GROWING SEEDS: How To Hear The Voice of God

When I was in my mid-20's, I taught a Sunday School class full of 5-year-olds.  It was the Kindergarten class at our church and I felt with my limited knowledge of Bible stories, it was the perfect place for me to be.

However, I found out that 5-year-olds don't sit still...and they aren't quiet....and they have an attention span of about 3 seconds.   Having never had children and being the youngest in my family, this was shocking news to me!  I found myself each week frustrated and wondering how to either talk fast enough to get my point in the 3 seconds before their attention moved elsewhere, or increase the volume of my voice to where they could hear nothing but me. Unfortunately, this dog-and-pony show went on for better than a year and didn't work.

So I decided to have a special guest speaker come in and tell the kids a story.  I needed the break, but so did the Kindergartners.  As the kids were busy taking their shoes and socks off, messing up the kids' hair next to them, thumping their foreheads repeatedly, the storyteller, a petite woman named Sammie, started telling her story.  Actually, she whispered her story.  I found myself in the back of the room leaning in....desperate to hear what she was saying...and so did the kids.  The room for the first time ever was quiet.  They were still.  They were leaning in to hear what Sammie had to say.  She had taught us all the SECRET to listening.

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, 

but the Lord was not in the wind. 

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. 

And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 

(NIV) 1 Kings 19:11-12

In the words of the great writer Mark Batterson, "When someone speaks in a whisper, you have to get very close to hear.  We lean toward a whisper, and that’s what God wants.  The goal of hearing the Heavenly Father’s voice isn’t just hearing His voice; it’s intimacy with Him.  That’s why He speaks in a whisper."

Awwww...there it is!  God could intimidate us with His outside voice, but He woos us with a whisper.  And His whisper is the very breath of life.

GROWING SEEDS: Dessert or Meat & Potatoes?

 

 

 

Dessert or Meat & Potatoes?

When Chuck and I first started attending First United Methodist Church several years ago, I found myself most each week leaving this sanctuary with red eyes and cheeks stained with tears as I walked out the doors of this church.  I think it was partly due to hormones but mostly due to a deeply convicted heart.  I hadn't been to church in a number of years at that time and I think the Lord was working immensely on me.  But as the years went by, my tears slowed to a trickle and then eventually stopped.  Although I was happy I wasn't Googling, "How not to cry in church" anymore, it bothered me that I wasn't as moved as I once had been. 

And I wondered why.

I discovered I had quit asking myself the hard questions.  I was seeing church as a "dessert-only" church...where I was focusing only on the easy-to-understand and "feel-good" scriptures.  I had stopped reading and studying the hard-to-read scriptures, the ones that made me squirm and reminded us our lives are going to get crazy hard in this world before they get blissfully easy upon our arrival in Heaven.  I found I had replaced my meat & potato scriptures, the protein verses, with dessert-only verses. 

And I liked it.

But friends, we need protein.  And although I am a lover of desserts and could eat pumpkin pie every day...all day, I need my protein in order to survive.  And so do you. 

We are living in a time in our country when a line is being drawn in the sand and we are quickly being forced to show our cards.  Do we choose God over our child...our spouse...our parent...our car...our house?  Now think real hard before answering this next question: 

If you were forced to make a choice between denying God to save your child from death

OR proclaiming God and knowing your child's life would end,

what would YOU do? 

Wow.  See, the hard scriptures, the meat & potatoes, tell us that God isn't a 2nd place God and the conclusion to our life story isn't pretty if the answer to the question above is anything but choosing or proclaiming Him....even in the impossibly difficult times.....especially in the impossibly difficult times.   God's dessert words are necessary....they remind us we are citizens of Heaven and we are loved deeper than we have the ability to understand.  But it's the meat & potatoes words of God that give us hope and let us truly appreciate the sweetness of God's dessert words.  

GROWING SEEDS: Nobody Trips Over Mountains

 

Nobody trips over mountains. 

It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. 

Pass all the pebbles in your path 

and you will find that you have crossed the 

mountain.

