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Being a Mother is…

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“Being a Mother is a Holy Privilege!”

As I sit in my “office” (outside on my deck) this chilly fall morning, I am overwhelmed with the joy of being a woman and a mother. We’ve been doing the “Jesus & Women” Bible study by Kristi McClelland, and it has brought lightness to my heart to see how Jesus spoke with women, honored women, and lifted them up from their sin, disease, or lowly status. As God would have it, I “just happened” to be drinking coffee out of one of my favorite mugs that states: Being a Mother is a Holy Privilege. Oh how true! But Oh how often I let the cares of the world blind me to this truth. Anybody with me?

How often when the kiddos were little did I long to be somewhere else, socializing, taking a romantic vacation, doing something more exciting than mundane laundry or changing diapers? When they were elementary age, how often did I shoo them out of the house to play with friends? And how often as they were teens did I take it for granted that they would always be there heading in and out of the house laughing, chatting, or griping about having to clean up?

Now as an empty-nester, I look back and realize how much I overlooked what a Holy Privilege this motherhood thing was. But we don’t get do-overs. So I pass along my encouragement to you moms who are still in the thick of it – relax and absorb the Holy place in which God has placed you. You are doing a holy work. Rest in the fact that He will allow you to accomplish all that really needs to be done. It is eternal souls you are guiding. Laugh and enjoy them. You don’t have to make them perfect. Pray with them and apologize when you need to. All that is necessary is to simply love them and guide their hearts toward the King the best way you can. No perfection or status purchases necessary.

The primary way we moms manage to affect our kids for God’s kingdom is by staying in an obedient, loving relationship with God. Reading His Word. Listening to His voice. Conversing with Him in prayer. Living out what He whispers to us each day. Keeping the faith when it would be so easy to turn our backs on it.

What keeps us from staying close to the Lover of Our Souls? For most, it’s not the big, huge sins, it’s the everyday mundane distractions that Satan uses to lure us off track without us even noticing.

I was reminded of the Parable of the Sower. You remember the story. Jesus tells us about the sower (Jesus Himself) sowing in different kinds of soil: the hard path, rocky soil, among the thorns, and on good soil. The seeds in the various places yielded varying results in growth and development. Some never sprouted. Some plants were scorched and died after they came up. Some were choked out and never bore fruit. But others grew and flourished into a fruit bearing, thriving plant. Listen to Jesus’ words as He explains those last two types of soil. See if an arrow pricks your heart.

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“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Matthew 13:22-23

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Isn’t that last one what we all want to be? Planted in good soil, bearing the fruit of a faithful life. But to be that we have to have the kind of soil in our heart which allows that to take place. Too often, I have a thorny heart where the weeds of the cares of the world choke out my fragile plant of faith and make me fruitless. I long for these times to disappear, but it all depends on whether I am tending the soil of my heart.

Mamas out there, being a mother is a holy privilege. Fertilize the soil of your heart. We hear so much today about “Me Time.” I’m all for it – let’s make sure the firstfruits of our Me Time is offered to God as we sit at His feet and allow Him to weed the garden of our heart. I challenge you as I challenge myself today. Stop what you’re doing for even 20 minutes sometime today and tend to your heart. Tend to your relationship with the Father. Soak in the truths of His Word and listen for His still small voice. Then go and obey!

Live out your Holy Privilege with all you’ve got for as long as you’ve got!

Dig out those weeds and thorns!

God’s Word is Puposeful

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As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV

Don’t you love this extended metaphor comparing Gods Word to the precipitation that falls on the earth?

It is given to us by Father God through the prophet Isaiah, and communicates so many truths in 2 short verses.

1. Like rain or snow, Gods Word is sent down from Heaven. His Word is as much a part of His provision for us as the daily rain!

2. What does rain do? It waters the earth. God’s Word waters our parched souls. Cleansing rain and refreshing joy come through His Scriptures.

3. Rain and snow not only water the earth, but they give growth. I’ve never seen it, but scientists tell us that a barren, scorched desert can burst into bloom after a quenching rain. Our souls also blossom and prepare to be fruitful when drenched with God’s Holy Word.

