Tuesdays With Pappo: "And Debbie!!"

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 Tuesdays With Pappo…..and Debbie….& Wayne!!! Absolutely LOVE my necklace from my Sissie! Oh the LOVE was flowing today!

Tuesdays With Pappo: "On Thursday"

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Tuesdays With Pappo…..on Thursday.

HOPE (Revised from 6/2017)

 

HOPE

lizetheridge

This next week marks the beginning of Chapter 61 in the Life of Liz.

And there's just something about being another year older that causes you to reflect back on Chapters 56 or 40 or 20 in your life. Don't get me wrong....I'm looking forward as much as I'm reflecting backwards, but when you look back on spent chapters in your life, you are able to see with clarity....20-20 vision....the pouring out of Grace into your very soul. You remember the Sufferings.....but you also see the ripples from your Endurance muscles increasing because of the suffering.

"Suffering Produces Endurance....." (Romans 5:3)

And because your endurance muscles are more toned and strong now, your character starts changing. You start caring more for others than you do for yourself. Your heart starts breaking for the things that breaks God's heart. Those fancy clothes or expensive vacations you once treated yourself to for years, well.....they become less important as your character changes. Your focus changes to those who are suffering, just as you once did, and you long to help them....instead of yourself. You start to take on the character of God.....

"Endurance Produces Character....." (Romans 5:4)

And suddenly, you get to Chapter 61 or 75 or 90, and you find this chapter is full of Hope. Hope....because God's love has poured continuously into your heart through the Suffering....through the Endurance....and now through the gift of Hope of the Holy Spirit. You see the common thread of God's finger in your life that has gotten you to where you are.

"Character Produces Hope....." (Romans 5:4)

And this crazy wonderful wild Hope......well, it's the very Heart of Jesus.

 

That Face

THAT FACE.....

It’s been a part of my life for the past 18-1/2 years. And just when I thought I would never be able to be a grandmother, I was adopted by Isabella Grace and became Lele.

Infertility kept me from having children of my own, but it was just like God to offer me a better plan by gifting me with a granddaughter named Bella.

And today....a day she has been waiting for most of her life, she will walk across that stage....standing tall, head held high and confidence tucked tightly and securely in her back pocket....and hold that piece of parchment that represents a mountain of hard work. In my opinion, that hard work was worthy of far more than a piece of paper.

My granddaughter is headed to Grand Canyon University in the Fall.....a place that defines the person that she is. It’s the perfect place for a girl who LOVES God more than anything or anyone....because its a university that VALUES God more than anything or anyone, unlike many of the universities in our country. It’s a perfect partner for her future.

And as we, her family and friends, sit in the stands of her Allen High School Eagle Stadium, the largest High School football stadium in the World that serves only one high school, will be cheering this amazing “woman” on as she turns the page in the Book of Bella. And we will be packing up our hearts to move a chunk of it to Grand Canyon University with her,

Blessed am I.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Scratched Up Road To Salvation

 

I feel like an old friend has just returned home to me after having plastic surgery. Outwardly, they look different....but inwardly, they're the same. 

 

My Bible, the very Bible that helped me find my way to having a relationship with God just a few years ago, went to the book surgeon to be rebound in January after, among many other things, the entire Creation book of Genesis fell out and was discovered tucked behind the end-of-the-world book of Revelation after much use.

Awww...so good to have my old friend back home with me again.

 

Finish Line To Multiple Sclerosis

 

https://www.facebook.com/donate/778932829396804/

 

AS WE NEAR THE FINISH LINE for collecting donations for the Multiple Sclerosis Round Up Bike Ride 2021 this Saturday to beat MS, I thought I would share one more story about Chuck you may not have known about him.

He lived with Multiple Sclerosis for a little over 30 years. One minute he was cutting wood, the next he was on the ground and couldn't walk. Just like that. Welcome to the World of Multiple Sclerosis.

