For His Service

A year after the 9/11 attacks, several of the women widowed as a results of those attacks were asked, “ What has changed most about your perspective in the past year?”  One said, “ The thing I can’t stand is when I hear wives complain about their husbands”.  The little things we allow to annoy us seem so trivial compared to the blessings we take for granted each day.   We all need to look at the big picture and not just isolated incidents that we seem to focus on.  We were looking for Prince Charming, but when we find our he is just a regular guy, we are disappointed.  James 3:2 says “We ALL stumble in MANY ways”. ..this includes our husbands.  Only one perfect man ever walked on this earth, and he never married.  That guarantees our disappointment…if we fall into the “prince charming” trap.  A regular man will have rough edges.  He will have weaknesses.  He will sin against you, disappoint you, and frustrate you.  That is real...

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We are enjoying many things these days: watching children dance in the rain, play baseball in the rain, ask silly questions. I am so grateful for just the everyday moments. That is a gift. NF rears its ugly head and reminds me that he is there. When John-Michael tells me his head hurts, I immediately think "Lord, is it a optic glioma ?" When John-Michael tells me his knees hurt, I say, "Does he have a fibroma in his knees?" When I hear of another child going to heaven in their teens due to NF, I ask myself if that is God's plan for John-Michael. That's when I make myself focus on what is true today! ( Philippians 4:8-Finally, brothers, 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). Today, he was dancing in the rain. Today, he gave me a surprise gift of 2 pennies. Today, he can walk. Today, he can see. Today, he has a tum...

Losing Control -( A reflection on a chapter from Love Walked Among U s by Paul Miller). This is one of my on-going life issues; I don’t like the fact that I am really in control of nothing. I want to trust in my own abilities to fix things and control things, but what a foolish place to be. When we hear someone say, “I’m losing control” we usually know that this isn’t considered a good thing. We know the person saying it feels as if life is out of his/her hands and out of his/her capabilities to handle and it is. If we heard someone say, “I do nothing on my own. I can only do what I see my dad doing” and we asked people to tell us about the character of the person speaking, we would say: he is girly , weak, codependent, not mentally stable, etc. If we asked believers to describe Jesus, we would get words like: the good shepherd, savior, King, lion of Judah, sinless, powerful, kind, etc. Now we might be amazed to look at Christ words: John 5:19, 30 19J...

Trusting God with our If Onlys and What Ifs? Trust? Whom do I trust? This has been an ongoing question/ problem in my life. “ What if ” looks to the future and worries about what God might allow. “ If Only ” looks to the past and grumbles about what God has given. The first leads to anxiety and the second leads to anger. Those who know me well understand that I struggle with both. Instead of giving my anxious heart to God, I handle the uncertainty of the What Ifs of life by employing one of my control tactics (my strategies, my intelligence, and my manipulation of the situation). I am learning to resist the temptation to “help God out”. Waiting is often too hard, too painful, and God just works way too slow for my liking. But when I try to help Him out, I get disaster. My focus is too often on what I can do to get what I want rather than on how I can trust God with those issues. We can only trust God when our focus is on Him and not on our circumstances. Psalm 141:8 tells us to fix ...

Since September we have been meeting with couples in our home, studying God's word and especially looking at what HE says about marriage. You know, HE says a lot . So, today I want to write a little encouragement to myself and to you. Why? Consider how widely encouragement is urged and reported in scripture: -God to Moses : Encourage Joshua , because he will lead Israel (Deuteronomy 1:38) -Soldiers in the midst of battle" The men of Israel encouraged one another (Judges 20:22). - Joab to Saul before battle- Now go out and encourage your men (2 Samuel 19:7) Josiah to the priests: Josiah appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the LORD's temple (2 Chronicles 35:2) -Paul and Silas to the early church-After Paul and Silas come out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house , where they met with the brothers and encouraged them (Acts 16:40). -Paul to the disciples" When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and , afte...