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FLOODING MEMORIES

FLOODING MEMORIES

Who would have thought I would be crying with heart felt tears, watching the Thanksgiving parade? The float had the group “Chicago” on it and they were singing “You’re the Inspiration.” Some of the words to the song are “You know our love was meant to be, the kind of love that lasts forever, and I want you here with me, from tonight until the end of time, you should know, everywhere I go, always on my mind, in my heart, in my soul…” That was the song my husband had dedicated to me, of how he felt towards me. The last ten years of his life, he was not the same man I had married, but that song was still how he felt towards me.

When do those types of memories flood into your mind? Usually, every year that I put the ornaments on my tree, I shed a few tears because memories flood back into my mind. My tree is made up of memories. I usually try to buy an ornament that represents each particular year. One is a Santa holding a ski        and a cast on his leg. That was the year that I broke my ankle and my mother did too. I have an ornament that has a picture of my grandmother, reading a book at Christmas time to four of my grandkids. She was an amazing woman, who my daughter got to know really well and even named her oldest daughter, Opal, after her. I also have an ornament that shows my husband dressed as Santa. He loved to go to Boy Scout meetings dressed up and hand out presents. He even was Santa at the Walmart he was working at the time. He said the only time he did not like being Santa, was when a little child threw up on him. (That was fun to wash!) I have an ornament of my mother and the year she died on it. Memories flood back into my heart. She was an amazing mother! And then there is the ornament, with my dog’s face on it. She died a few months after my mother did. After my mother passed away and my dad downsized, my brother and I went through each closet and cabinet getting things ready for him to move. I now have so many things that remind me of her and both of my grandmother’s. What a blessing to have beautiful handmade quilts and ceramic keepsakes from both of them.

Maybe, if you bought ornaments for your tree that represented something that happened to you in that year, they would not be pleasant and would cause bad memories. Memories of hard times. Maybe you did not have a parent that raised you to be a Christian or they were one who raised you with abuse. It is time to change those memories you are making now and in the future.

I have been through some rough times. Those memories, when they flood into my mind and soul are sad but yet now, I can see how God used them and is using them through my writings and speeches I present. Those hardships made me the strong Christian woman I am today, who wants to serve the Lord with the rest of my life. We need to have those hard memories so that we can wash them clean of the pain that filled our hearts. We all have good and bad memories. Sometimes they flood into our minds without even knowing that they are coming. Something will happen or we see or hear something, and there the memories flood our hearts, like they happened yesterday.

Do you ever feel melancholy? Do you get buried into your mind thinking about the past? We all do, don’t we? When those hard times flood our minds, we need to replace them by the positivity that came from them. If we really think about the negative past, there is always a positive that we can glean. If we don’t, we can spiral into an abyss of darkness. The pain of what happened to us still has ahold of us, causing us to drown in those memories.

Going back to the song I heard and the words that were said in that song, it made me think about God in those words. (You are saying what in the world is she talking about!) God loves us and is love forever, till the end of time. 1John 4:16 says “…we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.” In everything we do, we need to make decisions based on our love and obedience to Him, in what is right and wrong, out of a heart of obedience. John 14:15 says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Also, we need to have Him in our mind, heart and soul.  Matthew 22:36-38 reads “Teacher which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” God commanded His people to choose Him with every part of their being, and in the process, to deny all other supposed deities.   

When those flooding memories, flow over us like a river, whether they are good or bad, we need to remember that God is always a constant in our lives. He always loves us no matter what we have done. We just have to reach out to Him in those hard times and remember to obey Him with every part of our being. We need to put Him as our inspiration in everything we do, everything we say, everything we go through, all the memories that flood our hearts. How do we get to the point of loving and obeying Him with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind? Take out the bible, the words given us by God, to help us when memories flood our mind and soul. His words have power to pull us out of the drowning flood. Let His words flood into your mind, heart and soul!

Yes, I shed tears when I see or hear something that brings out memories of things of the past; of people who I loved; of hard times. But I know that if I put God first, His love will rescue me from the flood.           

A float in a parade and a song from long ago. Who would have thought that I needed a handkerchief handy? When memories flood your heart, turn to God and His words of love.

Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season. Make lots of memories! Someday, when you look back and tears flood your eyes, you will realize that the love those precious souls gave you are the reason for those tears and you can be thankful for them flooding your mind with memories!

