CHOOSE

We have so many choices in our lives.
How do you make the choices you are given.

I try and make my choices with care; often times needing to pray about the bigger ones.

For now:
I choose to be honest , instead of fudging the truth or making me look better.
I choose to care for others, to be there for them when needed.
I choose to be available to my family; even when its inconvienent.
I choose to be faithful to Jesus; because I don't want to disappoint Him.
I choose to be prayerful, because I need to hear from Him more than He needs to hear from me.
I choose to believe that God always knows best. I may not understand what He is doing, but I choose to trust Him.
I choose to be faithful; to my husband, to our children, to my job, to my friends.
I choose to be vulnerable - sometimes God uses me when I least expect it.
I choose to see the best in people; often times harder than I realize.
I choose Joy, because its better than the alternative.
I choose to be thankful; gratitude goes a LONG way.
I choose Hope; it keeps me going.

And I am glad for the choices we all get to make. Make them wisely.

LIFE LONG FRIENDSHIPS

My husband is gone for the weekend.
He is meeting up with his friends of 36+ years.
They started doing this about 20-25 years ago; when they were much younger.
Now they call the yearly get together: "the OLD GUYS weekend".

Scud is the oldest of the group but he doesn't care.
These guys, these men, these life long friends are the ones who go to each other for the ups and downs of their lives. Believe me when I say they have had enormous practice in being there for one another.

I love these men too. The value of their friendship to my husband, to me, is incalculable. They have been through the best and worse with us. We have been there for them as well.
The wives are some of the most supportive, fun, caring and loving friends I have ever known.

Friendships like this are rare these days.
Friendships that survive the years.
The blessings of these friendships cannot be counted or measured.
I have friends like this, but today I bask in the glory that Scud has these men in his life.
They are his "support" system. He is theirs.
Truly I thank God for this rare and beautiful gift.

WAITING

Waiting.
Its not something we like to do. Especially in America.
We have become the society of instantaneous everything.
We have a question, we ask Google.
We want things and WE WANT THEM NOW!
We hate to wait. Whether its in line at the grocery store. (are you like me and always pick the "longest" line?).
And TRAFFIC. Don't get me started. Think of all the road rage. Isn't it all because we can't get there fast enough and people are crazy and don't drive the way we think they should.
We hate waiting -even on the internet, when it takes too long.

We just are very impatient people.
We want whatever it is we want: PRONTO.

What about the fun things to wait for?
Like the birth of your baby or grandchild?
Waiting to attend the wedding of someone you love dearly.

Then there's those things we DON'T like waiting for.
The letter of acceptance from college.
Hearing about the job you really want.
Waiting as you watch a loved one pass from this life to eternity.

Sometimes, through very hard times, I have learned that waiting can be GOOD.
I have learned that sometimes in my impatience, my pain, that this is the time when I hear God so clearly. That HE has something He wants to say to me.
And so I have learned that waiting can be a good thing.

What are you waiting for?

The Challenge

Today I am accepting the challenge to write for 5 minutes per day for the month of October. I am calling it: 31 Days of Contemplation.

I have no idea what each day will be about, but I am certain that I will come up with a topic. I realize that I am not the most gifted of writers, but love the idea of writing everyday. I am imagining that GOD will give me something to write about as I spend time with Him each morning. That is usually where I get my ideas from.

 At the age of 62, the challenges I undertake are not as frequent as they were in my younger days. So accepting this challenge for me will be a discipline. I am hoping against all hope, that I will meet this challenge. I can always use more discipline in my life and would love to encourage you to find the things you might apply to your life.

 I love to write about the things God puts on my heart and am going to do my best to lean into Him for this challenge. Isn't it funny how we can take challenges in our lives for some things and not for others? Why is that so? For me, it seems like I want to succeed in something. This time it is for me, but also want to see how I might encourage others. After all, that is the sole purpose of my blog: to encourage and challenge others to become the person that GOD intended them to be. So here I start.

 If you are interested in this follow this link
http://katemotaung.com/31-days-2/31-days-of-five-minute-free-writes-link-up-here/

HOLD

I've found a new site called Five Minute Friday . In this site hosted by Kate Montauge, you are given one word to write about for five minutes.

Today's word is:

HOLD
Hold on to what you know is true.
To those things that deep within you, never change.
Hold on to what you believe in.
Don't let others tell you what to believe in, check things out for yourself.
HOLD on to the people you love.
Not in a I'm never gonna let you go, but a hold that treasures them, that encourages them, that lets them know you are always there for them and in their corner.
Hold tight to the good memories in your life. the ones that make you smile and laugh and remember sweet times. Forget those bad memories. You can't change the past.
Hold on to GOD.
There won't be anytime in your life when you don't need Him. He is the ONE you never want to let go of, because He is the ONE who will carry you, sustain you and surprise you throughout all your days.

Five minutes are up. want to do this to? go to: http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/  

What a Difference a Year Makes

The older you get, the faster the years seem to pass.

Since today is my birthday, it's one of those occasions that cause reflection. 

Since my husband and I are on a three day quick roadtrip to celebrate both our birthdays, we've had quite a bit of time in the car driving between our destinations; which has given me time to think about the past year of my life.

Last year on my birthday, I was recovering from surgery to remove cancer from my thyroid that I had had five days earlier. The next day I was to have another surgery as the type of cancer I managed to get, could spread and grow in other places. 

I had a terrible sore throat; much like the worst case of strept threat you could imagine, and I was facing another surgery that would leave a scar from the top of my earlobe to the middle of my neck.

