Abide With Me

"Abide With Me" was written in 1847. Henry Lyte was in­spired to write the words to this hymn as he was dy­ing of tu­ber­cu­lo­sis. There are eight verses. All too often, for the sake of time or perhaps to help alleviate boredom, not all the verses are sung. I don't believe that should be the case when we sing hymns. They are meant as a message in their entirety. And I am amazed at the relevance that each hymn manages to maintain from one era to the next.

Mr. Lyte wrote the song as a prayer, much like I might find myself praying today. He asked the Lord to abide with him as he was feeling the darkness deepen. Imagine the despair he felt when he spoke of Earth's joys growing dim and referred to the change and decay in all he saw around him! Henry pleaded for the Lord, the Friend of sinners, to abide with him. He talked about being young and knowing that the Lord smiled down on him then; but as he grew older he knew the Lord never left him even though he was rebellious. He said he needed the Lord's presence every hour and nothing but His grace could foil the tempter's power. With God at his side, Mr. Lyte knew that everything would be alright until the very end.

This poor man was really pouring out his heart and soul for all to hear! His words have probably reached millions of people who can relate if even to a small extent. The bottom line is, as long as we abide with Christ, He will abide in us. We might mess up, but God will pull us up out of the muck and give us the grace we need to try again and again.

To quote a slightly more modern song, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your Faithfulness, oh Lord. Great is Your faithfulness!"

Lost & Found

Lost. That is quite a word! Without looking it up, I would say that it means 1.) unable to be found or 2.) A feeling that leaves a person with the illusion of being dazed or confused.

As an adult, I have experienced the desire to be lost - to run away for awhile and forget about life while I rejuvenate. I have experienced what it feels like to want to tell someone else to get lost - as in, "Go away. I really don't want to be with you right now." And just maybe, you could get me to admit that I have wanted to tell that person I don't ever want to see them again. I also know what it feels like to feel lost in my own little world (dazed and confused).

When do these feelings arise? Typically in the midst of difficulty or challenge. Not only that, I think the feeling of being lost or wanting to get lost arises when we deeply desire the love of God to surround us. In looking for answers, no matter who we are or what we say we believe, I feel led to think that when we reach the bottom of our pit, we know God is there for us. We tend to cry out to Him in our darkest hour of need - often when we feel lost.

I promised to be open with you. It is not easy to write or admit that I have really been wrestling this year. As the year has gone on, up until the last month or so, I have felt quite lost. Funny thing is, I don't know if it shows to the outside world or not. I think I might hide it well - at least from most of the world. My closest friends know most of my struggles.

As each of these challenges cross my path, I am forced to deal with it in whatever way I know how. Sometimes what I already know works, other times I am forced to find another way to confront the issue. No matter what, God uses each difficulty or obstacle to continue to grow my faith.

Do you remember my challenge from last week? You were challenged to join me as I spy God at work. I hope you are finding blessing in that challenge. I can definitely report that I am!

Here is a true example of that: On Sunday, my pastor reminded people that when we are tempted, God ALWAYS provides a way out. I was feeling pretty strong that day. I was feeling strong Monday - well, at least most of the day. Then I started to feel weak. My mind started to wander thinking about my "night on the town" Tuesday night. Today, I was torn on how I felt. I thought I could be strong. In reality, I don't know if I could have remained that way! For those curious minds, let's just say that tonight I was a woman with some money and a couple hours of free time… (keep your thoughts PG please!) I really feel like God intervened. Near the time I was going to get ready to go, I was told that I didn't have to drive Becca to school tonight! Huh. I wondered what I would do with my night. Now I really had some free time! Hannah and her friend Morgan came home with a couple movies. I was able to sit with them and Tony to watch the movie together. Not only that, I was able to start writing sooner!

To me, this is truly a story of God at work. He met me right where I needed Him to. I was spared all temptation (except the chocolate chip cookies Hannah made!). Although I was feeling lost, God picked me up, encouraged me and sent me on my way to try again.

So, the next time you are feeling lost or feeling like getting lost, try spending some time with God or find a friend who can encourage you in that direction. You may just find that hidden blessing and spy God at work!

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. That's right, one of THOSE days. It was a day filled to the brim with things to do. A day that if I happened to miss a beat, the next appointment would sneak up on me without warning. But, it was a good one of those days. Everything fell into place. Now that it is over, it almost feels surreal. Do you ever experience that feeling?

The day has washed away. It went smoothly, almost uneventful. But each day is a gift. There has to be some treasure in it, so this is my time to look for it.

