Little tidbits of my life

Life lesson with my Peace Lily

Peace Lily Blessing...

This peace lily may not look like anything to brag about, but I was SO BLESSED by it.  A little over two years ago I had to have a total hysterectomy.  My wonderful friend Sheila brought me a little peace lily.  It fit in a drinking cup, that is how small it was.  I have never had many house plants, but I really wanted to treat this lily with care and watch it grow. 

After about a year, my peace lily was big enough to re-pot.  I re-potted it and placed it back on my mantle where it was out of reach of the cats.  It was really beautiful, but NEVER bloomed!  I could not understand it.  I had done all I thought I was supposed to do.  It had indirect sunlight, so I had thought that might help it to bloom.  I will mention here that I also have a table runner stretched across my mantle...My 15 lb cat "Buster" became fixated on this plant and COULD NOT get it off his mind.  He just HAD to reach it.  Well it took him a few months, but he is a VERY smart cat.  One day I heard a horrible noise and saw Buster flying through the house to hide.  OF COURSE, he had figured out a way to get onto the mantle AND he, with his 15 lb of momentum, slid on the table runner and knocked down almost everything that was on the mantle, including my PEACE LILY!!! 

Through tearful eyes and a broken heart, I repotted the peace lily FOR A SECOND TIME, cleaned up all the dirt and continued trying to baby the plant.  When I get upset, Buster also gets upset...he NEVER tried to get on the mantle again.  For the next year, my peace lily got bigger, but still WOULD NOT BLOOM!  WELL I was at my friend's house one day and I noticed she had a peace lily on the floor, beautiful...her cats never bothered it.  She told me they do not seem to like it and so for the first time, I considered displaying my plants in a more pleasant way.  

I bought a Rod-iron baker's rack that fits in a corner and displayed my plants in my kitchen/dining room.  I realized the lily was too big for the rack, so I put a rod-iron plant stand beside the baker's rack and used it to display my peace lily. I figured it would be high enough that the cats would not notice...

THEY NOTICED!!!  Before I could stop them, all three cats were attacking the leaves because the leaves were bouncy, kinda' like Tigger.  The cats had mowed down half my plant before I could get them away from it.  They did not eat the leaves.  They spit them out.  Evidently it was bitter.  SO now my BEAUTIFUL peace lily was RUINED.  Leaves were spread across the floor. 

Seeing my plant destroyed hurt me much worse than it normally should.  I think it is because I related it to my own healing process of getting over the fact that I had to have a hysterectomy.  I was in Walmart a week or so later, around Easter time...and saw a HUGE peace lily for ONLY $10!!!  It just made me sick all pretty and blooming!  I DID NOT BUY IT. 

When I got home from Walmart, I walked over to my pitiful looking plant and I was debating just throwing it out.  I was SO upset.  BUT all of a sudden, I noticed something WHITE coming up from one of the broken stems!  I was SO SHOCKED...I checked it EVERY day.  Within a few weeks, it opened up and was a BEAUTIFUL BLOOM!!!  So there was my pitiful broken plant with such a magnificent "PERFECT" bloom.

I will not lie to you, it made me cry.  This bloom was focusing on the light coming from the sliding door.  I thought about how amazing God is.  HE knew I needed this special blessing.  He supplies all our needs.  He treats us even better than our earthly parents!  He understands the self-pity, but He also expects our grieving to only be for a season.  We have to stay focused.  We MUST keep our eyes on HIM.  HE knows when the time is right.  He has prepared me for a new turning point.  I have entered a new season of my life, one where I will claim VICTORY through Christ Jesus.  I am on the WINNING SIDE! 

Just like gold that has been tried by fire and the impurities are taken away...This beautiful bloom was raised up out of the broken leaves and came forth shiny and new.  That is when I realized that this bloom is just like me!  I am ready for the next phase of my life and look forward to serving God and witnessing all God has in store for me to do for Him! 

Incidently, the cats have not touched the peace lily since that attack!

Have a Blessed Day!

Teresa

Honor your father and mother...

This post is a bit lengthy, but I felt the need to really dive into some scripture and express how it can be applied to daily life and how it will affect life for years to come:

Ephesians 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  2 HONOUR THY FATHER AND MOTHER; which is the first commandment with promise; 3 THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH THEE AND THOU MAYEST LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH 4 and, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Something I have come to understand more as I get older is that the reason God gives us these instructions is not because it is easy to do.  If it were easy to do, He would not have to tell us to do it.  I have also come to understand that His instructions are for our own good and assist us in furthering His kingdom as we live faithfully and heed His Word.  His instructions are NECESSARY in helping us to GROW as Christians, to MATURE as Christians.  When we live it, we become living testimonies to others.  God has given children instructions to heed and He has given parents instructions to heed.  Neither are based on the other...honour thy father and mother is unconditional...fathers, provoke not your children to wrath...is unconditional, regardless of how the child acts...I am responsible for MY actions regardless of the wrongs done to me!  Jesus loves us unconditionally, regardless of how we treat Him.  How much more so, should we love others regardless?

