by Sharon O | Mar 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
I love to iron.
Yes I know it is a strange confession.
But for me it is refreshing, and rewarding.
To look at a wrinkled piece of fabric and press onto it the hot warmth of the hand held iron.
Ah……. I breathe in the steam and it opens up my head.
I love for my husband to look pressed and ready for work. It makes me feel like I have done a good thing for him.
OK for those who do not like to iron, I might sound like someone who needs a therapy session. But in reality it reminds me of what the Lord does to me daily.
The hot iron of his word presses me as I allow the wrinkled crumpled emotions to breathe in the steam. The warmth and the heat have forced me to say on occasion “ouch that hurt”… as God gently presses me more. I don’t mind for I know just as I press the fabric to create a fine piece of clothing. The Lord does the same to my heart to create a better person.
Sometimes the heat is intense and the blast of steam brings me pain.
But the reward is worth it if I allow Him to do his work in me.
When my daughter was in junior high she would often come out of her room wearing something she drug out of her hamper or the bottom of her closet. I remember saying to her more than once, “You look like an unmade bed” and her quick reply would always be “Well I am comfortable.”
Yes an unmade bed is comfortable. It is inviting. A nap is always welcome.
But to walk around looking like an unfinished chore is not good.
Our hearts can look like that also.
So as I iron I pray.
Lord help me to allow the warmth of your love to press in and show me the wrinkled broken areas in my heart that needs changed. Help me to receive your correction as the fabric receives the hot iron. Just as I control what I press I pray for the willingness
to let you have full control of the journey of my heart.
by Sharon O | Mar 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
In 2 Kings 6:16-17 we read:
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Oh Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Isn’t that just an awesome passage for us to experience? Can you see it?
They are on the side of a mountain looking over a valley warriors are heading towards them.
The battle looked overwhelming and grim. They were going to go down defeated very fast. The servant with him said, “Oh NO we are going to die.”
[I didn’t read that I am just guessing]
Then….Elisha said, “Be still and do not be afraid.”
“I know we have a huge fight ahead of us. We are not alone. I want to show you to not fear and lose heart.”
His faith was so powerful. He reached out and claimed it so that those with him could SEE the power and majesty of what he knew to be true.
What an encouragement that had to have been.
In that MOMENT when the overwhelming feelings and fear was present, Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid.”
Reminding me of the passage in 2 Corinthians 4:18:
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Wow… in verse 17 the verse before he says: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
It is a perspective that the writer is trying to reveal to us.
In this world we will have problems.
We will have issues and conflicts.
We will have relationships that will hurt us and battles to fight.
But if we know the spiritual side of it all…we are not alone.
The war we fight is not our own to try to win.
We have a great host of warriors surrounding us.
If only we could see them and pray Elisha’s prayer.
Shall we be bold enough to believe it to be true? As we pray for the Lord to open our eyes.
by Sharon O | Mar 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
I read a quote recently.. and wrote it down.
“Courage is… almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.”
Tonight I went with my sister in law, to sign her mom up for hospice services.
It was hard for her since it is her mom and she is the only daughter.
I am familiar with the hospice procedures and I was asked to be with her, hopefully it was helpful for me to be there.
The two hours it took to sign her up wasn’t as horrible as I thought.
Mostly signing papers and forms as the nurse explained the hospice process.
They become mom’s doctor.
They take care of her.
They are her voice.
The goal is to keep her comfortable.
They come weekly and later daily as she becomes worse.
She says she has no pain. That is good for now.
She said that many years ago after having a radical mastectomy surgery.
She said,”God protected me and I have no pain.”
Is that possible? With her, YES.
She is Mom O. She is the legacy of mom’s to all her children and grand children.
She is a prayer warrior.
Every day at 9 am she has her coffee, Bible, notepad and prayer list.
Dad O has to go down for coffee with the ‘old guys’.
She must be alone.
She will be deeply missed. Dad O is not doing well.
He is 87 and losing his first love.
July will be their 61st wedding anniversary.
It is a love story in the fullest form.
They met and three weeks later were married many years ago.
Six children and 60 years later they are still a family.
The oldest son passed on years ago.
Their heart broke in many pieces when he died.
Yet she had hope and continued to show hope
to others through the process of letting go.
She might not be here for the first great grand child in September.
One would wish she would be here, but logic says she will be home with the Lord.
This is a story of a mom who loved.
Who loved unconditionally.
Who loved always.
Who never judged.
I am writing this with tears as they fall down my cheeks…… for a family who loved.
Who continues to love each other deeply. They are parents deeply committed to their family.
He is a father who was close to his children, she is a mother who prayed intensely for all 6 of their children daily.
