by Sharon O | Aug 13, 2012 | Uncategorized
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| Three generations…A father… A son and his three sons |
Generation after generation stands in awe of your work;
each one tells stories of your mighty acts.
Psalm 145:4
Then you can tell the next generation detail by detail the story of God, Our God forever, who guides us to the end of time.
Psalm 48:13
Then he commanded our parents to teach it to their children so the next generation would know, and all the generations to come-
Know the truth and tell the stories so their children can trust God.
Psalm 78:5.6
Joining Deidra on Jumping tandem and the Sunday community.
by Sharon O | Aug 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
Continuing on with the book “Saying it well.”
Charles Swindoll tells us in order to become a good writer we must release ourselves from the expectations of others.
We can learn from others but we need to create a writing and style that is our own when sharing our message.
If there is a calling on our hearts to write the desire to do it well
will happen and as that happens our confidence will grow and our writing ability will become stronger.
He tells us a clear calling requires sacrifice.
I can see that, at times when a blog post is being formed and written in my head other things have to wait.
The dishes might not get done. The rug that needs vacuumed remains dirty one more day.
He tells us when we have a deep internal calling there is also a deep assurance that this conviction is right.
The key thing I read so far is this:
All the events in your life have prepared you to write.
The Lord has created a plan for you.
He has gifted you.
Ultimately the choice remains within us whether or not we want to become storytellers, authors or teachers.
He tells us there are three things that must take place before we can become the writer we want to become.
1. Know who you are
2. Accept who you are
3. Be who you are
I honestly believe I had those steps in mind when this blog began.
If I could write in a beautifully deep way as a painter paints a picture on canvas
my words would paint a picture for the reader as they read in the quietness of their ‘home’.
Canvas pictures are beautiful and unique.
Word pictures are the same.
They each give us ‘something to think about.’
The other key he tells us in this book.
Learn to be your unique self.
He tells us self awareness equals transparency and the better we know ourselves the easier it is for us to share from the deepest places of our hearts.
He also tells us as we learn to accept ourselves and realize who we are the truth sets us free.
Another thought he tells us to think about:
Good communicators don’t fake it.
So the key is for us as we begin this process is to learn to be authentic and to learn to be comfortable in our own skin.
He said that even Jesus had to grow into his own identity.
He knew who he was but he chose to wait for maturity and at age 33 he chose to reveal his true identity.
The process and reality was always there but the timing wasn’t always right.
Our timing is a key too.
As we allow ourselves to learn new things we slowly will reveal the kind of writer
who will learn to ‘say it well.’
by Sharon O | Aug 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
Almost three years ago this blog began as an idea and a hope.
At first I was not sure what to do or how to do it or even what a blog was supposed to be like.
So in the process of beginning I google searched christian blogs.
I read several and thought to myself.
I can do that.
My first blog post was about a face book post that I had placed and the next day other thoughts came to me and the next thing I knew there was my first month of writing posted and in place on my new blog site.
Each blog was a struggle to find words that sounded good and how to form them into a thought and then how to present that thought to an ‘audience’ of a few.
It has been a journey of discovering who I am as a writer and what kind of topics that are good to write about and also who are my readers. At first there were only a few as the blog was set in a private mode.
Fearful of exposure and the ‘world’ out there in a private mode it felt safer to write and not worry about who was reading my words.
What I am getting from this book of Charles Swindoll’s when we write,
“We open ourselves up and become a vessel. A tool.
A teacher. A storyteller.”
Oh there are many stories to tell.
The first year was full of grief and loss and I wrote from a heart that was broken.
Bringing forward the well of sorrow and sadness and sharing those thoughts on paper.
My mom in law was dying of pancreatic cancer.
My life was deeply shaken and the only thing I could do at the time was write.
In the book I am reading he says, “saying it well is very important”.
A few weeks ago Jeff Goins in his challenge for writers said, “writers should be transparent and open, if it moves you to tears it will move your readers too.”
One of the first stories I told openly was the story of my sisters recovery from deaths door to life.
It was not easy to go back to that place of deep fatigue and exhaustion but the Lord pushed me on and said ‘the story needs to be shared’.
If you haven’t read it yet go back a few blog writings and you will find it as a guest post I just finished for Jeff Goins ‘wrecked’ series.
Charles Swindoll said we need to write our message.
Our story.
From our genuine from the heart authentic ‘self’.
As the journey continues I will always write from my heart.
by Sharon O | Aug 8, 2012 | Uncategorized
I am reading a book that is both interesting and challenging.
