It came natural for Mama to equally love all twelve of her demanding children. When I came along my two oldest brothers had left and two children had died.
Mama seemed to live in the kitchen, stirring up grub for hungry stomachs crowding the table.
Church was important to her. On Saturdays she prepared church clothes, cooked pies, and killed and cut up chickens for Sunday dinner. That evening she heated water on the stove for weekly baths in the kitchen.
If Nellie Watson didn't feel well, we never knew.
Most children don't appreciate the sacrifices their mothers make until they grow up.
I miss my godly mother.
Proverbs 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Though I tried to be the best mom, I have some regrets. To this day my grown children tell people that I poisoned them. Sorry, I thought the bologna was fresh. They threw up all afternoon. I felt bad.
I shouldn't have given five-year-old Penny a perm, wrapping her pretty long hair in small curlers. FRIZZY! "You ruined my hair," she cried. What was I thinking?
One time while cooking, I held toddler Laura on my hip because she had screamed to be held. Leaning forward, her little hand touched the red electric burner. I felt bad.
Chris likes to tell how I drove the car with one hand and reached between bucket seats, beating their legs with the other. I don't regret doing that. One time I stopped in an unfamiliar driveway and whipped them.
But I did one thing right--no, two. Gale and I taught them about Jesus and took them to church. And we loved them with all our hearts.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
God knows you better than you know yourself, your most personal and private moments, your intimate thoughts and what you say. He understands you.
Psalm 139:2,3 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
God knows what your need. In times of grief, He is there. He is there when you please Him and when you bring Him shame. His love seeks you out and attempts to draw you back.
And God guides you.
God walks the dark hills; the ways and the by ways
He walks through the billows of life's troubled sea
He walks through the cold dark night, the shadows of midnight
God walks the dark hills just to guide you and me
Audra Czarnikow
If I had one day to live, I would want to be found in my place of service, doing what The Lord has called me to do.
Psalm 84;10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
The safest, most peaceful place on earth is in your place of service. Whether you are sweeping the floor, welcoming people at the door, cleaning the toilets, praying for God's Spirit to anoint the preacher and touch hearts and save souls;
Whether your service is teaching, playing instruments, singing specials, keeping the nursery, taking out the trash, preaching your heart out, leading the youth, mowing the lawn, visiting the sick, giving your money, caring for the needy or loving everyone to pieces--do you God-called service for His glory.
Only Jesus can satisfy your soul, but first you must have a relationship with Him. You must humbly ask Him to come in your heart and forgive your sins. Totally believe He is the Son of God. Jesus gives spiritual contentment. Did you know that God will give you a song of joy in the night?
Psalm 32:7,8 . . . . thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
You will be content if you allow God to guide you, if you study your Bible and pray, if you sing or listen to gospel music.
Contentment splashes all over me when I plug my 1,800-gospel-song IPod in the car every time I leave the house.
If you are a Christian but there is sin in your life, confess it and forsake it. God will restore contentment.
If you are a Christian and you've lost your joy, allow Jesus to take first place in your heart and life.
Between the time we get saved and the day we go to heaven, there is a life to live. That is where Psalm 23 comes into play. Life isn't all gloom and doom if you know the Great Shepherd.
Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
The Great Shepherd knows that His sheep need the cool, clear waters of His grace to make it through this world.
The Great Shepherd "restoreth my soul"--brings back my wayward soul and sets me on the right path.
The Great Shepherd helps me face the valley of the shadow of death with peace and security.
In the worst of times The Lord spreads a table of His goodness before us, reminding us that we are precious in His sight, overflowing our blessing cup into the saucer.
Psalm 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
It is amazing that there is a place of solitude in a world filled with people. There is a place that you and I can flee to during the crushing battles that rage about us.
A place that affords us quiet, peace, and the profound presence of God.
Those who have learned to abide in Him have been to that place and know the glory of it.
It is a place where the enemy dares not follow. It is a place reserved for those who love The Lord their God.
Have you been to that place? That place where God meets with you and you alone. That place where all else falls away and you are left with Him and Him alone?
That is the place He invites those who abide to enter.
