by Sharon O | Nov 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Tomorrow is Sunday.
We just got back from the beach, a small time away for our 43rd wedding anniversary.
We had a nice ‘day’ he wanted to help at a Christian camp, set up some tables and chairs for a banquet and then they broke down a beaver dam.
He was totally in his realm of happiness, and I sat in our trailer and had quiet time reading a book and taking notes, and enjoying the outside beach day.
We went out for dinner later and had a good time, after 43 years we don’t need to entertain each other each and every moment.
It’s nice.
To say, I want to do this and is that ok? and then agree on ‘the decision’.
Forty three years ago we were young, 18 and 19 and our world was revolved around ‘what we were expected to do’. Not anymore.
I do not walk that road of expectations or obligations anymore.
We had a great time giving each other time to stretch out, and work or rest and then resume our time together.
It was OK. Now that we are retired we are with each other all the time with some time alone.
It is fine to say, I need some guy work time, and I need some quiet read time.
We understand each other. It is healthy.
Tomorrow we will worship in the church we have chosen for the past 11 years.
We will perhaps sit with our daughter and her daughter sometimes all three.
We will enjoy the teaching and the music and the time spent together.
Forty three years we have learned to adapt, be flexible and now say to each other,
“not my circus and not my monkeys”, when things are not looking the way we would like them to look.
Happy anniversary to us. God gave us forty three years together may we pray for at least 20 more.
by Sharon O | Oct 31, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today is October 31st the end of the month, and the beginning of the ‘holiday season’.
The leaves are dropping off the trees now, the air is becoming cooler, rain is the normal for us too.
I love a storm where the trees sway and the wind sounds powerful and mighty.
Especially if we have a fire in the fireplace and the house is warm.
We were in a barn a few weeks ago at a wedding and it was the worst storm of the season.
The winds hit close to 61 miles per hour and the barn floor shook and creaked and the windows rocked as the rain beat against them.
It was a bit scary because the force of the wind was so strong.
The wedding was beautiful and we all survived it and for that we were thankful.
At home we dug out the candles and flashlights just incase we might need them.
We stocked our pantry and refrigerator just because, we didn’t know if another storm was brewing.
I am glad November is coming.
I love the holiday season full of festive decorations and family meals.
Thanksgiving will soon be here and as we enter into the new month I challenge us tomorrow to start a 30 days of gratitude notebook.
To have gratitude is to have the quality or feeling of being grateful, being thankful.
This is Thanksgivings message.
Giving thanks for all that we have and for all that we are blessed with, for life, health and family.
For good friends and freedoms.
This week is our anniversary so I am grateful already for a husband who has walked alongside me, even when the journey was not easy.
Next week we see who our next President of our United states will be.
Shall we wait with anticipation and wonder who it will be?
Our freedoms give us choice.
We are allowed to choose and in that choice making decision the final result will come out.
A new season will begin on many levels.
Will we remain thankful, blessed and in peace no matter what takes place?
I realized the words ‘give thanks’ are in the bible 48 times.
I don’t think that is an accident, that we are encouraged to give thanks.
1 Chronicles 29:13
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
Psalm 106:47
Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
Psalm 118:21
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
by Sharon O | Oct 24, 2016 | Uncategorized
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.”
When I think of this verse many things jump out at me and call me to attention.
He begins with if… that means we have a choice. If… my people.
The word if means [supposing that, or when or it’s a condition or requirement] it is also used to introduce an exclamatory phrase.
Which I believe is what this passage does.
He said, if my people… stating who he is addressing, who are called by my name, stating their identity, will humble themselves, that is a condition of heart.
“if my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn,” THEN… I will hear.
It is a promise He will hear us but it has conditions.
Sort of like a humble repentance and awareness of what the wrongs we have done.
“if my people… show me a changed heart…(me paraphrasing this) I will hear, I will forgive, and I will heal.
That is three I will promises…each have a place in our condition of relationship with God the one who is speaking.
It amazes me how this verse is laid out, because He is saying, we need to be humble in mindset, prayerful in spirit, seeking in motive and repentant in behavior.
The verse says “IF” that means we have choice. He always gives choice.
Very similar to what we as parents do with our children.
I used to say to ours when they were little, “you can choose to not listen to me and realize the consequences of that choice or you can listen and mind.”
He was saying “If my people”.
He was placing a condition or requirement of His promises.
He could give us the promises without any movement on our part, but that would lose the lesson.
I think right now this is a wonderful verse to keep reminding ourselves.
He always gives us choice. The issue is what are we going to do with that?
by Sharon O | Oct 19, 2016 | Uncategorized
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”
The first time this was read it touched me in a very strange way.
