A Woman's View

A lift for moms--and all of us

Sometimes tales from long ago refresh our hearts with hope and truth. This is one of those stories.

Once long ago a mother in the country we know as Algeria watched her brilliant 16-year old son walk out of her life.

Worse yet, he renounced the Christian faith in which she raised him. Nothing she said could change his mind.

She thought her heart would break.

Predictably, the young man took up with the wrong crowd and indulged himself in worldliness, even fathering an illegitimate child at age 18.

His mother, Monica, did what moms have done ever since Eve. She wept and prayed and prayed and wept.

For more than a decade young Augustine pursued the teachings of famous philosophers of the time in an effort to explore all things intellectual and thus achieve happiness.

Instead, he experienced recurring bouts of severe depression and grief.

His thirtieth birthday came and went and still he searched. Still his mother wept and prayed.

Finally he scraped bottom. One day he fell on his face in despair, sobbing, and cried out to God. Then it seemed he heard a child's voice chanting, "Take and read. Take and read."

He opened a Bible to Romans 13 and read verses 13-14. At once his heart was changed.

Augustine soon was was baptized and became a strong believer in Christ. Not so long after that, his mother Monica died, her heart at peace.

That same man, once the despair of his mother, wrote these timeless words

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

Thou hast created us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

The years of pain and wandering worked spiritual depth in Augustine and it comes through in his writings.

He turned his superb mind to learning more about Jesus and pondering what faith meant and authored many books still treasured by believers. 

This story still speaks--to each of us, whatever our life situation 

Nuggets of truth leap out at us.

• Never give up! Not on anyone or any situation. You've heard me quote Jeremiah 32:27 before:

        "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"

• If you're a mom, never doubt what your love and your faith are worth to your child.

Your tender, loving care of your children helps them grow into themselves. As you model faith, they notice, even when they seem oblivious.

We are called as moms to be faithful. To reach out, even when we're not sure anyone sees or hears. To make the first move, again and again and again. To keep on praying and yes, sometimes, to keep on shedding tears.

To never give up.

Our loving Father knows. He cares. And He uses all of it, all our pains and all our griefs. Within our children.

Within us.

God bless you with His strength and peace, my friends,

Lenore

Swap anxiety for Easter peace and then never let it go!

Take a nap, take a walk, take a pill, it's still there.

Blame it on anything or on nothing, it makes no difference. It's an indefinable sense that somehow we don't quite measure up. The feeling gnaws away at us and refuses to budge.

Peace is available . . . if we ask

Lasting peace and hope are as near as our breath, because everything changed that first Easter. That's when Jesus set things right between God and us.

Now all it costs us is believing the Good News of the Easter Gospel. We say something like, "Please forgive me, Lord, for my sins. I know I cannot live a perfect life, but I want to belong to you." We give him all our failures and mistakes and uncertainties.

Our loving Father answers, "What sins? My only Son paid your debt in full. My darling child, I love you."

It's as if God looks at us through one of those camera lenses that filters out the haze and sees his perfect Son.

The cross was God's way out for you and me

He sent his one and only son, Jesus, not just to live among us, but to suffer and be nailed to the cross and die. For you and me and all the world, because on our own we cannot meet God's standard for holiness.

Jesus died in our place, so we can live free from guilt and fear of punishment and hell.

As 2 Corinthians 5:21 states it: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

On that Friday we call, "good," Roman soldiers nailed God's Son to the cross and let him hang until he died.

His grieving followers and family watched with aching hearts as Jesus died an agonizing death and then his lifeless body was laid in the tomb.

We had nothing coming but punishment, yet God's gift to us is forgiveness, with no strings attached.

Jesus didn't stay dead!

Every week our pastor always asks during the children's message, "Did Jesus stay dead?"

The kids fairly shout, "No! He rose! He came back, alive!"

Over a period of days Jesus appeared to his followers and friends several times. He called them by name and spoke with them. He ate with them and they touched him. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus told them, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Later, while he was blessing them he was taken up into heaven. Even so, Jesus is with us. His Spirit lives in the heart of every believer, every minute of every day.

Impossible? It would be if Jesus were merely a great human teacher, as he's often described. But he is true God, and we cannot explain God, the unexplainable.

The youngsters at our church know that. So when our pastor asks, "And where does Jesus live now?" they answer, "In my heart!"

