God's Faithfulness, Parenting

New Information, Please

You never know the kernels of wisdom you will learn when you attend a Bible study, I don’t remember the official topic, but I do remember the parenting advice I wish I had received years earlier.

Only bring new information in your pleas. Don’t tell me the same old stuff.

Children want parental decisions reversed, and wearing down the court is a familiar tactic. Karen gave the child a chance—with parameters for the battle. The child could only come back if he had information Karen didn’t know when she made her decision.

Even better, Karen made a spiritual application. “Doesn’t God think the same. Don’t keep confessing the same old sins. He has dealt with them. Bring him new information about your sins.”

God buries our sins in the depths of the sea and then puts up a sign that reads, “No fishing.”

Corrie Ten Boom

Thank you, Karen.

God's Faithfulness, Stories I Share

Stories I Share: My Neighbor

With each move, my husband and I pray specifically about many aspects. Not only have our prayers been answered, but we have also received more than we asked.

Thirty-two years ago this week, my husband and I signed the contract for our current house. While it was being built, one night I prayed, “If someone is supposed to be my neighbor and is about to buy another house, please stop them.” I don’t know why that came to mind.

Our next-door neighbors moved in seven weeks after we did. Weeks later, Terri asked if I would run a mile with her in the evenings. She was preparing for her Marine physical fitness test. I agreed. It gave us both exercise and good conversations.

During one run, we discussed choosing our neighborhood. She said, “We were ready to sign a contract on a house in another subdivision. We decided to sign it at home and told the builder we would be back. On the way home, we saw this new development. After we stopped and toured the model houses, we tore up the first contract.”

Thrilled, I told her she was the answer to my prayer.

Basics, God's Faithfulness

My Inheritance

When my uncle passed in 2020, I received an inheritance. (See here) Given the distance between my home and his, I could not claim most of it.

My great-aunt’s working sewing machine was donated.

While giving items to my uncle’s friends and arranging donations, I thought about the future inheritance I could claim. Neither distance nor limited time and energy could keep me from it.

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him—”

1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV)

I was an unlikely heir. My uncle’s daughter and wife had passed. My uncle’s relationships with other potential heirs had been damaged. My brother and I were grafted in.

Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

Romans 11:19 (ESV)

I considered my situation an analogy of the Gentiles being included in the inheritance belonging to the Israelites.

Deeply understanding the truth of being grafted in to receive an inheritance that could not be lost was more valuable than anything I left behind in Oklahoma.

Thank you for the lesson, Uncle Floyd.

God's Faithfulness, Stories I Share

Stories I Share: My Snowstorm Analogy

And You shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness … Deuteronomy 8:2 (ESV)

I haven’t survived a desert wilderness, but years ago, my husband and I survived what seemed like a snow wilderness when he drove precarious roads from North Carolina to our home in Maryland.  He had a work crisis, and I quickly linked the snowstorm to his work storm.

The further we drove, the deeper the analogy rested in my heart. I reminded us that God would guide my husband just as a trucker was guiding us. (See here.)

 

When we exited I-95 and made our first stop in five hours—leaving our trucker—the front of our car was encased in ice. I kicked and slapped until three-inch-thick ice sheets fell.

Route 301 was worse than I-95—deserted and packed with trackless ice. My dashed hopes reminded me that we travel from challenge to challenge. I had confidence we would make it home—even if the journey was worse than anticipated. It was. We did.

The LORD will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forever more. Psalm 121:8 (ESV)

Basics, God's Faithfulness

Inheritance: A Deeper Understanding

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Luke 10:20 (ESV)

I knew that God wrote the names of his children in his Book of Life. I knew that my name was written there. However, my understanding deepened with the passing of my beloved Uncle Floyd in November 2020.

Mollie with Uncle Floyd (August 4, 1928 – November 13, 2020)

When I relayed the news of Uncle Floyd’s passing, relatives listed the possessions they wanted. Only one asked—weeks after her requests—if she was in the will. She wasn’t.

I could only listen. My brother, who held the unopened will, was on vacation. I only knew my uncle’s hints about my inheritance.

Days later, I read these sobering words.

Any other relatives of mine who are not mentioned in this Last Will and Testament have been intentionally omitted and are not to receive anything from my estate.

Inheritance was clearly specified—as specific as the Book of Life.

 

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. Revelation 3:5 (ESV)