The Longer I Serve Him, The Sweeter He Grows

One of the greatest blessings in my life was to be born into a Christian family.  My parents were faithful to be in God’s House whenever “the doors were open!”  I know that gets tossed about as bad or legalistic these days, but my parents were at church when the doors were open because they loved the Lord and being with other people who loved the Lord.  So when I was a teenager…boy that seems weird to write, especially as my 40th Class Reunion is in a few weeks…the youth group was my social life.  We had a great youth group with weekly Saturday night activities, a leadership circle that met every Thursday evening, Sunday School class, and every Sunday night we had a “Sing!”  That was so much fun…we had a man who played his electric guitar and a woman who could keep up with him on the accordion.  Add to that several of our youth group that strummed their own guitar, banjo or ukulele!  Mingled into the singing was loads of testimony time. Because of those two things, church and youth group, I have a head full of hymns and choruses about Jesus!  What a wonderful thing that is.  Those songs do not have power nor energy of their own, but they are full of God’s truths and He has used them so many times to bring encouragement and joy to my heart.  It’s just so interesting that a little tune starts humming in my head and when I stop tp track it down, it is usually a hymn or chorus. 

Most recently an old Gaither song has been filling my heart.  It got stirred up because my Dad, who lives with us and who is in the midst of grieving the loss of his wife of 66 years, has been listening to a George Beverly Shea CD.And on that CD is the song, The Longer I Serve Him, the Sweeter He Grows.

For several mornings now as I am drying my hair and dreading the start of my day, I stand there and try to sort out my feelings.  I’m not much of a morning person anyway and it is usually in the morning that Satan lays a snare for me and I walk right into it!  I’m struggling with the new way of life I have as a caregiver and I’m not always so caring and giving.  Like a Mom of toddlers there’s not much time to yourself.  So I like to dry my hair…kind of wish it was longer!  But in those moments, phrases from that song come along and lift my feet out of the trap of self pity. 

Since I started for the kingdom, Since my life He controls; Since I gave my heart to Jesus, The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.

But the verse that really grips my heart with truth is this one:

Every need He is supplying, Plenteous grace He bestows. Every day my way gets brighter, The longer I serve Him the sweeter He grows.

EVERY NEED and PLENTEOUS GRACE!  Those words bring me to tears as I dwell in their reality!  How very good my God is, how very gracious to me who likes her own way.

This is Mom, Dad and my sister Jo last August.  I took this photo the morning I picked Jo Ellen up to take her to the airport at the end of her summer vacation.  These three had no idea what changes their lives would take in less than a year!  Mom would be with Jesus in October.  You just do not know what the future holds, so be sure you know the One Who holds the future!  (Another great little song).  

And this is my wonderful husband Wally and I this past Easter.  Not many men would open the door to let their in-laws move in much less a sister-in-law who is cognitively disabled.  But he did.  It’s not been easy but I sure could not be doing this without him! 

And it is Wally who has been telling me to blog again.  So here it is, my first blog post in a lon-ong time!

Thankful Thursday

I have been feeling very grateful this week, and it is not even November!  Sometimes I think I am only “thankful” when things turn out good or for my benefit!  But as I was remembering to thank God  (isn’t it awful that sometimes I don’t??) for His work and answers to prayers this week, it dawned on me that my gratefulness should not be dependent on favorable circumstances.  My gratefulness should be dependent on God alone!  After all, He is always, always, always at work.  He is working when I feel my prayers have gone unanswered, or answered differently than I expected.  And I believe that is what I really want, not just good things to happen, but for God to be working! 

A short recap on my gratefulness this week:

*Ben and Andrea have finally moved completely into their home in the Bronx.  There has been  I am so grateful that Wally and I were able to to go back to New York and  give them some help before they moved. Maybe I’ll get around to blogging about that trip someday!  There were many who helped and many things to do before they could move in.  So grateful for all that support and the ministry they have already had in the Bronx.

Spending time with the Grands again wasn’t too bad either!

* Unbelievably, my Dad went into the hospital two days before I left for New York.  It was a little bit of a repeat from January’s hospital stay.  Ten days in the hospital, nine in a rehab facility.  Then home for only three days and back to the hospital again for three days to resolve an issue.  Dad is home again and hopefully on the road to recovery.  I have many hospital photos but not very glamorous!  I am thankful to my brother Scott who sat with my Mom nearly afternoon after work…and for the many visitors, cards and friends that came to see Dad.  It is a reflection of what he has given to others in his life. I recently heard a quote but I cannot give credit to its author, but it has the wheels of my mind turning.
”Old age strips the body of its glory so the beauty of the soul can be seen!”