One more question from the pastor always follows. "So what happens to us when we die?" The children answer, "We get to live with Jesus in Heaven!"

That's why we celebrate Easter.  

We can swap anxiety for peace. For good.

Jesus living within us means we are never left alone to fear what comes next. Not even death, because we know that's not the end of our story, either.

It's only the beginning of the good stuff.

So take a deep breath and relax. Let yourself believe and feel the peace of being loved and accepted by God, without any ifs, ands or buts.

Now there's peace that lasts through whatever life may bring.

Easter Blessings, every day,

Lenore

Comments, please.

Note: You can read the eyewitness accounts of Jesus' last week on earth for yourself in the Bible. Turn to Matthew, chapter 21 to the end; Mark, chapter 11 to the end; Luke, chapter 19 to the end; John, chapter 12:12 to the end of the book.

Mother Teresa, the little woman who lived out love

One little woman who lived and will not be forgotten was Mother Teresa.        

No need to go into all the ins and outs of her lifte, except to say she spent her life serving the poorest of the poor, mostly in Calcutta.

Mother Teresa lives on through her timeless words. She spoke deep truth in simple words. I'm not Catholic, but I admire the unselfish way she lived.

It has been reported Mother Teresa had these words posted on the wall of her office. They're worth a careful reading, because there are truths here for all of us, no matter our age or life situation.

 *People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

*If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

*If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some enemies. Suceed anyway.

*If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway.

*What you spent years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.

*If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

*The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway.

*Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway.

*You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway.

*May love touch your heart, may peace lift your spirit and may you find happiness in all your endeavors.

Mother Teresa packed a lot of meaning into just a few words, enough to keep us chewing for quite awhile.

If we wonder what drove Mother Teresa, I think the answer can be found in 1 John 4:19, NIV.

We love because he first loved us.

He was her Power Source--and He wants to be ours, too. All we need to do is ask.

Comments?

May God bless you,

Lenore

Lenore

 

Take a fresh look at trials and sufferings

Maybe right now you're in the midst of a long, hard time in your life.

Maybe you've reached the end of your endurance. Sometimes you wonder whether God has turned his back on you. Otherwise, how could you pray and pray, yet nothing changes?

Been there, thought that, sometimes.

That's when we try to make sense of it on our own. Every one of us can think of times when we "knew" how "A" would lead to "B," then inevitably to "C."

Except it didn't.

Then it's time to remind myself what I know. I see only today. God sees yesterday, today and tomorrow. He loves us and promises to be our strength all through life, in good times and in the worst of times. 

That does not guarantee our life will smooth out and be pain-free. All we can do is keep on trusting and keep on walking.

Someone sent me this YouTube. The song was new to me and so was the singer Laura Story. Her song touched my heart. She says what we all need to remember when we're slogging through one of those misery times.

I hope these lyrics speak to you as they do to me.

Lovingly,

Lenore

Story Blessings song http://youtu.be/1CSVqHcdhXQ

Mom, you can plant a "can do" attitude, even if you're living in a "can't do" world

If you don't believe that statement, just ask Benjamin Carson, M. D. At age thirty-three he became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a post he still holds.

He probably grew up in privilege, with doting parents who spared him from struggle and discouragement. Right?

Wrong.

Dr. Carson grew up in a ghetto in Detroit.

His divorced mother, Sonya, dropped out of school in the third grade and cleaned houses for wealthy homeowners. She often left home early in the morning and returned after dark.

Benjamin Carson did have one big advantage. His mother never stopped believing in God--or in him. Over and over she told him, "Learn to do your best and God will do the rest."

The real story behind Benjamin Carson, M. D.

Sonya Carson spoke encouragement to her sons out of faith, not personal experience. At age thirteen she married a much older man and became a mother at eighteen, when she bore her first son, Curtis. When her second son, Benjamin, was eight, Sonya discovered her husband "forgot to mention" his other wife and family. She took the boys and moved in with her sister in Boston, then divorced her husband.

Two years later Sonya, Curtis and Bennie moved back to Detroit and into a ghetto high-rise, all they could afford. To support them Sonya cleaned houses for wealthy homeowners, sometimes three or four in tandem. She resolved she would do the best cleaning job her employers ever had. Somehow she managed to pay expenses and says with pride, "I took food stamps only one time, for a few months."

