My Daddy

My daddy passed over into Heaven on April 3, 2013.  His battle with Alzheimer’s disease was a short but steep, taking him from just forgetful to a man who had no idea who he was or who others were in just a matter of 4 years.  Well, let me correct that, he really didn’t get bad until the end, there were times of clarity even last month when I was there.  The last two weeks of his life were really the worst of it all.

He left this world a better place with his presence in it and he will be dearly missed by his wife and children.  Daddy would have been 77 on May 1, I am sure that is going to be a hard day for all of us, but I know our family will celebrate it in a special way.

His passing leaves a hole in our hearts and a I am often catching myself remembering things about him, mourning the loss in my life and yet celebrating his being made whole and healthy, celebrating that he is now in the arms of God, chatting with Jesus, dancing and singing with the angels.  It’s these thoughts that give me peace and joy that passes all understanding.

Daddy was a devoted husband to his wife, my mama, Margie.  He only had eyes for her and was in love after almost 60 years together.  He was an excellent, inventive, provider, protector, helper, and friend.  He loved his children fiercely.  He wanted our best try, not perfection, and he could always be counted on to listen to us and help us out of any situation.  Daddy was a giver.  If someone was in need he would give what he had, even if he had a  need for it himself.  He was a man who loved his family.  He was a mischievous brother, ornery, teasing, but all in love.  He loved being a grandpa.  Not only did he love the ones who were adopted into the family, but he truly believed that each of his granddaughters was the most beautiful ever born.  Daddy always had a twinkle in his eye, a smile on his face, and a laugh just below the surface.  He loved everyone around him.

Daddy showed us the love and justice of God.  He was a good example to us of how God loves us unconditionally and loves us enough to correct us when we had done something wrong.  Always showing us love even when we made some big mistakes.

Everyone who knew him is going to miss him.  My daddy loved nature, simple things, his family, all of creation, but more than that, the Creator Himself.  Even in his state of confusion, he didn’t lose his ability to pray.  Sometimes we were confused about what he was praying about, but he lifted the prayers up to a God who knew his heart.

I will miss you daddy, but I know you are in a better place, healed of infirmity and weakness of body and mind.  You are now where you can praise God is person, worship, and dance!

Related articles

• Memory Care program helps families cope with Alzheimer’s (stltoday.com)
• Bel Marra Health Reports on a New Study: Alzheimer’s Cases are Set to Triple by 2050 (prweb.com)

Following the Ten

I’m just going to put this out there and hope that if you have read my blog for a while you know my heart and  can know that I am on a journey just like any of you and this is helping me to become closer to God.

Over our Thanksgiving trip I had great conversations about grace and love.  We can become victims of our religious upbringing, and it can stifle our growth, and then something like this conversation can reveal the heart of the matter and free us of stuff that we have hung on to.

Think about the bible and all the things that it records, then think about what Jesus said it ALL boils down to.  All of the law boils down to this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”  I know that many things in the bible are dictated by the culture of the time.   I also know that the bible in its entirety was inspired by God.  It was inspired into imperfect men.  The only part of the bible written by God’s finger, the 10 commandments.  Not that we can’t pull the beneficial from the entire bible, because we know that it is ALL a benefit to us, however, I want to focus on the 10 and the one the 10 boil down to.

1. You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.

2. You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain[that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4. [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].

5. Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.

6. You shall not commit murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Now, if you take those ten commandments and follow them earnestly, and then you take Jesus’ command to  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27, you will be doing what you need to do to live the best life that you can live.  The overflow of just that, will be placing God first and loving ALL the people around you.

Here is the analogy that really struck me.  There are many people who don’t eat pork because they are restricted by their religious code to do so.  They have taken that from the old testament and held on to it.  However, I don’t hold to that because the dream that John was given was that all things were permissible.  That is left to interpretation and if I am wrong I am counting on God’s grace, and if those who hold to it are wrong, they should also count on His grace.  We cannot judge one another on those things that we hold to or don’t.   We also cannot say that in Heaven there will be no homosexuals, no murderers, no liars, no, you fill in the blank.  Yes, they will all be in their forgiven, perfected, selves, but in their former earth suits, this is what they were.  Judgement is only going to push the un-saved farther from us and our goal in life should be to bring all men into relationship with God.  How can we do that when we are bickering over all the messiness of each other?    And so, while the entire bible is definitely good for us, beneficial in all ways, we need to change our focus to ourselves, follow the 10, love each other, love God and give grace in abundance.  I think when we do this we will find that it is easier to embrace one another and to embrace ourselves in light of how God sees us.

