A Woman's View

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.

Here's proof that labels and diagnoses need not define a life

Sometimes problems crowd in on us, don't they? That makes it a good time to remind ourselves about a few of the individuals who actually faced the big hurdles.

You probably know of Joni Eareckson Tada, who as a teenager was paralyzed from the neck down in 1967 when she dove into a too-shallow lake and broke her neck. During her initial bout with depression she found a deeper faith in God and also a new calling. She speaks to groups, does television interviews, has authored fourteen books and is a fine artist. God has used her to bless countless people with or without physical challenges. (Google her name to learn about the organization she founded, Joni & Friends, a resource and advocacy organization in the disability community.)

History is full of overcomers who chose to keep going instead of giving up. One man, raised in extremely humble circumstances, became a storekeeper and went broke. After that he ran for office and lost election after election. We know that "failure" as Abraham Lincoln. 

How about the student labeled "mediocre" in chemistry, whom we know as Louis Pasteur, the scientist?

Or a boy called "too stupid to learn," who went on to develop the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. Albert Einstein became known as the father of modern physics and was one of the most prolific minds in human history.

Then there's the boy called dull and hopeless, who flunked the sixth grade, the one we know as Winston Churchill.

Tell a youngster who loves to sketch and draw that he has no talent. He surprises everyone by growing up to become famous as Walt Disney.

Take a couple who survived a Nazi concentration camp and feel their pain when he is paralyzed from the waist down at age four. They could not know their boy would grow up to become internationally acclaimed concert violinist, Itzhak Perlman, who consistently plays to sellout crowds. 

Could a person born with cerebral palsy who never managed to speak clearly ecome a minister and a much-in-demand public speaker? Ask David Ring, who speaks to over 100,000 people every year at conventions, in churches and at gatherings. His recurrent line is, "What's your problem?" (Google his name if you want to know more about him and hear the details of his story.)

I read a list like this and ask myself, "What's your problem?"

Suddenly everyday frustrations shrink to their proper place.

After all, peace does not come from problem-free living. Once again the Apostle Paul says it best, in Philippians 4:7:

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Here's to joy-in-the-midst,

Lenore

Does faith in God make a difference when we face obstacles?

It's a line we hear a lot, especially on talk shows and newscasts, "He/she never really had a chance."

Oh, yeah?

Meet Anthony Robles, a senior at Arizona State. In March, 2011, he captured the PAC 10 NCAA Wrestling Championship in the 125 lb. class. This came after a season in which he scored 36 wins and 0 losses. 

Imagine the shock his 16-year old mother felt as she gazed at her son for the first time. Their problems looked to be insurmountable. 

Not necessarily.

"My mom always told me when I was younger that God made me this way for a reason and I didn't understand what that meant," Anthony says.

He told one interviewer he can't remember ever feeling sorry for himself. His mother and stepfather raised him to believe he could do anything he set his mind to.

"I grew up thinking that way. I didn't think of my condition as something that could hold me back. I just thought this is how God made me and I'm going to make the best of it . . . . "

So seven-year old Anthony decided it took too long to put on his prosthesis and abandoned it for crutches. Nobody thought he could do it, but he rode a bike at age five and later played football. A few years ago in the fall he covered the ASU one-mile track in ten minutes. By spring he did it in eight. Regulars got used to seeing Anthony lifting weights, "running" mile-after-mile on the track and climbing the Stadium stairs as part of his training. He even climbed rocky Squaw Peak with his team, making it to the top in half an hour.

"My parents raised me to believe there was nothing I couldn't do," he says.

Coach Thom Ortiz says Anthony never asked for nor expected any special treatment. That reflects his mother's attitude. She told an interviewer. "He is a blessing. Don't treat him like he's something, but don't treat him like he's nothing, either. Just treat him like Anthony."