Not surprisingly, her sons did what their friends did. After school they played outside, then came in and watched TV. They struggled in school, especially Ben. His mother told him, "Bennie, you have to work harder. You have to use that good brain God gave you. Do you understand me?"

He did, but other kids taunted him that he was the dumbest kid in the world and he began to believe it. Before long Bennie brought home a report card full of Fs.

Sonya did not know what to do, so she prayed. "Lord," she said, "if You can take nothing and make a world out of it, You can take my situation and make it work--for the boys' sake."

Soon she had a plan and announced new, strict rules. Her sons could watch only two TV programs per week and had to choose them in advance. What's more, each week they were to read two books from their neighborhood library, then write a one-page book report and give it to her.

Over and over she told her boys, "Learn to do your best and God will do the rest."

Bennie started hanging out at the library. After awhile, one of the librarians took an interest and began pointing out books he might like. He soon developed an interest in rocks and science.

When her sons handed their mother their book reports, Sonya went over them and asked questions with a thoroughness that did not telegraph her own lack of education.

God had shown her how to handle a crisis. "After that," she said, "I would pray for guidance and afterward know what to do."

Before long Bennie began to surprise classmates and his teacher by answering questions with right answers. By the end of the school year he was one of the best students in class.

Like Mother, like sons

Learn to do your best and God will do the rest.

Sonya Carson lived by that principle as she cleaned homes. As a result, no client ever wanted anyone else to clean their homes. Her sons heard those words so often the principle became their indelible mindset, too. Both of them excelled in school.

Even though they lived in a high-rise ghetto, where going out into the halls after dark could mean risking your life. 

Curtis, the older son, became an engineer.

Benjamin became a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon who brings hope to patients, including parents of conjoined twins, who find little hope elsewhere. 

Bennie, the "F" student, became one who debates famous proponents of evolution and atheism.

Benjamin Carson, M. D., author of four books, named by the Library of Congress as one of 89 "living legends." 

Sonya lived out her words, too. Years later she earned her GED. She followed that with college classes and became a successful interior decorator.

This story sounds almost unbelievable, except that Sonya so clearly relied on God all along. It's as Jesus told His followers in Matthew 19:26:

   . . . with God all things are possible.

Sonya's Power Source can be ours

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

 All we need to do is ask--and then trust.

Lovingly,

Lenore

Your comments, please.

Sorry this ran so long. The day my husband and I heard Ben Carson speak, not one person coughed or shifted in their chairs. I've never forgotten his riveting story--or his mother's courage. If you want to know more about Ben, Google his name. Read his biography in Wikipedia, which tells of his surgery on conjoined twins. His book, Think Big, (Zondervan) tells a lot about his mother and his philosophy of life. The movie, "Gifted Hands," based on his first book by the same name, is available on DVD and features Cuba Gooding. For a fascinating article, go to www.icr/org and in the search box, type in his name.

Finding Real Freedom in the Land of the Free

Fourth of July fireworks and patriotic songs reminded us we live in the land of the free. Are we living free?

And what does it mean to "live free," anyhow?                                   
Each of us will answer that differently. It took me years to understand that freedom comes from within, not from without. 

You may have been a fan of Nick Charles, the popular and much-acclaimed CNN sports announcer who recently died of cancer. He dearly loved his wife and doted on their five-year old daughter. Listen to what he told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta not long before he died.

"I'm a forward looking person but also a living-in-the-moment person So I wake up every day expecting to have a good day. It may sound trite, Sanjay, but life as you get older is about 20 percent of what happens to you and about 80 percent how you react to it."

You've probably heard that said before. I have, too, but never with more power. 

If Nick Charles was a Christian, his words are understandable. Christians believe that faith in Jesus the Savior ensures us eternal life, so he would know will see his wife and child again.

Whatever his faith (or lack of it) Nick Charles spoke truth. How we react to what happens to us determines our lives. How we react depends on what's inside us, in the core of our being. That's what drives us. 

It took me a long time to grasp that. Then I read an old book, "Man's Search for Meaning,"  by the late Viktor Frankl, M.D., Ph.D.

Before World War II, Frankl, his wife and his parents lived the good life in Vienna. Then the Nazis invaded Austria. Like almost six million other Jews, they were sent to a Nazi concentration camp, separated, of course, and never saw each other again. Even Frankl's wedding ring was taken from him.

