Beautiful Feet

 

 

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!”  Isaiah 52:7

 

Cross references:

1. Isaiah 52:7 : S Isa 42:11
2. Isaiah 52:7 : S 2Sa 18:26; S Isa 40:9; Ro 10:15*
3. Isaiah 52:7 : Na 1:15; Lk 2:14; Eph 6:15
4. Isaiah 52:7 : S 1Ch 16:31; S Ps 97:1; 1Co 15:24-25

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®

 

Today I want to have beautiful feet.  Good old bare feet.  Not covered up with fancy shoes.  I just want to take the time to tell you how God has blessed us in the last week.  The weather has gotten colder.  Locals still consider the weather mild, but I am already dressing in layers and heaping on the blankets.  My body tells me that it should still be hot out.   Last week we were blessed when our friend Jim was able to come over and install the pipes for our pellet stove.  The family is luxuriating in the heat produced by this wonderful little stove. 

 

Another huge blessing is that finally we have a roof that is water tight.  (Temporarily)  At my brother's advice, I purchased some tarp, nails, and roof patch and we slathered the stuff on the flat roof and nailed the tarp over the pitched part of the annex roof.  actually Sam and our neighbor, Sonny did it.  this weekend, it rained cats and dogs and the roof held !!!!!  whistles  and applause....

 Now I can clean out our formerly rain forrest themed bedrooms  and start decorating them into real bedrooms with furniture etc.

 

My third blessing is that the lost has been found.....  My Surface Pro tablet computer that had been missing in action since the move , re "surfaced"...(insert GROANS here)

 

And Last but not least, I was blessed this weekend to be able to spend time visiting with my birth mom, her husband, my sister, and my nieces.  We did a lot of visiting and a little shopping.  On Friday, I found several nice  lamps at a resale shop for 3 and 4 dollars each.  Our house has no ceiling lights so these lamps along with the several lamps Mimi had found for us will have us living, not only in a warm ,dry house, but also a bright and cheery one.

 

 Isn't God Wonderful?

Missing - Lost and Found - My Heart

     The other night we had a very bad scare.  It was traumatic to me and it has taken a couple of days of recovery before I could write about it.
     The other night after supper, my 13 year old son asked to go to the park.  Several of the children go to the park to play after supper.  The park is only a block away, and our town is very small.  My kids know that they have to be home before it gets dark.  It is a family rule.  My 14 year old frequently takes a nap after school and stays up a bit later.  It is not uncommon to not see him in the evening. 
      However, darkness fell and we could not find the boys. W searched the house from 3rd floor to basement.  We searched the annex, we searched the laundry room  (one of my kids disappeared a few months ago and we found him curled up asleep in the warm clean laundry).  We searched the house again from bottom to top.  We searched the front porch, the side porch and the back porch.  We searched the office.  We looked down the alley, up and down the streets. 
     We sent older kids to search the park and later to drive around town checking the school playground, the gas station, the McDonalds and Hardys , the candy store, and the Subway where an older brother works.  I started walking around calling their names.  A neighbor was out with her dog and heard me calling.  She asked what was wrong and I told her.  A couple of minutes later she came over with another mother and they started looking too.  Then people came by walking their dogs and stopped to see what was going on.  They promised to look as they walked.  We started knocking on doors asking if any one had seen the boys.
      A suspicious vehicle had been parked in front of the neighbors house and moved down the block and parked.  A group of mothers went to check them out. They hadn't seen the boys.  We called the police and the one officer on duty came right over.  She took a report and looked at the photo I had of the boys ( the neighbors had already gotten the photos on their phones and were showing them to people.  My husband came out to talk with the officer and fell on the front steps.  Neighbors helped him up and the officer asked if he needed an ambulance.  He didn't  ( although he was pretty banged up).  The officer left to drive around looking.
     One of the dog walkers talked to another dog walker who reported that he had seen the boys up by main street by the laundry with another kid.  Our older kids drove off to follow up that lead.  Then came the call that we had been waiting for.  The boys were safe and sound.  They had been found......at church.  It seems that one of the local churches runs a youth center.  The kids heard about it from another child and went to check it out.  They had not even thought about telling us that they were going.  It was four blocks away.  Inside, they lost track of time and were stunned to learn that we had been searching and worried. 
     Soon they arrived home in the car with their older siblings.  We called the police to report that they had been found.  In small town fashion, the officer came by and lectured the boys about the importance of always letting us know where they are and the importance of being home when they are supposed to. 
    Two teen boys looked down at their feet and I was reminded of them at 4 and 5 after being caught in the sweets.  After some hugs, the boys got to clean the kitchen which had not gotten cleaned while we were all out searching.  
     If the boys had to be lost, I am so grateful to God that they were found together, in a church, Safe and sound, rather than  any of the horrible alternatives that I had feared.  The interesting thing is that they didn't know that they were lost. The people at the youth center didn't know that they were lost either.  How many of the people around us, the people that we see every day, are lost and don't even know it. 

