My name

I just love the way God works!  To realize that He has been at work in a given situation, to me is like finding the caramel-covered chocolate in a chocolate assortment.  It’s been there all along just being what it is, and then when I taste it, it is the most delightful pleasure.  I know in an instant that’s what I’ve been looking for.  That flavor.  That richness.  No other piece compares.  Yes, it’s like that with experiencing God.  He’s there all along- at work in all things.  When I recognize that, I realize it is what I longed for; that richness of His love, that flavor of His guidance.  Nothing else compares.

Last Saturday night (well, early Sunday morning) I lay awake in the wee hours of the morning finding myself flooded with thought.  A situation had occurred on Saturday where someone had called me something that was quite unusual.  It wasn’t bad.  It was just not normal.  I know you will appreciate the fact that I will choose not to divulge the details, because I would rather protect the feelings of all involved.  Because of that happening, however, my mind was full.  

I laid there thinking of the things I have been called throughout my life.  Some things sweet, some things endearing, and some things I don’t want to remember!  But the one name that holds such a special place in my heart is the name ‘Peachie’.  Momma called me that.  She started calling me that when I was very young. She said it was because of the “peach fuzz” that I have along the sides of my face and the small of my back.  The name stuck, though, one day when I was about three years old.  I had gone out of the apartment door that we lived in at the time proclaiming, “Bye, see ya!”  I walked to the bottom of the stairs, turned around, went back and knocked on the door.  When Momma answered the door, I asked her if Teri could come out to play.  She said to me, “Well, she’s not here right now…and by the way, who are you?”  I answered proudly, “My name is Peachie”.   Between Momma and me, I’ve been Peachie ever since.  My Dad and my sisters have heard Mom call me that, but its never been something they ever called me.  It was her special name for me. 

Then it hit me.  There was such an overwhelming sense of loss.  Even as I attempt to type this, the emotions are uncontainable. “Peachie.”  How I long to hear the only one who called me that call me that again.  Such a huge part of who I have always been has a big hole in it.  

And then the sweet love of God starting flooding into that hole.  My thoughts began focusing on the names that He calls me.  He calls me “Child”.  He calls me “Beloved”.  He calls me “His”.   Wow.  All of a sudden I was no longer focusing on the loss of one name but was rejoicing to realize that I had other names that I will actually hear my Savior call me someday. 

It was good.  It was comforting.  But something seemed to be missing.  So, I pondered all this past week on this post.  Then yesterday, I had a special day with a sweet friend who knows that I just needed to take a day off to relax and unwind.  She and I spent some precious time together enjoying the Lord and His goodness.  While sharing with each other as we sat in the cool breeze, I came across a couple of paragraphs in a new book that I just purchased.   God led me to that piece of caramel that I had been longing for. 

Revelation 2:17 tells me that God has a SPECIAL name for me. “To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it”.  Peachie was my special name that only Momma called me; God has a special name for me known only to Him and myself.  Just like I have felt loved all these years when I heard my name from Mom, there will be a name that only He calls me that helps me know how special I am to Him. 

Now that’s a name I really long to hear!

Technorati tags: Revelation, God, love, beloved, child

Just for fun

Momma and me.  Wow… you gotta love those bangs!

 

Dad and me.  Can’t you just tell I was going to be his right hand mechanic?

 

Oh, and you can tell by the era of the pictures, can’t you, that I truly am only 26??  

Inspiring

I received a message today from a sister Southern Living at Home consultant that has given charge to my day.   In it contained a short movie clip that was intended to be viewed from a business perspective, however, it is much bigger than that!  I found myself in tears because of the profound message.

I hope it inspires you to ask yourself the question,  “How can I be a Johnny today?” 

View the movie by clicking here

 

 

Technorati tags: Southern Living at Home

"I love…."

During the months that Momma was battling pancreatic cancer, she and I began a little dialogue when daily it came time for me to leave her house and come home to mine.  It would go like this:  I’d say, ”I love you Momma.” She’d always reply, “I love you, too, baby.”  And then I’d tell her, “I’ll see you soon.”

On Tuesday June 26th, just two days after Momma and Dad’s 51st anniversary and my (26th!  ) birthday, we knew that her journey to heaven was drawing near.  She spoke very few words that morning and became less and less responsive as the day went on.  Sometime late in the afternoon I climbed up on the bed beside her and said to her, “I love you Momma”.  And then, God granted me the most wonderful treasure.  Although her eyes did not focus on mine, Momma determinedly opened them, turned her head in the direction to where I was, and replied,  “I love…”   Those were the last words she spoke to me.

