Untainted Love

By Makenzie Allen –

To: My man of God
Love: Your girl, Kenzie

It has been a year since I last wrote you a published letter. I pray God would give you comfort knowing I am here waiting for you. I’m sure you are feeling pressure to date, as am I, but praying for you has helped me to focus on the long term rather than the short, and I have grown content waiting. The triangle is only getting smaller, closing the gap between God, you and I.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the three-way relationship that comes into focus when you start to pray for your future husband. As you pray that he will be a God Lover you quickly start to see that your own relationship with the Lord has room to grow too. Do you see the triangular relationship that is formed through prayer? You, your future husband, and God. God is at the top of the triangle, while you and your future husband are at the corner points at the bottom. The closer each of you becomes to God, the shorter the distance between the two of you. By praying for the man you will marry one day, you are drawing closer to the Lord. –Robin Jones Gunn

On my left ring finger still sits the purity ring that many people are curious about. I have had humorous stories revolving around my ring, from gruff cowboys asking if I was married, to my little cousin saying my ring meant I was not going to kiss anyone but my future husband. The latter being true, of course. My ring stays firmly on my hand and my heart stays solidly rooted on faithfulness toward you.

As this year begins, I am excited and nervous to see where the Lord will take me as graduation is nearing. Whether you are out there or not, I have been blessed by the experience of praying for someone else and promising my purity to God. It’s as if the love I am saving for you magnifies how much love God has stored up for me.

One of my biggest prayers for you this past year has been that you would find joy in the Lord and not search for happiness in the world. The pleasure found in our world is bound by time; the joy found in our God is ever flowing. I hope that you have been blessed by this abundant joy and that it causes you to be at peace. Can you imagine the testimony? A couple satisfied with God’s love and content watching for His plan to unfold. This is how relationships are meant to be. God did not give us rules on purity just for the sake of having rules; He gave them in order to bless us with untainted love.

This triangle relationship we have illustrates God’s kindness. Not only did He make you and me, He made a plan for us that, when followed, produces blessing. God did not leave us to stumble through life, but rather, extended love and guidance.

Time has passed, and even more will sweep by. I will be here, praying that we yearn for God’s plan and fulfill it. He will bless you and I with untainted love, and we shall bless Him with lives that display His glory.

Someday soon,
Kenzie

Out Of The Blue Blessings

By Mary Sefzik –

I was a college student thrilled to have landed a part-time job as a braille textbook proofreader at Visual Aide Volunteers in Garland, Texas. I couldn’t believe I was actually getting paid to do something I enjoyed—reading.

My fingers skimmed across the page. “They forgot the period again,” I said.

“Good catch,” my boss complimented. A long-forgotten name flashed through my mind—Eileen, my first braille teacher.

Wouldn’t she be proud if she could see me now. I wanted to find my soft-spoken silver-haired teacher and thank her for giving me the tools I needed to excel at my first job.

I e-mailed another teacher to see if he knew anything about Eileen. He told me he had recently seen her at a local restaurant. He included a phone number and urged me to contact her.

My heart raced, and my hand shook as I dialed the number. What am I doing? I wondered. This lady must be in her nineties, and I haven’t talked to her in years. Will she even remember me?

“What do I have to lose?” I argued with myself. The worst thing that can happen is I dial a wrong number or get hung up on. I’ll never know unless I try.

“Hello?” a soft voice answered after the third ring.

“Hello, my name is Mary Sefzik, and I am trying to reach Eileen Burke.”

“This is Eileen. Who are you, and where are you calling from?”

I tried again. “My name is Mary Ann Sefzik. I was one of your pre-school students at Dallas Services for Visually Impaired Children.”

“Oh, honey, I retired from there in 1991—many years ago.”

“I graduated from Dallas Services in 1989 when I was six years old,” I said, hoping to fill in her mental blanks.

“Oh my, Mary Ann. I can’t believe this. How are you? Where are you? What are you doing now?”

I told her about attending college, learning Braille music, and working as a proofreader—all things her teaching had helped bring about.

“I plan to graduate from college soon and wonder what God has in store for me. I wish I could see the future,” I said.

“God has something out there for you,” Eileen assured me, “and it will come one day, out of the blue, when you least expect it.”

Eileen attended my graduation party several months later and I was thankful to find she was exactly the way I remembered her. As she held my hand, I remembered those same gentle hands teaching me how to dial a telephone. I loved to hear her lilting northeastern accent. She could always make me laugh.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” I said as we clung together in a tight embrace.

“You little rascal,” she said in her sweet, familiar way. “Do you remember the first sentence you wrote for me?”

Once again I was a shy six-year-old basking in the praise of a teacher I adored. “I can go,” I answered.

“You’re right. You said ‘I can go,’ and you went!”

I was amazed at how God chose to use a boss’s compliment and a simple phone call to bring about this special reunion. This experience reminded me that God’s blessings often come out of the blue, when we least expect them.

Clinging to the Gift of Communion

By Diane Mayfield –

The woman I knew as my mother is slowly slipping away. Alzheimer’s disease claims her mind. She no longer answers her phone. She either doesn’t hear it or doesn’t know what it is. She’s unaware of the day, the year or the season. She can’t work her air conditioning unit in her room. Recently she has given up putting on eye make up and she never remembers her hair appointments. She wears the same clothes every day, not really seeing all the others in her closet. These aren’t really the important issues but they are telling of the changes in her.