I was able to spend precious time with each of my daughters alone as we traveled. Have you thought about that as a special time? A time where only your private thoughts are shared between you and your loved one? I consider it a privilege to be able to chauffer my girls around at ages 17 and 19. Sure, it takes time out of my day, but if it didn't, then I would miss all of those precious conversations or they would have to take place on the fly.

My piano students came today. What a blessing they are - each one of them! I chuckled when one of them told me that she thought she may have told her grandmother to pick her and her sister up a half an hour late. (She said she wasn't quite sure what our official end time was supposed to be! lol) It didn't bother me a bit; we tend to run late anyway. Knowing we had extra time though was not a good thing…it made me run double late! But we had a good time! The afternoon students were full of questions and laughs. (More treasures for my day!)

Those were the things that seemed to take up the largest chunks of my day, but when I took time to look a little deeper, I realized that my day was completed with a little time with a few precious friends, in person and via phone/computer.

The point in rehashing my day is this: Just because it was one of THOSE days that left me feeling like it was just an ordinary busy day, means that I need to take this time at the end of my day to rediscover what my day was really all about. There was purpose to it. There was a definite give and take complete with blessings all around. That is what I need to remember to focus on when I feel like I wasn't able to get anything done "for myself". Because in all reality, I really did get something done for myself. I was able to be there for others. Life wouldn't be the same if we couldn't give of ourselves.

Pay it Forward

Joseph Campbell once said, "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." In America, we are all well aware that today was Veteran's Day, a day to honor those who have served our country in the military. If you haven't thanked our service men/women yet, take time to do so. They have sacrificed so that we can have what we do today.

For those of you who haven't been in the military, for whatever reason,  you can become a hero too! Patriotism doesn't necessarily need to be shown by joining the military. You can give back to society through any type of community work. The holiday season is well upon us now. Along with that comes more than ample opportunity to think of others above ourselves.

Here are just a few ideas:

* Help someone with their yard work, raking, or shoveling. It doesn't matter if the people you help are able bodied, disabled, or elderly. The point is that you are thinking of someone other than yourself. (Of course, if you know people who are handicapped and/or elderly, you may want to consider them first!)

* Sign up to ring bells for the Salvation Army. This campaign is a big push for them so that they can help others. Your time spent ringing bells could provide help for more people than you realize. Not only that, bell ringing is a job that you really can make into a fun time! Sign up with friends or family, sing songs, spread the excitement by helping to put a smile on someone's face. You will have a good time and chances are, donations will be increased.

*Check with local churches or community groups to find out if they know of anyone in need. You could simply help by being a friend, making a meal, running errands, or even adopting a family for Christmas.

*Random Acts of Kindness - This is one of my absolute favorite ways to give back to society! You can do some random thing for anyone, anywhere! You know your own family well. They are easy to treat with extra kindness. But what about a random stranger? This is easy when I go  through a drive through at various restaurants. Occasionally, after I finish paying for my meal, I ask to pay for the person behind me. I wish I could hear their reactions! You could help them out at a gas station or grocery store. Perhaps it is simply offering to take care of their shopping cart after they finish with it. For those you know a little better, what about an encouragement card or package? Maybe a special meal that you prepare for them…possibilities are endless!

The ideas here are not necessarily just meant for a short term project, although they certainly can be! The idea behind volunteering is to help others. Share what you can. Become a hero by thinking of others above yourself. By doing a social work, you are giving back to society.

Do you have ways that you already give? Do you have ideas to share? Please feel free to comment and inspire other readers!

Richly Blessed

In just two weeks, those of us here in America will be celebrating Thanksgiving. We do have a lot to be thankful for. I like to count my blessings all year round. Today it was especially easy.

My morning began by saying good bye to my husband when he left for work. Now that is something to be thankful for! …And for those of you who think I may be thankful for the fact that my husband just walked out the door is my reason to be thankful, you may want to think again! He has a job, yes, we are thankful for that. But I have someone who cares enough about his family to be responsible each and every day to go to work and make the best of it. I cannot imagine that he wanted to go spend the day outside in the cold, wet snow. In fact, I know that he probably would prefer to stay home with his family. But he loves us enough to make that sacrifice for us. Not only that, we are blessed in the fact that most nights he comes right home to spend time with us.

Next up, friends! A text from a friend, a card from another, a phone call, and a nice visit in the coffee shop with a few others. Without these people and many others in my life to hold me accountable and help me to laugh, I would be a completely different person. Extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings, in-laws, etc.) fall in this category too…I received an especially good text this morning from my sister-in-law. She is a good reminder to me of how good it is to have one another to pray and rejoice with!

