Monthly Archives: August 2015

Being a Witness

Being a born again Christian, I am called to be a witness for Jesus Christ.  Being a witness is testifying that you believe on Him and that He leads your life.  If I have already lost some of you, I understand, but this is who I am and I must be truthful about my beliefs.

I have not always been a good witness, I am ashamed to admit.  I know there have been times people didn’t even know I was a believer because of my actions.  I am sorry for that.  Losing your witness is the worst thing that could happen to a Christian.

Through some tough circumstances and a realization that I cannot make it through this life without Jesus, I have recommitted my life to Him.  I try every single day to live my life as if it were my last day and that I will be coming face to face with Jesus.  How will He judge me?  I know He will be righteous, but if I got what I deserve, I would not be spending eternity in heaven.  Jesus took what I deserve on the cross so that I wouldn’t have to.  I should never, ever forget that and never stop being thankful for that.  To think that our God loved us enough that He sent His only Son to take our sins upon himself so that we might be saved.  The only thing God asks of us is that we accept His son for doing that.  How easy is that?  But people think they have to do all kinds of good things to get into heaven.  Good things are not what God is looking for(not that good things are bad or that God doesn’t want us to be good.)  What God is looking for is repentance of our sins, an acceptance of His son and a life lived for Him.

Every day I ask God to make me a good witness and a blessing to others.  I ask him how I could witness for Him and He always gives me an answer.  One day he grabbed me by the nape of my neck and took me to a Sunday school classroom in our church and said, “See, you are needed in this classroom to teach these little children about me.”  Okay, He didn’t literally do that, but at the time it seemed like it as I was not thinking about being a Sunday school teacher again as I had done it for decades and was taking a break.  There are no breaks with God when you are following Him.   Now I enjoy the little children so much and love each Sunday I am with them and I pray I am teaching them about the love of Jesus through my words and actions.

God sent me a clear sign this past week to be a witness.  I was asked to mentor a high school senior girl who wanted to make quilts for the Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.  I was not even thinking about it, but I had been asking God what I could do to serve Him.  Next think I knew, someone telephoned me and I was teaching a young girl how to sew and make quilts for children in the hospital.  Then I started making quilts  for them, too,  and got all enthused about it.  God amazes me sometimes in how He can get things done if we just ask Him for advice and listen to Him.

God has a plan for all of us if we just ask Him and listen.  You will know if God has called you.  Don’t be fooled into thinking if someone asks you to do something and you don’t feel called to do it, that you should go ahead and do it.  I did that one year. I was asked repeatedly to teach a class.  I didn’t feel called to do it, but begrudgingly agreed.  It was the worst year of my life.  I did not look forward to one Sunday in that class. I know the children were not witnessed to as I should have done.  Someone else who felt called would have been a better teacher than I was that year. I regret that year and learned a lesson very clearly from God.   Man does not decide what your calling is. God does.  You have to ask Him, though, and be open to what He tells you.

Another calling I have had is helping start and keep a women’s Bible study.  David and I felt called to purchase the DVDs for the classes and I have taught a few and other ladies have taught and we formed a bond in our group and learned so much about the Bible.  I am having a Beth Moore Bible conference simulcast in our home in a couple of weeks with several friends from church.  I feel like God is going to bless it and I can’t wait.

If you are a Christian and have not found your calling yet,  seek God’s advice and counsel.  He will gently, or in my case, not so gently lead you into what you should be doing.  Perhaps you are good at writing.  You could write the shut-ins of your church.  Maybe you like to visit people.  There are a lot of lonely people who would love to have you come to see them.  Bring cookies and they will really love to see you!  Maybe some family you know needs a babysitter so that the parents can get a break once in a while.  David and I sit on our porch and wave at people.  I wonder how many of those people get a smile out of it.   Little things can mean a lot.  You never know who you are witnessing to.  A looooong time ago, when I was a teen-ager, I had a Sunday school teacher tell us that someone is always watching us and seeing what we do.  It’s true.  No matter what you do, someone is watching.  If you do something good or nice, they will notice. If you are mean and hateful, they will notice too.  I don’t ever want anyone to ever see me mean and spiteful ever again in my life.

