Hard Choices

We had a wonderful experience last night.

One of our grandchildren, Mason, was baptized. His dad did the honors. Although that was wonderful, even more exciting was the baptism of a young woman from Afghanistan. She had come to this country with her family when she was very young. Her family is Muslim. Her grandmother prays five times a day. And this young lady, after four hard years (she didn't say what had happened during those years), decided to give her life to Christ. The preacher asked her if she was sure. Her answer, "It's time."

She can't go to Afghanistan again or she will be killed. She is probably cut off from her family.

How easy for us to make our spiritual decisions. How hard for some.

Do we have any hard choices to make?

The next time I think I have a hard one, I'll remember this young lady and her courage.

Thanks for the Memories.....

It's been awhile since I've had time to do anything on the computer. The past few days went by so fast--much too fast when you're surrounded by people you love.

Both my daughters and their families came the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The star of the show was fourteen month old Amiyah, of course. Reid's son, Joe, and his family were in town, too, so we got to see them and their two year old, Jaiden. Love those little girls!

We had dinner for 16 at our house Thursday. Ate and watched football--a typical Thanksgiving for my family. I don't think Reid's family is as sports conscious as mine always was. But I've converted him, and he likes to watch as much as the rest of us.

Everyone was gone by nine-thirty yesterday morning. We dragged around all day cleaning the house, doing laundry and putting the house back the way it was. Quiet. Empty except for the two of us. We sent as much of the food as possible home with everyone, so there's not much of that left either.

I remember the years we spent driving from Amarillo (Lubbock, Plainview and El Paso) to my grandparent's home in Memphis, Texas, on Christmas Eve. Family in every nook and cranny of their house. I never thought about how empty the house must have seemed after we all left after Christmas. Maybe Mamaw was glad to get her house back in order, but maybe it seemed too quiet.

Good memories. Bittersweet--just like these past few days. We'll look at the pictures and remember the precious granddaughter and great granddaughter, and wish we could be with them every day to see them grow and change.

Better go before I start bawling.

Thank Him Anyway

With family here and more coming, the next few days will be busy ones. We'll have about 17 here for dinner.

If all our plans materialize, this holiday will be the first we've spent with my two girls and their families since we got married. The last time I was with both of them was at Christmas in 1997, the first holiday after my husband's death. I couldn't face the holiday alone and got up a family outing to Disneyland. We had a great time, but when I got back home, I still had to grieve.

I learned from that experience that you can't force or escape certain experiences that are bound to happen. Last Christmas I tried to force a family holiday. It didn't materialize and became one of the saddest holidays in my memory. I didn't try to force this holiday reunion. A few weeks ago it began to fall into place.

If all goes as planned, and sometimes plans fall apart, I'll thank God.
If it falls apart--well, I hope I have the good sense to thank God then, too.

I hope your holiday is filled with whatever floats your boat--and there are no leaks to sink it. Even if there are, I hope you'll still be thankful.

God, Family, and Good Health

After ten days of detoxing/sinusitis/coughing/sneezing/blowing---you name it, I finally feel like a human again.

I woke up this morning and decided I'm tired of being sick, tired of feeling puny and tired of looking like it. I washed my hair (I have washed my hair before this), dressed and am ready to greet the family for the holiday.

One of Reid's sons, Joe, his wife Jenny and their daughter Jaiden will fly in from North Carolina on Sunday. Both my daughters, Jo Lynn and Sherri, Sherri's husband John, two grandsons, Cory and Taylor and great granddaughter Amiyah will come Wednesday. While they are all here, we'll be able to get with Dave, Lorraine, Mason, Jade, Reagan, Pierce and Thatcher--the son and his family who live here. What a fun time is ahead!

God, family and good health. That's what life is all about. And this Thanksgiving those are the things I'm thankful for.

God's Answer

A couple of days ago I wrote a blog and in it, I said I had asked God for His opinion about a subject. Yesterday afternoon I received an email from a friend who gets daily emails from www.heartlight.org. Many times she forwards them to me. I think she must have read my blog and that's why she sent this one.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Jeers of the Cruel Condemners

Some of the people there spit at Jesus. They covered Jesus' eyes and hit him with their fists. They said, "Be a prophet and tell us who hit you!" Then the guards led Jesus away and beat him. -- Mark 14:65 (ERV)

KEY THOUGHT: I never cease to be amazed at the thoughtless cruelty that human beings can inflict on each other. No wonder that we human beings needed a Savior who would bear our insults, our violence, our injustice, and our humiliation.

