A Little Bit of Love

My parents raised nine children the best way they knew how and I'm so very thankful to have them both as parents.

They are now in their upper seventies and retired, relaxing on their farm in Missouri. They used to have cattle, goats and pigs for a time but these days it's mostly a few chickens. Mom crochets lots of afghans and Dad reads, rides his four-wheeler around the farm and takes care of his chickens.

For the past thirteen years or so, they have had a dog named Ducky.

He has been the light of their retired years. Riding the four wheeler all over the farm with Dad, chasing squirrels, rabbits and any other wild animal he happens to cross.

Then about a year after they got Ducky, they got a little female dog and named her "Little Bit".

These two dogs, I tell ya! They have been treated just as us kids were growing up. One of them (or both) are in one of my parent's lap most of the time. 

Sometimes Little Bit gets jealous of Ducky and they fight over scraps of food or chewed up bones. But each night, they go together to their kennels and sleep beside each other in the mud room.

They have been my parent's children since all of us have grown up and moved away. They have always been there when we went home for visits it seems like FOREVER.  They are part of the family. 

So, we were all concerned when Ducky got into a fight with some other dogs over Little Bit. He's old and didn't fare the fight very well. They ended up taking him to the vet and sadly, had to put him down due to the wounds.

Dad and Mom were crushed. 

Then after Ducky was gone, Little Bit stopped eating. She searched everywhere for Ducky. She would no longer sleep in her kennel beside his but slept on the couch. My parents took her to the vet but she died in Mom's lap one week to the day after Ducky died.  It seems, of a broken heart.

There's no doubt that Little Bit loved Ducky. She didn't want to live without him. There's NO doubt that Dad and Mom loved both dogs. Now, they have to learn to live without them. 

As Alfred Lord Tennyson once said, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." 

Rest in Peace

 Ducky & Little Bit 

October 2016

No King...

I've been reading The Message which is the Bible in everyday language written in novel form. It's easy to read which I like a lot. :)

As I read through the book of Judges, the following verses jumped off the page at me each time I read them.

Judges 17:6  In that day Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

Judges 18:1  In that day Israel had no king.

Judges 19:1  In that day Israel had no king.

Judges 21:25  In that day Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

It struck me that they had no king so everyone just did as they saw fit and reminded me of my own country today.

The definition of king according to Webster's dictionary is:

King: a male monarch of a major territorial unit; especially : one whose position is hereditary and who rules for life 

Honestly, I was taken aback by the last part who rules for life. I know that it means he rules for as long as he lives in this definition. But as Christians, Jesus is our King - he rules our natural and eternal lives. He literally rules for life. 

Some Christians don't even seem to want a king. They want a politician who makes promises they won't or can't keep once they get elected. Granted, we have to elect a president and someone has to be in charge. But will they really do anything for us? Do they really care about us?

Once they get the position of power they desire, they will do whatever they want. They will have their own best interest at heart - not ours. At least until the next election...(It's called politics. lol)

If we are Christian, then first, we are ruled by our King - Jesus. His will comes first in our lives.  

He has your best interest at heart each and every moment of your life. He will do what He says He will do and keeps His promises.

Here are just a few of the things He has ALREADY done for you:

He lived a sinless life...for you.
He endured betrayal...for you.
He was humiliated and mocked...for you.
He wore a crown of thorns...for you.
He was beaten, bruised and bled...for you.
He hung on the cross...for you.
He gave his life...for you.
He lay dead in a tomb three days...for you.
He was resurrected...for you.

The problem with America today is that everyone does as they see fit because they have NO king. 

The trouble is...there IS A KING. 

Intimates please...Intimates...

I recently got a little part time job working in a department store where I love to shop in an effort to save some money. I only work about three evenings a week so it's not too bad. Since I was going to get a part time job though, I figured it should be somewhere I would get a discount. :)

Normally, I work in the children's department or home. Either of those two are fine. I love folding all the little kids clothes and thinking about who I can buy clearance items for. (Which defeats my goal of saving money working part time but you gotta live...right?)

