Abba's Girl

A couple weeks ago, I found boxes of Christmas ornaments at my mother's house. They were the ornaments we hung on our tree when I was very young, in fact, they were old when I was very young. (They are very old now.) I was surprised she still had them. I thought they were donated or tossed when my parents purchased new ornaments. I brought them to my house and decorated my tree and mantle with them. They are faded and a bit tarnished, but then again so am I.  However as believers, no matter our stage of life, spiritually speaking, we are not faded or tarnished, we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. Remember that ladies.  So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away —look, what is new  has come! We are reconciled to God.  And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.    In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the wor...

It's December 1, this year has been so long and yet so short. I spent many hours at the hospital and hospice in January and February, Spring arrived on schedule in March, I was semi-aware of it as I began the probate process, cleaning out my mother's house, and battling pneumonia. Summer arrived, it was not so terrible, no horrible drought no horribly high temperatures, just a tropical storm named Imelda. We rolled into fall and have a little fall foliage this year which is very rare down here! Thanksgiving was a nice day, we took a day trip to the beach, grilled burgers, ate chips, and roasted marshmallows to make smores. My husband had never made or eaten a smore in his life. I find that astounding, I thought all Texas children from our era had straightened wire coat hangers and roasted marshmallows over a fire to make smores. He liked them, he ate 2. We sat there watching the waves break, the pelicans, and a large Great Blue Herron who strolled by while looking for his din...

Over the summer I ordered bulbs for fall planting, tulips (Wintering in the refrigerator as I type.) and daffodils. I'll plant the tulips in early January, there will not be much of a wait for them to grow and bloom, it will be months before the daffodils bloom. I look forward to their cheery presence in my flower beds and a couple of containers next spring. Much of gardening like other areas of life is all about instant gratification these days because we can buy flowers, plants, and shrubs in 4-inch containers, 5-gallon pots, or whatever our heart desires. We do not have to wait for the seeds to grow unless we choose to sow seeds. I think many times just like in the garden, we want instant gratification in the form of answers to our prayers. (Obviously, if we are in a dangerous situation, we really need an instant answer.) We don't want to wait for a flower to grow and bloom or a prayer to be answered. We want God to act now for many reasons, below are a few: The situatio...

It is that time of year down here, time to cut back summer flowers, fill in areas where the topsoil eroded, plant bulbs - I ordered too many daffodils because they were on sale, plan what winter annuals I want to plant next month, and pull weeds which sprang up after tropical storm Imelda. It is also cool enough to prune shrubs, they have not been pruned since May and need a good trim. Just like the flower beds, our spiritual lives require maintenance. If I look honestly at my spiritual life, I realize my prayer life has been a little sparse over the last 3 weeks. I am not giving the Lord the first fruits of my time, He's been further down the list. I've been avoiding extended prayer time. Most days I pray for friends, family, and the world, but I've not been sitting quietly before Him or praying for myself. I'm avoiding it because grief hit me hard on my mother's birthday at the end of September and there are residual emotions from being a caretaker for 10 years ...

A couple of weeks ago, I took my first vacation in 14 years. One of my sisters-in-law accompanied me. My husband AKA the Man remained at home with the glamorous duty of dogsitting. His concern was would my sister-in-law and I run out of things to discuss. I wanted to drive, my sister-in-law Diane wanted to fly, she was not interested in an epic road trip which meant riding over 1000 miles each way in my Beetle. She assured me it wasn't personal, she was not interested in a road trip with anyone, anywhere, in any vehicle. I rented a 2 bedroom property on the Rio Grande River in South Fork, CO and she took care of the airline reservations and car rental. The night before we left, my husband took me to her house to spend the night because she lives 30 minutes from the airport. Her husband dropped us off on his way to the office the next morning. It was sprinkling, we checked in, our flight was on time. We sit down United Airlines let us know our flight is delayed because it is s...

I am horrified by the pictures of damage in the Bahamas caused by Hurricane Dorian. I've never experienced 100+ mile an hour winds longer than 14 hours. I was 22 and not overly concerned about the house being damaged severely (because I was 22) by a Category 3 hurricane which moved in and was gone in 14 hours. Dorian barely moved for 2 days and was much stronger. Bahamians need tangible and spiritual help. The recovery will be lengthy. Just past the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey in my area, buildings still being demolished, homeowners still rebuilding. Due to the number of disasters around the world, people move on to the next one they see on the news. Please keep them in your prayers and consider donating to relief/rebuilding efforts these next months. Hurricane Relief

I've been an avid reader since I was a young child. I was one of those children who asked my parents to read to me at bedtime every night. As an adult, my motto is one more paragraph, one more page, one more chapter. Who am I kidding, finish the book and drink more coffee tomorrow morning... As my mother declined, I kept buying books but did not notice I was not reading them due to less free time and increased responsibility. As August heated up this summer, I began reading again. It's been a nice respite from the heat and humidity.  A few pages to go before I finish  Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough and Anne Graham Lotz's Book Jesus in Me. I finished The Veil by Blake K Healy and Killers of the Flower Moon & the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. I will be vacationing in Colorado later this month with my sister-in-law. Flying is our mode of transportation because she does not want to drive 1000 miles in my VW Beetle from the Houston area to southwestern Co...