Do you ever just lay on your back in the grass looking up at the clouds watching as they pass above you….their shadows slowly shading the earth your laying on?  You reflect on your life so far……the experiences that have molded you into the person you are today….the very person laying on the grass staring up into heaven.  

Moments of whitespace.  

Breathing rest into your soul.

For me, these moments are memories of how I arrived at this juncture in my life.  My everyday life.  My everyday life that has included hearing those agonizing words "You will never have that child you always dreamed of" and a failed marriage to an alcoholic and eventual death of that alcoholic……an alcoholic who died alone…..the gruesome details of that death I will let die with him.  

The dark seasons of our lives…….

I am haunted by that time in my life….questioning whether circumstances would have been different had I only gently guided his heart to Jesus….if I had only gently guided MY own heart to Jesus.  Questions of whether he got to know God before he breathed that last breath……all alone.

There's nothing special about my story……it's the same as yours.  This infertility and deceased alcoholic was a pebble I stumbled on as I climbed this mountain….and it is one of those soul conversations I have with myself as I lay, flat out on the grass looking into the heavens.  And like the hand of a good friend, I feel God's hand resting on mine as we lay quietly on the grass together……watching the clouds go by…..and he whispers, "Be-loved….if you falter, I'll just keep whispering it, close to your ear……this is the way - beloved - walk in it."

"I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there? 

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble, the one who watches over you will not slumber."

Psalms 121:1-2, 3

BLOG: Long Lines, A Little Volleyball and A Slice of Heaven

October 10, 2017

I skipped a blogging day somewhere this week.......it's probably cause I ran out of time standing in line at HomeGoods for 45 minutes just checking out.  Yep, after shopping for an hour, I find myself in the checkout line with 49 people ahead of me.  Not exaggerating....I had plenty of time to count each and every one of them.  Abandoning my cart and walking out wasn't an option...I needed these three items and the hour I just spent shopping would have been a waste.  So I hung in there...making new friends of the ladies around me.....seeing who could take the best picture of the long line to send when we complained to HomeGoods Corporate.  For goodness sake, it was Tuesday...middle of the day...not even near Christmas...what gives??

And made it out of there just in time to watch our oldest granddaughter, Bella, play her mid-week volleyball game.  We don't get to make many of the games, so this was a big treat for me! Oh ya....SHE WON!

October 11, 2017

 And yesterday.......we went to the beautiful Dallas Arboretum.  In all the years Chuck lived in Dallas (most all of his life), he doesn't remember ever going to this little slice of heaven called the Arboretum.  He practically could have spit to it from where he grew up....

It was the most beautiful of days.....75 degrees.....old-people-and-baby-stroller-day.......it was just awesome.

And Chuck only went off the path once with his wheelchair.  He was looking to the left when he went off the path to the right.  Stuck.  In gravel.  Along came three older ladies who immediately came up with a plan.  Two hung on to Chuck as he stood up so the other one and I could lift his chair up out of the gravel.  I overheard one lady say, "I haven't held a man since my husband died" while the one helping me whispered in my ear, "I know what you're going through....my husband was in a wheelchair too."  Precious-Precious-Precious-Precious Women....all of them.  And they showed me their muscles just before parting ways.....

We have enjoyed our stay here in our old home town.......but we're ready to move on.  Today, we are packing up the minivan and heading north......north to where?  We'll see.....but we want to see less concrete and more trees and mountains......

Hello Oklahoma and Arkansas!!!!!!

BLOG: A Couple Hicks In The Big City

 October 10, 2017

One thing hasn't changed since we moved from Dallas 12 years ago to the country (lake).  Chuck's love affair with Macy's.  The biggest smile....the brightest eyes....the happiest man came rolling out of Macy's yesterday as we took a relaxing day at the Mall....a place we don't have many of in East Texas (who am I fooling...we don't have ANY malls).

I feel like I'm in some type of Sci-Fi futuristic movie being back in Dallas for an extended stay.  "Brow-Bars" for those who want better eyebrows at Macys???  Really??

Leather reclining seats with a tray table at the movie theater (we were halfway through the movie before I realized they reclined)??!!  I'm such a hick.

