Something FABULOUS has happened!

Almost 2 years ago my blood work was returned with the reading of a low thyroid level, hypothyroidism. My doctor, who is a wonderful doctor and a Christian, informed me that I needed to begin taking medication. He said it was a common condition in many people as they get older (Great!), and it was not curable and that I would be taking this medication for the rest of my life, so although I put up a protest about taking the medication, I took it anyway because of the doctor’s diagnosis and the results of the lab work, BUT at the same time, I also began confessing healing scriptures from the Bible over myself and building my faith.

My church, Living Word Family Church, hosted Len and Cathy Mink one weekend, and at our Sunday night service, they called anyone in the congregation who needed healing to come to the front of the church for prayer. I was one of those who went forward and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my thyroid was completely normal after that service. I stopped taking the medication.

Fast forward to my next doctor visit over a year later. The doctor looked over my chart and asked if I was still taking my thyroid medication. Now, I seriously thought about lying at this point; shame on me, I know. When I answered, “No”, there was a slight hesitation, a concerned look at me and then of course the question, “Why not?”. And after telling him that I didn’t need it anymore because I was healed, he filled out an order for new blood work to be done. When he handed me the order, he also asked if I was going to be devastated if the blood work showed my thyroid levels to be abnormal, and I replied, “Not at all because it doesn’t matter what those results say, the Word says, “I am healed”.

Yesterday I was back in the doctor’s office to go over my results, and upon entering the room, he states, “Well young lady (which I LOVED, by the way), not only have you lost weight since I last saw you (again, which I LOVED), but everything is normal, including your thyroid level, and that’s awesome!”.  My response was a hearty, “Thank you Jesus and Praise the Lord!” along with a huge smile. It also spurred quite a conversation between myself and the doctor.

This is MY testimony of what happened to ME. It is not a story to tell everyone to stop taking medications, but if you’d like to hear more details, I would be happy to share more with you because yes, there is a Great Physician, our Jehovah-rapha, and by His wounds on the cross, we were healed; the Bible tells me so. To God be dominion forever and ever and all praise and glory to Him.

Something FABULOUS has happened!

Almost 2 years ago my blood work was returned with the reading of a low thyroid level, hypothyroidism. My doctor, who is a wonderful doctor and a Christian, informed me that I needed to begin taking medication. He said it was a common condition in many people as they get older (Great!), and it was not curable and that I would be taking this medication for the rest of my life, so although I put up a protest about taking the medication, I took it anyway because of the doctor’s diagnosis and the results of the lab work, BUT at the same time, I also began confessing healing scriptures from the Bible over myself and building my faith.

My church, Living Word Family Church, hosted Len and Cathy Mink one weekend, and at our Sunday night service, they called anyone in the congregation who needed healing to come to the front of the church for prayer. I was one of those who went forward and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my thyroid was completely normal after that service. I stopped taking the medication.

Fast forward to my next doctor visit over a year later. The doctor looked over my chart and asked if I was still taking my thyroid medication. Now, I seriously thought about lying at this point; shame on me, I know. When I answered, “No”, there was a slight hesitation, a concerned look at me and then of course the question, “Why not?”. And after telling him that I didn’t need it anymore because I was healed, he filled out an order for new blood work to be done. When he handed me the order, he also asked if I was going to be devastated if the blood work showed my thyroid levels to be abnormal, and I replied, “Not at all because it doesn’t matter what those results say, the Word says, “I am healed”.

Yesterday I was back in the doctor’s office to go over my results, and upon entering the room, he states, “Well young lady (which I LOVED, by the way), not only have you lost weight since I last saw you (again, which I LOVED), but everything is normal, including your thyroid level, and that’s awesome!”.  My response was a hearty, “Thank you Jesus and Praise the Lord!” along with a huge smile. It also spurred quite a conversation between myself and the doctor.

This is MY testimony of what happened to ME. It is not a story to tell everyone to stop taking medications, but if you’d like to hear more details, I would be happy to share more with you because yes, there is a Great Physician, our Jehovah-rapha, and by His wounds on the cross, we were healed; the Bible tells me so. To God be dominion forever and ever and all praise and glory to Him.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass…

The sweat rolling down the center of my back made me shift a little to the left to catch more of the breeze coming from the fan in MaMaw’s room.  It wasn’t a cool breeze just a movement of air that continued to grow warmer as the morning rounded the corner to afternoon.

