Category: Woe! It’s Wednesday

Woe! It’s Wednesday: Gifted to Serve

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I gritted my teeth and prayed for patience to get through that Wednesday evening. I also prayed for several other Spirit fruits to invade me.

In an unprepared moment, I’d been asked to serve with the 3rd and 4th grade girls in our church’s mid-week children’s program and I regretted my lack of a handy excuse.

I did survive. Not just that night but the entire school year of Wednesdays. I had no passion for that ministry. I disliked the noise, chaos, confusion, noise, seeming disorganization, and above all, the noise. Two hundred laughing, screeching, chattering children set my teeth on edge.

At the end of the program year, I said goodbye with a great sigh of relief.

Funny though. All summer I kept remembering the fun I’d managed to have, in spite of the noise. By fall, I was ready again. And to my great surprise, that second year I actually enjoyed myself.

I liked interacting with the girls. It was fun to watch the organized chaos of game time and I loved seeing God’s word change lives.

I spent seven years serving. The girls I had in my groups are now grown, many of them with their own children. No one is more amazed than I, what God is able to accomplish when I come to Him on His terms, not leaning on my own strength, but completely dependent on Him.

Gal 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest.

Woe! It’s Wednesday … A personal note. Sort of.

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I haven’t posted anything but book reviews here in forever. I know, I know. I get busy and other projects are marked Urgent, so blogging gets pushed down the list. I’m trying to be better.

I’m tidying up my office and one of my projects is taking a stack of old (some are really, really old) hardcopies of articles and devotionals I wrote in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and typing them into my computer.

This one only needed a bit of tweaking to make it current and I think it’s still valid.

Mentoring was a buzzword when I was homeschooling, in the last century. In business, education and social science circles, mentoring was extolled as the best way to produce intelligent and upright leaders of the next generation. The Bible speaks of mentoring also, although it’s called by another name.

Disciplining, discipling, or training are Biblical words that mean the same as mentoring.

The dictionary says a mentor is a wise and trusted teacher, guide and friend; an elderly monitor or adviser.

Isn’t that exactly what Paul tells us in Titus to do for our young women and daughters?

A mentor relationship is exactly what a mom has with her children. We’re teaching them that a mother is someone who places a great importance on raising children who will make a difference in this world for Christ. We teach them practical things also, such as running a household.

If my children had left home without knowing how to do their laundry and have it come out the same color it went in, I failed at my mentoring. If my children place greater importance on things than on people, I have failed. If my children don’t know how to prepare a meal or how to vacuum or how to shop, I have failed. If my children believe someone’s contribution to society can be measured in dollars and cents, I have failed.

Mentoring doesn’t need to be an organized program we sign up for to train and encourage young people. No matter if you’re a parent or not, you are a mentor to the young people in your life. You are a wise and trusted teacher, guide, and friend.

Woe! It’s Wednesday … Catching Up on What a Year!

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It’s been quite a while since I posted anything other than a book review. But I recently looked back at some of my posts from when we were traveling with the drug education trailer and I really enjoyed reading about our adventures and the people we met and the food we ate and the sights we saw and the sites we visited.

At Chihuly in Seattle

The Chihuly Gallery remains a favorite. I’d love to return there someday.

Anyway, I thought I should give an update about what we’ve been up to since we’ve been sidelined.

David took care of some long planned house projects. We put in new flooring, painted our wood-burning stove and hearth, as well as the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway. We also bought some new furniture pieces and painted some others. The house feels bigger and cleaner!

Before
During
During
Almost, but not quite done!

I kept busy with my day job working in agriculture media and pesticide safety. And I received a long-awaited and very exciting offer to sign a publishing contract with Sunrise Publishing! I’m co-writing a romance novel with Rachel Hauck, a New York Times best-selling author. It will be set in her beloved fictional town of Hearts Bend, Tennessee. We’re hard at work on it now and having a blast. I love being a part of the Sunrise family. Everyone there is a joy to work with. The book will debut in February. I’ll be releasing the name and cover on social media in the next few months.

