“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through ALL generations. The Lord is trustworthy in ALL He promises and faithful in ALL He does. The Lord upholds ALL who fall and lifts up ALL who are bowed down.
The eyes of ALL look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in ALL His ways and faithful in ALL He does.
The Lord is near to ALL who call on Him, to ALL who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.” Psalm 145:13-19
I don’t know about you, but some days I need the reminder that, like a parent who clutches a stumbling child by the arm to prevent them from wiping out, God knows how to uphold me in the moments I fall. He’s not far away. He promises to be right there beside me. He is “trustworthy” in His promises and He is “faithful” in whatever He does. He “upholds” those who fall and He “lifts up” those who are doubled over.
What care and love from our Heavenly Father.
And did you see all the “alls” in this passage?
If you missed them, you might even take time to go back and underline each one. This passage has encouraged my heart through some of the most difficult moments of my life. God’s kingdom endures through not just one or two generations, but ALL generations. He’s trustworthy in not just some of what He promises, but in ALL He promises. He is faithful in not only the things we can visibly understand or see, but in ALL He does. He upholds not some of us, but ALL who fall and ALL who are bowed down. He’s near to not a special few, but ALL who call on Him. What a sweet reminder, and what good news this is, for l am certainly one of the “alls” crying out for His steadying hand.
God is with us and we are held in knowing God has got it ALL. Fully and completely and in ALL the ways that we as His beloved need.
Thank You, Lord, for Your trustworthiness today, and help us lean into Your all-encompassing love for your beloved!!
Journal Thoughts For Today: {write it out as your truth today}
Which promise in this passage is ministering most to your heart today? Why?
In what ways do you feel like you’re “bowed down” these days? How do you usually handle this experience? (Do you try to get back up in your own power and striving? Do you stay on the ground, afraid that you don’t deserve the chance to get back up again?)
Reflecting on your life, how have you seen God uphold you in a moment you were stumbling? How does that past grace give you strength for today’s struggle. 🤗
Prayer:
Father, thank You for being so trustworthy and faithful to me. Thank You for lifting me up even when l am bowed down, and for being near me in all the moments I need You. Help me to call out to You when I fall, when I doubt, when I fear and infuse me with trust that You always hear me, You’ve always got me, and You’ll always answer my cries for help. Give me rest body, mind and spirit today!
God is extraordinarily and eternally faithful. When we seek Him, we will find Him. When we confess our sins, He will forgives us. And no matter what we do or where we go, He will love us with an everlasting love.
We enjoyed time with our daughter and family last night and attended the 1st and 2nd grade Spring Easter Program. Our sweet Emma sang beautifully and spoke with authority biblical truths. God is at work.
The scripture that was woven thru the story led to a beautiful invitation to become a follower of Christ.
My heart is so full. It is a joy to watch our children parent. It is an even greater joy to watch our grandchildren each navigate their individual journey of faith. My heart is to see them walk in relationship with their Heavenly Father and know FULL life in a faithful God.
While the world is clamoring and screaming at the tops of its lungs for the minds and hearts of the children to turn FROM God, I am one grateful mama and MeMe to hear children singing truth and praises to God last night.
So this morning, in the quiet before everyone else woke up, a few scriptures came to mind about the faithfulness of God. My friend, He is true to His Word and that is the ONE thing in this world we CAN depend on and put our hope in.
Thought I’d share a few Bible verses in case you would like to stay your mind on our God’s faithfulness too.
God is not a man, that He might lie, or a son of man, that He might change His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill? Numbers 33:19
Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23
Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands. Deuteronomy 7:9
But the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3
For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is trustworthy. Psalm 33:4
Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! Lamentations 3:22-23
Drop hands of praise below if you have known God’s faithfulness! Let that be your testimony today!!🙌
I am grateful to You, O God, for the blessing of Your forgiveness. I thank You that in Christ, You set me free from the law of sin and death and given me hope for today and into the future.
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 2 Samuel 22:31-32
God set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He passed over the sins committed beforehand; He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Romans 3:25-28
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
The Lord Jesus prayed these words for the unity of all who would believe in Him: “I ask that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:21-23
Lord, I thank You for the perfection of Your way and for the blood of Christ that makes me righteous in Your sight. I thank You that You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing, and I ask that I would live in integrity and seek unity with other believers.
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the furthest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,” Even the night will be light around me. The darkness is not dark to You, And the night shines as the day; Darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12
Take a moment to consider God’s awesome majesty and thank Him that He loves you and wants an intimate relationship with you.
