{This looks like a Bluedorn picture, but unfortunately I saved it to my photos without the name. However, I have three of her books, and this beautiful art looks like her work]
Monday, November 2, 2015
Great Advice!
"Times of discouragement, suffering, and opposition will come to every Christian, so it's worth preparing ourselves for situations like these, before we are in the thick of it. Here are some things that can help a Christian to stand firm in times of trouble: developing a routine of personal Bible-reading and prayer that can keep you going when facing difficulties; memorizing key passages of Scripture that you can bring to mind at moments of stress or crisis; developing friendships with mature Christians who will pray for you and look out for you; reading about Christians who have suffered and being inspired by their perseverance and achievements...Why not choose one of these practical steps and start putting it into action?" ~Mary Davis "Women of Faith from the Old Testament"
Monday, April 20, 2015
They Called Him Uncle Tommy, but His Name Was Harry
Yesterday was the celebration of my Uncle Tommy's life. He had been a victim of that insidious disease Alzheimer's. My Uncle Paul who conducted the ceremony described him as a sweet older brother which I found so interesting. So many times in families you hear how the oldest was mean, bossy, demanding, etc. Maybe my ears tuned in to those comments because I'm an oldest and know I could definitely be some of those things. He said they had their scuffles, but never once did his older brother punch or hit him. He was a sweet brother who would turn away from conflict except when it came to war. He was still in high school when the Korean War began. My grandfather had to sign he could go because he was only 17. But he felt the need to join the battle. It was so interesting to me that my Uncle Paul described the reasons many joined the wars of their generation was not only strong love for their country, but their strong faith in the Lord. That's a thought I am going to have to chew on. Don't get me wrong I believe it. I've read books on Stonewall Jackson and his letters to his wife during the civil war which were full of scripture and love of the Lord but, I guess too many movies and stories have made it all about American Patriotism alone, and not their faith.
He led the way for his brothers whether it was football, his love for country joining the military, or his faith. You see all 3 of my uncles and my father were military men at some point. Uncle Tommy later became an accountant, but my father, Uncle Billy and Uncle Paul (chaplain) were all military men and being the eldest son he was the first.
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I love, love, love hearing the stories of a person's life. My Uncle Paul was actually married before my Uncle Tommy and when he asked Uncle Tommy to come to his wedding he said he didn't want to witness a murder. Of course, he came and supposedly sat in the back row. My uncle Paul laughed and said if you knew him, it wasn't a mean comment but his humor. Soon after Aunt Marilyn (Uncle Paul's wife and I believe Aunt Sue's cousin) got a call from Aunt Sue that Uncle Tommy had called and asked if she would date him. Of course, she did and as they say "the rest is history." My Uncle Paul did say he couldn't come home for the wedding, but wished he could have been their for "the murder".
Uncle Paul contributes he and his siblings strong faith to their mother and father. Grandma Williams was the godliest woman they all knew even today. She was a mighty prayer warrior. His father, Grandpa Harry Williams, was a baseball man for the beginning of the children's growing up years. I remember seeing newspaper clippings at my Aunt Sara's house of him from his baseball career. His mother, my Grandma Williams, would faithfully take all the children to church on Sunday. There were six of them and my daddy was the youngest. While they were at church, my grandfather was at baseball. When he could no longer play, he coached or umpired. Then he was captured by the Lord and saved. What a wonderful memory for his family. He then played an active role spiritually in the lives of his children. Uncle Tommy had a godly heritage.
My Aunt Edna and cousin Leslie both talked about a story when he was young and outran a bull. They (Edna and Tommy) were supposed to be home by three and cut through a cow pasture. But in that pasture there was a bull and then a run to get out of the pasture. Aunt Edna made it in time to get out of the gate but Uncle Tommy had to jump through the barbed wire and made it without one scratch!. .
After his service to his country, he went back to finish school. He was 23 years old and went back to high school. What courage and dedication that was to obtaining an education. He saw that Uncle Paul was going to college afterwards and thought if his brother could do it so could he. So he worked nights for the power company (I think) and went to school during the day to get his degree.
My earliest memories of Uncle Tommy and Aunt Sue were from when we came home from Germany. I was ten years old. After apartment living on 17 Frieburger Strasse in Heidelburg Germany, my siblings and I thought they had the biggest house ever with a huge back yard. We laugh now about how we returned as adults and it was a nice sized, beautiful home, but not the mansion of our memories. We loved being there. There home was full of laughter and love. Not only did Uncle Tommy and Aunt Sue surround us with their love, it was hard to believe their teenage children (our cousins) would give us so much attention. I mean we knew they were in high school and were football players and a majorette and we were only 10, 7, and 4. We loved any time we got the chance to visit.
