Glimpses of glory

My goal each year is to grow stronger in the Lord and stronger in my prayer life. The first of each new year will find me very diligently studying and seeking ways to improve in this area.

I am drawn like a bear to honey to any book, sermon, study or article that has to do with prayer. But no matter how much I try, it seems I never attain to the depth I am yearning for.

By the middle of the year, I am discouraged, wondering what happened. Too often distractions, interruptions, (the dog,) the demands of the day (or even loved ones) will rob me of that special time set aside for Him. The mornings slip away, my time with the Lord seems not to bring me to a place of being fully satisfied.  Please understand, I am not looking for some great, emotional high, just a deeper awareness that I have really connected with God. My prayer life: I feel I am very immature in it. I need help. I need somebody to teach me how to pray more fervently, more effectively, more faithfully.

In connection with that discouragement, I have also continued to ask myself, "what kind of fruit am I producing?" Should I not be producing better fruit in these mature years? What is the matter with me? 

From time to time, I will receive strong affirmation from the Spirit or the Word that I am on the right track, or some instruction leading me. One morning I awakened and could sense Holy Spirit reminding me of the time the disciples were unable to cast out a demon. The fact was that these men were Jesus' disciples, they were believers, they prayed, but nothing was happening. When they asked Jesus why they weren't able to cast out the demon, He told them it was their lack of faith. I believed Holy Spirit was saying to me that I am praying, but do I have faith? Yes, I must have some degree of faith or I wouldn't be praying to a God I cannot see. But do I have real faith? Faith that moves mountains? Sometimes people pray, but they pray without faith. 

This morning was one of those mornings where time slipped away ... and so was yesterday. Having gotten up extra early to ready the upstairs bathrooms for repairmen who were to come work on the floors, I was disappointed again by the loss of that precious time with the Lord, only to hear from the workers that work would not be done again today. I wasn't as angry as I was simply irritated at time wasted and knowing another day would have to be set aside for the repairs.

So as I got into my car to run an errand, I turned the radio on and the voice of David Jeremiah came on speaking about prayer ... "Praying always with all prayer." YES! Just what I needed to hear. What he had to say greatly encouraged me. He spoke truth that I knew. His encouraging words resonated with me because prayer life is not just saying a prayer in the special time we set aside for prayer. It is my whole life. It is a continual conversation with God. It is an open conversation. A believer's phone to Heaven should always be left off the hook. A believer ALWAYS has access to the Father because of Jesus. I speak to Him constantly. He speaks to me. Our conversing is ongoing. So thankful the Lord directed me to be in the car at just that perfect time.

Later in the day on Facebook, one of my "like" pages, Gotquestions.org question today was "What is the key to Bearing Fruit?" whoa! How timely was that article.

Lord, I thank You for revealing Yourself to me, time after time. You hear my prayer asking You to teach me. You are teaching me. I pray for good ears to listen and hear. I believe. You help my unbelief. All things are possible. Only believe.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

(Psalm 32:8)

You have positively got to stay in love with and trust the Father who will be there at just the right time to keep you encouraged.

The statement that our phone to Heaven should be left off the hook reminded me of a song in one of my Mother's old songbooks. I can even hear her singing it now. 

The Royal Telephone

Central’s never “busy,” always on the line;

You may hear from heaven almost any time;

’Tis a royal service, free for one and all;

When you get in trouble, give this royal line a call.

Refrain:

Telephone to glory, oh, what joy divine!

I can feel the current moving on the line,

Built by God the Father for His loved and own,

We may talk to Jesus through this royal telephone.

-Frederick Lehman

And today?**

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

**This post was written on July 1.

How I Spent the REST of my summer vacation!

or What happens when your plans get waylaid!!!

Sandwiched in between our fantastic trip to Ohio and the Southeastern U.S. in April, and our trip to the beach in June, I had a lower back molar decide to give me heck! And I'm not kidding!  All the poking and probing and pulling by the dentist, the endodontist, and oral surgeon, caused my jaw to continue screaming out in pain for about a month. Because of it, I missed out on a week of my birthday celebrations and more importantly, our sweet Kate's graduation from transitional kindergarten. Now, making up for lost birthday luncheons are one thing, but missing Kate's event made me very sad!

As a pirate for her
class presentation!

Soooooooooooooooo, after making somewhat of a recovery from "the tooth" episode, life resumed with what appeared to be a very pleasant summer ahead to be enjoyed. Nice temperatures for Texas, occasional unexpected rain showers, planting flowers, enjoying the kids, the 4th of July, and looking forward to the annual boat bash in July for our grandson Noah's birthday party.

