I really, really love my mom!  Now, if you ever met her and spent some time with her, I don’t think it would take very long for you to see how cute and sweet she is.  On the surface, I’d say that she’s about the cutest 80+ year-old woman I know… or have ever known.  She’s only about 4 foot-something …but packed into that tiny frame is more strength than you’d find in most people!

Now, I’m confident that you don’t think I’m talking physical strength here.  No, it’s a strength that’s within that sets her apart from the rest.  And it’s a strength that comes at you from all different sides!  You can’t help but feel it in her strong faith… in her deep love of family …in her confidence that His mercies are new every morning… in her laughter even in the midst of the hardest circumstances…in her faithful prayers and encouraging words.  I could go on and on… but suffice it to say, I feel incredibly blessed to call my mom “mom!”

Why am I writing this?  Because oftentimes I get notes, thanking me for the things I’ve taught or written…things that have encouraged and helped them.  But without the loving influence, prayers, love and encouragement that my mom has so lavished on me all of my life, I wouldn’t be who I am today… and I wouldn’t be the one receiving those notes. So mom… this note is for you!  Thank you for teaching me what it is to be strong… to not give up… to be feisty… to love deeply… to laugh more… to get back up again… to live one day at a time… You always have been my hero, my role model, a mom in a class all her own … and no matter how old I get, I’ll always want to be just like you!

Proverbs 31:10, 28-29 MSG ~ A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise: “Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all!”

A week ago, my daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters finished packing up the house they’d lived in for the past five years.  They had heard a call in their heart to become missionaries in Peru, and the time had finally arrived for them to leave.  I wish I could tell you that I was this noble, self-sacrificing mom, who only thought about all the good that they would be able to do on the mission field.  Frankly, I asked God, with all due respect, if He could pick someone else’s children to send…you know, kids who had a mom who would blog about how honored and thrilled she was that her kids were chosen to follow such a beautiful path in life.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t proud of them…I was.  And it wasn’t that I wasn’t supportive of them…I was.  I just loved having them live next door…for a lot of reasons.  One reason being this. Each morning, when I’d head into the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker, I’d glance through my kitchen window, which happened to face one of their bedroom windows.  And on some of those mornings, I would see the adorable faces of one of my granddaughters peering out that window!

Well, the first morning after they had left, I was once again at the kitchen sink…looking into that very empty window.  My heart sank, and tears rolled down my face.  I considered closing the shade, so I wouldn’t have to ever look into that empty window again.  But I didn’t…and one day this week it happened. I didn’t feel the same sadness…because God gently spoke to my heart what He speaks to each of us when there’s an empty place in our life.  That He already knew what would be emptied…and He already had a plan…a wonderful plan to fill it with something good!  It wasn’t that it would replace what had already been there…it would just re-fill that empty place with more of His goodness …goodness on top of goodness!  So now when I see that window? It’s a loving reminder that even though I can’t see it yet, something good is on the way…for me…and for you too!

Jeremiah 29:11 MSG ~ I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Sometimes I find that God speaks to my heart in rather unusual ways.  Now, just so you don’t get the wrong idea, I’ve never heard the audible voice of God.  Personally, I would love that.  But then again, since I’m much more of a visual learner, I think He speaks to me in ways that send me a message in the form of a word picture…in a way that I hear best.  Take the other day, for instance.  I got a message…delivered in a meatball!

Now, maybe you just envisioned me breaking open the meatball, and there was a paper inside with a message written on it…kind of like a fortune cookie!  But it wasn’t anything like that.  It happened at one of the bible studies I teach.  We usually start out the evening with some food, which some of the girls bring…and on this particular night, one of the girls told me she wanted to bring meatballs.  Well, she brought her meatballs, and they didn’t look like anything special.  On the outside, they looked pretty uninteresting…plain…like they’d taste just ho-hum…so I almost decided to skip the meatballs!

But I took one anyway, and I tried a bite.  I was surprised!  Because it may have looked plain on the outside, but I discovered that whatever was on the inside added up to one awesome tasting meatball!  And I wasn’t the only one who thought that!  Later, when we voted for the “fab food of the night,” she won…or should I say, the meatballs won! And the message that God painted for me?  That there are so many people we miss enjoying… because on the outside, we think they seem uninteresting…plain…like they’d be just ho-hum to know.  But if we’ll take the time to find out what’s in their heart, we may just be surprised to discover that this person is one awesome person!  It’s not that I didn’t already know that, but sometimes we need reminders.  So I’m really glad I got to eat one of those awesome meatballs….but I’m even more glad for the message I found on the inside of that meatball!

I Samuel 16:7 NLT ~ …The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

There are some things we’re born with…and some things we’re not.  I mean, we’re all born with some of the same basic, all-purpose equipment…like a heart, brain, skin and bones.  But one of the things we AREN’T born with is common sense.  It’s one of those things that, hopefully, we learn over the course of time.  And if we do?  It serves us well!  So I’ve tried to teach myself to look at the facts, to use my mind to think through things sensibly, and to come to conclusions that are proof of the fact that I really have learned to use some good common sense!

Well, I tried to put some of that good common sense to use recently.  You see, I tend to have a bit of a tendency to become stretched thin…over-extended…and definitely a little sleep-deprived. I’m not complaining…because I seriously love what keeps me so busy.  But recently, I decided it was time to use some common sense.  To let go of some things in my life that were possibly contributing to my over-crowded schedule.  So I looked at the facts…I tried to think sensibly…I made some decisions…I ran them by some people… and they agreed with the conclusions I’d come to.  There…it was done…I could move forward.  That is, after I finalized the changes I was going to make.

So I set a date to make the change. But then, when the time came?  My head was telling me, “Just do it!”…but in my heart, the Lord was saying, “I know you’ve thought this through…but this is your idea…not mine.  You just need to know that…and to know this also…that I love you no matter what you decide to do.”   I knew He meant it…it was my choice…and now the REAL choice was if I’d listen to my head, with all of that common sense.  Or would I listen to the uncommon sense of my heart.  Because the truth is, that throughout the Bible, God led His people to do uncommon things.  And now He was presenting me with the opportunity to do something uncommon too.  So what did I decide?  To go with the Bible crowd…uncommon…trusting Him…and knowing wherever He leads me…it’ll be uncommonly right!

Isaiah 55:8-9 MSG ~ “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.”