The Wait

Oh the wait! This week I will have surgery. On that day, it will have been three weeks since it was scheduled – three weeks of thinking about what the doctors will do to me, grieving the loss of my breasts, worrying about those lymph nodes, searching God’s face with pleading eyes.

But today, God reminds me of the butterfly. A caterpillar goes into a cocoon and comes out a butterfly, but first there’s the struggle. The caterpillar twists and bends and wriggles. He works and works to get free, but this can take quite a while. Sometimes he has to rest. The exertion thins his plump body and strengthens his wings. If some well-meaning person were to cut the cocoon open to help him, the caterpillar would emerge underdeveloped, and he would never fly. He would never glorify his Creator in the way he was intended.

“I asked for strength,

            And God gave me difficulties to overcome and strengthen me.

I asked for wisdom,

            And God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity,

            And God gave me enough brain and brawn to work.

I asked for courage,

            And God gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked for love,

            And God gave me troubled people who were ready to help.

I asked for favors,

            And God gave me opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted,

            But I received everything I needed.” (Candy Lobb, butterflystory.homestead.com)

Everybody has to wait sometimes. May we embrace the wait – the struggle – while God develops us for His glory.

joyce hague

Speak Life

Proverbs 18:21 – “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

Do you realize how powerful your words are? I know each of us has experienced the pain of someone’s harsh words. Hopefully, we have also experienced the opposite: someone’s kind, encouraging, and healing words that came just when we needed them most. I don’t know exactly why, but we as women have often been known for tearing each other down. Perhaps it is a sense of competition. Whatever the reason, we need to speak life into people’s lives and not death. I am thankful that we have a sweet congregation of women, but we do still have human moments of hurtfulness. And even if we are generally pleasant, we can always be more intentional about being specifically encouraging and bringing life to people.

Proverbs 16:24 – “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Personally, I could not accept a compliment for years because I truly did not believe the nice things that people would say about me. I had had plenty of people tear me down to the point I began to believe what they said. I remember reading in a psychology class that it takes seven positive comments to combat one negative one. My experience certainly affirmed that for me, as well as for many other women I know. So, let’s look at ways we can bring life to people.

On a daily basis, I urge you to look for ways to compliment or uplift everyone you meet: her scarf, her hair, and other outward things are a good place to start, especially with people you don’t know well. But try to go deeper too. Encourage people in the way they are growing in the Lord, the way they are serving you or others, their kind spirit, etc.

Some people are much easier to affirm and give compliments to. Definitely do this with the people you love most, but ask the Lord to make you sensitive to people who seem a little more prickly and may need to hear positive words even more. Look for people who may be underappreciated or even overly criticized: the waitress that keeps neglecting to refill your drink, a check out person at Walmart, etc.

I have been convicted by people I know who go out of their way to compliment someone doing a normal good job or excellent job at serving them, even calling their manager over to praise them. So often, managers only hear complaints, as do the people who work for them. Taking that extra minute or two to praise someone for excellent service makes their day and their manager’s. Sometimes this may even open the door for an opportunity to witness to someone, or at least give them a positive experience with a Christian.

Proverbs 12:18 – “There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Think about this proverb for a moment. You have the power to wound someone deeply or bring healing to someone. Many people are walking around with invisible wounds, resulting from people being critical, just plain mean, or even the deepest abuse. Every positive, affirming word you speak could impact another person more than you can possibly imagine. So, let’s speak life! I pray that you experience someone speaking life into you this week, as well as your speaking life to others.

--Judith Graham

A Check, a Billboard, and the Sweet Assurances of God

It was late spring 2005. I had been struggling in my walk with the Lord. I had watched God do incredible things in the lives of those dear to me but felt that I myself was overlooked. I prayed for weeks for God to make Himself real to me; I wanted to see Him do something great and powerful on my behalf. He did not come through in the way I was praying, and I felt discouraged. Doubts crept in. Did God care about me, too? Was He involved in my life? A comment from a dear lady in a completely different context reminded me of truth, “Amy, it’s not about you.” No, it wasn’t about me. In my desire to see God do something great for me, I was more concerned about my own desires than God’s will being done. I repented. 

A few days later, at an elementary spring concert, the principal announced that a number of us teachers would be going on a missions trip (our first) to Togo, West Africa to train teachers. She gave the names of those going on the trip, mentioning that we would need to raise around $2500 each. A parent of one of my students came up to me immediately following the concert and handed me a check. I was grateful; I hadn’t even sent out the first support letter yet. I opened the folded check, expecting to see maybe $100, but instead saw the number 2,000 written on it. Yes, 2,000 dollars! I began to cry. I tried to refuse such a large sum; she, in tears as well, insisted. I knew immediately, that this check was not just the huge sacrifice of this sweet lady, but it was the Lord showing me His power, love and care for me in His way and in His time. This was my Ebenezer moment, when God worked in such a powerful way, that I needed to set up a “stone” (or in my case a journal entry) to remember this moment. It was God’s assurance to me in response to my doubts, “I love you. I care about you. I’m involved in your life, and I am still the God Who does exceedingly beyond what you could ask or think.”

