I Wonder How Sara Felt?

Last Friday morning I kept our little (almost) 7-month-old grandson while his Mama and big sister went fishing with my hubby. He is such a sweet little boy! Hardly ever cries unless he's sleepy or hungry! He's just beginning to crawl and really enjoy his toys.

After he woke up from a short nap I decided that I would put him in his stroller and take him for a walk. I thought he would enjoy being outside for a while and I knew that I needed to walk. I didn't realize how hard it is though to push a 20-plus pound baby in a stroller through spots of sand! Whew! I tried to stay on hard ground but it was nearly impossible. After about half a mile I had to call it quits!

I got to thinking about Sarah and wondering how she may have felt when she had Isaac at about age 90! My my my! She must have been in a LOT better shape than me! I'm in my middle 50's and evidently pretty out of shape! I can NOT imagine having a baby at 90! (...lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed...." Genesis 18: 10b-12a)

For my peers in bloggy land who have had children ...or have adopted children..."late" in life....I salute you! I can not imagine how you are able to meet the demands of motherhood 24/7. I had three children in my 20's.....one in 1977, one in 1978, and one in 1980. It was a huge job to take care of them but I was young and in much better physical shape then. God knew what He was doing when He gave babies to people UNDER 50! ha

There's just something about reaching that 50 year mark that slowed me down. But thank goodness for Grandbabies! They are SO sweet! And so loving! And.....when they go home I rest! ha ha

Yeah, I just can't imagine how Sarah felt!

GranMamma Marilyn

Replacing the Bad With the Better

A few weeks ago I wrote about my hubby getting rid of some pesky poison oak around our home. I even posted a picture of some that had died and some that he had missed which was flourishing. Since then even that has died and turned brown. I was checking on it the other day and was surprised by beautiful lavender blooms on a flower bush near one of the trees. I did not plant this bush. I don't know if a bird dropped the seed or what but it just came up a few years ago and started blooming! Can anyone tell me what this flower is called?

It made me think about when the Lord starts dealing with us about the need to "kill" sin in our lives. It may be bitterness. Or anger. Or pride. Or selfishness. Or laziness. Whatever our pet sin is, when God starts asking us to "let it go" it sometimes is a painful process. Sometimes it dies slowly as our poison oak did leaving an ugly brown vine clinging to the tree.

Just as it was such a blessing to see the beautiful flower blooming right in front of the dead poison oak on our tree, so it is a blessing when we replace our pet sins with something good and wholesome. Bitterness can be replaced by sweetness. Anger by patience and long suffering. Pride by humility. Selfishness by sharing. Laziness by getting to work. I've asked God today to help me "plant" something beautiful in the place of some ugly things I have let creep into my life. How about you?

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6: 11

Marilyn

Dear Daddy

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters"

~ George Herbert~

Dear Daddy,Happy Father's Day! I think of you most every day but especially today on your special day. As a little girl growing up I remember always feeling safe when I was with you. You never were much for showing emotion or affection but I knew you loved me. I knew because you worked hard every day as a barber to make the money to pay for our house and our clothes and our food. I knew because you came home from work each night and spent time with your family. I knew because you took us to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday nights.

It wasn't until I was a grown up woman that I remember you hugging me and telling me you loved me. But I always knew. Because love is so much more than words. Love is action. And you were one of the most active men I ever knew. This is your second Father's Day in heaven. I know you're having a great time! We miss you here but will see you there someday.

I love you Daddy.

Marilyn

When the Power Goes Out

The other night we had a severe thunderstorm watch for our area until 8:00 p.m. but the storms seemed to be staying a little east of our farm in Mississippi. And then it happened! Just before 7:00 the sky got almost black and the clouds rolled in. Raindrops pelted against the windows and the tin roof. Trees were bending in the wind. Before I knew it the power went out and the voice of the weather man on TV and the hum of the air conditioner were gone. Only the sound of the rain and thunder was left. We are so used to having electrical power that when we are without it we feel almost helpless! No fans. No air conditioning. No TV. No radio. Worry about the freezers getting too warm.

It's pretty amazing to realize that the thunder storm that caused our power outage had more than enough electrical energy in it's lightening to run all the appliances in our homes! One form of power taking away another form of power!

I immediately started trying to call our local electrical power company but could only get a busy signal for more than an hour. By then the storm had passed over and things had, thankfully, cooled off. With the windows open I could feel a cool breeze blowing. A little after 8:00 I was finally able to get the after-hours electric company's dispatcher and tell her our power was off. I was hoping that it would be back on in an hour or so but it would eventually take about 13 hours to get power restored. The clean-up crew stayed up all night to get people's power back on.

Have you ever felt like you had the power turned off in your spiritual life? I have! Usually it's like that thunderstorm we had.....one kind of power taking away another kind of power. Never underestimate the power of Satan. He tried to use it to conquer even Jesus when he tempted Him in Luke 4: 6 “And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.” But Satan's power was overcome with the power of Almighty God. (I Chronicles 29: 11) “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thing; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.”

