AT MY BACK DOOR….

I didn’t plan it this way but it’s turning out to be one of my favorite beauty spots in my yard. And the smell of the Sweet Shrubs as wind blows in my window is outstanding. As I returned home from my visit to town today, I noticed them. They were standing at attention as I walked by. I just had to share them with you, right here. I wish it was where we could take a walk in my yard together and let me tell you their stories but we can’t because of time or miles, so I will try to do it here. Pretend you are walking with me let me tell you about them….

The Sweet Shrub is a plant that flowers often in the Spring and Summer. I have loved them since I was a little girl. My girlfriend and I would take a walk down our street and at one of the houses we could smell this sweet aromas that would stop you in your tracks. It brings back sweet memories when I smell them. A few years back a neighbor had some blooming in her garden and I ask her what it was and she said, “well that is an old fashion plant you don’t see much any more called Sweet Shrub”. It was like seeing an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. She was glad to share a piece of it with me to plant in my yard. Today I have it right by my door for others to enjoy…

One day I got a gift in a pot with beautiful flowers of a purple hue that was soothing to the eye. I enjoyed it for a good while in my home but later placed it in the ground beside my Sweet Shrub to enjoy as I walk out my door. Each year I can’t wait to see the color it will display. The soil has a lot to do with its color. The Hydrangeas have been around for years. You might want to read about them in your spare time at this interesting website
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/

Hope you have enjoyed our walk in my yard and the stories of a few of my flowers I love. My name being Mary, I can not tell you how many times people have said to me, “Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?” Well I have tried not to be contrary and I think I can say I have kept my garden well in my life time. I think I can say with pride….“It’s very well thank you”…..Enjoy my garden with me today!

I’M PROUD OF OUR COUNTRY…

Today is Memorial Day in America. I live in an area where people come for a vacation on long weekends like this. They came in to this mountain town on Friday camping in the campgrounds, renting cabins on the mountains or on the rivers. Some just come for a day for the slow life after living the fast pace city life. Oh and I don’t want to forget the ones who come to hike a trail we have lots of nice trails here including the Appalachian Trail. One day soon I’m going to write about our overnight hike we did several years ago you will not want to miss that!

So Memorial Day, what does it mean to you? I looked at what Wikipedia said about it and here is what I found:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. Service Members who died while in the military service.[1] First enacted by formerly enslaved African-Americans [2] to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War – it was extended after World War I to honor Americans who have died in all wars.

Do you know someone who gave his or her life for our freedom? I haven’t had anyone in my family, but I know so many other families who had to face the day of getting the message that their loved one died serving our country. Today while you are having a good time, stop in a moment of silence saluting the brave ones who died that we might have the liberty, that we just might be taking for granite. At that time also don’t forget to pray for those out there, today at this moment in their place, serving with dedication. Let’s don’t forget they are there…

HAVE YOU STOPPED TO SMELL THE ROSES?...

Someone told me this week they felt like a cat chasing their tail, can you relate? We all need to stop some of these things and take time to smell the roses? I think it is simple just kick back and relax here let the music play while you smell the roses! Imagine their fragrance as you take a look around as you slow down...

Sitting in our truck last week while Phil went into the bank, I made an observation. It was a busy time of the day at noon, people were racing by my window trying to get to the bank to be “first” or maybe they were on their lunch hour and had to make sure they did their banking transactions fast. I just sat and watched then I looked over and noticed the roses. Right in the front of the building these beautiful bushes were in full bloom of red roses. There they were displaying their beauty, no one was noticing as they ran by. It made me sad to think people were too busy to even notice they were blooming for the season and they would soon be gone for another year.

That’s when I got out of the vehicle and captured the moment with pictures to remember what beauty they had made for us to enjoy. Maybe we are too busy to STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES. So whatever you are doing today take time to stop and do three things. Exercise your senses, LOOK to see some beauty around you, LISTEN to the hear some sounds of silence even it you have to wait for the nighttime and hear some crickets or the first of the evening whippoorwills and SMELL the fragrance of a flower. I did that day, as I stood and took in the sweet fragrance of the many roses.