*These three…there’s a lot going on here.  Kenny and Becky are so busy in the summer.  They’ve put on a day camp for their middle school kids, driven the high school kids to camp in GA and then returned home to FL to prepare for VBS!  We’ve been praying for them in different ways and while I know they must be exhausted.  When I expressed my concern about their being run ragged, Becky responded with a a sweet, “It’s been good, learned lots and lots at camp and now just putting it into practice in real life as we know it!”  How grateful I am for that heart attitude!

*Wesley is a new resident of the Orlando, FL area!  It has been his goal to move to FL and this spring his company gave him  the green light to make the move!  It’s been a difficult transition for him, he’s starting over with making sales calls to build his business, he has to find a new church home and I think he is missing his very good friends here in Colorado. I am grateful to see him trusting the Lord, determined to make things work in the place he believes God has brought him to.  I’m also grateful that he gets to spend this weekend with Kenny and Becky!

*Wally, I am very grateful for my husband!  For his abilities, his hard work, his frustrations and his enthusiasm…even for a roof or gutter job!  He is a good husband and I am glad to be his wife!

I am grateful and yet depending on God to work in the circumstances of my life and my family.  If I’m depending, I need to be praying! 

Grateful has some synonyms: appreciative, thankful, indebted, pleased, gratified, beholden.  I think Wikipedia left out Praise God but otherwise, I have a heart full of those synonyms!

Thankful Thursday

Note:  I wrote this on June 1, 2017.  But I never posted it.  I decided it’s worth sharing even though it is now July 20, 2017. 

This is from my devotions journal that I wrote on Wednesday morning.  I’m not sure it will make much sense, but I felt compelled to put it in writing anyway.  Tuesday was one of those days when it’s tough to be a Mom.  Tough Mom days do not seem to be confined to kids living under your rough. I’m learning that praying is a difficult kind of parenting…but necessary…just as much as wandering down the hall to a help a sick child in the middle of the night!  You have to do it! 

Psalm 124:6-8
Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.

Today is the day after yesterday-a tough day.  My old enemy fear and worry were at work and I probably didn’t even recognize it.  My Devotions yesterday and today were about dealing with temptation.  I wanted to blow them off-after all…”I don’t smoke, cuss, drink, or chew, and I don’t go with those who do!”   But so subtle is fear and worry which lead me to doubt.  I felt I had spent the the day in prayer, even a couple of nights, for Ben and Andrea’s house closing and Wesley’s move to FL.  The deal fell though on their house- again!  I have been struggling with God ever since. WHY? I trusted You.  I totally believed you were able & would complete it!  Why did You not come through?
These questions I cannot answer.  But what I know to be true is God is MY help! IS!!  I cannot answer for the timing, the delays, the circumstances, the things I do not see.  I often heard a voice in my prayers of pleading that reminded me “I’m not a magic rabbits foot.”  And so I return to what I know to be true about God-
He is Sovereign-and I trust His Sovereignty! 
He is Faithful
He is True
He is Good
He is Gracious
He will Provide
He is full of Love

I guess I have temptations a plenty but focusing on Him chases doubt and worry away!

I’m thankful to have spent a much more peaceful day yesterday and today! 

Thankful Thursday

Today on facebook one of those memories popped up and it was a link to my blog, a Thankful Thursday post from 2012.  I used to write a thankful Thursday post every week!  Goodness, I think I have forgotten how to blog.  Since today is Thursday I thought I’d give this Thankful Thursday thing a try and maybe see if I can get the habit back!

Two weeks ago yesterday Wally had knee replacement surgery.  Both of his knees are bad but the right knee has been the worst.  He was kind of walking sideways, you know, waddling!  The doctor said the knee was actually much worse than the x-ray showed so it was good that he had it replaced.  Wally and I are both so thankful for the skill of the surgeon and medical team and all the care givers in the hospital; the therapist and all their knowledge to rehabilitate; the prayers and encouragement from family and friends; the healing and the progress!

