Reluctant Nurse

My husband,Tom, had total right knee replacement two weeks ago ..... AND ..... that means I became responsible for all the yardwork, housework, and care of our swimming pool.  I have taken all of it in stride, but the nursing has been challenging.  The patient has been so sweet and appreciative, but seriously he needs help with everything!  Well maybe not "everything" but close.  He has a device to keep the knee moving and his PT and Dr. want him to be on that at least 6 hours a day.  I wanted to set it up in one of the guest rooms where he could watch TV and get a change of scenery from the Master, well that is what I told him, but I really wanted to set it up where I wouldn't be having to pick it up and do full set up every 3 to four hours.  He wouldn't go for it, so I dutifully and with a smidge of resentment lift it onto the bed in our Master Bedroom where he spends all his nights and 90% of his waking hours.  Some friends loaned us an icing machine that keeps me from having to keep ice packs going, but it does require filling the small ice chest with ice 3-4 times a day.

My reluctance to Nurse is the fact that I know I am not very good when it comes to sympathy .... my mantra is "suck it up buttercup"!  LOL  How would YOU like to have me as your Nurse?  Nurse Ratchet.  LOL  God has been so faithful to me and I have been incredibly healthy so I know I need to count my blessings and let God's love flow through my service and the ability to serve.
(Matt 20:28)  That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.”  He commanded us to serve as He served so with the human side of me being reluctant, the spiritual side is full speed ahead.

It has surprised me how much satisfaction I have gotten from caring for the flower beds and vegetable garden.  I have always loved gardening because it reminds me so much of my Mom.  Tom and I have always shared the responsibility but I counted on him to do the hard things or the things I didn't want to do.  Now, I am in total control and have surprised myself by how much I can do ..... I still hate it when I run into a worm when I am digging  AND yes I know they are good for the soil, just not for my soul.  This is the first year I have touched the vegetable garden, that has always been Tom's garden, but I love it and am so excited every time I bring in a tomato or pepper.  The cucumbers, squash, onions, and watermelon are doing splendid.  I did learn that squash needs pollinators (a/k/a bees) to produce, otherwise you have beautiful vines and flowers that simply fall off when they wilt.  Soooooo I have become the pollinator,  I simply touch each stamen with the tip of my finger.  I don't know why we don't have bees this year except everyone has sprayed heavily for mosquitoes because we have had a wet spring.  Evidently what kills the mosquitoes also kills the bees, which upsets the balance of nature.  God had such a beautiful design for nature and "we" "me" keep trying to "fix it"!

By the way, the girl never showed up that was supposed to help me, keeping my drinks refreshed and fanning me while I worked ...... she and the bees are AWOL.  LOL

The Tortoise and the Hare

I am not even going to apologize for having such a lag in my post.  I will however take responsibility for being my busy inconsistent self.  Let's just call me the Tortoise in the race.  Slow but determined.

 I have been volunteering at the Hope Pregnancy Center, listening to precious ladies who are seeking ways to get their lives back on track.  When I first started, I really thought I was there to help save girls from choosing abortion, basically save babies.  I have two adopted daughters and I think the birth moms gave me the greatest gift ever.  Anyway it has turned out God wants me there to just love on the young ladies and let them know He will still love them no matter what decision they make and so will I.  Sometimes a post abortive Mom will come in with overwhelming guilt and shame.  We have a bible study called "Forgiven and Set Free" where they can be with other Moms who have experienced abortion. With  God and each other, they heal!   We all have done things that we regret,  not only hurting ourselves but also the people who love us.  I had a beautiful woman, Pat, speak truth and love into my brokenness turning my shame and sorrow into joy in the Lord and His beautiful Redemption.  So I love that I have that opportunity to do that for someone else.

"Everybody Always", by Bob Goff is a study I have been leading and WOW, the leader has learned much.  It's about loving everybody, the young, the old, the mean, the nice, the Liberal, the Conservative, the creepy, the clean, the dirty .. LOVE THEM... Always, not just when you are having a good day.  God's greatest Commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, AND Love your neighbor as yourself."
Luke 10:27

In this study I have realized if everyone could do these two things, Love God, Love People, everything else would fall into place.  Here are part of the Lyrics of a song called, "We all Bleed the Same" by Mandisa.

Only love can drive out all the darkness

What are we fighting for?

We were made to carry one another

We were made for more, said

Only love can drive out all the darkness

What are we fighting for? yeah

We were made to carry one another

We were made for more!

We all bleed the same (we all bleed the same)

We're more beautiful when we come together (let's stand united!)

We all bleed the same (we all bleed the same)

So tell me why, tell me why

We're divided

If we're gonna fight

Let's fight for each other (fight for each other!)

If we're gonna shout

Let love be the cry (be the cry!)