Who is like You, O Lord? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? Exodus 15:11
He who enters by the door is the shepherd of his sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he brings out his own, he goes before them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. And they will never follow a stranger but will run away from him because they do not recognize the voice of strangers. Jesus used this figure of speech, but His hearers did not understand what He was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep.” John 10:2-8, 11, 14-15
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, they have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Lord, I thank You for Your holiness and for Jesus, the good Shepherd. I thank You that I am a new creation in Christ. I love You for the work You have done in my heart through love, grace and mercy. Help me to grow more like You in the days to come.
God, I want Your Word to be deeply implanted in me so that I not only know the truth, but also express it in the way I live.
The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. Numbers 18:20
The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, And He will delight in his way; Though he stumbles, he will not be cast down, For the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the furthest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,” even the night will be light around me. The darkness is not dark to You, and the night shines as the day; darkness and light are alike to You. Psalm 139:7-12
God lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:2-3
My love must be sincere. I will hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Take a moment to affirm the truth of these words from Scripture and ask God to make them a growing reality in your life.
Lord, I thank You that You are always with me and that You sent Your Son to give me the gift of eternal life. I thank You for putting a new song in my mouth, and I ask that I would cast off the works of darkness and cling to what is good.
Love this story! I pray that you are as inspired as I was by her no quit spirit!
FLORET
“Sometimes I am trying to get to sleep, and I begin to think about the war, about the explosions, about this possibility that any time my dearest persons can be killed. I say to myself, do not think about that. Think about flowers,” says Alla Olkhovska.
Alla is a gardener, an expert in finicky clematis, a photographer, a writer, and a caretaker. She lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the eastern border. On the morning that the war started, she could hear the explosions and gunfire. Munitions and debris have landed just yards away from her grandmother’s home. Air alerts scream day and night and it’s common to lose electricity and gas.
Yet, every day Alla boards a public bus that drops her near her family’s garden, which her great-grandfather planted as a small apple orchard after World War II to help her struggling ancestors survive. There are still a few apple trees left, but now the garden is home to a collection of rare and stunning flowers.
And, it remains a means of survival.
While the garden is a refuge for Alla, a sanctuary she maintains despite the war, it’s also a critical lifeline for her family. She is there to collect as many seeds as she can. By selling them, Alla cares for her elderly grandmother, her mother-in-law, and her husband, who nearly lost his life to Covid-19 and has not fully regained his health.
Even as the harsh winter creeps ever closer, Alla is undeterred. With relentless optimism and a belief in the power of beauty and goodness, Alla fights for the survival of her family one seed at a time.
In addition to this short documentary film, you can read a full written interview with Alla here.
If you’d like to support Alla and her family, here’s how:
Order seeds
Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs. Please note: These are not traditional online shops.
To order seeds for clematis and other rare plants, click here.
Ordering instructions: To place an order, click on each item you’re interested in to add it to your cart, where you can adjust the quantity if needed. The minimum order amount is €33 EUR, (approximately $36 USD), plus shipping. You will not be able to check out until you’ve reached the order minimum.
When you’re ready to check out, click on the shopping bag icon to enter your name, email address, and phone number in the cart pop-up. Once your contact information has been entered, click on the black button “Оформить заказ” to submit your order. Please be patient while Alla checks your wish list/order against her seed inventory. She will send you an order confirmation and an invoice that you can pay via PayPal.
Purchase a copy of Alla’s book
If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed.
The cost of the book is €24 EUR, equivalent to about $25 USD. If you would like a hard copy, you can send the book file to your local office supply store to have it printed and bound.
To purchase Alla’s e-book, Clematis, click here. After selecting the number of e-books that you would like to order, you will be prompted to enter your contact information in the box below. Once you’ve entered your contact information, click the black button to submit your order. You will receive an email from Alla with instructions to complete your order and how to pay via PayPal.
Make a donation
If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family.
Funds can be sent via PayPal to standwithkharkiv@gmail.com. All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.
Subscribe to Patreon
Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.
Follow Alla on social media
Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.
This room holds so many sweet memories. We purchased our little plot of land in the mid 90’s, built our home in 1998 and it would become our forever home after Monty’s retirement from the US Air Force in 1999.
This was our Ashley’s room and a little differently decorated for our busy high schooler. Truth is, it changed very little through the years. High school. College. Purchasing her first home. Securing a career that she was made for. Finding the love of her life. Marriage. The same….. that is until we welcomed our first grandchild Mason Blake into our tribe.
New paint. The daybed with trundle replaced by a crib for our grandson. Every new grand-baby to come Emma Mae, Abbey Glenn, Nolan Edison and William Tyler have slept peacefully beneath our beloved family tree. The room has held such fullness of love for our #tribeoffive Surely, this room filled with toys and a toddler bed became a mainstay of our every day.
