"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Laughter

I've had two complete days of laughter. It's been marvelous, but WOW my face hurts. I realized I must not exercise those muscles enough. I need more laughter. Isn't it in Proverbs the Bible says a merry heart does us good? I plan to remember to laugh each day!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Don't know why I was thinking about these things...

Little memories starting popping up this evening...memories of my children..

Chris was so impressed with the garbage man... he aspired to be one when he grew up. I guess he is in a way...he works in law enforcement.
He loved to take apart everything in the house. I'd find radios with pieces strewn all over. He was always so curious about how things worked. I read today that he will be moving the plugs in his house to different locations? Because he can! He loved Captain Kangaroo, I ordered the free "picture pages" from the show, and he painstakingly worked on them with the characters. (The clock--what was his name???... Mr. Green Jeans, Dancing Bear)
His favorite foods at two years old were chocolate milk and french fries. Who wouldn't love them? I think he probably thinks I shouldn't have given him so much of them now...having to work hard to lost that baby fat!

Geoff was innovative on his own account. Just doing things in ways that confounded me some times. I often wondered why the underarms of his shirts were always so dirty...I mean there were clots of...stuff in the arm pits of all his shirts. He found out that if he wiped his fork clean between his underarm and chest, it would be ready for the next course at each meal time.
His first time at mowing the lawn was a source of great frustration to me...I do wish I could have been more open-minded than I was, because I would have probably had an accomplished artist on my hands. He mowed a little here, then would cross the yard and mow over there, then move over there and mow a patch or two... it took us hours to get all the little patches out of the yard.
Geoff wanted to be a super-hero when he grew up. I guess he is in a way...he rescues people who are hurting ... he feels their pain.
He still has very unusual thought processes, but now I appreciate them, because my patience level is very high.

We were driving down a highway and she saw men, dwarfed by the huge billboard they were working on. "Mommy!" my three year old daughter exclaimed, "Look at those itty bitty men." I remember laughing so hard I had to slow down driving for fear I couldn't see.
Melissa hated meat loaf. But living in a home where we barely had meat, to me that was a delicacy. She finished her meat loaf... I found it, individual little rounds of hamburger under her chair. I think she was hoping the cat would eat it. The cat didn't. Melissa swears I made her get down on the floor and lick it up...I don't remember that... but it would have been innovative on my part...getting the floor clean and making sure she got her protein. I never made meat loaf again, and still miss it at times.
She ran away from home twice, because she wanted her own way. I laugh now, because she was always so head strong. I took dinner away from her for two weeks because she wouldn't clean her room. After two weeks she got dinner back, and her dirty room. She won.
I'm just thankful now that she appreciates a clean house.
She is so head strong at work, demanding the best of herself at all times. I think the meat loaf helped her get that way.

None of my children liked Mr. Rogers. I'm sure there's a deep thought about that somewhere.

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Silence of Snow

Waking up this morning I knew something was different. The silence was amazing. Amazing because it's so rare in this world of noise.

There wasn't a songbird singing, not a car starting... nothing but silence. Opening the blinds I saw the beauty that awaited my eyes...the same beauty that filled my ears---- pristeen, beautiful, quiet, white, virgin snow. No footprints. No car prints, just a sea of white.

And the silence was not deafening... and it was welcomed.

I listened. I "felt" that still small voice of my Lord. Illustrating in the whiteness of the blanket covering my world, was my sin--covered by the purity of my Jesus. The bland cement, the rusted cars, the dull beige of the condos, the barren trees...all covered by a blanket of purity...making everything clean and perfect once again.

A tear trickles down my cheek as I realize that all nature is crying out His majesty, His Lovingkindness, His Words...His love...His forgiveness...if we will only stop and listen...in the silence of snow.
Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole
I want Thee forever to live in my soul
Break down every idol, cast out every foe
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Whiter than snow, yes whiter than snow
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.