After college he plans a speaking career. This young man won't need any visual aids, because he is one. He has a powerful message about living with challenges. "It doesn't have to be a missing leg. You could have any obstacle in your life . . . Don't stay concerned with the negatives--what can hold me back, what my disadvantages are. I stay focused on the positive thing--what I have, what I can do."

Judy Robles fascinates me as much as her son. What enabled her to stay instead of walking away from her one-legged son? What kept her from becoming an alcoholic or getting strung out on drugs? Where did she find the strength to go on as she watched her little boy struggle and fall down, again and again?

She could have handled it by saying, "Oh, you poor thing. Here, let Mommy do that for you." Instead, she taught Anthony that God made him the way he is for a reason and if he set his mind to it, he could do anything.

Two kinds of mother love. Two kinds of motivation.

Since we know Judy Robles is a Christian, it seems reasonable to think she depended on God and on Bible verses like this for comfort and to keep her going.

I can do everything through him who gives who gives me strength.                                                                                --Philippians 4:8

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book 

                                                                              --Psalm 56:8 (New Living Translation)

So what do you think, does faith in God make a difference in how we face obstacles?

You tell me. 

Lovingly,

Lenore

Note: Quotes come from the numerous newspaper and magazine articles I found when I Googled "Anthony Robles."

What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

Sometimes we forget that everything starts with a dream, a vision of something that is not yet reality.

But what sane person would stand before a mountain of granite and imagine that he could hammer it, beat it or blast it into this grandeur?    

                     

Gutzon Borglum, that's who. A man who didn't give up on his dream. This vision became a burning passion that took over his life.

We visited Mount Rushmore National Park when our girls were growing up. The stunning blue sky you see here, along with eagles circling, provided a magnificent backdrop. We stood there transfixed.

Before us were these four faces, each one 60 ft. high. It seemed we could look into the eyes of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. What's more, it was as if their eyes followed us when we walked from one side to the other. We stood there a long time, asking over and over, "How on earth did they do that?"

"They" wouldn't have done any of it without one man and his "crazy dream."

Borglum made it happen. He was 60 years old in 1927, when he drilled the first holes. Over the next 14 years he and 400 other men blasted away and chipped away more than 450,0000 tons of granite. One exhausting day followed another.

In October, 1941, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was officially declared done. Borglum had died of an embolism six months earlier.

Some of us have a tired old dream we've been chasing around for years. By now we've convinced ourselves our mountain is way too big. We have no chance. Besides, it's too late.

Maybe we've said, "But that will take ___ years. if I start now, I'll be ___ years old by the time I'm finished."

We can't let that question lie there as fact. The obvious answer is another question. "How old will I be in ___ years if I don't do it?"

If that's where you are, you'll cherish this promise of God as I do.

       As your days, so shall your strength be.                --Deuteronomy 33:25b (RSV)

Question for you: What's your dream?

Here's to counting on God to bring us through,

Lenore

 

Of music and hope and seeing the beauty in life . . . no matter what

I met the most amazing woman the other day. She unexpectedly dropped into my Email inbox and once she told her story, I couldn't forget it.

I think it's safe to say you won't forget her, either. For one thing, how often do you meet an individual who is age 106 and still plays Scrabble? Yes, you read that correctly. Alice Herz-Sommer is age 106. In fact, she turns 107 this month.

She is . . .  But why not let Alice tell her story in her own words? I encourage you to settle back in your chair and prepare to be entranced. If at the beginning you find her accent difficult, hang in there. After a few seconds you won't notice it. Now just click on the arrow and float away.

For all of us, sometimes life, with its obstacles and challenges and disappointments, seems discouraging, even overwhelming. From now on I'll only have to think of Alice to realize how blessed I've been--and still am.

Although Alice's story is unique, I think she has a message for all of us, for all time: Life is beautiful! 

Those three words apply, no matter what's going on in our lives. Let's have the good sense to really understand this now. It's as the Psalmist said, centuries ago:

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. --Psalm 118:24

Here's to "living it up" and making the most of every day,

Lenore

Question for you: How did Alice's story touch you?

