January 1, 2015: Writing Prompt #1-Stroke of Midnight

     Where were you last night when 2014 turned into 2015? Is that where you’d wanted to be?

    Last night, my two boys and I were at a friend’s house in Alabama as 2014 turned into 2015.  Actually, the friend was originally one of my brother’s friends from high school. They have stayed close through college, marriage, etc…My brother and his wife always visit with her and her husband and children when they are in town from North Carolina.  Because they have two boys very close in age to my boys, we started visiting them with my brother a couple of years ago, and now I always make sure to text her when we’re in town.  They are a very gracious and fun-loving couple, always making room for us in their home and lives for the once or twice a year (at most) that we visit.  They even take the boys for fun outings with their family when they are visiting my parents during the summer. It’s funny how life turns out. Unfortunately, I do not pay visits to any of my friends from high school who still reside in my hometown. And yes, that’s my fault because I was so far away for so long, and I really didn’t do my part to keep in touch. Now, I attempt to keep up with my old friends through Facebook, but that’s about all. I never imagined the people I would come to treasure most would be my brother’s friends (and now mine too, of course).  As a young girl, I loved his friends, and when they would come over for his birthday or we were on church youth group trips all together, I always wanted to be around them.  My brother didn’t want me around (what teenager wants their little sister there-I am about 5 years younger, and when you are a child, that’s a huge difference), but his friends were always kind to me.  So, for New Year’s 2014, I would say there’s no place else I wanted to be than with a friend whose known me since I was a girl and has welcomed me right back into her grown up life as if I’d always been her friend right from the start. Thank you for your hospitality, Morris Family! You are a blessing!

Now, it’s your turn, blog readers, where were you on the last night of 2014 and was it where you wanted to be?  J

December 2014-The 365-Day Writing Challenge (well, maybe not ALL 365 days…’cuz we all know how often we really ARE able to keep our New Year’s resolutions completely!)

     How did you end up there? That’s the question a friend recently asked me about my move from a small tropical island in the Pacific Ocean to the NW United States. I’ve actually been answering that question for years concerning my initial life altering move from Alabama to the Marshall Islands (and the answer is not all that interesting), but I honestly didn’t expect to be asked that when moving back to my home country (btw, the answer is still not that interesting).  My family’s move from the atoll to the Evergreen state famous for its apples happened like most major life changes….quickly, which is why this blog has laid dormant for so long. I’ve been busy adjusting to life back in the “fast lane,” so to speak. 

     As part of this “new life,” I’ve wanted to get my blog back up and running again for the last few months, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to start. A blog title change was definitely in order, check! And a blog focus change is next.  The last time I blogged, I was writing my way through the Bible, devotional style.  So, to get my writing blood pumping again, I downloaded a 365 Days of Writing Prompts e-book (for free, I might add) from The Daily Post.  I will not start it until January 1, 2015, and I am not going to tie myself down into writing every day OR on every prompt because, let’s face it, I do have a life to live including a job to work, a husband to love, children to raise, and a hyperactive, rabbit chasing bird dog to walk (or more often run after) daily, and even though writing is important to me, my family is important too, and I don’t want to miss out on them because my nose is buried in this computer, writing to a prompt that I may or may not find I have adequate material or life experience to write about.

    That said, I will write about as many of the 365 prompts that I feel I can wind a sufficient rabbit trail down to interest you, and I’ll leave the rest of the blog entries to chance. So, I can’t be sure where the blog is going to go…all I know is that I must keep writing, whether or not anyone decides to read it. Why? Well, I used to say because it’s therapeutic for me, which is still true, but that’s not always the sole purpose….Mainly, it’s just because I need to share my life with others, to hear their feedback, to know that I am not alone in my thoughts, insights, frustrations, and mistakes.  Life is hard enough to comprehend and navigate successfully on your own, but with family and friends to help you write your life story, to include in your repertoire of memories….wow, that makes it all so much more interesting.  So, I hope you’ll join me in my newest blog challenge. You can find the e-book at the link above or follow me as I post the prompts I respond to throughout the year. OR if you are not into writing about the prompts, at least check in with me now and again and respond to my posts with your own thoughts, encouragement, insights, or stories. I’d love to hear from you! 