For days it seemed like it followed me around, the words, ‘I have loved you’…
that is a personal statement.
I… the LORD… have loved you… meaning me… meaning you… meaning each of us.
With an everlasting love, when I looked that word up it brought light and depth to the verse.
The meaning is: continual for a indefinite amount of time, consistent, on going.
As a parent it felt like it was very much the same as a parent’s love for their child, at times we get frustrated or weary, but we never tire of our love for them.
Then I moved to the word, drawn. “I have drawn you …” and I wondered what did that really mean for us?
The word drawn means a tense pull or force in a direction towards oneself; to attract and move continuously.
So He is saying, “I have drawn you closer to me with unfailing kindness.”
We all like to be with others who are kind.
When I first started therapy with my last counselor I was ‘drawn’ to him by his kindness.
I could relate to that verse since I had felt it and observed it within myself.
He was gentle, his words were soft spoken and very tender.
It was unfamiliar to me, yet it came to be a safe place for me to share because he was non-threatening.
His kindness as the definition explains, was sympathetic and compassionate. He was genuine and concerned.
I could feel that and it did pull me in so that I wanted to go back week after week.
It made our work together easier because I knew he was invested in the process with me.
So when we read the promise, from the Lord.
“I have loved you with an ever lasting love, ongoing and continuous, and I have drawn you, pulled you near me and attracted you to me, with kindness”
We can be assured that he means it and that he is not ever going to let us go.
In the message version of the bible the verse is written like this.
God told them, “I have never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love and more love.”
Isn’t that an amazing promise?
Nothing we do can separate his love for us. Unfailing means we can’t do anything to change it.
I hope that brings you a peace and hope for the day…knowing “you are loved.”
by Sharon O | Oct 16, 2016 | Uncategorized
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Another version says, “Teach us how short our lives really are so that we can be wise.”
And another version says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”
Oh what kind and gentle thoughts. Very similar to a prayer.
In order for us to be taught anything we must be willing to receive it.
This verse is sharing with us that our life is a journey as we are passing through it.
The older I get I realize it is short, and it is fleeting.
In a moments notice something could go wrong, and we are faced with heavy hearts.
A year ago some good friends of ours were killed in an accident that was totally devastating to everyone who loved them.
They were out for a bike ride, just an afternoon outing, when a car slammed into them and killed them.
Life was shattered. Life ended. In one afternoon.
I learned through this experience that none of us know when our time is closing in.
None of us know if we are going to be here next year or next week.
Our days are numbered and our ability to impact others with our words, our faith and our love is shortened.
I realize it might sound doom and gloom, but in reality we cannot know what is ahead of us; and really we wouldn’t want that ability, even if it was possible.
We have six grand children and I pray we are able to see them all graduate from high school and possibly a few marriages.
We went to a wedding ceremony yesterday and it was the continuation of a circle, the circle of life.
The pictures displayed of grandparents who went on before them, of their own parents who stood beside them.
The circle of life continues to spin around us.
I like the ‘gain a heart of wisdom’ part, because as I age I feel like I am gaining a new awareness of what is important.
When I was younger it was important to have a nice home, decent car and a job.
Now that I am retired I find it is more important for me to have comfort in my home, good friends and time spent together that is positive and life building.
God often talks about heart conditions.
He knows without a ‘heart change’ we won’t learn and won’t receive from him.
I think this verse is more like a prayer, “teach us Lord, to number our days,” to not expect more than what is here in front of us.
I think it speaks of being wise and mindful, that each decision we make affects the whole picture, of not only our lives but the lives of others in our path.
A heart of wisdom tells me we need to be thoughtful, watchful and careful of not only our words but our plans.
It is a good thing to be open to the lessons with open hearts and open hands.
For if our days are numbered… let us make the ones that we have, good and treasured ones.
by Sharon O | Oct 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
“I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed–I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “That I am God.” Isaiah 43:12
The word revealed is in the bible 95 times, that is pretty significant to me.
It is a word that as I have shared before, a taking off the mask.
It is a powerful way of allowing trust and vulnerability.
In the book of Daniel 2:19 it reads:
[During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God in heaven.]
I have had things come to me in the dark of the night, when it is quiet and all is resting.
It is a revealing of what needs to take place at times.
Or it is an awareness that all of a sudden, something comes to me; sort of like an aha moment.
Reveal is a powerful word. It is very close to the concept of removing the veil and exposing what is hidden.
It can go many directions and with many different aspects that share it’s meaning.
In Romans a book in the New Testament, of the bible chapter 8:18 it reads.
[I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.]