(Late addtion: My apologies, but the (better) YouTube clip I originally included was suddenly "withdrawn by the user," whatever that means. It seems to be inaccessible from any site. So I'm including a new link here, from The Guardian in London. This one is not as long, but you can hear Alice speaking and also playing her piano. Onceit ends you'll notice other YouTube video thumbnails are shown, such as a two-part BBC TV interview. You can read Alice's story in print at  http://nickreedent.com/   which is the website of the maker of the soon-to-be-released documentary about Alice Herz-Sommer.

A one-time Nazi youth leader speaks wisdom for today

Not long ago I attended an area gathering of Christian women. We all knew our speaker would be "Hansi," a woman who grew up under Hitler. I supposed it would be interesting to hear of her long-ago experiences.

I think it's fair to say none of us expected we would hang on every word that proceeded from the mouth of this vibrantly alive eighty-four year-old woman. Nor did we know how her story would relate to current events here in America.

Maria Anne Hirschmann was born in Czechoslovakia to German-speaking parents, which made them part of a small minority. Times were terribly harsh, with food always too-short. When Hansi's mother realized she was pregnant with their third child, her husband insisted his wife must have an abortion, a common "solution" for an unexpected pregnancy. "But my mother believed in God," Hansi said, "and she could not do that."

When the infant turned out to be a third daughter, her father took one look and said, "Yuck! Another girl," and walked away in disgust. 

Not long after, this Christian mother urged her best friend to take in Hansi, even though the woman already had four children. Seeing her friend's distress, she answered, "I will take your child and I will raise her for Jesus." 

"She kept her promise and I learned about the Christian faith," Hansi said, "but my foster mother stressed that God wants us to be good and then He would love us. So I grew up believing God could never love me, because I was not an easy child. I always talked, always asked, 'Why?' and was forever in trouble. I felt unwanted at home and at school, but now even by God." 

Times were hard all over Czechoslovakia. The young girl grew up sleeping in haylofts and seldom had shoes, even in the coldest winter. Hunger stalked the land. "We had almost no food, no hope things could change and nothing to believe in.

"Then one day over the hill came the Nazi soldiers carrying the German flag. They told us not to be frightened. Hitler would take care of us. He would see to it that we had food and clothing and work, which meant money to spend. Within six weeks it all came true. We had enough to eat and at last we had shoes. Factories started up again, so we had jobs. All this came about because of the goodness and wisdom of Adolph Hitler. So now we had someone we could put our faith in--and we did, because we saw the change all around us. Now we could dare to hope again."

Nazis went throughout the country testing children, even in the little one-room school Hansi attended. They chose her to attend the Youth Training Institute in Prague. "For the first time somebody actually chose me. I was the poorest kid in the village, so I could not expect to go on to high school or college," Hansi said. "Now I thought I had caught the rainbow. As I got on the train my foster mother whispered in my ear, 'Don't forget about Jesus.' I promised I wouldn't, but within a year I had totally forgotten everything I ever learned about Jesus."

For the first time Hansi had a bed of her own, with warm blankets, in a warm room. She had new clothes, her uniforms, with three good meals every day. Leaders constantly told these young people. "The 'Great Supreme Being' has chosen Hitler to save Germany and all of Europe. And Adolph Hitler has chosen each of you to be a leader, to help him change the world."

"At last I had a purpose," she said. "Folks always ask me how the people of the Reformation could believe in Hitler and allow Nazism to take over their land. I tell them we were brainwashed, which is nothing more than being told the same thing over and over and over. We didn't know the word 'brainwashing,' didn't even guess it was happening, but it was. After awhile, you think it must be right, because you keep hearing it everywhere. We all believed what we heard and millions turned away from God.