Till next time! Happy Holidays! Be safe! I will see you in the New Year!

                                                                        Keela

(The picture at the beginning, is of my grandmother reading books to my grandkids when they were little. Even though it brings tears, it is a precious memory that floods my heart!)

PUTTING ON THE NEW

When I put on my new glasses, I could see better than I had for a long time! It was amazing! I am sure you have seen commercials of little children, when they get a new pair of glasses, the look on their faces of joy that they can now see clearly. That is how I felt. I had cataract surgery on both eyes at the end of last year. Because of my stigmatism, I was going to have to wear glasses. After my surgery I could see better, but not clearly. My glasses finally came in and I went to my eye doctor’s office to pick them up. When I put them on, it was like a switch went off in my eyes causing them to clear up from the blurriness that I had evidently been living with. My old vision had become new. I had not realized that I had slipped into living with lack of vision for a long time.

Isn’t that the same way we slip into sin, sometimes not even realizing it, until something causes us to see that lack of vision-lack of clarity? Maybe we have missed church services a couple of times and then we think we don’t want to go, easier to stay home. The people there won’t miss me! Maybe we miss a couple of times at the gym. We think it is much easier to just stay home. It won’t matter that much! Maybe we see that last cookie on the plate. You have been trying to be good but you think one more won’t hurt you! (I know that last one is not a popular one with Thanksgiving and the holidays coming with all those special treats we make.) Maybe we should wait till the first of next year to get back to church, get back to the gym and watch what we eat. But then the first of the year comes and we think all those new things you were going to do, don’t seem important anymore.

Those were all examples of staying in the old habits and not reaching out to replace them with new habits. God wants us to put our old man or woman to rest, who is full of sin, and come to Him, putting on the new. Maybe we have become more and more like this world. One more dinner out with someone who is not our mate, which can lead to adultery.  Maybe that person in that car cut you off in traffic and you race after them, giving them a certain finger, cuss at them with anger in your heart. Maybe you justify one more drink of alcohol because you think you can stop at any time. Maybe you feel you are just so sinful that there is no use in trying to live a new life, sin free. Maybe you have your focus on the pursuit of things in this world. Your family is suffering from your lack of presence in their lives. But you condone it because you think you are taking care of your family, by the accumulation of things of this world. The world we live in today, has always been full of hanging onto the old ways and not searching for and changing to a new way. Without you knowing, it slowly creeps up on you.

In this world today, there are those who are searching for something-anything that will make them feel better about themselves and their circumstances. The problem is they look in the wrong places, in things of this world-alcohol-drugs-sex-possessions. We, as believers and followers of God, must show them a better way. We know that the old man or woman of the world must change and become new. There has to be some action! The only new way is Jesus! In John 14:6, Jesus tells His disciples, “…I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” God is the answer we need to share with the world we live in today. All those things of the old you, needs to be replaced with a new you, in and through our Lord and Savior.

Our old is in the past and the new leads us to our future, full of joy, looking towards our heavenly home. Here are a few verses, which show us that we need to step out of the old and step into the new, and thereby see more clearly.

1. Romans 6:6 “…our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” A believer is not the same person he or she was before conversion, a believer is a new creation in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” These verses show us that Jesus is the answer to becoming a new creation!
2. Colossians 3:8-10 “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Then also in verses 14-17, “…above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” These verses show us that we need to renew our knowledge by studying God’s word. Christ is the only true way to put off the old, of sin and put on the new, of life!
3. Ephesians 4:22-24 “…that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” These verses show us that we have to stop living a life filled with this world and put on a new man or woman, which is a life filled with our God!

What is the common denominator in these verses? You guessed it! We have to stop doing sin which is our old life and start putting on a new life which is shown us by studying His word, the bible, and applying those truths into our lives. We have to show love to others, just as God has shown His love for us.

I am so thankful that we have access to glasses which help us see in this physical world and all the beauty of it that God has given us. The changing of the trees has been so beautiful! But, even more important, I am thankful that we have access to seeing, through the Word, our blessed Savior and what living a life of obedience and love to Him, can cause us to see that clarity.

Let’s all start putting off the old ways of this world, and start putting on the new ways of our Savior!

Till next time!  Have a thankful and blessed Thanksgiving!