"The Five Love Languages" is a book by Dr. Gary Chapman. He suggests that we all give and receive love within 5 major categories. 1.) Words of Affirmation, 2.) Quality Time, 3.) Giving/Receiving Gifts, 4.) Acts of Service, or 5.) Physical Touch. If you haven't seen any of Dr. Chapman's books, I encourage you to check them out. They can be real eye-openers! (The website is chocked full of info: www.5lovelanguages.com)

My primary love language is quality time. I feel like that is the way I best receive and give love. That is not to say that quality time is the only way I give and receive love, just the primary way. I think I give and receive love differently with different people. My girls have learned that acts of service show me love. Although that may not be their primary way of showing love to everyone, it works well with me!

All of that just to say that I really felt loved by my girls today. Hannah took time to text me. Then I found that the girls had worked together on laundry and dishes while I was out! Becca took time to spend with me running a couple errands today. By the time 4:30 rolled around, Becca was studying with a group of friends at the tech and it was time to attend Hannah's parent/teacher conference. I couldn't have been happier with them today! Becca has been working so hard on her French lessons. Adding a Thursday study group to the picture is the icing on the cake! Hannah was able to ice her cake with more A's on her report card than ever before! In fact, it is the grade she received in most of her classes! What hard workers! I love it! I feel really good to know that they are both trying so hard - not just to please me and show me love, but because it is the right thing to do.

God has been revealing Himself to me and my family in lots of ways. Years ago, we were challenged in church to play "I Spy God". It was fun to play with the girls when they were young, but what I have discovered is that it translated into my everyday life and continues to do so.

Yesterday when it snowed, I have to admit that it was pretty. Driving was terrible, but the end result of that was time with my daughter and a friend. Power went out, but that resulted in my husband coming home from work early to spend time with his family. When I don't want to do the dishes, I am reminded that we had food and have warm water and electricity. No matter what my grumble, there seems to always be another side of the coin. Even in the absolute worst time in my life, I can take a look at it from another angle and see God at work.

A couple of my friends have committed to putting a statement of thanks on their Facebook status each day of November. I like the challenge. If you are not taking part in that effort, why not join me and my family as we play "I Spy God" and find "God at Work" stories? It's a lot of fun once you start noticing how richly blessed we all are!

Bed Head

A pic of the bed that encouraged this crazy writing. I hope you sleep well tonight, dear readers!

Wikipedia makes me laugh sometimes. For the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the internet, I find it interesting that some people see Wikipedia as a reliable source  of complete information. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the concept and also look at the information that is on the site.

Tonight's blog was inspired by a picture and a challenge. The challenge was to write about the picture, yet keep the blog PG. Too funny! Really… would I ever stray from a PG rating? After considering my options, I decided to look at Wikipedia just to see what it said about sleep.

"Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by…" (Yada, yada…) The next paragraph continued, " The purposes and mechanisms of sleep are only partially clear and are the subject of intense research." (Great...) Thankfully, the article was spattered with numerous citations and links for anyone who wanted to learn more, but for a goofball like me looking for a "hook" to captivate my readers' attention, it was typical Wikipedia, filled with plenty of "duh" type statements.

Sleep is obviously important. It helps us to function properly. (Those are my "duh" statements.) Have you ever taken time to think about the evolution of the beds we sleep in though?

Egyptian pharaohs are credited with discovering the benefit of raising a pallet off of the earth to sleep on. The common people of the day, though, continued to sleep on palm bows thrown in a heap.

The Romans were pretty amazing people. They decided to decorate their beds and have mattresses stuffed with reeds, hay, wool, or feathers. Not only that…they discovered the first water bed! You're going to be jealous… The sleeper would recline in a cradle of warm water until drowsy, then be lifted onto an adjacent cradle with a mattress, where they would be rocked to sleep!

I suppose if I had taken the time to think about this, I would have realized that it wasn't until the late 18th century that people began sleeping on cotton mattresses on cast iron beds, providing a space much less attractive to bugs!

Beyond that, we can generally see how our bedding has improved. We have seemingly endless choices now. The words that come to mind to describe mattresses are foam, air, waterbed (certainly different than the Romans' version!), pillow top, and of course there are various luxury mattresses. Comfort is essential!

Not only is comfort essential, we have come to live in an era where the design of the bed frame  is important to us also. When we look for beds, we can choose from a day bed, a sleigh bed, bunk bed, poster bed, Murphy bed, platform bed, trundle bed, or even a sofa bed! And that is just for starters!

I leave you tonight with a fun fact about Louis XIV...

Louis XIV was inordinately fond of staying in bed, often holding court in the royal bedroom. Reportedly, he owned 413 beds and displayed a special liking for the ultra spacious and ostentatious variety.

Also, here are my references for my writing: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed#Types_of_beds

http://www.bettersleep.org/mattressology/bed_in_history.asp