Month: April 2022

How to See God’s Love for US

I know this isn’t an original thought, and I know someone else wrote about this just recently, because I saw it.  Every time I go out to walk the dog, or get in the car, I’m reminded.  Every time, I see it.  I feel it.

We all have needs, and yes, God provided for all our needs.  Food in abundance, ways to make shelters, others with which we can share our blessings, a variety of weather types to teach us to care for ourselves.

But God didn’t stop there.  All the plants He made could have reproduced without the glory of a flower, but He gave us a very special something!  Beauty!  He gave us a special blessing!  It cannot be called anything but a blessing!  A flower is a show, a gift only for our eyes, a glorious manifestation of God’s love for us.  There’s no other possible reason for them!  They are God’s gift for us every day!  And a constant reminder of blossoming of new life each spring.  Some glow with beauty all summer long, and some start again and bloom only in the fall seasons.

What a gift!  What a God we have!  If there’s any doubt in your heart of His love for us, understand flowers are for all of us!  The sinners and guilty, too, get this wonderful show, this manifestation of His love.

 

Looking for Love???

Heck, another night when I woke in the middle with a dream in my head still.  Also, an old song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places” was accompanying it.

Do the young totally misunderstand what love is?

Even if you ignore what the bible says love is, you should understand it’s not just a squishy feeling.  It something you DO!  It’s not words.  It’s not empathy.  It’s not what the left is selling, sex of any kind whatever.  Sex is not love.

Love is DOING what needs to be done for those you care for.  It’s supporting your children.  It’s providing for others, when they are in need.  It’s helping when you can.  It’s caring for aging relatives.  It’s doing what’s best for your community.

Back in ’62, my guy proposed one Saturday night in August, and I said, “Yes!”  Suffered all week not sure it was the right decision.  But I got a dress, shoes, veil, prepared my head, and did it.  The following Saturday, mind you that’s one week, we walked down the aisle at a local church and took our vows, and I meant it.

Astonishingly, that evening after a lovely small family reception, my new husband took me home.  In that week, he had borrowed money to get us an apartment, bought furniture, had it all set in place, and that’s where he took me.  Home.  My home.  Our home.

Who does that?  Today, what guys do something like that?  My dad had abandoned us.  Imagine if you can, how this affected me.  He DID something.  He DOES things every day, still, even though he’s almost 83, he DOES things for me.  He still provides for me everything I need, and more, so that I may provide things for others.

This is LOVE. It’s doing.  And it’s GOD, loving us.  Because that is what GOD teaches!  That is what God tells us to do.  Not take.  Not get.  GIVE.  Love is doing, and giving.  Even if it’s just your time.  Or listening.  Or your silence.

And I hate cooking, but for this guy, I’ll cook every day, and fix his ice cream,  too.

 

Mid Night Thoughts

I’m not saying midnight, I’m saying mid night, because it’s way past midnight.  But I can’t sleep.  And I’m not plagued by nightmares or scary things at all.  I can’t sleep because I have memories that are just too precious and wonderful not to mention.

My first was such a wonderful thing, and would sit wherever I put her, not wiggle around, not fall over, just sit and look around her, with wonder and delight in her tiny face!  If close to something, like a vase with flowers, she would reach out her tiny hand and touch it, so gently, as though to sense it’s beauty and her expression was as though she absorbed it.

I almost lost her once.  Colic drops caused her to choke.  Ignorant and unknowing mother that I was, either instinct or God took over in that instance, and I grabbed her by the feet, and held her upside down, patting strongly on her back.  I’d say it was God telling this dumb inexperienced mom what to do, because those drops came shooting out, and she screamed.

I cried.  I have no idea why God was with me that day, because I hadn’t given Him a thought in years, and yet I know now, He was there for us both that day.  Words cannot begin to express how something like that can make you feel.  There’s no way to describe many of the events of simple motherhood that I’ve experienced.

Sometimes, the memories I have of them beginning to walk, run, read, sing, put their arms around my neck and call me “Mom” are so overwhelming, I realize that that is what makes me happy, and that is why I still love this old guy who provided for us throughout it all, who must have been sent by God.  How else could it have happened?  There really is a loving God for whom I am so very grateful everyday for the love and experiences I’ve had.

And grandma, now that’s too sweet to even begin to describe.