Her heart broke when her son died, yet she knew of a hope beyond what we can see……..
we dare to see and hope for… she knew it to be true.
God in his mercy… will give her rest.
God in his mercy ….will give her peace.
She knows the God of mercy and deeply loves Him.
I am writing this as the tears fall down my cheeks.
I remember…she loved with a love like Jesus.
She is the grandma who never chastised the sinner, who had a child out of marriage, she just smiled and said,”They all come in their own time.”
She is the grandma who loved…unconditionally the child who… made bad decisions…reminding them … “Next time you will think about it more.”
She is the mom who loved.
After everything else is said…: “She loved and she had compassion”.
More than anything else she is a …….A legacy to us all.
by Sharon O | Mar 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
Before I became a Christian.
My view of God was full of skepticism and unbelief.
He was like a Santa who gave things to people when they asked.
He was very far away and not an all knowing, GOD.
Jesus was a man in a story book.
I was not raised in a Christian home. Yet I do remember walking to a small church as a little girl to Sunday school. As I listened to the stories of the bible on flannel graph boards,
God and Jesus were unreachable to me.
They were characters in a hard backed book. I couldn’t touch them or feel them. They were songs sung to the music of an un-tuned piano. Jesus loves the little children… only I was not one of them.
The way God reached out to me is a wonderful and powerful reminder,
that HE does indeed listen to the prayers, of those who do not know Him.
He listens to the heart cries and He is moved with compassion.
In my freshman year of High School, I began to search the meaning of life. We had moved again to a new rental home and another new school. It was at the bus stop while waiting for the bus I would engage in conversation with a girl there. She was an honor student who lived with her parents in a normal stable family. I was very different. I would wear the Diana Ross ratted hair style, fake eye lashes (yes I did say that) and white eye shadow. Every day this girl would ask me questions. Pursuing me. Forcing me to ‘think’ about God and church and life.
Every day I argued with her.
My life experience had been much different than hers. My concept of ‘love’ was not something she could understand. We were two friends speaking different languages.
She talked often and gave me lots of questions.
As our friendship grew I began to listen to her.
I decided to test her ‘GOD’.
My sister Mary had been gone for many months on the street, living life as a drug addict and runaway. I missed her greatly and wanted desperately to see her. We didn’t know if she dead or alive and it was a heart ache I couldn’t take care of on my own.
I remembered this girl told me ‘GOD hears all prayers’.
I didn’t believe it but what could I lose by not trying?
One night as I was going to bed. Not knowing how to pray or what to pray or how it all all works for Him to hear you.
I prayed a simple prayer. A bold one.
A searching from the heart prayer.
I said, “God I would believe, I think I can believe you, if you can find my sister. The girl tells me you know everything, you see everything. So you should know how to find her. I want her home. IF you are God. IF you know everything then YOU can bring her home tonight. When I wake up in the morning I want her sleeping in her own bed. IF you can do that, then I will believe.”
I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. Unusual for me at that stage of life.
You can imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning, and saw her across the room sleeping in her own bed. The police had found her in the middle of the night and contacted our mother. She had been beaten badly but she was home, sleeping in her bed, in our room.
It was a miraculous reunion of sisters.
A cry from a young persons heart to a God who hears.
We were always hopeful she was alive, but never knowing.
Mary didn’t stay at home very long. She left soon after the first night, but my prayer was answered.
Now I had to deal with ‘the girl at the bus stop’.
I made the phone call telling her what happened. She told me about God, church and her youth group.
I believe God knew the only way I would trust, was for Him to show me an answer to a simple prayer. From a simple heart.
HE can do the unimaginable.
I trust Him.
The journey continues.
The girl at the bus stop is now my sister in law. We married brothers.
The years after God came into my life were not easy. But because of the strength HE gave I was able to trust Him through the process. He was hope when I felt hopeless. He was my peace when it wasn’t peaceful.
He was love on a Cross saying to me, “I care deeply for you”.
His ways are mysterious and wonderful and I am always in awe of His love.
I have never regretted that first life changing prayer.
I hope this finds you encouraged.
Our God is a God who hears the simple prayers of faith.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate it just has to be from the heart.
by Sharon O | Mar 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
Sometimes I am nervous about having other people read my writings.
Especially if I know they have written a book, or they are well known in the field of writing. I think of my inadequacies in grammar and punctuation at times. I might not say the perfect thing or create the perfect story. Others can write better than I do and create word pictures so much better.
Then I hear a small, tapping, a slight nudging within my heart.
tap tap….tap tap…. I quiet myself to listen.
For I know it is the Lord,
Saying to me, “Did I bring you this far to focus on yourself and your fears?”
