Treasures Unearthed This Summer

It is cold wet and rainy this morning, and fall weather is here to stay, with maybe a few more days reaching 80 degrees. I absolutely love this time of year! I can hardly believe that I'm looking into the month of October in our family devotions book! I got up early this morning to nurse Cyrus, and felt the woo of inspiration beckoning me to write, and attempt to catch up on life's glorious events around here. But, as quiet as I was, I still managed to awaken our newest blessing, Marylou. She's our little one pound ball of blond fluff comprised of the match between a 5lb. Maltese and a 4lb. Poodle. She stretched out in Milly's comforter, rearranging the soft down feathers, and began wagging her 2 inch tail at me, saying something like, "Oh! Somebody's up and ready to play!" So, the time I had hoped to journal, once again got eaten up with something more fun to do. I've been watching as she and Emma (our blessed 10 year old lab) played in the dreary wet dawn, and finally, after and hour of munching on puppy food, wrestling with my hand, and pouncing in my lap, I kenneled her until the kids got up. I've tried to type three different times, and now the house is stirring with ever increasing activity as everybody slowly rises and starts a lazy Sunday. Milly got up to start our huge Sunday brunch with Daddy, what's now become a family tradition, with homemade organic pancakes, strawberries, freshly made whipped cream, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, melons, coffee, juices, chocolate almond milk, and sometimes eggs. IHOP can eat their hearts out! It has become so famous locally that the children's friends ask to come spend a Saturday night as opposed to Friday just to enjoy this ritual of true Southern comfort. I'll try to at least begin my musings, although, my "to be continued" syndrome may eventually overtake this endeavor.

Before the heat of summer set in, some of our closest friends, Rick and Dot Overpeck's son and daughter-in-law, Kim, with their three children, moved to Hawaii. They were a source of true fellowship and lasting, safe friendships for our entire family. We spent just about every day with them as they prepared to relocate overseas. School came to a screeching halt, and support (in the form of a lot of fun, like picnics, park days, and evenings at the lake with Rick and Dot) for this precious family took over our schedule. We had a blast, and grew closer than ever as they approached moving day. They left in late April on a very sad Saturday. We've missed them so much!

On the heels of that departure, Rick and Dot themselves left for Alaska for the summer. The trip had been planned since late last year, and they wanted to experience the unmatchable beauty of the high country, if only once more in this life. Now our fireside chats at the lake, our Sunday morning breakfast company, and our Bible study companions would be gone. As I started to become lonely and sad at the loss, even if only for awhile, the Lord began to speak.


I realized that we would be all alone, in a sense.


Curtis has had us "unchurched" since early last year, and I had never quite settled into that: no regular services, corporate worship, or fellowship....at least within the confines of an organization. Even our visits to local home churches held by good friends didn't fit the bill for him just yet. I had wrestled all last year with feeling like "church hoppers", and wondering how in the world our children would grow up knowing and understanding what was expected of them as productive citizens of society by faithfully attending a local fellowship. Yet, when I saw the need to buckle down and accomplish some backed up school work, bring the house back into fine tuned order, and avoid the all consuming Texas heat on its way, I realized that I had a jewel presented to me. I had reasons and justification to cocoon our family and virtually shut the world out for awhile to make up for lost time in some critical areas. No need to meet anyone else's schedule, any demands of commitment outside the home, or take time to maintain friendships, as long as everybody understood our latest venture. So, we sent out emails to friends and family explaining that we would be off the planet for about four months in pursuit of a galaxy of unexplored wonders in education and family values, all the while hoping for words from the Lord concerning our church affiliation and fellowship. In a nutshell.........we were to wait, wait upon the Lord.

I quieted my soul for the first time concerning church, or no church, as it is, and fell into line behind my husband, with an inner knowing that God was truly moving and working in our family. I could not deny the miracles continuing in Curtis' life, within our home, and on the job front, and I was comforted to understand that God wasn't simply "waiting for Curtis to get his act together" to plant us somewhere within a local body of believers. He was actually leading this trek of quiet seclusion. I had no idea of the hidden benefits our entire family would encounter along the way.....thus treasures unearthed!

At the beginning, around late May, we began to sit down every morning around 10:00am, after chores were done, chickens were out, dog and cat were fed, and clothes were on, to read the daily devotions in the "Devotions for Kids" book. That got us into the Word with an easy to understand theme basic to Christian living. What I found, though, was that I'd read the recommended verses, and have quite a bit of my own commentary to add before we even read the book's ideas. I found that with each set of verses, I'd remember some story in my history that gave evidence that these verses were very real and authentically from the Lord. Some days, the stories were so tender and close to my heart that our little family devotions became a place to share my life story with my children, testimony of God's protection, provision, power, grace, consequences of wrong choices, and rewards of right choices. I'd wind up with daily challenges for the kids to simply try the Lord and see if He works......maybe something like, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."

At one point, I realized that I had been to seminars, read books, and listened to teaching to mold and shape my beliefs that the children have never seen, heard, or read. Yes, we've certainly been in church, all of their lives, and we've gone to a handful of conferences with the older ones, but I questioned, "What, exactly, lit my fire? What placed in me such passion and willingness to believe, without question, the Bible?" Then I realized that I kept referring to things I had heard or read, and how they impacted certain decisions. I decided right then and there that the children had to know, first hand, those same things from the same sources. If it was good enough to get me there, then it would work just as well to usher them into the same personally owned faith to experience for themselves the Lord and all He has for them. I've told them all before that I can only tell my story and dictate what will and won't be within our home based on my beliefs, but I cannot change their minds or control their thoughts, or what they choose to believe in the end. That was totally between that person and the Lord. But I will do everything within my power to convince each son or daughter of the absolute truth of His Word, and his total dependence to live life resting on his decision to, or not to, believe that Word!


This revelation of the need to "introduce" the children to the great men and women of faith, the great books and material that I had read, started me scouring eBay for those same old publications. And I found them! You gotta love eBay!


I found the book I remember Mom reading to us "When Angels Appear". This one had authentic stories of supernatural experiences from individuals who had been rescued, comforted, or delivered a messages to by angels. The author, Hope MacDonald, took great care to explain that angels are sent by God, servants of our Great King, and not to be worshipped. In fact, they are not to be contacted outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyway, the stories so build your faith and confidence in a God who takes the time to minister to us through His angelic hosts, and cushion (sometimes literally) the way for us. The children couldn't wait to get to the next story, and putting that book down was extremely difficult each morning!


After that livening up of our morning family time, I introduced them to Harold Hill. He authored "How to Live Like a King's Kid". I vaguely remember reading that book somewhere around nineteen years old. What stayed fresh and sharp in my memory was story after story he told of his own experiences living life in the fast lane with Jesus orchestrating divine appointments, answered prayers, and miracles out of otherwise ordinary experiences in daily life. I had no idea that by digging up this old book, I'd bring about revival and fresh revelation in my own life! Morning devotions grew to an hour or an hour and half long, and we would all speak of them with close friends, and talk about answered prayers each of us were beginning to experience. Soon, friends began calling during that reknowned hour asking for us to lift up specific prayer requests on their behalf that day! And the fun has only just begun!