From My Heart

There are times in our lives when we realize we cannot understand what is happening in our world. These are the days we must count our blessings in order to keep from focusing on the unthinkable. MY BLESSINGS: Jesus Christ, My Savior (Without Him how lost I would be) Family (Godly parents, wonderful husband, great kids and step-kids) God's Word (I love it!) GRANDKIDS!!! (Eight little girls, 2 little boys, 1 precious foster grand daughter. I could just kiss them all to pieces!) (Make that 7 little girls and 1 big girl - she'll be 16 next month!) My Job (The very one that stresses me out...) The Basics (Food, clean water, shelter -so many don't have them) My Church (The BIG one and the little one) My Cat (Go ahead. Make fun. She loves me unconditionally) Sunshine (I am a Florida girl to the core) Diet Coke (I know...it's wrong...but it feels SO right. LOL) Music (All kinds. Well - almost all kinds......

I grew up singing songs in church. Lots of songs. Songs in Sunday School. Songs in children's choir. Songs in big church. Songs in youth choir. Songs in adult choir. Songs in the pew. Songs in the praise team. Lots of songs... I can still remember songs from my childhood. I could sing them in my sleep..  Unfortunately, I think too often, we are singing them in our sleep. We sing from rote and our minds wander while the words and the notes pour from our mouths. How often do I sing a song on Sunday from start to finish while my mind wanders to what everyone is wearing, or what's for lunch, or... you get the picture. I love singing. I love the children's songs and the choir anthems and the old hymns and the contemporary praise and worship music. I love it all - I really do. But I think if just every once in awhile we slowed it down enough to really think about the words, we would sing with renewed vigor. Or maybe, we would find ourselves so choked up by what we are si...

Larry and I left home yesterday to begin the trek northward to the Tennessee mountains. This is one of our favorite places, but we don't generally journey there this time of the year. What draws us this year is a new grandbaby. As we are making our way through northern Georgia, the reason we choose a different season is abundantly clear. Although winter is technically over, the landscape is relatively bare. In many places the grass is still brown, trees look dead and leafless. There is a drab lack of color. We have been this way before. In the spring when the green is especially vibrant and the leaves look particularly tender. We have been this way in the summer when flowers are blooming and wildlife is thriving. We have been this way in the fall when leaves are yellow and gold and red and orange - when the mountains appear to be on fire. We know there is life here - we just can't see it right now. Life is always a cycle. I recently lost two elderly family members. They h...

You sit in an office...staring at a computer...performing the same repetitive tasks over and over...wondering why you are here... And then, God gives you a window. A window that looks out at the world He created. Suddenly, in the midst of the mundane, you can see the sun breaking through the tops of the trees. Shining through the glass. Warming your face. Causing the grass to sparkle as it reflects off the dew. Or maybe the sun is hiding today, and, instead, you get a rainstorm so close you feel you need an umbrella. Just on the other side of the glass. And we cannot forget the visitors who come to keep you company. The regal egret, slowly picking his way through the landscaping. He stops and eyes any movement he sees coming from inside the glass on his way by. And there are the cardinals that visit the large palmetto bush just the other side of the lawn. The little stray cat that stops and peaks in the window to see what you are doing from time to time with her belly full of k...

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:18-19 I love reality TV shows that are about people cleaning out their clutter. Two favorites were always, "Clean House" and "Clean Sweep". These were shows where a team of experts come into the homes of people with hoarding issues and help them clean and organize their space.  Often their attachment to clutter has become so extreme it is holding them back in life ~ in jobs, relationships, health, overall quality of life. They cannot move forward emotionally because they cannot see to take the next step. Their clutter is holding them captive. One thing the experts always make the participants do on every episode is to sort their stuff.  KEEP - SELL - DONATE - TRASH... In Isaiah, the Jews were being held captive in Babylon. The people wanted th...

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12 I have a confession.  I have been more than a little 'bah humbug' this year. I don't really know why. We are settled in our new house this year. Grandkids have come and gone and are still coming and going. It's been a beautiful, tropical Florida Christmas season. We did a great program at our church. And, yet, I'm just not feelin' it...  Until tonight. Tonight was our annual Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. It is undeniably one of my favorite services every year and is always packed. Tonight was no different.  During the weeks leading up to the holiday, our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons called "The Light of Christmas" from the first chapter of John. Our Christmas musical was also themed around the light. And tonight, I saw the light. Because I was singing with our Praise...

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."  2 Corinthians 4:7 Jars of clay... Why not etched crystal? Or for that matter, what about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? This little light of mine could shine through crystal - and just think what  beautiful pattern it would make glowing through the etched sides. Gold is sparkly and attractive. Everybody just loves gold. So why does it have to be a jar of clay? In 2 Kings 4, the widow who only had a bit of oil came to Elisha for help. He told her to go and collect jars. Can you imagine what it must have taken for her to go to her neighbors and ask for their jars? They had to know she was in trouble financially. No doubt there was more than one conversation at dinner tables that night about the widow woman coming to ask for jars. I mean, she had nothing to put in them. Whatever, did she want with jars? But she was obedient and she humbled herse...