4. Plants do not bud and flourish just to be colorful; they bud to bear fruit and be useful. They have a purpose that is begun by the rain. God’s Word is the rain that causes our lives to bear fruit unto righteousness.

5. That flourishing plant yields 2 things: seed for the sower ands bread for the eater. In other words, The rain of God’s Word causes fruit in our lives that provides sustenance for our immediate, daily needs (bread) and provision for our future needs (seed to plant and harvest, time and again).

6. God’s Word will accomplish what He desires.

7. God’s Word in our lives, homes, churches, communities, and nation will achieve the purpose He sent it for.

We trust God for rain that sustains the earth. Trust His Word for truth that sustains your soul.

Making It Home: Coffee

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We all have our ideas of what makes a house a home. My home would not be home without coffee. We all have our morning rituals. Mine is basically grab a cup of coffee and head out on the deck with my Bible. No talking please, at least until I’ve finished my first cup. Oh yeah, and there’s a “Poppy, go outside?” mumbled as I head out the door. And he does. I’m at home. I miss this ritual when I’m away from home.

Right now I’m sipping my fully loaded Green Mountain Breakfast Blend with Peppermint Mocha creamer as I type. So how about some observations?

  1. Coffee is a seed/bean from a plant. It is planted carefully and grown in the shade until it can be transplanted into moist soil where the roots can get established.
  2. When a coffee plant grows, matures, and bears fruit, it is ready to be put to use for the purpose it was made.
  3. Coffee is put through the fire to make it useful for our purposes. In a 550 degree oven, the beans are roasted until they reach an inner temp of 400 degrees. This browns them and allows the flavorful caffeol oil locked inside to emerge. (My source)
  4. Coffee is ground to make it useful for our purposes. The beans are put through grinder and ground to bits, and no longer even looks like a bean, a necessary process for the flavors to come out as we make it into the cup of coffee we drink.
  5. Coffee is put through hot water to make it useful for our purposes. It is soaked in boiling water to release its flavor.
  6. Coffee is hard to swallow black (just my opinion!).
  7. Coffee is bitter when percolated, so add a dash of salt.
  8. Coffee is best when filled with yummy creamer.
  9. Coffee energizes and gets the day started off right.

Lessons we can learn from coffee: The Christian life is like coffee.

  1. When we allow Christ to make His home in our heart, His seed is planted in us and that Christ-like character begins to grow us into a new person that will eventually take over and transform the old us. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Like coffee plants we need careful attention as we are developing. We need to be in the word and prayer and with other believers at this point to get our roots established.
  2. We will grow, mature and bear fruit, becoming the person God designed us to be and ready to be useful to the Father, waiting for Him to process us. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:20)
  3. Our preparation for God’s purposes often involves being put through the fire, ground to bits, and feeling like we are drowning in boiling water. We will no longer even look like who we were before this. This change is not fun, but it is necessary. We are roasted (tested), ground (remade), and brewed in hot waters (humbled) where the sweet flavor of Christ is released and put to use.
  4. We often are hard to swallow at first. We may be bold and brassy and tend to storm the gates of hell with a water pistol in our zeal, but God isn’t through.
  5. He keeps working with His creation. The Holy Spirit seasons us with salt to get rid of the bitterness, then adds cream to make us appealing to the lost world He is seeking. He develops in us the fruit of the Spirit and we become tasty to those around us. They desire to drink in more of the Jesus in us.
  6. We become to each other that energizing, flavor-filled source of encouragement!

I realize my extended metaphor is rather a loose one, but you get the picture. As you welcome people into your home for a cup of coffee or meet another lady at Starbucks, I encourage you to remember that Christ is at work in you, even in your personal hard times, using you to encourage others in their Christian walk. You are helping others to develop a home in their hearts where Christ dwells and works and uses them to spread flavor to the world as well.

Thanks a Lot

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“Do you know how lucky you are?
How fortunate?
How blessed?
Do you know how incredibly good you’ve got it?”