Revealed to us, when we are ready, when our eyes are open and we are willing to receive.
In Luke 24:32 it reads,
[“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?”]
They were chatting among themselves and he (Jesus) arrived and began to walk with them as a stranger.
Yet they did not recognize him. They did not see him because it was not the right time.
[“They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.” Isn’t it great? I found it fascinating that HE (Jesus) was not out to show himself until it was the right time for their hearts to receive what they would see and experience.
Later he did reveal himself to them, as they spent more time with him and participated in familiar settings.
vs 30 it reads, [When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.
Then their eyes were opened (revealed) and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.]
{They asked each other, “were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?”
It is a question worth repeating.
I love the words, “our hearts burning within us.”
Have you ever had that kind of experience of deep knowing, anguish almost and of great intensity?
When we choose to reveal our lives to each other, we make a choice to be known.
When we choose to be vulnerable in a sharing way, our hearts are open to the needs of others.
Just as Jesus had to choose when it was the appropriate time for the men to ‘see him’.
We have to choose when it is the appropriate time for others to know more about us.
It is all in the timing.
by Sharon O | Oct 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
When I shared about the word reveal on my last blog writing, it was hard to ‘open’ my life up and speak about my health issues.
Often times when we are growing up we are told or instructed to keep things private.
Either told to us by someone or a self imposed, ‘I must be silent’ about some things, we learned the lesson.
It is true we must not share everything in our lives like an open book, but to share some things is learning to let others in.
I am not good at that. By nature I am a private person.
I am cautious and careful and choose my words wisely. I choose my sharing even more wisely.
The Lord is showing me that in order for me to let others into my life, I have to share matters of my heart with them even if it uncomfortable to do that.
They cannot guess for that would be foolish. They can know truth so they can walk alongside me and also pray.
Just as I would want my ‘good friends’, to allow me to walk with them through a valley of sadness or sickness.
That is what friendships are for, sharing life, sharing disappointments or joys.
It is in the revealing of oneself that we learn to grow in a relationship with others.
As I wrote before ‘reveal’ is to open up. It is to become aware when we didn’t know before.
I didn’t know I had a blood sugar issue. Once I learned the truths of it, I became aware of how to treat it.
The same thing would apply to a heart that is broken or a wound that is infected that is making our spirit ill.
The body is a combined effort of physical, emotional and spiritual feelings.
When I was sick, for many years my emotions were numb.
I had spiritual feelings but my heart was protected with self imposed ‘doors’ surrounding it.
After being hurt over and over, I wore caution and protective gear over the soft side of me.
When it became clear to me that I had to start sharing and revealing what was going on inside my ‘broken places’,
God led me through a process of revealing the pain and trusting someone with those pieces of me no one was ever allowed to see or know.
Life threatening illness can change our thinking, we no longer speak of ‘what I am doing in ten years,’ we speak of what shall I do today, or tomorrow.
We move from long term plans to short term plans.
It is always about sharing life openly and honestly, and also allowing ourselves to accept our new truths about ourselves.
Just as my best friend has to learn to take care of herself and to follow doctor’s orders for her good.
I have to give up and release my enjoyment of ‘ice cream’ or chocolate cake.
It is not good for me therefore I will exchange one ‘treat for a healthier option’.
In this life I have now, I am able to say, “oh I can’t have that,” and move forward without regret.
Is there something in your life you need to be honest about?
Has God revealed something to you that only you can fix or take care of?
It is in the revealing, when we share life with others, that we open our hearts and trust them.
Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.
Proverbs 27:9
by Sharon O | Sep 28, 2016 | Uncategorized
In January I often move into a time of prayer and ask the Lord for a word for the year.
It is a pause for me, as I wait for the right word, and then later watch and wait as it comes to life during the year.
Every word has proven to be the right one for that particular season of life.
This year it was a deeply felt feeling that the word would be ‘reveal’.
I wasn’t sure what it was about or why, I just felt like it was the right one.
The meaning of the word is this:
1. to show clearly
2. to make known through divine inspiration
3. to make (something secret or hidden) publicly or generally known
4. to open up to view: display
I struggled with the word reveal, it speaks to me of exposure.
Of opening oneself up when often it is not the right time, to do so.
I am by nature a very private person so when this word came to me it was hard to grasp.
This year has brought new changes for us.
Retirement has been an adjustment.
Revealing to us the ‘days and the hours’ of spending together.
This year has brought new financial decisions and practices for us.
Revealing a budget that is not tight but not wide open either.
This year has brought to us news of health changes for both myself and my best friend.
Revealing a life threatening illness for her and revealing a diabetic diagnosis for me.