The Making of our Home

     My new home town is very small.  It is filled with small neat houses with nicely kept micro yards.  It is the kind of town where everyone knows everyone.  It is a town where reputations can be made or broken in a matter of seconds by a well developed grapevine.  When we moved into town this summer, I was introduced to one of the three city police, and she immediately asked me about the kids.  She already knew where we were moving from, how many children that we had, and what we were paying for our house. 

     Our house was built in 1870 by a banker.  He owned what is now several blocks of our town.  Our yard has shrunk over the years from acres of horse barns, pasture, and outbuildings to a single city lot that is nearly filled with house.  Remnants of the home's former glory can be seen in the huge pocket doors that enclose our dining room, the blinds that fold into the walls, and the height of the ceilings. However, financial concerns caused the banker to sell the house.  It's next life was intended to be a rest home where ministers could come and rest from their work.  Only one minister ever took up the offer, so the house was again sold to a college and transformed to a women's dormitory.

    The more room was needed so the grand roof was raised another story to add a third floor.  For many years, the halls rang with the sounds of the college students. Eventually, it was sold and an annex was added to the back of the building.  The lovely side porch was closed in to form bathrooms and nine bedrooms were added.  The home found new use as a nursing home.  The town laundrimat sat at the rear as did the town barbershop.  Later it was converted to a home for individuals with intellectual disabilities who had no other options.  That closed 7 years ago and for 6 years the house was vacant.  Time is not kind to vacant buildings.  The seasons of hot and cold led to broken pipes and peeling paint.   This summer I moved up and began the process of restoring the home.  We lack resources to restore it to its former glory, but gradually it has ceased to look like an institution and is becoming a home again.  The barbershop is now my husband's office and hopefully the birthplace of his dissertation.  The laundry-at will become my workshop and a guest house for visiting relatives.  My renovations, however, came to a screeching halt in mid July when I had a pulmonary embolism.  My recovery has been frustratingly slow, but I am blessed to be alive and functioning. Friends stepped in and continued to work on the house as I recovered, making the house ready for the family to move in.
  Our family was initially  a bit unsettled by the amount of space available in the house.  Faced with their own rooms, our older sons continued to share rooms so that they could play x box and chat before bedtime.  I will have to admit, that after living in the woods off the beaten path in our former house, it has been an adjustment for me to live so close to a city street and neighbors.
     In our town, people walk in the morning and evening.  Sitting on the porch, we have met many of our neighbors as they walk their dogs, walk for exercise, or follow their children in their play.  Kids play on the sidewalks and in the street or play catch on the lawn of the nursing home across the street.  A block away is a small park where many children play in the afternoons and evenings while parents or older siblings sit nearby.  It is nice to live in a town where more bicycles, tricycles, and scooters pass than cars.  From time to time the train whistle can be heard as trains come into the town. 
     In many ways, our town reminds me of life in a bygone era.  Stepping out on the porch you never know if you are going to smell the dairy farms that surround the town, the smell of horse droppings left in the road by passing Amish buggies, or someone's backyard barbecue.  The town's two grocery stores open and close early  On Sunday, most of the town is closed. Driving 2 minutes in any direction takes you into corn fields and past Amish farms with laundry flapping on the lines on Monday.  In the summer, produce was plentiful and nearly everyday one neighbor or another would drop off  delicious home grown tomatoes or freshly cut corn. 
    Recently the town held an annual  event - a huge multi acre yard sale.  Families set up booths and a huge tent covered the dining area where hot meals were sold.  Nearby was the Ice cream vendor selling home made ice cream in a freezer propelled by his tractor engine via a system of pulleys.  My son, Matthew enjoyed sitting on the tractor, pretending that he was driving.   Across the street the fire truck was parked and crowds of little boys, flocked to check it out.  I wish that I had gotten a picture of the small Amish boys holding onto their straw hats as they gazed up at the fire truck. 
 While I am not naïve enough to imaging that I have found Mayberry, I appreciate the opportunity to raise my children in a small town.

Who is in your congregation? or Jumping up on my soapbox for a few minutes to challenge my self and others

1 Samuel 16:7

New International Version (NIV)

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Cross references:

1. 1 Samuel 16:7 : Ps 147:10
2. 1 Samuel 16:7 : S 1Sa 2:3; 2Sa 7:20; S Ps 44:21; S 139:23; S Rev 2:23

 