No… Lord you did not. I say in my most quiet voice.
Today I read something a lady by the name of Wendy Blight wrote. I don’t know her and
I hope it is OK to share it with you maybe you need these words as much as I did.
————-
Sweet friend,
God brought you here today.
He wants to remind you of a precious truth.
Hear it and never forget it…
before time began, before God spoke the world into being…
He had you in his heart.
God chose you to be His child.
God has a perfect plan for your life.
No one else has your plan, your family, your gifts, your talent, your heart, your education, your past and your present…no one.
He chose you to use you to do great things for His kingdom…things that only you can do.
He is preparing you… even now.
But, to be used by God, you must Trust Him with your PAST,
BELIEVE Him for your future, BELIEVE He has a plan for you.
SURRENDER your life to His plan,
and believe He will equip you to do what He has called you to do.
Psalm 139:16
“You saw me before I was born. Everyday of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (NLT)
When I opened this up and read it this morning, it was like God was saying,
“TRUST me. I make no mistakes. You are loved, You have always been loved.
I have given you gifts that I believe YOU can do even if you don’t believe it. Are you going to trust me in this process as I teach you, to believe more fully in your self?”.
It is a challenge for us all.
by Sharon O | Mar 16, 2010 | Uncategorized
Faith is trusting God in the dark.
I was reminded this morning of a song I heard years ago.
Our neighbor was a single mom.
She lived 4 houses away from us. She had a son who was about 15 and a daughter around age 12. The three of them created a new home together after a nasty divorce.
She was a wonderful encourager.
A powerful Christian witness, and a really nice person.
She loved her children and always did what was best for them.
One afternoon we sat in our kitchen sharing coffee and life issues.
She was tired. The hours at her work had been long that month.
The overtime helped for the holidays. She was looking forward
to a happy Christmas with her kids.
She was gifted in music and had been helping a church with their holiday programs.
The night drive was about an hour away from where we lived.
She left my house, and I waved goodbye as she drove away.
I was thankful for our new friendship.
That night about 11:30 or so I remember hearing a loud ‘knocking’ on our door.
We were sleeping.
It startled us awake.
My husband got up first and went to the door.
Looking out the window he saw a uniformed officer standing in the dark.
The porch light reflecting his shiny badge.
The slick black shoes, and the leather belted gun holder looking so official. As the door opened, he wanted to know if he could come in.
My husband rushed to our room to hurry me out; “you are needed in the living room”.
When I saw his uniform panic and fear walked with me, as I went out to where he was.
Our son was in college living in a different city, I had no idea why this man would be here.
I felt a deep sinking feeling move into my spirit.
The officer said to us, “Do you know your neighbor?”.
I answered, “Yes she is a friend of mine”.
He said very quietly, “Well we found her car overturned alongside the road, and she was killed”.
The numbing words slammed me against a wall.
Disbelief came forward first, “no I just saw her. She was fine”.
Denial moved in next to disbelief. “She has two children, they are teenagers she can’t be gone”.
She left my house hours ago, she hugged me and said ‘see you tomorrow’.
I looked across the road to the direction of her home.
The decorated windows and Christmas tree lights still turned on.
The officer told us he drove past it, and noticed the children inside.
He said, “Would you be open to coming over to the house with me, so that I am not the only one with them, when they are told what happened?”.
We answered yes.
It was very dark and the stillness of the night so quiet.
We walked in silence as the three of us headed towards her door.
I was remembering our last conversation only hours ago.
How would we have known that was our last conversation?
The children greeted us and, questioned why we would be visiting that late at night.
Their mom should be home soon, she was running a bit late.
The grim reality of our news broke my heart as my tears began to fall.
My husband sat both of them down.
The officer had suggested that it would be better for us to tell them the news, since we knew them personally.
My husband placed his hands on her sons face, looked him in the eyes and said, “your mom’s been killed. She’s gone”. The numbing silence followed, as they tried to understand what they just heard.
Our immediate need for phone numbers and relatives to notify was first on the list. She had a mother alive and a brother. The children could not help us. So we rummaged through her private papers till we found what we needed. It felt very intrusive to me but we had no choice.
The officer suggested we go back to our home as soon as we could. Hot cocoa was prepared and the kids made small talk. The officer stayed with us almost 9 hours until family could come the following day. He was a wonderful big shouldered man. I will always remember his warm hug. He told us he was almost retired and felt he should stay with us as long as we needed.
Her son zoned out on video games as the officer talked with him and her daughter fell asleep.
That tragic night would forever change their lives.
Her elderly mother took the kids in and eventually they moved back with their dad.
