HEAVY AND HARD

I woke up this morning and when I reached for my ACT mouthwash it felt so heavy I could hardly lift it.  It dawned on me that one of the most annoying things about getting old is all the heavy and hard stuff.  I have to ask my daughter to put away the gallon bottles of distilled water and carry the heavy bags of groceries from the car.  I definitely have to ask her to please open almost any and all bottles, jars, packages etc.  

I carry scissors with me in every purse because I can't even tear open my cough or coffee nip drops.  I have to cut them open everytime.  I have a very blessed life with very little drama or sad times, but I imagine there are many old folks who even consider their daily lives as "heavy and hard/"

Watching our children and our grands have a hard trial to endure can be "hard."  Feeling stress burdened  with concern and wishing only happiness for them can feel "heavy." Yep, getting old is definitely filled with heavy and hard times and things.

I guess all we can do since we definitely want to keep getting older is just live with it.  I want to celebrate my 100th birthday, which  means twenty years of things probably getting heavier and harder all the time.  So I am going to tell myself every morning to just get out of bed and determine to face it, do it and battle on with a happy, thankful heart.  So far its going pretty well so I'll keep hoping it continues and maybe even gets a little lighter and easier.  A positive and hopeful spirit will be the key.

CORONA VIRUS SAYS IT ALL!

In my old age I have been more of a house mouse than in my younger years.  I like  to be at home.  I love to read, watch TV, knit, make hand-made cards, do jigsaw puzzles...  I could go on but you get the idea.  But mandated to stay home, seeing my regular haunts: restaurants, theatres, library, parks, etc. closed-that is entirely different.

All of a sudden I don't want to stay home at all.  My daughter, whose job is an online job which keeps her at the computer from 8AM till 6 or 7PM said the same thing.  It was fine when her work kept her "housebound" but now all she thinks about is NOT being able to go somewhere. For us, to be very honest, it's really not being able to go out to eat.
 
Still, I think it is important for the sake of all of us to be able to be on our best behavior.  A smile and kind consideration for our loved ones stuck inside with us and for everyone else when we do go to the store for groceries.  A smile can really help those who are feeling "under" these circumstances and a confident hope that the ending will come can encourage those who can't see that.

As a Christian I think everything that happens on this earth is easier to face.  We don't understand most of it any better than the next person,  but we do, or we should, have a better acceptance and courage to live each day in it.

Certainly looking to the day when we will have all come through it together, looking back, is the best way to overcome any fear or depression it may want to cause in addition to the micro-organism that is wreaking all the havoc.

I know words are not going to make it easy or even help people to feel victorious, but sharing positive thoughts and giving away some of our strength of resolve to endure can't hurt.  So I pray you all lift your head high, hug your family in your homes and look for that day believing and totally hopeful the end is coming.

LIVING LIFE

To live life is hard enough in old age, but when it is life itself that distracts us from that, it is even more difficult.  More months have passed than I was aware since my last blog.  I  realize that I made a New Year "resolution" to begin them again and here we are already in March.

Hopefully I am back on track and will do a blog each week from now on or whenever a notion to share comes to mind.  I am thinking about all the circumstances that have led to this hiatus. 

I guess the biggest one is the move.  I have had to move five times in ten years and that is a super and challenging feat in your 70's.  I will blame that on my putting all writing aside and won't even mention the super duper WRITER'S BLOCK.

To be financially stressed and definitely strapped as I am with a low social security as  my only income and living with my devoted and wonderfully indulgent daughter, who too lives on a minimal salary for a very hard and demanding job, makes us both vulnerable and formidable.

The move caused us to have to  make two major decisions: move where we could afford to live; second decision to buy instead of renting.  We had no choice about the first one.  My daughter could only afford $1000 or less a month.  Forsyth county where we lived in Cumming, GA had nothing with 2-bedrooms for less than $1200 and up.  In searching for under a $1000 it took us at least two hours or more away from that county.

The second decision to buy caused us to look in every direction to find a place.  After much exhaustion and many many places both to rent or buy we set out for buying.  My daughter, who would be owner, wanted it to be a newly built home.  This decision led us to the delightful town of Rome, GA where they were building new homes "from $100's" rather than the "$300's" everywhere else.

Then began the depressing thoughts of leaving behind the life we had enjoyed for ten years.  It was not that hard for my daughter.  Her job was all consuming and only required her to stay in the state of GA.  It was sad for me, because my life revolved around my church family and ministry at a very spirit filled  and loving church. 

Packing was easy, because many of my dear sisters in Christ helped us pack all our things.  The going to a new place was also okay, because both my daughter and I love a new beginning.  A chance to start out on a new venture is a very enjoyable challenge for us both.

So here we are enjoying Rome and all its southern history,  cultural experiences and a quiet college town atmosphere.  After Cumming where they break ground, bulldozing to build new multi-home (sizes of small hotels) residential sites seemingly every week, to a place where you "turn right on red" no matter the intersection because there is hardly ever any cars coming is a most refreshing change.

We have also found another spirit filled and loving church and I am praying the Lord will set my ministry of service there in His own timing, way and will.  But getting older still continues to be difficult.   We are vulnerable to be in God's will no matter what He may ask and formidable to do it and look back on the move and see no matter how hard it seemed, here we are safe and sound in our cozy, little brand new home.

