Patriots Singing

This is my step-dad (front row, far left) singing with his barbershop group. Good, aren't they?

My Step-Dad Stepping!

This is my step-father, Roy Harvey. He is over eighty years and sings, dances, acts, runs marathons, swims and plays tennis... sometimes all in one day! Take a look and enjoy!

Creator

Okay, friends, I know this is not your typical post for this blog, but I simply have to share this with everyone I talk to! When I came home from Ukraine two years ago, I was mentally and emotionally spent, and was in a downward spiral. On top of that, I've had fibromyalgia all my life, and the pain and discouragement from that was just making matters worse. I was seeing doctors and taking eight different medicines twice a day. I was also seeing a psychiatrist. Then one day three weeks ago, while I was busy writing on my computer, God spoke to me and told me that He was going to heal me. When Jeff got home from work, I told him and he said, "How interesting! God told me you were going to be alright!" Immediately I began to feel better, and when I went to see my psychiatrist, she told me I really didn't need to come back, except for her to help me set some goals. However, the fibromyalgia pain was still there.

Well, today I was at a small festival in a small town when I suddenly realized that all my fibromyalgia pain was gone! In fact, pressing on the normal trigger points did not cause me any pain.

My God has completely healed me. Completely!

I just had to share that with you... and if you are interested in meeting this Creator, leave a comment and I'll be sure to contact you and introduce Him to you. If you think you are a Christian, but not positive about where you would go if you died tonight, then you aren't. Talk to me! He wants you to come to Him, and He is waiting with open arms!

I'll have some new children's books out in November!

If you're interested, I'll have several new children's titles out in November. Where's Patrick Now, Mommy? is written and illustrated by me, and tells the heartwarming story of a little girl whose baby brother dies in utero, and the grief and recovery of her whole family. A great read for a child or a mother who has lost a baby.

Maggie is a humorous tale about a girl and her pets—all named Maggie—who set out one day for a walk and each find a new name. Funny, delightfully illustrated, and written by me!

The last one I'll have out in November is Holly Can't Hear. This is a story of acceptance. Little Emmanuel hates Tuesdays, until Holly moves in next door. She is hearing challenged, and he can't see how his new-found friend will be much of a playmate, until she shows him how. Once again, written and illustrated by me!

I don't usually post this kind of thing on this blog, but I though you'd want to know. And now, good night!

Hand-me-downs

I get hand-me-downs from my husband. He gets a new computer, I get his old one. He gets a new camera, I get his old one. Now, I'm not complaining, mind you. In fact, I'm very appreciative of this Mac I'm writing this blog on. It's got a HUGE screen (don't ask, I don't know) and I've got an external drive to store all my graphics and stuff that would otherwise slow Ol' Bessie down. (Ol' Bessie is an iMac G5). I know how to use this sucker and I do... for all it's worth.

The camera is a horse of a different color, though. I can't see through the view finder without my glasses, and I can't seem to get the camera to home in on the object I want to photograph. This one I call Ol' Jake.

Maybe I need to get a manual. Hmm.... if all else fails....

Dear Mommy: a discussion in three generations

From a little girl to her mother:

Dear Mommy, I’m puzzled, and let me tell you why
I just don’t understand the world, the mountains, sea and sky.
Why are there fluffy clouds on top
And green grass on the ground?
Why are there tiny little ants that scamper all around?
Why do some people live in towns that have such buildings, tall
Enough to reach up to the sky? And why don’t airplanes fall?
Why is our family only four when others have fifteen?
And why are people different? I’m sure that I have seen
Some brown ones and some pink ones, and some tall and some so round
That they would surely roll about if once they just fell down?
Why is the lady at the store always wearing smiles
When people are so rude to her, when shopping in her aisles?
Why does Johnny’s daddy yell and Judy’s mommy cry?
What makes the kids in Africa have big, unblinking eyes?
Why do the little children have to sleep upon the ground,
When my bed is so soft and warm with toys all around?
What will my future hold for me? Will I grow big and strong?
Or will I die, like Stevie did, when he did nothing wrong?
Where’s my sweet black puppy— you said he went away,
Will he be back by Christmas time? Or for my next birthday?
Mommy, I am puzzled, I don’t know what to do…
Will God always protect me and keep me close to you?


From the mother to her little girl

Dear Daughter, please listen, while I sing to you,
The song that Jesus gave to me when I first laid eyes on you.
A song that tells of His great love, for children—every one,
The brown ones and the pink ones, all the kids beneath the sun.
He sang His song of life in you and kissed your face so small!
I cried tears of sweet bitterness the day I saw you crawl
Around because I knew that soon your little legs would run
Away from me, my precious babe, and you would think it fun!
I cannot answer all you ask because I do not know,
But listen— can you hear His song? He whispers, sweet and low.
And Daughter, I’ve taught you, to fold your hands at night
And pour your heart out to the Lord, and He will make things right.