So you probably can get the reason why this was probably the least favorite birthday of my life.

The evening of my birthday I received a phone call that I will never forget. I probably had numerous phone calls that day, but this call is embedded in my mind because my friend, my birthday buddy, Robby called me to wish me happy birthday and this was the last time I actually talked to him on the phone.

Unfortunately two months later, Robby was gone. His death rocked my world and the worlds of so many people that I love dearly.

Robby was like a son to me; he called me his second mom and I loved him from the moment he was born.

So that is the reason I remember that call. I remember the words we spoke to each other. They were real, they were sweet and they were honest. I won't ever forget them. Although we frequently texted each other , that was the last time I heard his voice. 

I will always remember Robby. I look forward to one day spending eternity with him in heaven.

Many happy moments occurred this past year, and I am so grateful for them. I had amazing visits with friends, had countless times of memories with my family. Watched one of my sons marry the love of his life with tremendous joy. I had two absolutely amazing small groups with my girls in Chico, and loved watching them grow more in love with Jesus. We have done quite a bit of living together: good times and hard ones, but we have loved and supported each other. We had another incredible summer at Woodleaf, and as always, the Interns bring such enthusiasm and fun to our summers.

Unfortunately, as I look at the end of one year of my life and start another one, I am again grieving the loss of someone very dear to my heart.

My mentor of the past 36 years went to be with Jesus on Saturday. My dear June is the one person who single handedly influenced my life more than any other. She taught me how to walk thru life as a follower of Christ, in the good times and in the hard, difficult painful times. We shared the joy of my children's births and she was their "Gramma June", and we shared the homegoings of her dear first husband Carl and her sweet son Kevin. So we really went through the gamut together; both life and death.

I know how incredibly blessed my life has been because of June. She was truly a very special gift that God loaned me. She taught me well, so I know I will go on and keep living for Jesus and hopefully encouraging young women as she encouraged me.

So as I realize how quickly time passes now that I am older, I want to savor life each day. I want to have a thankful spirit. I want to notice the moments of everyday that don't seem so special, but really they are. I want to love others well. I want to be an encourager. I want to pray more. I want to cherish the time I have here, until I get to meet the ONE I have waited my whole life for.

In the meantime, I will miss Robby and I will miss June terribly. But oh how blessed I am because I knew them.

It takes COURAGE

What do you do when you are faced with a challenge, an obstacle that could seem to be insurmountable, or a fear?
Do you run from it?
Do you think to yourself, "I can do this"?
Do you realize you can't do it alone?
Do you have the courage to face the task?

Courage is defined in the dictionary as:
   the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty,danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

We cannot remember for ourselves, but we see courage in babies that are beginning to walk; they get up repeatedly after they fall down. Their memory recall doesn't make them fearful.

It take courage to jump off the high diving board for the first time.
It takes courage to learn how to ride a bike.
It takes courage to go to bat in a baseball game.

It takes courage for a mother to drop her child off at pre-school or kindergarten, or middle school and high school.
It takes even more courage to drop your daughter or son of at college; realizing they may turn their backs on your values.

While in college:
It takes courage not to drink to excess. It is much easier to go along with the crowd and get drunk.
It takes alot of courage not to be talked into having sex when you are not ready.
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to report that you have been raped or violated.
It takes courage not to cheat on an exam and settle for the grade you make because you have studied; especially when the exam is out there for you to see beforehand.
It takes courage to write your own papers, not copying someone else's or plagerising.
It takes courage to tell others that you are a follower of Jesus.

During your working days:
It takes courage not to waste your time at work; looking at the internet, your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter feeds.
It takes courage to be honest.
It takes courage not to take credit for something someone else did.
It takes courage to own up to your mistakes.
It takes courage to keep going when you have been denied a promotion or been laid off. It takes courage to go home and tell your family.

What about being courageous in everyday life?
It takes courage not to gossip; to quit talking about someone behind their back and to walk away when others do.
It takes courage to come out and admit you are gay.
It takes courage to admit your mistakes.
It takes courage to tell your children you were wrong and to apologize to them.
It takes tremendous courage to forgive your spouse who has cheated on you.
It takes even more courage to persevere when your marriage has ended.
It takes courage sometimes just to get out of bed; whether it be from depression that is non-stop and relentless or whether it is just too much effort after an illness, or surgery.
It takes courage to fight cancer. It takes enormous amounts of courage to undergo chemotherapy and radiation; especially when you are not guaranteed of a great outcome.

Probably for most of us the most amount of courage we need is to face life without a loved one. When someone we cherish so dearly is taken from us, we often can't even imagine how to go on. The days are endless in grief.
It takes courage to just keep living.

It took more courage than you or I can ever comprehend to know as Jesus did, what He was about to face. When He sweated so profusely that blood oozed from his pores, knowing that He would be beaten, spat upon and scourged thirty-nine times with a cat of nine tails.
It took courage for Jesus to tell His Father that He would prefer not to do it this way, but in the end, would do what His Father wanted.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A42-43&version=NIV

 Only to be followed by being nailed to a cross and suffocating to death. That kind of courage is incomprehensible to me. Yet Jesus mustered all the courage of His human self to suffer and be crucified-all because He loved us. He wanted us to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Courage is a hard thing. We wish it would be easy but if it was, it wouldn't require much effort. We would give up way too easily.
Next time you are in a situation that requires courage and your fears are getting the best of you, consider asking Jesus for help. 
HE KNOWS ALL ABOUT COURAGE.