Fast forward ten years to the fall of 2015. I was on interstate 75 South, heading to my grandmother’s house in Cedartown, Georgia. I had planned two days prior to drive down this day to visit my sweet grandmother who would likely not live much longer. Yet now this day had turned out different than expected.  My grandmother had passed away the morning before; I was driving down to see my uncle and aunt, to be with family in a time of mourning. As I drove alone in the car, questions assailed me. Can I really believe that my grandmother lives again? That I will see her one day? That eternity is real? That God is real? Again, doubts crept into my mind. I already tend towards doubt. I doubt whether or not I locked the door, turned off the stove, made the right choice, and so on. But this doubting was much more serious than that. Was my grandmother, whose body I would see a few days later at the viewing, really alive? Could I believe the teachings of Scripture? Was God in fact real? (Can we be this honest with each other, ladies? These were the thoughts going through my mind.) 

To counter these doubts, I went over the defense of God’s existence in my mind. I said to myself, “OK, Amy, list out the evidence of God’s existence.”  I went over the witness of creation itself, the sense of right and wrong that each of us are born with, and I had just gotten to thinking about the witness of the disciples as they gave their lives for what they had seen (the risen Christ), when I looked up at a billboard. The words on this billboard were the following: “There is evidence for God.” The word ‘is’ was underlined. Once again, God’s assurances met me in the midst of my doubt. This was another Ebenezer moment -- a moment in which I knew that, more than a billboard to a lost world, this was God speaking to me. He knew I would be driving down I-75 that day and He knew the thoughts that would be going through my mind on that specific stretch of the interstate. And He said, “Yes, Amy, I am real. I do exist; and I care enough about you to have someone post this billboard on the interstate for you.”

No, God does not always work in those kinds of miraculous ways in my life. In fact, it is very rare that such dramatic things happen. Many times my questions are unanswered or I don’t hear God’s voice. But, it is in those times, that I can go back to my Ebenezer moments, my “stones of remembrance”, and remember that God is real and that He cares.

What are YOUR Ebenezer moments? Do you keep track of them? Do you remind yourself of them in difficult times? The Old Testament is full of commands to remember what God has done in the past. May we remember; and may those memories give us assurance when times are hard.

--Amy O'Rear

Living my Life in One Hour

Living my Life in One Hour

I’ve been going through old piles and boxes of paper in recent days.  Retirement has freed me to get some things done that have been neglected for a long time.  Progress, however, has been slow, especially since I found many letters from and to my grandparents and my parents and other family members.  I also laughed and cried reading letters from my children through the years.  I wept through the letters of encouragement sent from a friend who has shared my difficult years.  Mihai Eimnescu wrote, “You take old letters from a crumpled heap and in one hour have lived your life again.”  So I have been living a part of my life again.

            In today’s world of texting and short emails--one of my brothers insists that emails should be one short paragraph on one subject only--I mourn the loss of letters, written by hand or typed, pretty stationary or scraps of paper.  My brother insists that he has saved all his emails, but will he ever go back and read them?  My son insist that he saves all of his texts, but the only illustration he could come up with of going back to them was replaying old videos of his daughter on his phone.  I replay some of those videos too, but those do not have the effect of a letter.

            Alice Steinbach said, “A letter is always better than a phone call.  People write things in letters they would never say in person.  They permit themselves to write down feelings and observations using emotional syntax far more intimate and powerful than speech will allow.  Other letters simply relate the small events that punctuate the passage of time:  roses picked at dusk, the laziness of a rainy Sunday, a child crying himself to sleep.  Capturing the moment, these small slices of life, these small gusts of happiness, move me more deeply than all the rest.  A couple of lines or eight pages, a Middle Eastern stamp or a suburban postmark. . . I hoard all these letters like treasure.” 

            I feel the same.  The letters from my mother entertained me with the stories of my little sister’s antics.  I never lived at home with her, so these were snippets of her personality I never would have known.  My grandmother in her letters loved me, bragged on me, encouraged me, stimulated me spiritually, showed concern for my health, expressed interest in my friends (especially if they were young men!), shared her activities, and even shared her dreams and frustrations.  All of these and more are the story of my life.

            Goethe, the German writer of many years ago said that “Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.”  I have been pondering the letters I have both sent and received in my lifetime.  I have realized that these have been fewer and fewer.  So, one of the things I want to do in this new stage of life is write letters—to my children, to my grandchildren, to family members, to friends, to acquaintances.  Perhaps God will even show me strangers I need to write to.

            What kind of written memorial will you be leaving to those who will still be here when your life is done?  Will there be evidence of your great love for them?  Will there be evidence of God’s greater love for them?  Where are your letters?

                                                                                    ~~Faith Himes Lamb

Imaginary Horribles

One of my school teachers was a bit quirky and just scary enough to keep even junior high boys on their toes. He was the only teacher who insisted on being called by his nickname, but we did show respect to him, always. He didn’t take any guff. Nor did he take excuses. If excuses were offered or worries expressed, he would mutter something about “imaginary horribles.” He never explained that; he just muttered about it, but the thought has stayed with me for the rest of my life, and I have since found many of them.