Those were hot humid summer days spent with my MaMaw and PaPaw in Arkansas. I can remember sitting by MaMaw in her bedroom listening to the constant whirring of her sewing machine.  Her, like a queen on a throne, reigning over her kingdom of thread, patterns and material with her scissors, measuring tape, thimble and pins at the ready to do her bidding.  It was almost magical seeing pieces of material transformed into something wearable especially when she was making clothes for me or my dolls.  Or I was in the garden with PaPaw checking on or picking what was growing until it got too hot.  Then it was time to go sit in the swing under the shed and drink a Co-cola while listening to him hum an unrecognizable tune as he tinkered on something at his workbench.

Those days bring memories of hanging clothes on a clothesline in air so thick they were still damp when they were ‘dry’ and having to dodge big fat catawba worms falling from the branches overhead.  I remember the heavy sweet smell of jonquils and green things slipping in through the open windows during the day along with the heat.  I also remember the hot seemingly airless nights lying on once cool sheets and praying for a breeze or any movement of air at all.  I’d listen to the night sounds whirring, buzzing and humming outside until sleep finally came only to wake up with pajamas sticking to my skin damp from the humidity that rose along with the sun.

And I guess those hot summer days spent with my grandparents are the reason I have fond memories of soap operas or ‘stories’.  My MaMaw watched her ‘stories’ everyday, and everyday at that time we got to turn on the window unit in the front room.  The ritual would begin by closing off the front room from the rest of the house, and then the precious little AC unit would be plugged in and turned to High.   We would go to the kitchen to fix lunch and return to a blissfully cool oasis for at least the next hour and a half.  MaMaw would turn on Dialing for Dollars, sit in her chair with the phone, pencil and paper and wait for a phone call while eating her lunch.  I would eat, play and rest in that air conditioned retreat while  Another World droned in the background, and when MaMaw started watching Days of Our Lives, the cool air would last even longer, although the unit would be turned to Low.  Even PaPaw would venture in, take his chair and doze.  Soap operas don’t have the best reputation, but they certainly had a place in my younger life.  If not for MaMaw’s ‘stories’, I might have never survived summer days spent in sweltering heat at MaMaw and PaPaw’s house.

All this came to mind because of the phrase, “Like sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives.”  A phrase that opened the soap opera, Days of Our Lives, and that phrase came to mind because of time, or really the passing of it.  I am a little nostalgic right now because of my youngest being a senior in high school and three days later my oldest turning 22.  Also being nostalgic from reconnecting via modern technology with lives that I never thought I would see or hear from again; dredging up memories that life has built upon or buried.  No regrets, no going back, not even wanting to.  Just wistful moments and sweet memories of family and friends.

While at MaMaw’s house, I had no idea what that phrase meant, but now thinking about it, it seems almost profound.  An hourglass, a life, seemingly so full, sand and time moving slowly until another glance later in life shows just how fast that durn sand is moving!

Last Night

O luminous orb I wonder that you are called the lesser light,

As I shared your company last night.

You wakened me with brightness that fell upon my face

In one sharp line, slipping past the window shade.

And since you had my attention,

I sought to give you more,

As I walked through the shadows and opened the nearest door.

Gazing at your bold beauty and praising the Creator

I thought, “You might be called the lesser,

But tonight you are the greater”.

Oh What A Beautiful Day…

The warmth of the afternoon prompted the impulse to drag the lawn chair out of its winter repose of the screened-in porch to the backyard.

As I reclined with the sun’s heat for a blanket, faithful companion by my side, hawks screeched and rode the waves of a breeze overhead.

Closing my eyes to the naked branches of the towering giants surrounding me, I can see the green promise of Spring, and with an inward sigh, I patiently wait for her seductive arrival.

A Passing Disturbance

It’s 4:00 a.m., and I can’t sleep because of the lightening and rumblings of thunder, so while listening to the  storm passing through outside, I thought I’d share about the disturbance that is blowing through our family.