Early in the week of the highly anticipated boat party at Lake Travis, Dear Heart surprised me by saying he was too tired for it and would I mind if we didn't go. Well, for him to admit to being too tired for a fun time at the lake was just a little out of the norm for him, so I readily agreed that we should stay home. I then decided maybe this might be a good time to get the tooth implant on the road. So I scheduled it for that Friday.

On Thursday, the day before the implant, I was playing with our grandson, Jack, having the best time with him as we took turns throwing ourselves down on his beanbag chair, wrestling, and me swinging him around.

The day following the implant, as my husband and I sat visiting after breakfast, the most excruciating pain came into my abdomen and all around my back and I was unable to breathe. After heaving up everything I had consumed for the past two days, I thought that would be the end of that, but it was not to be. Two trips to the emergency room, and before you could say Jack Robinson, I found myself checked in and hooked up to all kinds of IVs, leg pumps, oxygen regulator, and, worst of all, NO FOOD! Well, maybe that wasn't the worst!

Five days of pain and undergoing CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and sonograms, gall bladder and pancreas problems were ruled out and it was FINALLY determined that I had a duodenal ulcer and surgery was scheduled for the next day. Two weeks in the hospital, and after being home now for three full weeks (sporting a 6 inch incision), I am just now beginning to feel stronger and yes, in another month I will hopefully be back to my old self.

Very thankful 

So many blessings I can't count them.
Thankful the tooth didn't choose to erupt while on either of our vacations away from home!
Thankful for the fact that I wasn't out on a big party boat in the middle of Lake Travis when the ulcer decided to blow!
Thank You, Lord for seeing me through all of this! Every. Single. Day.

I'm thankful for my husband.
My family. Friends. Prayers. My church.

Every person who came to visit.

I had visitors every day. 

Phone calls from loved ones

A few of the beautiful flowers I received.

Lots of Cards

One of my personal favorites

Our daughter, Sara, came to stay with us for the first five days to so graciously wait on me, shop, help around the house, do laundry, etc. Later, she came back for another visit and brought Noah a/k/a Captain America with her!

My sister-in-love, Susan, came three different times and also shopped for groceries and cooked for Dear Heart.

A sample of her good cooking!
Was I able to eat any of that food? NO!

My brother, my sister, our church family, every person blessed me with their loving concern.

Me with my sister and niece

My brother and Susan

Lively entertainment when I finally came home

Kate and Jack loved having Aunt Sara
come play with them.

I am happy and very grateful to say that today I am feeling more "normal" than I have since that awful Saturday five weeks ago!

The rest of the story.

Never before have I experienced any stomach problems. Eating has always been a pleasure for me and pretty much I eat just about whatever I want. So in trying to determine the cause of this, all the doctors who saw me pinned it down and put the blame on: Ibuprofen! Ibuprofen is not something I take on a regular basis. However, throughout the abscessed tooth episode described above, I was told to take it every four hours for the pain. My husband warned me not to! The pain and the dentists won out. And yes, I read the warning labels on the bottle.

This medicine may cause the following problems:
Bleeding and ulcers in the stomach or intestines!
Higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Liver damage.
Kidney damage.
Vision problems.

It isn't my desire to be preachy or scary here. I just hope my telling this helps someone and gives you cause to stop and re-consider how badly you need a medication before taking it.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

I'm a tad bit tardy with Hodge Podge, but I'm going ahead with it anyway. All are welcome to join the fun with Joyce's fun questions at From This Side of the Pond.

1. What summer activity most takes you back to your own childhood?

Anything to do with water! Going to a public pool was a treat for us and Mom took us to one maybe once a week! But for the other days? The water hose. We had great times in our swimsuits in the back yard taking turns splashing each other with the hose and it was our favorite way to cool off in the hot summer days.

2. What's your favorite summer smell?

Honeysuckle! I can still remember the smell as it came through the open windows at night.

3. It's beach season in the US of A...so how do you feel about sand?

I love sand on the beach!

Oh sand. It feels so good to stand on a beach and have the sand between my toes, 

as my heels are sinking in. 

But when I'm standing in the water, the sand is a little creepy to me when it shifts and

I find myself unable to touch the bottom.

4. Sun tea, SunChips, sunflower seeds, Capri Sun, Sunny Delight, Sun-Maid raisins, sun-dried tomatoes...your favorite food or beverage with sun in its name?

It would have to be the Sunchips!

5. What's your favorite way to cool off on a hot summer day?

At home, the AC is set on 73 constantly, I'm in my favorite chair with a book, the ceiling fan blowing over me, and I'm covered with a blanket! Ahhhh! So good.

