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Valentine’s Day 2013

Carolyn

I had such a sweet Valentine’s Day this year. My husband took me to lunch and got me candy that he knows I love. I realized it was our 27th year as being each other’s Valentine, way back to our high school days! Then we ended up waiting to go out to dinner with friends on Sunday night at a time we could all get together and enjoy it.

What made this Valentine’s Day so extra special, though, was that my son made me cookies. (My daughter was away at a friend’s for a sleepover.) On his own, he decided to do this. He found a recipe online, made sugar cookies, made the yummy icing with almond flavoring, colored it pink, and then cleaned it all up! The cookies were delicious, some of the best I’ve ever had. I was so impressed. We watched a movie together, too (Seven Days in Utopia – I would recommend), and had BBQ sandwiches I had thrown together with some leftover pork tender.

It’s not often young teenage boys care to spend much time with their mothers anymore — or think to bake them cookies — and I realize tomorrow may come and this is over! So I have to capture it here on the blog with thankfulness for the special day so I can remember this memory!

Sovereign God

Carolyn

It’s strange to think that I started this blog over four years ago now!

As I was looking back recently, I noticed that I had written four years ago about the last presidential election.

I thought I’d repost some of the truths I was reflecting on then:

  • I’m thankful for a Sovereign God who is seated on the throne in the heavens and whose kingdom rules over all (Psalm 103:19).
  • I’m thankful to know that He alone raises up and brings down leaders and rulers (Daniel 2:21).
  • I’m thankful that He alone is great and worthy of all praise (Psalm 145:3), worthy as the Lamb who was slain to receive all power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise (Rev. 5:12).
  • I’m thankful that He sets my feet on the Rock (Psalm 40:2) and keeps me secure.
  • In Him, I have complete confidence and hope, and I have no cause for fear.
  • He is my Rock, fortress, deliverer, strength, salvation, and shield (II Samuel 22; Psalm 18).
  • He will not forsake those who trust in Him (Psalm 9:10).

I’m thankful that the Lord knows the outcome of tomorrow. He knows the beginning from the end, and He is not surprised. May His good and perfect will be done.

Pictures

Carolyn

Here are some recent pictures I thought I’d share.

My husband took my daughter hiking in East Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. They had so much fun! I was a little nervous about the trip and not being with them. It was originally planned as a family trip, but I could not walk when the time came, and my son decided he would stay with me and take part in school and church activities that were planned for that weekend.

These are the kinds of pictures they sent to scare me throughout the weekend:

warning sign for bears!

 

looks like she’s falling off the mountain!
They emailed this with a caption “Look what we saw” – it was actually a picture they took from a book!

But they actually had a great time!

on a hike
horseback riding where they actually DID see a bear!

Moving on to other things…

My sister-in-law (pictured below) brought me these last week. I thought they were cheery, and they smelled so pretty.

I have a 14-year old! My mom gave the party since it was only 3 days after my surgery. I hope he felt celebrated! I’m thankful for our sweet families (my mom, my husband’s parents, and his brother’s family are all local) who have been so supportive and helpful.

I’m also thankful for my sweet neighbors and friends who have prayed for me and brought us dinner, giving my mom a break. What an unexpected gift!

This also reminds me how wonderful everyone at work has been to support me through this last month. They have all been so kind and helpful. I’ll never forget my friend getting the church wheelchair to get me to my car one day when things were so rough! 🙂 We will surely laugh of that again in years to come!

I started this post just looking for a few recent pictures to share, but am ending it full of gratefulness for God’s provision of loving friends who have called, emailed, sent cards, and prayed over the last month. What a blessing and encouragement! And I’m grateful for His protection and care over my family as they traveled. Thank you, Lord!

Waiting

Carolyn

I have been mostly in bed since Saturday with an injured knee. I don’t know how I did it exactly. The pain has been increasing over the last few months, finally to the point I couldn’t walk. I decided then maybe it was time to go to the doctor!

After x-rays, he discovered some sort of loose body or fragment in the bone joint. I had an MRI on Tuesday, and I can’t see the orthopedist until Friday.

So I wait. I suppose the Labor Day weekend slowed this process some. It started out feeling a little bit retreat like! I listened at home on Sunday to our church service. I caught up on my Beth Moore Bible Study on Esther and watched a couple of the videos. I read, prayed, emailed, surfed blogs and Facebook, and even became so bored as to join Twitter! (That’s another story!)

By the time, though, that I finished the retreat-like aspect of my knee journey, I suddenly came to be bothered by the wait, by not being able to jump up and do things, by not being able to go to work, irritated with the discomfort.

