Rebecca's Hearth and Home

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Five Minute Friday - Reach

I'm sure that many of us remember those old Bell Telephone and AT&T 'reach out and touch someone' commercials. With all the instant communication in today's world, it's kind of hard to imagine having to sit around and wait for that special someone to 'reach out and touch' us now...isn't it? Or is it?

With all the instant communication that is, literally, at our fingertips...cell phones, internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc...you would think that people would be in closer touch with one another...and they are...in some ways. But in other ways, and I think, often times, because of the technological advances that have been made in the last twenty or thirty years...even though communication, for the most part, is instant...there is a coldness that has settled into our world...into our lives...into our relationships...and many people are lonelier now than ever before...especially the older generation. People just aren't as close as they use to be and, sadly, many no longer seem to care. What's happening to us? Because of technology are we becoming desynthesized to the world around us and those that are in it?

Perhaps...but, thankfully, it's not too late to do something about it! If you are reading this, I'd like to challenge you to stop right now and think of someone special that you've not had a quality conversation with in a long time and to, sometime within the next day or two, to, purposefully, 'reach out and touch' them. Do it in person, mail them a special card, or take time to give them a call and tell them how you feel about them and why. Here's a list of ideas to get you started...

1. A parent or grandparent

2. A favorite aunt, uncle, or cousin

3. An estranged family member

4. A long-time-no-see friend

5. An old friend from school

6. A former teacher

7. A former co-worker

8. Your best childhood friend

9 Someone from the old neighborhood where you grew up

10. Someone that made a difference in your life without even knowing it (Tell them about it and let them know why they're so special to you!)

These are some ideas to get you started. Now...go ahead! Reach out and touch someone! And make it count!

Until Next Time,

~Rebecca

Five Minute Friday - a free write, which means, as our hostess, Kate Motaung, says, "...no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write."

Friday, August 22, 2014

Five Minute Friday - Change

Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker used to be one of the highlights of my week. Now...five minutes all in a row at one time to do anything is practically impossible...especially when it comes to sitting down to write. In fact, it's been ages since I've participated in Five Minute Friday and one of the changes that have taken place since the last time I did so is that Lisa-Jo Baker is no longer hosting it!

After hosting Five Minute Friday for four years, on July 31st, Lisa-Jo Baker posted her last Five Minute Friday post and has passed the baton to her friend, Kate Motaung. As of the first Friday in August, Kate is now hostessing Five Minute Friday. I am anxious to get to know her and can't wait to see where she, as our new hostess, takes us from here! Be blessed in your calling, Kate! I'm excited for you! :)

As for me, personally, I normally don't do change well. I get stuck in a rut and am content to stay there, but I'm finding that getting out of that rut...scary as it may be...often comes with benefits and blessings that I would never have received, nor imagined, if the change had not occurred. I'm starting to believe that change is a GOOD thing! :)

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

Five Minute Friday - a free write, which means, as our hostess, Kate Motaung, says, "...no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write."

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Coming Full Circle From Death Unto Life

Nine years ago tonight...about this very time of night, in fact...I received a phone call that changed my world forever. We had four girls in the family that were due to have babies very soon...a cousin, a daughter, and two daughters-in-law. In fact, one of the daughters-in-law was overdue at that point. It was about 10:30 p.m. on the night of June 25, 2005. The phone rang and I bounded out of bed...a bundle of excitement.

"Ahhhhh! Someone's in labor!" I shouted!

When I got to the phone it was my dad. He told me that my mom was having a problem and that I had better come right away. I told him to dial 9-1-1 and I'd be there in a few minutes. Someone was in labor alright, but this was NOT what I was expecting.

By the time John and I got to my parent's home, my mother was in a bad way. An ambulance came, picked my mother up, and headed for Joplin. In mid-trip, she was transferred to a helicopter, but my mother never even made it to the hospital. She passed from this life in mid-transit shortly after midnight on the 26th. Needless to say, since that time, the 25th of June has always approached with a cloud of darkness hanging over it...especially for my dad.

Well, this year, God, in His infinite mercy and grace, changed all that by giving us a new memory on the 25th of June. This morning, about 4:15 a.m. a beautiful, new granddaughter was born to us...a new great-granddaughter to my dad...and the story is pretty amazing.

