From the Mouths of Babes

This picture was taken when my daughter was in 1st grade. The kids in her class were asked what they were thankful for and to draw pictures of those things.  Here is her drawing.

And he said”Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.~ Matthew 18:3

Hectic Much?

I pray that I am not the only mother on this earth who finds it difficult at best to gather children together in an organized fashion in order to make even the smallest of trips.  And please tell me I am not the only one that has children that cannot leave the house without bringing some toy no matter how seemingly insignificant the toy.  Even a trip to the grocery store is like I am on that old prank show on MTV (I think) called Boiling Points.  The only problem is I never win any money.  

I can't even fathom how mom's who have kids with a plethora of after-school activities manage.  My kids (at this point) are not interested in any thing and I will not be ashamed to say "Thank God" for that.   How can your child even have time to breathe if they are in 3 or 4 different activities?

On the other hand, I know that one day I will miss these times of aggravation and messy memories.  When my children are off to college or where ever they go, I will look back and say "Man I miss those days".  But that will be then.  It is hard to take time to see where you are, when where you are is in the middle of a mess.

How Great Thou Art...

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, How great Thou art, How Great Thou Art!

Today on this day, although it is not technically Thanksgiving, it is my Thanksgiving day.  And on this day, I reflect on all those members of my family that I would love to be able to hug and talk with.  My aunt Geneva, whom we always called Auntie but since we're from Kentucky, it always sounded like Annie with a long a.  How Great Thou Art was her favorite song, and I would love to be able to hear her sing it now.  My grandma Kelsie, we called lil' granny, man was she an awesome granny.  I spent almost every weekend there at her house.  My grandfathers Dan and Arthur whom I barely got to know and my grandmother Sadie who passed away long before I was born.  My most recent loss, my sweet nephew Jeffrey who was only 26 when he died would have been here eating me out of house and home! 

I give thanks to God for all the memories of these precious people and I also thank Him that he has given me one more day to be with those of us left.  My prayer for this day is that we love each other to the fullest, that we never take one second for granted and that we can all put little tiffs behind us and look forward. 

Thank you Lord for my family.

Share in the Abundance

When we look around us we will see a myriad of people of all economic backgrounds.  But here in the United States, even in the poorest of neighborhoods, when you look at our poor and impoverished, it is incomparable to those in areas that many of us could never thrive or even survive in.  Many children all over the world starve to death daily.  And when I say many I mean that every day approximately 16,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes.  That is astronomical!  Can we really say that we have it so bad when there are babies dieing because they are hungry?  That makes the everyday worries that we have seem trivial at best. 

What I say all this for is to get to this, while you are preparing for Thanksgiving, Christmas or birthdays, look around, I am sure that you can find a spare can of food you can take to your local food bank.  How many toys do your kids really need?  Donate your time and efforts to those children of God that will not get even one present or bite of food this holiday season.  Not only will your children get over it, they will love you for it later.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and may God Bless you all.

Use it or Lose it

Sometimes we go through life and we miss tons of opportunities that we don’t even recognize.  Today I think I actually saw one and took it.  Here’s the story:
This week (albeit the shortest school week ever) is my daughters week to be star student.  During this week the child gets to bring in photos of themselves and family, mementos and a special toy.  My sweet angel has a dolphin on her dresser and it is a cute statue, except for the broken fin.  She wanted to take it and me, wanting to protect her from ridicule, said no at first.  But then I remembered where she had gotten it from.  Here in Kentucky there is a special home in Casey County called the Galilean Home.  This is a very special place that was founded by a husband and wife (Sandy and Jerry Tucker).  Since they first felt God’s calling for this ministry, they have adopted hundreds of children from all over the world.  They take no federal funding and every penny they have is donated or earned from one of the businesses on or around the property.  One of these is the store where Kayleigh got this dolphin with the broken fin.  Sandy passed away and so now it is Jerry and his MANY children that run the home.  They have adopted children who without them would have perished in their home land.  Boys and girls with limbs blown off from hidden land mines, and many children with developmental delays have been adopted.  There is also a ministry called “Born Free” where the Tuckers take in babies that are born in prison or babies that have mothers in prison and take care of them (free of charge) until the mom gets out or the child turns 18.  Isn’t that awesome?  That is God’s love.
So without a mini lightening bolt from God, reminding me of a way I could help my daughter be witness of God’s love, an opportunity could have been lost.  I wrote a letter for her teacher to read to tell why she bought this dolphin already broken and where it came from.
God gives us opportunities to share His love daily, we just have to be aware of our lives enough to see them.  Below is a link to the Galilean Home website.  Please check it out.

http://www.galileanhome.org/