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®

      Things haven't changed all that much from old testament times.  You may have noticed that our society is appearance oriented.  People are valued for their external beauty without any consideration for what lies beneath the perfect exterior.  The assumption is that if the person is beautiful or handsome, well groomed, and well dressed, then they must be a quality person.  If they live in a nice house and drive a nice vehicle, then they are to be valued. 
      We carry a variation of this into church with us frequently.  It is easy to look around the church and see people dressed nicely, groomed appropriately, and behaving calmly and assume that they live perfect lives.  It is daunting to go into church and compare yourself and your life ( with all its imperfections) with the people that you see around you.  How often do we feel alone in the midst of a crowded sanctuary because we assume that everyone else lives a great life.   The truth is that the church sanctuary has become a big room full of people wearing masks, afraid to take them off for fear of being ridiculed, looked down on, or shunned. 
       We know that our heavenly Father loves everyone there enough that He sent His Son to die on the cross for each and every one.  He loves them whether they are wearing earrings, nose rings or ring around the collar.  He loves them if they have blue hair, gray hair, wear a bun, a mullet, or a Mohawk, or have no hair at all.  He loves them whether they wear  a new designer  outfit every week or the same worn suit or dress every week.  As a mom, I delight in having my kids come home no matter how they look or smell.  I am just happy to spend time with them and love them.  I believe that is how God feels about the people at church. 
      How would Christ treat people at church?  He would greet them warmly as they come in and when they leave. He would look them in the eyes, shake their hand or give them a hug and truly listen to what they have to say.  He would look beyond the mask and ask them how things are REALLY going for them. He would identify needs and find ways or people to meet those needs  He would listen, love, and comfort them.  He would make sure that NO ONE sits alone.  He would encourage the discouraged, entertain a restless child so that a tired mother can relax and hear the sermon.  He would encourage members to share what God had done in their lives that week.  He would rejoice with each answered prayer.  He would provide food before the service so that no one would be sitting in the service with gnawing hunger pangs. 
     Should we do any less?  Furthermore, shouldn't we set an example of authenticity  by not trying to hide our weaknesses and needs ?  I don't propose that we poor mouth or give an organ recital, but that we share the ways that God has worked in our life and brought us through the week.
      If we look around our church and only see well dressed, wealthy, beautiful ,healthy, pious people, then there is a big problem.  We should be asking why the rest of God's people are under represented in our congregation. We should be seeing seniors and children, teens, and tots.  We should be seeing individuals who are gay, lesbian, or straight.  We should be seeing individuals in wheelchairs, those who are Deaf, blind, intellectually disabled, or autistic. We should be seeing individuals with mental illness, and addictions.
     If we are not, we need to ask some tough questions.   Are we bigoted or biased? Are we so unwilling to see the needs of others that we allow them to leave and withdraw from our congregation without seeking to bring them back?  Are we making our church a welcoming, accessible place for individuals with disabilities? Do we include them in the services?  Do we have the same people up front every week and fail to discover and use the talents of others?  Are we afraid of sinners?  If so what are we afraid of?  Are we afraid that we will be considered guilty by association?  Do we view ourselves as better than those who sin differently than we do?  Do we consider ourselves sinless? 
     Our sanctuary should be a place of safety and healing, a hospital for the wounded, the excluded, the hurting, and the sinners.  It is not a private club for perfect, beautiful people. 
 

Moustached Mama

 

 

 

This evening, my son asked, "Mom, When am I going to have a moustache?"

 I answered, " When you are 47."

He looked at me and asked, " So... when are you going to have a moustache?

I answered, "Hopefully, NEVER."

  I think that if I had to live in a shoe, I would picture it, not as a worn out old work boot, but as a nice, red, already broken in Chuck Taylor  Converse high top.  Nice and roomy.  Nothing fancy, but comfortable and supportive.  Something with enough catch in the sole to keep me from sliding and give me traction so that I can make keep moving forward.

What would your shoe look like and why?

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe....

 

 
    This is not the OLD WOMAN's shoe.  She had so many children that she didn't know what to do.  I have a lot of kids, but most days it doesn't really feel like a crowd.  The kids each have their own activities and except for the crowd that congregates in the kitchen when supper is on the stove, it really usually quiet around here.  Unlike the old woman ,I am not OLD.   I may be 5 decades plus chronologically, but inside I am 29 Sometimes my heart, kidneys, and joints argue with me over that point.
     My name is Cheryl Whitten, but as a friend once said, "I am thinking of changing my name to Shirley Blessed".  This is because the God that I serve takes really good care of my family and me.  Because of his bountiful care, I have never had to send my kids to bed with" tea and without any bread".  Oh it has been close a time or two, but God always has provided. sometimes in really spectacular ways.    I would like to use this blog to share our experiences with you so that God may be praised
     Someone recently chastised me for bothering God with too many little requests.  She said that I should waste God's time with the little things.  But my God is the Lord of the little things. You only have to look at any of his creations to see this.   As a loving Father, he delights in hearing from me and has instructed to cast all my cares on Him.
     So I will continue to ask God for our needs and lift the prayer requests of others up to the throne.  I want to remember, however to praise God for His marvelous works and  as one of my favorite songs , sung by Marvin Sapp says, "Praise Him in Advance"
http://youtu.be/PvganA6nrf0

I would like to use this blog to share some of my musings with you from day to day. 

 

Quote of the Day: "I slept and I dreamed that life was all joy. I woke and saw that life was but service. I served and understood that service was joy" - Rabindranath Tagore