GROWING IN GRATITUDE

Last week I began a 30 Day Challenge "Growing in Gratitude" published by Revive our Hearts.  I know I've been greatly blessed, but I don't often stop to actually express my gratitude to God and others.  I am asking God to transform me into a truly thankful person. It may take more than 30 days :)  

Day 4 challenged me to make two lists under these headings:  "Gifts from God' and "Gifts from Others.  then put down everything that comes to mind. This is to be an ongoing exercise not something to do in ten minutes.  A list that I will add to over the next 30 days.   

As we discussed Caleb and Joshua in Sunday School this morning and the spiritual legacy they left behind to the generations after them.  I thought of someone very special to add to my list of "Gifts from God".  Thank you God for my fraternal grandmother, Zelma Irene Bicknell Herring.  I know without a doubt I am walking with the LORD today because of her prayers.  She loved the LORD, read her Bible every night, served faithfully in her Methodist Church and loved her children and grandchildren unconditionally.  

Six years ago when I was anticipating being a grandmother for the first time, I sent an email to my cousins asking them, what made Grandma Herring special to each of them.  They answered back, "because I was so special to her, I was her favorite".  I laughed at each one, because I KNEW I was her favorite.  Then I realized that we were each her "favorite".  She treated each of us as her favorite whenever we were with her.  When I visted her we watched Lawrence Welk and Billy Graham Crusades together, I helped her "put up" fig preserves, snap green beans and dry the dishes. She would brush my hair, rub my back and read to me clippings she had saved out of the paper of things she thought I would be interested in. She was always interested in what I liked, what I did in school, who my friends were and was always eager to "show me off" to her "Circle".  (The Methodist Women's Circle). 

I am grateful for a godly loving grandmother.  I desire to be that godly loving grandmother to all my grandchildren. I desire to treat each one as if they are my "favorite".  I long to leave them a godly legacy.  I pray that 40 years after my death, my memory will stir in the heart of each of them sweet memories of a grandmother that loved the LORD with all her heart, mind, and strength.  

"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul and forget not all His benefits."  Psalm 103:1-2

For more information on the 30 Day Challenge "Growing in Gratitude" go to www.reviveourhearts.com

A SPECIAL PROMISE

An excerpt from "Journey" by David Jeremiah

    "Like most women,missionary Amy Carmichael wanted to be married. But her work would have been impossible for a married woman,and God gave her Psalm 34:22 as a special promise. Amy's struggle was deeply personal, one she didn't divulge for years. Finally she told the story. "I went away alone to a cave in the mountain...I had feelings of fear about the future...The devil kept whispering.  "It's all right now, but what about afterwards? You are going to be a very lonely.' And he painted pictures of loneliness...And I turned to my God in a kind of desperation and said. 'Lord what can I do? How can I go on to the end?' and He said, 'None of them that trust in Me shall be desolate.' That word has been with me ever since."

    In heaven, we'll have no loneliness, no loss, no privation, and no painful sacrifices. But it's our joy now to yield ourselves fully to God, for no one who trusts in Him will ever be desolate."

"The Lord redeems the lives of His servants, and none of those who take refuge and trust in Him shall be desolate."  Psalm 34:22

What a wonderful verse for us to cling to when our lives just don't seem to be going the way we had planned or anticipated.  We much to often cling to the past, are discontent with the present and fear the future. It would do us well to seek first the kingdom of God and His will for our lives.

RUSHING WATERS & A BEACH VACATION

One of my all time top five vacations, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Each year Jeff's golf club has a week long golf trip to different locations throughout the U.S.  Five days of golf at five different courses with 100 of his closest golf buddies :).  This was our second trip to Myrtle Beach and definitely one of my favorites!  Our room had a balcony that overlooks the beach and the beauty was breathtaking.  There is a spotlight at night that shines out on the water and we watched the rolling waves hitting the shore.  Peaceful it is not, calming it is.  Go figure.  I could not quite understand that as loud as the sound of the ocean waves are, virtually a roar, it seemed so peaceful on that balcony.  

This year a friend and I planned to spend the week doing Beth Moore's DVD Study "Here and Now...There and Then, A Lecture Series on Revelation" along with hours on the beach.  And that is what we did.  We met for breakfast, retired to our room for Bible Study (God was so sweet to provide a DVD player with our large flat screen TV) and then we hit the beach from 12:00 until 4:00 everyday. We dressed to meet our men for dinner, watched a LOT of basketball and started over the next day.  It was awesome!

But what I want to share is one of those God "nuggets" I learned on my balcony overlooking the Atlantic.

Revelation 1:12-16 NIV  Verse 13

" and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," 

dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet ...

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace,

(15) and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters."

   Revelation 19:6 NIV 

"Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, 

like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 

            "Hallelujah!

                   For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

             Let us rejoice and be glad

                   and give Him glory"

             For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

                   and His bride had made herself ready.

Daniel 10:6 AMP 

"and the sound of His words was like the noise 

of a multitude of people or the roaring of the sea".

I through open the balcony door and listened to the "roar of the sea" and understood the peace that comes from the sound of the roaring waters.  Someday I will hear that "roar" and know that it is my Saviors voice!

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH

I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last blog entry.  Where does the time go?  Well a lot of my time was spent on the beach at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  I will post about that trip in the next few days.

Now I simply must share a conversation I overheard in the backseat Sunday as we came home from Sunday School.  In the backseat were my two precious granddaughters, Presleigh age 5 and Sydney age 4.

Me:  What did you learn in Sunday School today?

P:  Jonah and the Whale

S:  Baby Moses

P:  Oh yeah - his mom put him in a basket and he floated down the river.

P:  I want to see Moses in Heaven

S:  If he is in Heaven

P.  Oh, he's in Heaven

S:  How do you know?

P:  Because he was a friend of God.

Here's were I wanted to intervene with Scripture knowledge and tell how God met Moses on the mountain and when Moses died God buried him where no one would know.  But, thankfully I listened to the Holy Spirit and kept my "holy" mouth shut.

S:  I want to go to heaven

P:  Me, too. I want to pet all the animals.

S:  But not the hippos, they would bite. (Her favorite animal is the hippopotamus!)

P:  Not when heaven comes down.  When heaven comes down to the earth all the animals will get along, even the hippos.

S:  When heaven comes down won't it squash the trees and everything?

P:  No it's coming down to go over everything here.  A new heaven and a new earth. 

S:  I think it will squash everything.

P:  No it won't. It will fit over and everything will be new.

Then they were off on to another story.

Oh my goodness!  It took 55 years and lots of Scripture study for me to understand the concept of a New Heaven and a New Earth and this precious 5 year old has it figured out!  Praise be to God!

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea" Revelation 21:1

If you want some great summer reading and deep insight into this subject I suggest Randy Alcorn's book HEAVEN.  A MUST read!