  No one will see, if you stop believing. Chorus: Oh, my soul.  You are not alone.  There's a place where fear has to face the God you know. One more day, He will make a way.  Let Him show you how, you can lay this down ...

A friend was giving a devotional on Psalm 23. She shared how she liked the CEV version which says God " let"  David rest, instead of " makes"  him rest. Psalm 23:1-2  CEV and then in the ESV You, Lord, are my shepherd. I will never be in need. You let me rest in fields of green grass.  or The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. Reading different translations can help meet us where we are.  At my age I relate to CEV, Thank You, Lord, for letting  me rest! The ESV takes me back to motherhood when, knowing what was best for my children, I often had to make  them rest. I appreciate the fatherly love of God who knows when we are on overload, going full steam and He steps in and makes us rest. Now, we could get into the differences of needs and wants  in those translations,  but instead, I am going to take a rest!  The Song "The 23rd Psalm" Phil Wickham and Tiffany Hudson https://www.youtube.com/watc...

  Photoa are of my usual getaway with Jesus spot.  It used to have a gas fireplace, so we could even meet in winter. Remember, these posts are real life, I'm couldn't make this stuff up. In 2019/2020 my in-laws both passed away.  My mother-in-law passed first and with my father-in-law's health not good, he did not want to have a service for her. Then he passed away during COVID and a service never happened.  Their remains were stored in a cabinet in our garage. My brother in law, who lives in NY,  has been making arrangements with a cemetery where other family members are buried here in VA to place their remains. M y husband went to retrieve the remains, but could find them nowhere.  Panic set in. What in the world could have happened?  I texted our daughter, "PRAY, long story, but we can't find your grandparents remains!"  Feeling like we'd searched everywhere, I moved the car out of the garage and stood in the middle and prayed. "Lord, please he...

If I had a do over in life, it would be to know God more deeply at an earlier age. There would have been more peace in my life and therefore I would have spread much more joy, because I would have pointed so many more people to the true source of that joy. A daily prayer for me these days when strife arises is "Show me what is really in my heart Father." Show me  where I need to change, so that there is only love in my heart like there is in Your's." "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. " Psalm 139:23-24 "Be forewarned, praying the verse above has the potential to convict you. To correct you. To redirect your life. To change the way you see yourself. To change how others see you." Craig Groeschel   "There's only love in the heart of God." Zach Williams The Song “Heart Of God” Zach Williams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

                                    If my boyfriend reads these he is going to get even. Looking outside, I realized my main squeeze of 47 years this week, had left his clippers on the front steps and the dew and sprinkler system were going to get them by morning. He retrieved them, but instead of taking them to the garage he came in, sat on our living room couch, and proceeded to pretend he was clipping his toe nails. Today, I stop to think back on the years. Laughter, forgiveness and knowledge of the steadfast love of God are what continue to see us through.  1 year anniversary in 1979  He helped me dance my way back from a major stroke in 2015. We'e chosen to sing in the rain at times we really wanted to cry. We've embraced life at Shiloh on Smith Mt Lake the past 27 years, believing God has a purpose for each day we are here. Behind us is the tree where my husband ...

Our son and daughter in law in Olympic National Park Hoh Rainforest Is the weather bringing us a high of 60 or 85 today? Fall weather can be tricky. On the day of this writing the temps started out at 58 and peeked to 85 degrees.  It's hard to know what to wear. Colossians 3:12-17 tells us what to put on spiritually to survive the climate of our hearts. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your he...

Paddling to summer's end. My heart was heavy over someone who had been wounded within the body of Christ. I wanted to run in their defense and wrote out everything I would say.  As I printed off the notes my body was trembling.  Evidence to me that my plan was not from the Lord. "Help me Jesus." I cried. That small still voice said, "Come walk with Me and I will show you the real problem in your heart."  And He did. Heading out to our Scripture trails God's Word brought calm and healing to my soul and God gave me sound instructions. "Pray for hearts to heal. Pray the relationships of brothers and sisters in Christ will heal and they will be able to serve the Lord more strongly than ever before. And sweet child of mine, know I always go before you." I turned my phone on to a contemporary Christian station and the songs below are what came on. They were healing to my soul. Each verse I came to on the trails spoke God's love and truth into my hear...