Watching A Sunset Makes You Long For Home.....With God

 November 27, 2024

LizSekerke

About 15 years ago, Chuck and I were traveling through Thermopolis, Wyoming on our motorcycle when we looked up and saw the sun setting just behind this church steeple.

This picture has always reminded me of something my friend, the late Sandee Casey, once shared with me:

"My mom used to tell me that watching a sunset will make you cry because in the perfection that God displays, you long for home with God. Perfection is the evidence that God exists and your soul yearns for that."

When we not only give thanks for the gifts in our own lives....but we desire.....yes DESIRE... to become that gift in other people's lives, just as Sandee so easily was in mine, well....that's when Thanksgiving becomes Thanks-Living. When we are able to tweak the focus of the lens on our own tired eyes onto someone other than ourselves...well, then you have arrived at Thanksgiving. Everything that truly matters in living......comes down to giving.

Thanksgiving....is more than a holiday, friends....it's meant to be ALL our days.

Rest In Peace, my sweet Sandee, and thanks for reminding me to Live Thanks.

Tuesdays With Pappo

 November 18, 2024

TUESDAYS WITH PAPPO

LizSekerke

#tuesdayswithpappo

DAD: “Softie, can you teach me how to remember names. There just has to be a good way to do this. Check on that for me, would you.....and get back to me on it.”

Liz: “Pappo...I can’t even remember to remind myself to check on how to remember. You're on your own on this one."

Nothing Is Hopeless

November 19, 2024

"A rattlesnake bit one of my sheep in the face about a week ago. Deadliest snake that lives around here. The sheep's face swelled up and hurt her terribly.

But the old rattlesnake didn't know the kind of blood that flows through the sheep. Anti-venom is most often made from sheep's blood. The sheep swelled for about 2 days but the blood of the lamo destroyed the venom of the serpent.

I was worried but the sheep didn't care. She kept on eating, kept on drinking and kept on climbing because she knew she was alright.

Often the serpents of this life will reach out and bite us. They inject their poison into us but they cannot overcome the Blood of the Lamb of God that washes away the sin of the world and the sting of death. Don't worry about the serpent or his bite, just make sure that the Lamb's Blood is flowing through your veins."

Kelly Kupiec

When life takes you on a journey down a road you never planned or agreed to walk down, this is a good reminder that nothing is hopeless....and that you are going to be just fine.....if you carry the antidote of HOPE in your bloodstream......the Blood of Jesus.

Liz

Be Thankful

 November 13, 2024

Be Thankful

LizSekerke

Twelve years ago, I sat in a church classroom with 10 other women for four Tuesdays in November. It had been a particularly difficult year....a lot of death....a lot of pain....and together, we explored how to be "Thankful" in our circumstances through a book titled, "One Thousand Gifts".

I had just finished studying the book of James.....and who can't think of the book of James without thinking about his first chapter, second verse:

"Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials."

Nothing like getting straight to this bizarre point, James. But that's where we are....right now....giving thanks in our circumstances. It's impossible to talk about giving thanks without talking about the pain. We would find no purpose in giving thanks if not for the thousands of gut-wrenching trials we face each day......

"You defeat your dark when Thanksgiving is your default.

It is in the dark that God is passing by." *

What I discovered those four weeks in November was that by breaking down the tunnel-vision walls of our pain and broken hearts.....and choosing instead to count, WRITE DOWN, search throughout each day for all the blessings God has hidden just for you to find....we begin living the full experience of these blessings.....and our lives start changing.

So go on a Scavenger Hunt today and find those nuggets of blessings God has placed in your day ahead! They're there; you just have to open your eyes and see them!

When we receive a life with thanksgiving and ask for nothing to change......"Life Change" begins.

 November 5, 2024

LIZ PRAYER JOURNAL - November 5, 2018

6:00 am

Father God, I checked to make sure Chuck was still breathing before coming in to journal to You. Lightly. Not gasping as he has so often been lately. Father, I don't know what lies ahead...I truly don't....but I know Your plan is mightier than mine....and I know You placed me here at this very time for this very moment.

10:36 pm.

Right after writing the words above to You, I went to wake Chuck up. He was gone. He was Healed. It was 6:30 am. A wheelchair will never be a part of his life ever again. You handed this man I married a Gift....a beautiful Gift of Mercy today...Please walk me through the next few weeks when I can't see through the tears of my selfish grief.

Your Grateful but Sad Daughter

Liz

2024

As I write this, it was 6 years ago almost to this minute God called him Home ...yet Chuck's presence is still felt here next to me.

We see evidence of him from the first step through our front door where we see his tanned-smiling-face standing proudly on his "Keepin' It Cool" boat in a frame next to Wayne's late wife, Cyndi's. His leather hat hangs boldly on the wall of the most used room in the house....the 1/2 bath. His Luxury Edition Monopoly game he just "had" to have many years ago that the granddaughters (and their boyfriends) still play on when they're in town, sits smack dab in the middle of the dining room table, and His beloved tools still hang proudly in the garage.

Chuck is very present in our home.

Today, as we visit him and Cyndi at their final resting place at the National Cemetary....both sharing the same death date.....we will pull out Cyndi's lawn chairs, laugh and remember....as we toast them throughout the day by eating breakfast at Chuck's favorite IHOP ...then stopping at Cyndi's favorite, Torchey's, grabbing her beloved Hillbilly Queso and heading to Chuck's son, Troy's house tonight for some delicious smoked ribs....made on Chuck's old smoker.

They may not be physically with us today....but thank God....they are very much ALIVE!

"It is right for us to weep, but there is no need for us to despair. Chuck and Cyndi had pain here. They have no pain there. They struggled here. They have no struggles there.

You and I might wonder why God took them home. But they don't. They understand. They are, at this very moment, at peace in the presence of God."

Tuesdays With Pappo: No Tipping Please.....

 Tuesdays With Pappo

November 9, 2024

This man.....Pappo....a man who enjoys giving to others.....celebrating people who do a good job....who leaves little notes of "Thanks" on napkins at restaurants and "Tips" at his Independent Living Center Dining Room, was feeling a little down this week when I arrived.

This notice was staring back at him when he sat down to eat today....No Tipping.

He knew it was meant for him.....as he's the only one he knew of that tipped the staff.

A disappointing day for my Pappo.....

#tuesdayswithpappo