For years this man has been speaking and teaching and I have always loved his humor and ability
to draw you in and then focus as he moves you into a topic.
It is a gift.
But he didn’t always know that.
When he was in his 20’s he wanted to go into the military and serve there for the rest of his life.
Little did he know God had other plans for him.
Just like God has other plans for us.
If we be patient and wait.
The book is about writing.
Someone special gave it to me and as she handed it to me she said, “You can say it well too.
You just have to believe in yourself.”
So as I am reading this book I will share some of my notes about touching others with your words.
by Sharon O | Aug 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
“All the trees of the field will recognize that I, God,
made the great tree small and the small tree great,
made the green tree turn dry and the dry tree sprout green branches.
I, God, said it ~ and I did it.”
Ezekial 17:24
photograph by Rosie from Oregon
Joining Deidra on jumping tandem with the Sunday community
by Sharon O | Aug 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
Six years ago July 29th was a strange and broken day for us.
It was very early in the morning when we learned our brother in law my sisters husband had died.
This story has been written and shared on several occasions each time revised a bit for each guest post I had submitted it to.
I continue to tell the story for many reasons.
There are new readers now and for those who don’t know the full story of my sister, pour a cup of coffee or a glass of tea and sit back and read a small part of the story of Mary.
(If you are a reader who has already read this, bear with me as it is shared again.)
I submitted this to Jeff Goins website. http://wreckedthebook.com
I don’t know when he will actually post it but it should be up sometime in the next few weeks.
————————————
A wrecked life restored by Love.
February 11th is my sisters birthday.
Every year I wish her happy birthday with a knowing in my heart
it is a miracle we thought would never happen.
In 2006, after I submitted a letter to her doctor she was put on hospice with the diagnosis of death pending.
She had liver failure, hepatitis C, and starvation.
She was wheelchair bound with her 90 pound frame barely fitting the leather seat.
The pictures in her photo album paint a picture of our reality in ways, that words can never do.
Her husband died unexpectedly on July 29th, 2006.
He was her caregiver.
It was a sad and horrible day for us all. Unexpected. Shocking. Numbing.
Our grief was doubled and so intense. We just couldn’t believe it.
My sister who was dying just became a widow.
When I heard the news I knew I could never allow her to die alone.
In the early morning hours my husband and I drove with each of us in our own thoughts in the silence of the car as she slept
with her head pressed against the car window.
Our family room soon would become a resting place for the dying.
A place for a hospital bed and hospice care.
It was a journey none of us would ever want to repeat.
She was drowning in the sea of alcoholism, and like life guards,
we jumped in and saved her.
I don’t know how to swim so it was especially exhausting for me.
Our team was myself, my husband, my older sister and her husband.
It was really hard work for all of us as there were many things to deal with.
We gave round the clock care as her thin body laid on the sheet of the hospital bed.
I slept by her on a cot every night for 6 weeks giving her medications every two hours, so the seizures would calm down along with the hallucinations.
Detoxing the demons out of her daily was more than we could handle at times.
It was an incredibly hard experience, yet in the midst of the difficulty, we did have some comedy relief.
Remembering the middle of the night, when I was SO exhausted to take her outside to smoke.
I gave her one that was unlit as she laid in her bed breaking my rule that no one can smoke in our home.
She smoked the same cigarette for 4 days not ever realizing, it was never lit.
I just leaned over her hospital bed with a dish and said,
“dump your ashes.”
There were none only she never knew it.
I would watch her inhale and exhale pretend smoke. Feeling relieved I did not have to go out in the dark of the night.
The hospice team said it was wonderful. We have all laughed at the image of her, in bed smoking the unlit cigarette.
I was very tired and smoking was not important to me.
In 6 weeks, we tapered her down from the quantity of a fifth of vodka daily to two small 3oz doses, prescribed by her doctor.
Alcohol has to be removed slowly from ones system or the person can become even more ill.
Her doctor was marvelous and knew what he was doing.
He believed in the process, and helped us through many difficult moments.
The hospice team was extremely helpful, and most of all the Chaplain.
He helped us do a memorial service for her husband in our back courtyard as she was too ill to go to any real service.
Day in and day out we took care of her and loved her through
her wrecked life.
We were able to move her out of our home in 7 weeks and into a foster home.
She had learned to eat, walk and gain a bit of weight.
Instead of dying she chose to live.
Six years later she is alcohol free living in an assisted living home and thriving.
She weighs 164 pounds now and slowly her brain is coming back to her.
It is a story of love, sacrifice, hope and sister hood.
It is a story of family.
