Business Owner?

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.” Luke 6:22 ESV
    As Christians we are told to love the sinner but hate the sin. But nowadays we are being told (by society, the media, and Hollywood and even politics) to love the sinner and love the SIN. A prime example is this whole thing with Chick-Fil-A.
   Any business owner in today’s society knows that if you take a stand against certain groups or lifestyles, you will be hated, ridiculed, slandered and injured in some way. To take a stand for morals and righteousness is definitely unpopular and going to cost you something.

   I don’t hate anyone or any group of peoples. I do dislike certain things. I consider myself a nice person, a good person. It seems the very ones that scream bigot, prejudice, close-minded at Christians are, by the very nature of their attacks, guilty of what they accuse others of.
   My husband is a small business owner (painting/construction). If someone asks him if he supports a woman’s right to be a cougar (older woman with younger man) and he says yes, does that mean that all those who hate cougars or don’t support a woman’s right to be a cougar, can turn a whole city against my husband and won’t allow his business in that city?

Ridiculous!

Mimi's Birthday!

Birthdays always make me reflect. Today I turn 64. It even sounds old to my ears. I hate getting older! My body betrays me in ways that boggle my mind.

I ask myself: What have I done with sixty four years? What have I accomplished? What legacy am I leaving? What will be said of me at my funeral?

Am I alone or do others ask themselves these questions?  My husband would say that I’ve accomplished at lot through the children I’ve produced. I have five children, four daughters and a son. I also have two stepsons and a stepdaughter. Between my husband and I, we have 27 grandchildren and step-grandchildren. I have eight great-grandchildren. My quiver is definitely full.

I want my life to count for something. I want to have made a difference in my small sphere of influence. I want to live my life so that when someone speaks evil of me, no one will believe it.  I want to be a good person, truly good, and not just that my actions and deeds are good. Anyone can say and do lofty, noble, righteous, kind and good things.

But God looks at the heart! He knows our motive and intent in everything we do.  1Samuel 16:7 NIV says  “….The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.”  I want my heart to be pleasing to God, not what people perceive me to be.

Psalm 139:3 NIV says “Search me, God, and know my heart ; test me and my anxious thoughts.”

To Be Beautiful!

Some would say it was as hot as Hades the day she was born. She would be the second of five children born to poor, uneducated parents. She was a sensitive, shy girl, but happy. Time progressed and she grew.

 She loved school, and excelled in sports and academics. She had lots of friends, and was always a favorite with teachers.  She was in 1^st grade when a boy laughed as he called her freckle-face and buck-teeth. She studied herself in the mirror at home, his words wounding like sharp needles piercing her heart.

 She wished she was beautiful!

Her parents were good, simple people. They were sporadic church goers, both having been raised in what they considered a harsh, legalistic religion. She always loved church, desiring to please the God whose presence she always sensed. Sometimes she would play church in her front yard, preaching and singing to a make-believe congregation.

She wanted to be school teacher or a missionary when she grew up. She also wanted to be a writer; she started several novels while in grade school. The demands of her life would be so that writing would always be an unfulfilled passion.

She graduated 8^th grade with honors. The door closed on this season of her life.

She was a freshman in high school when she had a real experience with God at an old-fashioned altar in a little church. It was a defining moment in her life, an encounter that became the pivotal point for all other things. This love relationship between her and her creator would endure through all the seasons of her journey.  

She had many friends at high school, but was never the pretty, popular girl. That was okay, she didn’t mind. She sometimes wished she was beautiful!

 All too soon, the door closed on this season of her life.

 While still in high school she foolishly married a boy she met at church. It would be a harsh, abusive marriage. However, it produced five wonderful children. Sometimes God and those children seemed all she had.  But it was enough!

 This season of her life would be full of joy, adventure, but mostly heartbreaking turbulence. She remained faithful to God, connected and involved in church, praying continually for her children.

She knew she wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t beautiful. She often wondered if she were beautiful, would her husband do the things he did. As she matured, she understood that it was his own demons he battled. He left when the two youngest were teenagers. She was torn between relief and fear of the unknown. The door closed on this season of her life.

Married at 16, divorced after 22 years, being thrust into single life was a culture shock for her. Free from the debilitating confines of her bad marriage, she floundered in a sea of uncharted courses. Although it was a bad marriage, it was familiar territory, one she knew how to navigate through.  

Some things hadn’t changed - the young, beautiful women in her Singles’ Group attracted the men. It didn’t matter to her that she was neither young nor beautiful. She was comfortable with who she was. However, she did long for a godly marriage, a Christian husband, something she’d never had.

God gave her the desire of her heart. It was a gift from God to her battered spirit.  This husband told her every day that she was beautiful. She knew that wasn’t true, but it was nice to be told so. Her family grew and thrived. She became a grandmother, then a great grandmother. 

Now she sat at a retirement luncheon in her honor. She had worked for twenty years in a home missions’ ministry that she dearly loved, a fulfillment of that long ago desire to do missions work. She felt humbled and undeserving of all the accolades. They spoke of her faithfulness, kindness, and inner beauty. She knew her life was a testament of God’s mercy and grace.

She couldn’t remember when she came to realize that she had always been beautiful. Her heavenly Father assured her that she was - 1 Peter 3:4 “Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”  (NIV)

The door was closing on this season of her life. She felt at peace! Her seasons of life weren’t over, though. Perhaps now she could pursue her passion to write.

Sundays Should Start With Church

I love Sundays! What's not to love about a day that starts with church! I am so blessed, and yes, a little proud, that my church of attendance has my son-in-law, Todd, as the pastor. It also has my grandson, Nathanael, leading in worship with his guitar and another grandson, Samuel, playing the drums. God has been so good to me, but that's a story for another time.

Everyone comes to my house for lunch after church. I usually cook all day Saturday in preparation for this. It is an open invitation to any family members and friends of family.

I love Sundays! Have I said that already? It is a day filled with good food, even though I prepare it, and adult discussions, and plenty of little kids running and squealing. The teenagers do...well, whatever teenagers do. This usually includes a techie toy/device of some kind.

I'm sure this isn't some folks idea of the way to spend a Sunday. As for me, I wouldn't change a thing about it.