Dear Great-Grandma Me

Have you ever said to yourself "I will never be like my mother (or any other relative in the family)? Maybe someone has told you "you are so much like Aunt Emmie" and you thought to yourself "Oh Lord, please don't let me be her when I am older". I'm pretty sure most of us have someone in our lives who exhibit behaviors or attitudes that really bug us and may even pray that we won't be like them when we are older.

Working as a volunteer in a nursing home and having parents who are polar opposites in attitude as they've aged, I have had ample opportunities to think these very thoughts. I've also been able to observe numerous elderly gals--some who I wanted to be, others who scared me to death thinking I could be like them.

Years ago I coordinated the volunteers who answered the phone at a church, I remember coming home and telling my husband " I want to be just like Elizabeth when I'm 75 or even I want to be just like Sylvia when I'm 84." Elizabeth was a retired school principle who always had an encouraging thing to say, who traveled and enjoyed every day of her life despite having difficulty walking. Or Sylvia who had been volunteering at the church for many, many years. She was such a delight. At one point we asked all the volunteers to answer the phone "thank you for calling Westminster Presbyterian Church, how can I direct your call". She would listen attentively and each time she answered the phone we'd hear a loud "Presbyterian Church!" come from the volunteer desk. How can you argue with an 84 year old woman who came to church for her weekly volunteer time and had to brace her self against the hallway wall to get to the receptionist's desk because she was so dizzy she couldn't stand up straight? That's dedication. I want to be like her.

In a previous blog I mentioned a lady who was a temporary rehab resident in the nursing home. The light on her face told me that this woman had loved God for a very long time. How beautiful to hear her sweet voice tell me now much she loved God and that when she got out of the nursing home she was going to start giving free piano lessons to needy children in her area. Remember? She's 84 years old.

I've also mentioned my great-aunt Bill who taught Sunday School until she was 89 years old and is still living alone at 95--mostly blind, body bent entirely over with osteoporosis. Her answer to "how are you today" is always "fine" and she means it!

So, after mulling this over, I said to my sister just last night "I think I'll write a letter to future me to remind me to avoid some of those attitudes and behaviors" I'll read it every year. It was a joke at the time but as I got up this morning I thought--this is really a good idea. So here goes.

Dear Great Grandma Cindy
I want to remind you of a few things to remember these days. I'm sure it will be easy to feel sorry for yourself as your knees ache and your memory is even worse than it is now.....now that's a scary thought--moving on......Here's some things I want you to remember:

1. Have an attitude of gratitude. Say thank you often and generously. Don't ever think that because you are old, giving birth to them was excruciating, or they ought to do it just because you deserve it after all these years, that you don't need to say thank you for every considerate thing that someone does for you. Say Thank You and mean it!

2. Pray, pray and pray. You have so much more time to spend at the throne of Grace these days--spend it on those rickety knees of yours (even just in our head) for others. This is probably the most valuable thing you will ever do. This purpose alone is enough warrant still being on this earth.

3. Seek God with all your heart. Get to know Him better every day. It won't be long before you see Him face to face. You'll want to know Him in the deepest way possible. The closer you are to Him here, the closer you'll want to be in eternity.

4. Read your Bible DAILY (or listen to it on CD if your hearing is gone) The Word of God will lift out of the doldrums and give power to your prayers.

5. Love those great grandkids unconditionally. Don't worry about the multitude of piercings or tattoos or whatever the latest dress fad is. It is your job to love them not to judge them. It is your job to pray for them and tell them how much God loves them and what a fabulous plan for their lives he has (even if it doesn't seem at all possible).

6. Do the same thing for your kids. They are grandparents now--be an example of that love and acceptance. Be the grace of God in their lives.

7. Rejoice! Rejoice that you will soon see your Savior face to face. Think in terms of eternity. This life of aches and pains is short--becoming shorter every day. Be happy knowing that this world is not your home--you are at the end of the pathway--only a few more steps to go.
Halleluiah!!!!!

And last but not least--Be happy knowing that God has been your Lord all these many years, that He has been faithful all the way through. That you are loved and as beautiful to God today as you were on your wedding day.

Love,
Grandma Cindy


So instead of just filing this away, I think I'll get it out every few months to remind myself that in order to live those things I need to prep now. Live a life of love, gratitude, kindness and prayer NOW.

We wrestle not.......

Why is it that we are taken aback when a wrench is thrown into the works of our lives? Even when we are doing what we believe God has told us to do AND it is obviously the right thing according to the Word of God.

For several weeks I've felt the spiritual need for my husband and I to get a way for a time of prayer. We needed to seek God's guidance and get a spiritual break through. The best place in the world is the family cabin. It's quiet, serene and a perfect place to "be still and know that He is God". (not to mention 15-20 degrees cooler Praise God Hallelujah)

When we arrived I thought okay God--here we are at last. You've called us here so I'm expecting a great and mighty outpouring of wisdom. Okay--here we are. Willing and obedient. We're ready........

