From my Mom to Me and from Me to My Daughters, Granddaughters and You -- LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO . . . . LEAVE OFF THE MARSHMALLOWS!

This, of course, is a picture of Allie and me making reindeer cookies during our first Christmas visit home from Ecuador. We were in the kitchen of dear friends Dave and Debi Russell who GAVE us their house for several days so we would have a place to "be a family." Allie was the only grandchild at the time. Since then, I've made chocolate chip cookies with Maggie and reindeer cookies with Nathan and will make many more yummy treats whenever the opportunity rears its head. Other grandmothers can do the healthy stuff. I choose to make cookies.

I remember one day in our apartment in Ecuador when some English-speaking ladies had gathered for a Bible study. I asked my friend Pat to pass the hot chocolate mix. Her question back to me was, "Do you want the kind with marshmallows?" My knee-jerk, long-ingrained response was, "Of course! Life is too short to leave off the marshmallows!" My mother said that or something similar practically every day when I was growing up, and it was very graphically demonstrated when she died quickly and unexpectedly at the age of 55. Mother was the type of lady who didn't "save her best perfume for special occasions." She splashed it on generously on a daily basis. In fact, the thing that my youngest daughter (who was 7 when she died) remembers about her the most was that "she always smelled so good." She also planned the dessert first when inviting company over for a meal. She figured you could always decide about the meat and vegetables later, but that wonderful last sweet taste was supposed to be memorable and worth her time in the kitchen and her grocery money. In the first months after her death, my Dad said on a number of occasions, things like "I'm so glad we went ahead and made that trip to Israel . . . or Hawaii . . . or wherever," and "It makes me feel so good that I replaced her lost diamond ring last Christmas." He seemed to take a lot of comfort in realizing that my mother had experienced a full, though short, life and that he had done everything he could to add pleasure to it.

Well, I hope this blog doesn't end up being "deleted into oblivion" because it is really going to be a collection of life lessons I've learned and been encouraged to share. I feel a new urgency about putting my blessings, blunders, adventures, and personal revelations from God into words. After all, LIFE IS TOO SHORT to keep them locked up inside rather than knowing that maybe you might laugh a little, shed a tear or two, raise an eyebrow, learn something the easy way through me rather than the hard way on your own, get a fresh perspective or idea or just sigh and remember a similar time of your own. For Steve, the children, and grandchildren, maybe they will get a fresh glimpse into what has been making me tick, but mostly, I want to praise my Heavenly Father who "knit me together in my mother's womb" and has bestowed abundant blessings on this person He wove together. Thank you, Father. You made me just as I am for Your honor and glory.

"Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" -- James 4:14

". . . I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" --John 10:10

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. . . . a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7b

I think maybe this is my "time to speak" . . . in this blog.