Those words rang through my mind as I traversed the roads, curvy and double lined paved strips of asphalt, familiar to me. I’d been to the library where I borrowed a book or two to read, free of charge pending I don’t lose it and return it on time. While there my kiddos placed folded pieces of paper with a name of their choosing in a box labeled “name the Guinea Pig” I am fairly certain Gerard was at the top of the list of names they’d narrowed down for the recently acquired library mascots. After the library I was heading to the pool with my children, all nearly grown, yet they did not shrink away from me or avoid spending time with me. Not as often as I thought they would at this age anyway.

Do you know how blessed you are despite living in a tumultuous time, adversity at multiple turns, pestilence and affliction, despite circumstances that would declare otherwise?
Do you know that you have breath in your lungs and Spirit in your body?
Do you know how blessed you are?

The thoughts were somewhat foreign to me as I struggle sometimes to have a good attitude.

I am a glass half empty-pessimist most days kind of gal. Truth is negativity comes easier to me than positivity. I find it most ironic that my blood type is actually B-positive. It is as if the Good Lord Himself needed to infuse me with the reminder to be positive from 120 days post birth when total red blood cell type conversion took place. Up until then I carried within my veins my Mama’s O positive blood type and I reckon the Lord also knew I needed to be rapidly transfused with that B-positive blood type because I was a jaundiced little gold nugget for quite some time, or so I am told and photos indicate, as I have no recollective memory of it. I digress.

I once went to a conference and a speaker spent an hour telling everyone how to be happy. She ended her talk with a statement backed by her research regarding happiness.

She said, “Research shows that the happiest people are not necessarily the wealthiest people, the people who have the most material things, the people who have climbed the corporate ladder. Those are the very people I would think are the happiest. Research has shown the happiest people are the grateful people. The ones who spend their lives being thankful.”

I smiled as I immediately remembered the favorite Madame Blueberry episode of VeggieTales that I had nearly memorized by heart as it played on repeat as my children were growing up. Madame Blueberry had discovered that all the things from Stuff-Mart couldn’t make her happy but that a happy-heart is a thankful-heart.

I try and remember that on the days I do not feel overwhelmed with joy is it because I am not overwhelmed with gratitude. The King’s word says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Don’t get me wrong I have yet to get it right and my grateful days could stand to be increased in quota but the King’s word is true, and I can trust the key to happiness is stamped with the word “Grateful.”

Cry Out…

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“Be still…” These were the words I heard as everything became too much.

I woke that morning and all I could do was cry. The kind of tears that just come and can’t be stopped. I was basically helpless.

Had the new job become too much?

Or was it the vaccine side effects?

Or emotional side effects of wondering if I should or shouldn’t have taken it?

Was it seeing stories of the tragedies going on around the world?

Or hearing just that one more person has Covid? It’s close, you know. Will I get “it” again or will I not? Is this stuffy head “it” or is it the same summer cold I get every year?

Is this an attack from the enemy? I’m drawing near to my Lord and He’s changing me and moving in my life. The prayer time is great and the word is speaking so clearly. And now this…

Why can’t I get myself together and get ready for work? The tears won’t stop so I can put on my “face” for the day.

As I come to the end of this journal page I see this verse – only my Lord‘s timing! “Dena, for God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control – strong mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

And so I sat still and I listened. And He lovingly calmed my spirit. And I asked Him to take every thought captive. And He did. And I got myself together (or I suppose He got me together).

I sent off a prayer text to several that I knew would carry me to the Father that day. And they did. I just know it. I confessed my struggle to them. (James 5:16) 

It’s a supernatural thing, just confessing to others so you can be healed. Their prayers for me have a great power to prevail. And they did prevail and I am healed.

Don’t let the cares of this world overwhelm you, and if the burden is too much, practice James 5:16. 

The enemy wants to isolate and make you feel alone. And tell you that you aren’t strong. Don’t stay in that place of vulnerability that our emotions can take us to. Cry out to the Father and to those who are with you on the journey.“

Not as Young as I Feel

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“In her mind, how old do you think she is?” I asked.

Sometimes my thoughts come out of my mouth rather than staying inside my head. I hardly even know it happens sometimes. 