EMOTIONS UNDER CONTROL…

You looking for some help with keeping your  EMOTIONS UNDER CONTROL?  I know you can could use it…. I know we girls need a lesson on emotions, and men do too, they just don’t know it, sorry guys but it’s true!

Last month we attended an annual meeting of Life Coaches/Counselors, it was very productive and meaningful time. It was beneficial to catch up on what’s going on in our worlds. Each year we gather, catch up on the latest issues and see how we are doing in our own ministries, this economy thing has thrown a curve but I think it has been a good thing…makes you stop and take inventory on how you are spending your time and money. We all need that… God is not surprised by all the world’s issues that’s for sure!!!

One ministry, *Scope Ministries in Oklahoma City, OK, shared a session on "Emotions" and how to manage them. They shared their approach with their clients concerning Handling Emotions.  We received a pocket size card with very good information.  I want to pass it on to you. It’s simple but valuable for anyone to take along, as you might need it now or in the future.

EMOTIONS ARE:

MESSENGERS - Emotions are messengers of internal beliefs about God, self and others. Emotions remind us of our need to relate to God and see life from His perspective.

MESSY - When they seem more true than God’s Word. Emotions are messy when they become the final authority in our life, controlling our beliefs and behavior.

MANAGEABLE - The REED process is continuous and life-long. For our emotions to be manageable we must relate to God and allow Him to renew our minds with Truth.

THE REED PROCESS:

R- ecognize- your Emotions! Ask God to show you what emotions you are feeling.

E- xpress - your Emotions To God! He already knows them.  "I’m so mad I would…"

E- valuate- your Emotions In Light of God’s Word! Are my emotions in charge? What do they reflect about my beliefs?

D– cide- to Replace Your Thinking and Behavior With God’s Truth!

The above acrostic is a good tool to help live out each day guarding our mind and EMOTIONS. It encourages a healthy mindset allowing us to walk in the light and not darkness, enjoying each moment…. making a difference! Go have a good week… YOU CAN…..

*You might want to visit Scope at www.scopeministries.org

A WALK IN THE PARK….

We had the best time today! We’re in a cool spell right now, didn’t get up above the mid 50’s that’s unusual for this time of year. Made it nice for our walk in the park. Phil said, “let’s go around 2:00 this afternoon for our walk”. It was a jacket day with sweatshirt and jeans. Good thing I had left over winter things still in my jacket pockets, the headband and warm gloves came in handy. The wind was blowing a bit; the water was rushing over the stones in the river beside the trail. The active squirrels were out chasing each other, don’t know if it was mating season or they were enjoying the cool weather. We had it all by ourselves. The peace and quite was just what the doctor ordered, can’t wait until tomorrow’s walk…

After arriving home Phil said, “Do we still have some of my cookie mix Kay sent me from Vermont?” I knew what he wanted; it was a hint for me to rattle the pots and pans whipping up a batch of his favorite Gingerbread cookies. I thought, how he loves to smell the aroma through out the house. I love to see him walk over and take a look deciding which one he wants to try first, as he is trying to wait patiently for them to cool. I wanted to make him some of my best. I made them each so big he would have enough as he selected one. Here they are hope you can smell them, wish you could reach out and have one…

Hope you had as good a day like we did. Although it was a cloudy dreary day, we made it a good one designed just for us. See you next time with something that is going on around here in my life…….

YOU NEED TO BE BROKEN....

"YOU NEED TO BE BROKEN"... Are you reacting to those words? I think you might be, because when I said those very words to someone in our office one day, they reacted strongly! Later in his sessions, he understood the principle of Brokenness, a time of coming to the end of himself! After working through unmet needs, unhealed hurts and unresolved issues he was able to be free to become who he was created to be. I might add today, he and his wife have a very successful counseling practice. They’re leading people away from strongholds and teaching them about Brokenness. We still laugh about that day in our office 20 years ago. They both experienced the initial transaction of Brokenness. Afterward you are never the same and your life in Christ really can begin, like the children of Israel crossing over into The Promise Land. It doesn’t mean you will never have any troubles, you will. The difference is the bearers are torn down between you and Father. The children of Israel experienced small battles but they were BROKEN and lived His will instead of theirs....

