Letter to Different Time

Dear Suzie,
I wish I could sit down with you at this stage in your life…the year of this picture. If only I could be with you to teach you some important things about yourself. Soon, after Mom dies, you will leave Buffalo and move to Wisconsin with Grandma. It will be a good move, creating some of the happiest years of your childhood.

As I look back over those years, I realize you will wander through life not really being aware of who you are. Not the superficial “who you are”, but the deep-down-inside “who you are.” As far as I can remember, no one ever taught you how to live life to its full potential. I feel I’ve also failed in this area with your future children. I really believe, Suzie, that after all these many years, I’m only now learning "who we are."
I want to talk to you about an incident that will happen the day you begin the fifth grade. Unfortunately, you will not be able to respond to it in a positive manner. And, considering that I have it in my memory today, it will be something that you will carry with you for the rest of your life.
A boy, new to the school, will come to your classroom. His name is Harvey. Nice boy, son of the new minister in town. His father will leave him in the classroom and Harvey will run to the cloakroom window to watch him go. He will cry. Kids will laugh at him….but not you. You will hurt for him. That’s because you will know how he feels. You see, you experienced the same thing just the year before when Dad took you away to live in Milwaukee. But happily you returned to Grandma's house after that year was over.
Unfortunately, you will be too afraid to go to Harvey and try to comfort him. You will be too young to know how to do that…and much too shy. But it's okay. There are so many lessons to learn.

Harvey, I’m sorry I didn't help you that day.

Sheets Revisited

Just wanted to share the birthday card daughter Dana made for me yesterday. This card was created because of a conversation our family had last Thanksgiving. Check out my post from November 2008 entitled "Sheets."

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. ~~Found somewhere in the Bible :0)

The Simple Life

Remember the phrase, “biting off more that you can chew”? Perhaps I’m about to do that. In this post I plan to make a statement about the purpose of life. Me!...a middle-60’s woman without a completed college degree is about to address a subject that has been discussed by the greatest philosophers throughout the ages.

Until just recently, I believed there was something "great" that God wanted me to do with my life. This thinking was especially vivid after being healed of cancer. There was a purpose for this healing…he had a special plan for my life. I just needed to find it. I’m sure I am not alone in this quest to find a purpose.

Well…here I am after four years…still wondering what the “great thing” is!

Recently I’ve been reading books by Donald Miller, Jim Palmer, Rob Bell, and the Bible. They all seem to point to the same thing. It’s a simple thing, really. As Jim Palmer puts it in his book Wide Open Spaces: “God’s purpose for me, for you, for everyone is to know him.” That's it.

Look what the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:10…”For my determined purpose is that I may know him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.]” (Amplified version)

To carry it a bit further, I think it all boils down to the two commandments that Jesus instructed us to do. I appreciate the way William Young (author of The Shack) puts it on his blog…”Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, and love yourself. Then go help people because you love them.”

I’m beginning to believe this is the purpose for my life. Excuse me while I go to chew on it for awhile.



Jesus himself said, (John 17:3) Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”