Tragedy Strikes

On Thanksgiving Day the best and brightest little puppy that ever lived left us in a twinkling of an eye to grieve a hole in our hearts that seems impossible to fill. We are consoled by the fact that he was euphorically happy when he ran across the street and never knew what hit him. As someone once said, the best place to bury a dog is in your heart and that is what we intend to do. We have many precious memories of our two years together and if there is another dog in our future it will be because our joy with Beau made it so!

Give Thanks!

"O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

1 Chronicles 16:34

I Remember Mama

No, not the movie from 1948 with Irene Dunne but from my own life with the 31 short years I had with my mama. As I prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week I can’t help but remember and give thanks for my mother. It was 24 years ago this Friday that she died from breast cancer and was buried on my birthday, November 30, 1985.

In counting my blessings my mother is always close to the top of this list (my Savior is always first). To borrow a line from the movie… “But first and foremost I remember mama with her secret bank account and her wide open heart for other people’s troubles.”

Mother didn’t have a secret bank account but she lived on a budget and out of that budget she was able to put aside a little bit of money to provide for her family the little extras that the budget didn’t allow. She did without so that her children wouldn’t.

Mother loved her friends as though they were her sisters and she grieved with them and for them. I remember every Friday as she prepared for company – the cleaning and baking and ultimately the joy that an evening of fellowship over “Forty-two” would bring.

I remember her commitment to her Lord and Savior and I saw it lived out on a daily basis. I remember her commitment to sharing her love of Christ through teaching children. She taught 1st grade Sunday school for 32 years and only stopped when the cancer wouldn’t allow her to continue. She shared that love with me and I too have been blessed to carry her work on in teaching children the life saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

I remember her commitment to her husband and how she loved him. She was indeed his helpmate. She never worked outside of the home but she divided her time between his business and the family so that both were taken care of.

I remember how she loved me and my sister. She supported us in the things that were important to us and she saw to it that we did the things that would make us grow. When zoning took place as I was entering high school and was forced to enroll in the “rival” school, my mother made me join the drill team there. Though I knew no one and truly did not want to do it, ultimately, at the end of high school I had won one of the top offices in the drill team and had many new friends which included my future husband!

I remember how she loved her son-in-laws and how they loved her. I don’t know how it happened exactly but long before Tony and I were married he was calling her Mom and meaning it.

I remember how she looooooooooooooved her grandchildren and was always more than willing to babysit!!














I remember wonderful Sunday lunches after church, family reunions planned by mother, her fun sense of humor, painting lessons at Montie Beach Park, and summer trips to her mother’s in Lockhart.

I remember how hard it was to let my mama go but what a relief it was and is to know that I will see her again one day. I love you, mama!

"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. " Proverbs 31:10-12

The Withered Fig Tree

"And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered. Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?" Matthew 21:17-20

The blighted fig tree was a apt simile of the Jewish state. The nation had promised great things to God. When all the other nations were like trees without leaves, making no profession of allegiance to the true God, the Jewish nation was covered with the leafage of abundant religious profession. Scribes, pharisees, priests and elders of the people were all sticklers for the letter of the law, and boaster of being worshippers of the one God, and strict observers of all his laws. Their constant cry was, "The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these." "We have Abraham to our Father" was frequently on their lips. They were a fig tree in full leaf. But there was no fruit upon them; for the people were neither holy, nor just, nor true, nor faithful towards God, nor loving to their neighbor. The Jewish church was a mass of glittering profession, unsupported by spiritual life. Our Lord had looked into the temple, and had found the house of prayer to be a den of thieves. He condemned the Jewish church to remain a lifeless, fruitless thing; and it was so. The synagogue remained open; but its teaching became a dead form. Israel had no influence upon the age. The Jewish race became, for centuries, a withered tree: it had nothing but profession when Christ came, and that profession proved powerless to save even the holy city. Christ did not destroy the religious organization of the Jews: he left them as they were; but they withered away from the root, till the Romans came, and with the axes of his legions cleared away the fruitless trunk.

What a lesson is this to nations! Nations may make a profession, a loud profession, of religion, and yet may fail to exhibit that righteousness which exalteth a nation. Nations may be adorned with all the leafage of civilization, and art, and progress, and religion; but if there be no inner life of godliness, and no fruit unto righteousness, they will stand for a while, and then wither away.

~ Charles Spurgeon

Nations withering away! What about the nation that has turned it's back on God. In Isaiah 3, we see that one way God may bring judgment on a nation is to curse them with incompetent, ungodly leaders. Often, this is the simplest avenue of judgment: giving people what their wicked hearts desire. The terrible effect of this judgment of God, the granting of incompetent and ungodly leaders, will be certainly seen, apart from the repentance of a nation and the mercy of God.

"Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him"

Isaiah 3:11

Thursday Thoughts

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3

As we have been studying the book of Matthew, we have seen how he has been laying out the answer to how to enter the Kingdom of heaven. We have seen that in order to enter the Kingdom there must be repentance (Matt. 3:2, 4:17, 9:13). There must be a sense of unworthiness (Matt.5:3). There must be humility (Matt. 5:4-5) . There must be a willingness to submit obediently to the Lordship of Christ and confession and self‑sacrifice and a persistent pursuing faith (Matt. 7:21, Matt. 8:19, 10:32, 15:21-28). None of these elements are produced in the flesh. They are all the work of the Spirit of God. But they are nonetheless the elements, the constituent parts that occur in the soul that is brought to the Kingdom.

