SPRING!!

 

Spring has finally arrived here in Virginia. We went out last Saturday and ate at one of our favorite local "hamburger joints" and watched these baby ducks with their momma. They were so cute! The day was just so beautiful! While the air can still be a little chilly, the colors are just so bright and beautiful. I think springtime must be alot like Heaven will look like. So many colors and so bright, so full of life and love. We had a little bird that kept visiting our back deck today, singing its little song. It boggles my mind to think that the great God that created every kind of bird and animal, every kind of tree and flower, would still take the time to listen to me when I pray and care enough to help when I call.

 

It reminds me of some verses from Psalm, Chapter 8.

 

"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens...When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?...O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"

How excellent indeed!!

Just a few thoughts from my heart, to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

We've all heard some version of this growing up, and more false words were never spoken. I don't know who said this, but clearly they'd never felt the sting of hateful words. There are times when a sock in the gut would hurt less, and certainly for less time, than words spoken in haste and anger. The funny thing about physical pain, is you can't remember what it feels like. Sure, you remember it hurt, but you can't recall the actual feeling of the pain. Not so with words. Our minds can call them back time after time, and they can hurt just as much years later as they did when we first heard them.

The book of James in the Bible (one of my personal favorites) speaks about the tongue being a deadly evil, full of poison. “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” (James 3:8-10)

Sounds like words can be pretty harmful to me. As Christians, we need to be very careful of what we say to others. We can tear down, or build up. We can discourage, or encourage. Sometimes a kind word is what a person may need most.

Words were very important in the Bible. God's word spoke the very Earth into existence! Proverbs 18:21 states that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue"! Such a small part of the body, but so powerful! I want my tongue to speak life!

Just some thoughts from my heart, to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy!

Ten years ago, my sister got sick. She was just really weak and tired, short of breath. She would get tired just walking from the car to the house. Little things really wore her out. She thought maybe she had bronchitis or some sort of bug, so she went to her doctor. He gave her some medicine and sent her on her way.

A day or so later, she was at a luncheon with the people from her work, when she couldn't breathe. She just couldn't get enough air. The lady she works with put her in her car and rushed her to the emergency room of our local hospital. When she got there, she was told she was in congestive heart failure.

What?! Congestive heart failure? Isn't that something that happens to old people? She was only 33 years old! She had been pretty healthy her whole life. Where was this coming from anyway?

Our local hospital sent her to a more specialized one an hour down the road that deals with cardiac problems. I was there the morning they did a catheterization to see if she had blockages or something causing the problem. I remember the doctor coming in to talk to my parents, my brother-in-law, and myself after the procedure. He told us there were no blockages, but that her heart was functioning at less than 10%. It was enlarged to about twice its normal size, and just stretched out like a rubber band that won't bounce back. He said there was really nothing much they could do and she would need a heart transplant...

Words like that really send you reeling. Heart transplant? My dad, the one who always fixed things for me and my sister when they were broken growing up, asked the doctor if there was nothing that she could do to strenghten her heart..he was trying to get some glimmer of hope. The doctor basically wasn't giving us any. My dad looked at him and said, "You do all you can do. We'll pray." The doctor said they would pray too.

And pray we did. Churches joined us all over in praying for my sister. I poured my heart out to God, asking him to please give my sister a miracle. You see, she isn't just my sister. She's my best friend.

She came back to church for the first time on Easter sunday that year, so weak she was hunched over when she walked. She plays piano at church, and we bought her an office chair with arms on it to sit at because she was too weak to hold her arms up to play. In the following weeks, she got back to playing the piano. Then she stopped using the chair and went back to using a bench. Then she got back up there and started singing with me again...something I love to do and still cherish. For her to have enough breath to do that was a miracle already.

Last year, she went back for her yearly check up, and the technician doing her heart study told her she had such a beautiful heart, she could be a heart model! You see, God isn't a stranger to healing hearts. He takes hearts of stone and turns them into hearts of flesh, and he takes broken ones and mends them. He took hers that was enlarged and not functioning right, and made it go back to normal size and normal function. She travels, she shops (my how she shops!), she sings..she loves life!

I could never thank God enough for the miracle that he has given us. I am so thankful for my sister. We share so many things that no one else will ever share. We keep praying for her. Last year her function was a little bit less than normal, but we are hoping that was just a variant of the reading, because we know God hasn't brought her this far to drop her now. He has truly worked a miracle in her life, and I want the world to know that miracles aren't just in the Bible. They still happen today. What a mighty God we serve!

So Happy Anniversary, sissy! I love you!

 

 

 

Spring is here! We have had a hint or two of it in our area, with promised warm weather and sunshine this weekend. Oh, how wonderful it is to think of going outside without coats, warm sunshine, lovely smells from the lilac and honeysuckle!  

 

With spring, comes the budding of leaves and the reviving trees. The Bible speaks of believers as being like a tree. "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  (Psalm 1:3).

 

There are all kinds of trees. What kind of tree are you? Are you strong and unwavering, like a mighty oak with roots deep in the ground? Are you sad and droopy, like a weeping willow? Are you a little sapling that is weak and fragile, bending and breaking with any strong wind or resistance? Are you a cactus, prickly, hard, inaccessible? Are you a fruit tree, providing sweetness and sustenance to others? Are you a shade tree, providing shelter and comfort when the days are hot and long? Are you an evergreen, unwavering and strong even when the long cold days come? Are you a lilac or dogwood, showing beauty to those around you?

 

The truth is, Christians should all be bearing some kind of fruit…being some kind of help to others. We are also branches, grafted into the vine (Jesus). I hope I'm a tree that brings honor to Him.

 

Just some thoughts from my heart….to yours. May your day be blessed and your heart be happy.