Category Archives: Parenting

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Matchless Love

We have recently been blessed by the birth of our first great-grandchild.

Alice Caroline Ledford

What joy she has brought to our family! We are thankful for her health and enjoying the response to her arrival from grandparents, aunts, great aunts and uncles, and second cousins.

Alice is surrounded by LOVE.

Our extended family is enamored of Alice and I am already being accused of dominating the available time for holding her. I just can’t seem to get enough cuddle time. I have to remind myself of the time honored advice – “let sleeping babies lie”. We haven’t had a little baby in our immediate family for 9 years and I now have “Grandma’s Precious” again. (It is hard to call grandsons who are over 6 ft. tall “precious”)

I was talking to my friend, Joyce, about God’s love for us and she was reminding me that God loves us – not because of what we DO – but because of who He is. We can never DO anything to make God love us more – His love is unconditional. As the old hymn states – God’s love is “so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all”

Our love for Alice is just a tiny reflection of God’s matchless love for us. Alice has not done anything to earn our love. She eats, sleeps, cries, poops, and repeats those behaviors – all to our delight. Delight because those behaviors demonstrate her health and development as a human being. Her crying doesn’t change our love. A messy diaper doesn’t change our love. A smile swells our hearts – but it doesn’t change a love that is already full to overflowing.

Ephesians 3: 18-19 explains the power of God’s love in our lives.

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

What a wonderful picture of God’s love for us! We can’t fully understand it – yet as I hold little Alice and my heart swells with love – I get a glimpse of my Father’s great love for me.

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Election Results

This is NOT a prediction of who will the 2024 elections on the local, state, or national level. As someone who has personally participated in 3 elections, I refuse to predict the outcome of any election. I won my first election, lost my second, and won the third. Election results will be reported when all the ballots are counted. I do believe we have dedicated individuals working to insure the integrity of our elections. This is one of the foundations of a democracy.

I am writing this instead to share my response to the results of the election – no matter what they are.

My daughter’s friend gave me a beautiful copy of a book I treasure. In “Every Moment Holy” there are prayers that help me focus on God’s purpose in a particular activity or circumstance. The following is “For Election Day” *

Whatever the outcome of this election,
let our citizenship and our hope be rooted
first in your heavenly kingdom, that we might 
live in exile here as winsome ambassadors of our
soon-returning King - 
         always in grace loving our neighbors well.
Amen

As a follower of Jesus I take elections seriously. I pray.

  • I pray for wisdom James 1:5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.“
  • I pray Matthew 6:10 “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”
  • I pray that I have an attitude of humility, knowing that – “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then (when Jesus returns) we will see everything with perfect clarity.” I Corinthians 13:12

Then I read about candidates, I read articles by individuals I respect who are writing about the election, and I talk to those I respect in certain fields of work (i.e. law enforcement, lawyers, business owners, etc.) who are also seeking God’s wisdom in how to vote. I try when possible to meet local candidates personally and find out their motivation for running.

One “test” I apply is finding out if, and how, candidates have served in their communities prior to running for office. (again if possible) I think that is a significant indication of how they will serve after elected. We are electing “public servants” not people who want to further their own agendas. Jesus clearly states that he who would be the greatest among you MUST be the servant of all.

So, how do I respond once the election results are confirmed?

  1. thank God that I live in a democracy where I have the privilege to vote
  2. pray for each one elected that they will seek God’s wisdom to serve and lead – again James 1:5
  3. accept the results as the will of God who places who He chooses in authority. Romans 13:1 “Be a good citizen. All governments are under God. Insofar as there is peace and order, it’s God’s order. So live responsibly as a citizen. If you’re irresponsible to the state, then you’re irresponsible with God, and God will hold you responsible. Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you’re trying to get by with something.“

When Phil and I were praying in 2018 about whether or not I should run in my first election, I came across the following verse while doing a Bible study I attend. Jeremiah 29:7 NLT – 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” The word peace there is “shalom” in the original Hebrew and shalom means “peace and wholeness that comes from God”. (I heard this in a recent sermon)

I felt the Lord impressed this verse on my heart for two reasons –

  1. work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you – God led Phil and I to live and raise our family in Jackson County. This is where we were “sent”, so I should work for the wellbeing of our community
  2. where I sent you into exile. My true citizenship is not in the United States, North Carolina, or Jackson County. It is HEAVEN! I am in exile here until Jesus comes back or He takes me home to heaven.

The context of this verse in Jeremiah is a time when God ALLOWED His chosen people to be captured by their enemy and sent into exile in – BABYLON!! Babylon was the epitome of godlessness in that day – yet God had Jeremiah tell His people to work for the peace and prosperity of that very place. God sent them to this pagan culture to learn a lesson they had failed to obey in the promised land.

And we complain about the state of our current culture…..which is undoubtedly of great concern – yet not compared to Babylon. God said their welfare will determine your welfare. God said that.

I am writing this two days before the election in 2024. God already knows the outcome.

My response to the results of this election will reflect if my hope and trust is really in the faithfulness of God. May God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Amen.

“Every Moment Holy” Volume III, For Election Day by Jessica Smith Culver & Douglas McKelvy, paragraph 3

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Mothering Mistakes

This picture shows 4 generations – 3 mothers. How blessed we were to have my mother with us until she went on to her eternal rest in the presence of her Lord and savior – Jesus. She lived on this earth until she was 90 years old – her body was becoming weaker, but her mind and spirit were strong until the end. Mother had heart surgery to repair a leaking heart valve. She was told the risk involved in surgery for someone her age and her words still resound in my heart when I miss her – “Gayle. either way I win! I will have a repaired heart and more energy, or I will be in the presence of Jesus!”

She won. She is in the presence of Jesus.

My mother talked often about her hope – the knowledge that she would dwell in eternity in the presence of God. She viewed her present sufferings “in light of eternity”, one of her favorite phrases. Sometimes I resented her attitude – “but now, in the present, this suffering is REAL”. I even saw it at times as an escape from facing the very real suffering in the present. Yet as I get older I appreciate more each day my mother’s faith in her Heavenly Father. Eternity is more real as more and more of my dear family, friends, and brothers and sisters in the Lord pass on from this life.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was thinking about how I would be as a mother. My mother was a wonderful mother. We always had a loving and respectful relationship, even in my teenage years. Yet I remember telling my mother “I think you are a great mother, but I won’t parent our child exactly like you did.” In her wisdom Mother replied –

“You are right, Gayle, you won’t make the same mistakes I made. You will make your own mistakes.”

What wisdom! I realize all these years later, with children 46, 45, 44, and 42 I certainly have made mistakes, and God’s grace has been there every step of the way.

In Ephesians 3:14-21 Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What a perfect prayer for mothers! Praying that God our Father would:

  • strengthen us through his Holy Spirit
  • dwell in our hearts through faith
  • cause us to become rooted and established in God’s love
  • empower us to grasp how wide, long, high, and deep God’s love is
  • quiet our hearts to KNOW that love
  • equip us to become filled with the measure of all God’s fullness

We have all made mistakes as mothers, and we will continue to make mistakes as long as we live in this fallen, broken world. Verse 20 gives me so much HOPE. God is able to to do “immeasurably more that we ask or imagine”. I can imagine wonderful things for my family, yet God’s plan is far beyond even my wildest dreams.

The final part of this prayer is the foundation of my hope – v. 21 – “to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout ALL Generations!” This promise is for me, my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, for ever and ever! AMEN!