More than enough

Christmas is upon us. Somehow it crept up on me again this year. 💚

This week, there was a discussion at work about buying gifts for our children and a co-worker mentioned a concern about buying those gifts. I've experienced the exact feeling so I think it must be pretty common. He stated that when he thinks he's done shopping he keeps going over in his mind, "Well, maybe I should get them this or that..." So, he buys more gifts. Then he said even when it's said and done and he's completely finished shopping, he worries about what he bought them and wonders, "Is it enough?"

Sadly, it puts a lot of stress on parents. We don't want to disappoint our kids. We want to give them everything they dream of receiving for Christmas and more. Sometimes, that's difficult and expensive.

I admit this year, for whatever reason, I've found it difficult to feel the heart of Christmas. That feeling that I love so much that's not found in decorations, shopping, cooking or even celebrations and parties. I've felt a little bit like Cindy Lou Who singing the song, "Where are you Christmas?"

This morning we went to a breakfast at a friend's house that they have every year on Christmas Eve before we went to church. I developed a headache and almost decided to skip church and go home. But I popped some Ibuprofen and we headed to the busiest service of the year at Long Hollow Baptist Church.

Finally, it was there amidst thousands of worshipers singing a simple Christmas song that I finally found my heart this Christmas. My emotions overwhelmed me in thankfulness and love for the child who came to give us everything.

There were no thoughts of whether our gifts to our children this Christmas are enough or not because what He gave us is more than enough. These three words that I've had on my mind all week were also used by Pastor Robby in his sermon this morning. 💜

Thank you God for your perfect plan in all things. Thank you for giving us the perfect gift that is MORE than enough.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV 

Closing Doors

A couple of weeks ago, I took my daughter-in-law to the mall shopping for a new dress. After we looked around and didn't find anything she cared for, we decided to go to a different store down the road.

Somehow, as we were getting into the car to leave the mall, I shut the car door on my left foot as I was climbing inside the vehicle. I yelped in pain and grabbed my boot-clad foot stunned that I slammed the door shut on my own limb. 

Finally, the pain subsided enough to drive and I had to laugh at myself. I couldn't remember ever doing that before. Why did I think I should close the door before I was all the way inside of the car? The top of my foot turned purple to remind me of my clumsiness.

Last weekend, I stepped outside onto the deck to feed my poor, hungry cat who stared at me through the glass every time I walked by. As I stepped back inside the house after feeding her, I shut the patio door on my left pointer finger. 

I grabbed my finger writhing in pain and immediately it became numb, swollen and turned purple. Luckily, it wasn't broken. 

Wait...
Didn't I just do this same careless thing less than two weeks ago to my left foot? (Which, by the way, just healed up and the color is back to normal.) Why am I closing doors on myself and causing my own pain? 

Most of us have heard the phrase, "When God closes a door - He opens a window." It's really a nice thought and I wish I would have coined the phrase. 😉 But what about when we close the door? And it hurts...

Sometimes we do this in life. We try to exit before we should. Maybe we're hurt, angry or just plum tired and we can't take it any more. It could be a job, marriage or even giving up on a dream. Have you ever closed a door that should have been left open?

Closing doors in life is usually a difficult decision but closing it before we should can be more painful. (Just ask my left foot and pointer finger...lol)

But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. AKJV

God advises us to wait for Him. If we wait, we will be strengthened. Then we will know when to close the door. Or maybe leave it open. ❤ 

   

Someone

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. ❤ But I'm particularly thankful this year for someone.

I hoped one day I might get a grandchild. I prayed God would bless me with a little granddaughter since my own attempts for daughters brought me spunky little boys instead. (And God knows I wouldn't trade them for anything in this world.)  

However, my son Jestin and daughter-in-law, Sydney are expecting a baby girl in January, 2018. She is already formed in the womb and growing bigger and stronger everyday.

My mind is blown at how clear sonograms are these days. This picture is at 23 weeks and is a 4D sonogram. I can see by this profile shot that she will look a lot like her Momma. I'm sure my son's traits are there too but not visible yet.

This photo is my favorite because she seems to be deep in thought. ❤

With today's technology, we're able to get a small glimpse of what God sees and reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! Psalms 139:13-17

I want to kiss this little cheek so much! I know I already ADORE this child. How precious to know she is part of our family.

Sweet little Presley Lynn Cooper. I cannot wait to meet you. 💗

Carry me

We just got back from a wonderful beach vacation ❤

We haven't taken a family vacation for about five years, it seems. So, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The downside was that we got there when a hurricane was hitting the gulf. But it was a Category One and we weren't directly in it's path. When we arrived, the water was all the way up to the dunes and as muddy as the Mississippi River.

Even though the conditions were not ideal for relaxation, we figured we'd never be at the beach again during a hurricane so we tried to make the best of a bad situation. It was definitely exciting. 😅

So, we went shopping and drove to see sights the next day because the beach was too wild to enjoy. Wind and waves, wind and waves. But by the next day, we could go sit on the beach and listen to that wonderful relaxing sound of waves rolling in and splashing on the sand.

By the last full day we had to enjoy the beach, it was finally the way I imagined our vacation would be. The brown water cleared up as the shoreline receded from the dunes and there were more folks enjoying the day alongside us on the beach.

There was a little girl there about seven or eight years old who spent the majority of the day using a skim board directly in front of us. She had some pretty good skills, I must say!

As we were about to leave the beach and go eat dinner, I noticed that she and her daddy were walking out into the ocean together. Each time a big wave came, they'd jump and walk on farther out. Eventually, he was holding her hand and then finally she was riding on his back with her arms wrapped around his neck. (How I wish I would have snapped a picture of this!)