So what does it mean to be Broken? As a wife with a strong will, I learned about it early in our marriage. One day Phil challenged me in a setting you don’t want to hear about. It was a bad day at Black Rock. I was determined to have my way. I said a lot of words loudly! To be honest, it was I doing all the talking, as he stood quietly. I felt so small. We finally came to the conclusion; we had to work on that!!! I am so glad we didn’t walk away leaving it unresolved. Phil said it was like a wild horse being broken, after I gave up MY reigns. It was then we were free to be me and he was free to be himself in the relationship. The “word picture” my husband used that day about the horse made me understand that our relationship with God works the same way. He wants us to let Him have control, walking by Faith in Him, trusting our life in His hands. It’s a time when we come into an understanding of who we are in Christ, developing the relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What Adam did in the Garden, Christ took care of on the Cross! He died for our sin, taking away our Old Nature and making us alive in our brand New Nature.

We attended a conference a few weeks ago. John Lynch, author of Bo’s Café was the speaker. He was such a great presenter. He had his wife Stacy share in one session on how they worked through some things. She described it perfectly, and brought the house down when she said, “I like me, you like me, so why don’t we be like me?” Well if you are in a marriage relationship you know things don’t go so well like that. God designed marriage to be a team sport but there has to be a captain and God says in Ephesians 5:23 the husband “IS” the head. Our relationship with Father parallels with the marriage relationship, a picture is worth a thousand words. Lets watch a video presented by a friend of ours, Katy Pistole. You might want to contact her and schedule a time where she can come to your group; she travels across the country with horse trailer in toe, serving Jesus wherever He sends her. As she presents Beautiful Brokenness with her horse Shooter, along with the testimonies of the women who have attended her conferences, let Father speak to your heart showing you His love as you watch…

TIME IS FREE….

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

I like that quote about time, seems like I am always busy doing something. Sometimes I feel like a “termite in a yo-yo” always moving, but not getting anywhere. At the end of the day, I feel like my time was spent but where did it go? Phil is a guy who has a plan and works his plan. Over the years I have tried to adapt to him in his plan. Sometimes I feel like Gomer Pyle, it must frustrate Phil but he is so kind and has been patient with me. I know it is a gift to be organized. Planning with goals and reaching them is exciting. It comes hard for me because I tend to me just “happy go lucky” and tend to waste time, but I’m working on it! One day I thought, we all need a little “tension on our strings” to make beautiful music. Time is Free and it is valuable, knowing we just have one life to live; it is more valuable now on this end of my life, after “getting” to have 67 years of this valuable life makes me want to spend it wisely….

I have heard Phil teach about life being like having LIFE DOLLARS. I ask him to write it out for me to share here about time and how valuable it is. Here is what he says, “Life is like a Bank Account filled with “Life Dollars”. It is a peculiar account in that it is refilled each week with 168 “Life Dollars”. It is up to us to decide what we do with each “Life Dollar”. We can spend them, there’s some value here, we can waste them, there’s no value here, of course. But we can invest them. That’s where the value is. There are all kinds of investment opportunities. It is up to us to discover what opportunities (investments) are best suited for us. Which ones fit my personality best? Which ones pay the best interest…. eternal interest!”

Nothing is wrong with stopping and stepping back taking a breath in this fast pace world. I love to Retreat to a quite place!!! Read what I found in one of my journals today in an entry from Feb. 2011 – “Guess what I did today? Nothing!!! Outside, it’s cold, rainy and the wind is rattling the siding on our house, it’s blowing so hard. That makes for a good day to wear my “comfee clothes”, as our grandson calls it, all day, yes all day. I read a little, sipped on my hot tea, took a nap, read some more, watched the wind blow the trees out the window, saw a few snow flakes in the air, dreamed about next summer being on the beach in the hot sun". I love to look back in my journal to see what I was doing on a certain day, see I did take some time for me. On days like today it helps to be reminded to do it again!