My neighbor had made a taped recording just weeks before she died and these are the words to the song, she sang at her own service.
“God is too wise to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind. So when you can’t understand, when you don’t see his plan. When you can’t trace His hand, Trust his heart”
I think it was a clear and loving message for her children. When you don’t understand the plans of the Lord, Trust His heart. I don’t know where they are these days. I hope they will remember the neighbors who cared and the wonderful police officer who gave his time to all of us.
I pray their lives were forever richer for knowing her love.
by Sharon O | Mar 15, 2010 | Uncategorized
The phone rang tonight.
I answered and said ‘hello’.
The voice familiar to me, it was an old friend of ours.
We met when I was twenty. I was young, in a scary sterile hospital setting.
Our first child was to be born and the doctor wanted to induce labor.
Not knowing what that really meant or what to expect. I listened to the doctor and felt he was the one who knew the most. When you are young you believe they know more. The doctor felt the baby was too big for me and wanted to watch the delivery really close.
Labor was slow. Inducement slow.
The clock on the wall moved into long anxiety inducing minutes, as the hands seemed to be frozen in time.
Very stressful for a young couple, not knowing what was going to take place in the next few hours.
Our lives would never be the same.
We would leave there with a baby.
The nursery at home prepared and waiting for the bundle of love to go home.
The three pm shift began. A new nurse came in said to me, “Oh you are not in labor yet, let’s turn this pit drip up and you can have a baby by dinner.’ A pit drip is an IV mixture that moves labor faster than a normal labor schedule. That is why they call in inducement. They force the contractions to move fast to allow the baby to be born through an unnatural process.
The intensity moved quickly, as I watched each liquid drip fall faster and faster down the IV bag.
The nurse got her wish. The delivery came very fast, from 3:30 to 5:35 pm I moved from no labor pains at all, to hard labor in minutes.
A whirlwind of feelings and emotions slammed me.
At 5:35 pm our beautiful baby boy was born.
We named him Christopher.
As I rested in my bed, I heard the moaning and groaning of another lady down the hall.
She was not quiet in her labor journey and I was feeling the anxiety with her.
Hours passed as I listened to her ‘difficult labor’.
I kept asking the nurse, who is that??? As I listened to her screams in the background.
The hospital was small, and I could hear almost everything that took place with her.
Eleven hours later she was wheeled into my room.
She was exhausted and worn, and I knew she needed her rest just as I needed my own.
As we both woke up we made small talk, and our husbands visited.
We both had our first born sons. They were so similar one weighing 6.3 and one weighing 6.8.
Our son was very beautiful
although the nurse had to reassure me his cone head ‘would go away’.
Their son had lots of hair.
Two boys born eleven hours a apart.
Each day we would visit and share small talk. Those days in maternity wards the baby’s went back to the nursery and the moms actually got to rest. They also kept the moms for 4 days so we had lots of time to establish a ‘friendship’.
When the time came, we bundled our son up and left for home.
They left for home a day later.
Weeks had passed and one chance meeting in a local grocery store, rekindled the friendship.
We exchanged phone numbers, addresses and wished each other well.
It has been 35 years. A friendship long and treasured.
At least once a year we get together and share stories of children and life.
Their children grown. Our children grown.
A friendship that has kept strong throughout the years.
We were young, they were almost ten years older.
It has been a friendship that has lasted, and it is very interesting to watch our aging process.
We have a warm understanding of ‘who we are with them’.
It is good. It is treasured, and valued.
We were two couples in different stages of life, learning together, the ideas of being a parent for the first time.
It is no different whether you have been a professional working person for years
or a newlywed young mom. She worked full time and I was a stay at home mom.
The journey is the same for both.
New babies: equal fatigue. New babies: equal anxiety.
It has been a warm wonderful friendship that has lasted for years.
We often joke about the ‘nurse’ who was not so gentle to both of us.
It is a story of friendship.
God is so wonderful to keep us close to those who really matter to us.
Friendship is wonderful.
I thank God for all of the special people in our lives.
by Sharon O | Mar 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
Psalms 81:1 (NAS)
“I will sing of the loving kindness of the Lord forever, to all generations I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth.”
Throughout the years, I have been collecting pretty china and crystal pieces.
Along with special books, dolls and other assorted things, given to me by my grandmother and other significant people.
In the hopes that some day, I can pass them on to my children, and then their children.
Many hours spent planning and purchasing, and thinking of what would be special to hand down. For I wanted to leave something of value and significance to our children. We purchased Royal Doulton Old Country Rose china, a set of 12 with the intention of splitting in half a set of six for each child’s family.
My grandmother started me on this collection, by giving her dessert sets to me.
