Here Comes the Bride

“Little girls are really kind of nice
Especially when they put their
Arms around your neck
And hug you tight.

And sometimes only daddies
Can tuck them in at night
Fix their dolls and broken toys
And help them ride a bike.”

(From the book “Bits and Pieces From my Mind”
By Connie L Hawkins written for daughter, Heidi)

Our little girl is grown and in fact getting married this month.
Planning a wedding reminds me what an
important job parenting is. It’s not an easy job.
Training them up in the way they should go
means using tough love and making sure the
word ‘no’ is never misunderstood. Sometimes it
means traveling down their path to see where they are
coming from or where they are going.

I remember in the heat of an argument my daughter telling me,
“Why can’t you just treat me like a friend?” To which I responded, “You
Have plenty of friends; but only one mother.” And nothing has changed.
So many parents try to be a friend to their kids when what they need
most are a mom and a dad – parents presenting a united front.

I hate that phrase, “I’m just a homemaker” -- it is THEE most important
job you’ll ever do, pleasing in God’s eyes! I wish for my daughter a
happy life. I know she’ll be a terrific wife and a great mother. After
all she had a good role model and I had a great teacher--my mom!

(This article is also scheduled to appear in the June issue of His Banner Newspaper)

A Faithful Friend

I can’t believe we’ve been in this house ten years. I remember the move like it was yesterday. We lived in the Linwood house 27 years; it was a bit overwhelming to pack up and move. I stood in my kitchen surrounded by piles of boxes praying, Lord, I can’t do this by myself. I need a helping hand. That’s when the phone rang. It was my friend, Betty, asking me if I needed help packing. Did I ever! Betty is a whiz at organizing things. She had the packing detail whipped into shape in no time – even Bill’s corner of the basement! By the time the movers arrived everything was packed and labeled.

I remember telling Betty, that it would be nice if God came down from the heavens to lift a hand and she said, “Here I am. If you need help, all you have to do is ask.” Someone has said that God has no hands but ours…no feet but ours. Sometimes we are God’s hands and feet as Betty was in my life the day that I needed help. A friend is only a phone call away.

“A faithful friend is an image of God” French Proverb.

Happy Mother's Day

My mother taught me everything I know and a few things I probably didn’t need to know! She’s been gone awhile now but in my thoughts and in my heart she is still very much alive. If she were today I would say: Thank you, Mom, for stretching me. For helping me to see new ways of relating, new causes to consider, and new interests to explore.

Thank you Mom for all the time you spent pondering my concerns, pacing the floor waiting for the phone to ring because I said I would call and didn’t.

Thank you Mom for respecting my opinions and for supporting my decisions and my projects; for the down-to-earth practical help you’ve given me both as a parent and a friend.

But most important, thank you Mom, for instilling in me Christian values and for reminding me that when facing life’s challenges to never forget that with Christ as the centered of my life nothing is impossible.

This is a day to rejoice in

I love watching my grandson play. He goes through the toy box with eager anticipation; he can’t wait to see what he’ll find. He loves everything inside that box…a new book to read, a stuffed bear to hug whatever the treasure he trusts you that it’ll be good for him. Oh, the wonder of being a child, when everything is new and fresh – and every day exciting. That’s kind of what it’s like when we first come to Christ. Everything is new and exciting. It’s an excitement that we should never let fade away. We should never take one single day for granted but bask in the glory of being alive pausing to remind ourselves ‘this is the day that the Lord has made, we should rejoice and be glad in it.’.

Little J fights taking his naps because there is so much to see and do and he doesn’t want to miss a single minute of his day. We should fight the sin in our life in much the say way ‘resist the devil and he will flee’ only then can we really enjoy every single minute of the day that the Lord has made for us. Nothing is worth more than today. “When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets.” Friedrich Nietzsche