Those two words spoke volumes about the Mother she was.  She did love.  In a big way!  She loved Jesus Christ, and she guided us girls into a love for Him too.  She loved our Dad. She was such a faithful mate.  She loved to make delicious food for him. She lovingly pressed his clothes; -I mean she even ironed his T-shirts, hankies, and probably his BVD’s!  She loved us girls and, oh, she loved those grand-kids.  She loved people.  She never forgot a face, name, or a voice if she had talked with you just one time on the phone.  (That she did NOT pass on–at least not to me!) She had a love for people like Christ calls us to have.  She had a love for their soul.  In a heart beat she would share with anyone about the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and just how great His love is. 

She loved to laugh.  She loved to make others laugh.   Some of the corniest jokes I’ve ever heard were the ones that made her laugh the hardest.  She’d find the littlest of things funny.  I remember being in the 11th grade and taking a boyfriend on a picnic outing with my family.  Somehow or other Dad, Mom, my friend and I were in a row-boat and she got the giggles.  I’m not going to go into details… but around all that water, with the giggles….you can just imagine.  Needless to say, I think she scared the poor boy off.  He didn’t come around much after that.  And she found that funny too!

She loved to write cute little poems.  I recently ran across a poem she had written and left on my sister’s door one day when Mom didn’t find her at home.   A rhyme was always quick to come from her creative mind.   And Momma loved to make things pretty.  Oh, she had a wonderful knack of doing so too.  I learned early on that as far as Mom was concerned, anything worth doing was worth doing pretty.   She could fluff up a piece of ribbon to make a spectacular bow before I could even get a knot in it.  Every peach in any jar of peaches she ever canned were always facing in the same direction; smooth side out.  Just because that made them pretty!   She kept an immaculate home and flower gardens that bloomed with beauty.

Momma’s love flowed from the fountain of Love, God Himself.   That is why two months ago today when God took Momma home, my final words to her were, “I’ll see you soon” and I could know with all assurance that will be.  His Love makes it all possible.

The song for the day?   What else but, “The Love of God”!?

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.  The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win. His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.                 

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made.  Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade.  To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.  Nor could the scroll contain the whole tho stretched from sky to sky.

The love of God, how rich and pure!  How measureless and strong!  It shall forevermore endure –the saints and angels song.

 

Technorati tags: The Love of God

Precious reading time

As I mentioned yesterday, I had the privilege of reading to Momma everyday the last month of her life. Once I began reading this one book to her, she would actually make a point of asking me, ”When are we going to read today?” It is one of the most wonderful books I’ve read.  I’ve cried, I’ve laughed, I’ve grown and I’ve been stirred by this book.  My sweet husband came across it at a local discount store.   Since I started reading it, I believe we’ve bought about six copies and have shared it with friends who have bought multiple copies as well.

The book is titled GOD: As He Longs For You To See Him.  The author Chip Ingram, is President and CEO of Walk Thru the Bible in Atlanta, Georgia.  Joseph M Stowell, President of the Moody Bible Institute says this about the book: “At last a book about intimacy with God in terms we can all get our hearts around!  Who better than Chip Ingram to deepen our realization of how awesome and mighty our Lord is to each of us personally? This is a great read for those who need a fresh perspective that measures up to reality.”

This book gives a deeper look into who God really is and how He LONGS for us to see him.   Here is an excerpt from the first chapter of the book:  “What you think about God shapes your whole relationship with him. In addition, what you believe God thinks about you determines how close you will grow toward him.  Many of us have formed a picture of God from impressions we’ve picked up in passing.  If we see him as an overzealous policeman, we’ll always be walking on eggshells.  If we see him as an angry judge, we’ll always feel guilty.  If we think he’s just like us, we’ll be casual about our sin.  But are those ideas accurate?  What if they are not true at all?  Misconceptions about God can certainly create a barrier in your relationship with him.  And meanwhile, the friendship, love, and encouragement you could be sharing with your heavenly Father are never realized–all because of wrong conclusions about him.”

Chip begins by challenging us to think about what we truly think about God and what we think He thinks about us.  And then he asks us to “imagine breaking through all the misconceptions and experiencing complete acceptance and deep intimacy with your heavenly Father…the God of the universe…the One who made you just for his pleasure.”  He offers practical biblical help to live out our life in response to who God truly is.