"I know now that all this proves the truth of Proverbs 14:12, which reads, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

"My friends," Hansi told us on that recent California Saturday, "that is my biggest fear for my beloved America. I am very, very afraid for our country. As a nation we have turned to the ways of the world and it seems right. In so many ways we have abandoned the God of our forefathers. I know from personal experience that when you turn away from God a country can be destroyed very quickly.

"That's why I say to you and all my fellow Americans, Vote! Learn all you can about the candidates and choose carefully, but vote! If two people are running and you don't like either one, then vote for the lesser of two evils. But don't ever forget that being allowed to vote is a tremendous privilege and freedom is never something to take for granted. It is God's gift and it is precious. I know, because I have lived without it." 

In my next post I'll tell you the rest of Hansi's story. Don't miss her dangerous escape from Russian captivity and her first frightening encounter with a dreaded American.

(Please note: This is my best paraphrase of Hansi's words. I took good notes when she spoke and also watched the five-part YouTube series on Maria Anne Hirschmann, a.k.a., Hansi.)

God bless you and God bless America!

Lenore

She responds creatively to tough times and teaches us all

Suppose your middle-school child came home the first week and told you, "Well, today in band practice we played our pencils."

Would you believe that story?

That's exactly what Sacramento music teacher Donna Pool had some of her beginning band students doing at Arcade Fundamental Middle School. Maybe she took her cues from Professor Harold Hill in the musical, "The Music Man."

You're looking at a teacher who was determined enough to risk being called a fool. I'd call her a hero. See if you agree. 

Here's a synopsis of the story. This year at Arcade so many new students signed up for the new beginning band class that there weren't enough instruments for everyone. Did Donna Pool rant and rave? No. Did she blame funding cuts and tell her students to start carrying signs? No.

Instead she said they would work with what they had until they had more. Then she  began teaching them basic fingering, using pencils and ballpoint pens. 

The word got out. She was interviewed by the Sacramento Bee and local television news crews. Even CNN picked up the story.   
  
Instruments started pouring in from all over town and around the country, all they need and more. The excess will be added to the San Juan Unified School District's inventory. Anything over that they'll donate to other districts. (She encouraged callers to take their instruments to schools in their own communities.)

As for Donna Pool, apparently she remains refreshingly down-to-earth, even turning down an interview with NBC's Brian Williams. She attributed the lack of instruments to adding a new beginning band class this year, rather than budget cuts. However, she says, "Arts don't get enough money.  Schools don't get enough money."

Nevertheless, Pool must be doing something right. During her five years at the school the program has grown from 120 students to 190 students. Currently about a third of the school's 600 students play in one of their five bands. 

This is one of those win-win stories about people helping people that makes us smile, isn't it? I think we can draw a lesson or two for ourselves, as well.

• Instead of spending their energies bemoaning what they missed, Ms. Pool and her students sucked it up and found a way to make it work. We can, too.
• It's possible to keep moving toward our goal even when conditions are not what we would choose.
• Creative thinking can lead us down interesting paths--and sometimes that's just what's needed--so it's good to always have a Plan B ready.
• Doing unto others as we would have them do unto us has not perished from these United States.
• Helping others feels good.
• When we get involved we can make things better in our community and in other places.
• Money is not the answer to everything. 

 This story matters because at any age it's easy to get stuck in what's missing in our lives. We endlessly replay all the things we wish were different. 

That takes us nowhere.

My grandmother lived through her share of hard times and doing without. She used to say, "Do the best you can with what you got."

Not very good English, but that's exactly what Donna Pool did. She modeled that truth for her students and taught them a life lesson they won't forget.

It's still good advice. Whatever our age, whatever our situation, every one of us can lift our hearts by being on the watch for ways to contribute our time and efforts. 

Even if "all" we can do is pray for individuals who do a good job or give them a few words of encouragement now and then, that could mean the world to them. We'll be blessed, too.

And it won't cost us a cent.