TODAY'S PRAYER: O loving Father, my stomach turns at the inhumanity and senseless violence that permeates the world in which I find myself. Forgive us.. forgive me ... forgive our propensity for returning violence for violence and our willingness to inflict violence even when there is no rational need to do so. Redeem our time and our world through the powerful reminder of your Son, who bore our sins and carried our sorrows while under the most inhuman and violent abuse. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

This is answer enough for me.

Sleep

I haven't heard anything from God about yesterday's post, so let's move on to something lighter.

Sleep.

As a person who has had trouble sleeping in the past, I do not believe we can do without it.

Studies show that sleep is as important to our health as diet and exercise. We need between 71/2 and 8 hours of sleep every night. The dreams we have work out our subconscious thoughts, categorize them and sluff off the least important. Keeps us from going crazy.

A recent study at the University of Chicago School of Medicine restricted the sleep of young, healthy test subjects to four hours for six consecutive nights. At the end of that time, tests showed that each of the subjects was already in a pre-diabetic state. Lack of sleep caused a drop in levels of leptin, a hormone that tells our brains when we aren't hungry. (When the students were allowed to sleep normally, their health was reversed)

In our society we believe the lie that our true worth is in what we produce. Because of that belief we quit "wasting time" sleeping. Then the wheels come off and we slog on physically and emotionally as if through molasses. Also, the person will be fat and sick. Does that sound like something we want?

Being sleep-deprived is awful. I speak from experience. On the days after not sleeping at all or much the night before, I could hardly function. No writing. No talking coherently. Just sit and eat. Grumpy, mood swings, "hell on wheels" is a good description of the chronically sleep-deprived. On top of the risk factor for diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and stoke can be linked to sleep deprivation.

I've heard that Einstein only slept four hours a night and was a genius. I don't know that for a fact since he isn't here to tell us. After someone in a minister's family died, his young daughter was so worried that someone else in her family would die that she couldn't sleep. She went into her big brother's room and he told her, "You can sleep because God stays awake." God doesn't sleep but he wants us to so He can do within us what we can't do for ourselves.

How Does God See This?

We watched a Barbara Walters special the other night and I've been thinking about it since then. I know many people who read this will not agree with the subject, but what I have to say isn't about what is right or what is wrong.

I'll begin by saying that I know what the Bible says about homosexuality. Once that's out of the way, I want to go on to something deeper.

Barbara interviewed the "pregnant man" and his/her wife, who is lesbian. If you haven't heard about him/her, this man was born a girl. He never felt like a girl and always wanted to be a boy. In adulthood he fell in love with a woman and decided to become a man. He had his breasts removed and started taking testosterone. He looks like a man. Since he still had his reproductive organs, he stopped taking testosterone and was impregnated with sperm and became pregnant. This couple now has a baby girl. He didn't start back on the testosterone and now is pregnant again. He is one of about 35 men who have had babies. The others (from what the show said) just didn't become public like he has.

My dilemma about this isn't whether he is right or wrong, or whether their lifestyle is right or wrong. They have received horrible, ugly, hate-filled letters, emails and phone calls. I want to know exactly how God sees this? I believe God loves these people. Don't give me that old thing that God loves the sinner and hates the sin. That doesn't cut it. Those are just words. The most scathing language on record from the lips of Jesus was not directed at adulterers, homosexuals or others whose sexual behavior he regarded as ethically wrong. It was against self-righteous religionists. Those people then and religious people today, are some of the most intolerant people on the globe. Bigotry and hatred are evil. Fanaticism in the name of the Christian religion is both malevolent and dangerous.

So, how does God see all this? He certainly has forever been aware of it. These two people were so happy and their baby seems normal. Her family has opened their arms to them, but his has not. They have nothing to do with him. Is that right?

I haven't told you what I really think about all this because I honestly don't know. I do know I wouldn't send them hate mail, and I wouldn't shun them. Because they're so alone in the world, I just might love them more.

I want to know how God feels about this. I've asked Him. If He tells me, I'll let you know.