6. Share a favorite song with the word sun or sunshine in it's title.

Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain! Mom taught me that song long ago, and I still enjoy singing it with the kids.

7. Tell us about a time you had an exceedingly good or truly awful customer service experience. If it was awful, did you report it? Ever go back there again?

One really great customer service experience was with the Tempurpedic Mattress people. My husband had just had open heart surgery and the first night he was home, he was unable to sleep and requested demanded that I go purchase one we had looked at a couple of months before, and have it delivered next day. It was delivered and, after two nights sleeping on the bed, my husband decided he didn't like that one and asked me to have the bed returned and a new one delivered immediately. Can I just say, as much as I love my husband, it's not in my nature to demand things or ruffle anybody's feathers, and I will usually make do with things. But I went over to the store, explained the situation, and the people were right on top of it (no pun intended), exchanging the bed the next day. That impressed me very much, especially in light of the fact that our bedroom is upstairs!!!

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of water and summer, the swimming pool is one of my favorite memories from our last house. It was so refreshing to be able to take a dip any time, or just laze around on a float. We had many good times there. Our Schnauzer especially loved it and, when anybody was in the pool, she would jump in, swim to a float, crawl up on whoever was there, and then dive in to swim over to the next float! (She could be a little annoying with it sometimes!)

The lovely girl is our daughter!

Finally! Our vacation!

**Warning: There's a whole slew of photos here from our family vacation at Port Aransas.
If you skip down quickly, there is one funny little story at the end!

It has been my DH's dream to see his grandkids play at the beach and swim in the ocean.

His dream finally happened a couple of weeks ago.

Fields of sunflowers all along the way.

First stop: Round Rock! And a soccer game!

Just Noah being Noah - he's so cute!

He's excited. They won - 9-2

On the way home - a little more subdued, but still smiling!

So proud of all his trophies

Packin' it up and hitchin' it up to go!

We got "stuff!"

Patient boys while waiting to leave.

Road trips can make you sleepy ...

hungry...

silly

Amazingly enough!

Three different vehicles left from three different destinations,

and we all found ourselves arriving at the same time to ride on the same ferry!

At last! The ferry ride to the beach.

We saw dolphins ...

but they were too quick for me to catch a pic! :-(

(No. The dolphins were much bigger than that.)



Inside our beach house

Any time you want to know where Jack is,
just look for Brady!

Kate with her two favorite guys - Grandpa and Daddy.
(Or Daddy and Grandpa!)

Grandpa liked wearing my hat, too!

One positive thing you can say about the fascination with the iPads
... it keeps the kids occupied while waiting for breakfast and the beach.

Fun in the sun

And we are on our way to the water!
Some of us traveled by Jeep!

And the rest followed in the golf cart!

Ewww! Not liking all that seaweed the first day!

 



Squish! Nothing like the feeling of digging into wet sand.



So grateful to Barrett for providing us with some great shade!

Spiderman likes the beach!

 

Grandpa's dream of being king of the mountain

might be a boy's dream, too!

  

Noah was brave enough to be buried in the sand.

Now here was an all afternoon job!

The gulls always knew when the food came out.

They hovered.

Getting ready to feed the birds.

The gulls would eat right out of your hand

Hard at work digging this hole!





Back at the beach house. A pool for more cool fun!

Everybody wants a ride on Uncle Jason.

Showing off!

  Later in the week

Following a delicious meal at Virginia's Seafood House, (and I do mean yummy), Brady took off for a walk to look at the boats on the water. Well, Jack loves Brady and wants to be with him just about every minute, so when he saw him standing on the stair landing, he wanted to be with him. He and I walked over to Brady and, as we're standing at the top of the stairs, Jack tells me (urgently and more than once) he wants to go back down the stairs.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I turned to wave to Brady and all of a sudden, I hear Noah yelling, "Nonnie, Nonnie, look! Look! Look at Jack!" I turned around to see Jack with his pants pulled down and peeing right there in front of the restaurant! What was the idea behind this?

Jack wanted to pee on the shadow! Do you see the spot there? Oh. My. Goodness. So many people laughing!



Noah wanted to have his pic here by the spot!




And the sun goes down on another day.

After dinner at Virginia's, Uncle Barrett took us searching for crabs on the beach.

Each child had a flashlight to use when we found a crab.



(Flashlights are too much fun to wait for such things as seeing crabs!)

Waiting in line to board the ferry and go home. :-)

Gotta have the Round Rock Donuts fix before heading back home!

These donuts are the best!

It was a great Father's Day week for this Grandpa.