Being without power can be scary sometimes. Especially if it happens during the night. The same is true spiritually. It's scary being without God's power in our life! Job said this...(Job 26: 2 ) “How hast thou helped him that is without power? How savest thou the arm that hath no strength?” Isaiah had a good answer....(Isaiah 40: 29) “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

Sometimes the reason we have no spiritual power is because we have never been saved. Oh, we may be religious. We may even be a member of a church. We may outwardly look like a Christian but not possess any power because we have never really trusted what Jesus did on the cross to be enough to take us to heaven! (2 Timothy 3: 5) “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Jesus has the perfect remedy for the powerless life! (John 1: 12 ) “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

As Christians, we have immediate access to God the Father and to His power in our lives! (2 Samuel 22: 33 ) “God is my strength and power: And he maketh my way perfect.”

I love how the old hymn puts it: "There is power, power, wonder working power.....in the precious blood of the Lamb!"

Marilyn

Keeping Mama Happy

I think I mentioned that I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. I had so many family and friends send cards, emails and gifts! And it seems I am still receiving them! My ladies Sunday school class gave me a "belated" card last week with sweet little notes from each of them and a substantial amount of cash stuck inside! They are so thoughtful. My daughter gave me a little round black metal "retro" looking fan that has been cooling me off really great. Tried to upload a picture of it on here but it just won't cooperate!

One of the most unusual gifts I got was last Saturday night from one of my sons. He was taking me and hubby out to eat for a late BD present to me and soon after I got in the back seat of his pickup he casually glanced back at me and said..."Oh...that's your gift on the seat." I wasn't expecting a gift other than the dinner but was pleased of course. I pulled a neatly wrapped square box out of the gift bag and tore the blue paper off. When I lifted the lid, here is what I saw!

Does that ring a bell for anybody? Remember my earlier post about breaking a bowl from my favorite set of dishes? He had gotten me a replacement for it! I was speechless! And then I noticed the brown striped box. And I knew....I just KNEW what was in it before I ever opened it! I almost shouted to him as he drove down the road, "I KNOW what's in this box!" Hubby had a quizzical look on his brow and asked how I could know. I knew that my son must be reading my blog posts because that would probably be the only way he would have known that the only piece that was not with my dishes when I bought them was the sugar bowl. And sure enough! It was a brand new matching sugar bowl.

It just put the icing on my birthday cake, so to speak! I have such a wonderful hubby, kids, friends and family who have made me feel so special during my birthday month! Thanks everybody!

"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" Ephesians 5: 20

Marilyn

Traffic Stopper !

The other day hubby and I had taken our daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and baby grandson to McDonald's for lunch and playtime. After we finished eating and playing hubby and DIL went to put baby boy in his car seat. Baby girl was walking out with me. Even though she is 3 1/2 years old I still make her hold my hand while we are crossing the parking lot. The drive-through line was long and we had to walk through that to get to our car. I had my mind on watching the traffic and then putting baby girl in her car seat and didn't hear someone calling me. Hubby said..."There's a lady in the drive-thru line that is calling you". I looked back and saw a lady in a car with the passenger window rolled down. When I walked over to her car she said, "WHERE did you get that purse? That's the prettiest thing I have ever seen!!!" I'm not sure what I was expecting her to say but it wasn't that! I was so pleasantly surprised. But I did have to tell her that I had no idea where the purse came from because it had been a gift from a good friend recently. Clearly my mint green butterfly purse was a traffic stopper!

Ever since I was given this purse I have thought about my friend Lisa who collects butterflies. She said she loves the butterfly so much because it reminds her of her new life in Christ. How just as the butterfly was once an ugly caterpillar but now a beautiful creature, so we who were once so ugly with sin can now be a beautiful new creature in Christ if we accept His free gift of salvation. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Corinthians 5: 17

My, but would it not be great if my "new life in Christ" was so obvious to people that someone would stop in traffic to ask me why I was different and where I found this great new life?

May we as Christians so purpose to walk so that we will be "traffic stoppers" and stand out as being different from the rest of the world!

Marilyn

Vacation...R&R

Last week hubby was on vacation. So that meant lots of R&R. I know in most cases that stands for "Rest & Relaxation" but in our case it seemed to mean "Rush and Rush some more"!! ha I have not been on the computer as much and I've missed your emails and reading your blogs. I'll try to give you a sketch of our week last week. If you don't like reading the mundane everyday happenings of life, you might want to save time and stop reading here. :)

Sunday: Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Proverbs 18: 22 May 31st was my husband and my THIRTY-SIXTH wedding anniversary! I'm more thankful for him now than I was when we first got married. Through the years we have had some fusses but all marriages have those. I've always heard that opposites attract and that must be true because our personalities are pretty much polar opposites! Once a man hubby works with asked another man there....who is good friends with us....if I was like my hubby. Our friend thought a minute, shook his head and answered.."Like night and day!" I've always had a good laugh over that. Our pastor and his wife have started something new this year at church. On the last Sunday of the month that you have your anniversary....or if you're single when you have your birthday.....you are invited to eat dinner with the Pastor & his wife at church after the morning services. Pastor's Wife cooked a delicious dinner for hubby and I and another couple with an anniversary.