Our daughter's due date, June 14th, came and went without event. Every day we've waited, but nothing happened. Last night, a couple of minutes after midnight the call came. Contractions were strong and regular, coming about five minutes apart, and we were needed to come stay with the children.

Less than four hours after leaving for the hospital, Miss Esther Rebecca-Grace Pennington, came into the world. The story of her birth is an amazing one, to say the least. I said earlier that she came about 4:15. The reason I say about is because no one caught the exact time. Miss Esther was born abruptly in the bathroom under very tense circumstances, but, tonight, praise God! Both she and her mommy, are doing very well.

Miss Esther Rebecca-Grace Pennington

My dad has not been well the past few months and he's been particularly weak and feeble the past few weeks. The days leading up to the anniversary of my mother's passing has always been hard from him. I wish you could have heard the spark in his voice when I told him that Miss Esther had been born in the night, during the wee hours of the morning of the 25th of June. He sounded relieved and said, "Well, good! Maybe this date will be a better one now!"

I do feel bad that our daughter had to carry the baby so far past her due date, and I'm sorry that she and the baby had such a rough delivery, but I do praise God for blessing our family with such a special gift on a date that, previously, had carried such an air of darkness and sadness to it in our family's history.

Something else that I found interesting to note...

This afternoon upon returning from taking the grandlittles to the hospital to see their parents and meet their new, baby sister...on the way back to their house, I had to go by our house to grab a few things. While there, our soon-to-be-nine-year-old-granddaughter, Audrey, noticed the date on the "God in the Moment" (from Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts) flip-calendar that sits on the table next to our bed, and that it was still turned to a date back in April.

She said, "Nana, can I change the date on your calendar to today's date?"

I said, "Sure! Go ahead!"

After turning the calendar to today's date and reading it, my granddaughter said, "Oh, Nana! You've got to read this!"

I did. And here is what it said on today's date...the 25th of June...

"I drive out of dark and into morning glory. I push off of shadows and I awaken wide, to the strange truth that all new life comes out of the dark places, and hasn't it always been? Out of darkness, God spoke forth the teeming life. All new life labors out of the womb of darkness."

Wow. Somehow, in the moment that I read that, I felt that we had come full circle...that, somehow, right in that moment that we had passed from death unto life...from out of darkness into His glorious light!

Until next time...

All My Love,

~Rebecca

Our son-in-law, Patrick, and he and our daughter's four beautiful children.

My husband holding Miss Esther for the first time

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Five Minute Friday - Release

Five Minute Friday is a special time set aside each week where, as our hostess and inspiration, Lisa-Jo Baker, puts it, "We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt...no extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation. Unscripted. Unedited. Real."

Today's prompt is release. So...here...we...

Go!

Release - "allow or enable to escape from confinement; set free; allow (something) to move, act, or flow freely."

Anger.

Bitterness..

Resentment.

The only way to get over it and past it (whatever the 'it' in your life might be) is to choose forgiveness. By choosing to forgive you release yourself and others. But don't wait until you feel like it. Otherwise it will probably never happen.

HOW DO WE FORGIVE?

Forgiveness comes when you choose to obey God and resist the devil when he comes around trying to poison your mind with bitter thoughts. When that happens, purposefully choose to forgive and, in time, God will heal your wounded emotions.

Forgive yourself for past mistakes and mess-ups, and forgive others, too...including your enemies and those who have hurt, misused, and abused you. In doing so, you allow God to release you from a prison built of poison. In Luke 6:27-28, Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. Romans 12:14 tells us to bless them and not to curse them. By purposing to speak well of them and praying for them you are opening up an arena that God can work in...one in which He can give them revelation that will bring them out of the deception that has blinded them.

In choosing to forgive you, not only do you release yourself, but, if they'll receive it, the one that has hurt you is provided opportunity to be released as well.

Stop!

Until next time...

All My Love,
~Rebecca

Monday, June 16, 2014

New Blog Announcement - Life On The Tallgrass Prairie

Recently I've posted several posts about life on Southwest Missouri's tallgrass prairie. To better accommodate my readers, I've decided to start a separate blog, called Life On The Tallgrass Prairie, for the sole purpose of keeping all my posts about the prairie in one place.

I'm just getting started, but, if you have any interest at all in my posts about Life On The Tallgrass Prairie, I'd like to encourage you to, please, join me over at my new blog. You can do so by clicking HERE, then subscribing by e-mail.

Thanks so much!

All My Love,
~Rebecca