From the mother to the little girl's grandmother

But Mother, I’m puzzled, and let me tell you why.
My baby girl has asked of me, things I can’t deny…
Like why there is starvation, and pestilence and death
And what will happen to us, after our last drawn breath…
So Mother, please answer, what do I say to her?
That might give her some comfort when she finds I have cancer?

From the grandmother to the little girl's mother

Dear Daughter, please listen, while I sing to you
The song that Jesus gave to me when I first laid eyes on you.
A song of your lifetime, the happiness you’d give
Though judging by the sands of time, you hadn’t long to live.
He knows what you’re feeling, He knows just how it is
To have to leave your child behind. He turned His back on His.
Yet you must trust Him e’en through this, though I cannot tell how,
He’ll lead you and your daughter, to that I can avow.
And Daughter, I’ve taught you, to fold your hands at night
And pour your heart out to the Lord, and He will make things right.


From the grandmother to God

Dear God, I’m puzzled, and let me tell you why,
I don’t know how to let her go, to tell my sweet goodbye.
You gave her to me years ago, and sang her song to me,
And I rejoiced to watch her grow into maturity.
But now you have called her, and far too soon she’ll leave,
And all of us will still be here to suffer and to grieve.
So Jesus, please tell me what I’m supposed to do,
How can I open up my arms and send her home to You?


From the little girl to her grandmother

Dear Grandma, don’t worry, and I will tell you why,
I’ll sing the song that Jesus sang, when Mommy said goodbye.
A song of sweet laughter and happiness unfurled
That echoes still within my heart and more— throughout the world.
For Mommy has taught me, to fold my hands at night
And pour my heart out to the Lord, and He will make things right.

Pulling against the leash

Mac, doing things "his way"

Acts 9:5 (Amplified Bible)

⁵And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. ^[a]It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance].

I have two little dogs, miniature pinschers named Mac and Tosh (funny that my computer has the same name, huh?). Mac is adept at getting his needs met, because when he wants something, he bounces. Let me tell you, Tigger has nothing on this dog. He goes straight up like a helicopter, and then his ten pound body makes a thump! that you'd swear came from something at least four times his size (you should hear it when he's upstairs and you're downstairs!). And he can maintain it for twenty minutes or more.

Last night, my husband came in from walking the dogs and told me that I must have put Mac's collar on him wrong, because it came off and Mac started to run off. Fortunately, he chose to respond when Jeff called him. He doesn't always make that choice, especially with Jeff, because Jeff doesn't insist on being "top dog."

When I walk them, Mac walks like a gentleman, staying beside me and waiting for permission to go through a door or down the steps. But it wasn't always so. He used to pull against his collar like a sled dog, determined to get where he wants to go in the shortest possible time. That didn't go over well with me.

Mac and Tosh are rescued dogs. That means that they were abandoned or given up, and we adopted them. They were adults when we got them, and very much set in their ways. (That sounds just like me: a rescued adult set in my ways.) But it isn't true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

We wanted well-behaved dogs. Dogs that were a pleasure to live with. Dogs that were easy to walk. Dragging me down the street didn't fill that bill. So I set out to train Mac to walk properly on the leash. And he did, because eventually it became more pleasurable for him to walk nicely beside me.

Which brings me to my point: It is hard for us to "kick agains the goad" as the scripture says. Jesus wants us to experience the pleasure of walking "nicely" beside him. How exactly to we do that? We listen. We hear. We obey. It really is that simple.

But what are the goads we kick agains? According to the Amplified Bible, it is anything that is vain or perilous resistance. Vain means empty, without success or result. Like striving. Striving is doing something for all you can, fighting or struggling or trying as hard as you can do do something. Luke 16:16, Amplified Bible (AMP), says: Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in [would force his own way rather than God's way into it].

However, sometimes striving can be good. 2 Corinthians 5:9, Amplified Bible (AMP), says: Therefore, whether we are at home [on earth away from Him] or away from home [and with Him], we are constantly ambitious and strive earnestly to be pleasing to Him.

Can you see the difference? Before Mac and I came to an agreement about walking on the leash, he was striving to go where he wanted to go the way he wanted to get there. And my corrections were designed to convince him that his way was going to be uncomfortable, but my way would be pleasurable and we'd still get to where he wanted to go. It finally got through to him.

Am I as stubborn as Mac was at first? Or do I realize that getting where God wants me to go requires wurrendering my will and my desires to His plan. But you know what? I LOVE walking peacefully beside my Master!