I never dreamed when I accepted the job that I would be forced to work all night in the dreaded department of intimates.

There are SO many different types of bras! I've learned A LOT that I never wanted to know.

There are strapless adhesive bras, convertible plunge bras, minimizers, maximizers, undercover slimming bras, extra coverage, smoothing, body caress underwire bras, ultimate lift and support bras, natural boost push-up bras, ultra light lace with lift spacer bras and 'This is NOT a Bra' bras...to name just a few!

It's overwhelming. I'm not even going to talk about the panties I've seen. It would be a whole other blog post!

It is mind-boggling trying to clean up the fitting room. People try on bras, pull everything off the hangers and leave them laying all over the dressing room floor. Some don't even make an effort to put them back on the hangers.

When I see my name on the schedule and it says Intimates underneath...I sigh. I dread it. I don't like that department. I don't want to answer all the questions about bras and undergarments that customers expect me to know the answers to and I'm completely clueless.

About twice a night or so, someone pushes the customer service button. A computerized female voice announces over a loudspeaker, "Intimates, please...Intimates..."

I groan and sigh while slowly making my way over to help. Inside, I'm hoping that it got pushed on accident and when I get there nobody will be waiting.

But usually someone is there, waiting for me to assist them and the questions have ranged from, "Do you have a Triple G in this style?" to "Do you sell hosiery?"

Hosiery? Do you mean...pantyhose?

How did I end up in this department? Why am I being forced to learn about intimates? I have to admit that it is good, physical exercise. I can spend fifteen minutes walking around with one bra trying to figure out which rack it goes back on.

Heaven help me when I get a call from the check outs and a customer is questioning a price. I must have looked frazzled the last time it happened because as I made my way to the front toting a bra from the clearance rack to confirm a price, the manager saw me walk by and asked, "Are you okay, Melinda?"

"I'm surviving..." I answered then he went on to offer the names of a couple of co-workers who were more familiar with the department that I could ask for help if I needed it. (I heard he won't step foot into the intimates department. You didn't hear that from me, though.) Tee Hee

As with pretty much everything in my life, God used this experience to remind me about Him.

"Intimates please...Intimates..." I hear Him speak softly to me instead of the computerized female voice calling me over the loud speaker.

This is what He wants from His children.

But as with the awkwardness I feel working in this dreaded department, it can also be awkward being completely intimate with God.

Like the many different items we can buy to make our bodies appear better looking than they really are, I also want to hide my imperfections before God. Using everything imaginable to make myself look better. 

Allowing Him to see the part of me that I'd like to keep private and hidden underneath what I allow others to see is sometimes hard to do. But God sees underneath that anyway. He already knows how I feel, what I think about, my attitudes and my true heart.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. Psalms 139:1

Little Sister...

I have a little sister.

She used to drive me crazy. She was spoiled. At least, that was my perception as the older sister of four years.

We shared a room for most of our childhood and also shared a full size bed. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't a light sleeper and she hadn't been a thumb-sucker. It made me crazy trying to fall asleep listening to her smack on her thumb. Sometimes, I had to get up and sleep in another room because of the noises she made and my inability to tolerate it enough to fall asleep.

Then there were the occasions when I'd wake up soaking wet because she peed the bed. I can not tell you how much these things irritated me and made me angry at her.

But there were moments when we enjoyed each other's company. I remember drawing on each other's back as a game we'd play when we were trying to wind down at night to fall asleep. One of us would lay on our stomach and the other would draw with our finger "something" on the other's back and we had to guess what was drawn. A tree? A flower? The sun?

When the imaginary picture was figured out, we'd erase it with our hand like our backs were big chalk boards and start over with a new piece of artwork. That game was relaxing and I'll remember it forever.

I distinctly remember a time when we were at the hay field playing on the bed of a pick up truck while Dad bailed hay. I was showing off my skills walking around the top of the truck bed like it was a balance beam. Of course, I slipped and fell off. When I hit the ground, the breath was completely knocked out of me. I was breathless and struggling to inhale just a small breath. Anything!

