GCR Women

Some friends of mine and I are fixing dinner Monday night for the kids in the Apartment Ministry at the Renaissance Apartments.  It's just one meal, our turn coming about once every three months - not a big deal for us. But what does it mean to them? Once a week, every Monday night, a group of dedicated individuals from Golf Course Road spends the evening with these kids, eating supper and opening God's word.  These folks find time each week.  No, that's not right.  These folks make time each week to teach these children who God is and how much He loves them.  They make sure there's a meal each week and they make sure the time they spend with them is fun.  Most importantly, they make sure each child feels loved. This is a noble calling, to be sure.  These children are some of the poorest around here and the complex they live in is not very attractive or safe.  I don't know their situations.  I don't know if they have enough food in the...

Today is my mother's birthday.  Born in 1925, she's certainly seen a lot in her 88 years.  She grew up in a small house deep in the Piney Woods of East Texas.   The house belonged to her grandfather.  He passed away eight years before she was born, but her grandmother and aunt still lived there, along with her mother and father and sister. There was no running water, no electricity.  She walked to the one-room schoolhouse several miles away every day and studied by coal oil lamp every night.  She knew how to ride a horse but never learned to ride a bicycle. She graduated from that little school at age 15 and went on to go to college at Sam Houston State in Huntsville.  About 50 miles from home, Mom might as well have been on a different planet.  She studied Home Economics and had exciting experiences like eating Jello for the first time.  She had an adequate wardrobe but only one pair of shoes. Home was too far away to visit except on hol...

In the past two week, four treasured ladies have passed from this life into the next:  Margaret Poulter, Jane Blackwell, Alice Odle, and Marguerite Goudeau.  These ladies died gracefully in Christ but what's more important is how they lived. Each of them lived her life as a beautiful example of the transformational love of Christ.  As they walked through this life, they chose to order their steps according to the Word of God.  Wisdom, grace, love, joy - these are the riches they possessed and more. Did they live easy, carefree lives without trouble or pain? No, each of them had struggles and suffered pain and loss. But the way they overcame gave glory to God because each of them let Him help her through it all. What is their legacy to me?  Their deaths?  No, it's their lives that speak to me.  Their lives encourage and challenge me to choose God's way because their lives tell me that God's way works, that it's the best way - a way of victory and ...

This week, we had the pleasure of keeping our grandson while his mom was out of town and his dad was working. Have you ever noticed how a four-year-old knows how to get right to the heart of the matter? It has become our habit to pile up our trash sacks on the back porch till one of us has the time to take it out to the dumpster.  Grant noticed the trash sacks sitting there and asked his grandpa why he hadn't taken out the trash. Grandpa answered that he'd take it out later.  Grant wasn't satisfied with that answered and told his grandpa that it was time to take out the trash now. So, Grandpa took out the trash.  The back porch looked so much nicer and was ready to use for the things the porch was intended for.  But be warned:  we have to stay on top of it or it just piles up again. When's the last time you took out the trash?  If we let it pile up, it sits there as a reminder of work we need to do but put off till a more convenient time.  We kee...

Yesterday, I was privileged to spend a good portion of the day with two lovely Christian sisters.  We were celebrating the completion of Faith Words 2012. As a prelude to our celebration, we sat in my living room and each one of us in turn shared from memory the 24 verses (23 verses for one sister) God had written on our hearts last year.  Even though we're all three good friends, we were more than a little nervous and intimidated as we shared.  But oh, what a joy to hear God's words flow form the hearts and mouths of these precious ladies!  How beautiful is the word of God Almighty to the mind and to the ear! These verses had become our stronghold and shield, our rock and our hope through many difficult situations and through many times of joy.  They will forever stand as our Ebenezer, our help from God Himself because we believe that He selected them for us to encourage us in our walk. These verses have seen us through deaths of loved ones, life stage ch...

If you're new to Faith Words or just need a reminder of how it works, here are the instructions:   OPTION 1:  TWO VERSES PER MONTH On the 1st and 15th of every month , beginning January 1 st , visit the GCR Women’s BlogSpot http://gcrwomen.blogspot.com/ and post your memory verse as a comment to the blog entry.  You are committing to 24 Scriptures in 12 months. OPTION 2:  ONE VERSE PER MONTH On the 1st of every month , beginning January 1 st , visit the GCR Women’s BlogSpot http://gcrwomen.blogspot.com/ and post your memory verse as a comment to the blog entry. You are committing to 12 Scriptures in 12 months. OPTION 3:  DAILY BIBLE READING Select a daily Bible reading schedule and stick to it.  On the 1st of every month , beginning January 1 st , visit the GCR Women’s BlogSpot http://gcrwomen.blogspot.com/ and post a brief comment telling where you are in your daily reading and a key verse that God has used to speak to you. For ...

Another new year.  We look back. We look forward. Behind me is another year's worth of things I did right and things I did wrong.  Good things happened in 2012 and so did bad. When I start looking at all that went on last year, I tend to focus on the places where I failed, where I fell short, where I made a mess of things, where things didn't turn out the way I'd hope they would.  Pretty soon, that's all I can see and my head sinks in shame and my heart is heavy with the burden. Add to that all that can worry us and cause us to fear the coming of 2013.  The world's political climate seems to become more unstable each day.  And even if we don't go off the "fiscal cliff" tomorrow, the national debt keeps climbing, threatening to bury generations to come with financial woe.  The condition of our society is also at risk and seems to decline long after we thought it had reached the bottom.  The war against traditional marriage and the family wages on. ...