When I close my eyes, I can hear her singing, “Raindrops keep falling on my head” and the giggles which interrupt our singing resonate in my woman’s heart today.  We sang that song one million times to anyone who would listen and for any occasion.

Just as real in my mind are the remembrances of my friend leaning out her front door and calling my name saying I should just run over to her house and play.  She calls my name loud and clear so I know for sure it is her. 

Then, my mind gathers sweet as I imagine the long, blonde pew at the Radcliff Church of Christ and a row full of sweetness and light all sits together passing notes and trying to be quiet during the sermon.  Young Christian sisters whom I to this day hold precious to my heart. 

I grow into a young girl, move to a foreign land (twenty minutes down the road) and make nice with the Catholic girls whom share a love of God and a need for prayer in such a tender way that even today, I can see them kneeling on the kneeling bench and long to sit beside them. 

I grow.  I change.  I draw close to my sweet cousins for whom even today I am ever so grateful.

I move to high school and meet the young girl who will turn out to be a “heart changing” kind of friend.  One with whom nothing is sacred.  No secret too great.  No boy to off-limits to talk about.  A sister-friend who though we lost her too soon still leaves an imprint on my heart which I carry with me every day.  Her name is Andrea Beth Morris.

Other girls…they come into my life and fill my cup to over-flowing. 

And then there are my sisters….some brought to me by brothers and some brought to me by faith…who stand with me in a family big and large and hold my hand and make sweet memories and live this thing called life with a heart for me and mine.  They are precious to my heart.

And, even My facebook is a telling page….names which would be just names except that they are not. ….they are my dear-hearts, women with whom I have shared my life and who, in return, I  have shared theirs.

Each on of them....each one of you, I gather you up in my basket of life's flowers...the sweet scent of your friendship bringing joy to my heart and love within my heart...

For each and every one of you...

I am grateful….

YOU are more than just my sisters…..my comrades…..my prayer warriors……

You are, in fact

My

FRIENDS…..

May God bless and bless each and every one.

 

“A Mama Moment”…..

            with Johnson.........

....my son Johnson is experiencing a challenge in his life.....one which causes him to question what is significant, what is important, and who really values him and cares for him as a person, an individual....a young man.

Who is real with him and lifts him up...and who is non-authentic and does not.

Whose word is gold and can be counted on, and who's is just that...words.

I have spent a lot of time listening to him, to his words, to his heart...I have shed quiet tears of sadness, I have enjoyed great moments when the "lightbulb has gone off" and I have come to know my son and more importantly, my son's heart, in a very powerful way.

He is the real deal...

He is authentic...

I was touched beyond measure when he said, "Mama, I know I have made mistakes, but I do not live in them.  I learn and move on."  "I am sad even mad at this situation, this season, this time, but I am not defeated.  All it is really doing is shedding light on what I want to be like when I grow up and what and who is important to me."

"I will just keep working....I will try to work on myself....I will be real." 

~A Mama Moment

May I never miss a single one…..

 

………..As Only Your Mama Can

O is for Ocean, Only and One

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ocean

You are the daughter of a mother who loves the ocean.  I am the mother of a daughter who loves the ocean.  I am not sure why we so love the ocean, but we do and we have and I cannot remember a single time in my life when I did not.  I cannot remember a single time in your life when you did not.

 

I feel closest to God at the ocean….there is a mindfulness which comes to me when I am there. 

I feel the presence of the Lord most intimately and most powerfully….at the ocean.

Prayers come simpler, laughter comes sweeter, and memories are made deeper at the ocean…

It is a great gift God gives us when He gives us the ocean….and, I am grateful.

Only

You are my only daughter.  When your dad and I were in pre-marriage counseling, we discussed how many children we wanted to have and we both said simultaneously, “four”.  One daughter, twin sons and a child of which we don’t know the sex.

We had our daughter, Madison.  We had twin sons, Kenton and Johnson, and we had our precious baby which we miscarried and truly do not know the sex of, but have always called him Joseph.

I no longer wonder at the way God works…..

I just stand in awe….

In the process of having our children, God found it fit to give me a “one and only” daughter.  There comes a lot of responsibility with being the oldest…and being the oldest daughter.

There are responsibilities you carry in your life as our oldest which neither of your brothers will ever understand.  Pressures, stresses, challenges which only first borns can know.

I see that baby.

Embrace your “only” status…..accept it, embrace it, and be glad for it…..see the positives which come from being the first and the only daughter….

Ask God to grow in you a fortitude and insight and direction so that your life is one which upon looking back upon it, you can be proud.

This life is about giving God the glory in our lives…taking the good in us and reflecting it back to this world….taking the bad in us and using it for His good and reflecting it back to this world…

Embrace your only daughter status….accept it…..

Use it…..

Every single day for the rest of your life…….

Jesus was an only....he understands

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16 

One

There are many “ones” in your life…but, these are truly the only “ones” which really matter….

God

Jesus

Holy Spirit

His Written Word

When you understand this and immerse your daily life into living this truth, then your life’s purpose and meaning will become more real and more clear and more live-able to you.

It is really as simple as that!  

Blessings on your week…..

ILYAOYMC,

Mama