Wisdom & Understanding

‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you." Deuteronomy 5:16 I wrote this article back in 2004, it was published in the county newspaper. It still holds true today... My mother's positive influence in my life has helped me so much in the past years. Through many events and phases in my life I have the blessing of remembering how my mother handled herself through some of the same experiences. Whether it was child rearing as a young mother, parenting a teen, experiencing an empty nest, caregiving for a sick husband and even widowhood; my mother’s example stood as worthy footsteps to follow. She poured into us all that she had and with God’s strength she did it to the best of her ability. Each time that I reflected, "How did Mom handle this?" I remembered that she was strong, resilient and determined. Strong th...

This was a blog post from Mother's Day 2012, I thought it is worth repeating... Dear Ma, Well, another Mother’s day has rolled around; this is the 12 th  one without you.    But your passing from this life to eternity seems like yesterday sometimes. I miss you so much.    And it seems that the older I get, the more I understand you…does that make sense? I passed by a mirror the other day and wow I could see you in me so much…your mannerisms and movements! If I am becoming even a fraction of the woman of grace that you are I am so thankful.    I know, I know…during my turbulent teenage years I wanted to be anything but my mother. But now Ma, I am so thankful that you hung on to me during those times. Me with my smart mouth and “always having to say the last word” self; you hung on to me, even when I’m sure I broke your heart a few times.    Thanks Ma…only a Mother’s love can do that. I can think of a lot of things I’m sorry for; like...

Years ago on one of my trips to the West coast during the Christmas holidays, as a gift, my son and his sweet wife took me on an excursion up the Pacific coast. I’ll never forget the beautiful scenery. At some point as we traveled it was clearly the expanse of the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. We stopped at rest stops and admired the beautiful views. We even stopped along the way to visit the luxuriously opulent Hearst Castle and also saw the elephant seals come up on the beach to rest, it was awesome! The other surprise of my gift was spending Christmas and several days in a beautiful rented house in walking distance to the beach, in fact you could see and hear the beach from the balcony off the main living area of the house. It is there that I sat early one morning with Bible in hand and inwardly speaking to the Lord about my life. So many things had changed for me personally as well as my family. We, my son, his wife and I had all been through a series of ...