December 27, 2013

Sweet Daughter....

I want to include this in your blog so it will make it into our "book" for the year....

Proof that God makes all things beautiful.....even things we may not understand.....

And, the human heart....a daughter's heart.....is capable of loving beyond all measure....

A Daughter's Love.....
           
     Blood does not define it...
       Time does not limit it...
     Man cannot explain it...
       
                 But

     God can gift it....
         Life can span it....

And, the Spirit can multiply it in ways only God can understand.....

The human heart has the capacity to love....beyond measure....

And, that is evidenced in yours....

 

ILYAOYMC,

Mama

As Only Your Mama Can……

December 27, 2013 

Most days I am grateful……

But……some days, my soul sings with gratitude which no words can ever express. 

Today is such a day…..

God has given me so much….His son being the greatest gift of all.

So, how very precious is it that having given me the greatest gift of all….He still gifts me with you, your sister, your brothers..Ian…my family?

Priceless…..

I love you…as only your Mama can…

And, the little glimpses into your heart of gratitude…..well, they, too, make me sing…..

Blessings Sweetpea….

Mama

 

 

 

 

As Only Your Mama Can….

December 26, 2013

Sweet daughter….it is 3:54 am…the house is quiet and I cannot sleep.  You lay slumbering in your room all snuggled up in your big bed, blond hair flowing across your pillow just like it has done for the past 23 years.

And, I am grateful.

For so many things…..so many blessings….so many promises yet to come.

God willing.

God takes us through seasons in our lives….

And, He has laid upon my heart during this season in my own life the preciousness of time….

I am reminded constantly of how sacred are our days….

Every single one of them….

And, you know sweetheart….what I am seeing, sensing, learning is that while there is great fun to be had in the major events in our lives…..yes, there is….

It is those wee, quick, sweet little moments which bring such sweetness to my own days…

 

                            Holding my Daddy’s hand during church and listening to him sing….

My Mama sweet little kisses directly upon the lips, a gift only a mother can give….

A Brother’s writing to our beloved Daddy, your Poppy pouring out in words his love

The peace that comes from walking from bedroom door to bedroom door and finding the      babies God gave me snuggled up close and warm

It’s the gifting to another the perfect reminder of what they have meant to you in your life

And, the husbands warm hand over yours as you pray together for God’s peace and mercy

I find it in the listening to my sister talk about the little babies she so carefully nurtures each day as she works to keep them alive and thriving

And, in the nephew whose greatest teen-age hope is to be loved and accepted and allowed to grow into the man God calls him to be

It’s having the ability to live in the moment…. 

One thing I have grown to love about my new profession….my new career path…

My new calling….

Is that to live in your “present” is a great gift you can give to yourself and is in direct obedience to the way God calls us to live.   Don’t get me wrong…you have to live for the future and make plans and have goals.  You have to have forward momentum to move through your days and Godly vision for the possibilities of your life.  And, you need to look back upon where you have been and how that has impacted you both good and bad.  To remind yourself of what has worked in your life and where you may want to make changes and learn from your mistakes…

But, most importantly, you need to live in the present….the here….the now.

God asks us to do this…

It is required…

And, there is a reason He asks this of us….for it is in learning to live in the present moment that we draw our closest to our Heavenly Father….

God is in our past….and you can look back and see Him….and learn

God is in our future…and, you can look forward to greet Him….and grow faith

But, God LIVES in our current moment drawing us close to Him and in so doing, bringing into our lives the fullness that He has for us……and live

He shows us in our present moments the “plans He has made for us”….when He “knitted us in our mother’s womb”……

So, as we head into a new day, I pray He grows within your heart a strong and steady calling of your name….Madison…daughter….precious Jewel…

And, I hope you will listen…and walk in His direction…

And, live each moment for Him…..in faith and joy and confidence that the One who made you…

made you good….

And, He has a purpose for your days…for the season of your life….

ASK Him to show you……and walk His direction.

ILYAOYMC,

Mama

A Time for Everything

 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

 What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

 

 

As Only Your Mama Can….

December 24, 2013

Dearest Daughter,

It is early at our home, the silence is sweet as your Ladder and brothers lie sleeping upstairs and as you lay sleeping at your home.  There is a light snow upon the ground….God’s little reminder that He makes all things beautiful.  I can hear my South Carolina and Indiana wind chimes sweetly singing through the windows both at the front and back of our home and I  can see the twinkle-lights on the poles of our porch….I am reminded that we are to “sleep in heavenly peace”…..

I hear “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas” playing in the background….

And, memories flood my heart full to bursting…..when I was young…of trips to Oklahoma to spend time with family we rarely see but who we hold close to our hearts.  The laughter fills my soul…..

The many times it was just my Mama and Daddy and the “five” of us….Christmas Carols playing and Christmas goodies baking…my Daddy and brothers chopping ice for the cattle and Mama and I making food and wrapping gifts listening to Andy Williams, Peggy Lee and most especially Bing Crosby.

Later still, sleeping on the couch waiting for my own little children to scurry down the stairs all excited to see what Santa brought this year….waiting….waiting…for the squeals of joy and the laughter and the excitement of innocent excitement that Santa’s reindeer ate the food we left for them and that Santa ate our home-made cookies.