What is your calling?  Is it important to you?  Do you believe you have one?  Everyone does, you know.  Some are just closed minded about it and don’t want to see.

Be a blessing to someone today.  Bye.

Good-bye, Old Friend

I have had dogs in my life for as long as I can remember.  We always had a dog or two on the farm and when one would die, another one would magically appear, it seemed.  None of our dogs were registered. All were mutts, but all were good dogs, except Butchie.  Butchie belonged to my oldest brother and he brought him to live at the farm when he couldn’t take care of him any longer.  Butchie had been teased by neighborhood children and learned to bite as the result.  More than once he chased the milkman to his truck and our neighbor to her car.  I really think the milkman hit him on purpose one day and that was the end of Butchie.

We had a little dog who went under the corn crib and birthed a puppy.  My brother, Fred, came into the house one morning and said he heard a puppy crying under the corn crib, but he couldn’t reach it.  Its mother had died and it was all alone under there.  So I was selected to crawl under the corn crib as I was the smallest one around and bring out the puppy.  It was a black and white puppy, almost like a dalmatian.  I think our dog had been with one of our neighbor’s dogs that were dalmatians.  Anyway, we brought the little puppy into the house and Mother wrapped her up and fed her warm milk with a bottle and we raised her like that until she could eat from a bowl.  Mother named her Orphan Annie because she was an orphan.  It became my job to feed her and care for her. Orphan Annie grew up to be a sweet little dog.  She did have a few mishaps along the way.  Like the time we kids were jumping out of the haymow into a bed of straw on the barn floor and I thought Annie should be able to jump, too, so I pushed her and her leg was broken and she was in a cast for several weeks and I was in trouble.  Then she was out in the field when Daddy was mowing hay and got one of her legs cut off.  She ran around on three legs the rest of her life.  Seems that little dog had a hard life, but I think she was happy for the most part because we all loved her.

Through the years I saw dogs come and dogs go.  My brother’s favorite dog disappeared one day and he looked for him for weeks and one day he found him caught in a fence.  Poor thing had died there all alone. I still feel bad about that.  It was hard on my brother.

When I got married, we didn’t have a place for a dog so we had none for a few years.  Then we got one that immediately ran away and we never found her.  We got a black Labrador and when we moved to where we live now, she was stolen from us.  One of our boys was sure they saw her in the back of a pickup truck one day.  I hope she had a happy life.  So more dogs came and went.  I decided I wanted another Labrador so we bought Bonnie.  She was registered from a long line of registered dogs.  Never having had a registered dog, we didn’t know what to expect, but they are just like any other dog.   Bonnie was a nipper at first and drew blood quite often until I broke her of the habit.  After that, she became the sweetest dog. Right after we got her, we took a trip out west so we hired a dog sitter.  I missed that dog so much the whole trip, even drawing pictures of her and writing about her.  I know, I am weird, but I do get attached to my animals.   Bonnie loved to jump and play and run races around our old dog, Subaka, who was getting along in years.  She was on her last legs when we got Bonnie and, you know, I think Bonnie kept her alive for another couple of years by playing with her.  They would chase a ball all around the yard and field for what seemed like hours.

When Subaka died, I decided I wanted another lab.  This time we got a chocolate lab and named her Bellelattedah, Belle, for short.  The day we brought her home, Bonnie picked her up and threw her over her head.  Even after doing that, Belle and Bonnie became best buds.  Sleeping together in the big doghouse or under the deck.  Wherever one was, there was the other.  And then we got Molly Marshmallow.

