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For as many years as I can remember, my father used to sing this song to me, "I love you, yes I do, I love you..." Even only minutes before his death, we sang this old 1940's song to each other. I even had the notes to this song engraved on his headstone. This song has always been tremendously special to me. I began singing this song to my grandson Easton when my daughter and son-in-law lived in North Carolina. He was born there, so there were many trips back and forth up the interstate to visit them while they lived there. Even when Easton was a baby and could not respond to me, my daughter would put him on the phone and I'd sing this to him. Once he began talking well enough to communicate with people, I'll never forget the day that he looked at me and said, "Yaya, you sing that song on the phone to me!" Even though he was little, he recognized that for many months I had been singing this song that I loved so dearly and was now singing to him. It was a sweet moment to see the realization in his eyes, the connection. Now, several years later, as our new grandson, his little brother, I continue singing this little song to him also. I called my daughter just a few minutes ago and I could hear Ty crying in the backround. He's been sick all week and they have been out of town and I haven't seen them. She put little 11 month old Ty on the phone and I began singing the song to him. His crying immediately stopped and I could tell he was soothed and calmed by Yaya's voice and the song. How tremdously special to know that this song, that calmed my heart, brought great joy to my being and has such special memories for me, was once again doing its' work! Now it's my turn to sing to my grandchildren, just as my daddy sang to me. Isn't God good? Their grandfather lives on as I pass on this tradition to my grandchildren and it just feels so sweet within my heart. How thankful I am for my father and the love of music he gave me. Now it's my turn to pass that love to my grandchildren. To my 3 children and all my precious grandchildren...."I love you, yes I do, I love you..."
My sister sent this poem to me. It blessed my heart. I hope it blesses the hearts of all those who read it also.WAIT
(Author Unknown)
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait".
"Wait? You say, wait! " my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By Faith, I have asked, and am claiming your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me to WAIT?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
or even a 'no' to which I can resign.
And Lord, You promised that if we believe
we need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
and grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting.... for what?"
He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And he tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want--But, you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint;
You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.
You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save.... (for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for Thee."
Yes, your dreams for your loved one overnight would come true,
But, Oh, the Loss! If I lost what I'm doing in you!
So, be silent, My Child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft' may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, "WAIT"
This morning, our pastor used Psalm 144:3 to begin his message: "Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? He entitled his message, "Always On My Mind" and reminded us over and over that God truly is mindful of us. He makes it His business to know us in a personal way for we are His children, the work of His hands. Just as I personally know my 3 children, the color of their eyes, their smiles, their haircolor, their personalities, their struggles, their hurts. I am invested in their lives. If we don't think for a moment that the God of the universe is not invested in each of our lives, then we don't have a brain! How could the God who created us not care about each of us? He is always thinking of us just as most of us parents are always thinking about our children. My children are now 35, 33 and 28, but that doesn't make me think of them any less often than when they were little. I think of them every day constantly. Guess what??? God loves us even much more than we love our own birthed children! Our pastor then began to describe the heavens, the stars and the immenseness of it all. I could have jumped up and shouted for I LOVE this verse that He showed us..."He counts the number of the stars, He calls them ALL by name!" Psalm 147:4. OH MY GOODNESS! Here's where this gets absolutely mind boggling and even more wonderful! NASA has estimated that there are a billion trillion stars in those gorgeous heavens and the Word says HE KNOWS THEM ALL BY NAME! Now folks, if that doesn't blow you right out of your chair there's a problem somewhere. The God who created this universe cares so much that He has personally named each and every star in this huge galaxy of ours! Now if He cares that much about the stars, think just how much He must care for you and I. WOW...so He does have knowlege of us, or is mindful, of us AND He cares even about little old me. My heart soared as I listened to our pastor as I contemplated the ginormous(!!) number of the stars and just the bigness of that thought. My small dried up brain can't even begin to envision that but I do know this....My God KNOWS MY NAME AND HE CARES ABOUT ME! Oh what joy, what comfort, what hope there is in that thought. Thank you Lord that you are mindful of me and you cared enough to name each and every single of those billion trillion stars out there! WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE!