"SUNDAY'S COMIN'"

A well known famous sermon, by Tony Evans, is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He sermonizes then ends every thought with "it's Friday, but Sunday's comin'!"  I'm a movie buff and a visual learner so Christian movies speak very loud to me.  I was looking for one of my favorites of all, BEN HUR, not only the movie, but also the book.  I can still recall the moment, when I was in my finding "old" books mode, which I had to give up when I told everyone, myself included, no more gifts or purchases if it has to be dusted or kept.

I opened an old worn out copy of BEN HUR and noticed for the first time the title page states:  BEN HUR then down below, "A tale of the Christ."  What?  I was dumbfounded.  I could remember every phase of the story that transformed my life in one way or another, but that the whole book was about Christ.  Missed that fact completely!  The reason why I wanted to watch the movie again is because it was Good Friday and the crucifixion scene in that movie always moves me to tears and a serious consideration of just what Jesus has done for me and my sin.

It is still not available any place except to rent - that says volumes right there.  I try not to pay since so many movies are available to us for free.  Anyway another movie that also has moved me in reference to Christ and how important He is to me and I wish was to the whole world is RISEN.  I am always very moved by this movie, so I bought it.  Now I can watch it whenever I need a reminder of just how marvelous Jesus actually is. 

The lead actor, Joseph Fiennes, as the Roman Centurion, makes me feel and see everything he experiences.  When he sees the RISEN Christ in that movie, well if we could travel in time, that is one place and moment I want to be.  It is to believe that because He lives, not only will we also live but it is to know we will live with Christ for all eternity.

First we are to be amazed by the truth that our God is a living God who never dies.  We do not have to worship at a place He might have been buried or a temple that bears his image.  We just have to look into our hearts and souls and believe without a shadow of a doubt that He is with us through His Holy Spirit all the time. 

Second, we have to know that we have been saved through faith as the Word tells us in Acts 16:31 "And they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your house."  Also the Word tells us again in Romans 10:9 "...that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved."

Third, we are to know we repent of our sins and know they are forgiven and pray to stay repentant from that day forward.

Fourth, we need to be grateful for this truth and this life and live it out for others speaking the good news in anyway we can.

I can only wish you all are as blessed as I am to be in a church that truly worships in praises and celebration that the Lord is living and real and the only one to follow.

God bless hoping you have a kingdom filled day.

LIFE IS CHANGE - BOY IS IT!

I've decided that I am not defeating old age as much as it is wearing me down.  This ache or that pain and yet another specialist to see.  This is not only time consuming but taking money I do not have.  Still I face each day with a hope that never fails me.  Loving the way God says it in His precious Word: Lamentations 3:22-24"The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him."

I decided to just keep on going and handle each challenge, pain, illness or whatever as it comes.  I awake each morning with a determination and a prayer trusting the Lord is with me through it all.   I have great expectations and live very full, busy days.  I fall into bed exhausted at night pleased that I have done all that was expected of me.  I hate the hours going by too fast and running out of day long before I am finished with what I had wanted or was enjoying doing when the clock strikes 11PM or midnight.

I think being busy is a great deterrent to getting or feeling old.  Deciding to keep on doing our daily chores i.e. laundry, cooking, cleaning, changing sheets - ugh - to that, reading, writing, spending time with friends, going to Bible Study and church - I could go on and on - are all helps to thinking ourselves young in spite of emotions or feelings telling us something different.

Just reading what I'm writing is making me feel younger already.  It is definitely that old saying, "Mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." (Charles Lyell) Wishing you all a fresh new look on your life and a great week.

2nd BRIGHTEST FULLEST MOON

I get very excited about full moons.  Not quite sure but it is a time of wonder as one of the Creator's most awesome designs or scientific fact that it goes around and we turn and it does this or that at different times over the months or year.

2019 is going to have three - three - extra bright moons in it.  I didn't know the one in January was actually brighter than usual.  But now I know about this month so I have set two alarms to remind me to go outside and watch it on Tuesday night (19th).   It is called a Super Snow moon - even that makes it sound so exotic - doesn't it?

My granddaughter is in Panama country studying in the rain forest and her pictures of ants and bees are not at all like the ones we see here in the US.  She sent a video of leaves moving along the ground in a bunch and there were ants underneath transporting them to a particular place where they need to be.  How people cannot believe in a Creator above us all who can think of such things as ants not only working together in a group but knowing exactly what to do and where to go.

She is studying a particular bee for her paper.  It is a 3-inch gorgeous iridescent green color.  A color that only a Master Designer could ever create.

I am rejoicing in my life these days because I am feeling better each day and believing, no matter what, my good feelings are going to continue and defeat any bad or physical problems that may happen.

I continue to wish a money tree would grow in my yard to take care of the constantly frustrating need for it, but I dare not worry since the Dear Lord admonishes us to look at sparrows and lilies and see how well He has taken care of them.  Surely He loves us even more than those, so I trust in His loving kindness knowing full well He will provide.

I don't "need" money to bask in the beauty of the 2nd brightest moon this year or in an insect whose color outshines - literally - any color on any painter's palette.

No, there is just way too much to be grateful for and to enjoy in this whole wide world so that is the choice I make.

"God's in His heaven; all's right with the world." Robert Browning