But God is in this. He is in the waiting. He has permitted these days for a reason. I want to discover it and pray it has something of an eternal purpose. I want to trust Him more. Fear overtook me in the night suddenly. But His Word and prayer and the remembrance of who He is and all that He has done in my life brought comfort. Not immediately. It took deliberate focus of my thoughts to allow Him to move me from fear to more faith, but after two hours, I was in a much better place.

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

I pray this day will be spent not so scattered, so feeling torn by what I should be doing but cannot do, but more restful, relaxed, and focused on Him. And may He be glorified in some way through this.

I have much for which to praise Him. My mom is now living in town and able to cook for us and help me. My husband has had flexibility with his schedule and helped keep the house clean and laundry going, staying home with me two days this week. My children have not been demanding, but have helped me get things I need. This is in the grand scheme of life but a small trial, but it reminds me of the many gifts God has given me, and I praise and thank Him.

God’s Provision for the Needy

Carolyn

I was so blessed yesterday being a witness to God’s love and care for someone in need.

There’s an elderly woman in her eighties that I met years ago, but I didn’t have much contact with her. In the last year or so, I ran into her at the grocery store 2 or 3 times. I introduced myself again, tried to help her, but we spoke little. Then I ran into her at church one night this past winter. We talked longer; I asked more questions. I found out that when it snows, she shovels the snow away from her car all by herself! I asked her how she could do that, particularly when we had a huge blizzard like the one the winter before. She just said she does a little, then takes a break, then does a little more.

I gave her my phone number and told her to please call me if she needed anything. I told her if it snowed, we would call her as my son or husband would help. Well, it didn’t snow much this winter, but one day about 3 weeks ago, I ran into her at the grocery store again. Her car had broken down, and she had called a service to come and help her. I told her I would wait with her, and he was able to get her car running, though we weren’t sure if it was the battery or something else. I again gave her my phone numbers and insisted again that she call me if she needed help.

Fast forward then to Wednesday morning, I was at work when the receptionist rang me to come downstairs. My elderly friend had come to find me because her car was dead in the parking lot nearby. We got a couple of the men at church to help her, and she was off and running again. But that evening, once home, I got a call from the lady who had been on the reception desk earlier in the day. She said a woman had just come to the church to tell us that my elderly friend’s car was broken down on Main Street in rush hour traffic. When this kind lady had offered to help, she declined as she was afraid to go anywhere with her, but she asked her to go to the church and ask for help. So I got the call, and my husband and I immediately left the house to find her and jump her car off.

By the time we reached Main Street, two police cars were there with flashing lights, and they had called a tow truck since her car was stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic. My sweet elderly friend was behind the wheel looking a little shaken by all this activity. We got her out, and I waited with her while my husband and the police got the car moved out of the way, then towed to a local garage. After things settled, I drove her to a dinner she had been on her way to, then later picked her up and took her home.

On Friday, she called me when the car was ready, and we went to get it. I asked her if she would need any help paying for this (knowing the tow alone was over $150), and she said it would be all right. When we arrived at the garage, the man walked out to us, handed her the keys to her car and the invoice and told her she was all set. He said you don’t need to come in and pay; it’s all taken care of, but someone has sworn me to secrecy. Her mouth fell open; she was stunned, and it was an obvious blessing. She tried to follow him back, and he said, “Now I walked out here, so you wouldn’t have to come in, so you can just go, you’re all set.”

She looked at me and said she would pray the Lord would bless this person as he or she had blessed her. “Wow,” I said, “The Lord has provided!” and she said, “Yes!” As I started to pull away, she came walking down toward my car, so I pulled back in. She said, “Look, I want you to see this!” And she showed me the bill which was over $1000! She was so obviously humbled, felt such mercy, and it was just a tremendous need met. We both were in awe of God’s provision.

My kids had been in the back seat of the car, and as we pulled away, I told them, “We were just blessed because we got to witness firsthand God’s care for her.” My son couldn’t wait to get home to call his grandmother and tell her what had happened. It had so obviously affected us all.

The Lord reminded me earlier this year that He wants me to be faithful to those He has put in my path. I haven’t been called to go around the world or be a missionary or personally adopt — but I’ve been called to be faithful in the ministries and places God has put me. I pray I will be and keep my eyes open for how best to reach out to those in my path.

I don’t know who was responsible for caring for this precious woman, but I pray they are blessed, and I know that they will be. Generous giving and living, what an amazing thing to see! I suspect this generous giver knows the generous gifts he or she has been given by the Lord and is glad to have them overflow to those in need. And God’s glory shone for us all to behold!