Rather than have a mix and matched china collection I kept on with this one.
I have beautiful crystal pieces. Even my parents and I think my grandmothers sterling silverware set, minus a few forks or knives. (Somehow I did manage to get them in spite of our sad growing up years)
All of these have value.
All of these are wonderful and thoughtful.
After I read this verse,
‘to all generations’ … I realized something.
Something profound, a soft reminder in my heart.
God is speaking, I silence my heart to listen.
Giving my children or grand children beautiful things to admire or show off in their homes is nice. Nothing wrong with the idea.
But….
The verse is saying, to all generations I will sing, of the loving kindness of the Lord. I will make known your faithfulness, with my mouth.
My most important ‘thing’ I can give to my children and grandchildren is the legacy of God’s love. In the hopes that as I would give china or crystal that they would value. God’s love and faithfulness would become far more valuable to their life than a china cup. I desire to hand to them something of purpose.
I don’t have to literally sing to them as the verse says, but our children remember the old southern gospel music playing every Saturday night.
As they fell into a deep peaceful sleep down the hall.
This means, to share God’s love and pass the ‘grandmother baton’, to all generations, so that they will know that God is faithful and kind and has endless love for them.
I will make known.
That means I talk, I share, I pray, I encourage the ways of the Lord to them.
Thank you God for showing me.
A different new legacy of love for all generations even after I am gone.
I pray that each one of them
will find value, purpose and meaning from your heart of love for them.
Passed down from a legacy of faith, from a mom and grandma who loved.
by Sharon O | Mar 10, 2010 | Uncategorized
The other day we were getting ready to take our twin 6 year old grand daughters home to their parents along with their sister who is 10. Pillows and backpacks were taken out to the car along with other items going home.
Hannah wanted her helium filled balloon too and as she was trying to put it in the trunk, it began to float away. Grandma tried to catch it, but the wind was faster than I was. Huge tears fell down her face, crying for her balloon, wanting it to ‘come back’. I tried to talk to her but it wasn’t working. As I helped her into her car seat, tears falling down her sad face.
I said to her, “do you know why that balloon was floating away ‘so fast’?” she was listening now, not crying (which was my goal). “No why, she answered me with her sad quivering voice and teary eyes”.
I began to talk in my grandma tone, “well way up in the sky, way way up in Heaven. There is an angel who is just waiting to reach for your balloon, and when she gets to touch it, she will say, “this is from Hannah, a very special little girl”. Now all three girls were listening with great anticipation of what was coming next. ” I said “she always catches balloons of little children that is her job.” {OK theology is not in this lesson}
She was now beginning to calm down, wiping tears off her cheeks… then Hannah said to me with questioning eyes.
“But grandma, how do you know? who told you this?” as she was still sort of crying only not as loud.
Without a moments passing I said ‘Oh grandma’s just know these things’…. as I looked at the face of Faith the ten year old. She was giving me the look back, as if to say ” where did you come up with this?”
Sometimes us grandma’s just have to come up with something very special and very unique for the moment. That is our job you know.
by Sharon O | Mar 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
This verse has been a focus of mine for several days now.
The writer starts out with therefore. Most pastors say, whenever this word is written, it means ‘now listen’ it is important, it is not to be missed.
So we are not to miss the fact that we are God’s chosen people.
HOW awesome is that? HE chose us.
Not only did he choose us purposely, but we are set aside
as holy and dearly loved.
Doesn’t that just give you a warm wonderful feeling?
Then the writer says, as God’s chosen, holy and dearly loved people;
you are to clothe your selves in an appropriate way.
This is an action word, such as, putting on as a sweater over your shoulders when you are cold. Or a blanket on the couch when you are watching something.
I was thinking, so what does this mean for us?
As I get up in the morning and look into my closet and decide.
Do I want to wear the red sweater and the black pants,
OR do I put on compassion.
Do I want to wear the denim shirt with the denim pants,
OR do I put on kindness.
Do I want to wear the soft flannel shirt with the flannel pants,
OR do I put on humility.
Do I want to wear the frumpy pants with the frumpy shirt,
OR do I put on gentleness.
Do I want to wear something fancy and have a dress up day,
OR do I put on patience.
As we wrap the warmth of our Lord’s love around us.
We choose to wrap around his attributes also.
It is not natural for us to show compassion, be kind, be humble or gentle, and most of all to be patient.
So it must be a choice for us, an effort on our part.
Just as we get up in the morning and decide, what ‘look’ we are going to present for the day, for others to see. We also can get up and choose, what attribute we are going to present for others to be a part of.
I think it is an awesome thought.
One that I am going to work on, as I make a conscience choice of what I am going to wear.