Bonnie died last week.   It was one of the hardest days I have been through for a while.  She got up one day and could not walk on her back legs any longer and was gasping for breath, so I called the vet.  They could not get her in and sent me to another vet three hours later.  Bonnie did not have three hours and I called back my vet and said I wanted them to take care of her “Now.”  David and I put her in the back of his pickup truck.  Her last truck ride.  She loved riding in cars and trucks.  I stayed at home and cried.  I knew she was dying.   When David came home with her collar, I sobbed.  The vet said her lungs had filled up with water.

Bonnie will always have a piece of my heart.  I will miss so many things about her.

DSCN0256

I will miss this sweet face.

DSCN9634

I will miss seeing three dogs looking at me through the back door.

DSCN9130

Bonnie never became a mother, but her motherly instincts kicked in when we brought Molly Marshmallow home.

DSCN9135

She seemed to enjoy the little puppy.

DSCN8714

I will miss Bonnie’s sweet smile.  She seemed to always be smiling.

DSCN8634

I will miss Bonnie smelling the flowers.  From puppyhood, she always was smelling the flowers in the garden.

DSCN9354

I will miss feeding three dogs on the back deck.

Some people will say, “she was just a dog.”  Yes, she was a dog, but she was much more than that. She was a friend, a companion.  someone who was with me even more than my husband.  She was around 24/7 always ready to come to me and be petted.  Never angry, always happy.   She was family.  She has made me smile so many times and only made me cry on her last day.  No, her death is not as important as a grandparent’s, a parent’s, a sibling’s , a friend’s or any loved ones, all of which I have experienced, but she has taken a piece of my heart just like all the others did with her passing.  I will miss her the rest of my life.

DSCN8703

Good-bye, old friend. I loved you.  I don’t know if dogs are in heaven, but I sure hope I get to see Bonnie one day again.  Bye.

 

 

Into the Woods

Growing up on the farm, we kids spent a lot of time playing in the woods behind our house.   It wasn’t a big woods, although at the time it seemed big to me.  It had a little creek running through it that my brothers would dam up and then on hot Summer days we would swim in the little pond they had created.  When I think about it now, I cringe because of all the snakes, crawdads and water spiders that were probably in that water.  But to farm children on hot summer days, it was a welcome relief and fun besides.

Since I have been married I have wanted to live on a farm or have some land.   We are at the age where a working farm is probably out, but this week we became land owners.  Something I never thought would happen.  We bought a few acres in Brown County, up a steep hill, in the woods.  We closed on it yesterday and went for our first walk in the woods.  It has a little stream that runs down below the hill.  I cannot wait until David gets his bush hog and clears a few paths so that we can go for lots of walks in the woods.  We aren’t sure what we will do with the land.  Leave it as it is, build on it one day, who knows.  It is just nice knowing we have some land that we can take our dogs to where they can roam and run and chase squirrels and we can get away to the country.

DSCN1197

Peace and quiet and green all around.

DSCN1198

Thick brush that will have to be cleared if we want to be able to walk there.

DSCN1199

A clearing, perfect place to build a little house in the woods.

DSCN1201

We even had our first visitors.  How about that?

There is something about owning land that makes a person feel good.  My dad owned eighty acres and the land is still in family hands.  I am glad of that.  I planted some hollyhocks seeds along the woods.  Next Spring we will see if they come up.  Bye.

 

The Death of Grandma Moses

I use to play with puppets when I was a girl.  My brothers got marionettes one Christmas.  I was so jealous and I played with them as often as I could.   My hand puppets had rubber heads and cloth bodies and just enough room for a small hand to be put inside.  I would put on my own puppet shows to entertain myself and my little brother.

A year or so ago David and I were in Nashville and I came across these really nice puppets.  I thought they would be good to use as a puppet ministry with my Sunday School class.  I did it a few times, but they have been sitting in a small chair in my girly room and once in a while when the grandkids come over, they get them out and play with them.

There is Scar, the pirate.

DSCN9595

There was Grandma Moses.

DSCN9597

And there is Molly the puppet.

DSCN9594

The grandkids were here the other day.  After they were gone, I noticed Grandma Moses was missing. I just thought she was someplace in the house and I would find her one day.