To everything there is a season. Monty’s 90 year old mom’s health had been failing over the last couple months. She was in a place where we felt it was time to bring her to our home. She agreed it was time and for the best. So, we needed our 4th bedroom to be with us upstairs, which meant moving the playroom downstairs.
So after the flip-flop of rooms was complete, we moved Bobbie in. She now enjoys a beautiful bedroom fitted with her childhood bedroom set and lovingly says it feels like home. A special thank you to my sister-in-law Dianne for helping me sort through clothing and putting things away.
We have spent many hours making her room feel special. Today, we were finally able to get the curtains up, adjusted her heated throw, managed all of her special things and put the family pictures in the places she wanted them. We would not have it any other way. We will forever cherish the memory of this new and beautiful journey!
Early spring of this year Bobbie battled breast cancer. She has been doing well but we have sadly learned that her cancer has spread. Not the news we wanted to hear but she is so happy, at peace, comfortable, safe, enjoys the porches on warmer days, loves it when friends stop by, family are in and out and we have found a beautiful rhythm for her (our) days over here on Hardin Rd. We will forever be chasing sunsets and tonight the beginnings of this day’s end did not disappoint.
Today, we met with workers who will help us navigate her life and health in the weeks and months to come for as long as the Lord wills. We find rest in knowing that God has ordered the number of her days. And so we are settling in, believing God for peace, His perfect will and comfort over the days that she have been given.
We know that God is with us all in every season of our lives. When we face the unknown, we can trust that He is in control and working out every situation for our good. She has led us well, is at peace with God and it is our joy to walk alongside of God’s beloved. He has been so good to her and she gives thanks daily for His faithfulness.
In Isaiah 46:4, God speaks over His beloved Israel- We know He is the same God. The same yesterday, today and forever. His love and compassions never ceases. What an incredible truth to know as we face the end of our days.
To these words we cling.
“I’ve been carrying you on my back from the day you were born. And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old. I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray. I’ve done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back.” Isaiah 46:4
God continues to speak through the highs and lows we have all experienced the last 7 months in our nation. I hear Him whispering and waiting for us to lean in and listen to His still small voice – Thank Me for the glorious gift of My Spirit. This is like priming the pump of a well. As you bring Me the sacrifice of THANKS-giving, regardless of your feelings, My Spirit is able to work more freely within you. This produces more thankfulness and more FREE-dom, until you are overflowing with gratitude.
Overflow defined- to fill, be filled beyond capacity or spread beyond its limits
This past Thursday the beautiful, peaceful creek by our getaway camper in the mountains “filled beyond capacity.” The overflow of water impacted every space that it spread “beyond its limits”. Let’s just say my first thoughts were not “overflowing with gratitude”. After assessing the damage, we began to assess all of the other campers now filled with water-logged trashed treasures. Just priming the well y’all. We are going deep where we really live in hopes of stirring our souls toward overflowing gratitude. He has graciously allowed us this season for a reason. A recent widowed lady could not even enter her porch for debris everywhere. Compassion met gratitude and it swept over me so powerfully. She sat in her truck snd sobbed. Everything she and her late husband had was destroyed. I was humbled because the first thought I had was- we have damage but ours could have been so much worse than it was. This very gratitude challenge kept coming to mind- How can I share the overflow of gratitude with women come Monday? Truth is the more we walked alongside of each other on Thursday, the more I was compelled to share compassion from the Lord and to speak life and Thanksgiving over every circumstance.
I heard the Lord speaking and leading the more I leaned in toward His goodness. God is right about us. I had already written the following before the dark Thursday @ the campground.
I shower blessings on you daily, but sometimes you don’t perceive them. When your mind is stuck on a negative focus, you see neither Me nor My gifts. In faith, thank Me for whatever is preoccupying your mind. This will clear the blockage so that you can find Me. Giving thanks in EVERYTHING invites me into His presence.
As we bow our hearts low before Him, by faith, let’s THANK Him for whatever it is that is preoccupying our minds, surrender it back to Him and rewrite our very nature to think the worst with the overflow of gratitude.
Grateful for grace my friend.
Forgiveness. Freedom. Full life.
Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High. —Psalm 50:14
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. —2 Corinthians 5:5
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. —2 Corinthians 3:17
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. —Psalm 95:2 nkjv
If the Son has set you free beloved of God, you are free indeed. I’ll be practicing this beautiful way of surrender right alongside of you today. Look with grateful eyes for thanksgiving throughout your day. I think we will all be amazed at the beautiful work of the Holy Spirit all around us in every little moment of every day!!!
