Circle the Wagons

By Rhonda Rhea –

Coffee and donuts. They go together like love and marriage. Someday I’d like to write a poem and I’d like to start it with the line, “Coffee and donuts, sittin’ in a tree.” I’m not sure where to go from there. I get that far and all I know is that I want to be in that tree.

I confess I’ve had a few too many donuts. Sad to say, the bough on that tree would be bending pretty low about now. That’s why I decided to go on yet another diet recently. Also sad to say, I’ve already fallen off the wagon.

I’m thinking of putting up a sign that says, “Please keep body inside the wagon at all times and please stay seated until the wagon comes to a complete and final stop.”

You know, if someone would think of bringing fudge along on the wagon ride I would be a lot more motivated to stay on it. Okay, I suppose a really good friend would probably give me a nudge to stay on the wagon. Nudge or fudge. Tough call on which is best, friendship-wise.

In our spiritual lives, we all need a little nudge now and then too. It’s good to have people in our lives we can count on to nudge us in the right direction, wherever the wagons are heading.

As pioneers were settling the west, when they were threatened by an enemy, circling the wagons was part of their defense strategy. The circle provided a protected cover they could get behind to fire at their attackers.

We need to rally with those on this life’s journey in the same way. We have a common enemy. Peter reminds us to “be alert” because our “enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Circle the wagons! Our church family is part of our defensive plan against our enemy. The next verse in 1 Peter says, “Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (vs. 9).

We’re in this together. Let’s not neglect circling the wagons. “Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25, AMP).

I’m so thankful the Lord has placed godly church buds and godly leaders in my path all through my life via the church. People with just the right nudge at the ready. There are pastors, teachers and leaders who stay alert to our spiritual supervision, keeping watch the scripture says. And Hebrews 13:17 instructs us to be responsive to them. “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”

Less burden. More joy. It’s a good choice.

And in other choices, I’m considering choosing to keep the extra 20 pounds and just get myself a bigger wagon. One with really good shocks.

From Chatterbox to Listening with Purpose

By Dawn Wilson –

As a young mom, I had two non-talkative, all-action sons; but my best girlfriend during those years had a little girl, an exuberant chatterbox! Little Misty talked nonstop. One day at the park, I watched as my girlfriend endured yet another one-sided conversation.

“Mama, look at that bird,” Misty said. “Who do you think taught the bird to sing? Where do you think it lives? Do you think the birdie has sister? I want a sister, Mama. We can call her Snoopy like that cartoon dog. Do you like that name, Mama? I’m hungry. Can we get some donuts? Can babies eat donuts?”

My girlfriend smiled at her daughter, wondering when to break in. A woman of wisdom, she knew that those years would pass quickly; so she stroked Misty’s hair and listened with purpose, using Misty’s words as a launching pad for a precious teachable moment.

Over the years as I watched Misty grow, I realized my girlfriend also modeled how to listen! Rather than becoming a self-centered chatterbox, Misty became a graceful conversationalist with sincere interest in others.

For far too long, my prayer life resembled Misty’s incessant chatter. It was all about my wants, my reasoning, my agenda. I didn’t consider that God might want to speak too. Early on, I wondered whether God “rolled His eyes” at my steady barrage of prayer lists and demands, but now I know my patient Father listened and turned many prayers into teachable moments. He applied scriptures that opened my eyes and ears.

The truth is, God wants to speak. “O that my people would listen to me,” He said (Psalm 81:13a, ESV). Listening to God is a deliberate choice. As we shut out the noisy world and quiet ourselves before God (Psalm 46:10), we can better focus on what He wants to say.

It’s hard to hear God when I’m rushing around, tending to my “to do list;” but God will speak. As thoughts come to my mind, I sometimes write them down, so I can “test” them later with scripture to be sure I’ve heard from God and not messages from the enemy or my own deceitful heart (1 John 4:1; Jeremiah 17:9).

As I wait with an expectant spirit, I yield to God and tell Him I’m prepared to obey. That is crucial to conversation with God. When there is something I’ve already determined I will not do, why should God tell me more? Listening to God is one thing; hearing Him is another. As I listen, God sometimes points out something I need to deal with through confession and repentance before I move on.

Jesus only said and did what the Father wanted—what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19-20)—and He is our example. We won’t get ahead of God or fall behind, losing opportunities, if we listen with purpose, seeking the Father’s will. We need to expect and wait for Him to speak.

To get into this frame of mind, I often pray Psalm 25:4: “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”

Are you a prayer “chatterbox,” always talking, never listening? God wants to speak. How can you listen with purpose today?

Moms Were the First Private Investigators

By Connie Cavanaugh –

If every empty-nest mom went to work as a private investigator, it would solve the “What now?” question as well as put a lid squarely on crime. No one is better qualified for detective work than a woman who has raised a vanload of kids.

Case in Point: Our 17-year-old son JP slouched in to the kitchen and sat down. Glancing up furtively then lowering his gaze, he began, “Uh, I have, uh, something to, uh, tell you.”

I stated coolly: “You hit a tree with dad’s car.”

His head snapped up, eyes bugged out, mouth went slack. “Who told you?”

PIs never reveal their sources. I smiled. An email from the mom of one of JP’s friends had arrived earlier. JP’s friend mentioned the accident to his older brother who immediately squealed. The friend’s mom was my prayer partner. Bingo!

