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"Larry - come here - QUICK"...I belted out this morning at 5:30 am. He groggily opened his eyes and grunted, "What, come where, for what?" I panicked and commanded, "Just hurry and come!" It had been another day of storms and high winds, flash floods and tornado warnings. It had stormed all night with high winds and a wall of rain. We raced back into the living room of the motor home with our feet sloshing in water on the floor; I looked up and saw a stream of water pouring out of a cupboard.
I just had a rendezvous moment here... it is almost exactly 6 years ago, that we traveled to Kiln, MS and Picayune to hold a soul winning rally. It was a great day. The next day, Larry climbed a ladder up to the top of our 12 foot motor coach to fix a leaky vent. As I watched in dismay, Larry lost his balance, slipped off the top of the motor coach and hit the ladder. Oh yes, I guess I should tell you that, I was standing on the bottom step of that steel step-ladder in order to assist him. BOOM! The steel ladder collapsed under his 240 pounds. His impact acted like an ax, amputating my right foot at the ankle as the ladder snapped together.
What concerns me the most is the longer I serve God, walk with God, and the deeper my relationship grows with Him - do I carry a likeness of Him, a resemblance of His character? When people meet me do they associate my smile, my talk, my actions and integrity with my spiritual mate, Jesus Christ?
A couple of weeks ago I was determined to pull a box out of the attic and go through it. I blew the dust off the box, opened it up and there was a diary that I had when I was 12 years old, a sweater pin and necklace from my 11th birthday, a silk handkerchief my brother Glen gave me from Paris in1960, and many other treasured items. Amidst everything, I found bundles of letters that Larry wrote to me before we were married.
Give every dollar a name-mortgage, credit card bill, groceries, car repairs. Name them all. Once you have a plan and a purpose, you'll be well on your way to creating financial peace and changing your family tree forever!
The most interesting thing about any human being is the values by which he or she lives. The following "Daily Dozen" constitute a personal creed:
1. Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.
1. Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.
"And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7, NLT
Larry and I have now been married for 45 ½ years, and we have found that there are rules for marriage that help keep the garbage at bay if we diligently abide by them. Years ago, someone handed me a piece of paper with some "Rules for a Happy Married Life," that I have kept, utilized, and expanded.
This has been an unusual month also, but for different reasons. For us it's been with cancellations of services...not due to bad weather...but bad economy. It is really putting a financial drain and strain on the churches and many of them are struggling financially as the old saying goes, "Just to keep the lights on and the doors open." Many churches have had to cut staff, special guests (which is us) and special outreach events. It truly is sad for the churches and...unfortunate for us too, as we were in the canceled category.
Greetings from Florida! It's a beautiful sunshine day...now reaching 77 degrees...needless to say, a welcome change from the blizzards, blowing snow and negative 20 degree temperatures we've encountered in South Dakota for the past 6 weeks. Larry used the snow blower to get the driveway cleaned out so we could get out of town. We drove into Minneapolis last Thursday night just ahead of another impending blizzard.