Just Writing

I've been away for a long time and so many things have happened and changed that I could never catch up, but I feel like I need to write. 

Over the weekend our nation celebrated its 250th birthday. I hope that you and yours had a lovely 4th of July. I joined family and friends at Patrick and Amber's and enjoyed the holiday celebration between intermitten bouts of wind and rain.

Yesterday the alternator went out on my car (I purchased a 2011 Kia Sorento back in February). It's at my mechanic's now and will be fixed in a day or two. 

The sad thing is, I have a dear friend that was diagnosed with cancer just five days ago, that I had planned to go visit today. With the car down and other things going on this week, the trip was postponed until Friday. I got word just a few minutes ago that my dear friend from girlhood days passed away less than an hour ago. Please be in prayer for Nawassa's family.

I'm not sure what I'm feeling right now...and it really doesn't matter. The Lord knows all and He is more than able in any situation, but, not only am I sad, but I guess I am being a bit reflective maybe.

There has been so much loss in recent months and years that sometimes it is hard to fathom. Friday marks the five-year anniversary of my husband's death. Despite all I am soooo thankful to God for gifting us the family and friends that He has blessed us with. Not only have we been blessed as a family, but, though not generally recognized by the world, have known great wealth that will last throughout eternity. 

I watch my children and grandchildren struggle...spiritually, relationally, financially...life is hard. And, I realize at times...when I look at my own life and search trying to figure out where I belong and fit in now...how truly far I've fallen from the position that I used to be in...wife, homemaker, homeschooling mom, pastor's wife. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago...or maybe another life altogether. I feel fragmented and scattered.

I realize that there are different seasons and I've been in a new one for a long time, but still haven't found my footing. The only thing I know for absolute sure is that God is God, Jesus is real, and that God's Word is the only Truth that there is in this world. 

People, learn to be content. We are living in times that are unprecidented. 

Get in God's Word and study it daily. Love each other unconditionally, forgive freely, and allow one another the grace to make mistakes and to grow from them...to fall and rise again. Whatever problem you or your loved ones are facing...God's got the answer! Get in His Word and make it THE top priority of your day!

I don't know why I had to write today, but thank you for reading and bearing with me. I love you all and value your readership...even though I am THE flakiest and most inconsistant blogger online. God bless you all!

All My Love,

~Rebecca

Recent and related posts that you might be interested in reading...

CHICKEN FAJITA SOUP

(Retro) Learning To Be Content

(Retro) REPRINT - HEARTH AND HOME - OCTOBER 18, 2002

Using It Up - Wallpapering

You've heard the old saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Well, that's kind of 

where I'm at. Our resources are exhausted and I can't afford to do anything new to our home, but I am in a renewed state of mind and am determined to use what I've got on hand to fix things up a bit. 

A few years ago (yes, years ago), one of my daughters-in-law gave me this lovely wallpaper. It was some that she had leftover from one of her projects and there were only a couple of rolls of it, but we have a small house and I knew I could use it somewhere. Most of one of the rolls I used a  long time ago to paper the wall next to the bathroom (which adjoins our bedroom, so it kind of tied it all together), and the other I saved to paper our north bedroom wall with. Well, over the weekend I finally got around to it!

Pretty White Wallpaper With Pink Roses

I started by deep-cleaning the bedroom. I took down the ceiling fan, took out all the furniture, 

and cleaned everything from ceiling to floor. Then I wallpapered the north wall. It may have only 

been one wall, but, my! What a difference it made! It sure brightened things up!

Our North Bedroom Wall

The next thing I hope to do, is to keep my eyes open at garage sales and thrift stores for bedding. I'm

acquiring a real taste for sweet, simple and old-fashioned. My goal is to eventually have all white 

sheets, white pillowcases, and a white comforter. (Isn't that funny? When I was a child white sheets was all we

had. When I was a teenager and started working and making my own money I vowed that I 

would never again sleep on white sheets. I wanted 'color' and 'boldness' in my life. Well, now that I've 

had a lot of 'color' and 'boldness' in my life, now all I desire is tranquility and simplicity.)

Learning To Be Content

 "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11)

How that verse takes me back to my days of "learning" to be content! For the first six years that we lived in Liberal (we have lived here going on fifteen years now), we lived in a ramshackled, old, 4-room, 640 sq. ft. house out in the country that was, literally, falling in. In fact, it was slated to be bulldozed when we moved into it, and it was bulldozed after we left it! We took the house as "temporary" housing until we could find "something better." 

There was a huge hole in the kitchen ceiling, the kitchen floor had dropped four inches below the cabinets (you could see underneath the house when you were standing in the kitchen), all the walls were termite-ridden (you could, literally, poke your finger through them) and, every spring, the termites swarmed...INSIDE the house! 

The walls were cracked where they joined together and you could see daylight through them, there were holes in the floor under the kitchen sink and bathtub (every kind of animal imaginable visited us...possums, raccoons, skunks, snakes...you name it...it was like having our own "Wild Kingdom"...INSIDE THE HOUSE), and there was no heat (we put in a wood stove and filled every crack with whatever we could...old rags, newspaper, etc...we plasticed EVERYTHING...and, still, we about froze to death out there). Today I often wonder...how in the world did we ever make it??? It was awful! And I was so depressed! 

But there was nothing! NOTHING else became available to us! (Some of you probably remember when we lived back in that house, and the miraculous story of how God moved us out of there! It was, indeed, a miracle! And I STILL thank Him and praise Him daily for our dear, little house here! Is it big...no! Is it fancy...no! But, it's ours and we're thankful!) The point is...the Lord kept us there, in that ramshackled, old house for six, loooooonnnnngggg years...until we truly...in our hearts...LEARNED to be content.

And, let me tell you, it took awhile! We had come from the Kansas City suburbs where my husband worked for the City of Blue Springs. We lived in a nine-room (5 bedroom) house...had central air, central heat, a dishwasher, garbage disposal, our own classroom...everything! We left it all to come here and start this ministry.

Let me ask you...are you content with the things that the Lord has given to you today? Or are you among the modern set...always wanting what you can't have...always wanting more, more, more...trying to keep up with everyone around you...no matter what it costs? You don't have to answer these questions out loud, but be honest. The Lord already knows your heart. 

"But godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).