Real Men

Father - the memories that flood my mind from this word! That feeling of safety because I was sitting  on my daddy's lap during a thunderstorm. Hearing him call me Cat and my brother Dog. Helping us get ready for church, tieing our shoes. Taking us camping, buying my first baseball glove and playing catch with me. His tax and bookkeeping service as a second job, while working in the audit dept at the Baltimore based bank, then called Union Trust. The Orioles had nothing on my Dad- he could knock the ball out of the park!  And I remember bragging that my Dad had the biggest feet! Hard working, faithful, someone who is true to his word and a man of great respect in his circles.  Then one day he walked me down the aisle and gave me away to a man much like he is!

Husband- he has made me laugh and held my hand when I've been scared.  He has challenged me to stay till the end and not to give up.  He's shown me what it means to give and has taught me how to 

care.  He works hard to bless his family with good things.  He knows me and still he loves me! He 

too is faithful, is true to his word and a man of great respect in his circles.  I see him as a Dad to our 

son that he himself didn't have. Taking time to play a game, or watching Michael as he skates a lap around the rink.  Checking up on his sons grades, holding him accountable. Spending time, (and money) with his own son.  Just hanging out in their mancave watching a game!

How is it that I've got these great men in my life!  I believe it's because of the power of the gospel.  A man chooses to believe in God and that Jesus is His son. Giving his life to God that same man raises his family in the ways of the LORD his marriage and children are blessed because of it. Another man makes the same choice and sticks to it! His wife and son are the recipients of his choice to live for God.

I realize not everyone has these kind of men that they can call Father and Husband. Simply and honestly I am humbled to be blessed in such an enormous way! In this day and age when real men seem to be MIA, I count my blessings that these two men in my life have chosen to live for God and I know that there are blessings that cannot be measured because of it!  Don't tell me that Christians miss out on the good stuff, because no greener grass on the other side of the fence or passing buzz 

can ever begin to compare to the blessings of choosing to follow after God and His ways!

Something that speaks to me as I reflect on these men, is in their own way, they are a reflection of God. Faithful, provider, caring, giving, perseverant, respected.

"If you being evil know how to give good gifts, how much more your Heavenly Father?"  Luke11:13

"As a father has compassion on his children, so He has compassion on us." Psalm 103:13

Looking Back on Love

Love is Patient

Love is Kind

Twenty years is a long time, at least I think it is!  Think about it, when a person reaches 20 years of age, they've grown up and have hopefully left the home. 

 Our twentieth Anniversary is coming up in about 3 weeks.  
On June 22,1996 Steve Hall and I, Cathy Hall said, "I do" and made a life long promise to God and to each other.  Here is a portion of the vows we made to each other that day: "... I promise to grow along with you as we both are being conformed to the image of Christ, and to be willing to face the changes that accompany growth." ""Where you go, I will go (North Carolina, Tennessee, New York & Ohio) and where you stay, I will stay, your people will be my people and your God, my God."..."

Now as I'm headed home, from the early celebration of our anniversary, (Steve is staying for a business conference he is attending.) I reflect on how our love has grown and helped to mold us into the image of Christ that we pledged nearly twenty years ago!  The thing that strikes me the most is the patience that has developed.  Through good and bad and the in between times we've learned the art of being patient with each other.

For example, on our trip to celebrate our anniversary one of the activities we did was to take a pretty strenuous hike.We did this to reach the much coveted sight of the Delicate Arch.  Background story: A few years ago I was diagnosed with an aneurism coming out of my heart.  The hike was a challenge, and I found myself stopping often to catch my breath in the high altitude.  Breathless, I"d wait till I knew I was good to go.  My husband could have easily moved on and I even told him to do so, because I knew I was holding him up!  But he didn't.  He waited with me.  Lots of people passed us and I felt like a slow poke.  I'm used to running on high gear and being on the run, but I just physically couldn't do it, in good sense!  Love is patent- we arrived at the Delicate arch together!

On our way back down, the hike was pretty much downhill. I wanted to take off and run with nothing to cause inertia.  No breathlessness now!  Background story: A few years ago when moving Steve's Mom, Steve fell going down a hill while pushing a dolly.  The fall ended in a broken ankle, being broken in three places. Or to put it this way, there are three bones that hold the ankle into place and he broke all three of them! (He's not one to do things half way!)He ended up with a plate and screws in his ankle!

As you can imagine the hike going downhill was hard on his ankle.  I started to run.  As a kid, I remember running down a mountain trail in upstate N.Y. and so that inclination to just take off tugged at me.  As I started, I realized my husband was having a difficult time.  I remembered how kind and patient he had been with me on the hike up.  How could I do any different?   It would be selfish to do otherwise!  We finished the hike together!