And now we come to Matthew 18 where the disciples have asked "who is the greatest in the Kingdom"? How we must weary the Lord at times. Jesus has told them that He must suffer at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees, that He is going to die and He's given them all of that information and they still don't get it.

They're still saying, in effect, we know the Kingdom is coming and we know You're going to set it up and who is going to be the greatest in it? And they're looking at the Kingdom in its earthly definition. They were seeking self‑glory, prestige, prominence and Jesus had just been teaching them, chapter 16:24, that if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me, let him lose his life if he wants to find it. And He's been talking about self‑denial and humility all along. And they still are self‑seeking, grasping, desiring prominence. They are all about self glory!

So Jesus answers them with the picture of a little child in His arms. We are to convert to turn around and become as a child. What is a child like? A little child is humble, simple, unaffected, without hypocrisy, unambitious...that's a little child...meek. Children don't have great thoughts of personal greatness and grandeur and glory for themselves. They're not even conscious about what they wear. They get irritated when you try to dress them up. They're simple, little tender infant in Jesus' arms, so open, so without hypocrisy, so content to be held and directed and fed, so content to be dependent, so willing to submit, so unpretentious. Nothing between them and Jesus!!


Make me, O Lord, a child again, so tender, frail and small.
In self possessing nothing, in Thee possessing all.
O Savior, make me small once more that downward I may grow,
And in this heart of mine restore the faith of long ago.
With Thee may I be crucified, no longer I that lives.
O Savior, crush my sinful pride by grace which pardon gives.
Make me, O Lord, a child again, obedient to Thy call,
In self possessing nothing, in Thee possessing all. ~ Author Unknown

The Greatest Generation...

and what I found to be true having lived in my father's house.

These men, many of them boys, had grown up through the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War One. They knew the meaning of sacrifice whether it was in material possession or in blood, sweat and tears. They took responsibility for themselves and had the initiative to set a goal and see the objective through to its completion. Honor, character, and love of country was the pillow they laid their heads on every night and loyalty to duty was the call of reveille they woke to every morning. They did not brag about their service nor did they whine - they had a job to do and they did it. They came home from the war and built our country into an economic powerhouse. As children of this generation, we were taught to live within our means and were given a powerful work ethic. They were not perfect but they were a cut above. They were not focused on self - they were focused on providing for their families the security they did not have growing up.

I am grateful for my Dad's service to this country. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge and I cannot imagine what he and so many others endured. But the greatest gift he gave me was having me in church every Sunday where I came to know my Lord and Savior. Of course, had many of these men not fought, died and ultimately won, I may never had had that opportunity.

Below is the note that was written on the back of Dad's picture. It was written to his mom while he was somewhere in Belgium in 1944. I'm sure many moms received many similar notes.

Remember to thank all of our service men and women! They deserve our support!

Happy Veterans Day!

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:13

This Done In Remembrance Of Gary

My brother-in-law, Gary, turned 49 on Tuesday but sadly he and his family live in Illinois. So in honor of his birthday, Tony and I went to one of the family's favorite restaurants and had chicken fried steak (with extra gravy) to celebrate. Though, it might not have been the healthiest choice on the menu we did go with a half order and made the sacrifice of our cholesterol levels all for the little brother we love!

I thank my God every time I remember you

Philippians 1:3

Thursday Thoughts

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

Psalm 23:4

Behold, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy Ghost can make the Christian! What a bright light may shine within us when it is all dark without! How firm, how happy, how calm, how peaceful we may be, when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of the earth are removed! Even death itself, with all its terrible influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian’s heart, but rather makes that music become more sweet, more clear, more heavenly, till the last kind act which death can do is to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly chorus, the temporal joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the blessed Spirit’s power to comfort us. In thee, my God, my heart shall triumph, come what may of ills without! By thy power, O blessed Spirit, my heart shall be exceeding glad, though all things should fail me here below. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those affected by the tragic events at Fort Hood today!

Happy Fall

This has been an absolutely gorgeous weekend in Houston with the lows in the 5o's and the highs in the low 70's and not a cloud in the sky!! To celebrate, Tony and I spent part of yesterday in Old Town Spring eating, shopping and buying. If there is one thing you can always count on us buying it is fudge from The Little Dutch Girl and behind that kettle corn. Of course, there were additional purchases made that you may or may not see in the pictures I've included. (It's just a shame that I couldn't look as good as the weekend! Ha! No more pics of me with the iphone - obviously it adds 10 years and 20lbs.)

It was obvious that Old Town Spring has suffered from the current economy but it was nice to see it bustling yesterday. Hopefully, the stores that are still open will have a successful Christmas season. We tried to do our part yesterday and I saw a beautiful light fixture that we might have to go back and get. :-)

The picture frame Tony bought was for his desk and he filled it with a sonogram for now. I have to confess that shopping for the baby is one of my favorite past times!

The day ended with a lovely invitation from Jeremy and Meagan to watch the Longhorns beat the Cowboys. And the Longhorns did not disappoint!! Additionally, with the time change we had an extra hour to sleep! What a wonderful weekend - I hope everyone had a beautiful fall fun weekend!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6