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Showing posts from January, 2022

For Everything There is a Season (Day 5 from an untitled collection)

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  As I sit here I can hear the wind howling outside and feel the cold creeping into the night giving us a harsh reminder that the long winter months had arrived. So often writers or artists associate this time of year with negative emotions, but as a gardener, winter is a time of preparation and hope as we plan for the spring gardening season. With that in mind, to me, winter represents our retirement years until the time God calls us home.  I had been standing on God’s promise that our latter years were better than our beginning and as time grew closer the hope of what those years would be like became almost alive within my heart, the Bible puts it this, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the

For Everything There is a Season (Day 4 from an untitled collection)

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  As things change with the colors of autumn our lives change as well, we leave our school years behind us and look forward to all the possibilities life has to offer.  Our adult years are filled with both achievements and failures. My first marriage was one of those failures, ending after six short months. It was a year later that I met my husband; he was drafted in the Army during the Vietnam War and stationed in Germany; we were married shortly after basic training. I went with his mom and dad to his graduation, but on the return trip home his dad had a cerebral hemorrhage and was taken off life support on what was to be our wedding day. We were married two months later. I will never forget the day after I took him to the airport to leave for Germany; I had gone to my mother-in-laws, a wonderful woman I came to love dearly to my mother-in-laws, we were standing just inside the living room watching my son just standing by papas chair staring, then we heard him say, “Papa gone, daddy

For Everything There is a Season (Day 3 from an untitled collection)

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                   Just as summer follows spring the cycle of our lives continues. Summer is the symbol of growth and the search for self-acceptance and our personal identity; it stands for our youth, that formative time when we enter the school years. The first day of school arrived and when the bus pulled up and the doors opened I couldn’t reach the steps, I was too short, mom told me the bus driver would get off the bus to pick me up and put me on the front seat right behind him. My entire first year of school centered on how short I was. There was a set of twins that were small too, the teacher had told the class not to play with us because there was something wrong with us; she had contacted the principal to have us removed because of our size. Mom took had to take me in for tests to determine if there was nothing wrong. Mom never told me how long I was out of school only that it was determined I was healthy and could return to school. However, the damage was already done; I was n

For Everything There is a Season (Day 2 from an untitled collection)

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          Spring is the symbol of hope and new beginnings; it represents a time from birth through our preschool years. I was born at 32 weeks on August 1, 1948; I had black hair, blue eyes, and dimples just like my father; however, I got my height from my mom who was just 4 feet 11 inches tall.   Being a preemie when I was born; my mother told me I fit in a shoebox, and my first bed was a dresser drawer heated by a light bulb. Just like my heavenly Father, my parents had a dream of what I might become. However, my heavenly Father, who is all-knowing, knew what my life would be    “’ For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity . . .’” (Jeremiah 29:11-14   NIV). Just aft

For Everything There is a Season (Day 1 from an untitled collection)

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                                         I’ve reached a time in my life when I’m faced with so many changes taking place and decisions that have to be made, that I feel overwhelmed. Every day has been a challenge. The last few days, since the weather has turned cold, I go to bed hurting and get up the same. I have to give up things I love to do because my body tells me I can’t do them anymore. I look in the mirror and don’t recognize the woman looking back at me. There are more years behind me than those yet to come. Sometimes I feel as though all I have is memories as I say goodbye to yet another loved one. My name is Old Age, but my heart is still young. If you have not been there yet don’t worry your day will come. Your heavenly Father confirmed this in Genesis 8:22, “As long as the earth endures seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease” (NIV).   Just as God provided for the seasons of the earth, He has set seasons for the days of our