During those anguishing days in the Camp he realized a great truth. Here's how he summed it up.

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."                                                

Viktor Frankl in a death camp. Nick Charles close to death from cancer. Both of them in crisis mode and both said the same thing: We can't control everything in our lives, but we do control what we think about it.That dictates how we respond.

The Bible said ir first, in Proverbs 23:7:

            As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .

We hang the labels on what happens to us.

We choose to park our minds in a lousy place or in a good place.

Young or old, rich or poor, in or out of crisis, to know this can change your life.

Take it from one who knows.

Lovingly,

Lenore

 

Do kids need faith in God? Do you?

What difference could it make whether we believe in God? All that matters is that we believe in something. 

You've heard that said. Maybe you agree. After all, what difference does it make? 

A lot, I think.

Some people say, let children grow up and then they can make up their own minds. Sounds reasonable at first, except it means they pick up their values for life along the way. Think Sesame Street and Nickelodeon and MTV. Throw in Facebook friends, for good measure.

Not many parents I know would considere those the best sources.

"Out there" youngsters absorb a lot of negative stuff and fears. How it affects them depends on what's stored up in their hearts and minds.

Kids are less likely to run scared or be in the pits when they believe deep down that God created them (Psalm 139) and "God don't make no junk."

Even when (they think) nobody loves them, kids who believe in God know that Jesus loves them. At church they learn that old song, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Faith in God is like the cornerstone of a building, the basic, essential part of the foundation that keeps a structure standing when storms and winds come.

And what about times when nothing seems to make sense? Or when someone says they know the exact date of a worldwide earthquake, which will usher in the end of the world. What are they to do with their fears and aren't sure how to tell truth from lies?

What can a child--or an adult--hang on to?

If we know Jesus, we hang on to him. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

We find peace in what's known as, "the Gospel (Good News) in a nutshell," John 3:16:

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.

Right now the media floods us with pronouncements that tomorrow, May 21, will bring the end of the world. Christians, however, remember what Jesus said. You can read his words in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13. Jesus said,

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.         --Mark 13:32

So no matter how sincerely he believes it, Harold Camping does not know the day or the hour when the world will end.

God is still God and we human beings remain, well, merely human.

The difference is that we rest in the love of God the Father. He loves us because we believe in his Son as our Savior.

We rest in the certainty that our lives today, tomorrow and forever are in the hands of God. That means we have nothing to fear.

That's what Jesus said, in John 14:1:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."

Peace to you, my friends,

Lenore

Three cheers for this royal couple and may their example catch on

I resisted being drawn into the hoopla around  THE wedding. I've never been much of a royal-watcher.

Until today.

Today I gave in and  watched the lovely pageantry of the day, the ceremony in magnificent Westminster Abbey, with its soaring ceiling and choirboys with angelic voices.

The Bishop with his heavy robes, the chanting, all of it seemed appropriate on this day. Wedding guests sang hymns and spoke prayers, including the Lord's Prayer.

An estimated two billion people were said to be watching this wedding around the world. 

Then it hit me. Two billion people, most of them non-Christians, were hanging on every word as the Bishop proclaimed the Word of God and delivered a Christ-centered sermon, as well.

Many who were glued to their telly live in cultures where wives are looked upon as mere property, second-class, easily disposable. In Westernized countries like ours, more and more people now consider matrimony a needless outdated custom, irrelevent in today's society. Too many consider faithfulness and monogamy rather quaint.

No matter where viewers live, each one heard Prince William and Kate Middleton pledge to be wed as husband and wife and to live together according to God's holy estate of matrimony. Each promised to love and comfort, honour and keep each other, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Each vowed to forsake all others and to keep themselves only for each other so long as both shall live. 

What will these two people make of their marriage? That's up to them. They know their family history and the challenges they face even better than we. But I choose not to be cynical and to wish them God's blessing. I am glad for their choice to be married in a Christian church and to promise before God and the world to be married--and faithful--for life.

I'm thankful that the Church of England bishop preached a faith-centered, meaningful wedding sermons. Most of all, I am thankful that Christ was proclaimed. For once, the world was listening.

Who knows how God will use this? 

Lovingly,

Lenore

 

What if you could start over with a clean slate?

