by Sharon O | Jan 11, 2016 | Uncategorized
The other day we were talking and sharing about our ‘beginning’ years as a young married couple and I remain amazed that we made it.
Coming from two different backgrounds where my husbands parents were like the Walton’s with Ma and Pa and six kids and a dog and family laughter and fun.
They had a small home and it wasn’t fancy but it was home, and ma baked and cooked and cleaned and stitched, and it was home for the eight of them and anyone else who wanted to visit.
My home was different, having a single mom raise myself and my sister’s.
We had grandma’s who loved us but we were not cozy in a home like his, there was a lot more turmoil and chaos where we lived and we moved many times.
When we started to date I struggled with some of it, as I had pain in my background and a wounded heart, and he didn’t fully understand where I was coming from.
It was hard, really hard, but we made it through the dating years, even when I hurt my knee on a motor cycle accident, we could have gone over a mountain side, but I believe angels protected us and God was with us.
Our wedding was nice and we had family and friends, and it was like a dream and a surreal moment and God was with us when we said our vows.
Life began as husband and wife and we played house and made plans that two teens could never fully understand, and God was with us.
We were expecting our first baby and I was very sick, and we struggled with changes and moves and settling into a tiny house while waiting for the baby to join us, and God was with us.
I remained very sick but so enjoyed the expectancy of life within, and we would be mom and dad, and we hoped for many things, and God was with us.
After four hours of labor our son was born and life as we knew it as ‘husband and wife’ changed us, from two to three and God was with us.
The adjustment of new parent days, was a learning process for both of us, it was not easy as we moved through our new and different life but we knew God was with us.
Then a few years later, we learned of baby two with great excitement and that pregnancy made me even more tired, and as we changed from three to four God was with us.
Our babies grew and I was more sick, meningitis came and you stayed with our children, while I was in the hospital and God was with us.
Years of health struggles, years of counseling, and we learned to manage and grow as our children did, and God was with us.
Marriage is for better and worse and sometimes our worst was pretty hard, but God was with us.
We moved from rentals to owned homes, had a few dogs and cats and a fish or two and even a rabbit, and God was with us.
Your brother passed away and it was so hard and so painful to say good bye and we knew, God was with us in our sadness.
The children grew from grade school, to middle, then high school and college and in each season of time, God was with us.
Marriage came for them and our family grew, our son had a wife, and they were now ‘the young married couple’ and God was with us
The first grand baby came and it was scary and she was early, and it was critical for both mom and baby, yet at two pounds she was healthy and God was with us.
Years went on and another marriage came and also other babies, and each time we knew we did not stand alone as God was with us.
When my sister was on hospice and our house became a ‘care home’, and we didn’t know what we were doing, God was with us.
When we both had surgeries and ailments, and struggles and hard times, even during a scare of my mumps, we knew that God was with us.
Other years moved on and our parents passed away and we felt stretched and broken as we moved through our grief and yet God was with us.
Hard times have carved their way through the passing of time, as our history has been molded by how God was with us, during each and every moment.
We remained strong as I retired and then you had more surgeries and it was not easy, but we always knew God was with us.
We have six miracles who we call grand children now. We are the older ones as we watch another generation grow and mature.
We have made it forty one years, together, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer and through good and hard times. God has been with us.
As we hold coffee mugs and smell the freshly made brew we realize with a deep richness, that God was with us all the time.
by Sharon O | Jan 7, 2016 | Uncategorized
So far the year has been interesting and quiet.
I love quiet and have learned to love my alone times as well as times with others.
My natural preference is to have down time by myself to think, or ponder.
(Our Pastor told us that to ponder is to have conversations with yourself like Mary did in the Christmas story when she pondered all that was said about her baby.)
This is not the same as ‘talking to yourself’ as in a psycho state of mind, it is just conversations to sort things out.
As a writer I think it makes perfect sense to write, read aloud what was written, ask questions of ‘what’ is the main point, then finish it.
My husband was off the two weeks around Christmas. It was very nice to have him home but in saying all that it also ‘changes’ my days.
When I am home alone I am in quiet. There is most of the time no noise other than my cats meowing at the den door because it is shut.
When he is home he enjoys football or old ‘John Wayne movies. He will also watch a NCIS marathon.
I can watch that a little because who doesn’t like to look at Mark Harmon? but the violence gets tiring.
Soon we will be together all the time. It will be good and also a bit challenging. I like to set aside Tuesday and Thursday for writing.
If we are retired together that might not happen as often as I would like.
I must learn to be flexible. I must also be able to say, today I need to write.
But also I must learn to do what he enjoys and wants to do. (except camping in a tent)
My word of the year is reveal. What a fitting word to show us and reveal to us, our new way of living.
Looking forward to the lessons to be learned and the time spent together as we explore our new life of retirement.
by Sharon O | Jan 2, 2016 | Uncategorized
Every year I try to choose a new word of the year.
It must have purpose and meaning and it is often God given or inspired.
A week or so ago as I laid in bed sleeping in the quiet of the night, I woke up to hear the word.
It felt like it was from God as I was in a deep sleep then I woke up.
After listening and studying it I am realizing so much how it will fit into this ‘new’ years plans.