She doesn’t know her grandchildren. She confuses me with my sister. Lately she thinks my brother is her husband, my dad who has been dead for 20 years. She lives in the past, thinking she is 45, instead of 86. When I walk outside with her, she asks, “Where is my car?” Then we begin the loop discussion about her car. She hasn’t had one for five years, but she can’t remember that.

It’s all so very sad but only for me and my brother and sister, really. It’s not sad for my mom. She doesn’t know that she’s forgotten. Her reality is just what it is, the world as she knows today.

Gone are the shopping days, sharing of holidays at the family gatherings and talking about the grandchildren and what they are doing. She cannot engage in conversation. Oh, at times, I can direct her attention to the changing color of the leaves or the children getting out of school. But then we go back to the same conversation loop about her car that no longer exists. There is no communication, no engaging in life together, no connecting. And yet, she is still the woman who gave birth to me. She is still my mother.

What am I to learn from this sad reality in my relationship with my mother? To live without communication is empty. It sucks the life out of me. This is a slow death with my mom and I am helpless to change it.

However, there is a parental relationship that I can do something about. It’s my bond with my Heavenly Father. That relationship never has to die. His salvation brings me into a connection with Him. He becomes my Father for all eternity. Nothing can change that. But to stop there with no communication, no conversation with Him, no connecting in prayer would be like death, though I live. I have the assurance of eternity, but that’s not enough for me. I have to have more. I have to be in communion with Him.

Once again I’ve learned a valuable lesson from my mother. Not one she would have liked to teach me if she had a choice. In the absence of real communion with my mother, I’ve seen the immeasurable value in constant communing with my Lord. I never want to lose that. I don’t want to experience a slow death there.

In this New Year, I’m clinging to the gift of prayer that makes it possible for me to have constant interaction with my Father. My goal for the New Year is to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV), receiving the gift of constant communion with my Lord.

Exceeding Sweet Delight

By Makenzie Allen –

“They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on Him—that she expects after a while to be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always.” Jonathan Edwards

This story was titled “Sarah Pierrepont”, and it is believed that Jonathan Edwards wrote it as letter to his future wife whom he had never met. It goes on to say that Sarah could not be persuaded to do anything wrong or sinful because of the sweetness in her mind.

Meditating on God and being filled with the delight of Him deteriorates the strength of the flesh. In a culture where immorality is pushed, our thinking can easily become polluted with all kinds of evil. I’ve been noticing the grip Satan has on the media especially.

If we, as children of God, desire to honor Him in the decisions we make, we must remove the earthly lies from our thoughts and replace them with the loveliness of God and His word. The earth has fallen into sin, but the King is risen!

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” John 15:19 (KJV).

So although it can sound convincing to believers that we should act like the world in order to reach the lost, it is far from what God’s word says. We are expected to have the exceeding sweet delight that Sarah Pierrepont had for our King, not the corrupt longing for sinful deeds. When we learn to fill our mind with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, we then naturally make decisions that honor and glorify God, and that is what reaches the lost.

They say there is a body of believers throughout the world who are beloved of that Great Being who made and rules the world. And one day, they shall be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven being assured that the God of the universe loves them all too well to let them remain at a distance from Him always. Until that anticipated day, this body is needed here, on earth, to embrace the lost souls still searching for exceeding sweet delight.

Letting Go Brings a New Hope

By Diane Mayfield –

I feel like I am on a fast train, like the ones in Europe, speeding through the countryside so quickly my eyes cannot focus. Here it is December and the holidays are upon me. Once again I face them in disappointment and not joy. Even at my age, almost sixty, I still want to capture the magic of the season, be filled with awe and hope and marvel at the greatest gift of all. And yet, here I am, writing this article with sadness in my heart. Once again I’m challenged to let go. This season of life is about letting go, and I’m not good at it.

I’ve always been a fighter. I don’t give up on what matters to me very easily. Now, it seems I am forced to do so. Quite frankly, I do not like it one bit. I feel out of control and powerless. I vacillate between anger and sadness. Internally, I’m like a toddler having a tantrum because I want what I want.

Then I think of Mary. How could I not, during this season? She gave birth to her first-born son, a miracle child. She had much less time with Him than I. Even at age twelve, he was no longer his mother’s son alone. She had to begin sharing Him with others, as when he stayed in the Temple to discuss the scriptures. Her life with Him was continually about letting go.

This morning after a somewhat sleepless night, I woke early and beheld the glory of God in the sunrise. The sun’s reflective light penetrated the darkness and displayed orange and blue steaks of color in the Eastern horizon. I was awed.

I asked God, “I know my waking and seeing this display of Your glory is no accident. What are you saying to me?”

It was as if He said, “If you focus on me, morning by morning new mercies you will see. My light will chase away your sadness and once again you will know joy. Just wait as you wait for the sun to make its appearance in the sky.”

Then I was indeed reminded that to save my life, I must lose it. Losing it for me in this season of life is about letting go: of expectations, traditions, dreams, plans and, yes, even the joys of my early years—all those things that were life to me once. The hope is in the promise of the new life to come once I let go. I saw hope this morning in the glory of the new day dawning.

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