In preparing me to take the rental car back to the return and find my way to the airport, my thoughtful husband showed me how to get from the hotel in downtown Denver to the Interstate.  He loaded the address into the GPS and gave me lots of tips on how to get from here to there. As I drove to the airport I wasn't a nervous wreck, which I would have been without my husbands predetermined directions.  He also fixed my cracked screen protector on my phone while we were at the hotel.  He put on a nice smooth, new one!  He"s done lots of kind things for me, these are just a couple examples of them!  -Love is kind.

I love this man!  I told him, "Even though I can't figure you out sometimes and you drive me crazy ( sometimes) that I really do love you! And if given the opportunity, I'd do it all over again!"

I just recently came across a quote that said,"What counts in making a happy marriage is not how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility." ~ Leo Tolstoy  If I said that we've aways had smooth sailing, I'd be lying.  We've had our differences, but God has helped us learn to love each other in and through our differences.  To embrace the things that make us different. To depend on the strengths the other brings to this marriage.  To help the other in their weaknesses. Being patient with each other.  Praying for understanding when I can't understand him on my own!  Yeah, that's what makes us strong!  And by God's grace, that's what keeps us together!

Simply and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way!  God's been good to us!  I'd like to wrap this up by including a portion of scripture that was in our wedding vows: (taken form Joshua 24:15) "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. ..."

Why Go to God in Prayer?

Heavy hearted.  That's how I approached my prayer time this morning.  Feeling burdened as a sister in Christ  and as a broken hearted, concerned citizen.  Today's National Day of Prayer and here I'd dropped the ball to speak out about it, or promote it.  Too burdened with  concerns for friends and relatives going through some really heavy stuff to think about promoting this event. Better luck next year!

As I gushed forth my concerns, fears and woes it's like God stopped me in my tracks!  I was outside, trying to enjoy nature, at the time.  I heard birds singing and saw them flying and singing, having no worries. God reminded me that He cares for the birds and that He cares so much more for us humans.  I mean think about it, God takes care of the birds.  We in comparison, He loved so much that God sent His only Son, Jesus to die for us.  He didn't send Jesus to die for the birds (I'm not trying to be sacrilegious here) and yet He cares for them.  Matthew 6:26 NLT "Look at the birds.  They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?"How much more does He care about us?

I changed the focus of my prayer as I paused and considered these things and began to ask myself, "Why do I go to God in prayer?". I quickly remembered to WHOM I was praying to.  God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. In Isaiah 66:1 God says of Himself,"...Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool...." The countless stars in space, the galaxies beyond our own Milky Way, the planets in their rotations, the order in Creation, all around us.  I put my eyes back on God. I began to feel so small and humbled that God would even allow me to approach Him from my broken heart, standing there in our back yard.

The heavens are His tabernacle, He knows our ins and outs, our ups and downs.  Psalm 139:3 NLT
"You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do."He cares.  Beyond caring or having empathy, HE IS GOD!  He,"... is ABLE to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault." Jude1:24 NLT.

I pray that as I share what God opened my eyes to this morning, that it will be an encouragement to someone today.  He is God.  His arm is not limited by our limitations.  He uses things, events and people for His own purposes.  His ways are higher than ours. "For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher  than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."Isaiah 55:9 NLT He is beyond comprehension, and I want it that way!  I don't want to go to a god that I can figure out!  I want a God Who is real, Who is loving and Who is Able to do more than I could ask or even imagine! Eph.3:20 NLT:  "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power to work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Today, I commit my worries, fears and concerns to His capable hands.  I will not fret about them, and when I am tempted to fret about them, I will remind myself to Whom I go to in prayer!

Defining True Christianity

The Christian walk is a daily walk. We are daily faced with temptations and have choices to make. But because of the work of God's Holy Spirit in our lives we are changed, our desires are for Him and not for self.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

There is a difference between willful sin and sins of weakness.
“Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:15-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭53:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus paid for our sins with such agony and literally died to free us from the stronghold of sin. To say that we are Christians, that we are saved from sin and to keep living in willful sin is a lie!  Yes we do have weaknesses and when we fall, we ask God to forgive us and help us not do it again.  I think
 I John3:9 clarifies how our lifestyle marks where we are spiritually:
“Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God help us to give up the sins that pull us down!  Help us to live surrendered lives to you, your will and your ways!  Help our lives to be a testimony of Your power to change our lives. Help us not to drag Your name through the mud by living in willful sin and claiming the name of Christ!

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:1-2‬ ‭

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:1-2‬ ‭NLT‬‬