So we're up bright and early and ready to take our walk. In fact, we have a wonderful time sharing our hearts and talking about where we think God is taking our home church. We share what God has done in our lives over the last few weeks. Through our words we do indeed hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as we walk. We hear God say that we are to go forth and storm the gates of hell with the Word of God, that God will provide the resources that are needed to go forth with the purpose that we are called for. We know that God will gather us into His heart and His passion as we allow ourselves to be used to gather the lost and encourage the Beloved.

Matthew 16:18 (King James Version)
18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it

Now I'm thinking Thanks God! This is great. We've got a glimpse of our next steps and away we go. We both love a good plan that we believe God is directing.

So we get back to the cabin and because this is still a work day for John, he needs to prepare for a phone appointment that he will conduct at the cabin. After his phone meeting we planned to go up to a retreat center which we are dreaming about buying to pray and worship the Lord. (Dream big I always say).

So John checks his email to verify his info for the call and what does he see but a fiery dart of the enemy, designed to negate and discourage our hearts from the path that God has shown us that very morning. I wish I could say that we didn't sway a bit--that we stood firm without doubt from the second he saw it. That we grabbed up that shield of faith and held it high against the fiery darts. Alas, even after a morning of time with God and each other, we felt ourselves sway with what felt like a trembling of the earth beneath our feet.

Ephesians 6:16
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one

But! we knew that God was calling us to move forward--to trust Him. So with less enthusiasm than before we looked at each other and decided to continue down the path that God had set for our day. We drove to the retreat center where God blessed us with being able to actually meet the caretaker and get a short tour. We drove around the property and prayed for the impossible--that God would give us that very retreat center for His work.

Again, I wish I could say that we prayed with a huge amount of confidence but unfortunately our hearts were over shadowed by that fiery dart. We went back to the cabin and poured out our hearts to God. We poured out our disappointment and a bit of our fear. But! We declared God's righteousness and goodness. We thanked Him for his mercy, faithfulness to us and his amazing Grace. We told Him that we knew that He was still our King and that were still his kids--Kingdom kids in fact--part of the royal priesthood.

Although the drive back home wasn't filled with exuberant joy--it was filled with a knowledge that God would never leave us nor forsake us.

Today I realize that the battle with the enemy doesn't always end with an ah-ha moment or a joy filled heart. Sometimes we feel battle worn and weary. There's a reason that the Bible calls it spiritual warfare. It's a battle. We are called to persevere and stand and doing all to stand some more. Sometimes, despite how we feel or the fear that lurks on the edges of our mind, we just have to walk in obedience anyway, knowing that the Lord is our God, that we are His children and the sheep of His pasture. And we must remember that the Word of God says that joy truly comes in the morning.

Getting a running start

Why do I keep going around and around this same mountain? Do you ask that question like I do? Do you say, why can't I get over the fear and anxiety about getting through an issue?

That's what I've done all week. I've allowed fear to keep me from running through this issue. I know everyone has something like this in their lives. It's something that you just hate to do. It could be temporal--of this world--like mine. I hate paperwork and I put it off as long as possible. This allows fear to control me more and more. Yours might be a direct spiritual battle--an addiction that holds you back, a fear that controls your dreams and thoughts, a life situation that you think will never change, so you don't take steps to change it.

So today I heard God say. You need to get a running start this morning. You need to be empowered with my spirit to jump back into this race. So I hopped up out of bed, grabbed my Bible, the book we're studying with the TLs and began my morning calisthenics--PT is what they call it in the military. Warming up for the battle.

I read Joyce Meyer's book "The Battlefield of the Mind" which reminded me to take my thoughts captive--those negative, hopeless thoughts. Instead I pulled up scriptures that I needed to warm up my spirit--to "let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus" Romans 12:1,2. I focused on the Lord and sang praise to His name. I claimed his promise of faithfulness to me. I knew that I am in a battle to overcome this fear once and for all.

I watched a couple of TV programs that built me up and reminded me of God's power to overcome.
I prayed as people came to my mind throughout the encouraging words that I was receiving. (Thank you Life Today for featuring Beth Moore every Wednesday on your show.)

Then I stood over that pile of scary paperwork (for it had indeed become a monster in my mind) and prayed in the Spirit. And yes, I did pray in tongues. As it poured out over the problem--a problem that I was unsure about how to pray--a new tongue was released and I felt the amazement of God's magnificent mercy pour over me.

I now have my running start. I am prepared to battle--not the paperwork--but the fear that had grown to an overwhelming size.

Do you have something that has grown from a mole hill to a mountain in your life? God is not concerned about the size--for He can shake the earth at His discretion. He can and will take you by the hand to run the race, if indeed you life up your hand, and warm up for the race.

