GROWING SEEDS; "Ash Daily"

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Ash Wednesday Daily

"ASH DAILY"

Have you ever had this driving desire to tell people about something BIG that happened to you yet when it came time to tell your story, the words just disappeared.....WHOOSH.....vanished.

That's where I'm at tonight.  So forgive me if I stumble around a bit.....

Today is Ash Wednesday.  How many of you know what that means?  I know a fair amount of you do cause I saw you tonight....at church....having the ash from the burned palm branches used in the previous year's Palm Sunday service, placed on your forehead in the shape of the cross......just as I did for the very first time in my life. 

Now, I must admit, I was a little afraid to tell some of you that.....I wasn't raised to celebrate Ash Wednesday.......and I can almost feel you cringing uncomfortably, shifting in your chairs and thinking this was strictly a Catholic tradition.  It's not.  It's a strictly Christian tradition.

I found it ironic that a girl who had never celebrated Ash Wednesday before in her life had been asked to write an article about this event for her Methodist church bulletin last weekend.  I had to recite the time when I was about 20 years old and my co-worker Sandra came in late to work with a smudge on her face.  I called her over to my desk, stood up, spit on a tissue and wiped the smudge right off her forehead.  Two minutes later I heard of Ash Wednesday for the first time....from a not-so-happy co-worker.  And I have to admit, this past week I had to Google what Ash Wednesday even meant.  But as I learned more and more about it's purpose.....it's meaning.....I had to wonder why we never celebrated this in the church I grew up in.  I mean, we believed everything it stood for.

A man by the name of Brusatti said it best when he said "there's something powerful about the cross-shaped mark millions of Christians receive on their foreheads every year on Ash Wednesday.  It's a public sign of one's personal faith, a reminder of one's mortality and a pledge to repent and draw closer to God in preparation for Easter."  But I say it's so much more.   It's humbling yourself to accept God's grace.....a time of repentence.....a time of reflection....and a time of change.  

I believe the name "Ash Daily" is far more appropriate than "Ash Wednesday".  And I believe Easter this year is going to mean so much more because of what I experienced today.

Happy Ash Daily!

GROWING SEEDS: 'Ash Wednesday"

ASH WEDNESDAY

February 13

"And I set my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, 

with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."

Daniel 9:3

When I was 20 years old, I worked as a transcriptionist for an insurance company in Dallas.  One of my dearest friends there was an older lady named Sandra who went to the Methodist Church.  One day Sandra came into work a little late and as she walked past me, I noticed she had a smudge of "something" on her forehead.  I called her over to my desk, stood up, spit on a tissue and wiped the smudge right off her forehead.  That is when I first heard of Ash Wednesday.

And how blessed am I, an ex-Seventh-day Adventist who was never taught about Ash Wednesday, to have been asked to write about this amazing event.  I feel quite sure many of you were like me; having no idea what Ash Wednesday meant.  But what a truly sacred event this is.  According to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before He endured temptation by Satan.  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day period of prayer and fasting.   But why the ashes?  The ashes, which are placed on the forehead in the sign of the cross, represent a sign of mourning and repentance to God.  Ashes, according to the Bible, were used to express mourning, and dusting oneself with ashes was a remorseful way of expressing regret for sins and faults all throughout the Bible.  Many use this day to go without all or some kinds of food or drink known as fasting as well.

So exactly what happens at the Ash Wednesday service?  Pastor Jack will apply ashes in the shape of the cross on the forehead of each person, while speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19) which are the words God spoke to Adam and Eve after they had eaten of the forbidden fruit and fallen into sin.  They remind each of us of our sinfulness and mortality and the need to get right with God before it is too late.  The cross reminds each of us of the good news that through Jesus Christ' crucifixion, there is forgiveness for all sins, all guilt and all punishment.

When we look in the mirror on Ash Wednesday and see the black smudge on our forehead, we should be reminded that, no matter what, we are still sinners in need of constant conversion.  It is to change our lives as we approach the greatest celebration in the Church.  Easter.