Here’s a quote from a Blog I follow. This guy is from England and his English accent even comes through as you read his written words about his "time investments". I do like what he is saying about Time being free in his words. Listen to what he has to say, he calls it, HOLY POTTERING “I've been pottering today. It's what I do when I'm really tired and can't concentrate on important tasks. I've had a really hectic spell on the road and arrived back on Sunday afternoon feeling shattered. I don't often reach such a point of emptiness, but I did on Sunday, so I'm grateful for a gentler week ahead of me, and the time to potter. Someone, for whom English is not their mother tongue, asked me what it means to potter. The dictionary says to potter is to work in a leisurely manner, to dawdle, to take one's time. I find it really helpful sometimes to spend my time doing 'little things', and to do them slowly. Like tidying my desk, putting my books away, re-organizing my rucksack. Doing things that aren't high priority requires less of an effort, and when we do them at a leisurely pace we find that are souls have time to catch up with our bodies and we can come back to a place of wholeness and integration. A wise friend once spoke to me about 'holy pottering', and I guess that's what I've been doing today. It feels really good. Why not try it?”

Time is valuable, the way we use it shapes our future. I heard one time we are what we do. I want to take time to live in the moment by taking a day off, having “HOLY PUTTERING” time. This allows one to evaluate how they are doing in this life. So I think I will go right now and "spend some of my time" investing in the "here and now", the cobwebs of the past few months can be cleared out, seeing clearly what I want and what I plan to do for an "investment in the future". This hammock looks like a good place to start. I think I'll pretend I'm there relaxing having a meeting with me, myself and I! Come with me if you want. OK! Close your eyes and let's pretend, smell the ocean air and feel the breeze...AH!!!!

FROM MY MOTHER’S HEART…

I will never forget we had just been married for a few days, some of you know our story we married young. I was 18 and Phil was 16, he was still in High School. I had graduated the year before. His principle Mr. Thornton, told us in his office one day after hearing we had eloped and Phil was now his first student attending school married. He said, “ Ok Phil, you can finish your education here but what ever you do don’t get your wife pregnant” and he said that very sternly, as we sat there in fear and trembling. After getting composed, Phil said, “Oh Mr. Thornton you can count on us we want!!!”….…..well five months later…..we both woke up sick and after a week we were thinking we had the flu. We went to the doctor and after test the doctor came in and said, “well congratulations, you’re going to have a baby”. We sat there thinking, Oh No, how will we tell the principle!!!

Nine months later we had a beautiful baby boy, we named him Robert Lee Mason, calling him Robbie. I took on a new role of being a brand new Mother. And by the way, Phil finished High School and Robbie was there for his Dad’s graduation. We all were so proud to see him walk the aisle getting his diploma. He worked several jobs to support us while attending school, insisting I be a “stay at home mom” for his family.

Then, three and a half years later, I knew when I woke up one morning I had that sickness and it was not the flu, this time I went to the doctor and again heard the news and July 27th Robbie had a little baby brother, we named him Phillip Wayne Mason and he would be called Phillip. I now became twice a Mother.

Over the years now, 48 of them for Robbie, 44 for Phillip they have not one day caused me to second guess this awesome role of being a Mother. I love it when I get their cards with expressions of the words from their hearts, and now in modern times, I will get a text that says, “thanks Mom” when I text them with an encouragement when they are facing a stressful time in their lives. I love it when my two guys are walking with their Dad and from behind I can’t tell which is which. They are two good-looking strong gentlemen that make me proud to be their Mom. And when they hold the door for me, or assist me with something to help me I just love it!!! I can’t say enough about this blessing of the title called Mother. And this coming Sunday all over the world there will be Mother’s smiling while their children express their love to them in a visit, call, card or Skype for those who live a long distance.

