Traveling Towards Home

I have a 'guest writer' today.  Paula Bailey has been an internet friend for years. . . .and she posted this on October 27th.  She is a wife and mother of 2 girls who loves the Lord and, like all of us, needs an occasional change of perspective on the journey she travels here below.   Thank you, Paula, for graciously allowing me to share where that perspective should be.  God bless! Ok. So, I still can't find some of Mikayla's uniform clothes. They are hiding out somewhere. We have enough to make it for a bit, but still.... As I was looking for them today, I was aggravated. I can be pretty grumpy, so here's a list of my thoughts: Why should my kid HAVE to wear a uniform to go to school????? Really, so because there are gangs and other violence in schools, my kids have to wear uniforms-some of which I can't find right now!?!?! I then thought about  our consequence-driven society. We live in a society where, regardless of the freedom people want, we are sti...

On this journey below, we often stumble.  Someone once said that success isn't how often we fall, but how often we get up.  Success in the Christian walk is about discerning and avoiding the pitfalls of life, and when we do fall, acknowledging God's strength in overcoming the weakness of the flesh.  It isn't how strong we are, but how strong our God is. When we were expecting our sixth child, we found that he had many physical problems.  It was a time of grief, tears, searching for answers, and learning to depend on God.  One of my Christian sisters commented, "You are so courageous."  My reply, "No, but my God is." "Wait on the  Lord ; Be of good  courage , And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the  Lord !"  Psalm 27:14   Our strength is only from God.  It doesn't  come from any other source.  Even Paul was encouraged more than once by his connections with the people of God; their gifts, their pr...

Psalm 15 (verses one through five) Lord , who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly,      And works righteousness,      And speaks the truth in his heart;   He  who  does not backbite with his tongue,      Nor does evil to his neighbor,      Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;   In whose eyes a vile person is despised,      But he honors those who fear the  Lord ; He  who  swears to his own hurt and does not change;   He  who  does not put out his money at usury,      Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these  things  shall never be moved. Today is my youngest daughter's 15th birthday.  We decided to read this psalm for our devotional time together.  If we wish to live in the house of God, we m...

As we make our way towards heaven, it requires copious amounts of faith.  It is this faith which not only sustains us, but fuels us, and prepares our way into heaven. Hebrews 11:6 states that ". . . without faith it is impossible to please Him. . . ."  Pleasing God is my dearest desire, without which my life is an aimless ship adrift on the ocean of time and space. Tomorrow morning, Rodger and I are putting our faith into the hands of an eye surgeon as he undergoes a refractive lensectomy on his right eye.  We trust in the doctors skill to do the job with mastery and excellence.  But we don't blindly do this.  We know that the surgeons at this center have a good reputation.  They have many years of combined experience and success to bolster our confidence in them. Our faith in God is no less based on blind faith, but on the recorded deeds of our God.  The Bible is full of His promises, kept.  He never waivered in doing what He said, whether it...

I was reading a bit on the Barna web page about the millennial departure from the church and one statement stood out. The need for mentors. And not preacher or elder mentors necessarily, but faithful men and women who can take a young person by the hand and show them how important and how relevant belonging to Christ's body is.  We've got to take responsibility for our young people. Think about what we put emphasis on throughout the year. Good grades, getting to sports events, going to prom, getting graduated, going to the right college, getting a good job, finding yourself, getting married, having kids, the list goes on. But where is the church? How are young people supposed to know how important their faith in God and their involvement in the church is when we've cluttered their lives with all this other stuff that's just going to burn up in the end? What are they seeing in our lives? Are we dedicated to the Lord more than one hour on Sunday morning? Do we find ou...

Today in America it is Flag Day.  It was first observed on June 14th, 1877, 100 years after congress passed the first flag resolution. I have always been grateful to be an American, where our religious freedom was protected by the constitution of our country. Today in the chaos of our changing world, we should be thankful for the many blessings we have.  But we should also spend time on our knees asking God to guide our leaders as they make decisions that will impact us now and generations to come.  We cannot deny that things are changing and not for the better.  Ungodly people are making decisions and influencing change that will directly affect us and our descendants in their ability to worship our God and live as Christians. Now, having said that, I want to qualify with this:  No matter what happens, God is still God.  He is still the Captain of my destiny and the Lord of my life.  The man in the White House will in no way change what I bel...

Of all the things I've chosen to do, mothering has been my heart from the time I was small.  I always wanted to be a wife and mother.  I remember telling my own mom, that I wanted to grow up to be just like her.  Nothing more, nothing less. Oh, there were times I wanted to be other things.  Life circumstances would motivate me to investigate nursing, physical therapy, teaching, even midwifery. But looking back, none brought the satisfaction as did mothering my own children.  It was something I believe God planted in my heart and brought about.  It is something that has brought me great frustration, but once you set out on this road, there is no turning back.  I have had to slog on when I was tired, frustrated, disappointed, unprepared. There have been times of deep sorrow and pain.  Experiencing miscarriage a few times made me empathize with others who experienced lose.  Then losing the baby boy we so longed for and nurtured through diffic...