                                                   Keela

FINAL WORDS

On the 26^th of October of every year, for the last 14 years, I have memories of one of the hardest days of my life. It was a life changing day. It was the day my husband passed away during surgery. He had suffered from many illnesses, mentally and physically, including depression. Also, congestive heart failure, which put him in the hospital every other week. He went in for a surgery to replace his aortic valve. The surgeon felt like if he could replace that valve, it would help his battle of congestive heart failure. The surgery would “blow”, as the surgeon said, his kidneys and he would have been on dialysis for the rest of his life. My kids and I felt he needed to make that decision of whether he wanted to take that risk. He decided he did. I was working twelve-hour days, so I had made arrangements with a dear friend from church to take him for that dialysis.

He went in for surgery on a Friday. The surgeon came in and took one look at him and said he could not do the surgery on that day. He wanted to keep him over the weekend and try to drain fluid off before going into surgery on Monday. I am so thankful for those couple of days! He acted and felt more like himself than he had in a long time. My kids and grandkids were there most of those days. He was laughing, making jokes and being onery, just like he had before he had gone into his depression. He went into surgery on Monday in better health, mentally and physically, than he had for many years. During his long, long surgery, there were about 15-20 people there with us. Some, stayed the entire time and even went to get lunch for all of us. Time kept ticking away. Finally, that evening, me and my kids were called back. My parents went with us. The surgeon said the valve was working perfectly, but they kept draining and draining but that fluid kept coming. He asked me if I wanted them to continue that procedure. Of course, I said yes. I remember coming back to the waiting room and feeling like I was going to be sick. A friend, went and got a cold towel to help. Finally, after another hour or so, they called us back. His body could not take it anymore. He had died. That possibility had never even entered my mind that he would die!

It is funny the things that our mind gives us as memories. As they had been wheeling him into surgery, with his funny little surgery cap on his bald head, my final words to him were, “See ya on the other side.” I had meant on the other side of surgery. Little did I know it was going to mean, one day when I go to meet the Lord and I would see him again in heaven, on the other side.

I recently, just finished teaching a ladies bible class centered on James. The book centers on what words we use. What words come out of our mouths that can cause pain or blessings to others. James 1:19-20 tells us we are to be “…swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” In the class, we repeated the first part of that verse at the end of every class. I have heard it said that God gave us two ears to listen, but only one mouth. That mouth can spew out many damaging arrows. The tongue has no bones, but is strong enough to pierce and break a heart. God wants us to grow in wisdom and put our faith into action. Part of that is being careful of the words that come out of our mouth. There are some people who think of something in their head and immediately it comes out of their mouths, not thinking that it will hurt someone. The enemy, the devil, knows if he can get enough of the wrong things in our minds, that they will eventually begin to come out of our mouths.

Colossians 3:2 & verse 17 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth…and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus was in the wilderness, not eating for forty days. The devil tempted Him with three different things. First, the devil reminds Him that He could make rocks into bread since He was the Son of God. Second the devil tells Him to throw Himself off the temple, getting attention from the crowds. Thirdly, the devil then told Jesus to fall down and worship him, and the devil would give Him all the kingdoms. In every temptation, Jesus said, “…it is written.” He was referring to the law; scripture we have access to today. The devil squeezes himself into our minds in those moments when we are hurting-when we get angry-when we feel we are not worthy to be a child of God-when our flesh is weak. But if we put the words of God in our hearts, through study of those words in the bible, we can push the devil out of our minds and hearts!

Did I say anything wrong, that day that changed my life forever? I don’t think I did but I wish my last words to him, would have been telling him I loved him! We had been through some really rough times during the last ten years of his life. There are so many words I wish I would have said differently, so many days when I was exhausted and frustrated and I know I said what I shouldn’t have. I look back and wish I could have had better words to help our teenager daughter through those dark days when my husband was in a deep depression. Our tongue can give peace to a hurting soul, if we just stop and think.

I have had several people, since my husband passed away 14 years ago, ask me, if I would have known I was going to have to go through those rough trying years, would I have still married him. Honestly, while I was going through those painful years, maybe I would have said no. But I know I would not have three amazing children, eight grandkids and three great-grandkids, of which I don’t think I could live without. I am also thankful for those years because I feel that I have grown so much closer to God. I learned so much about God from him. He preached at small churches who could not afford a full-time preacher. If I had a question for a class I was teaching or for my ladies’ day, I could ask him and “off the top of his head,” he could give me chapter and verse in the bible. His memory was amazing! He only had to read something once and it stayed in his mind. I am also, a more confident daughter of the King, because of his encouragement for me to write and be the best woman I can be. I know that through my published books and talking to women, that my story has helped other women, especially, to heal and to know that there is hope through God. And if we don’t go through trials, how can we truly exercise our faith and gain more faith!