WORSHIP -- and searching for a new church home

I confess that I've done way too much fretting lately over the choice of a new home church now that we've moved into a new community. I have been a member of some incredible church families during the first 60 years of my life, and I've learned so much from each one. Now, at this stage, when I figure that this next church will be "my buryin' church," I want to really find one that fits. But, is that really the issue? Isn't our assignment as Christians to worship Him -- no matter the setting? Here is what I wrote from the perspective of our missionary time in Ecuador.
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God." Psalm 42:1
Not quite three years ago (late 2001), I sat at the bench of a magnificent pipe organ in a stained-glass sanctuary accompanying the predominantly-white, middle-to-upper-middle-class congregation in such stirring hymns as "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" and "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing." Our service was broadcast on television, and our pastor had a doctoral degree from seminary.
This morning (2004) I sat in a very humble wood and concrete block home in Cojitambo, Ecuador, singing choruses in Spanish to a slightly out-of-tune guitar, lacking in rhythm, but making up for it in enthusiasm. There were eight people in the room, both mestizo and indigenous, assembled to pray, praise and study the Bible. Most appeared oblivious to the dozens of flies swarming in the room with us. Two had been believers exactly one month, and two others were yet to receive Christ as their Savior. The greeter was a round, sweaty lady who placed a very wet kiss on my cheek. Music blaring from the loudspeakers on top of a nearby Catholic church competed for our attention. As we closed the door to drown out the sound, we were also blocking the view of disapproving, suspicious passersby.
Was I worshipping and praising God on both of these occasions? I believe so. That was certainly my intention. Were both "gatherings" centered on Christ in order to glorify God? I hope so. That is what they were designed to do.
In the first case, I understood every word that was said within my hearing. Today I struggled to keep up and likely missed many important points. Even so, I studied the body language of the participants, watching for signs of response, and I maintained a continuous internal conversation with God. One type of worship experience was majestic, but it didn't seem to require much effort from me. The other was a challenge and took more of my energy to stay focused on God.
I'm sure my children wonder why their Momma can't get through a single service in the States now without tears rolling down her cheeks. It is such an awesome privilege to sing and to participate in my heart language. I want to always remember what a challenge it was to pray, sing and understand in Spanish and what a pleasure it is to finally grasp most of what is being spoken. When I return to the States in the future, I want to continue this feeling of longing to worship God and desiring to know Him more intimately.
"One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in His temple." Psalm 27:4
I think it would be good for me to ponder this lesson God taught me when He had my full attention.

Why "The Proverbs 32 Woman?"

I immediately want to dispel the notion that the Bible is inadequate, so I need to add a chapter to it. Absolutely not! No, this label was bestowed upon me by my son during a conversation in which I totally blew the concepts present in the 31 full, rich chapters of Proverbs as given to us by God. I asked him to talk to one of our daughters' boyfriends about spiritual things. He said, "But Mom, what do you want me to say? I don't know how to begin." I (now famously) replied, "Son, just keep talking till you say something good." Matt rolled his eyes and said "Words to live by from my Mom, the Proverbs 32 Woman." Fortunately, he knew, from years of Sunday School lessons and sermons, that Proverbs teaches just the opposite. Words are to be used sparingly and carefully. Proverbs 10:19 specifically says, "In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise." I took Matt's rebuke in the lighthearted manner in which it was uttered, but I continued to think about my never-ending quest to fit the description of the "The Virtuous Wife" given in Proverbs 31.
King Lemuel's mother gave him an amazing list of characteristics to look for as he chose his life partner. I've heard preachers say that no one woman was to have had ALL of these traits, but that Lemuel's choice should exhibit many of them, with the overarching one being her "fear of the Lord." Lemuel's mother even made it easy for him to memorize by putting this in the form of an acrostic with each of the 22 verses starting with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Well, the list is daunting. Her sleep habits alone eliminate me from consideration. Verse 15 says she "rises while it is yet night," and verse 18 says "her lamp does not go out by night," which seems to suggest that this woman works from Dark to Dark. Read Proverbs 31:10-31 sometime and be challenged and amazed along with me.
My sanctified imagination started getting out of hand, and I began to wonder what that list might look like if Lemuel and his mother were living in 2010, and if they were searching for "a virtuous woman" among the women in today's churches (I call them Southern Belle Baptists). If we used the English alphabet for our acrostic, maybe it would go something like this:

A = She is very much AWARE of the difference between AUBURN University and the University of ALABAMA, but she wouldn't dare express her preference in the middle of church. She is in AWE of the majesty and wonder of God's power and creation. She APPRECIATES the blessings that have been poured on her. And, she "stands AMAZED in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonders how He could love her, a sinner, condemned, unclean."

B = She's a BAPTIST and knows how to lead her family in a race with the Methodists to the restaurants after church on Sundays, but she's also a BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER in the BIRTH, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

C = She loves pretty CHINA patterns, CASSEROLES, and The Cotton Country Cookbook, and is the most enthusiastic CHEERLEADER for her husband and children. She is a CHRISTIAN, a fact that is genuinely felt and understood by all who know her.

Get the idea? If you'd like to hear the rest of my 26, invite me to come and speak at your church. I'd love to see you in person and share some of the lessons God has taught me.