Today my path crossed the path of a new friend. Two totally different people on two totally different pathways and yet, the Lord seemed to want us to come together at this time in our lives. The wonder of it all, the unknown and the excitement make me tremble with joy. I have often wondered about random meetings with people in the grocery store, doctors offices etc. Just yesterday, I had a random encounter with a young woman who sat beside me. There has always appeared to be something about my face that says to people..."Go ahead, spill your guts out, she'll listen and she cares" cause that's the way it's always been for me. That's exactly what this woman did. I shall never know why, but she almost immediately came in close to me and shared a piece of her life and what she was struggling with at the moment. I did my best to encourage her and let her know there is a God who cares. Without a doubt, I know in my heart that God places people in our lives often for us to simply encourage at the moment and let them know we will pray for them. Typically we never see these people again, even though they leave an impression on our heart. These are people that God sends our way to just share a little of His love with...seed planting opportunties. But sometimes, God causes people to cross our pathway for more deliberate reasons. It's obvious that He has a purpose and a specific plan that He wants to accomplish. Today, I've made a new friend and I'm thankful she has crossed my pathway at this time in my life. I do not understand completely why, but then neither did Noah when God told him to build a huge boat because a flood was coming. It didn't matter that Noah had never even seen rain, he just was obedient and trusted God and most of us know the rest of that story! Although I can't see the bigger picture...I trust Him and I know that He has something good in store for both of us. I'm so thankful that our pathways have crossed. I can almost see that rainbow in the distance!
All my life I heard many wisdom filled one-liners from my father's mouth, many of which I still say today. They all remain gold nuggets of wisdom to me. I can hear him saying to me, "Barbie, everyone should strive to learn something new everyday." My father LOVED learning new things, even up until his death at 81. Even then, he still enjoyed learning new things daily and would grin from ear to ear when he learned something he had not known before. My father also loved people. He used his love of knowledge and people to work together hand-in-hand to make him a wonderful, caring and diligent friend to all who got to know him. I believe one of the reasons I love people so much is because he modeled that before me. I watched him reach out to everyone, regardless of who they were, what their status was or where they were from. He just loved people and loved learning about them. He took time to take an interest in them and invest in their lives, many times at a great cost to himself. Today, I met someone I hadn't known before and am praying that my love for people and knowledge of who they are and what makes them tick will be the blessing to them just as my father was to so many. I hope you'd be proud of me dad. I miss you and the wisdom you imparted in my life. I'm forever grateful.
Sometimes, to be willing, means we have to give up something. It might mean we have to give up our time, our fears, our possessions or even a bit of ourselves. For many, this is difficult. First we must recognize that there is a need to be met. Once we can admit that, then second, we must make the choice if we will step up to the plate and help in whatever way we can to meet that need. It's in the second half of this thought process that we might struggle to do what needs to be done. Many of us are just so busy with our own lives that we don't want to step up. Some of us have the attitude that someone else will do what needs to be done, but not me. But I'd like to say BRAVO to those who, when faced with this thought process and decision, lay their selfishness aside and do the right thing. I think of my aunt and uncle, who even though are in their 70's still take the time to mentor young youth. Trust me, they have their own aches and pains they deal with and very very busy lives and yet, they make time to pour love and time into these children's lives! This is "willingness" at its' finest. They also volunteer countless hours delivering food to the needy and elderly as well as many activities within their community and for the U of I. I also saw "willingness" at its' finest last night in our youth mission team meeting. One young lady, who although was not fully prepared to do what was asked of her, willingly stepped up to the plate and gave it her best, all with a smile on her face! "Willingness"....how wonderful to see and experience first hand. I wonder how often we are faced with the decision to act upon an opportunity and do what might be difficult for us, but do it anyway. My aunt and uncle and this young lady move me to examine my own life and how "willing" I am in whatever situation comes my way. I hope I'm simply found to be willing to act, to move, to give, in any situation that comes my way.
For weeks now, our pastor has been encouraging us to share our "God Stories" with anyone we come in contact with. When we share "God Stories" with others, they are able to see firsthand what God is accomplishing in our lives, how God is working in our lives and how God so often works unbeknownst to us and behind the scenes to "work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 Following is a "God Story" that just happened in my life...
