A New Word for 2018... my word found me!

A New Word for 2018... my word found me!

...Now what about this year 2018? Well, my Word found me.

In the midst of some long-lasting, deep grief from life circumstances and relationships, my blood pressure has shot up again. It had been low and totally good for months and months. It was in the midst of this broken mess that my word came. I wasn't even looking for it.

 

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Post Christmas Comfort: Fear not...Emmanuel Still! (Part 1)

Post Christmas Comfort: Fear not...Emmanuel Still! (Part 1)

Now that gifts are unwrapped, the food at least half-eaten, the many emotions grabbing at us during the season fading, the loneliness getting deeper and the grief, abandonment, "being left out" -- all having left their wounds...and the dread of bills looming in the back of our minds. We feel lost! So enters in...fear!  Yes, fear!

God had set me up this year to think of fear...

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Processing and Praying about Aging

Processing and Praying about Aging

I recently visited an older friend who is in a rehab center. The purpose for his being there is a good one: recovery from repeated infections in order to prepare for other medical procedures. But my friend is fighting it every inch of the way ... Oh how sad. What a waste of the precious few moments left in his valuable life. 

But as I have been observing those older than me and listening to the stories of their care-giving loved ones,  I have to pause. Oh how I want to age graciously. I want to leave this earth speaking truth and living love.

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Grieving the Loss of the Living this Christmas

Grieving the Loss of the Living this Christmas

Scrolling through Advent/Christmas posts of the past, I came across this one that I wrote in December 2013.

A lot has happened in the four years that have passed since that writing. My sweet little "Mommy" has been at home with Jesus for two years already. My mother-in-law Betty Jean has also been with Jesus for a year. My husband John and I are four years older (I hit the big 7-0!) ... and feeling it on and off.

But I have younger friends who are now taking their turn saying their "slow good-by" to loved ones. So as a help and as a sharing of their tears as they "walk through the valley of the shadow," I'm posting this again.

This is for you, sweet ones. The path is filled with griefs as well as joys, but also with the realization of how few the moments of life left to share. But our God walks through it all with you. He's the God of all comfort!

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It's all Poop! At Christmas? At Anytime!

It's all Poop! At Christmas? At Anytime!

Our young grandSONS have gravitated toward potty humor at times. Not exactly the most pleasant addition to conversations and often difficult to curtail. But what can I say? This too shall pass, right? Well not yet ... 

Our darling grandson Carter has taken it to a whole new level.

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