Thanks for gathering with me today- ten days to focus our energy on living life to the fullest measure of gratitude.
What does it mean to station yourself before God as in the graphic scripture?
“It means stay put. It means, “I’m not moving.” It means, “I’m going to be still. I’m going to sit here and I am not going to move until I hear from you, God.” Rick Warren
Do you live your life revved up? Yep- me too!
How do you put the brakes on and slow down?
For the last 15, almost 16 years, we have lived life in the fast lane. It most assuredly has lived up to its mantra- guaranteed to blow your mind.
At MRO we joke~ the race waits on no one!
Monty and I have faced a Goliath of late. SCAD- spontaneous coronary artery dissection. In laymen’s terms, a tear in the lining of an artery in the heart.
The race waited on no one. We would miss two recent races dues to search for a more definitive answer and as well to determine the fate of our coming days.
God allows us moments of still and wait….. even though the race goes on. Right?
So how do we slow down when we live fully enthralled with excitement of the hustle and hurry?
Where is the time to calm our minds by relaxing our bodies?
Can you remember the last time that you took a deep breath relaxed your muscles and let the tension drain out?
Yep. Me either. Until the weekends of Pocono and Watkins Glen this month we were trudging alongside of every heart that we serve.
The Bible says David sat before the Lord. Some people think you have to kneel in prayer, and that is one of many appropriate ways to pray; but it’s not the most common way of praying in the Bible.
The most common form of praying in the Bible is standing with your eyes wide open looking up to heaven and talking out loud to God.
And as for Monty and I, we have learned a new posture of prayer over the last few weeks.
Jehoshaphat was a good King. He battled opposition and once he cried out to God for wisdom and help.
“Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”….
Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of His holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”
“As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the enemies and they were defeated….. the fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for His God had given him rest on every side.” 2 Chronicles 20
Rest. The wait expectant. Prayer.
You see when Jehoshaphat was surrounded on either side, he “bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord.”
POur new position of prayer would become one of bowed face and heart to the ground in surrender and worship.
When ones literal bridge between life and death is the heart’s beat you get seriously receptive to surrender and gratitude in the face of the eternal.
This would be a time when the woman of many words would bow low, face to the ground in prayer for the complete of her- her beloved.
There were no flowery poetic words necessary. Not one complete sentence was prayed. Just my sincere heart groaning and everyday conversation with Abba Father for 36 more years to love and so life with this man to whom I have been blessed to call my own. The surrender comes when like any conversation, I stop talking and listen and ~wait to hear from God.
Praises stirred in this heart as God brought to remembrance the good. The good that has historically outweighed the bad and with head bowed low, I rested in God’s perfect plan for our lives.
I am reminded today that David teaches us three things to do as you wait:
* Wait quietly — “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, because my hope is in him” Psalm 62:5
* Wait patiently — “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” Psalm 37:7a
* Wait expectantly “I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised” Psalm 130:5
And this is so important:
To pray believing is to expect to hear from God!
Waiting is truly the faith factor. We wait expectantly, and waiting on God is never a waste of time. In fact, it’s some of the best time you will ever invest in your lives!!
Jehoshaphat led the people of Israel and he taught them to pray and praise to win the victory.
Time would tell that no matter the outcome, God was still faithful and our faith should never be dependent on the outcome.
Life altering. Life changing circumstances does not ever change our position going into battle no matter the faith battle we face.
Prayer.
Praise.
Worship.
Victory.
“The fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for His God had given him rest on every side.”
Rest. On. Every. Side.
Peace above the circumstances.
Praise Him unto victory.
Rest that God is with us. He is for us and not against us.
Jehoshaphat lived out his days and did right in the eyes of the Lord.
A worthy pursuit. God has a beautiful way about Himself in that He knows the number of our days.
Sometimes we gain the view in light of eternity. We learn to trust and praise Him in the storm and are compelled to tell of the things we learn that change the coarse of our days.
Sometimes we get a second chance for life not because we cheat death but because God uses our lives to tell HIS story through our story.
History Defined:
1. the branch of knowledge dealing with past events
2. a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle
So we bow our heads to the ground and we worship God. We thank Him for more time to share our narrative of life and living.
Quietly we wait.
Patiently we trust.
Faithfully He finds us.
He lifts our face to His and we know what it is to be found by love.
With expectant hearts, we wait assured that we are not in this battle alone but surrounded held by a power and presence that is good, merciful, gracious and faithful.
Until the next waiting place……we praise.
There will always be that tomorrow that we cannot know or control. So the Lord uses these moments to teach us to number our days.