It was such a horrible experience not being able to catch my breath. An older brother, I can't remember which it was, held me and told me I was okay. Eventually, I could breathe again but it seemed like it took forever when I couldn't breathe. All because I was showing off for the smaller kids which included my little sister. Ah, the memories from childhood!

We FINALLY grew up as we longed to do. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding and cried through the entire ceremony. In almost every picture her eyes are swollen and her nose is red. I think she might love me or she just always cries at weddings. :)

Now, we're in mid-life with grown children and she has grandchildren. (I'm still waiting...lol) We've lived some life and had some heartaches. We've had a LOT of joy, too! I'm thankful for all of my brothers and sisters. But my little sister is special. I guess because we were stuck in a room together for so many years trying to tolerate each other!

This has been a difficult year for my little sister. She's had the wind knocked out of her with the reality of life and can't catch her breath.

So, my prayer for her is this:

God, please breathe. 

Breathe Your powerful breath over my little sister's life while she can't catch hers. Pick her up off the ground and help her. Hold her until there's air in her lungs again. 

Heal her broken heart and crushed spirit. I know You are close to us during these times. Show her how mighty Your works are even when she doesn't understand the pain she is going through. 

I love her and admire her strength. Thank you for making her my little sister.

In Jesus' powerful and mighty name, Amen.


He is close to the broken-hearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18   

Promises...

Like a lot of other people, I've had floods on my mind. I know of some who have had to re-start their lives due to flooding. My friend, Lisa, moved to Tennessee after Hurricane Katrina and started a new life.

Our current pastor is from New Orleans and lost everything in those same floods. This past week, his in-laws were displaced again by flooding in Louisiana. They had to be rescued from their home where they moved after Hurricane Katrina. They have again lost everything!

I heard a newscaster say, regarding those whose homes were flooded, "Everything they own is ruined."

The word ruined struck me because I've used this same word a lot in the past several years in regard to things in my own life that I no longer feel the same way about because they were ruined to me.

My younger sister recently used this word to describe her life after her son committed suicide.

Sometimes an "event" in our lives that we don't expect can make us feel ruined.

Just like those living too close to a river that overflows it's banks and ruins everything it comes in contact with, so it is the same, at times, in our own personal lives. Things we loved are washed away and we will never be the same.

This past Saturday, I sat on the deck of our new home reading a book (Little Women) I recently found at a yard sale and I heard something that caught my attention. I realized the sound I heard was rain hitting the trees a little way from our house but the rain hadn't made it's way to me yet.

I found it interesting because I heard the rain and knew it was coming before it was visible in the field next to our house. I waited and eventually saw the shower of rain falling in our yard but the sun was still shining. I thought, I bet there's a rainbow.

Then I turned around and right behind me was a huge double rainbow that looked like it was ending right in the field behind our house.

I could not believe it!

I jumped up and snapped some pictures then took a video with my phone. I banged on the bedroom window close to me to let my son and his friend who was visiting know to come outside and see the rainbow.  They tried to run after the end of the rainbow but it dissipated before they could reach it. :)

It was some excitement, I tell you! You don't see a huge double rainbow like that often. As a matter of fact, I've NEVER seen one like that in my entire life. It felt almost supernatural because it was so close.

Now, I've got floods, rainbows and promises on my mind!

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between Me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on earth."

So, God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between Me and all life on the earth." Genesis 9:12-17 NIV

Yes, it will still flood. Rivers will overflow their banks and homes will be destroyed. But ALL life will never be destroyed again by a flood. God promised.

Yes, we will experience "life floods" where we feel like everything is completely ruined. But we will not be completely destroyed because God is with us through those floods. He will not leave us. He will not forsake us. God says so.

My husband was not with me on the porch when the rainbow appeared. He was driving in the driveway and snapped this picture of our new home with the double rainbow shining behind it.

A beautiful reminder that God keeps His PROMISES.

The Bus...