Here's to stepping out in faith,

Lenore

Note: Photos are from the Sacramento Bee, which carries the full story on www.sacbee.com

 

 

If your parent(s) told you, "Life is hard," you have a leg up on life

That sounds almost subversive, doesn't it? Don't we hear all the time that moms and dads and teachers and coaches need to plant positive thoughts? 

Maybe not.

Some of us grew up hearing our parents say things like, "Life is hard."

Their boring refrain centered on, "Don't expect life to be easy or you'll be in for a big let-down."

I hated it. So did my husband. But our parents had lived through the Depression. They knew "difficult" and "hard times" from first-hand experience.

Once my husband and I married, we hit our share of snags along the way. For example, early in our marriage, we looked out on a frigid,  icy Midwestern New Year's night and saw flames blazing from our barn roof. The cows! Can we get them out in time?

Somehow we managed to push our terrified Holstein cows and calves out despite flames bursting through the walls. We got them safely corralled, where they huddled together in a clump, mooing and bawling in fear. 

That's when the volunteer Fire Department brigade from the nearest town arrived.

Finally everyone left and quiet descended. I had checked frequently, so I knew our three little girls slept through the sirens and the noise. At first light all we saw from our kitchen window was a dismal pile of rubble where the barn used to be and a shivering herd of Holsteins.

What would do we do now?

First things first. Our dairy cows had to be milked--immediately. Both cows and calves had to be fed, but all the feed, hay and straw stored in that old red barn--with its old, probably faulty wiring--was gone. A kindly neighbor offered an empty shed to shelter the cows from the weather, so my husband and a helper herded the animals down the road to that farm. My husband figured out a makeshift way to set up the milking equipment he had rescued and we were in business.

That fire was terrible. It was a disaster. It was life. 

But in a strange way we had an advantage, because we had been forewarned that life was hard. We were on our own, so no point in wasting time feeling sorry for ourselves. We just got to work. We pulled together and prayed together and coped the best we could. 

As young marrieds we wanted respect, as if we could handle the tough stuff. Now we had to prove it true. It took everything we had and then some, but over the challenging months that followed we grew stronger, individually and as a couple. We saw so clearly how God guided us and gave us strength that our faith grew, too. 

Now we took a softer view of our parents, the "crepe-hangers." Before, we assumed they simply didn't understand that with a good attitude and overflowing love and by using our brains, we would ensure against crises. After the fire we understood they spoke timeless  truth. They were trying to ensure us against being crushed by life's ups and downs.

So I worry about kids growing up today. In recent years we hear all around us the philosophy that we need to build confidence and self-image in our children. We feed them a pablum mix of, "Look at how great you are! You're amazing! Just believe in yourself, that's all it takes. Take your time. Don't rush into anything. You deserve to be happy! When you find your bliss, success will come easy."  Etc.

The trouble is, even "bliss" can be boring at times. And the best of times can have bits of discouragement sprinkled through it. Truth is, life is hard and nobody's life is trouble-free. None of us is perfect--and imperfect people are the only kind there are.

I heard something wise the other day, don't know who said it, "The only people who don't have problems are the ones we don't know well."

Hard times and problems have been the making of many an individual. Those who hang in there grow--and their inner strength grows. The writer of the book of James knew all about that, writing in James 1:2-4.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

So here's to JOY in the midst of . . . whatever,

Lenore

Learning from Haiti survivors how to make it through our tough times

We see the images and wonder how anyone could survive this.  And yet...people did.

You've heard the unbelievable stories. Here are two that especially touched my heart. I think these two people have much to teach you and me.

One is Romel Joesph, a Haitian-born music teacher...who was born blind, or so sight-impaired that he is legally blind.

Imagine yourself pinned beneath rubble for eighteen hours, unable to move, not able even to see. Imagine knowing all along that while you were on the third floor when the earthquake struck, your pregnant wife had been on the first floor and you could not know  whether she was alive or dead. (She did not survive.)