Wally is doing very, very good!  He goes to therapy twice a week.  On our first visit the therapist told us that Wally’s knee is like one they see three weeks after surgery, not just five days.  Then he went on to bend and straighten it at painful lengths!  The goal is to have the knee straighten to 0 degrees and bend to 120 degrees.  I would have thought that laying the leg out straight would be easy, but it’s really quite painful.  Wally is already at two degrees so he does not have far to go.  The bending part will probably take a bit more time.  During therapy they have used their “special techniques” to bend it to 107 degrees!  At home, Sadie has her own special methods of rehab…play with me!

Today Wally had the bandage and the staples removed.  He’s also walking with just a cane.  He has to be able to walk using the cane but without a limp and to be off any narcotic drugs to be able to drive again.  Look out, he is determined!

I might have made it sound like Wally’s knee replacement has been easy.  But there is still plenty of pain.  You can probably see from the photos that the knee is still pretty swollen.  After he does his exercises he is ready for icing and it is amazing to me how it wears him out and off to sleep he goes.  The evenings are rough, I think because he is working the knee or walking and it takes its toll.  Sleeping is also hard.  We’ve been told it will be hard to sleep for two or three months.  All of that is just part of healing and being restored.  It’s quite a process.  And for all of this we are very thankful! 

Though the Outward Man is Perishing…

On February 7 my Dad celebrated his 91st Birthday!   I cannot even begin to understand what that is like.  I think of my parents in the season of “aging” but let’s be honest, 91 is old!  My Mom has often said, getting old is not for sissies!”  There’s a lot of truth in that statement.  I think it takes a warrior!  Trouble is that the body is anything but warrior like at 91.

Recently my Dad had an unscheduled stay in the hospital.  He has a really great doctor and on a follow up visit the doctor “heard” something he didn’t like and had my Dad sent right over to the ER!  That’s not only a good doctor, but the care of the Lord.  The doctors there kept going back and forth as to the cause of his problem…pneumonia or an issue with his congestive heart failure?  They began treating both, antibiotics plus they removed about two and half liters of fluid from around the lungs and the heart.  They also upped his oxygen intake.  It was amazing to see the changes take place with just those two issues addressed. 

Each day this team of computers rolled into Dad’s room and rattled off all the different reasoning's and explanations as to why this was happening and their plan of action to correct it.   There is heart damage, there is something around one of the lungs, the flap that covers his air pipe is worn out and does not cover that air pipe as quickly as it should therefore he aspirates.  Then the questions…did you have a heart attack, could you have been exposed to asbestos, what is the cause of this?  I knew the answers all along…He is 91! 

                      

Truly Dad got very good care.  Excellent and very patient nurses and therapists!  So he began to heal and recover.

        

Just hanging out on the sidelines observing, caring, being with Dad can be very tiring. I watched my Mom-who is just a bit younger than Dad-persevere each day at the hospital.  I then took her home each evening and watched her struggle up the back door steps, take care of the phone calls and other details that still need attention even when someone is in the hospital, let alone your husband of 65 years!  I got a very clear picture of aging.  Indeed, it is not for sissies!

As I thought about Dad’s Birthday a familiar passage of scripture kept bouncing around my head.  2 Corinthians 16-18…
Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

My thoughts kept telling me that it is hard to grow old and this world is not always so kind in the aging process.  Everyone has a different age in which they live, different experiences given them and they live with different responses to those experiences. Life can be very hard, at the very least it has very hard moments.  It is part of that curse of sin. 

My heart kept telling me what a blessing to go through life with the Lord.  To have the Lord in each of those life experiences makes all the difference.  My parents lived enough of their physical (outward) life before trusting Jesus as their Savior to know that life with Jesus (inner) is the better choice.  That choice alone breaks the curse of sin and gives birth to the inner man.  My parents are warriors to me as I have watched them in this process of outer decay.  Their inner man, is being renewed day by day.  It happens as they are daily seeking the Lord in trust and dependence, daily looking into His Word for guidance and strength.  Daily,  praying for family and friends.  Daily, faithfully, through the years.  Though their active days of serving are mostly over, their active days of faithful praying are in full operation and might be their most powerful service yet!  My Dad is pretty proud of the fact that he has a son running a Christian camp and that four of his grandchildren are in full time ministry.  That is what brings him joy, seeing his children and grandchildren “walk in truth”.  (Pretty sure it excites Mom too.)  My parents also have some ministries and missionaries they support apart from their church giving.  It’s kind of an odd retirement plan they have invested into…  maybe you’ve heard that poem…”Only one life ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”    I have said for years, that no one has looked for the return of Christ more than my Dad.  I might be wrong, but I still have his faithful testimony of doing so.  I don’t say any of that to brag, but to say, all of that is inner man building!  It is what my Dad and Mom have chosen to do.  One day (if Christ does not return in their lifetime) that old shell will rot off so that the eternal, beautiful people can burst out and greet their Savior. 