I can’t close without reflecting on the days of my first memory as a child until age 36 having my wonderful Mother who loved me and cared for me until her Home going. She was an excellent wife and mother who taught us how to follow in her footsteps. She was a dear woman who always put others first at her funeral it was a packed house of people we did not know her life touched. So to Mary Myrtis David I say, “thank you for being my Mother, I can’t wait to see you one day on the other side, I Love You!”……

WHAT TIME OFF CAN DO FOR YOU…

We didn’t want to go, had things to do, a storm was coming we had to stay home to watch after “our stuff”, but all signs said to “all steam ahead”, so we packed as excitement started setting in. I love it when you are all packed, you go to bed knowing that early in the morning you’re going on the long awaited trip….

It was time to attend the annual conference for Association of Exchange Life Ministries to meet with our fellow counselors. That was the initial reason to make the trip to Myrtle Beach. And of course, to hear our guest speaker, John Lynch, the Author of Bo’s Café, a book I had read and enjoyed so much. If you haven’t read it you must! That was a first for me, to read a book, then get to see and hear the one who wrote it. He turned out to be more than I had expected. As his sessions ended, I sat there still wanting more…I love it when that happens!

You can see for yourself we had the perfect view from our room on the sixth floor over looking the Atlantic Ocean. Just a few feet after getting out of the elevator you could walk out on a long pier and see fishermen trying for their big catch. One interesting fact, at the end of the pier, the fishermen was lined on one side. We were told that in the springtime they fish off to the right side to catch Kingfish. These fish are heading north upstream in this vast ocean, it’s hard to get my head around that. Just think, God made them able to know when to travel and where to travel. In the Fall, the fishermen fish off the left side to catch those going back down for migration. That is such a wonder, but I wanted to lean over the side and shout, “swim for your life”! I wouldn’t have done that because looking at those eager fishermen I might have been “fish bait”, ouch! Well thankfully, while we were watching, I did not see one get caught. Now don’t ask me if I hesitate while sitting in a fancy Kingfish restaurant out on the West Coast ordering one of their delicious dishes made with…”you got it!” Kingfish!!! Ah umm, that’s different!....

The reason we came was evident soon as it got under way. The first night, it was good seeing our friends, being around those of the same “genre”, so to speak. There are people from all over the country and a couple of folk from foreign countries in our Care Giving group. We were all encouraged afterwards saying it was the best one yet! Being counselors, or those “showing the hurting The Way to New Life”, we need to be among each other more often. It’s like the “Iron Sharpening Iron” effect. John Lynch did such a great job, he was such a good presenter, a very humble man. His style was with dramatics, which made me able to see what he was saying so well. Word Picture style of teaching is my unique way of learning makes me retain it longer. It was truly a blessing from beginning to end.

Coming home, I realized how important it is to “Take Time Off” from the routine of life. It allows you to grow and see what is out there beyond our old ways of doing things. That can become a rut, before you know it, if we are not careful. I want to always stay fresh and new, living my life like God created me and with a purpose. One “take away” I had was one statement John made. Speaking from Galatians 6: 1 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted”. He said, “as we affirm those we come in contact with we will draw their new nature out of them “. I sat there thinking, what an honor we have to “get” to work in the lives of people Father sends across our path. I don’t want to ever take it for granite, the work He has called us to do.

So this year’s conference came to a close. As the last worship song was sung and the last prayer was prayed I went away thinking how I look forward to packing up and heading out next year to a location somewhere in the USA to join with our fellow workers. We are one when we are together sharing the one thing we do called “Jesus Work”… Taking this time really made me feel refreshed and energized, I can see how Taking Time Off is truly a good thing…..

(Just a side note please visit JL's website and take in all he has to offer. You will glean from his sharing and love his style go look at http://boscafe.com/?cat=4 you will want to bookmark this one too!!!)