My last visit at their home my sister Sandi and I were at a home school conference in Tennessee and we wanted to stop by on our way home. My sweet aunt Sue was already in the early stages of battling Parkinson's disease and although she had always been an excellent cook, it was too difficult now. We went to KFC where they refused to let us pay for our lunch. They were the type of family that was truly excited to spend time with you and you always left them full of joy. I believe I saw them at my Uncle Wally's funeral, but that was my chemo year and my memories are very blurry. Chemo brain is real. That's another thing that I never doubted. When I was battling cancer, I knew they were praying for me.
So why did they call him Uncle Tommy when his name was Harry? I hope my cousins at some point tell me their version of this story. When I was looking at the pictures before the service, my brother asked the same thing when we saw his name plate on the table that said Harry Carroll Williams. Carroll was my grandmother's maiden name. She was a descendent from Charles Carroll of Carrolton who signed the Declaration of Independence. Harry was my grandfather's name as well. So where did Tommy come from. My father said a girl he dated didn't like calling him Harry so she called him Tommy. My Uncle Billy said he thought that's what their grandfather called him and it stuck. My Uncle Paul said that a neighbor friend held him up as a baby and said he should be named Tommy and it stuck. Whatever the reason, he was always Uncle Tommy to me, my brother and sister.
As my cousin Greg told me before the service, he is out of pain, home with the Lord and it's a good thing. That's the wonderful thing about knowing your family knows Jesus personally. You can rejoice that they are in a better place where there is no more horrible diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or cancer. They will reunite with their family that has gone before, and more importantly spend eternity in the presence of our Lord. Although we may shed tears for our loss of a great man, we rejoice that we will one day see him again and we rejoice that he is absent from the body and present with our Lord.
Please continue to pray for his family and especially my Aunt Sue. That stinking Parkinson's is kicking her behind. I LOVED seeing the sweet attentiveness from her daughters-in-love. The love of her children and their wives did my heart good. She is still one of the sweetest people I know. I would love for you to pray that her last days may still be her best days, that a cure for this disease is found, that she will be strengthened by the Lord during this sad time, and that she would be continually surrounded by the love of family and her God.
He led the way for his brothers whether it was football, his love for country joining the military, or his faith. You see all 3 of my uncles and my father were military men at some point. Uncle Tommy later became an accountant, but my father, Uncle Billy and Uncle Paul (chaplain) were all military men and being the eldest son he was the first.
.
I love, love, love hearing the stories of a person's life. My Uncle Paul was actually married before my Uncle Tommy and when he asked Uncle Tommy to come to his wedding he said he didn't want to witness a murder. Of course, he came and supposedly sat in the back row. My uncle Paul laughed and said if you knew him, it wasn't a mean comment but his humor. Soon after Aunt Marilyn (Uncle Paul's wife and I believe Aunt Sue's cousin) got a call from Aunt Sue that Uncle Tommy had called and asked if she would date him. Of course, she did and as they say "the rest is history." My Uncle Paul did say he couldn't come home for the wedding, but wished he could have been their for "the murder".
Uncle Paul contributes he and his siblings strong faith to their mother and father. Grandma Williams was the godliest woman they all knew even today. She was a mighty prayer warrior. His father, Grandpa Harry Williams, was a baseball man for the beginning of the children's growing up years. I remember seeing newspaper clippings at my Aunt Sara's house of him from his baseball career. His mother, my Grandma Williams, would faithfully take all the children to church on Sunday. There were six of them and my daddy was the youngest. While they were at church, my grandfather was at baseball. When he could no longer play, he coached or umpired. Then he was captured by the Lord and saved. What a wonderful memory for his family. He then played an active role spiritually in the lives of his children. Uncle Tommy had a godly heritage.
My Aunt Edna and cousin Leslie both talked about a story when he was young and outran a bull. They (Edna and Tommy) were supposed to be home by three and cut through a cow pasture. But in that pasture there was a bull and then a run to get out of the pasture. Aunt Edna made it in time to get out of the gate but Uncle Tommy had to jump through the barbed wire and made it without one scratch!. .