So don't wear your ashes proudly, but make sure you wear them.....and wear them humbly.

"You started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt." 

Genesis 3:19 (Message)

GROWING SEEDS: "Congregational Care"

 

 

Have you ever had a member of your family pass away and, as a bystander, watched their church family quietly and tenderly surround the family with hands of love?  Almost as if on cue, instantly a group of people are pulling together a meal prior to the funeral, standing quietly in the background, taking care of everyone's immediate needs.  

This is called Congregational Care. 

 

FUMC has what I would consider, one of the best Congregational Care volunteer groups I've ever experienced.  With a total of four luncheon groups on-call at a moments notice, each of these four groups consists of 8-10 volunteers.  Once the church notifies the Group Chair of a death, they spring into action putting together a beautiful luncheon, complete with china, silver and linens.  All but the main dish, which is paid for by the church, is provided by these same loving volunteers.

Won't you consider volunteering a little of your time to help someone who may be helping YOU during your difficult time?

Contact Marcy Yates at (903) 860-7756 or Linda Moore at (903) 632-5997 for more information.

GROWING SEEDS: "A Blessed Day....Indeed"

January 9, 2013

A Blessed Day

Last Sunday, I was invited to share my short video "Thankful" with a sweet little church called New West Hope Methodist Church in a tiny little community just north of where we live.

"Thankful" by Liz Etheridge

Click to View

It truly is a magnificant place.....As I sat in this humble, sweet little church; the smell of the old natural gas furnace....you know, the kind you can actually see the flames in.....I was magically taken back by the smell to a time when I was a child visiting "Grandma in the Woods" in Alabama and our good friends, the "Johnsons" in Dallas.

There was a little cat that strolled from pew to pew as the sermon was preached and the potluck lunch was already set up at the front of the church, so you had to see and smell it all through the sermon......

There was an amazing mural along the entire back wall of this little 2 room church and wood floors that creaked when you walked on them.

No large screens with words of the songs or scriptures...people actually had to open their hymnals and Bibles....

Truly......a Blessed Day....

Indeed.

My East Texas Home.....This Week.

January 8, 2013

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN EAST TEXAS.....

"His cage may still be turnin’ but his squirrel’s done died"

"That sweet boy’s purtier than my new tangerine metal flake bass boat"

"You boys took one pickup load to the dump an’ come back with two"

"You ain’t lookin’ like the tallest hog at the trough no more"

"Talk you inta sellin’ your mule so you could buy a plow"

I'm sorry guys....I just had to share some of my favorite East Texas quotes and pictures......
And this was just in the past week!!

Skin Cancer Cure = Duct Tape

January 5, 2013

For some reason, my big, smart hunk of a husband thinks putting duct tape on the top of his head will cure the skin cancer growing up there.....

.......So we had no choice but to sign it.......

Crazy Man

Life Is Not An Emergency........

 January 4, 2013


Do you find yourself this time of year, racing through your days, as if life is some type of an emergency or something?  I certainly do.....and I hate that I sometimes forget to downshift my life from 4th to 2nd gear.

 This is our first Christmas without Mom.  Our first snow without her telling me to drive careful on the slick roads and to quit taking pictures while I'm driving....

I think maybe sometimes I purposely keep my engine running in 4th gear to avoid the emotion that comes from thinking about reality.

I miss her.

When we were cleaning out Mom's room shortly after she died, I picked up a little music box with a blue bird on it that she loved.  I can remember her playing it and feeling how appropriate it was for her.  This Christmas, I decided her best friend of a zillion years, Jimmie Lou, needed it.  It would remind her of Mom every time she listened to it.....I'm glad she has it.

This morning, my sister called me and my niece so that we were on a 3-way conversation.  She told us she wanted us to hear something.....and she proceeded to play a song over the phone we had played at Mom's funeral....."From Here To The Moon and Back".......