We all bleed the same(we all bleed the same) (bleed the same)

Let's stand united (let's stand united)

Let's stand united!

When I heard this song on the radio, I thought, this lady and gets it!  Try it for one day, notice the person who is checking out your purchase.  Look at their name tag, call them by name and ask them how their day is going, same for your waiter, your barista .... get it smile and be nice and loving to everyone you meet all day ... yes even the creepy ones.  Go ahead hand the beggar on the street corner some money, and don't be cynical about what they do with the money.  You can't control that, but you can do what God has commanded you to do ... Love them.  If you don't have any cash, roll your  window down and tell them "I would love to help you but today I don't have any cash, however I can pray for you and I will.  Then do it!

Start looking at people and realizing they all have problems and issues, just like you.  They have a life and we are called to love them, not just treat them like they were born to serve you.  One day I happen to be out when the garage man picked up my trash and I ran to tell him how much I appreciate him doing that every week.  After he realized I wasn't a crazy lady, he broke out in a big smile and said, "Ma'm you just made my day."

The first day I committed to doing this I couldn't wait to get started so when my phone rang I thought this is my first opportunity to let whoever was calling that I loved and appreciated them.  THEN .... it was a telemarketer ... Ok, not funny, instead of my usual "Take me off your calling list",  When he said my name is John, I interrupted him and said, "John, I am so glad you called me today, I need to tell you that Jesus love you",  He was taken back, but his reply was the saddest, "No He doesn't or I wouldn't be where I am right now in my life".  He briefly told me of his circumstances and I told him I was sorry he was suffering but Jesus could comfort him and guide him if he would let go of the anger and bitterness he was feeling.  ANYWAY after a long discussion I assured him that God must love him, because of all the thousands of people he could have called that day he called me, and God had done a work in my heart that caused me to tell you He loved you.  I had never ever been compelled to tell a complete stranger, especially a telemarketer, that God love them.  He was silent and then he said that maybe his grandmother had been praying for this to happen.  He thanked me and we hung up, he never did tell me what he was selling.  😳

It's two days until Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for.  I have been cooking and baking the last two days and I am so thankful that at 68 I can still do that.  We will have both the girls and their families, my Mentee, Chloe and her husband Ethan, and two International students from UCO, Oscar and Ismeania.  So blessed to see my life full of great friends and a family that  "I love to the moon and back"!

WOW where did 2017 go?

Okay, now you know something else about me.  I am inconsistent and that is exactly what this blog reflects.  No blog for a year?  So why don't I have followers?  Seriously, I am a mess.

I started a home-based Norwex business last January and it has taken me on the ride of my life.  The Company Mission is:  "Improving Quality of Life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes. "  Norwex helps you Create Your Safe Haven.   These cleaning products require only water to work and can clean just about any surface in your home. (Removing 93% - 100% of bacteria, mold, mildew, and fungi.

Anyway, it all started when I looked at the Norwex catalog and said, "I want it ALL"!  LOL

The business has been so much fun, and work, but I love it!  I love the products, I love my customers.  I have met over 150 ladies this year that I didn't know last year at this time.  I may be getting old, but I am not slowing down .... and truthfully it makes me feel young.

In the meantime, my personal life is rich with my lovely two daughters and their incredible husbands.  They have blessed me and the Colonel (My husband is a retired Air Force Pilot) with 7 beautiful grandchildren 5 girls and identical twin grandsons.  WOOO HOOO!

glendabliss.norwex.biz/   Check out my website.  I will be telling you more about me and my Norwex in the following weeks.  I promise I will be back before the year is up1

My refections as 2017 began

Sunday morning January 8, 2017.  Reflecting on the new year and the sermon our pastor Dennis Newkirk delivered last night.  We started a series titled “Roots”, and we will be walking through the book of Mark verse by verse.  I love the way he explained that this was the first gospel written and that gospel means “Good News” and went on to say it actually is “Great News”!  Indeed it is and I look forward to the story like sitting in the library as a child … waiting for Story Time.  

As we reflect on the New Year he asked us 6 questions to consider:

1. What one thing could I do to increase my enjoyment of God? … Private Worship, Public Worship, Prayer, Praise?  All ideas but each of us looking to see how we can come into a walking, talking, listening relationship.

2. What is the most humanly impossible thing you could ask God to do this year?  As a faith building exercise we should ask what man considers impossible.  I am asking him to heal my ear, in faith believing that by this time next year my hearing will be restored.  I also lift up my new business asking Him to touch MANY lives.  He has given me hope that even at this age I might see the full potential of the gifts and life He has given me.  

3. What can you do to increase the quality of your family? - Tune my heart to God making Him the center of all that happens in our home and in my speech.

