Love this meme! Fits nicely with our Oklahoma summers! 🙂
“…Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.” Song of Solomon 4:1 (NIV)
My family took another hit this past week as we had another death in the family. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we lost my cousin. This past week we lost the matriarch of our family, my 92 year old grandmother. Though her death was very difficult, there was still a lot of peace and comfort in her passing because we know she was the epitome of a godly woman who lived a long and rewarding life leaving behind a magnificent legacy. Now she is with her Jesus, a long awaited dream of hers.
“For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.” Isaiah 57:2 (NLT)
There are so many things that come to mind when I think of my grandma, so many things from which we all could learn. She totally rocked the whole Proverbs 31 thing! As I’ve discussed before, these are not just important character traits for women. She was very family-oriented, and she loved her husband deeply. She had a great love for people and welcomed them with open arms, even the sometimes unlovable or those who occasionally made poor life choices. Forgiveness and generosity were in her nature. She had a gentle, quiet spirit.
“You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” 1 Peter 3:4 (NLT)
Most importantly though, my grandma loved Jesus with all of her heart. I think her greatest desire was for her family to share that love of God.
I saw this funny meme on an Instagram post. Pretty accurate I’d say! 🙂
“Then they will call to me but I will not answer…” Proverbs 1:28 (NIV)
Recently, I’ve come to learn that comfort is a word where its meaning has evolved over the years. Its original meaning might not necessarily correlate to how we often use and view it today. Not that our current use of the word is incorrect…but maybe it has an even deeper meaning.
I stumbled across this perspective of the word comfort in a reading plan that I started in my YouVersion Bible app last week. I started a plan called “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”. I’ve been a Christian long enough to know that we can’t always explain things that happen, even though inside our innermost being we just can’t help but to wonder WHY at times.
I was in one of those “why” modes last week. These moments for me are typically short-lived because I know I’m not guaranteed an answer on this side of heaven. However, I still find myself indulging in them from time to time…hence why I looked up and started the reading plan about God not making sense.
A little over a week ago, we had a very difficult death in our family. My cousin’s wife passed away after a very long health battle. She was very young, only in her 30’s, and the mother of 2 small children. Honestly, I didn’t know her well at all, but I know enough from other family members to know that she was a godly woman. The family has been believing for her healing and recovery for quite some time now.
Her family recently uprooted their lives and relocated to Minnesota to be near the Mayo Clinic where she was being treated. She had been awaiting a liver transplant. After numerous false alarms, they finally found a match. Unfortunately, on the day of her surgery—the day that everyone had been waiting and praying for…the day that was supposed to be a happy day—she passed away. That’s not how it was supposed to go. That’s not the ending we had all been praying for.
I think this squirrel hangs out at my house too at the feeder by the back door. Lucy always stays on guard though to tell him the food is for the birds NOT squirrels! 🙂
“They all ate the same spiritual food” 1 Corinthians 10:3 (NIV)
Recently I’ve been feeling some empathy for caregivers, not because I’m personally in that position but because I have family members and friends who are. I see many of them suffering silently (and some not so silently!) as they care for ailing loved ones. The mixed emotions are evident as it is apparent that they deeply love who they care for, yet they themselves experience such fatigue and frustration and maybe even some feelings of failure. I’ve seen where it’s sometimes so hard to offer compassion and then the guilt that immediately follows. What a rollercoaster of emotions these caregivers must ride.
My dad has had his fair share of medical problems (and that’s putting it lightly). Several years ago he was having some serious health problems. My mom has always been his primary caregiver. During this time, a friend of mine and I were having a conversation, and she was inquiring more about my mom than my dad which I thought was odd. My mom wasn’t the one with the major health problems at the time—my dad was.
However, she went on to explain something that I hadn’t thought of prior to that. She said, oftentimes people focus more on the patient, and the caregiver gets neglected (by others AND by themselves). She went on to say how many times when the caregivers are neglected, they end up being worse off than the patient in both physical and emotional health, especially if they are older or have any health problems of their own.
I’ve learned that caregivers have a higher risk of stress and medical problems, in addition to the emotional and mental turmoil on top of that. In light of that, this week I’d like to give you a prayer for caregivers.
Lord, help me remember I am doing your work.
Help me to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love.
Help me to live out and embody the fruit of the Spirit showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Enable me to see them through your eyes.
Help me to have compassion as you did and to follow your example.
Ease my burden and provide times of rest and refreshment.
Give me the energy necessary to fulfill my tasks.
Grant me the strength and extra grace to be able to handle things I might not normally be able to handle.
Help me not to lose my joy and give me moments of laughter.
In moments of frustration help me to be slow to anger and to refrain from letting any anger or frustration give a foothold to the devil or lead to any sin.
Comfort me as I mourn what I have lost.
Fill me up with your love so that I’m so full that your love overflows out of me–I do not have the sufficiency to pour this out of my own supply so I need YOUR supply.
Thank you for supplying all of my needs according to your riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
Help me to just be your conduit and means through which you work and help me to remember that it’s you THROUGH me.
Thank you for trusting me with this role of caring for another.
My dog Lucy is half crazy. Who knew strawberries could be so scary!?
“But when they saw it, they were stunned; they were terrified and ran away.” Psalm 48:5 (NLT)
Hello friends!
I apologize for the delay in my post this week. This week I’m actually going to push an easy button, and give you a link to a post I wrote a few years ago. I have several new subscribers, so I thought I’d do a masterpiece throwback to one of my original posts that most of my newer subscribers probably have not seen yet.
This post is called You Are a Masterpiece. Even if you have already read this, we could all use a refresher about how God sees us, right!?
You Are a Masterpiece!
Additionally, here’s a video of me speaking on this same topic at a women’s conference in 2015. I spoke there to share about seeing yourself the way God sees you. My goal during this session was to help you learn about insecurities and how to start to overcome them, how to find your identity in Christ, and to give some practical steps to start to improve your self-esteem and self-talk.
P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy receiving new posts delivered right to your inbox each week! Sign up here.
If you know anyone that could benefit from this, please pay it forward! Share this post via the sharing links below. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
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