Scott Martin said “Forty.” 

I surveyed her petite frame, read her lips as she took a long swig of coffee and said “Oh that’s good.”

I wondered how old she felt, how old she views herself to be. The age I feel and my chronological age are not always congruent. I wondered if she felt the same. 

She had to have been at least 80. 

Despite having three children, having conscious memories of a time when everyone didn’t have a cellphone, knowing that I’ve been married over 20 years this year and been a nurse for a tad longer, in my mind I am seventeen.

I recognize the mathematical probability as null if in fact I were actually seventeen. I have a seventeen year old, two actually.  I remember vividly my life then. The summer before my senior year at the PVHS, my days were filled with pool time and late night phone calls, trips to the Galleria and snack runs to the Winn-Dixie. Novels of superficial subjects and magazines filled with how to’s of boyfriends, makeup and “true” stories. 

My skin was darker and tighter, my ears filled with songs about long lost country loves, Love shacks, Ragdolls, and elevator loving. I didn’t worry too much about finances or politics. I wasn’t all that wrapped up in Who I was becoming, mostly I just lived in the moment. My future planning wasn’t too far beyond my upcoming senior portraits scheduled to be taken in the school library by Olan Mills. I didn’t wonder too much about where I’d be in twenty years, yet here I am, more than twenty years later, clearly not 17, a mother and wife and as quickly as the last twenty passed I find myself wondering how quickly the next will pass.

As I surveyed the woman diagonal from me, wearing a red cotton button up  shirt, Capri pants, and sensible shoes, I felt sure that if I had asked her she might have to give pause before she answered me, the same way that I do when asked about age. Somebody says “You’re as young as you feel.” Some days I would agree, other days I might not.

I desire to be intentional about the next twenty, maybe by then I’ll feel forty. 

Maybe Scott Martin’s assessment wasn’t so far off after all.

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Umbrellas

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Life can be hard. Storms batter us. The burning heat of the demands of life drain us. But umbrellas protect us from the storms and the blazing sun.

Today for your encouragement we share some scripture “umbrellas” that will offer shelter in the storm and reprieve from the scorching heat we find ourselves in.

“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ ” Isaiah 30:20-21

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:7

“My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber” Psalm 121:2-3

“Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12

“I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands.” Psalm 31:14-15

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this.” Psalm 37:3-5

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43:2-3

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:33-34

“We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in You.” Psalm 33:20-22

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:31-32

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.” Isaiah 64:4

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:8

I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.” Psalm 37:7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ” Philippians 4:6-8

What does your umbrella look like? Does it protect from the heat and the storm? Is it a big umbrella or a small one? Does it provide shade to friends and family? To random strangers? Seek shelter under the umbrella of scripture!

Keep the Home Fires Burning

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I recently ordered my fall scented hand soaps from the Bath & Body sale. I love to get seasonal fragrances, especially at this time of year. When I opened the Amazon box, I sniffed all the scents I had ordered. Mmmm! One of my favorites that I love to buy is Sweater Weather. It makes me think of the smell of smoke and vanilla. Although it is still late summer and school has just started, I am ready for fall. I’m ready for Friday night football games, autumn leaves, a crisp chill in the air, and a fire in the fireplace.

What is it about a fire in the fireplace? It warms not only the hands, but the heart, while its glow illumines the entire room in the best possible light – people can see, yet the imperfections are softened in the golden hues of the fire. A fire not only warms and glows, it creates an atmosphere. It sets the stage for comfortable conversations with family and friends and draws one in for a cozy evening of steaming mugs, soft blankets, and quiet reflection.

At the end of winter a few years back I lamented how few times we’d enjoyed a fire that season. It was a busy time of young adult kids growing up and moving on, a time that took us away from the fireplace more often than not. As I contemplated it I knew we had lost some things that would never be within our grasp again. I was sad. As I examined my heart I realized that I, too often, let life carry me along, only to look in the rearview mirror and see wonderful things along the roadside that I never stopped to enjoy. I determined that I would be more intentional to keep the home fires burning and to slow down my pace and spend more of the fleeting moments of life with those I cherish.

