Memories of a life lived: Legos

My son, Justin Williams, used to get legos for every Christmas and Birthday. He had a BIG plastic tub full of legos. I home schooled him, and when I would go to work, he was at home with his books and his toys to keep him occupied.

Justin was always pretty obedient, and it amazed me sometimes just HOW obedient he was.

One day, I went to work. When I came home, I could barely get into the door. Something was blocking it. I squeezed in..then, in awe I looked around. There, laid out on the living room floor was a gigantic lego city, complete with schools, gas stations, churches, banks, roads with little lego cars and people going down them...

It MUST have taken him ALL DAY build this...and I DIDN'T HAVE A CAMERA!!!!!!!

Oh my.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, and with tears in my eyes I said quietly: "Justin, son, I REALLY hate to tell you this...but you have to pick up your toys."

When I heard what came out of his mouth next, the tears started flowing. I had to leave the room so he wouldn't see me cry.

"Yes, ma'am." No argument. No pleading. Just a simple, "Yes, Ma'am."

If he had argued with me that day, he probably would have won.

It's okay to be angry at God...

God doesn't care if you are mad at Him, so long as you are still obedient.

Read about Jonah, if you want proof. He stayed mad at God, and what he did for God, he did grudgingly.

I guess Jonah's story would be like God telling us Patriots to go to the land of Islam and tell them that God loves them, and if they don't repent and change their ways and follow Him, they are going to be destroyed. Many of us would say, go ahead, God, destroy them! But, it isn't the Christian thing to do.

It isn't what God would have us do, like it or not. And, when they have murdered our sons and daughters and tortured our loved ones and profaned our animals and our property...and THEN decide to turn and change their ways because one of us went to preach the love and mercy of our God to them, how many of us would be SOOO angry that God didn't still destroy them?

Jonah stayed angry at God. Will you?

Memories of a Life Lived: My Sister

When I was a kid, Sunday mornings were the only mornings that my parents got to sleep late. They never went to church until my later teenage years when life had dealt our family a lot of lemons. But, they didn't stop me from going to church, so I got up, got dressed, and without waking them, walked the two blocks down the dirt road, and around the bend to Faith Community Baptist Church where Brother Land preached every Sunday and Wednesday. I looked forward to that time -- and, if I didn't show up, Brother Land would later call and check on me. I think that is how he found out I had my tonsils out when he came to the hospital to see me and bring me my first Bible.

This particular Sunday, my sister, Keysha K Smith wanted to go with me. She was only three years old. I was six years older than her, about nine. She put on her shorts and her sandals and I took her by the hand and walked with her to church. I showed her her sunday school room (which was the nursery) and we enjoyed church together after.

When I got home, my parents were up and upset. They had been frantic, looking for Keysha. She was only a baby. They did not scold me, however, for taking my sister to church with me. They did make sure that I understood that I was not to take her again without telling them.

I will never forget that day for as long as I live.

Today, my sister, like me, loves the Lord, and is striving to put God first and let Jesus take the wheel, in spite of her humanity and in effort to set an example for her own children. I am proud of her.

Luke 2:49
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

Life is a Journey...

Life is a journey. The person you spend the most time getting to know is yourself. Your comfort zones are what determines the limitations you put upon yourself. And, I have determined to stretch beyond my comfort zones as often as I can, with-in reason, in order to find the limitations God has put on me. So far, I have found that the limitations I put on myself are far inferior to the ones that God has put on me. This makes me even more daring and fearless.

It also makes me realize how much of myself I do not know, and how much of myself I've forgotten I was. It drives me to seek answers that I thought I had already found, and makes me wonder if I will ever find the me that is somewhere inside.

I think, after deep thought on this, that the closest I have come to being me is when I determine and practice contentment in who I am at this moment.

It is probably all I will ever really, truly, know -- whether I understand it or not.