Imaginary horribles are always future, of course, because all past horribles are real. But the thing with imaginary horribles is that they almost never come to pass.

Imaginary horribles descend on us in flocks when we are trying to make a huge decision, that is, a decision with lifelong consequences. We worry that this may happen, or that may not happen, or vice versa. Some really important action won’t work out, or someone will be upset and destroy a relationship, or we may get hurt or lost or broke. Or…

Before we moved to a new place, we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get a job and support ourselves.

Before we adopted bi-racial children, we wondered if our relatives would accept them/us.

Before we moved to a new neighborhood, we were concerned with whether it was safe.

And what happened? We got the needed jobs, the grandparents loved the babies, and the neighborhood was wonderful. Not a single one of our imaginary horribles actually happened.

Before we made decisions for our children, we thought about all the things that could possibly go wrong. Well, we didn’t actually think about all of them, because kids can make more stuff go wrong than parents can ever imagine. And that’s the point. The reality of things going wrong rarely has anything to do with our imaginary horribles. 

We waste so much emotional energy on things that may never come to pass and sometimes don’t deal effectively with the things that do happen.

Imaginary horribles cripple our ability to think clearly and plan effectively. They frighten us out of trusting the Lord.

One of the biggest problems with our imaginations is that they naturally tend toward evil. Almost from the beginning, in Genesis 6, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God started over with Noah and his family, and, shortly, He had the same problem. Jeremiah’s writings contain repeated and repeated warnings to man regarding “the imagination of his evil heart.”

If you can imagine, God knew that would happen. If you can imagine, He addressed the problem ahead of time. And, would you believe, He showed us how to deal with it, before it ever happened.

God’s solution?

 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3: 5, 6, ESV

II Cor 10:5 talks about, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” GNV

Imagine that – controlling our own thoughts, bringing them to a place of obedience to our Savior, trusting God.

If anyone in history had the right to sink into the Slough of Imaginary Horribles, it was Mary the mother of Jesus, when the angel informed her that she would become pregnant with God’s child. Being stoned to death was a possibility under Jewish law; being divorced by her betrothed was a likelihood. Being shunned by society was almost a certainty. Yet she refused to allow these not-so-imaginary horrible possibilities to affect her choices. She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38 ESV She must have known Proverbs 3:5 and 6. At least, she lived it.

--Lynda Shenefield

Quiet and Confident

One of my former students is facing some unexpected changes. I've been praying for this young person and thinking about what words might be helpful. As it turns out, the words God led me to are also encouraging to me. I'm betting you'll be blessed as well.

As I worked around in my kitchen Saturday morning, the scripture that came to mind was this:

"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." I had to use google, but found the verse. It's Isaiah 30:15. In the context, the prophet is reminding God's people of important principles--specifically that "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

This verse has resonated with me over and over. For those of us returning to the classroom after a break, quietness and confidence are what we need. For those looking for a job in an uncertain time, quietness and confidence; for the friend with unexpected health needs, quietness and confidence.

Quietness means we don't fuss and fret, telling God what's what and how to fix it. We don't rant and rave to the world around us. We keep quiet. We trust that God is in control. We have confidence not in ourselves but in our great God. It's not a call to complacency or laziness but to faith.

In Psalm 46, God declares, "Be still and know that I am God." He reminds us that "his mercy is everlasting" (Psalm 100:3). The prophet Jeremiah observed that  "[t]he LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD" (Lamentations 3:25-26).

The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy that "God has not given us a spirit of fear" (II Timothy 1:7), and Jesus himself told the disciples, "Peace I leave with you" (John 14:27). That sounds like quietness and confidence to me!

Whatever you are facing--even if it's just another Monday--put your trust in the LORD. That is where your strength comes from.

--Sherry Poff

Not Worth It?

There’s an old saying,”Hard work pays off in the long run.” But some jokester added, “but procrastination pays off right now.” Ha-ha, ain’t that the truth?

Sometimes I set unattainable goals. Often these lofty ideas disappear when I discover the money, time, or energy isn’t worth the payoff. 

Next spring, I hope to run a half-marathon, but I wonder if in the dead of winter, I will think it worth it? Will the dream of that achievement be enough to carry me into the cold and gloom day after day? If I can hang tough, the hard work and “trials” will make the success all the sweeter. Right?

But then, there’s the value factor. If I placed “half-marathon” on one side of a scale and “effort” on the other, would they balance? If not, likely I will fail.

And let’s not forget the delayed-gratification factor. The half-marathon is seven months away. Can I maintain my enthusiasm that long? I will have to keep the vision of that day in front of me continuously in one form or another. I will have to pace myself and train in stages. If I don’t, I will fail.

Eternal rewards also require focus, endurance, and pacing. If we soak ourselves in God’s Words, we begin to value what He values. One day at a time, God fills us with His Spirit and helps us endure. He instructs us on which path to take to accomplish His will. And one day, it will be worth it all.

Paul encouraged Timothy to “be prepared in season and out of season,” and he led by example:

II Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

joyce hague