November 15-December 2, 2013 The Things Which make for Peace…

“Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” Romans 14:19

      As I near the end of 2013 and the end of my first year of reading the Bible in its entirety, I am struck by one thing, how much the children of God have to fight for peace.   For those who do not have complete faith in God, that is one sure sign of his existence, in my opinion. If the Disciples of Christ were willing to give their lives and to fight their whole world in order to have eternal life with Him, they MUST have experienced a greater peace when they were in His presence than anything they’ve ever felt.  The peace of God cannot be matched to any other wonderful feeling this world provides.   

     It’s been a while since I have sat down to write, and I tried to start this entry yesterday, but my mind was blank. The only thing I could think about in regards to pursuing peace and edifying one another was the unrest among people who work together in my own department as well as the unrest of people I know in the community who are more often than not complaining about one another or about what they cannot or do not have living on an island so far away from the luxuries they are used to having at their fingertips. I started to write about this, but felt it was so petty and not important enough to write about in relation to this verse.   

     Then, this morning during my devotional time, I continued my journey with Paul as he wrote his letter to the Corinthians, and I realized that life has always been like this.  The world has always been filled petty complaints, problems, and quarrelling among people. The difference is that the unrest, complaints, and drama surrounding Paul and all of God’s apostles led to their death.  They died in order to bring to others the kind of peace that only God can give.  If God’s first church was willing to do this for Him, how much more should I be trying to bring God’s peace and edification to others in my everyday, ordinary, very blessed life than Paul was doing for the early Christians? 

     So many of us are blessed enough to have been born in a country of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to express ourselves and live good lives, easy lives in comparison to what the people of Jesus’s time survived in.  I am free to choose how I want to speak and what I want to do with my life.  So, why would I choose to do anything that would hurt another human being, which would bring strife or unrest into their lives instead of peace and edification?  Unfortunately, so many of us find that easier to do than to be a bearer of positive guidance and God’s grace. 

     I struggle with not getting caught up in the gossip, drama, and complaining about the little things of life. I struggle with remembering to give it all to God and keep my big mouth shut when my thoughts are up to no good.  I struggle with being the kind of Christian the early disciples of God proved to be, dying for their faith. Would I be able to do that? I don’t know. I would like to think that I would, but more than likely, I would end up like Peter, denying Jesus three times before the sun rose after his arrest. 

     I believe in God, and I have felt that peace beyond compare that comes from faith in Him, but I still have a long way to go in becoming like Jesus.  Today, I thank God for his mercy in giving me multiple chances to get it right. I thank God for his continual forgiveness when I mess up, and I pray for His help as I learn how to be slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to bring peace, edify, and uplift others in my daily life. 

November 14, 2012 Twelve Years Ago Today…

“Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.” Romans 12:9-12 (New Living Translation)

 

     Twelve years ago today, right about the time I am writing this (7:30 am), my life was changed forever and for the better with your birth.  Now, today, for the first time in your young 12 years, I celebrate here on the island without you, so as the apostle Paul did with his churches back in Bible times, I write this letter to you, to encourage and uplift you on this most momentous occasion in your life.  The verse above is what Paul wrote to his friends in Rome to share the love of God, who called them to be his people, and it is the one I wish to share with you, so you will know and feel our love in the same way. 