Christmas has a way of bringing out the tenderness within a person’s heart….the goodness and sweetness and preciousness of family and friends and sharing and caring….

At the center of the heart of Christmas is the innocent love of children….who point the way to the ultimate heart of Jesus…

No matter what life has offered that year…..by the time you return once again to Christmas….you are back to the beginning of the baby who brought meaning to the holiday….

CHRISTmas…..

The older I grow…the more Christmases I celebrate, the more I come to realize the truth in the statement….

“Whenever I give….whenever I love….It’s Christmas”

 

Christmas is not just one day a year…It is everyday….

Because it is every day that we are here….because He was there….

When you have as your daily purpose to live for Him…..everything else in your life has purpose.

So….my prayer for you today, and for every day this upcoming year is that every day will hold all the blessings and sweetness and magic of Christmas…that in your heart will live the constant reminder of a wee little fellow who came unwrapped in things of the world to remind us of the sacred wrappings which come only from heaven.

And, that this constant heart reminder is not by chance, but on purpose….a daily choosing of your own to stay close to December 25^th each and every day….

That the magic of this day lives deep within your heart and fills your soul to overflowing….

Every day…

So, before your feet hit the floor in the morning….as you walk through out your day….when you go to lay down your head at night….

Chose CHRISTmas….

I Love You As Only Your Mama Can,

Mama

 

 

 

As Only Your Mama Can…….

December 22, 2013 

Dearest Daughter,

I am no different than most individuals, as I head into a New Year, I dream of growing into a more Godly, more focused, more intentional woman.  I hope toward greater health, greater spirituality and greater personal fortitude.

I hope for change…

I read yesterday about how difficult it is to make changes in your life…how letting go of bad habits and drawing on new ones was almost impossible, about how seriously hard it is to change….and, to remain changed for the better. 

How challenging, trying, demanding, arduous, tough, tiring, strenuous, grueling….if not impossible it is to become different…to grow holy.  And, how there is really only one way to have any hope of being a more disciplined, focused, self-controlled person….

And, that is to stay close to HIM…..

The author offered a truth I had not thought of for a while…and, that is that “self-control” is a fruit of the spirit…it’s not that I had forgotten that truth, it’s that I have not studied it in so long that I have removed it from the forefront of my thinking…but, if you truly want to change, you need a spirit within you which is active and alive and working and you need to be seeking growth in the fruits of the spirit….

And, I know this to be true because in my 51 years, those in which I put God first every day were the ones which enabled me to be disciplined and self-controlled (even in the darkest storms of life)……

There is a Holy fortitude within you when you are armor-ing up each and every day…starting before your toes hit the floor in the morning until your head hits the pillow at night….there is a peace which endures and feeds your heart, there is a calm disposition which comes over your mindset and a joy which fills your soul….

“As Only He Can”

What stands in the way of my changing, growing, developing into the woman He calls me to be and that I wish to be?

My failure to be His….

Moment by little moment, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year…

As I reflect on my life, I see hills and valleys where I have been strong in Him and happy…and valleys where I have been weak in Him and ultimately sad.

The one truth I find consistent as I look over the pages of my life is clear…

I am never truly happy when I am not fully “God’s girl”….

And, when I am God’s girl, while I may still have life challenges which bring me to my knees, even then, I have found a Holy peace and joy which was not possible if not for Him…

So, as I head toward this New Year, I seek a re-newed focus….back to the basics

Really, back to the BASIC

Him

Because when you start and end with God as your focus…you start and end with God as your life…..

And, in that, there is no greater peace….

You are able to lay down those things in this life which will weigh you down to sinking….you are able to let go of your past and move ahead to the future, you are able to forgive others….and, yourself.  You are able to find joy in the days of your life….both in the seasons of richness and as well, in the seasons of human poverty.

 And, the more you come to know Him, the better you come to know the you He has fashioned for this season you are here on this earth…the more you come to know the gifts you have been given and how to use them for His glory…the better you are able to stand against the things of this world which would harm you and embrace those things which would grow you into the woman He means for you to be…

But the fruit of the Spirit is…

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

“Christian character is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by the mere moral discipline of trying to live by law.  (It is) the indwelling Holy Spirit which produces Christian virtues in the believer’s life.”

I want to say this to you…I don’t believe we can become who we are to by human effort….I don’t. 

I think it requires constant and faithful pursuing of God’s heart and will for our lives…and, there is only one way to do that.

Give over your life to Him….daily

If we work as doggedly at trying to come to know Him as we do at the things this world will offer to us as substitute, we will most certainly be changed…

And, not just changed…

But, changed in real and true and authentic ways which give meaning and purpose and focus for our lives.

So that our lives are not just scribbles on the journals of our life, but so that they are our Holy commitment to a loving God who fashioned us for a purpose….

It is only He who can complete us…and only by coming to know Him can we come to love and know ourselves….

So, my prayer for you is that you keep it simple in 2014…..

In fact, I challenge you to have but ONE New Year’s Resolution…..

Come to know Him

And, you will…..

And, in that knowing, your life will find all that you are seeking……

ILYAOYMC,

Mama

“I love those who love me, and those who seek find me.” Proverbs 17