Signing my first publishing contract!

We were able to take some trips to Yosemite and one to Hawaii. It’s been a blessing to be able to keep in contact with friends and family via Zoom, FaceTime, and WhatsApp. We mostly attended church online, but are starting to go in person again. Social media is both a blessing and a curse and I have a love/hate relationship with it.

We’re not sure when we’ll be back on the road with the drug education trailer. But I’ll keep the blog updated when we know something.

Thank you for reading this far! Talk to you soon!

Woe! It’s Wednesday: A Rose By Any Other Name …

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I feel the need to confess. The burden has grown in the last few months and I can no longer carry it.

I don’t do nicknames. In fact … I hate nicknames.

My nickname phobia has one major exception.

Senior woman using computer

If, when we meet, I’m introduced to you by your nickname, I will happily call you by the nickname for the rest of eternity.

But you cannot be introduced to me as … Millicent Penelope Ewing, and then a few months or a few years later decide that you wish to be called Millie Pillie. You are in my brain as Millicent and Millicent you shall forever be.

So people who wish to be called by a nickname and wonder why I don’t go along, now you know.

It seems to me that if your parents wanted to name you Millipede or Sista Pup, or any of the many, many variations of every name created by younger siblings learning to talk, your parents would have named you that to begin with.

I’m not ranting or upset, I just thought I should explain why I continue to call you and/or your kids by the name I met you as.

 

I’ve tried to do the nickname thing. I’ve tried to come up with them, I’ve tried to call others by them. The best I can do is a kind of halting, swallowed amalgamation of your given name and your nickname.

I finally gave up. Millicent you were, Millicent you are, and Millicent you forever will be. Just saying … It’s a thing with me.

What’s your “thing”? Who else has something kind of weird, kind of goofy that they can’t go along with? I’m dying to know.

Well, not literally “dying,” but genuinely curious. Really!

 

 

Woe! It’s Wednesday: Forgiveness

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Forgiveness does not come naturally. At least to me, it doesn’t.

I’m sure you’re much better at forgiving others than I am.

Portrait of sad child

Although I do seem able to move on sooner than some other people I could mention, but I’m trying to be modest here, so I’m going to focus on my issues with forgiveness.

I know all the usual answers:

  • To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and discover the prisoner was you. ~ Lewis Smedes
  • Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for other person to die ~ Many attributes but I first heard it from Carrie Fisher
  • To err is human; to forgive, divine. ~ Alexander Pope
  • Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. ~ The Lord’s Prayer

I recently came across one more quote. It stopped me right where I was, reached in my chest, gave my heart a little rub, and then whispered in my ear, “This. This is what you’ve been feeling.”

Here it is:

To forgive somebody is to say one way or another, ‘You have done something unspeakable, and by all rights I should call it quits between us. Both my pride and my principles demand no less. However, although I make no guarantees that I will be able to forget what you’ve done, and though we may both carry the scars for life, I refuse to let it stand between us. I still want you for my friend.’ ~ Frederick Buechner

I’ve come and read this again and again in the week since I first found it. It still stops me.

So much wisdom.

So much truth.

Detail of a Christmas quilt with scissors

 

My pride doesn’t want me to forgive others. Pride wants me to wrap my grudge around myself like a warm winter quilt.

The only problem is that eventually that quilt gets thin and smelly. Much like a grudge.

It fades until no one else can see the colors and shapes.

“Here.” I point to a faded triangle of red paisley. “This is when you called me a name. And here”–I rub a green rectangle–“here is when someone else spread gossip.” I can go on, identifying each patch in the ratty old quilt. But eventually even I have to admit I’m the only one who cares anymore.

It’s easier to recognize that although I have a “right” to my hurt feelings, the only one being punished is me.

What about you? Does forgiveness come naturally? Or am I the only one who struggles?