     I thought the words in Paul’s letter were very apt for you today as you are already such an example of the traits discussed in the verse.  You have taught me so much about love and how to love genuinely, just by being you.  You love your friends unconditionally, stand up for what is right when you are with them, and work hard to do your best in school and in life.  Continue to do so because God is planning so many wonderful things for you.  You have already been so patient with the troubles in your life, amazingly so.  I have learned from you on that count as well. You rarely complain about problems, although you have them just as we all do, and you are the first to remind me that we need to pray at bedtime if I forget.  So, even though I am not with you physically and able to pray sitting next to you on the bed, don’t forget that I am still with you in heart, mind, and spirit, and I am praying for and with you from afar. 

     Twelve years ago today, you changed my life, and I am so grateful that God entrusted you to my care. You are a joy, blessing, an old soul, and my sweet “Have It” baby boy.  I look forward to seeing the young man you are becoming and will become as you continue to grow.  It has all happened way too fast, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Each experience has enhanced our time together and shown me how very insightful and sensitive God has created you to be.  Believe in yourself, treasure all the special gifts God has given you, and use them for His good purposes and to change the lives of others for the better, just as you’ve changed my life.  I love you, sweet pea!! Happy Birthday!

October 29-November 9, 2013 Benefits of Much Love…

“Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:44-47

     There are so many wonderful stories about Jesus during the time his human feet walked in the dust of this earth that’s it’s no wonder the saying, “What would Jesus do? -WWJD” was so popular just a few years ago. This particular story about what happened when Jesus stepped into the home of Simon for dinner one night is one of my favorites.  It illustrates the great compassion of God and the tremendous grace extended to forgive those of us who are the greatest of sinners.  In the eyes of man, the woman in the story who came to Simon’s house to see Him was not worthy to even touch Jesus’s feet. She was a “many times over” sinner, but she did not care what anyone else thought about her. She only wanted to please and praise God.  She wanted to be forgiven and loved unconditionally, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this “man” was the only one who would and could do that for her. 

     Unfortunately, she was one of the few who truly believed in and loved Jesus as unconditionally and faithfully as He loved her. There were so many who did not recognize Jesus as God’s son when he lived on this earth. They simply refused to believe that the religious traditions and laws they had been diligently keeping as God’s chosen people could be put away so easily by this one man in his short 3 years of ministry on earth. And they certainly were not willing to accept that this Son of God would come to extend His love to all people with the sacrifice of His own life for us. This changed everything they had known or thought they knew about God and what He wanted from them as a people. 

     Those living in the days of Jesus’s ministry failed to see that God recognized our weaknesses and our inability to remain faithful in the letter of the law over the centuries he fought with the Jewish nation and tried to show them through numerous prophets, leaders, and devastating wars and events that he was the only God they should be following and when they did not, trouble was sure to plague them.  He decided to change it up a bit with the message His son brought to His people and eventually to all people, regardless of their former race or religion. 

     His message was simple: I love you no matter what you do, no matter how many times you mess up, and I am not going to expect you to do all the right things any more.  What I do expect is for you to love well, to do your very best to make Godly choices, and to come straight to me for forgiveness when you make a mistake. What I do expect is for you to have a pure heart, right motives, and a contrite spirit, understanding how very much you have sinned and how very much you have been forgiven by my unconditional love.  I expect you will mess up, and I expect you will learn from that how to love more and love better. For he who has been forgiven much, loves much. 

     If we do not recognize our own imperfection and sin, then we cannot understand how to love others unconditionally because we will be too busy judging them for what they have done wrong and considering ourselves better than them.  If God, who is perfect, can change his whole strategy, negating the “legalities” of the Old Testament and tearing down the divide between Himself and His creation in order to give us eternal life and internal peace, how much more should we be able to love each other without judgment, without pride, without them having to show us they are worthy, but only because they were made by God just like us. 

     Commit yourself to loving much today, and when the urge to judge others for their decisions strikes you as it does for me many times a day (unfortunately it’s a very human failing), think about what Jesus would do and choose to love them anyway and instead of passing on that judgment in your words to them or others, stop and pray for them and for yourself too. J  Remember, the more we have been forgiven and recognize our need to be forgiven, the more we learn how to truly love without reservation or restraint.