The Times They Are A-Changin'

I was a teenager in the Sixties.  And it was definitely a changing time. Bob Dylan wrote the song - The Times They Are A-Changin' in 1964.  He was warning people that their children were becoming hippies and living an unconventional life of free love and living life without authority.  In other words - they were doing what they wanted to without any fear of the consequences. 

 

I was a semi-hippie.  I liked the dress of the time and the music, but I was too shy to do much rebelling or running off to Woodstock. And I always liked being in control of my mind and body. So smoking marijuana and doing drugs was something I had no desire to do.  I want to believe God was watching out for me and directing my path even before I was saved. 

 

But times  do change.  They are changing every day. New technology, new fashions, new hair styles, new words added to the dictionary, new beliefs.  Every day is a day of change. And changes aren't always for the bad.

 

This year there was a lot of changing going on in my family.  I had two grandkids graduate from high school this year.   I know for them it was a life changing event.  They were ready to pursue their dreams and figure out what God had for their lives.  Those are exciting changes.

One of my granddaughters became a 7th grader.  Entering the life of a soon to be teenager.  That's a hard time for some kids.  There is always a lot of peer pressure.  They are finding out who they are and trying to fit in to a new stage in their lives.

I had another grandson who entered the 7th grade this year. After being home schooled most of his life, he entered into a totally different environment of a public school.  I know he is facing a lot of changes. 

It's changing times for my sons and their wives.  Their children are going off to college or moving away from home  It's a new transition for them.

 

We all are aging and there will always be new changes. Some will be painful and hard to accept and others will be an exciting change and new adventure.

 

I am so thankful that there is one thing in our life that never changes.  And that is God.  He is always there, always faithful, always loving us (unconditionally).  HE NEVER CHANGES!!

 

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

 

 

 

 

If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.

 

 

 

In Need of a Porch

I live in a condo. And I'm thankful everyday for my home. I have no complaints.

But ever once in a while, I wish I had a porch or a deck not surrounded by other condos and high fences.

I love sitting outside in the mornings and drinking my cup of coffee (maybe cups of coffee).

It can be so refreshing.

I love watching the morning sun start to peek above the trees and listen to the birds sing their sweet morning melodies. I like to sit there and soak in the sounds and the beauty of the morning. I close my eyes and feel the cool morning breeze upon my face. The whole world is awakening to a beautiful new day.

It is refreshing to my soul.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Oops! My Age Is Showing

I hit a new low.  I was out shopping and the clerk said, "You know, you get a senior discount."   I don't want a senior discount. 

 I like to tease.  I should have said, "How insulting. I'm only 29." 

 

But the truth is - my age was showing. 

 

I went home and looked in the mirror.  And there it was - wrinkles, age spots, droopy eye lids, crepe paper skin.  Do I need to go any further.

 

I read something the other day.

 

It said they are not wrinkles, but survival lines of my life.  Each one holds a story, a laugh, or a memory.

 

I liked that. It made me feel better. Our physical appearance does change as we age. It's inevitable.  It's growing old with grace - knowing we have gained wisdom and strength through the trials and joys of life. 

 

Psalm 71:18

Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

The Song Written By A Clown

Recently, I came across a story about a man named Daniel de Marbelle. 

He had been born in France in 1818. Later he joined the American Navy and fought in the Mexican War and later was a musician in the Civil War.

 

After the war he travelled across America, singing and acting.

 

At 69, he became one of the first clowns hired by Bailey of the Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Later he organized his own circus which was destroyed by a fire. He also worked with Buffalo Bill Cody in his Wild West shows.

 

He was a multi-talented man who could play any instrument.  He was an actor, a writer, a ventriloquist, and an amazing public speaker.

 

But he was not a business man.  His last years were spent in poverty and he lived in an abandoned schoolroom.  He sang in the choir in a church in Elgin, Illinois and sometimes gave his testimony:

 

"For years I was so busy I didn't have time for God and so rich I didn't need Him. God had to slow me down and take my success away so that He could talk to me about the home beyond the river."