So, what am I trying to say?  I only had 36 years with my husband before he passed away. We don’t know how many more days-hours-minutes-seconds we have on this earth with our loved ones. Be careful what comes out of your mouth. Think before letting those words out into the air that we cannot just catch and put back. A lady from one of my jobs, came to his funeral. She said she did not know what to say. My husband’s funeral was right before halloween. Yes, you know what I am going to say. She said “happy halloween.” (I will never forget the look on my daughters face when the lady said that.) If you don’t know what to say to someone, it is better if you just don’t say anything at all.

If you are married, and especially those for many years, don’t take that for granted. Give them a kiss-give them words of encouragement instead of negativity.

“Life is recorded, not only in decades or years, but in events and memories that form the fabric of our being.” -Guideposts-

Final words. Those words I said are memories of a very stressful and sorrowful day in my life. If you never are able to change what you have said, maybe you need to just not say them. Think. Words of kindness and goodness need to be a new part of your life!

My Larry, as I said those final words fourteen years ago, “I will see ya on the other side!” I miss and love you so much!

Till next time!

                                                                       Keela

THROWING STONES

In John 7, we learn of a powerful example of Jesus’ wisdom.  Jesus had gone to the Mount of Olives and spent the night. (Luke 9:58 tells us that He didn’t even have the ordinary comforts of a home of His own to go “to lay His head.”)

Early next morning, He went to the temple once again to teach. (John 8:1-11) A crowd came to Him and listened to His teachings. (I wonder if we would be as anxious to get up early and go to hear Jesus!? Are we anxious to get up on Sunday morning and make our way to the church building?) Jesus sat down and started teaching. In ancient times, authoritative teachers sat when they talked to people, in the temple. As He was teaching, the scribes and Pharisees once again came to try to trap and confound Jesus. (See Matthew 22:15 which says “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.”) Here they brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, who I can just visualize them throwing her down in the middle of the crowd. It is not clear why the man was not brought as well. The Old Law was very specific how to “handle” adultery. In Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:19, adultery was part of the 10 Commandments. Deuteronomy 22:23-30 is very specific about the punishment for adultery and rape. The normal punishment was to stone the woman and the man to death. The scribes and Pharisees reminded Jesus of that. (As if He needed a reminder!)

Jesus knelt down and started writing something with His finger, as if He had not heard them. He didn’t say anything. If Jesus had said not to stone her. He would have contradicted Jewish law. If He had said to stone her, He also would have gone against Roman law. Jews were not allowed to carry out their own executions or capital punishments under Roman law, unless approved. (John 18:31) Don’t you wonder what He wrote in the dirt? Some think He wrote the 10 commandments. Others think He started writing the names of these scribes and Pharisees and the women they had committed adultery with. I kinda like the last one myself, but as I said we don’t know. That part of the story is not important for us to know. But whatever it was Jesus did not answer right away.

They continued to bother Him. He stood up and said in verse 7, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Then He knelt back down and continued to write. These men knew the law. Maybe they realized that they could be stoned because of their own sins, if they admitted they had committed the same act they were accusing the woman of. In fact, Jesus here included ANY sin. Verse 9 reads, “then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.” While Jesus was writing in the dirt, the oldest scribes and Pharisees, left first and then the younger followed. This left Jesus and the woman standing where they had possibly thrown her. Jesus stood up and asked her “Woman where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She replied that there was no one.

Jesus tells her “Neither do I condemn you…” Some want to stop right there and try to verify that Jesus condoned the sin. But the end of that verse says “…go and sin no more.” Jesus not only shows forgiveness of sin but then tells her to sin no more. Do not go back to the sin! He did not condemn her, but neither did He condone her sin!