It’s a marvelous book with pages of beautiful truths.  And it holds precious memories for me as well.  It sparked many a conversation between Dad, Mom and me as we read the pages together.  “Precious memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul…”   I guess that’s the song for today!

If you are interested in a copy, please notice that I have linked the title of the book to Amazon where you can purchase it.  You might want to get an extra, because you WILL want to share it!   If you do get a copy, I’d love to hear how it impacts your life. 

I’m looking forward to your post-reading comments!

Technorati tags: God, Walk through the Bible

Seeing His provisions

May and June in the western section of West Virginia where we live were extremely dry this year.  Most generally we have wonderful May showers that lend themselves to greening up the lawns.  By the end of June this year our lawns crunched when you walked in them.

That was ok, though. With such a dry lawn, there wasn’t the need for me to be out cutting grass every third day.  We have three acres that I try to keep healthy with fertilizer.  Fertilizer, however, means lots of grass to cut!  This year, all I had to do was to cut about every seven to ten days. 

Not having to be on the mower so often was such a blessing.  It allowed me to be able to spend precious hours at Mom and Dads. The days were warm, the air was clean and the skies were the most beautiful blue I think I ever remember them to be. 

Momma loved being outdoors.  While she was still working, most of her evenings were spent outdoors tinkering around in one flower bed or another.  Every evening she and Dad would retreat to the backyard for an evening swing together.   When Momma was at home the outer doors to the house, and most generally the windows, were always open.  If she wasn’t outdoors, she was opening up the house to let the outdoors in.  She loved the sunlight streaming in through the storm doors and the sounds of the crickets flooding in her window at night while she slept.

So, when May and June were full of sunny warm days, we spent hours outside together.  Momma would often sit with a blanket wrapped around her and we would enjoy the beautiful blue skies.  Many times we discussed how blessed we were to be able to be outside.  Often times in the Mid-Ohio Valley, the skies haze over and you don’t see blue skies with fluffy white clouds for days on end.  Momma would walk outside and proclaim, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”.  And she was.  She didn’t let a breeze go by that she didn’t give God thanks for the “wonderful breeze”.

Besides counting our blessings, one of the other things we did while outside was share a book together.  Momma would ask me each day if I would read more to her, and I loved doing so.  I’ll share with you the book, the title, the author and some of the wonderful thoughts from it in tomorrows post.

It was a dry May and a very dry June here.  But on the 28th day of June, within minutes after God took Momma home, the skies opened up and it began to rain.  To me, each raindrop was God showering His love upon us.  I stood on the front porch smelling the wet asphalt and watching the rain with such an overwhelming sense of His presence.  The author knew what he was writing when he wrote the words to the song, “There shall be showers of blessing.”  (Actually, I think God said it first! ~see Ezekiel 34:26)  Showers of blessing.  Indeed.

Technorati tags: West Virginia, Mid-Ohio Valley

It’s time

Yes, you are at the right page.  It’s just time for a new look.  And this one of serenity is just perfect.  

It’s also time to begin blogging the special stories about days with Momma before she went home to Glory.  There are many things to share.  There are so many accounts of God’s faithfulness then and the two months since then. 

There’s a whole lot that it’s finally time to say.

This Tuesday will be two months since God took Momma home.  In some ways it seems like yesterday, in others it seems like a year already. 

Yes, it’s time.  Time to begin to share so very much.

Check tomorrow! 

I Found Grace in the Bean Patch

This story is not about Momma today. However, it involves a lesson in the Love and Grace of God that has been life long in developing. I hope you enjoy it. (at my expense, I might add!)

As a young girl it seemed like the summers lasted forever. Maybe it’s because I’m quite a social one and without a classroom full of other children the days of summer seemed forEVER long. My Momma’s mother and father (Nan and Pop) had a farm about 20 minutes from where we lived. Many hot summer days we’d get our things done at the house and then head out to visit Nan and Pop. They always had a huge garden with row after row of half runner beans. Nan canned everything. Beans, pickles, picked corn, stuffed hot banana peppers, catsup… you name it. If it would stuff in a jar, she’d can it. She had a wonderful underground dirt-floor cellar where all the beautiful jars of canned goods were lined on tidy shelves. But I digress.

