My Grandmother's Pearls

After a recent visit with my 86 year-old grandparents on their farm, it left me feeling nostalgic. Watching my children play, explore and discover the same things and places that I had once enjoyed as a girl brought back so many happy memories. It was surreal and wonderful; the circle of life unfolding before my eyes.

My grandmother, perhaps sensing that time was precious, gave me a wonderful gift: her pearl necklace, given to her by my father, as a birthday gift. She kept them in a red jewelry box and carefully placed the box in my hands. "I wanted to make sure you got these because your father gave them to me. I had them restrung; they are pretty, don't you think?" My eyes swelled with tears as I ran the tip of my finger over the lovely strand of pearls. "I love them. Thank you." I said and we hugged, noticing the fragility of her petite body. It was a perfect moment. A memory to be filed away and reflected upon years later. Perhaps someday I will sit with my granddaughter and give her this precious keepsake; completing the circle of life.

Although my life-style doesn't present itself with many opportunities to wear my cherished pearls, perhaps I can imitate June Cleaver and wear them while vacuuming or washing dishes. I could greet my husband with high-heels and pearls, my hair perfectly coiffed and a lightly starched apron tied around a sleeveless sundress...Rod might wonder if he's in the twilight zone or if I gulped down all the cooking sherry! In the meantime, my pearls will represent a cherished keepsake given by those we love.

Catching Up

Since my computer was down for 2 1/2 weeks, I feel like I'm playing catch up this week. It's amazing how once we were all perfectly content without the Internet, and now, we don't know what to do when we can't surf. After pilfering through my 250 emails, and catching up on my usual sites, I decided to sit down and write. The guys are out swimming at Mam-maw's and it's quiet. Just me and the animals doing laundry and picking up from a weeks' worth of overactive lives leaving their mark on our dwelling.

It's been quite busy in the Newcomer household...where does one start? The first catastrophic event was Alex accidentally whacking his younger brother, Andrew, in the head with a golf club. Of course, I was inside at the time, and Alex runs in crying and yelling babble about blood and an eye out. I follow him outside to discover my 5 year old screaming and holding a wound which is pouring blood onto the concrete driveway. Honestly, my first instinct was to pray, and loudly; secondly, to figure out where the blood is coming from...his eye, his head, his hand? I moved his blood-soaked hand and realized, thank God, that it was his temple, not his eye that was cut. I yelled to get my neighbor, Julie, who is an RN, and ran inside to get a rag to soak up some of the blood running out of his head like a garden hose. Like a pro, Julie runs over barefoot and dressed in her work clothes, scoops Andrew up and stops the bleeding. She was so awesome in calming us all down, especially Andrew, and took us to the emergency room. Andrew got the surgical-glue treatment, which is so much better than stitches, and was sent home like nothing had happened. It took me until the next afternoon to get over it....my insides were still shaking! I had Alex water-hose the driveway down...I just couldn't look at the blood. Of course, Andrew is fine, and at school, he proudly presented his battle wound to his classroom. Kids are so resilient!

Since this post is mostly about Andrew, I must mention that his 6th birthday was Saturday! We had family and neighbors over for a cookout. Happy Birthday, my big, tough guy! I love you!

Clean Hands!

Aidan, my 3- year old, is obsessed with washing his hands. I'm not sure if it's classified as OCD, but it has become a little obsession. He will spend several minutes lathering and lathering the soap into a bubble Mecca, and when I recommend rinsing, he freaks out like I've committed some carnal sin of hand washing. It's a little disconcerting. We were at my in-laws a couple of weeks ago, and I announced to my boys to go wash up before dinner. Of course, Aidan was still in there as we were all sitting down to eat since his hand washing episodes take several minutes longer than the average person. My mother-in-law, concerned with whether or not his food would get cold, asked if we should wait for him and I explained our daily dilemma of unusual hand washing behavior. I said, "He even sometimes washes his forearms." Andrew, my 5-year old declared, "He doesn't have 4 arms, only two, Mommy!" We all had a good laugh and Aidan finally joined us, germs fully killed by the Goddess of Soap and Lather! I blame his father.

A New Season

Last Fall I joined a women's bible study group through my church and, I must admit, at first I wasn't really "clicking" with most of the women. I felt too worldly, like perhaps I had too much baggage, and just wasn't on their level Spiritually. Due to my own insecurities, I felt somewhat judged. Since women can be such critical, petty and jealous beings, it takes me awhile to let my guard down. Then something amazing happened. Slowly, I began to allow these women into my heart. I began to realize how much their love for God and doing His will had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Him. I started to feel at home in their presence and welcomed in their hearts. The leader told me the other day how much she loved me and what a blessing I was to the group. Me? A person with too much baggage and not enough grace a blessing? No, it's not me, I realize now, it's Him.

Just like God changes the seasons on our planet, so does he change the seasons of our lives. Adding and taking away friendships, jobs, success and failures, peace and sorrow. It's all apart of His divine plan. To finally be able to lay it all at His feet and humbly admit that we are NOTHING without His mercy, grace and love. To be able to not only praise Him during the quiet and peaceful times, but praise Him through the storm. To stand still and bask in His Glory! To know that He alone is God.

Beth Moore says she can't wait to meet the ultimate Drama King, Our Lord...for He must really like a good drama...just look at the creatures He created. I'm so thankful God has His divine eye on me and praise Him during this peaceful and spiritually growing season. I'm on the edge of my seat, anxiously awaiting the next season....get a bowl of popcorn and join me for the drama, won't you? It's going to be a wild ride.

