Blessed Through The Eyes of My Granddaughters

I am blessed to have the awesome opportunity of taking care of my three granddaughters, ages one, two and three, while my daughter is at work. As much as my daughter thinks I am blessing her, I am receiving many more blessings. As a young mother I unknowingly missed a lot of opportunities. As a grandmother I am making sure I do not miss even one!

Read what the Lord has in His word for us in Deuteronomy 11:18-19 concerning the opportunities we have: “So commit yourselves completely to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.”

I have been blessed as we drive in the car pointing out the sky and trees. We talk about the different seasons. Recently we were on our way home and saw a beautiful double rainbow. I took the opportunity to tell them the story of Noah. My new found excitement became their excitement as we gazed at God’s wonderful promise.

I have been blessed as I taught them that when we hear sirens we are to immediately pray for those who need care and those who will care for them. My three year old granddaughter would tell Jim Hostetter that she was praying for him when she saw him Sunday nights in the hallway at church.

I have been blessed as I patiently allow my granddaughters to help me cook, clean and do laundry. Their bright smiles and big round eyes are so precious when they carry out the task at hand. The young mother who thought everything had to be perfect has become the grandmother who realizes the significance of things less perfect.

I have been blessed to have the opportunity to teach my granddaughters that Jesus will always be there to help them. He is always listening to their prayers. I could not hold back the tears upon hearing for the first time from my three year old granddaughter that she had prayed to Jesus when she was scared of the thunder and lightning and He helped her feel better.

God has taught me many things on this journey, but the one thing that has changed my life recently, is knowing Him on a new level by being blessed through the eyes of my granddaughters.

Tina Laubscher

Hide or Seek?

A simple game of Hide-n-Seek with my niece and nephews this holiday season has me thinking about my approach to reaching the lost and needy.

Luke, my four-year-old nephew, and I found the best hiding places and were the last to be found! He could hardly stand the excitement and even attempted to "whistle" a couple of times just to get our seeker looking in the right direction. We'd been sitting in the bathtub, with shower curtain pulled for quite some time when my oldest nephew, Henry, came in, turned the light on and said, "They're not in here." Since the shower curtain is somewhat sheer as we could see Henry clear as day (at which point I made the mental note to keep the bathroom door locked when taking a shower), Luke and I could hardly believe Henry hadn't seen us.

Every day, I look into faces of people just waiting to be found. Am I really so blinded by the "game" of seeking that when I actually find what I'm looking for I convince myself that they're not there?

A few minutes later, we all regrouped in the living room where it became my turn to seek. My three-year-old niece, Maggie, ran with every ounce of energy to the little rug at the top of the stairs, threw herself on the ground and pulled the corner over her head. She was shaking with enthusiasm as she'd discovered the best hiding place ever!

Like Maggie, I tend to believe that if I can't see the need, it will simply cease to exist.

I've become quite the expert at finding excuses NOT to go seeking. I could play Hide-n-Seek for hours with my niece and nephews, but when it comes to "seeking" the lost, I'd much rather go "hide" somewhere.

Fortunately, we don't have to search too hard or too long to find lost people or people who have needs. May the women of Grace Baptist Church become seekers! Chattanooga needs to be found!

~Rebecca Phillips~

Poem for the New Year

I was in the nursery on Sunday morning and missed hearing Steve Winget.  Larry told me about the message, and this poem leaped immediately to mind.  Years ago I taught sixth grade, and this was a work that my students were required to memorize. I had almost forgotten it, but I looked it up, and now I offer it for your enjoyment.  Susan Coolidge is the pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey.  I think I would have liked her. 

Begin Again
by Susan Coolidge

Every day is a fresh beginning,
Every morn is the world made new;
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you-
A hope for me and a hope for you.

All the past things are past and over,
The tasks are done and the tears are shed;
Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;
Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

Yesterday now is a part of forever,
Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight;
With glad days, and sad days and bad days which never
Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight,
Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful night.

Let them go, since we cannot relieve them,
Cannot undo and cannot atone;
God in His mercy, receive, forgive them;
Only the new days are our own,
Today is ours, and today alone.

Here are the skies all burnished brightly,
Here is the spent earth all reborn,
Here are the tired limbs springing lightly
To face the sun and to share the morn,
In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain
Take heart with the day, and begin again.

I find that I love this poem now even more than I did all those years ago.  I hope it's a blessing to you, as well.

Sherry Poff

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Is it really possible to "make ourselves at home" in a place that's not our home? Surely it's easier in some places than others, but truly feeling at home doesn't happen for me unless I'm...home.

Home is where I'm most myself, most at peace and most comfortable. Home is where I am refreshed and energized. Home holds routine, order and traditions. When I'm away from home,  I long to be there. And Christmas anywhere other than home, just doesn't feel quite right!

I have so enjoyed being home in Covington, KY, this weekend celebrating my Savior and reconnecting with friends and family. Today at my "home" church, the message was brought by a man whom I've known since childhood. He's a chaplain in the airforce and is leaving today, probably as I type this, for a 6 month deployment in Kuwait. He spoke today of our lives being like a deployment. He said that our "deployment" has a purpose, a time frame, and a return home. I found particularly interesting the statement he made that he "did not know a single officer who fell in love with their place of deployment so much that they didn't want to return home."