Then David brought in a little dress that he had found Molly playing with.

DSCN1196

I didn’t recognize it and just assumed Molly had dug up something under the deck.  Then David started finding feet and hair.

DSCN1189

When I saw it all together, I realized what it was.  It was Grandma Moses.  Someone had taken her outside and left her to the mercy of a dog who chews everything.   I was not a bit happy that she had been taken outside because we have told the grandboys several times not to leave anything out in the back yard they don’t want chewed on.  Well……….

One day the grandboys will be over and Scar the Pirate and Molly the puppet will have a talk with the boys about who took Grandma Moses outside.  Scar and Molly miss Grandma Moses and want to know who would have taken her outside and just left her.  She was a poor, little grandma who never did any harm to anyone.

We will have a proper burial for Grandma Moses when they get here.  I hope they bring flowers.

DSCN1194

We lost a good friend this week.  When my heart doesn’t hurt so much, I will write about her.  Bonnie  died yesterday after eleven and a half years of being a part of our family.  I will miss her.  Bye.

Summer Fun and How Not to Photograph the Blue Moon

We had a Blue Moon the other night.  For those of you who don’t know what a Blue Moon is, it is when two full moons happen in the same month. The second one is called the Blue Moon.  Ever hear someone say something only happens in a Blue Moon?  They are not rare, but don’t happen often.  We had an especially beautiful clear night for looking at the moon.  Not a cloud, except for the cloud of mosquitoes that was hovering around me as I took pictures.  I didn’t have the tripod up so I tried to take the pictures with my shaky hands.  Let’s just say some of them were not the best.

DSCN1159

No, there were not two moons, just my not being able to hold the camera still.

DSCN1160

It rose behind  the trees across the street.  See that figure at the bottom.  Kind of looks like an angel doesn’t it?  Rising in the mist.  I don’t know what it is really.

DSCN1156

DSCN1151

DSCN1155

That moon would not hold still!

DSCN1148

It was so bright.

DSCN1147

DSCN1134

Loved the silhouettes on the moon, or are they moon creatures???

DSCN1157

Finally, a sort of good picture.  By then my legs and arms were a mass of mosquito bites and I was thinking about going in where I would be safe from the blood thirsty little critters.

DSCN1143

But still, because I wanted to keep my readers happy, I continued snapping pictures.  What is that line across the moon?  Does it have an equator?   Or is that a big rubber band holding it in the sky???

DSCN1128

Ack!  What is that?  Time to go inside.  I think this is a giant mosquito coming at me.

We had one final big swim and cookout Sunday with the grandkids.  It isn’t very often they all can get together and with school starting and sports, homework, plays and other activities, they won’t be getting together again soon.  Anytime I can have them all with me makes me happy.  They are all growing so fast and soon will be all grown up, just like our kids did and they will all go their own ways and do their own things, so for this little bit, I will enjoy every minute I have with them.

DSCN1169

The water felt so good.   It’s been really hot around here lately.  The boy cousins were having a great time playing together.

DSCN1175

Our lone granddaughter stayed out of the rough housing.  She was smart.  Me, not so much.

I did not want to go in the pool because I knew my hair would get wet and we were going to church that evening, but as I sat watching all the fun and since I was so hot, I decided to get in my suit and join the fun.  I told the grandboys I did not want my hair getting wet.  No, no, no.

Well, after one dumped a whole bucket of water on my head and almost lost his swim trunks to me, I knew my hair was doomed.   From then on it was splash Grandma and I enjoyed it.

DSCN1178

I think they are ready for America’s Got Talent.

DSCN1177

Good balancing act, don’t you think?

I hope my grandchildren will remember all the fun they had at their grandparents’ house.  We certainly enjoy them, but boy, was it quiet when they left.

DSCN1147

I see the moon,

The moon sees me,

Down through the leaves

Of the old Oak tree.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountain,

Over the sea.

Back where my heart is longing to be.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the one I love.  Bye.