During those 30 years, he lost his eyesight for a short time only to have it come back after a week. He couldn't feel his feet at all, so when he was able to walk, his eyes were always on his feet confirming they were where they were suppose to be. This ultimately caused him to run into a steel exterior stairwell and break his neck in 2000 as he was verifying where his feet were.

He lost many of his teeth due to years of steroids which also damaged his heart; and he took steroids knowing this would most likely cause problems elsewhere. But his philosophy on life till the day he died was "Quality over Quantity".

All of these things might have slowed him down a bit, but it never stopped him. Never.

He rode shotgun all over this great country of ours on the back of a Honda Goldwing Trike after teaching his wife (me) how to drive one so he could feel the wind in his face once again just as he had in the days prior to Multiple Sclerosis. Not many men would have been man enough to do that. But Chuck did.

Why? Because he wanted to live while he was living.

Won't you consider sponsoring our team PRESS ON to help in the defeat of Multiple Sclerosis? It's tax deductible and who knows, maybe YOUR donation will be the donation that finds the cure!! Thanks! Liz Calloway Etheridge

Monday-Thru-Friday-Mom

 

Monday Thru Friday Mom

Lizetheridge

 

My Mom used to always say....”We need to hear a Monday thru Friday sermon” whenever she would hear a preacher preach another sermon on Moses....or Joseph.....or Noah. She wanted to be taught how to Biblically make it through a week of 3-bratty-kids-and-9-hour-work-days-in-a-hot-warehouse-to-make-ends-meet and still be thankful on Friday.

 

We used to chuckle when she’d say that but, we all knew what she meant. Life is hard....lonely....frustrating and messy. If only the weekend sermon could teach us how Jesus would have chosen to handle 3 bratty kids. Ya....I was the youngest of those three bratty kids and probably....NO....most assuredly, I was the brattiest of them all. 

 

Mom was the fireman of our family....constantly putting out fires of fighting children, a tired husband, keeping an 800 square foot house for a family of five spotlessly clean and cooking 3 meals when cooking wasn’t her “blessing”.

She put herself last and her family first. Always first.

 

“Motherhood is the exquisite inconvenience of being another person’s everything.”

 

After she passed away, I discovered I had ended up with her perfume. “Youth Dew” by Estee Lauder. I also discovered that by simply opening the perfume lid, I could instantly feel Mom’s presence in the room next to me. It was like she was standing right next to me. Tears would fall with the reality that it was all a mirage each time I would open that bottle. 

 

“A mother’s sense lasts long after she lets go.”

 

But Mom knew that by putting her own wants and needs aside and providing wisdom, kindness and praying thousands of prayers over her children for those Monday through Friday trials, she could successfully make it to the weekend.

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." Proverbs 31:26

 

Mom wasn’t perfect; but to me...she was everything I ever hoped to become.

 

Happy Mother’s Day.

World Free of MS Ahead.....

 

 

 I will never forget the day while, in the examining room of yet another doctor appointment, I read Chuck this quote from Charles Spurgeon,

“By perseverance, the snail reached the ark.”

I asked him what he thought Mr. Spurgeon meant. I will never forget his response as he answered in his slow, southern drawl as he lay on the examining table waiting on yet another doctor:

"No matter how he (snail) is feeling or how slow he's moving, he was constantly moving towards the Ark.  Imagine how he must have felt as the antelope ran by....and he was left in the dust.
But he kept on pressing on..... The way we all must do..... No-Matter-What."

See, Chuck saw himself as the snail. I remember leaning down and kissing him at that moment. His words were a reminder to me of all he had been through in the 30 years of living with Multiple Sclerosis. Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of doctor appointments he went to in hopes of finding a cure. The swollen feet, the canes, walkers and eventual wheelchairs that were as much a part of his life as his right arm. Yet I rarely heard this man complain. Rarely. When asked if he ever wondered “Why me?”.....his continual answer was, “Why NOT me?”

Chuck Etheridge lived the very best life he could with what he was given. And he never gave up hope for a cure in his lifetime. He maintained that hope till he breathed his last breath on November 5, 2018.