And here’s another curious thought from 2 Corinthians, those 91 years (84 for Mom) God calls them, “a moment” and those hard things in life, “a light affliction!”  

We had Mom and Dad over for dinner on his Birthday.  Scott and Wes joined us.  I could not believe the difference in Dad!!  I also can’t believe I forgot to take any pictures…I think I’m getting old!!  It was Wes who said something when he was getting ready to leave so I have these two to share.   

I think this photo is quite the contrast, youth and old age!

Renewed

Happy 2017!  Andrea gave my blog a make over and I thought I had better write something new to go along with it!  (It was kind of shocking to see my last post was an entire year ago!)  I wish that getting a make over for me personally was as cute and easy as sending out a text message!  It takes a little more to bring about this kind of change.  It takes some personal work and my favorite word…discipline!  I hope you are reading the sarcasm there because discipline has never been my favorite thing!  Yet I know it is so necessary to accomplish anything worthwhile.  It takes good old fashioned, daily, routine even, work!  As I was thinking about this thing we do every year called New Year’s Resolutions, I thought really I just need to get back to the work, the discipline.  What happens to me is that during the year I let all kinds of bad habits slip in and set up camp!  And with them come all these distractions or excuses that keep me from doing what needs to be done.  It just sets up this awful battle of trying to find an easier or a more exciting  way.  But, if I want time with the Lord, guess what?  I have to take time to be in His Word.  If I want a better prayer life, I have to take time to pray!  There’s really no new or clever ways to do this!  So rather than make a list of what I resolve to do differently this year, I’m starting with some house cleaning…removing those things I let in that are really worthless time wasters.  When Andrea redid my blog it looked so fresh and  ready for new things.  That’s what I want from this year that is before me!  To be renewed! 

Renew means to resume, reestablish, repeat. Ha!  Doesn’t that sound like a good description of discipline?  

Our Year in Reveiw Part Four

AUGUST
August was very busy.  While we were packing boxes to move, boxes showed up on my doorstep…materials for Bible Study Fellowship.

We moved from Polo Club North about 18 miles to a house we rented in Highlands Ranch.  We made many daily trips like this moving boxes out of the garage and storage area. 

We could not have made the move without these wonderful young people!  One evening we pulled everything out of the attic storage and they moved it from the upstairs apartment down to the garage.  Another evening two of them came and moved everything we had stacked in the garage and we took it to the house.  Then there was moving day…moving all the furniture to the new house.  They were AWESOME!!!

We moved our bedroom about a week before everything else and started staying at the house.  It was a bit awkward at the apartment!

JoEllen came home for her summer visit!  She got in late one evening and so Robin went with me to the airport to meet Jo’s plane!  Surprise!!  Here’s our Sister Selfie!

One thing I loved about our new neighborhood…the walking trails.  Jo went for a walk with Sadie and me when she came for a short visit!  We also put together a quick “gilrs” day.  We had our own summer tea and worked on a few cards for Jo.

And then I boarded a palne for New York city.  I had a new grandbaby that was a little over due!  I was hoping he would put in his arrival either before or shortly after my arrival and I could help Andrea get a bit of rest.  But I only had a week before I had to be back for the Area Workshop for BSF.  Wouldn’t you know that little guy waited until the very end of my trip to be born??  And then they kept little Henry and Andrea a day longer because his bilurubin count was a bit elevated.  That only gave me a little bit of time to love on him!  But I did get som fun time with all the other Grands!  I’ll have to do a post or two just about them…it’ll be worth it! 

Henry Thaddeus “Tad” Hamilton
Thursday, August 27, 2015 at 6:21 a.m.
8 pounds, 21 inches long

 
   Beautiful Daughter…