Every Day is FryDay: February 2012

Talking to her niece, Virginia

The nurses were AMAZING!

Make up and a SMILE does wonders!

Big T and Mimi

Add caption

East Glen, her new home for awhile

She is in that ambulance

Judy taking her in some clothes!

Hello, everyone! Thanks for all the calls/emails and cards about MIMI! I have been out to Trussville every day for a week and by the time I return I pretty much cook/clean up and CRASH! I apologize for stopping in the middle of the study but I will get back. Since we got Mimi in East Glen for rehab, I won't be going every day. However, yesterday was her first day there and I am going today to help my sister get her some things from Elmcroft (her Assisted Living home) to take to East Glen (Nursing Home). we are trying to use the term, "REHAB CENTER" vs. Nursing Home. She asked , about 5 minutes after arriving, "How much longer do I have to stay here????" so, yes, it's going to be an adjustment. She went there in '07 and was soooo ready to get back "home" and she did her rehab and was OUT! However, that was when she was "just" 92 vs. 97! So, it's going to be harder for her to do the rehab. Please keep her in your prayers! Here's a few more pix from the past week....hugs

I'm almost second guessing myself on this choice for the Bible Study. Those who know me, REALLY know me, know that I buckle under discipline or criticism (just ask Terry or the kids! HAHA). I really don't like it. And here we go, right into MORE on this pruning. And then, BAM! God says, "It's FOR YOU." Geez. That hurt!!!!!!!! Yes, this lesson is MORE ABOUT pruning. "I JUST WANT THE FRUIT!" I have said to God. ANd I feel His smile. "not yet, Janice, Not yet"......

From our author:
"While early pruning is mostly about your outward activities and priorities, mature pruning is about your values and personal identity. God moves in close for more intensive pruning because by now you are ready to really produce......When Jesus told His friends what it would cost to follow Him, many turned back. Yet the impact of those who didn't is still shaking the world. If you know by now that God has a unique and important destiny for you---and you want it with all your heart--this lesson will take you across the next threshold to your future".

Wow, once again I feel slammed. Let me give you a personal story. Again. Sorry, it's all I have. HAHA. But, I have known for about 10 years that one of my gifts is Creative Communication. Sounds all smancy fancy but in reality, what it is (after going to a "Gifts workshop " where I took tests on my gifts, this one ALWAYS came up. EVen if I tried to cheat (yeah, that's pretty pathetic when you CHEAT at a church GIFTS workshop!). There are 2 gifts I have. THAT one and the gift of discernment. (That "D" word came into my head as a young woman and I had to LOOK IT UP IN THE DICTIONARY to even see what it meant!)!! HAHA! ANd yes, I have it. But I'm not talking about that one . At least today. It's the CREATIVE COMMUNICATION thing. For quite some time (about 10 years, I'd guess), I knew that Women's Ministry was what I was most interested in. Not to bore you, but I gave my first "talk" at a women's group and was 1. scared out of my shoes 2. flubbed the dub 3. left feeling like a fool. So, I doubt the women attending really got anything out it. All I got out of it was thinking, "I'll never do THAT again". (HA). But, for whatever reason, I guess b/c I have the "gift of gab" , I have been asked more than a few times to talk to women on a variety of Christian issues, mostly involving raising children, especially as a Christian mother, of which I have 5. (Next to the Duggars, I would say I know nothing! HAHAHAHA).Or talks on Emmaus Walks, etc. ANYWAAAAAY, fast forward b/c I can tell you're getting bored. Heck, I'm getting bored!!!!!! ~~LONG STORY SHORT~~. I had 4 good friends at my church come to me and ask me if I would lead a women's group. Not just a women's small group. I'm talking the whole women's ministry, of which there was NONE. AT DIFFERENT TIMES these 4 friends came to me. Here insert "spooky music". Yeah, it was weird. So, I dragged these 4 women with me into starting a women's ministry at a church where there was none. (this Methodist church didn't have ANYTHING for women, not even the UMW!). So, we did it. It was DIFFERENT/ FUN/INVOLVING/FULFILLING you get the drift---running out of adjectives here. So much so, that 2 other Methodist churches asked us to do one at THEIR church! I named it "SERENDIPITY" b/c that word means, "joyful surprise". I wanted the women to have just that each time we met. ANYHOO, it was a success but we changed churches and I heard, shortly after, it fell apart. NOW I'm getting back on track to tell you my latest pruning thing. Had to explain THAT first. SOOOOO, on this past Sunday morning, I went back to same church where "Serendipity" started b/c Natalie was singing and I love the music there. Lo and behold, as we were leaving, a girl grabbed my arm and said, "Would you help revive "Serendipity" here again?". Well, that blew my mind. I just stood there. Shocked. And said, without thinking, "um, I'll have to think about it". I WASN'T thinking. HAHA. And it reaaaaally shocked the jebbers outta me. She just stared at me as I blubbered and sputtered and I said, in passing, "I'll get back with you". OK, I do this AS I'M DOING/TEACHING THIS LESSON, NO LESS!!!!!!!!!!!! Um, TWILIGHT ZONE music is playing and I'm still standing as a deer in headlights!!!! And this, friends "will be continued...."!

"Mature pruning is God's way of helping you put into practice His command to "seek first the kingdom of God'. This is why God will always prune those things that we slavishly seek first, love most, and begrudge giving up. Again, His goal isn't to plunder or harm, but to liberate us so that we can pursue our true desire--His kingdom".

"...................We go thro long seasons in our faith wlak when we're unable to answer questions like WHY:? and HOW LONG? We only know Who--our loving Father--and He has proven worthy of our trust. He asks us to let go of reasons, of rights, of fears, and simply throw our arms around His neck."

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you been called to do something you feel you can't do?? Or maybe you have a control issue. Or, like me, don't like criticism.Maybe God is inviting you to follow Christ without the support of your closest family members or friends, how difficult that would be! The author says, " If so, He is pruning closely to what really matters to you-ot to take something good from you, but to become Lord of all you desire".

I know I have been just "floating along" my way the past couple of years. I know that God is calling me to do something but I have had those ear muffs on. It's so much EASIER to just "float", right???? NOT REALLY ! Because you feel that constant burr in your saddle!!!! I know God wants me to use those gifts He has given JUST TO ME for Him. What gifts do you have that you're not using??? A tender heart that can listen and comfort someone? Or maybe you have the gift of hospitality and your home is a welcome haven for others to come and eat and share. Or the gift of music--whether singing or playing an instrument. Or the gift of teaching--from early childhood Sunday School all the way up thro adults. Whatever it is you are good doing, God will make it even better if you just say "YES" to His call.Just when you think you can't do it, God will pick you up and give you the courage and support you need. It might not be easy, but will be well worth it. And if you feel you are being tested by God, keep trusting Him so that you will know that in ALL things He will be beside you. And in the testing, you will be stronger than you ever dreamed possible. I have been "Called out by God" thro someone else this week. What about YOU?

Bruce Wilkinson ends this session with these words:

"In pruning how you respond makes all the difference. You can complain, rebel, compromise, or run away. Or you can experience the joy, comfort and rest that come to disciples who keep their eyes on the prize, not the pain. Listen to Peter describe how some Christians in his day were triumphing in the middle of severe testing:
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold or that perishes, though it is tested by fire, maybe be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Hi, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. (I Peter 1: 6-8)

"Here, at this pint of believing with you, the last secret of the vine opens to you. You are ready to experience the sweetest abundance of all: the mystery Jesus called abiding."

Happy Valentine's Day, dear friends! May the love of Christ sustain and keep you always!!!!