A couple months ago, I made the decision to go on our very first Youth Mission Trip to Honduras with our youth and a handful of other adult leaders, including my son-in-law. Arrangements were made and tickets purchased. Somewhere in this same time frame, Darrel brought to my attention that GE was planning an all expense paid trip to Tampa, including deep sea fishing etc, the weekend of June 27th. He was SO excited about it, as was I. That Sunday, the 29th, will be our 37th anniversary and we rejoiced that it fell that way and that GE would actually be paying for a wonderful anniversary weekend for us. How wonderful of God! Well, it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I realized that these two trips coincided! I was heartbroken and did not know what to do! Our youth team would be flying in from Honduras on the same day we were supposed to be leaving for Tampa! We would not arrive in to Macclenny until around midnight, which would be too late to leave for Tampa. Of course, my mind started reeling on how I could work this out. I thought the best way would be for Darrel to just go ahead and drive to Tampa on Friday morning as planned and then he could drive over to I 75 and pick me up on the teams way home. Well, this would mean another 4 hours of driving for Darrel and he was not too happy about that as we were going to have to get up very early on Saturday morning for our day of fishing and he didn't want to be that late coming in. My heart was breaking trying to figure out what to do. Well, I called Gene, our missions pastor, to basically just tell him I had a dilemma. When I called and said I had a dilemma that I needed his help with, he laughed and said, well, I have a dilemma too, let's hear yours first. I began telling him how I needed to get from Miami to Tampa and might not ride the church van home with everyone if I could figure something out. He began laughing and proceeded to tell me why! HIS dilemma was that we would be having 1 extra person coming back from Honduras with us and there would be NO WHERE for her to sit on the van ride home as we were loaded to the max on the van. He was looking for God to make a way for there to be an extra seat! It was ME! My NOT riding home with everyone, my BIG DILEMMA, had turned out to be HIS ANSWER TO PRAYER!!!! I ended up simply booking a flight out of Miami in Tampa. Darrel will just pick me up at the airport, which has ended up being only 20 minutes from our hotel and we can continue our weekend there! Isn't God good?!!! It's a "GOD STORY" in the sweetest way! God is always at work, we just can't see Him working and so we sometimes forget that He's there. God even cares about little things like this! He's wonderful, isn't He? If you have a "God Story," I'd love to hear it!
As I was working in the yard this morning 3 more of my grandchildren were on my heart. I don't have the opportunity to see them like I see Butch's and Summer's children and so I have not had the priviledge of nurturing our relationship as much as the others. As I was working on "planting" some flowers, I thought of them and wondered have I been diligent enough in their lives to "plant" seeds of the Lord in their lives. Charlie is grown now with Bradlie right behind him as a teenager and Natalie still a little girl. I pray I haven't failed them in "planting" Christ in their lives as much as I should have/could have. They are precious to me and even more precious to the Lord. Today, as I complete the "planting" process in my yard, I'm praying that my "planting" process will never be over in their lives and that I'll diligently press on to be a godly role model to them. Help me Lord "plant" seeds of You to them and to the world.
Yesterday was nursing home day with the youth at church. Praise God, 10 showed up to go visit. I was thrilled. You never know how many will come, but I always pray that God will speak to their hearts and they'll stop what they are doing and come. Kindness...when I was growing up, it was a huge part of what we were taught. Where has kindness gone??? How blessed I am to say that I know for a fact, it STILL does exist at our church and even in our very own youth!! To know that 3 high school girls and 6 middle schoolers took time out of their busy day to show "kindness" to those confined to the nursing home, blesses my dirty white sox right off my feet! :) One precious lady shared with us how fortunate she feels that we come see her and how we light up her day. Two other ladies had been saving their little bags of cookies for the kids for the next time we came in. Although we were trying to be a blessing to them, they were so excited to share something with us also. How blessed it is to give AND to receive!! Thank you Jesus for "kindness" and for our youth who are learning daily about servanthood and the value of kindness.
So here I am, continuing to try to figure out how all of this works....my head hurts, my brain is tired and my arthritic fingers hurt from moving around the keyboard so much! How pathetic is that! Ah well....it is such a tiny insignificant thing to desire to get this thing figured out, BUT, if I can be assured that God even cares about finding "Hank" a home, then I KNOW without a doubt, God cares about this little thing and He will help me figure it out! Forgive my simplemindedness, but that is my makeup! Ah well...
You know, laughter is such a wonderful gift God has given us. Here in this blog you'll see a picture of 7 of the reasons I smile AND laugh a lot! Aren't they precious? "A cheerful heart is good medicine..." Proverbs 17:22. Hmmmmm, none of us like the word "medicine," but in this instance, we understand that medicine always helps us to get better. So, we can see that Solomon was telling us that laughter makes our hearts and our attitudes better just as medicine makes our physical body better!!! I love it! How wonderful of God to give us the gift of joy. With joy, laughter naturally follows. When we laugh, we cannot cry and feel hopeless. Laughter naturally lifts our spirits and brightens any dark situation. I learned to laugh lots and laugh loud as a little child and I'm still laughing! Again, one of the "littlest of things," laughter, but how I appreciate it. Just today, laughter filled the house as the kids and I belly laughed over ridiculously silly things that others wouldn't even think were funny. It was grrrrreat! Thank you God for laughter and the hope in living that laughter brings.
Sleep is beckoning me and I must give in to it.....yawn, yawn, yawn! Life is good and I am thankful for all of the "littlest things" that God has given me and cares about in my life. He is good, He has a sense of humor and He brings me joy immeasurable...in fact, I'm laughing right now!!! :)