After his service to his country, he went back to finish school. He was 23 years old and went back to high school. What courage and dedication that was to obtaining an education. He saw that Uncle Paul was going to college afterwards and thought if his brother could do it so could he. So he worked nights for the power company (I think) and went to school during the day to get his degree.
My earliest memories of Uncle Tommy and Aunt Sue were from when we came home from Germany. I was ten years old. After apartment living on 17 Frieburger Strasse in Heidelburg Germany, my siblings and I thought they had the biggest house ever with a huge back yard. We laugh now about how we returned as adults and it was a nice sized, beautiful home, but not the mansion of our memories. We loved being there. There home was full of laughter and love. Not only did Uncle Tommy and Aunt Sue surround us with their love, it was hard to believe their teenage children (our cousins) would give us so much attention. I mean we knew they were in high school and were football players and a majorette and we were only 10, 7, and 4. We loved any time we got the chance to visit.
My last visit at their home my sister Sandi and I were at a home school conference in Tennessee and we wanted to stop by on our way home. My sweet aunt Sue was already in the early stages of battling Parkinson's disease and although she had always been an excellent cook, it was too difficult now. We went to KFC where they refused to let us pay for our lunch. They were the type of family that was truly excited to spend time with you and you always left them full of joy. I believe I saw them at my Uncle Wally's funeral, but that was my chemo year and my memories are very blurry. Chemo brain is real. That's another thing that I never doubted. When I was battling cancer, I knew they were praying for me.
So why did they call him Uncle Tommy when his name was Harry? I hope my cousins at some point tell me their version of this story. When I was looking at the pictures before the service, my brother asked the same thing when we saw his name plate on the table that said Harry Carroll Williams. Carroll was my grandmother's maiden name. She was a descendent from Charles Carroll of Carrolton who signed the Declaration of Independence. Harry was my grandfather's name as well. So where did Tommy come from. My father said a girl he dated didn't like calling him Harry so she called him Tommy. My Uncle Billy said he thought that's what their grandfather called him and it stuck. My Uncle Paul said that a neighbor friend held him up as a baby and said he should be named Tommy and it stuck. Whatever the reason, he was always Uncle Tommy to me, my brother and sister.
Please continue to pray for his family and especially my Aunt Sue. That stinking Parkinson's is kicking her behind. I LOVED seeing the sweet attentiveness from her daughters-in-love. The love of her children and their wives did my heart good. She is still one of the sweetest people I know. I would love for you to pray that her last days may still be her best days, that a cure for this disease is found, that she will be strengthened by the Lord during this sad time, and that she would be continually surrounded by the love of family and her God.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
BORED OF THE GOSPEL
It's been a while since I've written, but this subject has been in my heart for a while. I wrote it two nights ago and wasn't sure whether to put it on the blog or if it was just for me and the Lord. Then when my teens got out of youth last night, I asked (like I do every Wednesday night) the following question: what did you guys talk about? They told me boredom like when you get bored reading the Bible. I about jumped out of my seat and told them I couldn't wait to show them what I had written the night before. So here's my story.
It was my turn to be a help in children's church. The leaders were presenting the Gospel message and I caught myself rehashing the Gospel message a little ahead of them in my head with a blah, blah, blah attitude as if to say "okay, I got it, move on!" Then I came to myself. My heart hurt when I realized I had become bored of the Gospel.
You may think that I live in the South and have heard it all my life so it's not surprising. I have lived here most of my life, but was Catholic most of my growing up years. However, went to Windy Gap camp one summer and accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. But, when I got back home, although I was excited and believed, I pretty much went the same way in life except my conscience guided me or convicted me for a few years before I knew how to walk out my faith. Then as a young mom, I came to the end of myself, and in my 1984 Mazda truck in the work parking lot on my lunch hour listening to "Focus on the Family" I surrendered my all to the Lord and wanted more. I wanted to grow in my faith. Those first years following that moment were exciting years. I was studying God's Word, continually being amazed at His Grace towards me, soaking in sermons from the pulpit, and joy was overflowing from my heart. Although I still had many struggles, they seemed such light afflictions compared to what Christ was doing in me. He was with me, and I knew it.
Now I am older, and I see many older Christians becoming cynical towards the church. In fact, statistics show a larger portion of the population that call themselves Christians no longer feel they need to be a part of a church. And I get being disappointed in the church, because we are just people in the Church. People are messy. We get it wrong and we fail a lot. But the Scriptures are clear.
