A Mother's Day reflection of an empty nest

Recently I was pulling weeds in my flower bed and I saw an empty nest in the tree. I have been thinking about that little empty nest a lot. In light of Mother's day, and the fact that I am a Mother, I was thinking about my own nest.

Last Mother's day I still had a bird in my nest. Daniel was still living at home then. So this is the first Mother's day that I have had an empty nest.

At first it was very hard. I know we hear the phrase..."Give your children roots and wings", but it's easier said than done. Until that time comes you think it's all going to be fine. I mean, you have been preparing them their whole life for this right?

But then you wonder....

What if their wings aren't strong enough?
What if they're not ready?

Well ready or not, that day finally comes.

He moved out last July to get his own place and to get ready to make his own nest. Which he did last November. I felt at first like he took a piece of my heart with him.

As I reflect on that today...

That's okay. There's still so much of my heart here in my nest... So much I have learned. So much left to learn. Yes, some of my heart is gone... but most of it remains. Remains with which to continue to build on my nest with my sweet husband.

So I can continue to give some more of my heart away.

Consider The Lily

     I read a Scripture recently that said,

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these." Luke 12:27 So I decided to consider the lilies, or The lily. Here is another Scripture about The lily of the valley. " I am the rose of Sharon, The lily of the valleys." Song of Solomon 2:1. Many commentators believe this is about Christ, our Bridegroom. In light of this Easter season, I want to reflect on this. Consider The Lily Christ The Lily... Purist flower... Of lowly estate. Bowed His incarnate head. Blood flowed from Your beautiful brow... Down the rough boards. Splinters pierced the purest petals. From head bowed low... Blood sprinkled on the ground. To seek out the valley of death and pain... Where I live. The Lily... Grew from the valley... Among the thorns. To cover and to hide me. In my shame... My sin was dirty. It stained the lily. He condescended in His low estate. The shadow of the cruel cross... This covering shadow. Where He applies His righteousness. Clothes me in this righteousness... I am a beautiful, new... A re-born flower.. I inhale a sweet fragrance... The fragrance of pardon. The fragrance of life... Eternal life. Here in this valley... I lift my head to... Give praise... Give thanks... So I will.... Consider The Lily.

Is keeping God's Word as precious as your eyesight?

In reading my daily Proverb, I read this verse:

" Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye." Proverbs 7:2 (NASB)
Here is an interesting translation of the same verse:

"Obey my commands so that you may live. Follow my teachings just as you protect the pupil of your eye." (God's Word translation)      I used to work in the eye care business. So I have studied a lot about the eye. God has provided many ways to protect the iris and the pupil of the eye. This would be considered the "apple" of the eye. God created us to have an eyelid that will blink and come down over the eye. We have eyelashes that can catch things that may come into the eye. Our hand flies up to protect our eyes. Many different ways to protect this important part of our bodies. Even the eyes capability to dilate when too much light comes in is a natural defense mechanism that God gave us. We wear goggles when we work in jobs where something could fly into our eyes. When we are outside, some of us wear polarized sunglasses to protect our eyes.      Last night I was watching the T.V. show "Survivor". A man got sand in his eye that scratched his cornea. He became so concerned about this that he asked for a Doctor to come and take a look at his eye. The Doctor stressed that she wanted to take him out of the game to be able to treat his eye. He made the interesting comment, " This game is not more important than my eyesight!". So an all important question in light of this verse is: Are we following God's teachings as closely as we protect our eyes? We wouldn't deliberately stick something in our eye! We would not jab a pencil into our eye! But... Some of us deliberately choose to ignore God's teachings. Or we willfully break one of God's commandments. Just as our eyesight is precious to us, God's Word and His teachings should be precious to us. The next time you start to sin think about an apple... The apple of your eye.

Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages...
I am in a ship tossed about.
My cargo is ...
Grief... unbearable
Questions... unanswered
I see you...
From a distance.
Oh God my rock,
My grief is so great...
I may drown in it.
The water is overflowing...
Spilling over the ship.
I'm coming closer.
I can see you are near but...
I'm afraid I will crash.
Crash onto you, The Rock.
Dear God I'm crashing...
I crash my ship of grief
Onto The Rock of ages.
My ship breaks open.
Spilling its contents...
All over the rock
But...
I do not drown.
I am saved...
Delivered.
I find refuge...
Shelter.
I climb on.
I hang on.
I gain strength.
Oh Rock who bore me..
Rock who formed me.
I will live upon the rock.
The Rock of Ages.