It seemed like the one constant thing I was asked to do when I went to Nan’s was to pick beans. I hated picking beans. Green vines, green beans. They are not like red raspberries hanging high on the vine and a totally different color. No. These puppies have to hide underneath all the green vines and are camouflaged to boot. And picking beans is an art form. It’s not like you can go in there and just pull the whole bloomin’ vine up to eye level and tug those beans off with all your might. It’s a procedure completed with gentleness so to protect the vines for further harvest. So, what that means to me is that you better well plan to stand on your head for however long it takes to pick beans. It’s a back bending, leg stretching, sweat in your eye, rash on your arms kind of process. No better way to get around it. And Nan always knew where she wanted me to start in a row to pick a “mess of beans”. (I asked then, and I still ask today… how much is a mess?!) I was always thankful when she gave me a part row. The full row was at least a hundred miles long!! -Hey, I was a kid, and all time and distance are greater when you’re a kid!

I never have acquired a desire to pick beans. But, each and every year I plant half runner beans in my own garden. And each and every year, I’m the one out there picking beans. There is still nothing pleasant about straddling over a two foot wide row of tender green plants while your hamstrings are squealing a high pitch of their own. Let alone the fact that one’s heaven-pointed bottom is bound to be a bea-u-tiful site!! Thankfully, our garden is somewhat out of eye shot of the few neighbors we have.

There is one thing I’ve learned about green beans, though. It seems everyone I know loves fresh picked half-runner beans! Through the years I’ve had people to offer to “put in” the garden with me because they would love to have some fresh green beans. Well, you guessed it…when the planting, watering and hoeing was to be done, everyone had something else to do. And when those tender delicacies are hanging fresh on those itchy vines people don’t seem too backward to ask if the “beans are ready to pick”! I have yet to understand that to mean they are volunteering to come stand on their heads in the garden with me. It just usually means that they’d like to know when they can count on me to bring them some.

It just so happens that in those requests for green beans God has taught me wonderful lessons about His Love and Grace. While standing bent over in the bean patch the blood rushes to my brain and I can actually do some decent thinking, …sometimes! How marvelous the Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to go through the pain of it all to give me what I haven’t done anything to deserve. His love for me is so deep that He endured all the pain, had His muscles and tendons stretched to unimaginable discomfort, and not only sweat for me-but bled for me. He did it all so that I could enjoy the fruit of His labor, a life of eternity with Him. And here’s the real kicker of the lesson. What did I, the undeserving sinner, who could do nothing on my own to earn this fruit, have to do to get it? All I had to do was ask!

Just yesterday I had another request for “any beans you’d like to just give away”. At first, it took me aback. I faltered into selfish thinking. God was so faithful to gently remind me of all that He has done for me. And it’s a tad bit bigger than picking a “mess of beans”! Oh Lord, thank you for your patience with me when I am slow to grow.

What He’s teaching me now is that out of my heart attitude will come my response. But that’s a story for another day. Right now I need to go turn off the water sprinkler that’s been watering the garden, then it’s off to deliver some beans!!

Technorati tags: Grace, God, beans

Faith of our Mother

There are so many wonderful stories that I intend to share with you about Momma and the life she lived.  I am excited to share with you the ways that God has revealed Himself throughout Momma’s cancer trial, her going on to Heaven, and how He continues to do so even now. 

But I thought that the first thing I would share with you is the eulogy that my youngest sister wrote and delivered.  Many of my dear friends have told me that even though they did not know Momma well, after hearing this eulogy they left with the knowledge of who Momma was.  So, for those of you who were unable to attend, or for those who wanted to just be able to “hear” it again, I post this.  I trust that you too will find the Joy that was truly my dear Momma.

(Click on the words below to open the Word document)

Faith of our Mother

Alberta Fay Johnson

Fay celebrated her 70th birthday on May 18th surrounded by her family and their love and with God’s love. Fay celebrated her 51st wedding anniversary on June 24th surrounded by her husband and her daughters. On June 28th Fay passed on to glory in the presence of her husband Mick and her three daughters, Teri, Polly and Tracy.

The viewing for Fay will be Monday, July 2nd at the following address:

Lambert-Tatman Funeral Home
3005 GRAND CENTRAL AVE
VIENNA WV  26105-1535

Times are 2PM-4PM and 6PM-8PM.

The funeral service will be on July 3rd at 1PM at Evangelical Methodist Church, 1906 Gihon Rd, Parkersburg, WV 26101.

Teri will have many stories to share.

Posted by Teri’s hubby, Roy