Some of you know, but most of you don’t, that after 25 years with the same company, my husband was laid off on January 15 of this year.  The entire site was shut down with the jobs being out-sourced to India.  ( And I will not get started on my views of out-sourcing right now because as my PaPaw used to say, “that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms”.)  I know my husband and I were both a little shocked when it happened.  We know of so many who have been laid off, and we had months of knowing that the site was going to be shut, but we didn’t think it would happen to us.  We just knew he would always have a job.  So in the past nine weeks, we have struggled, not financially, but emotionally.  There have been some dark moments when anxiety, fear and self-doubt/worth have tried to creep in, but they have been quickly squashed and put in their proper place under our feet!  He has applied for many jobs here in our area, and we cannot figure out why he hasn’t been hired, but we have not been discouraged.  We continue to move on with applying for more jobs, and we have been seriously shopping around for a franchise to own and operate.  What an idea.  We would have never even considered this while he was still employed full-time, but while we consider that option, another opportunity has been given.  He has been offered a 6 month contract.  Whoo hoo!  It’s great pay, and he’ll be able to spend time with his father.  What a blessing, BUT he’ll be over 1000 miles from me, and honestly, I can’t dwell for too long on that fact.  Being without my other half for that length of time is beyond my imagination, and I have a pretty imaginative mind!  So, all of that to say, I don’t know for sure what’s going to take place in the next six months, but here’s what I do know, and THIS IS THE IMPORTANT STUFF:

1.  The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear or dread?  The Lord is the refuge and stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?  Psalm 27:1-2

2.  I don’t fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, I continue to make my wants known to God, and God’s peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

3.  God is faithful to His Word and to His compassionate nature, and He can be trusted not to let me be tempted, tried or assayed beyond my ability and strength of resistance to endure, but He will always provide the way out, that I may be capable, strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.  1 Corinthians 10:13b

4.  I do not fear, for He is with me; I don’t look around me in terror, and I am not dismayed, for He is my God.  He will strengthen and harden me to difficulties, yes, He will help me;  yes, He will hold me up and retain me with His victorious right hand of rightness and justice.  Isaiah 41:10

So the adventure of this life continues, change comes once again, faith is built, flexibility is exercised, and PRAISE GOD CONTINUALLY FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

Looking Forward

Are you excited about the new year?  For some reason I’m really excited about the coming year. Something about 2010 just sounds exciting to me.  I’m not worried about turning another year older…’though it may matter to some, it’s just a number to me.  I do have goals for 2010, but mostly, right now, I have alot of questions.

And I really want to make a difference this year.  I really want to be a blessing this year.  I want to enjoy life, be appreciative and thankful for even the smallest good things,  be a giver, a prayer warrior, a good listener,  really learn from my mistakes, and not make many mistakes!

Is it possible?  SURE it is.  I BELIEVE PHIL. 4:13, don’t you?

Where Did The Time Go?

My husband, Lonnie, and I have just celebrated 25 years of marriage, and I honestly can’t believe we’ve reached this milestone together.  It’s not that I can’t believe we’ve been married to each other for this long, but the fact that 25 years have passed literally fills me with wonder.

I can still remember the first time I noticed Lonnie… I thought he was cute.  He was wearing a light purplish button-down polo shirt with jeans, was standing out in front of church on a warm Texas evening, and he was moving away to Kentucky. That was 30 years ago.   I didn’t think of him or remember him until he moved back to Texas a couple of years later…I was home from college for Christmas break, we were at a Christmas party and were out caroling.  I was singing away when I looked around and saw him staring at me, and I was SO embarrassed!  He had brought someone else to that party, and after they left,  my friend and I left because I wasn’t feeling well.  I didn’t know until later that he had taken his date home and come back to the party to see me.

I went on a single’s snow skiing trip and was VERY pleasantly surprised to see that Lonnie was also going on that trip.  On the overnight bus trip from Dallas to New Mexico, while most people were asleep, I had turned on my seat’s overhead light to see if my mascara had smeared while I was asleep, and looking into my little hand mirror, I see Lonnie several rows behind me, once again, staring at me.  Since he was one of the few people awake at that time, I got up and went back to sit with him and talk.  (Surprise, surprise!)  That trip was fun, and SLOWLY, over those few days of skiing and spending time with each other, we realized we were interested in seeing more of each other.  When I got back to college, I showed my dorm mates, roommate and friends a picture of Lonnie and told them he was the guy I was going to marry.   There was no doubt for me.  Did it all work out perfectly from that moment on?  NO WAY!  But these moments are still so fresh in my memory.  I can still feel the warmth and excitement and anticipation that occurred all those years ago, and it makes me smile.

There have been some rough times, how could there not be during all those years?  To be totally honest, I have had doubts, at times, if our marriage would make it, I’m sure Lonnie could say the same thing.   But I cannot imagine my life without this man by my side, and I don’t try to, it would be pointless.  We have melded such a relationship where the lines of who we used to be have become blurred.  SO many memories made together…just the two of us, with our two sons, with our extended families, friends…millions of moments that have made our marriage, and each one, when recalled, can still seem so fresh, making me smile, laugh, cry and sometimes even wish for the past.  But only sometimes…because I’m excited for what’s still to come.