I will mainly focus on the verses where instruction is given to the children in this blog:

I think every one of us can say that our "childhood" and adolescent years were less than perfect.  Some may have grown up in foster homes, some may have been raised by relatives other than their natural parents, some may have grown up in single parent homes, some may have grown up in alcoholic or physically abusive homes, some may have grown up in verbally abusive homes, I could go on and on with the situations...BUT something that is very important here is "how do I live MY life as a Christian...DO I HEED God's Word regardless of my circumstance?...am I a living testimony to others in my household???...do I think more of worldly things, or spiritual things?...am I claiming VICTORY through Jesus???...and so forth, and so on...

I, too grew up in a less than perfect home.  As I said, I think we all can say that.  I am careful to talk about it because I want to honour my parents.  I am NOT perfect.  Many times I have failed the Lord in the way I responded to situations growing up.  HOWEVER, I have also been careful to realize the mistakes I have made and to ask forgiveness when I am wrong in handling things in an unGODly manner.  As long as I have breath, I can ask for forgiveness and for mistakes I have made.

My parents did not go to church as I grew up.  HOWEVER, my oldest sister became a Christian at a very young age because my Granny faithfully took her to church.  My Granny passed away when I was very young, but my sister then took on the responsibility to get myself and my middle sister out of bed every sunday morning and march us to church.  She made sure we never missed a service.  She is 9 years older than me.  We often walked to our church (about 1/4 mile).  She was just a kid herself, but she quickly learned to heed God's Word and she made sure that she did her part to get her two little sisters into church.  My parents saw her faithfulness and although they never said anything through the years, it made an impression on them.  I am sure they were very amazed by her faithfulness.  Because of my sister's faithfulness, regardless of our homelife, I came to know the Lord as well and I became a Christian, too. 

My dad really has watched us as we became teenagers and he always noticed the few times we did NOT go to church.  He immediately asked me why I was not going to church ANY time I did not go.  I used to get aggrevated at this because I would think "who is he to ask me that when he never goes"...but my anger would never last long because God would convict me to just let it go and it also helped me to always be faithful in going to church because I knew it was important that I go AND I knew my dad was watching. 

My parents, like all married folks, had their problems.  As children, we often are too self-involved to have concern for what makes our parents act or do what they do.  We are too young to analyze their lives and to see what happened in their past to mold them into who they are as parents.  We just see the results of their journey to this point in life.  Situations were often tense and I did not know why.  I would find myself getting bitterly angry toward my dad in the way he handled things.  I was 17 years old when I realized just how cold-hearted I had become.  I was talking with a Christian friend about it and he gave me some wise advice.  He told me to pray for unconditional love for my dad.  He explained that Satan likes for me to be bitter and he wants me to have hatred for my dad because it keeps me from praying for him.  This hit me like a ton of bricks.  If I do not pray for my dad, who will?  SO immediately I was convicted to pray for UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for my dad.  This was one of the rare times in my life that my prayers were answered immediately and overwhelmingly.  I have been able to pray for my dad ever since this day and to truly love him and to be concerned about his wellbeing.  I LOVE my dad with all my heart.  After praying so earnestly, I became truly interested in what has happened to mold my dad into who he became as an adult.  I started praying that God would take away his anger and bitterness and to replace it with love for God and for my mom and us.  I learned to just accept my dad, imperfections and all and to just do what I could to honour him as the bible instructs me to do.  He is going to be 70 years old next month and his health has declined significantly in the past 10 years.  It really hurts me to know how he suffers.  I am so glad God has not given up on him.  I realize that if God can help me to love my dad this much, how much more so must GOD love my dad?  I truly believe the Lord has not given up on my dad.