A journey of life, death, and life again.
It is a story of sisters.
There is so much more to this story I could share and perhaps I will someday as the words come back to me.
We brought her home to die in a safe place.
By loving her, praying for her and giving her hope her life was restored from a wrecked life going no where to a place of healing with a new future.
Each year I am thankful I can wish her happy birthday.
I will always remember the year we almost didn’t.
by Sharon O | Jul 29, 2012 | Uncategorized
Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.
And you count far more to him than birds.
Matthew 6
Joining Deidra on jumping tandem and the Sunday community.
by Sharon O | Jul 26, 2012 | Uncategorized
I don’t want to keep bringing up a terrible topic as the ‘mass’ shooting in Colorado but something has been bothering me and I wanted to share it with my readers.
The other day our grand daughters were over and we were outside talking and the little ones who are eight year old twins went into the house with grandpa.
The oldest who is thirteen was sitting out there in the quiet with me.
We talked about the ‘shooting’ I don’t remember if she brought it up or I did.
Usually I don’t bring up things that are disturbing to children that is just my nature.
They should be children not worrying about life or death issues.
She is old enough to hear the news and see media somewhere so it was important for me to give her an opinion and I wanted to see if she was afraid.
She did say it scared her to go to a movie theater again.
We talked briefly about the ‘guy’ and how very disturbed mentally he was and how the media was portraying him.
My grand daughter Faith Elizabeth said to me, “but don’t you have to forgive him?”
I was silent.
My first reaction was ‘NO’
I don’t and neither does anyone else.
Then she said, “What would God do?”
Now that was a deep question for a thirteen year old to ask.
Again I sat there in silence because I truly had no words to give her.
There are rules that God has set out for us.
The ten commandments have in them ‘thou shalt not kill’.
Does God forgive this type of thing?
My first reaction… is perhaps my own wish or prayer.
No.
In saying that I am moved to a decision then
that begins another topic.
Is there anything according to God unforgivable?
What about my hardness of heart towards an offender who kills, injures or abuses?
Is that unforgivable?
Driving home tonight I heard on the radio a version of 1 Corinthians 13 from the message.
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Question: how are we supposed to act towards this type of violence?
She challenged me to think
which is why this is called ‘something to think about’.
My goal always was and has been to leave the reader with a need to think.
What ARE we supposed to do or say when it comes to these types of issues?
My grand daughter wanted an answer and
I honestly could not give her one.
by Sharon O | Jul 23, 2012 | Uncategorized
We watch the shows of hostages and know that it is just a show and
the good guy wins and the bad guy doesn’t.
We want justice.
We want to know at the end of the show it will be safe and happy for everyone.
This last week we all heard and saw and realized
what should have been safe…wasn’t.
A crazy man entered a movie theater and horrible things happened.
I cannot imagine
the horror and
the fear and
the sorrow
as the evening progressed into a series of rounds over and over by a crazy man.
At first I was sick when I heard the news.
My stomach stayed in a knot and almost nauseated for several days.
Deep sadness followed me mixed with tears.
My husband had to turn the TV off I was so moved by the terrible truth of what I heard.
I watched and felt the intensity of the moments.
Then I moved into anger that little children
were in the theater when they should have been home sleeping in safe beds surrounded by dolls and teddy bears and warm comforters.
I was angered that our society will stand in long lines and pay large prices
for something that is violent.
In the name of entertainment.
Do little children really need to be at a midnight theater who shows a larger than life violent movie?
In the name of entertainment.
I was saddened that innocent people
randomly chose to go to a move that night and died because of that decision.
Movies are pretend.
This was not pretend.
Our lives remain changed just as they did when we heard about the 9/11 violence.
Any crowd can be the next bad one.
Any man or woman could be the wrong one.
We cannot live in fear.
We can live with values and choices.
We can refuse to pay for a violent movie.
We can refuse to go to a midnight showing.
We can voice a no violence tolerance and close out all wickedness.
IF we don’t pay the movie makers
they have no audience.
We want justice for the wrong that was done.
We want the good guy to win and the bad guy to be put away forever.
We really need to return to our knees a little longer these days
for the families who were broken by the choice
of one very sick man who didn’t care for anyone but himself.
by Sharon O | Jul 22, 2012 | Uncategorized
The Lord’s name should be praised
from where the sun rises to where it sets. Psalm 113:3
SUNRISE in Yamhill County Oregon
SUNSET in Yamhill County Oregon
Joining with Deidra on jumping Tandem and the Sunday community
{Photo’s take by Margo from Yamhill, Oregon}