Because Christ loves the Church, and I want to not give up meeting together, I will continue to go to Church to be challenged, to have opportunities to learn, and to encourage one another towards love and good deeds as I look towards the return of Jesus. I wonder if the walking away from the fellowship of other Christians is not only from hurts, but getting bored of the Gospel.
Although I was guarding myself from becoming a negative, cynical person, I didn't see the boredom creeping up in my life. Scarier thought for me was if I'm bored of the Gospel, why should my children and grandchildren be excited about the Good News?
Fortunately for the Grace of the Lord that convicts us, it grieved me that I would get bored over the greatest gift of all. It grieved me that this news wasn't being treasured in my heart. Most of all, it grieved me how it would grieve my Savior that I would yawn at the news of His sacrifice.
What was the cure for my boredom? Although I don't want to be like Lot's wife and look back because I think I'm missing something. I do want to look back and remember the joy of my salvation. I wanted to remember, really remember, who I was before Jesus saved me. I want to remember the guilt I felt for my many sins, and the freedom I felt when Christ flooded my heart with His Spirit. I want to recall the excitement of the Gospel. Secondly, I purposed to stop myself the moment I feel that ho-hum yawn towards the things of God and pray for the Lord to light the fire in my heart again, and flood my soul anew with the joy of my salvation. Lastly, I pray the Lord will not allow me to become a comfortable, cynical, complacent Christian, and that He will remind me daily of the Gift that He is. Because, if we really embrace the Truth of the Gospel, we will never be bored, but should be the happiest people of all!!
It was my turn to be a help in children's church. The leaders were presenting the Gospel message and I caught myself rehashing the Gospel message a little ahead of them in my head with a blah, blah, blah attitude as if to say "okay, I got it, move on!" Then I came to myself. My heart hurt when I realized I had become bored of the Gospel.
You may think that I live in the South and have heard it all my life so it's not surprising. I have lived here most of my life, but was Catholic most of my growing up years. However, went to Windy Gap camp one summer and accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. But, when I got back home, although I was excited and believed, I pretty much went the same way in life except my conscience guided me or convicted me for a few years before I knew how to walk out my faith. Then as a young mom, I came to the end of myself, and in my 1984 Mazda truck in the work parking lot on my lunch hour listening to "Focus on the Family" I surrendered my all to the Lord and wanted more. I wanted to grow in my faith. Those first years following that moment were exciting years. I was studying God's Word, continually being amazed at His Grace towards me, soaking in sermons from the pulpit, and joy was overflowing from my heart. Although I still had many struggles, they seemed such light afflictions compared to what Christ was doing in me. He was with me, and I knew it.
Now I am older, and I see many older Christians becoming cynical towards the church. In fact, statistics show a larger portion of the population that call themselves Christians no longer feel they need to be a part of a church. And I get being disappointed in the church, because we are just people in the Church. People are messy. We get it wrong and we fail a lot. But the Scriptures are clear.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her, Eph 5:25
Hebrews 10:24-25 says 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another
on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together,
as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—
and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Because Christ loves the Church, and I want to not give up meeting together, I will continue to go to Church to be challenged, to have opportunities to learn, and to encourage one another towards love and good deeds as I look towards the return of Jesus. I wonder if the walking away from the fellowship of other Christians is not only from hurts, but getting bored of the Gospel.
Although I was guarding myself from becoming a negative, cynical person, I didn't see the boredom creeping up in my life. Scarier thought for me was if I'm bored of the Gospel, why should my children and grandchildren be excited about the Good News?
Fortunately for the Grace of the Lord that convicts us, it grieved me that I would get bored over the greatest gift of all. It grieved me that this news wasn't being treasured in my heart. Most of all, it grieved me how it would grieve my Savior that I would yawn at the news of His sacrifice.
What was the cure for my boredom? Although I don't want to be like Lot's wife and look back because I think I'm missing something. I do want to look back and remember the joy of my salvation. I wanted to remember, really remember, who I was before Jesus saved me. I want to remember the guilt I felt for my many sins, and the freedom I felt when Christ flooded my heart with His Spirit. I want to recall the excitement of the Gospel. Secondly, I purposed to stop myself the moment I feel that ho-hum yawn towards the things of God and pray for the Lord to light the fire in my heart again, and flood my soul anew with the joy of my salvation. Lastly, I pray the Lord will not allow me to become a comfortable, cynical, complacent Christian, and that He will remind me daily of the Gift that He is. Because, if we really embrace the Truth of the Gospel, we will never be bored, but should be the happiest people of all!!
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