Have we Christians forgotten that this world is not our home and gotten too comfortable to the point we'd rather stay here? Have we forgotten that we, too, have a purpose for being here, a time frame already ordained by God and the sweet promise of our Heavenly Home when we've fulfilled our mission? Or are we allowing the things of this world to distract us from our purpose and to forget that our days here are numbered?

The Israelites wandered in the desert living in tents for more years than I've lived, and yet I can identify with the restlessness and frustration that accompanies being unsettled. They became discontented to the point that even slavery in Egypt seemed more appealing than the years of pitching tents and packing them up again. It seemed that the land God had promised would never be given to them. They longed to be able to call a place "home."

Simon Peter reminds us in 2 Peter that this world is not our home, and yet that many of us live as if it is. I love the way he uses the word "tent" in 2 Peter 1:13-14.

 ¹³ I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, ¹⁴ because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

May we remember that this world is really just a deployment, that we're just pitching our tents here for a moment. May we not get too attached to our temporary residence. May the promise of a return trip "Home" compell us to carry out our mission.

It is with heavy hearts today that we recognize a life well-lived, a "deployment" successfully completed by our dear Mr. Jim Hostetter. I couldn't help but to think of him all weekend, and especially today. He is Home. And what better place to be for Christmas? What a joy to know that someday I, too, will be "Home for Christmas!"

~Rebecca Phillips~

Remember When

I took one of those silly quizzes on facebook recently. It was called "What Christmas Song are You?" (I said it was silly!) Turns out I'm "The Christmas Song," better known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." The explanation goes on to say that I love old-fashioned things and nostalgia and all that. Well, yes! It is Christmas, right? Don't most of us turn nostalgic at Christmas?

I was going through my Christmas cards (I do love getting Christmas cards--the real kind that come inside an envelope and appear in my mailbox this time of year--my actual mailbox, out by the road.) and it is remarkable how many of them feature scenes from the past or very rural settings. Julie Baumgardner's column in Sunday's paper is headlined, "Take a holiday trip down memory lane." More nostalgia.

I have some wonderful Christmas memories: standing up to say my lines in the church Christmas program, shopping for my mom and dad with money they gave me, trudging through the snow to see what the neighbors got for Christmas. Thinking about the past may seem unrealistic and impractical to some, but it's not all bad. God commanded his people, in fact, to remember. He even had them set up stones to bring to mind the things he had done for them so that they could pass along to their children the stories of his faithfulness.

Deuteronomy 32:7 says, "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee. . ." The psalmist, in Psalm 77:11, records "I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy works of old." There are times when recalling God's past goodness increases our faith and helps us through a difficult day.

This week will be a wonderful time to remember past years and good times with friends and family. It will also be an opportunity for most of us to make more sweet memories. Let's remember, too, that there are around us people who might require help creating good times to store up for the future. With God's help, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to spread love and cheer where it is most needed this Christmas.

-Sherry Poff

A Sweet Smelling Aroma

I was thawing out my frozen body by the fireplace a few nights ago when I suddenly found myself back at my Grandma and Grandpa Britton's house on Chamberlain Ave. The smell of the fire and the tiny wooden manger scene on the mantle triggered the nostalgic childhood memories and brought tears of joy to my eyes as I thought about my godly heritage and the wonderful Christmases I spent in that house.

I'm sure you're familiar with the flashbacks brought on by various aromas. Holiday scents are wafting through many of our homes these days making us long for the "golden days of yore". Our olfactory nerves are working overtime connecting us to many memories of the holiday season.

It gets me to thinking about the verses in Scripture that talk about our sacrifices being a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. I wonder if His sense of smell carries Him back to the precious memories of our obedience and sacrifice. I sure hope they aren't smells that cause Him to cringe or turn up his nose.

Ephesians 5:1-2 says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

These verses are sandwiched between lists of sins and behaviors that are opposite of love and sacrifice. They are full of selfish ambitions and self-serving actions.

As we etch new holiday memories into our lives this Christmas, may they be full of the wonderful smells and aromas that please the Lord. Let's take out the rotten garbage of materialism and selfishness and fill God's nostrils with the freshly-baked-banana-bread scent of sacrifice.

~Rebecca Phillips~

The Shepherd "IS"

“The Lord is my shepherd…(Psalm 23).” I love this passage of Scripture. I quote it to my son each night at bed time. The “IS” impacts me right now more that it does him.

My most recent time of quoting verse 4, “I will fear no evil...” came on a Sunday morning. I was sitting in Sunday school class enjoying an excellent lesson when I realized that I had left a pan of rice cooking on the stove at home. I panicked! I dashed out of class heading for home (about a 15 minute drive). Fearing the worst, my mind was racing and fear was taking over. In my mind I could see flames shooting from my house. I planned that I would get home, run in the house and call 911. My plan was laid as to how to deal with my house fire. While I was hurrying home, I kept quoting verse 4, “I will fear no evil...”

Upon arriving home, things were calm on the outside. Slowly entering, I was just sure smoke would meet me. Much to my joy and surprise, no smoke detectors were blaring and no smoke smell. As I approached the stove, I opened the lid of the pan. A cloud of steam, not smoke came out. The rice had cooked for an hour and a half! It had not burned or even scorched. At that moment, I dropped to my knees, crying and thanking God for His watch care over this frazzled, absentminded mother. The Shepherd had been there watching over me and my home. He "IS" so kind and so patient.

As we ate our rice for lunch that day, I was reminded that the Shepherd "IS" always there leading me, causing me to “...fear no evil...”

~Lynell McMillan~