Becoming a Man

Since I'm a woman, I have never really pondered the age-old question: "What makes a man a man?" However, my 7 year old was convinced that armpit hair would make him a man, until of course, my mother pointed out that she had armpit hair. He was devastated! What? How could a grandmother have armpit hair...that isn't MANLY! That's just gross!

Secretly, though, his heart's desire is to have just a few sprigs to jump-start his "manhood". While I was making his breakfast yesterday morning, he was complaining about his armpits. My first thought was towards something like lymph-nodes or swollen glands and asked him with concern what it felt like. He responded in his most serious and deepest sounding voice, "Yeah, I think I'm growing some hair there" as he sauntered off with his best John Wayne gape towards the kitchen table. Oh, dear, next month, he'll want to start shaving his beard!

Don't Drink the Koolaid!

Obama The Antichrist? Hmm....
Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director

Are these the end times? Judeo-Christian Scripture tells us there will be signs and wonders at the end of the age, but I'm not sure the Bible had hard core politics in mind.

Some may be shocked at the title I have given this piece. To be honest, it took me about ten seconds to decide whether asking the ultimate question would violate some kind of Christian ethic. Let's just say I wrote this column with my tongue almost firmly planted in cheek.

The truth is, during the last six months, I have been searching for a rationale to describe the phenomenon concerning the meteoric political rise of Barack Hussein Obama. I have heard Republicans say they could vote for the junior Senator from Illinois in the November presidential election. I have witnessed the veritable dismantling of the Clinton political machine by a man who does not have the experience of most serving in the U.S. Congress. I have heard of women swooning just by being in Obama's presence and, quite frankly, I don't get it. I won't even admit Obama gives a good impression of the late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., as some people swear he does.

It's as if a significant portion of the American public is under some sort of ungodly spell when it comes to Obama and someone needs to give me a good explanation for it. There is one thing I do know and that is Obama's popularity is similar to the cult of personality which surrounded a number of past leaders, many of whom were not exactly perfect citizens of the world. But I'm not going to go there. Let's stick with some striking comparisons given to us in Scripture.
The antichrist is mentioned in 1 John 2:18-19, 1 John 2:22-23, 1 John 4:2-3 and 2 John 1:7. Without going into the darker meaning of the antichrist's existence, for a moment let us talk about how he will come to power. Judeo-Christian teachings tell us the antichrist is a man who will have unbelievable charisma. This man of perdition will claim he is an emissary of peace and hope. The entire world will buy into his lies and deception. The antichrist will be given great spiritual powers by dark forces. However, he will also be given great political power by men who see him as a type of secular messiah. Eventually, the antichrist will reveal his true nature--after he has assumed authority over the entire world--and it will take God's intervention alone to defeat him.

Scripture goes one step further by saying, even those who know the truth will have the potential to be deceived by the antichrist--and some will. Now many will scoff at my commentary, saying I'm just another goofy Christian, playing out some sort of forecast of spiritual gloom and doom at the expense of a great man.

That's just it. Though a lot more would have to happen before I would truly believe Sen. Obama was a key player on the road to Armageddon, the nay-sayers would still have to "show me" even though I don't hail from Missouri.

Obama talks about bringing our nation together, but he doesn't explain how he would accomplish this lofty goal. For example, those who support abortion rights believe women should have access to this procedure upon demand. In contrast, people like myself actually believe the taking of an innocent unborn child's life is murder--or something very close to it. Indeed, Obama seems to be the person least qualified to bring unity over this subject because he and Hillary Rodham Clinton were arguing about which one of them would allow the killing of more unborn children.

Obama would grant "amnesty" or "a path to citizenship" to over 12 million who are in this nation illegally. Meanwhile, over 75% of Americans are against such a plan and want our nation's borders with Mexico secured. The Senator from Illinois has lofty aspirations regarding health care that would cost American taxpayers billions of dollars. Most Americans oppose any tax hike. Therefore, such a plan would be impossible to implement.

The litany goes on and on. Obama offers hope and change, change and hope, but, in reality, the political atmosphere in the United States says something completely different. There would be "hope" if only all Americans would agree with the practice of abortion. Will we finally experience change when a vast number of U.S. citizens say there should be no border with Mexico? Will we all come together, if we simply create dialogue with people who have sworn to kill us, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as Obama suggests?

These are some of the reasons why I have made the Obama antichrist analogy. It would take some sort of mesmerism to get me to believe that killing babies in the womb is a Constitutional right. But I don't think that is the way the antichrist will operate. Those who fall under his spell won't think about such subjects; the world will simply look at an aura which exists around an individual, but the aura will have no substance. There will be light, but no heat. There will be mass, but no form. The message will have a spiritual resonance, but be lacking in spiritual quality.

Doesn't this describe Barack Hussein Obama to the nth degree? No, I don't really think Obama is Satan's main man on the planet Earth. But until someone gives me a reasonable explanation for his popularity, I'm going to leave the door to this thought open, just a crack. Even if I am wrong, at least this will let some light shine through.
Author's Note: For more on the subject, go to: http://rffm.typepad.com/republicans_for_fair_medi/2008/03/christians-need.html

Praises to My King

My eyes are on You...

God of my Days

King of my Nights

Lord of my laughter

Sovereign in Sorrow

The Prince of my praise

The love of my life

You never leave me

You are faithful!

God of my Days

My eyes are on You...

Thank you for keeping your eyes on me and never letting go

I have nothing of worth to give You but myself...

Like you spilled your blood; I spill my heart

As an offering to my King....

Here I am, take me, as an offering

Here I am, giving every heart beat for Your Glory

Take me...

I love you, Precious one!