And I knew she was missing Mom too.

http://youtu.be/qzmLmsokiIE

As I start this new year, I start with no new resolutions that I never keep.  What I do plan on doing, though, is being thankful....TRULY THANKFUL....and changing how my retina looks at the things around me.

I plan on living my life in 3rd gear.....not too fast...not too slow....but just the right speed to see the beauty in everything I pass.....even the things I never saw beauty in before.

Won't you join me?

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 

MY FRIEND

LizBay

LIZBAY

MOVING SALE 

(Not us)

Here's your chance to purchase some Last Minute gifts at FANTASTIC PRICES for those who have everything!!  Our friends, with great taste, are moving into a smaller place and need to sell some of their classic pieces.  Check it out at...

http://www.lizetheridge.com/LizBay.html

They have it all.....from a beautiful KITCHEN ISLAND....

To an ELECTRIC FIREPLACE WITH MANTLE.....

To a CLASSIC POOL TABLE w/ACCESSORIES....

To Two Super Cool SLOT MACHINES w/CABINETS.....

To beautiful GLASS and IRON SIDE TABLE....

Plus MUCH MORE!!!!  For Prices and More Items, check it out at 

http://www.lizetheridge.com/LizBay.html

Silent Night........

December 18, 2012

MERRY "ALMOST" CHRISTMAS!!

I sure hope you're further along with your Christmas shopping than I am....I still have a ways to go and less than a week to do it in.  AGHHH.....

I'm also not one much for sending out Christmas cards and seriously, what could I tell you in a Christmas letter than I haven't already told you in Murphy's Mom Blog??.......So I thought I'd do something slightly different this year.

I did a YouTube Christmas Card!!
(Link below)

Yep, that's right......my non-existent Christmas cards have gone hi-tech and moved into the cheaper, quicker, less hand cramps mode....

I hope you enjoy......it's 4 minutes long but it says everything I'd like to say to you if you were sitting next to me right now as I type this.......with snapshots of our life over this past, often difficult, year.

But I'm thankful.........thankful for each and every trial that was thrown at us this year......thankful that we survived each of them.....actually grew in our faith because of them.......and are better equipped to handle whatever comes next.

Sit back and enjoy the Etheridge Christmas Card......from our hearts to yours. (Simply "Click" on the link below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj4OQVNQ0fE&feature=share&list=UUlzBpeuych3t_TKfemOtHgQ

Nothing Like Fall In East Texas!!!

December 4, 2012

Nothing like Fall in East Texas!!

This was our beautiful Maple tree LAST week.....

And this is our beautiful Maple tree THIS week...

One thing I love about Fall in East Texas is it means another year older for my beautiful Meals on Wheels friend, Jewell, who I've gotten to know over the past 7 years.....The first birthday I remember her having was 99.....and she turned 106 yesterday!  Yep, that's what beautiful East Texas life will do for ya.....give you an amazingly loooonnnngggg life!!  I just love this gal!!

Another East Texas love I have is what I like to call "All-Inclusive-Shack-Stores"; and I mean this in the nicest and kindest way.  These are tucked behind quiet, hidden patches of pine trees.....down bumpy dirt roads with hand-written signs directing your way....and usually reside in a "vintage" trailer.

This particular one is called Handy Farms and is a drive-thru where you can purchase anything from Wine to Worms to Wisteria.....

With one honk, you can meet Melvin......OR......you can take a walk on the wild side and head on into his store where you can get your catawba worms and blackeyed peas from the same freezer....or have a wine tasting of some of his very own homemade watermelon wine....or maybe you need some ant killer, ice cream or french truffels.  They got it all at Handy Farms...

And don't forget to pick up your pansies and wisteria before you leave!!

This is the reason we moved to East Texas....for the beautiful Fall weather, long life and a having a little watermelon wine while fishing with your catawba worms on the dock.

            ..................LIFE IS GOOD....................