Monday: Woke up early to get ready for daughter-in-law, granddaughter and grandson to come and go fishing with hubby at a neighbor's pond. I stayed home and kept grandson (only 6-months-old) and cooked dinner (deer Sloppy Joes, baked beans and coleslaw) while hubby took DIL and baby girl fishing. Baby boy was SO good! About 8:00 the phone rang and it was baby girl calling GanMamma to tell me she had caught her first fish! When they came home at lunch.....very tired but happy.....hubby laughingly told me about her fish. He said she was reeling the fish in and smiling when all of a sudden the little fish came to the top and flopped over. Baby girl threw down her little fishing pole and announced, "I can't want it!!!" Sooooo funny!

Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers. Proverbs 17: 6

Monday evening hubby and I drove over to a neighboring town to eat supper ....sort of a secondary anniversary dinner I guess. On the way we stopped and looked at several cars since the one he currently drives 140 miles every day to work has 377,000 miles on it! Found one we liked but decided to think about it a day or two.

Tuesday: We borrowed our son's pickup and went to get a new refrigerator. My old one ( a hand-me-down from a sister-in-law 15 or so years ago) was still keeping stuff cold but it was SO old and dilapidated looking that I had been looking at new ones lately. We had found a great deal on one the previous Saturday but had waited until this day to go and get it because they had a 15% Senior Citizen discount on Tuesday! Even more savings! This turned out to be an ALL day thing. Get the new fridge. Bring it home. Unload it. Take everything out of old fridge. Chunk a lot of old stuff. Clean....and clean some more....where the old fridge had been sitting. Change hinges from one side of fridge doors to the other. Hook up the new icemaker. Get new fridge positioned and leveled. Put food back in. Clean up kitchen. Whew!

Wednesday: Cooked a big dinner for youngest son. He had not eaten with us in a long time so I cooked a tempting meal for him! He only works about 10 minutes away from our house so came over on his lunch hour. I cooked spaghetti, creamed corn from the freezer, green beans, corn bread, and fresh strawberry shortcake. We had a great time of fellowship.

Thursday: First on the agenda was a visit to my endocrinologist about 60 miles west of here. My last tests still did not give any indication of anything that can be causing my episodic high blood pressure. He suggested it could be caused by stress. After we got home we rested a few minutes and then drove to another town this time about 40 miles east and bought the car that we had looked at and liked there on Monday. It's a '04 Camry. A lot like the white one I already drive so we are trying to figure out who will drive which one!

Friday: I played "catch-up" with laundry and housework in the morning time. Cooked a big dinner for hubby while he was mowing his sister's lawn. That night we went out to eat AGAIN....this time for my birthday which was on Saturday.

Saturday: Went and picked up Baby Girl to go on church bus visitation with us. Visited the kids and then ate lunch at Wendy's. Dropped her back at her house and came home and rested a little bit. After all....I did turn a year older that day! :)

I know this is not really much of a "spiritual" blog post today but just wanted to catch you up on why I had been scare around here last week. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with so many things. I want to get busy and do more for Him!

Marilyn

Poison !

"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" Hebrews 12: 15

How many of you have ever had a bad case of Poison Oak or Poison Ivy? If you are as allergic to it as I am you may have tried to put it in the far corner of your mind so you won't have to remember it! One of the most miserable times that I can remember was about 35 years ago when as a newlywed I was talked into "helping" my husband with some trees he was cutting. He was selling them for pulpwood and he had me piling the brush for him. Evidently some of the trees had poison ivy growing on them but I must not have known it. Anyway, the end result was absolutely horrible! I had a itchy, oozy, rash all over my arms and my stomach! It just about drove me crazy! If you've ever had a poison oak/ivy incident you can identify with me! I tried every home remedy I knew but finally had to go to the doctor and get a shot and a pack of prednisone pills to take for a week.

My husband still kids me and says that it cost more to cure me of the poison oak than he made from the load of logs he sold! ha I have had many run-ins with it since but none as bad as that time! Now hubby takes special care to keep the poison oak killed from around our house and yard. This year we've had much more rain than usual though and the poison oak has thrived. He has worked hard trying to kill it before it spreads further but somehow he missed some that was growing up the side of a tree.

I could see them from the kitchen window. The vine on one tree was bright green, lush, and thriving! The vine on the other tree was dead and brown. And when I saw them side by side like that, the verse from Hebrews 12: 15 came to my mind. I thought about myself and the times that I do things that I know God is not pleased with. I specifically thought about the tendency I have toward harboring bitterness in my heart. It was like God spoke to me through those vines on the trees and revealed to me that my bitterness is just as poison to my spirit as the poison oak is to my body! Wow! I avoid poison oak like the plague but am I that careful about avoiding bitterness? I should be!

Am I letting bitterness thrive unchecked in my heart which will in the long run hurt not just me but others? Is this bitterness covering my spirit like the beautiful green...but very poisonous vine is covering the tree?

Or am I giving the Lord permission to pull out that bitterness and let it die and dry up.....like the dead vine on the tree.....so that it will stop hurting me and others around me?

God's Word says this about it in Ephesians 4: 31-32 "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

May God help us to NOT let that root of bitterness take over and poison our lives!

Marilyn