I handed my son a Ziploc bag that held the bit of tree bark I had extracted from the dented headlight’s rim with tweezers moments earlier.

“You’re good,” he said shaking his head in admiration.

Case in Point: On her 19th birthday our oldest daughter decided “to be a bit rebellious.” Christine secretly acquired a navel ring. She had queried me some months earlier: “If God wanted us to wear bellybutton rings he would have put earlobes on our abdomens!” She never raised the topic again.

After getting the ring, she wore long shirts and avoided me. If I saw her at all, it was her back. I quickly diagnosed her strange behavior. But I waited, knowing she’d eventually crack. A week passed and she found me in the kitchen – the confessional in our home.

“Um, mom. I, um, need to, well I want to, I mean I should probably let you know,” Christine began, her head lowered.

I cut to the chase.

“You got your bellybutton pierced.”

“How did you know?” she shrieked. “Did Anita tell you?”

“Your sister never said boo. I have a certain je ne sais qua,” I blithely replied.

“Wow,” she whispered reverently.

The truth was, I peeked one night after she was asleep. Gotcha!

Case in Point: But the easiest detective work I ever did involved our middle child. During her first year of university in a nearby city, she lived at home and carpooled to classes. Occasionally she borrowed my car. On one of those days, she asked if she could stay in the city for the evening to hang out with a chum. I was a bit nervous when she mentioned which friend. I knew this cowgirl liked to frequent a certain western-theme dance club in the city and I didn’t want Anita going there. She assured me she wouldn’t go near the place and she’d be home by 11 p.m.

As promised, she came home on time and after a short visit with her dad and me, went to bed. The next day when I went out to my car, I saw a small piece of paper under the windshield wiper. It was a parking ticket. From the parking lot of the club I had asked her not to attend. Exhibit A!

“I gotta hand it to you Mom,” Anita croaked.

I can’t take all the credit for this fine detective work. I owe something to my mother who passed on to me the prayer she prayed – with great success – for her eight children from the time they were tiny: “Lord, I don’t expect my kids to be perfect, but I do ask that when they’re not, You help me catch them!” Amen!

A Change of Perspective

By Kim Stokely –

For the hundredth time that day I looked in the mirror and cringed. My schedule had been too busy to drive the extra miles to the woman who usually cut my hair and I’d let it get too long. Cousin It from the Addams Family had more style than I did. To top it off, I had less than a week before I hopped a plane to visit my mother back East whom I hadn’t seen in a year. I’ve always said her biggest disappointment with me was that I never cared if my purse matched my shoes. What would she say to the kitchen mop draped over my head?

In desperation, I texted a girlfriend of mine who used to work in a beauty salon, “Do you have anytime this week you could give me a haircut? If not, I’m shaving it all off.”

Bless her heart, my friend texted right back, “NO! No! Don’t shave it! Come over anytime today and I’ll see what I can do!”

Two hours, a pile of hair on the floor, and a tube of dye later, and she’d given me a radical new hairstyle and a new outlook on life. Now when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see a frazzled, frumpy, forty-five (plus some) year-old woman with desperation leaking out of her eyes; instead, I saw a vibrant, put together, forty(ish)-year-old woman, ready to take on the world and my fashion savvy mother. Nothing could hold me down.

It’s amazing what a little change can do for our perspective. It can invigorate us to set a new goal or energize us to pursue old goals with renewed passion.

I thought about how that can be true in our relationship with God as well. God says in Isaiah 29:13, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (NIV). Do you get excited by your time in the word or are you reading out of habit? Have you let your prayer life become a laundry list of needs interspersed with a few moments of praise? Maybe pray at a different time of day or write out your prayers instead of saying them silently. Buy a new Bible study or a find a devotional to help you focus your thoughts and stir your curiosity. If we think our relationship with God has grown stale, imagine what He thinks. Perhaps it’s time for a change of perspective.

Road Trip!

By Liz Cowen Furman –

We recently drove our middle son out to California to start college at California Baptist University. (Amazing place!) But before we could leave, l had to drive the eight hours from our motel in Dubois, Wyoming, home to meet up with my hubby and son to start the journey. Then on the return journey I left him in Conifer, Colorado, and drove back to Dubois for the last week of our season and to close the motel for the winter. The total miles traveled in one week and three days was 2,648 through six states. Whew! Good thing I love road trips.

On our journey, I discovered some amazing things…here are the top ten.

10. Sunflower seeds, cinnamon discs and singing loudly work well to ward off drousies while driving.

9. August might not be the best month to travel from Wyoming to California and back. Hotter than Hades.

8. Southern Utah is a beautiful place.

7. Oceans are one of God’s coolest inventions.

6. Israeli Melons! Yum!

5. Rainbows – we were chased all the way across Utah and then again at the beach by the most gorgeous rainbows which we decided were a sign of great things to come for our son. (Wish I could include pictures with this article, they were AMAZING.)

4. While Vegas is touted as a very FUN place I found it to be desperately lost and so sad. Not to mention dirty and unbelievably HOT.

3. 113 degrees + 80 miles per hour = melted tires. Oops.

2. Older motels run by families are a blessing.

And the number one thing I discovered on this most beautiful trip?
Leaving a child at college states away from home is not for wimps… Gasp, sob, smile because I know who has him in the palm of his hand.

We had a great time with Matthew on the way there and are so thankful God has his back.
As He has ours. We can take this promise to the spiritual bank. Check out Joshua 1:5 “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5, NIV)”

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