Do you have heart burn? You should.

Don't you love the mornings when you wake up knowing that God had surrounded you as you slept. That His protective helmet of salvation had kept the worry away. That's how I felt as I woke this morning. This was a welcome relief from the temptation to worry and fret that has been hovering around me this week. As I fully woke and realized that God had pushed back the worry, I began to glorify God as the song "Worthy, you are worthy",rolled through my head and lifted my heart.

As I prayed I remembered an acronym that I heard from a pastor. She used ACTS to remember the following:
A---Adoration
C---Confession
T---Thanksgiving
S---Supplication

So, that's how I proceeded. I adored God for who He is, I confessed my lack of belief and fear, I thanked Him for all that He is to me, and I surrendered anew to his direction and power.

It was funny really. Each time I started to pray for someone I was directed to hold off--to continue in my ACTS. After a period of time, the Holy Spirit began to pray for the needs of our body but somehow I knew that they were covered already. I knew that as long as I continued in ACTS that He would take care of those things. I realized that what He wanted most from me was my love and to trust Him.

Then I jumped into the scriptures. I was determined to print out the promise that God gave my hubby this past week (just before he was laid off from work). It was I Chronicles 28:20. He wept when he told me. His heart is so softened because he has spent so much time in the Word lately.

1 Chronicles 28:20 (New King James Version)
“Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD."

Is that great or what? I just printed it out in big letters and posted it around the house. This will remind us that God indeed will be with us--never going to leave us nor forsake us.

But then, as God does it sometimes, I ran across this scripture.

Luke 24:30-34
30When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.
31Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?"
33And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them,
34saying, "The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon."

It made me stop in my tracks when I read "were not our hearts burning within us.... while He was explaining the scriptures to us."

Wow! and wow! I realized that this is what should happen every time we read the scriptures--our hearts should burn within us--knowing that the Holy Spirit himself opens up our hearts to the truth of the scriptures. Just as the disciples knew that they had been with Jesus when they realized that the burning sensation within them was there to verify Christ's identity.

John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you

That tells me something--it tells me a lot in fact. It tells me that I need to be in the Word more often. It tells me that I can experience a passionate response to those scriptures the more I read and allow the Holy Spirit to verify Christ's identity and love through those very scriptures.

Lord, this very day give me "heart burn". Cause my heart to burn as I read the Scriptures. I want that passionate response to the scriptures Lord. Holy Spirit, rise up in me to teach me and light that fire of passion within me. Thank you God, for you are faithful to do just that. Thank you for your gift of the Holy Spirit.

Don't just sit there--get out there and find your purpose!

What do you sit around thinking you wish you could do? What is that you wish you had done? Do you ever think "when did the world pass me by?"

Last night the Tiara Ladies had a night at the movies. We donned our sparkly tiaras, grabbed some extras just in case we ran into any ladies we met who needed one, and happily congregated at the local movie theater. We got there early to get in line for Meryl Streep's new movie, Julie and Julia.

We hugged some friends we hadn't seen in a while, gave them their tiaras, and sat down for 2 hours of blissful movie watching. Needless to say we loved the movie. Meryl Streep is an amazing actress. She so beautiful takes on the personna of Julia Child that you believe she really is Julia Child. She exhibits the joy of life the Julia exhibited. We laughed at the opening scene of Julia with an ecstatic look on her face as she tasted perhaps her first taste of marvelous cuisine in Paris. We shared her joy of the city and of the people. We quickly understood that she had found her "home" for the first time at the age of 46. She also sought and found her purpose.

As a Life Purpose Coach with Life Purpose Coach Centers, it is my joy to coach women into finding their God-given purpose. Nothing is more fulfilling to me than to spend 2 intense, wonderful days side-by-side with a woman as she discovers that indeed her life was not wasted--that God is always at work in our lives. What a joy when she looks into the future with hope, knowing that everything she's done and every bit of her pain and joy can be used to fulfill God's perfect design for her. What joy to discover that the embers of her talents, desires and passions can be blown into a fire again in her life.

Has it ever occurred to you that things only pass you by if you are sitting still? And even if those things seem to be racing by you--if you are moving they won't pass you by so quickly and eventually I promise you, you will catch up.

How to find your purpose? Do what both Julia's did--get up, get started. Scripture says seek and you shall find. Let's not ever forget the seeking part.

Pick up a few lobsters and give it a shot!

Enjoy something new or revive something old

I love creating. My latest creation will be a raggedy quilt for my grand daughter. I was inspired to start this quilt by Phoebe, a nine year old who comes to my house with her mom on Wednesdays for sewing lessons. Her latest project is a flannel raggedy quilt. I'd seen them before but never thought about making one until I saw how cool her's is turning out. (I am an exceptional copy cat).