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

That's what this dark day is all about and why Christians call this, "GOOD Friday."

Maybe it's worth a recap.

*  Jesus was not captured by those soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane. He went willingly. It was all part of God's plan.

*  This God-man came to earth to set things right between us human beings and God.

*  That relationship got messed up in the Garden of Eden, when Eve turned from God and listened to the Serpent. She chose to listen to Satan, the voice of pride and evil, rather than to God. When Adam listened to Eve, he, too, turned from the Father who loved him and closed his ears to God's ways (Genesis 3:1-7.)

*  From that time on, the perfect, loving relationship between God the Father and human beings was destroyed.

*  If we tried to be "good enough for God," we would need to be holy, because he is holy (Leviticus 19:2.) That means to be utterly good, in thought, word and deed. Perfect. Every day in every way, all the time. Anything else is called "sin."

*  Human beings, male or female, could not--and cannot--achieve that, no matter how hard we try. On our own we are without hope.

*  Even though we don't have it in us to be perfect, God never stopped loving us. That's why He came to earth in the form of a human baby, born to Mary and Joseph, in Bethlehem.

*  Jesus, the God-man, allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross. For you, for me.

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

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.                           2 Corinthians 5:21

In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.                          --Ephesians 1:7

The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.                    1 John 1:7

At our church and many others, Good Friday services are a bit different. As we enter the church,  overhead lights on dim, we stop to jot down whatever regrets, pains, wrong  actions, sadnesses and broken relationships we want to be leave at the cross. We write as much or as little as we like, no names, because, after all, God already knows. 

Then alone or as families we walk to the bare, rough-hewn wooden cross that stands at the front of the churrch, along with a pail full of big nails and some hammers. Each of us nails our slips of paper to the cross to symbolize what we already know, that Jesus died to pay the price for all our sins, past, present and future.

It's a powerful way of reminding ourselves that Jesus died for my sins, not just the sins of everyone else. That's what makes Good Friday good.

He died for your sins, too. Will you let Him set you free?

Lovingly,

Lenore

 

Ever thank God when things don't work out?

I can hear you saying, "What a silly question!"

Every one of us wants what we want, the way we want it. Plans that work out. Hard work that pays off. Loved ones that live godly, happy lives. Then we will give thanks.  
 
It seldom occurs to us to be thankful for things that don't work out. Trust me, they can be more important than what does.

The phone call that makes you a minute late, then you come upon a fresh auto accident on your usual route. The hunky guy who marries someone else, then turns out to be a jerk. The job you don't get in another firm, the business that goes bust within the year.

My husband and I know something about the last one. Some years back he got an unexpected job offer that seemed too good to be true. We talked and prayed and talked and prayed, checked out everything we could. We couldn't explain why, but it felt right. We turned our lives upside down because of it.

Before long we realized this "sure thing job" was anything but. The exciting start slowly fizzled out. This turned out to be a mismatch and always had been.

But we prayed. We trusted. Why, Lord?

Planted in this unfamiliar place we saw only uncertainty. No job alternatives beckoned, despite my husband's efforts, even though we prayed and read our Bibles like never before. We clung to God and to each other, watching our savings account dwindle, feeling bewildered.

Where are you, Lord?

With everything stripped away we grew, more than we knew at the time. I "found" some Bible verses that I clutched to my heart like a treasure. John 15:1-2, 3-4 seemed written just for us:

(Jesus said) "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful . . . No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."    

I had seen just-pruned grapevines. If those vines could talk they wouldn't be saying, "Thank you," for being hacked down to bleeding stumps.

Neither did we.

Then "out of the blue" came an opportunity for my husband in a field he never before had considered, right there in the place where we were. This turned out to be a perfect fit from the start and he began a long, satisfying career.

Why was I surprised?

God was protecting us all along, even when we felt most alone. Through that long wearing-down time we discovered that even when everything fell apart around us, we still trusted in the Lord. We couldn't have known then that our old dream had to die before His new one could be born.

What trips us up is that God may not answer our prayers in the way we expect. All He wants from us is that we keep on following in faith, even when we can't see the way ahead.

The One who knows the end before the beginning goes before us (Psalm 139)--and with us. He has it all covered. Even when dreams shatter, when it seems all is lost, even then.

Reason enough to thank Him . . .

Lovingly,

Lenore