Written for a grieving family, dear friends. May God be your Rock during this difficult time.

Based on Psalm 18:2:

"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."

Wait, Who wants to do that?

Wait... who wants to do that? Waiting is hard isn't it?

One reason it's hard is we live in an impatient world. We want it, and we want it now!

We want things fast... slim-fast, instagram, quicken loans, etc. This is the society we live in. The microwave doesn't even seem fast enough!

 Micah 7:7 says, " But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me."

" Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

" I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined to me and heard my cry." Psalm 40:1

1. Wait. ( for the Lord). In all of these Scriptures above, it doesn't say wait ON the Lord, it says wait FOR the Lord!

2. When you're waiting, God waits with you.

" Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him."  Isaiah 39:18 (ESV)

So He waits that He may be gracious. You will be blessed if you wait for Him.

Wait... for His timing... wait for His purpose.. He is working even if you don't see it!

3. God still hears you.

Wait.... and in your waiting know that He still hears you. In two of the verses above it says that God hears your cry and your prayer.

" ... Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words." Daniel 10:12

Don't lose heart dear Christian, He hears you...

4. God will give you strength to wait.

" Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 41:10

Don't lose hope. God will give you strength to wait. A renewed strength for the journey ahead. Who knows but what in this journey of waiting, when you can't seem to put one foot in front of the other.....

He may give you wings!

We are all Farmers

If you watched the Super Bowl last Sunday night you may have seen a great commercial.  I'm not much into football, so I mainly watch the commercials. My favorite commercial was "God Made a Farmer". I think that commercial touched the hearts and struck a chord with many people all over this country.

But why?

Why did it sink so deep into our psyche?

I cannot speak for everyone, but I have some thoughts...

I believe we love and miss Paul Harvey. It was so great to hear his voice again. The first thing you saw and heard was an old rustic looking church, then Paul Harvey's clear voice ringing out the words..." God created and then He needed a caretaker...a farmer to tend it." I believe that even if people don't go to church, they loved to see an old church; the nostalgia of it. I wonder sometimes if people aren't just a little tired of all the glitz and glamor in some of our churches? The slick Madison Avenue kind of church.

We long for the little church in the wild wood.
That makes us think of our childhood.

Then, we saw the slightly smiling face of a farmer... looking like he had a secret. The rugged and wrinkled face of this man was a welcome sight to many people who have grown tired of the "pulled tight" look of the Hollywood face. Just the realness and friendliness of his face was so welcoming.

We long for people who are friendly and real when we are surrounded by phonies.
We would love it if he was our neighbor.

Then, we saw the rugged hands of a hard working farmer. The faceless image spoke volumes of someone who has worked hard from sun-up to sun-down. It was refreshing to see someone who in this society of the "entitlement mentality" didn't mind to work hard for his livelihood. We as a nation wanted to see that! I would go so far as to say, we NEEDED to see that!

Then, at the end, he said we are all farmers. Many of us are...

The Mother who works with her child, teaching that child right from wrong.

The Father who gets up early and goes off to work, day in and day out.

They are both planting a seed into that child.

The teacher that teaches lessons in school and lessons in character, waters the seed.

The Pastor, the Sunday School teacher, who teaches the lessons each week and preaches the sermons, they are also planting a seed.

The Christian friend who speaks a word into the heart where the seed has been planted; he or she waters the seed. Someone may come behind and harvest.

Oh yes...

We are all farmers of some sort.

God give us more farmers!

It's time to cancel your daily rehearsal!

Recently I posted a verse on facebook that says:

"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night." Revelation 12:10 This verse made me think of how Satan is tireless to accuse us. To bring our sins up to God. He does the same thing to us. He whispers in our ear ugly reminders of our past sins. "You'll never be good enough." Or, "How could God love you after everything that you have done?" Sound familiar? This causes us to have rehearsals... You don't have to be a singer... a instrumentalist. or an actor to hold regular rehearsals. You can also hold regular rehearsals as a Christian who doesn't forgive and forget... yourself! If you have come to Christ and repented, confessed your sins to God, why are you holding this regular rehearsal? Will this change anything? Will mulling this over again and again change the past or it's circumstances? More importantly, are you God?  Who are you to not forgive yourself when God has forgiven you? God has said in I John 1:9, " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Not just some unrighteousness depending on if it's not too bad, but ALL unrighteousness! Planning on rehearsing today? I believe I would cancel that!