How are you doing at keeping the fires burning at home? Do you, too, find yourself in a meeting, at a store, running between commitments, kid’s activities and such, yet longing to be in loungewear by the fire with some of your favorite people?

This year has been hard. The unknowns, virus outbreaks, bleak newscasts, masks and vaccines all set nerves on edge and created an atmosphere where depression and fear could grow. But it has also given us a hidden gift – the gift of home. Lockdowns, while hard on the economy and psyche, have kept us home and given us an opportunity if we will make use of it.

What if we get those home fires burning again? What if we gather around the fireplace and spend some time conversing, laughing, savoring the moments of togetherness with those dear to our heart? What if we use those moments as gifts from God to strengthen our families and our children’s faith?

In Old Testament times God gave the Israelites the following instructions:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

I can almost see them sitting around their campfires in the wilderness waiting to enter the Promised Land, sharing the stories of Joseph, Abraham and Jacob, discussing the Great Flood and how God protected Noah, reminiscing with their children and asking their neighbors about where they were and what happened at their house when the plagues came in Egypt. My mind’s eye can see the flickering flames and dying embers as they shared stories to strengthen their faith and build that faith into their descendants just as God commanded.

And so it is with us. Gathering together around those mysterious flickering flames with our children allows time for those deep conversations, for unexpected moments that will bear fruit for years to come. What if we gather ’round the fireplace rather than the TV, communicating our memories, our convictions and what Jesus has done in our lives? And what if we focus on the hearth rather than the handheld devices allowing our focus to be inner contemplation and sharing wisdom rather than being bombarded with constant folly? And what if we look into our children’s faces and hearts and really see them and listen to them and show them our love and God’s gracious love in these quiet times? What a difference could keeping the home fires burning, both physciallly and spiritually, make in their hearts a year or two or a decade from now?

All the difference. It will make all the difference.

Find a way to reignite your relationships and share your spiritual life. Be intentional. Be creative. Let the home fires burn strong.

Ideas to keep the fires burning with people you love:

~ Listen to music around the fire. Relax. Soak in the moment. Dance.

~ Play a conversation game like the “Ungame” or “Do You Really Know Your Family?”

~ Read a book together. Then talk about it. The Bible, The Westing Game, or The Chronicles of Narnia.

~ Listen! To the fire. To each other. To hurts and joys.

~ Pray together. Prayer bonds our hearts together, as we each grow closer to God we will grow closer to each other.

~ Unplug, sit in the floor, sip cocoa, and make S’mores! Even if you have to use the fireplace on the TV and not toast your marshmallows.

Making It Home: House or Home?

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I tend to exaggerate a bit. 

I’ll throw in a randomly high numerical value when I’m describing some things. I’ll just add in an extra zero or two or twelve for added emphasis. 

There is one case in the Martin world that requires no additional exaggeration. The number of homes we have lived in. I’ll often say we are Gypsies, the inference being we’ve moved so many times one could not possibly call any one particular place our home. The irony is this, we have moved a lot, many times, in all seasons, for various reasons. We’ve rented homes, we’ve purchased homes, we’ve borrowed homes, yet we have done all that moving within a geographical 20 mile radius and twenty year time frame.  

We have identifiers that refer to the various houses, the Street name, unique architectural features we noted, the time in which we lived there. 

I always like the “weird” houses best. The ones with wonky floor plans and the ones with old bones. 

When it came time to move, no matter the reason or circumstance, good or bad, I always wept. I always stressed believing the next house just couldn’t be a place we’d call home. 

It was one of the moves, a downgrade of sorts, it was one of the bad circumstances, when I cried about not being able to give my children a home. A place of refuge and contentment. I longed for them to have a place that was theirs, ours, that felt like home and not the less than fabulous place where we were headed. I was grateful that the Lord had graciously provided us housing, but I was less than thrilled about the four walls that encompassed that. I just kept thinking how this was so not where I thought life would find me at this point in life. Surely I’d be further along financially or something by now. I used to imagine forty was so old and just shy of retirement to the old folks home. I have since changed my mind. 

In those days we were to be moving to the less than fabulous housing option. 