I was reminded of a dream I had right before we went on vacation where my dad was with me and I was hugging his back in a similar way and he said, "What a wonderful surprise!" Then he called me by my nickname he rarely uses these days. When I awoke from the dream, I pondered it and realized it's been a long time since he called me that and I haven't hugged his back since childhood.

Seeing the little girl in the ocean with her dad brought back to memory the safety I felt riding on my Daddy's back when I was young. I completely trusted that he would carry me safely to our destination, wherever that might be.

I took a break from my daily Bible reading while we were traveling so when we got home, I settled back into my routine. I was taken aback by some of the first verses I read considering the little girl riding on her Daddy's back was still fresh in my mind.

"Listen to me, family of Jacob, everyone that's left of the family of Israel.
I've been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, 
And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old.
I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray.
I've done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you." Isaiah 46:3-4 

Honestly, I read it over and over. I found great comfort in those words. ❤

I know that God demonstrated this to me before we left for vacation with the dream and while we were at the beach with a picture of a little girl clinging to her Daddy's back with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as he walked her out into the great depths of the ocean. The water was over her head but it was not over his.

No matter what the future holds and even when I'm old and gray, I know He will carry me. 

PS. I'm not that far away from old and gray...tee hee  ❤

Humbled

About five years ago, as I walked across the basement floor toward my Sunday School classroom at church, God spoke to my spirit, "You need to humble yourself."

Humble myself?

What exactly does that mean? It concerned and confused me because I didn't feel that I thought of myself more highly than others.

I was raised in a humble home getting the things in life we needed and not much else. I'm from a big family raised in a little town. I started working at 13 years of age as a waitress at the local YMCA (back when you could work that young!) and have never been one for fancy things.

My first car was an old Toyota Corolla that you could start with a butter knife!

Plus, I never finished college. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life at that age.

So, I pondered this instruction from God and wondered what exactly it was He saw in me that He didn't like and I needed to change.

Unknown to me at that time, I was coming into a season of life where I would be humbled. I would be humbled to the point where nothing was what I thought it was in my life and only God was who He said He was.

As I look back now, I know why I needed to humble myself. It wasn't that I thought too much of myself compared to others. The problem was I didn't think ENOUGH of who God is and who He is not.

He was the one with me 24/7 during the most difficult time of my life. He was the one by my side when I was alone. He was the one I cried to daily begging for help during my darkest hour. He never left me. He never forsook me. He loved me at my lowest and through the darkest time of my Christian life.

I couldn't have imagined thinking any more highly of God at the moment I walked across the basement floor at church that morning five years ago. He was in a very high place in my life. But during the season of testing that followed, He rose above ALL else. He took His rightful place in my heart, mind, spirit - my entire life. 

How humbled I now am because of who HE is.

He is everything to me. He is perfect. He loves in a way that we can't comprehend. He parents His children in the most wonderful way. Teaching us the difficult things in life.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 1 Peter 5:6 (ESV)

The heart of it...

My parents always sliced a watermelon when I was young. 

We kids would grab a slice, sit on the porch together and a seed spitting competition would begin! Definitely a happy childhood memory! 

At some point, when I became an adult and paid for my own watermelons, I decided that scooping it out into a dish was my preferred way to eat it. Slices are too messy.

Once, when we were staying with my in-laws, I bought a watermelon and helped myself to some in my usual way. Later on that evening, my father-in-law took the foil off the partially eaten watermelon sitting in the fridge and with great shock at what he uncovered said, "Who took the heart right out of the watermelon?!"

I said, "Umm....me." Suddenly realizing that he was old-school and thought scooping the heart out of it was the WRONG way to eat a watermelon!

He might be right. 😉

The heart is the best part and when it's gone, the rest of the watermelon is not quite the same. It's still good but it gets more distasteful the further you get from the heart and the closer you get to the bitter rind. Then what's left gets thrown out.

Sometimes, we do this same thing in life. We take the best part and leave the rest. I guess it's human nature.

As a woman, I know that this happens to us. We give and give of ourselves until we have nothing left taking care of our homes, families, spouses and working jobs. Then we walk around feeling empty because the heart is gone and that's a tough place to be. Empty, numb and sometimes bitter.

When we get so far from the heart of things, we just want to get the sweetness of life back. We want to get back to the heart of it all.

I'm so glad that God gives the best part instead of taking it.

When we have nothing left and it seems that all the good parts have been scooped out, is when He fills us up again...to overflowing.

He never fails.

Trust Him.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 NIV

Roots

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I get picked on a lot. ❤

It seems that my childhood stories (and some from adulthood) get twisted and used against me.

All in fun, of course!

One of those stories is about roots. It usually comes up something like this...

We are eating a meal and someone complains or makes a comment about something we are eating. Then somehow it turns into a question geared toward me, "Didn't you used to eat roots?"

Then I argue, "No! I did NOT eat roots!"

They all laugh at me. Then I go into the "roots" story explaining that when I was young, my dad was a part time pastor and worked full time in the lead mines. At times, he was either laid off or on strike and had to provide for his large family. One of the things he did during these times was dig ginseng roots. They are interesting looking and worth quite a lot.

When we kids got home from school, he would make us clean buckets of roots with a toothbrush. After they were washed, he laid them on the roof of our house to dry in the sun. Then he sold them. I remember how proud he was once when he got his check and was able to buy groceries!

I have to say that even though it's a joke on me now-a-days, I'm sure this work ethic displayed for me by my dad greatly impacted my life. He found a way to get us through those difficult times.

It's no joke to me that these are my roots. I'm glad they are.

I'm thankful for parents who worked hard and made an honest living as an example for their children. Even if it makes for a funny story later in life ❤

Plant your roots in Christ and let Him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful. Colossians 2:7-9 (CEV)