I have aspired to these words because of the faithful example of my grandmother.
I lived to know “love” like she did.
Genuine, transparent and honest.
I lived to “do” as she did out of genuine love for others.
No matter their story, she gave, served and never doubted her commitment to the opportunity that God would provide.
Available. Sensitive. Attentive.
I live to “live” like she did.
Full. Free. Faithful.
By faith, with the Lord’s help and empowered by the “helper”, the Holy Spirit.
She was the breath of God and that passion still breathes in me.
She was opulent. She was a lover of life, a dreamer of big dreams and a faithful servant of God.
Why?
Because God never does things half-way.
She was brave, strong-minded and invincible, with a whole lot of Scarlett O’Hara in her.
She picked up the pieces in the midst of tragedy and built life kingdoms with love, grace, kindness and faith.
My grandfather, her husband, would succumb to a heart attack at the age of 42. Gone too soon. She was resilient and has a push through attitude- There was not an option to quit but to thrive, not just survive!
Yet the steel resolve, life’s had chiseled in stone on my grandmother’s brow as her face told her story of hard things.
YES! Hard things.
She grew up a tobacco and watermelon farmer’s daughter. They lived on land inherited from my great-grandmother Emma Blanche Melvin. Her father, Larry Fisher married into a very wealthy, yet hard-working family and proceeded to the work of his hand- a 200 hundred acre farm alongside of his beloved.
Only two of their children survived their childhood. It was challenging but God was faithful to fill their small family with love, mercy and commitment to giving to the greater good of others.
Sadness. Loss. Struggle.
My grandmother would learn it all too well herself! She gave birth to my mother, Anne, and she would be her only child after many lost pregnancies.
I have never known such rich love and I have failed at much of the active part of faith spoken to and based on the “perfect” Proverbs 31 wife.
Yet I know grace, an unending love for my Savior and a commitment to give my life to loving and serving others in Jesus name.
So while I never expected unrealistic perfection from my grandmother I learned about grace from her. Grace given. Grace received. She owned her failure, sorrow, pain, offered up a sincere apology for any error and then picked herself up to blaze a new and good path forward.
I LOVED, still love and admire her tenacity. No time to waste! She KNEW the worth of her work and she challenged me to live the same. She lived fully present despite being a widow until she died.
Passion. To dream big dreams. To obey every little unseen yet worthy sacrifice to see it to the end and to the best of my ability.
She taught me real things. Like how to make biscuits. My favorite place was standing on a short stool at the white and red metal table. Most every morning she cooked and I made biscuits. He morning routine included listening to the local news, weather and of course the obituaries on the old radio in her kitchen. I was offended shushed up so that she could hear. When she hears about a need, an unexpected loss, felt moved with compassion- we’d make more biscuits, fry some chicken, pack a box with it all and add some sweet tea.
We’d pile in the car and deliver food made with love, wrap compassions arms around someone with great love and set the table, put ice in the glasses and make sure everyone was cared for. She would say to me as we left every time, “We can only pray that the mourner’s sorrow would be made light with loves response.”
So, Mama Hales, this one is for you! I cannot imagine my life of faith without your tender heart and guided hand that faithfully taught me how to find my passion for doing good with my life and encouraged me to extend mercy and grace to everyone one small step at a time.
Heaven is better for you being there as I can imagine your strong demeanor and passion is bowed low before the Heavenly Father in worship. You are praying us forward and encouraging us to not lose heart. To keep the faith. To obey the Father. To never forget God’s love for us. To serve Him for all of our days.
Not one will ever likely tell of the your impact in your small world but I will remain faithful to every little thing that I am tasked to do- for YOUR glory and our good.
So much to learn, so much to surrender and so much left to live- a beautiful legacy of faith that you have gifted us with and now we hold it all in our hearts until heaven.
“A good woman is hard to find,and worth far more than diamonds. Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it. Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long.
She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing.
She’s like a trading ship that sails to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises.
She’s up before dawn, preparing breakfastfor her family and organizing her day.
She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she’s put aside, plants a garden.
First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work……and is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking.
She’s quick to assist anyone in need, reaches out to help the poor.
She doesn’t worry about her family when it snows; their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.
She makes her own clothing, and dresses in colorful linens and silks.
Her husband is greatly respected when he deliberates with the city fathers.
She designs gowns and sells them, brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops. Her clothes are well-made and elegant, and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.
When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say, and she always says it kindly.
She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,
and keeps them all busy and productive.
Her child(ren) respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise.
“Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all!”
Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades. The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.
Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises!”
Simple Life Heartenings 
You must be logged in to post a comment.