I was down, dejected and upset with myself, a professional woman, a woman with 3 children once again feeling like we were starting over.  I found myself in a puddle of tears crying to my mama. It was one of those big ugly cries where the crier sobs incoherently to the hearer. The kind of cry that runs rivers of streaky mascara downs one’s face. That kind of crying is followed by stinging eyes and the occasional post cry hiccups. I was a mess. 

My mama had wisely waited to speak until those intermittent hiccup silent moments. 

“It’ll be nice Amy. It’ll be fine.”

Hiccup, “How?” 

How came out in two syllables.

 “How-ow is it gonna be fine. We are moving to a teeny tiny dumpy stinky place?”

She paused and in her wisdom, the kind that must come from the Lord Himself, years of living, and infinite experience in dealing with the fairer sex in fits of hysterics. 

“It always is Amy. And as many times as y’all’ve moved, it’s never the house that makes it such a nice place. Not the place that makes the home, it’s you. It’s your unique way of putting things together and hanging stuff on the walls. It’s how you’ve always hung up the kids’ art like it’s a masterpiece and how you place things around that make you happy, the things that are uniquely Amy, that’s what makes your house your home. You love your kids and they know it and to them that’s all that matters really. When they grow up it won’t matter if there was crown moulding, hardwoods throughout or not, what will matter is that you made them a happy home and gave them happy memories wherever you’ve lived.” 

The tears began again, this time the silent cleansing kind. The kind of tears that wash away pride, hurt and disillusionment. 

“You’re right I reckon Mama.”

 I thought about what she’d said, about how I had done exactly that, how I’d collected all the prize rocks and random trinkets they’d presented to me over the years and given them a place of prominence. I thought about the original artwork made by my children hanging framed in various places, or the random sticks collected over time. 

She was right of course. What had always, what has always made our home has never been the four walls surrounding us but instead the five souls within it. Our home has always been established through and by the King. Over the course of time I have learned that a house and a home are two different things and despite having more than a dozen houses, I’ve had but one home, and it is to them and to my King my heart is bound. 

Seasons of Life

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What a joy it was to become a grandmother when my first grandchild was born. It was one thing to love our son, but there is something so precious about holding your child’s baby. It seems like yesterday that he was just a toddler running around our home at warp speed. This week he went to middle school. How did that happen? That little boy grew to be taller than I am and is ready for the next stage in his life whether I am ready or not. 

My daughter has two little girls who are six and three. They started first grade and Pre K 3 year olds. This is the first time that both girls have been gone all day to school. I have spent the last few years going to their home on Tuesday afternoon to keep them on Wednesdays. The younger one and I had all day on Wednesday just for the two of us while the older granddaughter was in school. Of course I had both of them during the summer. We have had so much fun cooking, painting, drawing, and doing crafts. We added science experiments to our list of things to do this summer. We memorized the Frozen movies and sang like we were the main characters. We almost wore the rocking chair out with all of the books we read. We have loved reading Bible stories, too. My favorite time is bedtime and the snuggles that I get from sleepy little girls. There is something about rocking a precious little one when they are falling to sleep. Then, there is the joy to pray over each one for salvation, safety, good health, and that person that will marry them one day. 

Just as children grow in the blink of an eye, the life of a grandmother changes quickly, also. On the first day of school, I waved to them as their mother drove both of them to school. The silence in the house was deafening. The only noise was the occasional sound of the ice maker. 

This is a new season of life for me. I will no longer be needed for all day on Wednesday until next summer arrives. Yes, I will still visit and play with the girls but it will not be the same. Our scheduled visits are over. I will cherish all of the time we have spent together. They are changing so fast. 

Before I know it, they will be in middle school and the grandson will head to college. I rejoice that all three of them are happy and healthy and doing what children are supposed to do. I pray that God will protect them each day and keep them safe. I pray that they will learn what is set before them to learn and then build on those skills the next day. I pray that they will seek God’s divine will in their lives and live life to the fullest. 

This week, I have just been reminded once again that:

1 For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.

2 A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

3 A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7 A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

8 A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 NLT