Romel Joseph told interviewers how he got through that wrenching time. I caught his story while driving and later looked it up in the N.P.R. archives. Here's the gist of how he survived the horror.

"I knew I could not allow my mind to wander and to keep thinking only about rescue. So I decided to keep a strict schedule, hour by hour. I set aside the first twenty minutes for prayer and meditation," Joseph says. "After that I focused my mind on favorite pieces of music I knew, one at a time. I forced myself to concentrate, note by note, as precisely as if I were directing an orchestra. In effect, that took me to another place in my mind. For that time I did not feel my pain, did not allow myself to wonder whether help would arrive.

"Hour by hour, that's what I did. First the prayer and meditation, then the music. So I not only killed time, but I reminded myself I was not alone. I told myself I was brushing up on my directing skills and I mentally escaped the space where I was."

Romel Joseph is no stranger to tragedy. He founded the New Victorian School in 1991, in Port-au-Prince, to teach music to Haitian children. That school burned to the ground exactly ten years to the day before this earthquake once again leveled the school.

Friends dug him out after eighteen hours lying there with his leg pinned and crushed under concrete. Surgeons also repaired his severely fractured left hand, but they cannot say whether he'll regain full function...and what is a violinist without a left hand that works? 

But Joseph plans to rebuild as soon as he can. As he puts it, "I need more than an earthquake to make me stop my work in Haiti!"

I think this man shows us how in the midst of fears and troubles we can deliberately turn our thoughts to other things, to people we love, to happier times and, yes, to God. Our situation may not change, but our ability to cope will.

Another rescued woman in a television interview (couldn't find her story in print) told what enabled her to hang on. She said something like this. "I lost everything except what matters most," she said, holding up her Bible. "I could not move, there in the dark, so I searched my memory and remembered some Psalms. I kept repeating them over and over, especially Psalm 46. God brought me through this, praise be, and here I am." 

For thousands in Haiti, this was--and is--the worst of times. Thank God most of us will not be caught in anything like that earthquake. Yet I think these two accounts teach us a lot about surviving our own fears and sorrows without crumbling under the load. 

Perhaps you love Psalm 46, too. I often find myself going back to my old, dog-eared Bible, to reread sections I've underlined in the past. Always, that includes these favorite verses of Psalm 46. 

Psalm 46

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
   an ever-present help in trouble.

 ² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

 ³ though its waters roar and foam
   and the mountains quake with their surging... 

 ⁵  God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day...

 ¹⁰ "Be still, and know that I am God;
   I will be exalted among the nations,
   I will be exalted in the earth."

 ¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our fortress.
   Selah

God's peace and blessings, 

Lenore

 

 

What kind of "stuff" do you plan to put into your days?

It's time to put up those new calendars. If you're like me, you're thinking about the year ahead and asking yourself some questions. 

How will I fill my time? What will I read? What will I look at?  
Who will I hang around with?

That matters. I can't recall who said this, but it's good.

The person you will be five years from now will be determined by the books you read, the television you watch and the people you spend your time with.

A friend loved to remind anyone within hearing, "You gotta put the good stuff in if you want to get the good stuff out."

He thought that saying applied to all of life...and he was right.

You probably know this well-loved summary of how you and I can "put the good stuff in."

Finally, brothers, (and sisters,) whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.     --Philippians 4:8

Lots of people make jokes about New Year's resolutions, because we usually fall short. It helps to remind ourselves that the only person who never fails is the one who never tries.

So I resolve to reread Phil. 4:8 frequently and: Think it. Speak it. Live it.

I hesitate to write down my other resolution. You see, I've been working on a book for moms for a very long time. For no good reason, I have delayed sending off queries. This year I will not rest until I find an editor or agent who believes in this book as much as I do and wants to publish it. 

What's your resolution? Why not share it, so we can encourage each other? Just keep scrolling to the "Post a Comment" box below and follow directions.)

Friends, I wish you blessings and great JOY in every day of the year ahead!

Lenore