Last spring, we moved into our new home. Since it was nearly the end of the school year, we made other arrangements for Joseph, our 13 year old, to get home from school instead of riding the school bus.

But with the new school year starting, he wanted to ride the bus home each day. I called the school bus transportation department last Thursday to find out which bus he should ride. The person I spoke with didn't have the answer but promised to find out and call me back on Friday. That phone call never came.

I then asked my husband to call our neighbor, whose kids ride the bus, to find out the bus number. He was unable to get a hold of them to get the answer.

So, the weekend came. My husband made a trip out of town and we busied ourselves with fun weekend activities. 

Before we knew it, Monday was upon us, along with the first day of school. I remembered that I still didn't know the bus number. So, I told Joseph as I drove him to school, that I'd call and find out which bus he should ride home and would let him know.

He then suggested that he would just go to the office and ask.

"Good idea." I was impressed with his Monday morning logic. I'm pretty sure he gets that from me...lol

I dropped him off for his first day of eighth grade at the middle school and headed to work for a busy Monday morning. Which bus he should ride didn't cross my mind again until he sent me a text at the end of the day to tell me that he was in a neighboring county on the wrong school bus!

"What?  Why are you in Davidson County? How did you get on the wrong bus?" I asked confused.
My mind raced wondering how he was going to get home and if I needed to go pick him up somewhere, etc. Then I wondered who told him to get on a bus heading in the wrong direction!

"Someone in the office told you to get on that bus?" I asked.

"No, I asked my friend which bus to ride." He answered.

Oh...

Now it all made sense. Instead of going to the office to ask someone in authority for the answer, he just asked a friend.

He took instruction from someone who thought they knew the answer instead of taking it from someone who actually did know the answer and he ended up in a mess!

I couldn't help but think of us Christians and how often we listen to what people say instead of what God says.

All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.               2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

We want someone to tell us what to do (and they may not even be a Christian) instead of going to the source. We can end up in a terrible mess by doing this.

The authority in our lives is God's word. It will lead us in the way that we should go and we won't end up in the wrong county on a bus going the wrong direction!

Thank goodness the bus driver was kind enough to go out of his way to bring him home.

The doughnut...

My recent check up with the doctor revealed that my cholesterol is back up. He advised that I change my diet in order to get it back into normal range. So, I've been watching what I eat and walking.

Today, my co-worker walked by my office headed to the reception area and said, "You gonna get a doughnut?"

"Doughnuts? What doughnuts? I didn't know there were doughnuts in the office..." I responded as I sipped my strawberry flavored diet nutrition drink.

Then the person announcing that there were delicious doughnuts to everyone saw us talking and said to my co-worker, "You getting a doughnut?"

Then I chimed in, "You didn't tell me we have doughnuts... My feelings are hurt."

"I was trying to save you from the temptation. I know you are trying to lose weight." She apologized with a grin.

"Oh, I see. Thanks for thinking of my diet!" I laughed. "Well, I still would have liked the invite even though I wouldn't have eaten one."

They laughed and rushed to the dwindling box of doughnuts to pick out the good ones before they were all gone and I tossed my empty diet drink container into the trash can.

After they left, I finished my filing and pondered my reaction to not being invited to the doughnut party going on in the reception area. My feelings really were slightly hurt. I would have liked to have been invited even though she truly was trying to help me out by keeping me from the temptation.

It was then that I had a bit of a revelation as I realized that what I really wanted wasn't the doughnut but the invitation to temptation.

 I wanted to be invited to be tempted to do something I shouldn't be doing. Plus, it hurt my feelings that I didn't get the invite. How FLESHY is that?

I have faced many temptations in my life but I've never considered the idea that I liked it. That I wanted to be tempted.

This is just a story about a doughnut that I didn't get to eat today and there are much worse temptations but it was very revealing.

Recognizing the reaction of my flesh to 'invitations to temptations' will surely make me more aware of what the issue really is the next time I face a serious temptation in life.

Maybe the issue is...me.

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)