And I'm starting to sound like my mother.  We excitedly went up to the box office to purchase our movie tickets and suddenly my $20 bill vanished.  I heard these words leaving my mouth as I spoke through the little hole in the window to the 16 year-old cashier, "$20?  Are you sure?  It's only $5 for matinee in our neck-of-the-woods".   Yes....I actually said this. 

But I discovered something in our adventures yesterday.  I realized this no longer felt like home to me.  I used to LOVE the mall....now I couldn't wait to get out of the mall.  A "Brow-Bar" would have excited me back in the day.....now I think its just bizarre that someone would be that attached to their eyebrows.   And $20 for a matinee?  I don't care if they do have leather-reclining-chairs-with-a-swivel-table.  These things are wayyyyy on down the list of essential components of my life.  I've changed......

I'd much prefer to see a beautiful sunrise that didn't include a high speed freeway in front of it.  I much prefer seeing a quiet lake instead.

STATE FAIR DAY

October 9, 2017

STATE FAIR DAY

It's been just under 40 years since this chick's been to the State Fair of Texas.  I was in college dating a hot guy with a hot black Trans Am at the time....

This time, I was with my hot husband with a hot burgundy Minivan and our awesome family.  And I've discovered.....eating Fletchers Corny Dogs and Fried Banana Pudding then riding some ride called "Don't Throw Up", is something left for the "younger" crowd to do.  Yep, we stopped at Walmart on the way home and grabbed some Rolaids and Advil. 

We now have a student-driver as a grandchild, so the Car Show was a must.  It's almost impossible for me to think of Bella driving as I mostly only remember her and cars having a love-hate relationship as she was growing up.  Motion-sickness was not her friend as a child.......TRUST ME.

And it was discovered that, although they lived in Dallas their whole lives, Chuck and his son Troy never went to the Fair together.  So it only took (no comment) years for Father and Son to head to the fair and share a plate of kurd cheese together.

What an awesome vacation we are having so far.  We may not be at the Ark in the middle of a hurricane, but we are somewhere better; with family.  And isn't that what the Ark was all about anyway?  

Family.

Granddaughters

Bella hitching a ride on Grandpa's wheelchair

Granddaughters and their Lele

FAMILY (& Big Tex, of course)

GROWING SEEDS: Pressing Towards Home

 

"Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it on my own; but this one thing I do:

Forgetting what lies behind (me) and straining forward to what lies ahead (for me),

I press on toward the goal (Home) for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:13-14

 

One of my favorite movies ever is The Wizard of Oz.  No matter how many times I watch it, I always cry.  Dorothy's Fear.....her Hope.....her Searching....her Travel on a treacherous road to find her way Home.  It's impossible not to see the parallel with the road we're on....that road to Home.

 

Paul said it best in his words above, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining to see (Heaven), I press on toward the goal".  Like Dorothy, we are all walking this yellow brick road called Life on this earth....following the path as it winds through the hourglass of our lives.  Each turn...each valley....each mountain, we are inching our way towards Home.  Each grain of sand that falls are moments we have completed. 

 

But so often, we let life distract us.  We turn the hourglass upside down and we look back on the road we just traveled and take our eyes off the road ahead.  We return to pick up the pieces that should be left in the past and we carefully place them on our backs, weighing ourselves down as we journey on. 

 

We wonder why this road is so hard and why we feel so weighed down.  We forget we're carrying our past on our backs....and how difficult it is to stay focused on the road ahead when we feel the weight of the road behind us.  It's hard to fight off the evil monkeys of the Wicked Witch of the West when our muscles ache from the weight we have chosen to carry. 

 

And then Glenda arrives.....the good witch....and she longs to take this weight off our backs we've been carrying.  Her constant reminder, "There's No Place Like Home" gives us the Strength and Hope we need that all it takes is a little Faith and a lot of Love for us to be free of the past and proceed on the road ahead.  She is always by our side and watching over us as we journey on.

 

And then we turn the corner and we can see it up ahead.  Home.  We long to be there.....a place where only happiness is allowed...a place where Fear and Evil have no power and Heaven's door is slammed hard in their face. 