In Deuteronomy a book of the Old Testament, there is a verse in chapter five, number twenty four.
[Our God has revealed to us his glory and greatness.]
In the entire bible the word is used sixty times.
In the book of Psalms one nineteen between verses forty one and forty eight we find this.
[Oh I’ll guard with my life what you have revealed to me.]
I woke up out of a deep sleep with the word reveal in my mind. It was very clear and it was very firm.
Reveal means: to make known, disclose, divulge, (as in reveal a secret), to lay open to view as in display or exhibit.
It also means to uncover as in (the fog lifted and revealed the harbor or beauty). To disclose the plans.
After thinking about this word and wondering what significance it would have for the year it made complete sense. We are planning our ‘retirement’.
My husband is ending his job and retiring. It is a mystery to us how this is all going to work.
We are trusting in the process and those who know how to handle our funds and insurances and bills.
I clearly heard, if we can say we hear from God. “I will reveal to you what you do not yet know.”
“I will make your path clear and I will help you see, that your fears and concerns are not reasonable.”
There are many things we do not know about retirement and there are many things about it that is scary.
It is also very exciting but to know how it is all going to play out and become real is a mystery.
But I believe with all my heart that when we look back at the year we will be sure in our hearts, He did reveal to us the plans.
It is a strong word full of mystery and anticipation.
Just as the fog covers the scene so one cannot see the whole picture.
God has said ‘He will reveal to us’ what we will need for this next phase of life.
The word for 2016 is Reveal .
As we go into the path that is unknown HE will make known to us what lies ahead. We will trust and we wait.
by Sharon O | Dec 31, 2015 | Uncategorized
I have been waiting and praying for a new ‘word of the year’.
Each year words have been given to me, and each year I have waited with anticipation, of how they will play out in the days and months ahead.
It feels like the new word for this year has come to me.
I am not yet ready to share it, but soon I will share the ‘meaning and the story’.
For now I wait and listen and wonder and pray.
This last year my word was Hope.
I needed that word for many reasons and I do believe it was the right one given to me.
Within the year we saw my husband have and recover from a full knee replacement.
That was very major and hard for both of us.
Within the year my best friend moved hours away from me, but she is happy and healing in a beautiful marriage designed by God.
Within the year I was able to rekindle a relationship that was broken and needed healing.
Within the year I was able to find out some health issues that have bothered me and how to deal with them.
Within the year I was able to heal another relationship that had been hurtful and we are now talking again.
Within the year I was able to restore my thoughts about childhood hurts and wounds that had ‘molded’ who I was as an adult.
Within the year we had to say good bye to my husband’s good friend’s as they were killed in an accident together.
Because we have always known but feel deeply, that life is short and anything can change in a day we made another decision.
That my husband is going to retire and end his life long career as a design engineer so we can travel and have time together.
Each of these circumstances and issues needed hope to restore and replace the hurt or the misunderstanding.
Each of these decisions needed hope to rekindle a new awareness of life and living each day to the fullest.
Each of these choices we have learned to make or not make, have been for our good and the good of others.
Our God said, “Hope deferred, makes a heart faint.” I say, “Hope given, makes a heart healed.”
Soon I will share how my new word came to me.
It is a good word full of anticipation and shall I say, Hope?
by Sharon O | Dec 27, 2015 | Uncategorized
I have taken a few days to think about and enjoy the Christmas season.
Christmas Eve was spent at church for a service and it was wonderful to sing and rest in the words of our Pastor.
Christmas day we had family over and of course the children enjoyed their gifts and brunch was good.
Clean up is always not too fun as it requires hand washing of china and special glasses.
But I did it and it was all not too bad.
The few days between Christmas and New Years is always a quiet time, taking decorations down and putting them away.
Getting the house back in order. I am praying about my new ‘word for the year’ and many other things.
The story of Christmas is not quite done as our Pastor said today, the story continues.
He shared today on Anna and Simeon. Can you imagine just living in the ‘temple’ day in and day out?
They waited with expectancy for the Messiah.
THE Messiah, the one who, they would understand and know without any question, that this is the one.
Some thought the Messiah would save them from the rulers of the land and set up a new kingdom.
God had other things in mind.
He not only wanted His Son to come down to save us, he also wanted His character and the kingdom to pursue us in a deep and abiding love.
He wanted to love us so deeply and to give us a way of ‘redemption’ through the Story of Christmas.
Everyone loves a story. Everyone loves a ‘beautiful story.’
The Story of Jesus, the Spirit of Christmas is all about the story of God’s perfect plan.
A foretelling of His desire to come alongside us and not leave us alone without Hope.
God waited for the right time. The right place in time for Jesus to come to us.
There was an expectant HUSH throughout the galaxies. A baby was born.
I read a note on face book that spoke of the expectant hush, when all of creation stopped, for an instant.
And it said the stars, and the angels and everyone held their breath and beauty.
Till the baby was born. Waiting for the expectancy of a Savior. The fulfillment of a promise.
Who would save us from not only ourselves, but from times of being alone for eternity.
God loved us SO much, that He gave, His only son so that we could believe in him and find hope.
God had other things in mind. He had love from the depth his heart to us.
