A Time for Everything

Ecc 3:2  "He sets the time for birth and the time for death..."

The other morning we received a phone call at 6a.m.  Calls that come at that time are usually not the calls you like to receive.

A friend's mother, Anna, had had a heart attack and was not expected to live.  And here it is it 4 days later and she is still alive.  Could it be because she is terrified to die?  That's what she said before they sedated her with morphine.  She comes out of a denomination that has instilled in her an unhealthy fear of God.  That God is waiting for her with a "big stick" to punish her.  

I don't know much about Anna's life but what I do know is sad.  Her children are a testimony of that.  Out of 9 children only a few even care.  Seriously!!  Some were offered a chance to talk to her over the phone and they declined because they held bitterness and unforgiveness toward her.


Bitterness and unforgiveness are serious matters and so ugly.  My heart goes out to this family because of the terrible relationship between the children and their mother.  And lest you think these are young children they are not.  My friend is in her 60's and her mother is almost 90.  The children are all adults with grown children and even grandchildren.  And it continues through the generations as many of these children have horrible relationships with their children.

Some friends and I were able to go to the hospital a few days ago. I am thankful to have had the chance to speak Truth to Anna.  To let her know she is loved by God.  That she has direct access to Jesus and doesn't have to go through a priest.  That He loves her and wants her as His very own.  That He will forgive her.  Even now!!!

We left the hospital with peace that we did what He wanted us to do.  We prayed over her....we sang to her...we loved on her...we spoke Truth to her.  And even though she was medicated I KNOW her spirit could hear.  And I pray she could connect with the Truth of God's Word.


It may be too late for Anna to mend her relationship with her children....but there is still a chance she can mend her relationship with Jesus.  He's standing at the door....waiting for us to open it....I hope Anna did.

Autumn

 Yesterday I went to the Arboretum.  Autumn is one of those seasons that can be very beautiful and  yet a bit depressing.  Beautiful because the leaves are changing colors and depressing because the leaves are falling and soon the trees will be bare.  Of course here in Texas you never know if the trees will turn a pretty color or not.  Right now they aren't doing much of anything.

God is so creative!  Even in a season when I think of things dying He created some things to live and flourish during this time.  Here are a few creations of His....

 

 

Getting pictures of plants is a lot easier than of my granddaughter.  I'm sure it didn't help that she was not feeling well and was tired. And no....I couldn't get that little bugger to look at the camera...But I sure enjoyed spending the day with her.

Tonight I went to the hospital to visit a woman in the Autumn of her life.  Such a different scenario than the Arboretum....and one I need to share about when I have the time.

What to do?? What to do??

Tomorrow is my middle son's birthday.  He will be 13!  With six children we don't do a lot of big birthdays, especially since four of those children's birthdays fall within a month of each other.  However we do like to do something "special" for the 13th.  The question is though....what will we do?

For child #1 we did a surprise party at our home which turned into a traumatic event when she and one of her friends crashed her go-kart and had to go to the hosptital.

For child #2 we went to the lake with his best friends family and got to go sailing on a friends sailboat.

For child #3 we had a special mom and me tea party with her friends.

For child #4 we traveled to Tulsa to see the last American Idol concert from season 7.  We are big fans of Jason Castro and there were some other friends who were driving up and that's what my daughter wanted to do so she and her sister drove up with me.  We stayed at a hotel overnight and our friends bought tickets for us to attend the concert

Now it's time for Child #5 and I've been trying to plan a surprise party.  The original plan was to have everyone come to our home and we'd have a campfire outside and watch an outdoor movie.  But the weather is calling for thunderstorms.  So, a friend of mine offered her home and we'd have some Wii competition and also have the movie for the ones who wanted to watch it. 

Now I don't know what we are doing.

Last night there were 5 sick people in this house.  Stomach virus...need I say more??. My grandbaby is in the hospital being treated for dehydration because of this virus. So it looks like his birthday will be postponed till a later date.  According to the dr. this virus lasts around a week. 

Poor guy....what a way to turn 13.

It's Been Awhile....

No more promises of new blogs.  Seems like the more I promise to get back to writing the less inclined I am to do so.  I think it's because I feel limited in what I can write about.  Not sure why but that feeling is there anyways.  I just need to move past that and write.

So much happens in our lives and it's nice to have a diary of sorts to reflect back upon.  I love reading others blogs and yet I slack on my own.  There really is a season to everything.  I'm not promising more writing but I am hoping to get past the insecurity of what to write and which picture to post and in the spirit of Nike...Just Do It!!

So with no further adieu....here is something that happened last night.  I can laugh about it all now but last night I must admit I got a little hot under the collar.

I was putting the boys to bed and it was time to put on the music.  They switch nights on it being a "radio" night or a "cd" night.  Last night was a cd night, however, I misunderstood and put on the radio.  It didn't take long before I was made aware of my mistake. But before I switched it off I heard part of a song and realized it was a voice I knew very well....BUT had NEVER heard on the radio before.  I got all excited and went running out into the living room to let my girls know that Jason was on the radio....squee!!!!!

We started watching American Idol in season 6.  Jason Castro made his appearance in season 7 and we've been fans of his ever since.  Definitely something I'll have to blog about later.

Anyways...my girls stepped across the doorway into my boys room to listen to the radio.  Could we enjoy the ending of the song??  NO!!!  Why???  Because my 11 year old son had to make a big deal that the girls have entered into the room without permission.  I say to him...."Be quiet!  We just want to listen to this song on the radio."  Does he quiet down?  NO!!!  He is like the energizer bunny....and keeps on going and going and going.

I had gotten so frustrated that he would not do as I asked after numerous times asking him.... that I told him it made me want to slap him.  Not one of my better mommy moments.  But.....  Does he quiet down??  NO!!!  He puts the pillow over his head and starts hollering about how I care more about the radio than him....[sigh]

All we wanted to do was catch the last 60 seconds of a song on the radio. What started out as something joyful quickly turned into something ugly....all because of disobedience.  However, it was a great teaching opportunity that I took advantage of this morning after we both had a night sleep and time to cool down.

Oh and in case you want to hear the song that was the "instigator" in this character training issue....listen to it here   You Are