While online researching how to make a rag quilt, I ran across this cool website that had not only step by step instructions but excellent pictures. Being one who loves easy to follow instructions I was thrilled. After perusing the quilt instructions I explored this wonderful ladies blog. Her name is Jen Yu(See her pic above).

I discovered that she loves to cook, is an avid shutterbug, creates beautiful sewn creations, loves the outdoors, travel, and has an amazing professional background of mechanical engineering, tectonic geomorphology, satellite remote sensing, radar interferometry, software programming, web design and development. Wow, now that's a renaissance woman!

Here's something else I discovered. She underwent chemotherapy treatments for cancer. Visit her web page and please note that she went skiing between the 4th and 5th treatment.
Here's her website http://jenyu.net/about.php

She inspires me. She lives life, being who she was created to be in spite of the trials that seek to stop her in her tracks.

I don't know if she is a Christian. Her page doesn't mention God. And I can't help but believe that this would enhance her obvious enjoyment of creation.

She also inspires me to realize that as Christians we should do the things she is doing. Live out the purpose that God created us to live. Seek out and explore worlds where no man has gone before. (Sorry, slipped into Star Trek mode.) Go through trials with an upbeat attitude--not letting it stop us.

Come on ladies, get out there and try something new. Revive some creative activity from your past. Go on the mission trip you've always wanted to go on. Hike the trails you said you'd always hike. Finish that project that's sitting in her closet. Save your pennies and travel to that one spot in the world you've always had a craving to see. Take a class in something that you think you just might have a talent for. Teach someone how to do something you're good at. Volunteer in nursing homes, libraries, hospitals, soup kitchens. Be who God created you to be. Do the things God created you to do. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it! God is on your side and if you take that first wee step He is faithful to complete his work in you!

Grace, grace and more grace

One of my favorite relatives in the world visited this week. She is my father's only sibling and is 85 years old. She came to see her brother who is a victim of Alzheimers disease. This is in fact the first time in 20 years or more that she has come here to visit--before my dad's illness, he and mom would visit Texas where she lives regularly so there didn't seem to be a need.

So, she braved flying alone to come spend 10 days with my mother and to daily visit my Dad. Before her arrival I asked our home church to pray for her. She is a bit of a nervous person and I was afraid that she would be somewhat--well let's say it as it is--hysterical when she saw my dad. It has been 3 years since I took him and my mother out to Texas to see her. He has gone from a mild state to a more severe state of the disease and I knew it would be a shock to her.

I asked our home church to pray about something else. To pray that I would have an opportunity to encourage my Aunt. She is a believer in God, saved by grace, but struggles with the grace portion of her salvation. She just can't believe that she doesn't have to "do" anything to earn the salvation. She often brings up the topic when we get together.

And by that same grace, God brought up the topic once again as we were driving back from the family cabin this week.

She asked me a question that frankly shocked me. "She said where do people go after they die? Where do they go to be judged first?" I was surprised because I knew that although she is not a student of the Word, that she has been in many churches where the truth of grace was taught.

I explained that the scripture says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. No ifs, ands or maybes--if a person has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from their sins, they are in God's presence immediately after death. I reminded her of the thief on the cross--someone who had lived his live most probably deep in sin, rejecting God, but through God's grace and mercy in the last few seconds of his life he believed that Jesus was His Savior and Jesus told him that very day he would be with Him in paradise.

I thought perhaps she'd had some teaching on the Great White Throne of God which Revelations teaches all creation would face in the later days. I explained that it was not a judgment to determine whether a person got to stay in heaven or was cast into hell--it was one where God judged what we had done with the life He had given us. A time indeed of sadness and regret for the things we had not done for God's glory but also one that awarded crowns for the fruit in our lives. But these crowns would be given back to God--our love and appreciation causing us to recognize that all good things that we had produced were produced by that same grace that forgives us.

I encouraged her to know that God forgives us all our sin. I explained that anything that keeps us from God is indeed sin, but the real tragedy is that the sin keeps us from walking close to our Lord, from loving Him with all our hearts, from knowing the intense feeling of being loved by the Creator of the Universe.

I felt that "rush" of knowing that the Holy Spirit was imparting a special word for her and for me as the vessel to speak of His Love to her.

It was a bittersweet few moments as we waited for her plane to take her back to Texas. I knew she was regretting that she hadn't come sooner and very sad that this might be the last time she will see Dad before he passes. My prayer for her is that she sees this not as an ending but as indeed the beginning of eternity. That she knows that the next time she sees him he will be fit and fiddle--doing that little jig that he does with his short little bow-legged legs. My prayer for her is that she will receive the blessed peace that comes with understanding that God's grace is wider and deeper than anything we can possibly imagine. I pray that her last years will be filled with His comfort and His peace knowing that she has nothing to fear in death.