Archive for December, 2011

24 Dec

Day 113

Posted by Sherry in Not Food. Tagged: , , .

It has been 113 days since our oldest son left the country for a foreign mission field.
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It’s Christmas Eve.

Our house is a little more quiet than usual.  The front door is not swinging back and forth.  The sounds of guitar and banjo are absent.  The energy of our oldest is obviously not here.  But the beauty and definition of why we celebrate Christmas is more present than ever.  We have become so aware of the blessings God provides, everyday.  Our faith has become stronger, our walk a little straighter, and our confidence in our Heavenly Father’s promises is greater, as we have relied on His love to see us through the challenges of missing our son, our brother.  If someone would have told me a year ago of the enormous joy I would have this Christmastime, I wouldn’t have believed them.  It is only through the blessings of our Savior that I do have just that – enormous joy and peace and love.

This morning, I transcended from sleep to consciousness without knowing exactly when the waking point was.  I was so happy – tears, streaming down my face – as I thought of our oldest son celebrating the Savior’s birth in another country, with another family, with other traditions.  You see, he will be celebrating with a family he met earlier this year from Brazil.  Praise God for our family in Christ  that extends from the east tot he west!  He will be learning new customs, new traditions, new ways of celebrating this most special day.  Yet, though he is enveloped with so many new things this Christmas, he asked me something last night that “brought him home” in a special way.

“Mom, how do you cook country ham?”

Ahh!  He got a box I sent him!  Nestled among the size 14 shoes, the new hoodie and familiar old shirt, were two packs of country ham.  For his entire life, Christmas morning was greeted with the smell of country ham cooking in the kitchen, for biscuits with grape jelly, of course!  Every day of his first 18 years.  This year, though he’s not home with us, he is continuing the breakfast tradition.

“I want to share a little bit of my southern roots with this family by cooking them some country ham on Christmas morning.”

Joy.  JOY!  There it is, again, shining through.  My whole life growing up, my mother would cook country ham on Christmas morning.  My son’s whole life, he’s had my mom or myself cooking country ham on Christmas morning.  And now, he is continuing with this small tradition.  The joy comes in knowing that the things we are exposed to, the things we are taught, the things we share…they continue.  They go on.  As a parent, we hope that we are giving our children a foundation on which to build, on which to grow stronger, on which to shine brighter than we ever did.

My son doesn’t know it probably, but just in asking me that simple question – “Mom, how do you cook country ham?” – he has given me the best Christmas present ever.

6 Dec

Jesus – In Every Single Detail

Posted by Sherry in Not Food.

Have you looked at what is going on around you?
I mean really stopped, took a time out, and observed the details of where you are right now?

I am always surprised when I do this, even though what I find is always the same:  Jesus is so obviously at work in every detail around me.

How does he do that?!  This, I do not have an answer to, but I can tell you why he does it:  He loves me.  He loves me!  It is because of his tremendous love that he carefully has orchestrated and knitted together every fine detail of my moments.  There are so many that I don’t notice.  Way more than I do notice.  But I never fail to see his hands at work when I truly pause to take a look.

Today I am praising God for what he is doing in my life and thanking him for all the ways he works things out for my good.  Even when I cannot see it, I know that he is there, working things out for me.  And I’m excited in advance for the moments when I am able to see exactly how his plan for me unfolds.

5 Dec

Meeting Hope and Faith at the Doctor’s Office

Posted by Sherry in Not Food.

Our 9-year-old little boy with a 106.2 fever.
Coughing.
Glassed over eyes.
Pink cheeks and ears.

It was our third visit to see Dr. Mohr.
An unscheduled visit, of course.  We could never plan for these things.
For more than two weeks, the strep virus had danced it’s way in and through our entire household.
Despite antibiotics and cough syrups and  a firm Motrin/Tylenol routine, our youngest son was still struggling.

We joined several  people in the waiting room, all patients waiting for their turn.
There was an older couple waiting, along with a man with a walker and a woman who kept checking her watch and sending text messages.
As the nurse opened the door to call for a patient to enter the examination area, the stale air in the waiting area seemed to be energized quickly with the anticipation of every person waiting…then as the door closed, the air lost all vitality and returned to it’s stale, heavy atmosphere.  The wait.  The atmosphere of waiting.

After the 3rd person was called back, our son exclaimed, “That’s not fair!  We’ve been waiting a long time!”.  I could only smile at him and put my arms around him, reminding him that all the other patients probably had appointments, but that we were “walk ins”.  I reminded him that we would soon be in to see the doctor.

A 4th person was called back.

A 5th.

It was at that moment that I realized there was a very teachable moment before us.

“Lane, do you know what hope feels like?”

Lane was now slumping even lower in his chair, shrugging his shoulders in an “I don’t know” motion.

“You know when you hear that door open, you hear the hinges squeaking, and you are waiting to hear the name the nurse is going to call?

Lane:  “Yeah.”

“Well, don’t you HOPE that she is going to call your name?  Aren’t you watching, along with everyone else in the waiting room, to see if you’re going to be next?  That’s what hope feels like!  For a minute, you are excited and expecting to hear your name.  Now, do you know what faith is?”

Lane:  “Uh-huh.  It’s believing.”

“That’s right!  When we have faith in something, we believe completely in it.  I have faith that your name is going to be called, don’t you?”

Lane:  “Yeah, I guess so.”

“When you’re hoping your name is going to be called, and then it’s not, it’s kind of a let down.  But you have faith and know that your name IS going to be called, you just don’t know when.  Having faith makes it easier to wait for your name to be called.”

Lane just snuggled up a little closer to me as we continued to wait for his name to be called.  I was so thankful for the understanding of Hope and Faith I was being shown and praised our Savior for allowing me to talk about these things with Lane while we waited.  And as He always does, I was showered with the peace of knowing that of Hope and Faith and Love, the greatest of these is Love.  It is the Love of our Father that allows for patience in gaining an understanding of Hope and Faith to help us along in our journey.

I don’t mind waiting in the doctor’s office.  I’ve heard of a lot of people lately complaining about wait times.  There are so many sick people and needs that we are not privileged to know about others.  When we sit in a  room full of patients waiting to be seen, sometimes it can get frustrating.  It’s easy to point our fingers at others and assign blame for our “waste of time” while we wait for appointments that seem to be over scheduled, or fail to fall within a certain time limit.  Patience, Hope, Faith and Love.  When we keep these things at the top of our daily “to do list”, it will certainly help offset the negativities that can creep in and steal our peace, our joy.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Update:  Today was our 4th visit to see Dr. Mohr.  Again, unscheduled.  Today’s wait, however, was much easier on Lane.  He didn’t say it, but I bet he was thinking about Hope and Faith every time the door opened.  Thank you, Lord, for those seeds you give us and for the fertile soil in which they are nurtured.