Unfortunately, a cure was not found during his lifetime, but we have the power to change that for someone else.....someone else who may be your husband, wife, daughter, son or grandchild facing MS one day.

For that reason, we will be riding in the MS Bike “Ride Of A Lifetime” in Chuck’s name under our Group Name, "Press On" this May 15, 2021 for the cure Chuck never gave up on. If you knew him, you’d know he would be so incredibly proud that you helped someone not have to live a life of disability as he once did.

Won’t you help by donating in Chuck Etheridge’s name to the Multiple Sclerosis Ride Of A Lifetime?  We are hoping to raise $2,018....an amount to honor the year he won the battle with MS.  Your donation is tax-deductible and will help Chuck’s journey with MS not be lived in vain.

We thank you for your love and consideration of being a part of the Cure.

The Story of Chuck


https://youtu.be/KdY2kWQ7q_0

https://mssociety.donordrive.com/participant/Liz-Etheridge

Meet Me In The Middle Of Your Story

“I once read that if a person has a part of their liver removed, it will grow back..regenerate itself.

I also know from personal experience that after a person loses their spouse, a portion of their heart gets buried in the casket or urn with them.  But much like the liver, the widow(er)'s heart can also grow back....regenerate itself.  It doesn't do it overnight....and it is often a painful regeneration growing process.

But given time, the heart WILL mend itself.

A few months ago, I met a widower who lost his cherished wife a few years ago.  A portion of his heart had also been buried in that urn with hers much like mine had been with Chuck's.  We shared the mutual experience of care-giving, watching someone you love fade and then the eventual death of a spouse.  It's a road no one can speak of or understand unless they've walked it.

And in our conversations on death, we discovered something interesting:   

 Our spouses died on the same day, same year, 4 hours apart.

Enter a quiet "Pause" in the conversation.

We became friends, talking regularly, sharing our hearts that were still in the regeneration process of healing.  We discovered that God was the most important thing in each of our lives.....and He had put both of us on the road to healing at the exact same moment.

And we discovered we were put on this road next to each other for a reason.

My time with Wayne has helped my heart heal and grow once again and I believe his has too.  We are now dating and taking our time to see where this might lead.  It's an interesting journey we are on....how our paths crossed....how our two hearts are now regenerating together....and how the parts of our hearts still in the urns with our spouses are still beating as strong for them as ever.  That will never die.  But the one thing we both know is that God smiled down on us, gave a wink, and is walking next to us as we journey on down this beautiful road of unknowns.  We are meeting in the middle of our stories....when our souls are worn....but wise.

Happy Birthday Wayne......you are so loved.”

Brokenness & Backpacks

 

I once had a dear friend who always sat on the front row, right-side-aisle most every Sunday at our church. She always sat alone and, its pure speculation on my part, but I think she sat on that front row to avoid the distractions that come from sitting anywhere else (plus, it put her close to the side door where she could make a quick exit when church was over).

It's been a few years now since Diane gave me this cross made out of rusty metal.....old nails really.....that has hung on the side of my hutch in the dining room. The day she handed it to me, she was smiling big. She was so proud to give it to me....thought I needed it.....and rushed it over to my house, complete with pretty paper in a bag and ribbon surrounding it. We had just finished a home study on Eucharisteo.....the act of giving Thanks.....thanks for everything.....even the massively broken things in our lives.....and Diane had a lot of broken things in her life.

She passed away a few summers later.....unexpectedly.....and silently. I pray she knew Jesus was climbing that broken mountain with her and that He carried a backpack with her name on it to put all the broken pieces from her life into.

I wish I had been a better friend and helped her transfer those broken pieces from Her back to His.

I wish......

But my wish for you, my friend, is to know the whole purpose of the empty cross is so you no longer have to carry the sharp, cutting broken pieces of your life anymore. If you just call out to Him...."Come quick, Lord, I need You"....He'll carry the burden & weight of your broken pieces in that specially made & personalized backpack with your name on it.

Because He loves you.