Some today, are so ready to watch and wait for someone to sin, so they can condemn them and some even start gossip. Especially those we work with or associate with, outside of our brothers and sisters. Sometimes this even happens between family members and our brothers and sisters in Christ. In the ladies’ class I am teaching about James, we have talked about the tongue and what damage it can do. I used an example of someone gossiping about me and the use of the funds the church was giving us, when we were waiting for my husbands’ disability retirement to be approved. His work did not pay him for seven months. Even though I was trying to work two jobs and sometimes three, it was not enough with all the visits my husband was making to the hospital and all the bills associated with that. Someone, member of the church, took it upon themselves to start gossip, slander, that I was giving some of the money to a family member. Totally false! Thankfully a friend asked me about it and got that gossip stopped.

When confronted with gossip, Charles Swindoll says, ask them to ‘Wait a minute. May I quote you?’ Which is usually followed by a long pause, stopping that damaging wagging tongue! Read Matthew 7:1-5. Jesus is talking about judging. He says “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” In other words, our vision is impaired when we judge others, because, as the scribes and Pharisees did, judgment is so easy for us to do. Especially when we don’t know the facts of a situation, and when we are prideful thinking that we are not sinners.

After Jesus tells her to sin no more, He tells the crowd at the temple, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He is pointing out that as the sun is the physical light of the world, He is the spiritual light of the world. As this light, Jesus exposes and gives sight to those spiritually blinded by the world and their own selfishness.

When we feel we are so excited to expose a sin in another, make sure you know the stones are true, that you are throwing. BUT DON’T THROW THEM OUT THERE ANYWAY! Go to that person and talk to them one on one. Matthew 18:15-17 explains how to approach supposed sin in one another. We are told so many times in the bible to judge not. James 4:11 tells us “Do not speak evil of one another…”

Throwing Stones! Don’t be like the scribes and Pharisees, who judged the adulteress, before they looked at themselves and realized that they were sinners too. The lesson of the adulteress woman, shows us that, yes, she was a sinner, but yet Jesus gave forgiveness to her and He gives forgiveness to everyone, no matter what they have done. When Jesus sets us free, we have to still obey His laws and sin no more!

Don’t throw stones so quickly-reach rather for Jesus spiritual light. He helps us not to walk in darkness but rather walk in His saving light!

Till next time!

                                                                  Keela

EMBRACE FREEDOM JESUS PROVIDES

It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. Years ago, my daughter, her two little boys and I had traveled several hours the day before to see my son-in-law graduate from Navy boot camp. When the ceremony started, a huge metal garage door opened directly across from where we sat. Some 350 men and women were marching in place in their dress uniforms.

That in itself can give you goose bumps, but what was so beautiful was the huge snowflakes that were falling from the sky. Then it hit me: these young men and women were dedicating their lives, and their families, to protect my freedom, no matter what the weather, the cost of possibly their own lives, or the loss of time with their families!  

What is freedom to you? Is it the fact that I was able to travel several hours to do something I wanted to? Is it the fact that my four granddaughters, four grandsons and three great grandkids, have the ability to grow up and do or be whoever they want to be? Is it the fact that my family can worship wherever and whenever we choose? What about the fact that I can sit at my kitchen table reading the Bible and leave it there, for all to see, to read later?

We also have another type of freedom, that through our Savior, Jesus Christ. The freedom from sin. Romans 6:10-11 tells us “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We have the choice to grab hold of this freedom and turn our backs to sin in our lives. God started this freedom of choice from the very beginning of time, as Genesis 2:16-17 says “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.’”

God provided the freedom. It was Eve and Adam’s free choice to not obey God’s command. We have this choice today as well to follow Satan or God.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” says the Book of Galatians. “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

That image of those Navy men and women entering the gymnasium with the beautiful flakes of snow falling will always be a memory I will cherish. Just as they were dedicating their lives in service for us so we can be free; we as Christians must dedicate our lives in service, so that we can protect this freedom we have through Christ.

Thank you to all those willing to serve our country through their and their families sacrifices. Thank you, God, for your sacrifice of your Son, who gave us the choice of freedom to serve others.

How are you showing the freedom that only Jesus can give? Are you serving others and letting others know about who you serve, our Jesus?

Serving others truly frees us to serve our Savior!

Thank you, God, for these brave men and women who are willing to put their life on the line by serving to protect us. Thank you to my daughter and four kids, and so many other families, for giving up the time with their family member, so we can all be free. Thank you to Jesus Christ who gave us freedom through His suffering on the cross!

Till next time!

                                                    Keela