As this time passed, the Lord also has really watched over my mom and helped her to provide as much stability as possible in our lives in spite of circumstances that were out of her control.  She has always tried to take good care of us.  She always taught us to love our dad and to not spread "tales" about our family, but to just simply go to the Lord with our worries and hurts.  She has taught us not to lay blame on others, but to always look in our own lives to realize what WE have done to cause a bad situation and for us to ask forgiveness when it is needed.  She is the one who taught me to read my bible every day and to pray to the Lord.  She recently told me that all these years, she mainly has prayed for peace in her home and for her home to be a tranquil place where God's love is found.  She is a very humble person.  She is so worried about my father's physical condition.  She ministers to him as much as she can to help ease his pain.  She practically ALWAYS has the "deep heating" cream with her in case it is needed...she rubs his feet, warms blankets for him, whatever is needed...I have never once heard her complain.  She is a very strong lady and she has really grown as a christian since all her "chickies" have flown the coop.  Somehow having this "empty nest" has helped her to turn to the Lord more than ever and she now faithfully goes to the same church that my sister used to march us to every week.  I have told her for many years how much she would enjoy the ladies sunday school class that is for her age group, but she never would reply much.  BUT that is now the very class she LOVES!  The same people there who helped us grow as Christians have now started encouraging my mom.  I am so thankful for our "home" church.  I now live about an hour away from this church and I belong to a church near my home, but I will always be thankful for the Lord's wisdom in leading me and my sisters to this little country church.  The people there have been a huge influence in our family.  I still pray that my dad will re-dedicate his life and live out his days in contentment with my mom as they are now both retired and spend practically every waking minute together.  What a perfect time for them both to fall "in-love" with the Lord.  What a perfect time for God to REALLY help them to fall "in-love" again with each other.  They already both minister to others' needs, such as shopping for this sweet lady who is in her late 90s.  They care for her as if she was their mother now that their mothers have gone on to be with the Lord.  They both have very giving hearts toward others.  Mom cooks food to help others out, dad gives out his flowers to help brighten other folks' yards, they already have giving hearts.  I just look forward to God really being involved in their marriage and opening their eyes to the beauty HE has put into their lives and the love he has given them to share with each other.  This is my prayer for my parents.

I mentioned earlier that if it were easy to honour our parents, then God would not have needed to command this in His Word.  Through the years, I have always tried to be there for my parents whenever they needed me.  I have so many fond memories of helping my dad build dog lots for his beagles, or helping pick strawberries and tend his wonderful many gardens through the years, or just taking walks in the woods with him and being very quiet.  He also taught me how to fish and I think he tried a couple times to teach me to swim, but that was a disaster .  I always loved when my mom taught me how to sew.  She taught me how to cook so many wonderful meals and desserts.  We have worked on a few projects together in the past couple of years, too and I actually got to help her brush up on her quilting skills.  I see now, as an adult, that even in horrible, horrible circumstances, God has still blessed my family so MUCH during my early years.  There is a rainbow after the storms!

HOW CAN I HONOUR MY PARENTS???

I should be careful to not do anything to provoke anger.  If I feel a tense moment coming on, I should back away.  I have to let go of PRIDE and not get the last word.  I have to bite my tongue and not say the quick mean retort that so easily forms in my mind.  I always worked hard when chores came.  I have always been an encourager, so I try to always lift my family members up and help them to know how important they are and how much I love them.  As they get older, I try to meet the new needs that arise with age.  When they built their retirement home, I let my parents move in with me for 7 months.  I took time off work to care for my mom during surgery, this list could go on and on...this is not a "brag about me" list...this is an "HONOUR THY FATHER AND MOTHER" list...

HOW HAVE THESE VERSES HELPED ME AS AN ADULT???

Now that I, too am married, all these things I learned growing up to help promote harmony in our home and to just plain ole live for the Lord as best as I can, now come full circle in my new home with my hubby.  WOW, just when I thought I had it all figured out on how to try so hard to get along with my family, NOW I have a new person to adapt to.  I sure have failed miserably here...I have found it harder than ever to let go of pride, to heed my words, to not let my anger just BURST out of me.   Guess what I had to do AGAIN???  I prayed for unconditional love for my husband!!!  Why did I pray this?  Because it did not come naturally.  Once the "honeymoon" phase was over, love should become an action verb...something I must CHOOSE, not just "feel" like flutters in my belly...I must work hard to love, even when I do NOT think he deserves it...I must remember that I am not perfect, either!  If the Lord can love me, imperfections and all, then I must learn to love in the same manner.  AGAIN, this is not a conditional command...the bible does not teach to do to others as they have done to me...it teaches to do unto others as I would have them do unto me...in other words, treat them like I would like to be treated...

I do not have children, so I do not pretend to have infinite wisdom on how parents can obey God's Word in raising and training their children.  I only want to say to parents to PLEASE be QUICK TO LOVE, and SLOW TO WRATH...remember how you wanted to be treated as a child and then treat your children in this manner...always be grounded in the Word and teach your children what God instructs you to teach them.  Let this time as parents really make you reflect on your own parents and to see them as God sees them, imperfections and all.  None of us are righteous, NO NOT ONE...! 

I know this is long, but I really felt impressed to write this in its entirety.  It helps me to focus on how much I need to work hard to love my husband as this is one of the greatest areas of ministry I personally am called to do at this "season" in my life.  This blog is something I felt God wanted me to write.  I hope it helps you in your Christian walk whether you are the child, the parent, or the grandparent, or the wife, or the husband, or the sister, or the brother, etc, etc.

Love in Christ!

Teresa