4. What Spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress on this year.  For me it is discipline of using my time wisely.  

5. What is the biggest time waster in your life.  For me it is the internet, making poor choices with games or Facebook.  The internet will be very valuable to my business, but I must discipline myself to monitor myself and limit time I spend “Playing”.

6. What is the most helpful thing I can do for my church?  For me it is building relationships, being a hostess to church member.  Praying for our church as we go through the transition in staff.  

Such good things for me to fix my heart on.  Lord I ask that I live for You as I have never done before.  Take my steps, make them yours; take my life and give me joy in giving away my time and energy.  You alone Father know what you designed to happen in my life, My desire this year is to let me and others get a view of that.  I have my own preconceived ideas of how that might look, but help me to re-evaluate that daily to make sure that I am on the path You have chosen for me and not on a Glenda self serving “Lark”.  Too many times I have failed to communicate with you or flatly closed my mind and taken my own path.  WHAT A MISTAKE!  Oh the consequences I have suffered as a result.  Thanking you today for Your Redemption, and Grace!  “The GOOD NEW .. THE GREAT NEWS!

HOPE

My word for the year 2017 is hope.  I face this year with more confidence in God than I ever thought possible.  The truths that I have been taught all my life I am getting a grasp on.  One morning as I had my quiet time …. I got it!  I am God’s daughter,  and fully acceptable because I have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.  I was writing in my prayer journal when I looked down at my hand holding the pen; my thought was “Will you look at that!”  “The hand of a King’s daughter”. I thought of President Trumps daughter, Ivanka … how beautiful she is; how her father adores her; how conscious she is of how her behavior reflects on her Dad.  WOW … Since I am the daughter of a King how much more important is it for me to be conscious of how my actions and reactions reflect on my Father.  Above all things remembering how adored I am by my “King Father”.  And I love him so much, “it takes my breath away”.  Usually it manifest itself in tears as I feel His arms embrace me through the highs and lows of life.

Who is this Lady?

I claim to be a Texan although I have lived most of my life in Oklahoma.  Born in Fort Worth, Texas; before the technology age, we had no colored TV until I was in high school, and the color was far from HD, and my sister and I were the remote.  No microwaves, no dishwashers, no air conditioning, certainly no computers.  I remember reading in Weekly Reader about microwaves and thinking "NO WAY"!

Anyway it was the 50's and I was one of the Baby Boomers.  My Dad had served in the Air Force and when he returned back to the states he married my Mom and started a construction business and before long I was born followed by my sister, Donna, 13 months later.  One of my Dad's first projects was a little two bedroom house on Amy St. in Fort Worth.  That is the first early memories I have, life in the little house on Amy Street.  I remember watching my Mom using a tredle sewing machine making dresses for my sister and I.  I remember watching clothes go round and round in our front loading washing machine, I think that is all they had in the 50's.  I remember Mother hanging clothes on the line to dry and shaking them out good before bringing them in the house because scorpions loved to catch a ride in.  She also checked the beds when she turned down the sheets at night because an occasional one would make it inside and hide in our beds.  I had been stung once and I was terrified of them and went into hysterics when I saw one.   I will claim drama queen when it come to scorpions.  

Unfortunately scorpions were not the only bad memories I have of my life on Amy Street.  My Dad was an alcoholic and I remember him staggering down our halls singing and laughing... thank goodness he was a happy drunk.  Still the memories are painful because my Mom cried.  When he didn't come home at night I remember seeing her on her knees crying and praying beside her bed, long after I was suppose to be asleep.  Matters got worse when a lady started calling our house asking for my Dad.   It was only a matter of time until I lost my Dad to alcohol, and his new wife and son.  I was almost 5 when he left and  I remember hanging on his leg as he walked out to his car begging him not to leave.  

Okay that was emotionally draining for me ... so let me continue this another day ..... Excuse me as I grab a tissue.  LOL

Another Day in the Life

Blogging is something I have thought about doing, and not sure why except for the fact I may have always romanticized myself as a writer.  Nevertheless here it is.  I am not going to start from the beginning of my life and share all my hopes, dreams, dissapointments, failures and joys ...   I could be someone very much like yourself, not highly accomplished in any one thing, but fairly successful in many things.  The most important thing about me is I am a child of God and have been on a spiritual journey to know Him and experience the fullnes of life lived with him in control.  Realizing that very little in my life is "about me", but about what He is doing in me to make me the woman He always knew I could be.

I very recently started living each day according to His plan.  It has been interesting to watch the direction He is taking me.  At the end of the days completely surrendered to Him I am amazed at where the day has taken me.  What I am finding is that it is so much easier to accomplish things in His strength and I rest knowing that to the best of my knowledge I took advantage of every opportunity to further His Kingdom.