Indescribable Beauty

This afternoon I saw the type of beauty that the coast of California is famous for.  There are a few spots along my regular drive that deliver on the most spectacular sight that I have ever seen.  I had Casting Crowns album, “Come To The Well” playing loudly from the car stereo.  I came over the hill and then it happened, I was blessed with a sight that made me shiver.  The ocean was sparkling and shimmer with silver light and the bank of clouds that rested over the water was the fluffiest billowing mass I had ever seen.  Usually when I see this billowing mass of clouds it’s a complete covering of the water, however, this afternoon, plenty of the water was showing with it glittering beauty and the clouds.  I could suddenly imagine what the billowing clouds will look like when Jesus returns.  I was awed and then another beautiful thing happened.  The combination of the music, the glorious beauty of God’s creation, and a huge wall came crumbling down.

Awhile back I was hoping to experience things with God in a totally different way, apparently He had different plans, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the way that He wanted to go and so, like many times before, I built a wall and told Him that He couldn’t get past it.  I continued to pray for my friends and family, I continued to believe that He would do things for me, mostly because my more sanctified friends were asking on my behalf.  I didn’t tell my friends about this, I didn’t tell my husband, I didn’t tell anyone.  I was ashamed more than anything else.  How could I turn my back on a God who has been the most generous and forgiving Father to me, the most loving friend?  I guess it was because I was personifying God and I was in a place of thinking that God was going to disappoint me, just like a lot of people do.

I am my own worst enemy.  Today was the first time to listen to this particular Casting Crowns album and wouldn’t you know, right as I was making the discovering of me being my enemy, what song should start playing?  Yep, that’s right, “My Own Worst Enemy”.  Is that God timing or what?  The combination of the beauty in my vision, the words of songs that I needed to hear, it all held me to the accountability of apologizing to my Papa.

Praise God for His grace, His forgiveness, for His Son being the bridge, the intercessor, the lover of my wayward soul.

Back To School Blues

 

Today marks the first day of Bean’s Junior year of high school.  WOW!  How on earth did time go so fast and how did I get so old in the process?!  It’s a little funny because I say I got old and yet I am one of the young parents.  So many parents in my generation waited to have their kids.  I am one of those who didn’t.

Bean is already making plans for college and she was able to get some great advice from our favorite adopted doctor/aunt/friend!  I am praying that this first day was an encouragement to Bean, and just another step closer to her obtaining the goal of starting nursing school.

I was able to complete 4 weeks of lesson plans today.  Our first unit of study!  I am excited for what we are covering this year and even more excited by the projects that we will be doing.  We will be building a model of the Eifel Tower and on a world map, we will be marking where the animals we study, live.  We will be studying a lot of the New Testament and the life of Jesus on earth and His ministry.  We will also be reading a lot of literature to show us the lives and times of the brave people who settled the west.

Every year I think it will be easier to be organized and have it all flow well, then the first day comes and I think, “okay, tomorrow you just need to be more disciplined.”  That thought will go on for half the year and before I know it I will be in a groove that is manageable.  It may not be perfect but I don’t have the energy for perfect!

Well, I guess I better get moving toward those lists and maybe try to get a shower before it’s time to pick up Bean.

 

The Beginning of Help

 

 

Genesis starts off my search of the word help/helper.  You don’t have to go far into the Word of God to find it.  Genesis chapter two talks about God seeing Adam alone and not liking it.

Genesis 2:18 (NASB)

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

God is three, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; He’s not used to being alone and so I think He immediately felt that Adam needed a mate, a helper.  He set Adam to naming all those animals.  Can you imagine how long it took for Adam to name the animals?  It’s wasn’t a day, at least I don’t know how it could have been.  I think it took years.  In all the animals a suitable helper couldn’t be found.

Genesis 2:20 (NASB)

The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

So, God made one.  He was the greatest helper because he taught Adam how to wait, He allowed Adam time to figure out for himself that it wasn’t good to be alone.  Appreciation.  I bet when Adam woke up and saw Eve that he was speechless.  I bet he was instantly in love too.

After the fall, God didn’t just leave Adam and Eve.  Eve proclaimed His help when she gave birth to Cain.

Genesis 4:1 (NASB)

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”

Skip ahead to Genesis 49 and you find that God is being credited as a helper again.  Jacob is pronouncing a blessing over the tribes of Israel and he says,

Genesis 49:25 (NASB)

From the God of your father who helps you,

And by the Almighty who blesses you

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

So, if you take these instances and gathered them with all the others, you would see that God’s nature hasn’t changed.  He is still helping, wants to help.  He wants to give us blessings.  Help comes from a heart of love.  Think of all the ways that God has helped you.  Write them down and then thank Him.