She has to take medications to keep her from getting more ill and I am not needing insulin, just a diet adjustment.
This year has brought home the reality that life is short, and precious and not to be taken for granted.
I struggle with the changes and I challenged God at times and asked why?
He doesn’t have to explain anything to me, the questioning is only for my grumbling attitude to find a voice.
My friend has a beautiful home, a husband who loves her, a family who adores her.
She is a grandma and a precious friend.
She is an amazing women who loves God with everything in her. So why the new challenge for her?
My own diagnosis of diabetes is something I would never have expected.
It is a challenge for me to think of food in a different way now.
For years I didn’t think of food except for the fact I had to eat to live.
I weighed under a hundred pounds many years. It was not a priority for me.
This year I have learned food is my guide, my course, my way of keeping the numbers down.
Not being one who likes needles I tell myself every day when the little poke in my finger takes place,
“this could be worse.”
I suppose it could be life threatening too, if I did not pay attention and ignore the signs or symptoms.
It is a pause for me… to pray about and over this season of our lives.
My friends life and mine.
Oh and the above description of the word ‘reveal’. (to reveal a messy room)
Yes I do have those, in our home. Doors are shut so others do not see the disordered mess.
Exposure is hard when one is learning to reveal parts of themselves.
Whether that be exposing one’s lack of organization or exposing heart conditions that questions why, in the middle of trusting.
I do not understand or pretend to know why our lives are changing.
Those life altering moments I so often write about, is just as revealing as anything we can experience.
During those hard moments of truth, we must decide, I will remain in a posture of thanksgiving.
I will trust in a God who has reasons unknown to me, the why.
I will have faith in the process of living each day as a gift to unwrap and enjoy.
What those moments, reveal to us as the lesson is learned, will open up the divine purpose and inspiration.
As we come to embrace all that life has to offer us.
by Sharon O | Sep 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
We set aside a day for exploring, planning meals out and snacks.
The weather was beautiful and we didn’t even have to wear coats.
We went down to the section of the beach that held the wreck of the Peter Iredale ship, the remains have been wrapped in sand for years and it is just a shell of what it was at one time. From wikepedia:
[The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel. Wreckage is still visible, making it a popular tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Pacific.]
There are many pictures in the history of Oregon beaches books if you are interested in the full story.
WE tried to get pictures when people were not standing around it.
After seeing that area of the beach by car, we drove down the road to a place where the intersection of the waters of the Columbia River and the ocean meet.
We had never seen this beach before so it was pretty exciting for both of us.
Powerful and moving, we saw the pelicans flying over head as we were watching dogs splash in the oceans waves.
The beach was calm and beautiful. We were able to see ships out in the ocean and the beauty of the majestic ocean surrounding them.
It is a powerful thing to see a massive ship moving through the ocean fast. It is one thing to watch I cannot imagine how it feels to be on it.
We never get tired of the ocean. It is beautiful and peaceful and ever so powerful.
We love the sounds of the birds, and the waves and the fresh air and occasional ‘person’ who chats with us as we watch the beauty around us.
This time it was a little Mennonite lady dressed in her homemade dress with shawl sewed in her collar.
Her hair pinned tightly under the hat that seemed a bit disheveled.
She was asking many questions of us as they were traveling from Ohio and was not sure which direction to go next.
We finished sharing and we walked back to the parking lot with her and I could not believe her husband was in the passenger seat with grown beard and looking like a typical Amish man or Mennonite man. It was very interesting to see her climb into the drivers seat as they drove away.
Life is full of surprises and we never know who we might meet in the process.
Our days were ending in the campsite and we were heading out the next day to head home.
It was a fun adventure and also relaxing and it also taught us to look at something differently in a new and exciting way.
Next time we will get the same camp site and be more prepared for a better, longer and easier walk.
by Sharon O | Sep 16, 2016 | Uncategorized
At the campground at Fort Steven’s we discovered a great walking trail.
Since we both are in the ‘walking mode’ and so far like to do it, we ventured into the walk.
It was a clear and beautiful walk. The sidewalk paths were easy to climb and the pathways were amazing.
We walked and talked and enjoyed the occasional bike rider who would come by our way or another walker heading in a new direction.
The walk continued on and was every so beautiful, very peaceful and very easy to maintain our pace.
I love the natural tall grasses. They fill up the spots that might not grow.
There is a ‘beauty to them’ all on their own.
By the time we finished this walk we had made it over five miles. Not bad for older folk who are just trying to learn the fine art of walking.
The area was so pleasant and we just took in the beauty around us as we walked and talked.
Then headed back to our trailer for a rest before having dinner out.