When They Ring The Golden Bells

 

By Daniel de Marbelle

 

There's a land beyond the river, that we call the sweet forever,

And we only reach that shore by faith's decree;

One by one we'll gain the portals, there to dwell with the immortals,

When they ring the golden bells for you and me.

Living In An Angry World

 

 

I know I live a very sheltered life. I'm retired and spend most of my time with grandchildren. I go to the store and to church. When I do venture beyond my comfort zone, it seems like a scary world in which I do not belong.

 

I think of the song, "This World Is Not My Home"

 

This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

 

I forget sometimes that there are so many people that need the Lord in their lives. People who are bitter and angry and have no hope. 

 

My husband would tell my sons, "You are born, life's tough, and then you die."

 

I would always say, "Don't tell them that." Life is tough, but IT IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT. 

 

We can let our circumstances in life bring us down or we can determine to rise above them and be the best we can be with God's help.

 

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

What I Live For

The other day, I was going through some boxes and I found some old McGuffey's  Readers. William McGuffey (Editor of McGuffey's Readers) felt the goals of public school was to instill moral and spiritual education to the students and he wanted to give schools a curriculum that would do that.

 

I read some of the stories and poems.  I especially enjoyed this poem written by George L. Banks in the 1800's. 

 

 

What I Live For    

 

 

 

 

 

 

I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true,
For heaven that smiles above me,
And waits my spirit, too;
For all the ties that bind me,
For all the tasks assigned me.
And bright hopes left behind me,
And good that I can do.

I live to learn their story
Who've suffered for my sake,
To emulate their glory,
And follow in their wake;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The noble of all ages,
Whose deeds crown history's pages,
And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union
'Twixt Nature's heart and mine;
To profit by affliction,
Reap truths from fields of fiction,
And, wiser from conviction,
Fulfil each grand design.

I live to hail that season,
By gifted minds foretold,
When men shall rule by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true,
For heaven that smiles above me,
And waits my spirit too;
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

            by George Linnaeus Banks                        

"I live for those who love me and for my hope of Heaven".

I always want to have a good testimony to my family and friends. And someday when my life on earth is over, I'll hear God say, "Well done,good and faithful servant."

 

Matthew 25:23

His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Loneliness

It is something hard to admit, but most of the time I feel very lonely. It's not living by myself that bothers me, but never having someone to share life with.

I'll soon be 70 years old and have been a widow for almost 5 years now. But it seems like the days are getting lonelier. Coming home to an empty house will never get easy.

 

All I ever wanted in life was to be a wife, mother, and grandmother. Those roles fulfill me very much. But in this day and age, families aren't as close as they use to be.

My family is spread out everywhere. Texas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina.

I always wanted a big family that lived close by each other and at least one day a week, we would all get together and have a big family meal. And grandkids would always be filling my house with laughter and spending days and nights with me.

I know my family loves me and worries about me, but they have their own lives; and that is the way it should be. And I have all sons. We always taught them that their wives and families should be their first priority.

Even when you are around other people, there's a loneliness. I love traveling, but that doesn't interest as much. I don't have anyone to share the memories with - plus you have to be financially able to travel everywhere you would like to.

So here I am. Another lonely night of watching meaningless television shows, falling asleep on my couch, eating peanut butter sandwiches for supper (it's no fun cooking for one), and trying to figure out what to do with myself.

 

Please don't feel sorry for me, because that is not what I want. And getting older doesn't bother me. I think I just needed to express my feelings a little bit.

I always tell my kids that one day they will find me lying on the floor. I've fallen and I laid there undiscovered for days, maybe weeks. I'll be just a skeleton of my former self. "It could happen!" 

 

Well, I'm through feeling sorry myself - I'm going to watch another Hallmark movie where the people are going to fall in love and live happily ever after.

 

Really, I am very blessed and thankful for the life I do have. I have a wonderful place to live and  I am very thankful that I have a good church to go to, my friends (some of them are widows with the same feelings) and I am so blessed to have the greatest family a person can have.

 

Just sometimes it gets lonely....