You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
Yep,that’s my roll out of bed time 5 days a week and nope, I’m not very fond of that early hour, at least for having to wake up and start my day but I will have to say it has become quite the most tenderly spiritual part of my day. You see, I spend the first ten minutes of the morning going outside with our 3 dogs so they can do their morning business since we have not succeeded in indoor potty training. 
I am enveloped in the peaceful vastness of God’s glorious creation and feel as though it is He and I alone for that brief time. That’s when His Word comes alive to me, right in my own front yard. When I see the ground covered with dew I am reminded of Exodus 16 when God rains down bread from heaven that covers the ground each morning and feeds the Israelites in the desert for forty years.
I look up at the moon, which when it’s full, I feel as though I could reach up and hold it in my hands feeling God’s glorious light touching my face. I am reminded that we are to be a light in this dark world and shine for Him. The stars are radiantly dancing in the sky that is so vibrant out here where the air is more clear and I am in awe that He knows every star in the the universe, His universe, as He placed them there Himself. The sheer beauty of His galaxy often takes my breath away!
Some mornings I feel the wind softly tickling my face (and sometimes not so softly) and I remember studying Acts 2 where during the Pentecost the winds blew strong from heaven and many were filled with the Holy Spirit as we are today when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.
A rooster in the far distance bids me good morning and I think of Jesus telling Peter that He will disown His Lord three times before the rooster crows. I try sometimes to think of the agony that must have gone through Peter’s mind when that actually happened to Him.
I take a few moments on the front porch to stretch my body, waking up my muscles and preparing for the day and I think of the precious gift of my body as a temple and how I need to take better care of my temple (and not eat that chocolate in the candy bowl on our secretary’s desk today and make myself hit the gym after work).
The dogs, better known as “my girls” come scampering up the steps past me ready to go back inside and curl up on the bed by my husband who is still sound asleep 
and the thought runs through my mind of what Noah must have experienced as he stood in the doorway of the ark and observed so many animals passing by him as they entered the ark, man and animal surviving the flood together.
As I take in the morning once again before I dismiss this quiet time of my own private worship, I glance at the corner of our yard where the street light throws a shadow on the posts that holds our street sign and the reflection of a cross lays out for me that fills my heart full of love and gratitude of God’s endearing love for us to give up His Son and the sacrifice that was made for me to wash away my sins so I may have eternal life in the Kingdom…..I can only imagine.
November pulls on my heartstrings each year, especially Thanksgiving. It’s the birth month of my Dad and it has especially hit me hard this year because I am the same age my Dad was when he suddenly died of a massive heart attack 21 years ago.He was 56 and on my next birthday, Lord willing, I will have lived longer than he did. I miss him deep down to the bone and my heart still aches to see the expression of love his face displayed when he talked to any of us five children.
I was 22 years young when my boyfriend and I were absorbed in the autumn majesty as we were tooling down the highway on his motorcycle before indulging in his Mom’s tasty Thanksgiving meal when we were suddenly hit head on by a drunk driver changing everyone’s Thanksgiving plans for the day. We both ended up in the hospital that day instead of sitting down to a turkey dinner.
Ten months later after four surgeries on my left leg and recovering from a back injury also, my mom was helping me clean up one nasty leg from just getting my last cast taken off (yep, wore casts for 10 whole months) when she looked up at me from where she was sitting on the floor, holding that precious leg I almost lost, in her gentle hands and told me how she looked forward to a more peaceful Thanksgiving that year. She had her peaceful Thanksgiving, she died that Thanksgiving morning from menengitis, totally unexpected at the young age of 42. Our family were all too numb and in shock to even think about eating turkey that day. I miss her deep down to the bone and my heart still aches as I yearn for those cherished mother daughter conversations and hearing her pray for all of her children as I fell asleep every night.
James 1 in the Bible teaches us to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds because we know the testing of our faith develops perseverance. The motorcycle accident was a pivotal point in my life, I ended up in a career in the medical field instead of fashion merchandising. It has been quite the mission field for me and work that has been rewarding for me.
I had a wonderful childhood with parents that loved their five children with all their hearts and taught us many life lessons that were instilled deep in our hearts and fond fabulous memories that bring warmth to our hearts and tender smiles to our faces when we share those memories with others. I have persevered through and from those trials. I know there will always be more of them.
Hum….pure joy……… a great career, wonderful parents, a relationship with my Savior, eternal life in The Kingdom.
Happy Thanksgiving? For me it’s more like Joyous Thanksgiving!!
I hope you all experienced a joyous Thanksgiving this year.
When I was in the 3rd grade, one day the kids started talking about how rich their daddy’s were and when they looked at me expecting an answer, I had a blank look on my face. I had no idea, we never talked about that in our family. I wasn’t even sure what rich meant. I went home with my head hung low after being made fun of for not being in the “rich daddy” click.
That night after dinner when my Dad was relaxed in his recliner I walked up to him and ask him if we were rich. He looked into my little inquisitive eyes without saying anything. Then he reached down and pulled me up into his lap, brushed my hair out of my face with his kind hand and looked straight into my eyes with a smile on his face and said “yes,baby, we’re rich”. I looked into his eyes as if there were more to the statement and he squeezed me with a big hug and said”but we’re rich with love and that’s a whole lot better than being rich with money”.
I walked into school the next morning with my head held up so high I could have touched the ceiling with my chin, basking in the knowledge that yep, we were rich but in the best kind of way. I have never forgotten that moment and it has carried me through all of these years.
Our pastor has been teaching a series of messages on the simplicity of living life back in the days of a more simple life using clips from the Andy Griffith Show as his part of his message. It has been an awesome series. This morning he showed a clip where Opie did the same thing I did at about the same age…”Pa,are we rich?” Andy gave an answer close to what my Dad did many years ago and it warmed my heart to hear it and brought back a tender moment for me.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 teaches us about true contentment in this life and no it’s not from being rich with money.
Thank you Daddy, thank you Andy Griffith , thank you Pastor Steve and thank you Heavenly Father for the impact you have made in my life. I am richly blessed!
Friday was an emotional day for us at work. We perform annual cardiac caths on heart transplant patients to make sure their arteries look okay, their heart pressures are still good and we take biopsies of their heart to make sure they are not in rejection of their donor heart. We see these patients so often that we become attached to them and their families.
So, one of our “family members” was told that his arteries were in pretty bad shape in his 10 year transplanted heart and there was nothing else that could be done for him. He was told not to drive a car anymore because he could drop dead at any time and possibly kill someone else. The doctor told us all to tell the patient goodbye because we would not see him again. So, it was pretty tough thing to do. The patient has accepted Jesus as his Savior so he knows where he is going and as I held his hand he told me if he dies tomorrow he has had a blessed life.
I wondered all the way home from work that day..how would I feel if I had been told I could drop dead at any time now. What would I do with the short time I had left here on earth. I thought about Jesus and His last days in His earthly body . He knew his days were numbered and what He had to face and what He had to do in that short time. I wonder how He felt besides what we know from scripture. I feel like we too often take for granted the short time we all have left here on earth. James 4:14 tells us that we are just a vapor that’s here for a short while and then vanishes and we should live the Lord’s will in our lives. This will be my prayer for that heart transplant patient and for myself also.
