Sitting quietly....

August 5

Sitting quietly .....

Five years ago I was visiting my mother each day at the hospital...her surgery, a success, but after that her body was ravaged by another infection. As I sat there quietly, I was remembering all of my life with her..

She was creative in the " home arts", having been raised on a dairy with four other siblings. She recounted that she would go out into the woodshed as a child and sing, conduct music to the cats who lived there...she loved to draw, paint and eventually became a successful artist and art teacher after teaching piano for  20 years..

She created beauty with her gardens wherever we lived as I grew up and moved away. 

She loved to learn so she could teach...she spent time with others, me, and her grandchildren creating pieces of art in various forms whether in tee shirts, paintings, rocks, etc. etc..

She was only thirty-eight and my dad forty-two when I left home for college. So they had a whole second lifetime to live as a couple with careers to pursue..as they lived into their eighties...

Mom canned, froze vegetables and fruit wherever they lived, she raised gardens and flowers as well, she would paint and decorate as needed in the various homes we lived in, which was many...I don't ever remember her complaining about the accommodations, each was an adventure, so each was an adventure to me as well...

We raised our own meat which meant spending days butchering chickens, beef or pigs after raising them during the summers...but she and my father were both adept at this chore as well..

They always attending church in whatever community they lived, becoming part of a fellowship quickly and participating in whatever events there were from women's teas to cutting wood for  the less fortunate..

So as I sat there beside her bed in her last days, I thanked God for my mom.  Through the thick and thin of life she had been there for so many people...her parents, my dad, myself, her grandchildren and great grandchildren, her numerous piano students, her multitude of art students....I don't know if she heard me or had entered another world of consciousness...but, I thanked her again as I had so many times before...hearing her last words to me, uttered the day before, "I love you"....

Thank YOU for the mother You gave me...such a gift ....help me to be a good example as well to my children and grandchildren...taking time to spend With them, as well, in their endeavors...

Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth.” 

Isaiah 32:17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. 

Jesus calling-Sit quietly in My Presence while I bless you. Make your mind like a still pool of water, ready to receive whatever thoughts I drop into it. Rest in My sufficiency, as you consider the challenges this day presents. Do not wear yourself out by worrying about whether you can cope with the pressures. Keep looking to Me and communicating with Me, as we walk through this day together.

Take time to rest by the wayside, for I am not in a hurry. A leisurely pace accomplishes more than hurried striving. When you rush, you forget who you are and Whose you are. Remember that you are royalty in My kingdom.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
—Psalm 37:7

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
—Romans 8:16–17

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
—1 Peter 2:9