 

But there's one more thing the Owner of Heaven wants to make sure of before we are given a key to His Home.  Are we there for Him.....or for those pieces of the past that have gone before us?  The answer to this question lies within you. 

 

When you think of Heaven, what or who is the first thing you long to see?  This, my friends, is the answer to the question.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Ark

October 7, 2017

So......a funny thing happened on our way to the Ark....the Ark Encounter, that is.

It rained. (Don't think for a second I don't see the irony here.....)

We've been planning a trip to Williamsburg, Kentucky for...ohhh.....about 6 months to see the actual replica of the Ark and check out the Fall colors along the way.  This was an anniversary present from my beloved, was suppose to start today and included the promise to "not-give-you-grief-or-whine-every-time-you-stop-the-car-to-take-a-picture, Liz".  SD cards were cleaned and in position....batteries charged and every photo-op between East Texas and Northern Kentucky had been researched and written down.

We are not in Kentucky. 

Twenty-four hours prior to take-off in the minivan, we aborted Kentucky.  We simply couldn't see driving 24 hours round-trip in hopes the doors to the Ark weren't already closed and floating when we got there.  Quick change of plans.....

We considered Grand Canyon.....never been there...always wanted to....36-hour-round-trip drive.  My butt is already wide enough.....

No.

We considered Colorado Springs.....our beautiful niece and her family live there and we haven't yet seen her place.  We love Colorado....and we love Tiffany even more.  But it showed SNOW on Tuesday (plus, we hadn't exactly run this thought past Tiff yet)......so we decided to delay the trip to Colorado for another time.....

Sooooo.....here's the deal.  We decided with an odd tilt-of-the-head....to head home.  Home to Dallas.  We are going to be tourists for the first time ever in our home town.  We are going to do touristy things....taste touristy food....look like tourists.

So we loaded up the minivan yesterday, headed 1-1/2 hours west and landed north of Dallas.  Checked into a hotel, headed over to our son and daughter-in-laws house for a visit and dinner, and for the first time in a gazillion years, we aren't racing in and out of Dallas to have a colonoscopy, cystoscopy, endoscopy, MRI or mammogram.  Nope.  We are going to have some FUN time.  And an added perk is....we won't get lost.

Granddaughter Bella

So, this week will be filled with State Fairs, Arboretum, Granddaughters, Family, Museums, Shopping, maybe a Haunted House or two and.....Resting.  We are downright giddy about this upcoming week!

Want to travel with us??

GROWING SEEDS: Take A Knee

 

"Take A Knee"

 

"Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 
Instead, He gave up His divine privileges;
He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being." 
Philippians 2:5-7

We quit watching football years ago.  Truth be told, I quit watching when Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry.  I haven't quite gotten over that grudge yet.  But even more than my grudge towards Mr. Jones, the issue of kneeling instead of standing in respect of our American flag has infiltrated the walls of our churches....the place we go to kneel before our God....and is causing bitterness and hurt among the people we sit next to each Sunday.  It has infiltrated the Pee-Wee football team down the street, the multi-cultural Sunday School Class and the friendships we thought were rock-solid.

"Are your hearts tender and compassionate?" 
Philippians 2:1b

Did you know that Philippians 2 was believed to have been written because two ladies were having a fight, or at least a strong disagreement, in the church?  We are to use the love God placed within us, be of one mind and quit fighting with each other to gain the upper hand.  Paul tells us to consider the other person BETTER than ourselves, and SERVE him by looking out for his interest:

"Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. 
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 
Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."
Philippians 2:3-4

Personally, I believe we should stand for our National Anthem.  Many of my family and friends sacrificed their lives for me to have the right to stand.  But would I stand in my living room if I were watching the game on TV?  Do I stand when I'm alone and hear the anthem?  Hummmm......

Jesus didn't allow the hostility of the world against Him to JUSTIFY hostility against those who were mistreating Him.  Paul taught that we are to respect each other....have tender hearts and compassion.....regardless of our differences. 

If we would consistently take a knee for the RIGHT reason, there would be no need to take it for any other reason.