The Vow

By Elizabeth Robertson Williams


Happy Monday!  Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  In addition to a fabulous "apres ski" affair, one of my highlights was getting to see The Vow with a few friends.  Ya'll one of the reasons I LOVE Valentine's Day is because of the onslaught of chick flicks that accompany it.


I had modest expectations of The Vow and I have to say, it pretty much exceeded all of them.  Here's a little trailer to give you some background:
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What I loved most about the movie was seeing the way Channing Tatum's character, Leo, refused to give up on his wife Paige.  She had no recollection of him, no love for him, and had no idea they were even married, but Leo did not give up.  He never stopped loving her and did whatever it took to win her back.


There was a brief moment in the movie, where I thought about how in so many ways, Leo's faithful pursuit and commitment to Paige is just a glimpse of God's faithful pursuit and commitment to us.  Even when we forget, wander, or run the other way, God does not leave our side.  He waits.  He waits for us to return to Him.  And when we do, He doesn't judge, He doesn't lecture, He just opens His arms and brings us into His loving embrace.


That, my friends, is love in its truest form.

"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.' 

Isaiah 44:22

"I have seen (her) ways, but I will heal (her);  I will guide (her) and restore comfort to (her)." 

Isaiah 57:18

Kim & Krickitt Carpenter (photo from Urban Christian News)

And here's a fun fact: Did you know The Vow was inspired by a true story?!  The couple even wrote a book about it.  What I loved discovering is that the couple  are Christians and credit their lasting love story to their faith in God and commitment to uphold the vows they made to God and one another.  Check out an interview they did here.  

  

Going Out in Style: Funeral Homes

By Dee Oliver

Don't wait until you're dead to choose your funeral home.

You wouldn't wait until you were in labor to decide on which hospital you would give birth in, or choose the church to be married in on the day of your wedding.  So why would you wait until you were dead to select you funeral home? 

WAIT!   You don't even get to make that important decision, because remember, you are dead!!

Someone else has been left in charge to select the funeral home make all the arrangements and decide how much of your money shall be spent and you don't even get a say in the matter.

I know, we hear this all the time, "I am dead, I don't care, it doesn't matter, just throw me in the ocean..." (what do people say who don't live near the water)?

Now think about this for a moment. Really? It doesn't matter?

You have spent your entire life trying to make financially, sound, intelligent choices for you and your family, and all of a sudden it doesn't matter.

It should, this is important.

Imagine this, you're gone, your family is completely devastated and heartbroken. Not really sure what you want them to do, what your wishes were, sitting across from a stranger who is asking a lot of pertinent information that needs to be address at that moment. Everyone is crying, trying to remember, guessing, and maybe starting to argue a bit. Trust me, this is not good.

Most people put more time and effort researching the newest television than what funeral home they will use.

So lets find you a funeral home!  

Start by pulling out the phone book. See that ad, the one that is the biggest? Not always the best. 

Take a look for the ones that are located closest to where you live. 

Ask your friends and coworkers what companies they have used and what their experiences were. 

Next, call and make and appointment, simple as that. 

Funeral homes welcome a meet and greet, it gives them the opportunity to share information that you will need in the future. Most funeral homes are happy to give you a tour of the building, their chapel and the viewing rooms. Going to see and visit funeral homes gives you the opportunity to learn about and understand the funeral process. Ask questions about the different kinds of funeral services. Would you like a burial or prefer to be cremated?

 Ask for a price list of their services, by law all funeral homes are required to give you one.

This enables you to compare prices of other homes in your area. Remember inexpensive is not always the best and that goes the same for the most expensive ones too.

Ask if they are a family owned and operated business. Quite a few funeral homes are now owned by big corporations operating under the family name.

Ours is a family owned funeral home, and I believe it makes a difference. 

After you have decided on a particular funeral home, think about the possibility of prepaying your funerals.

This is a good option for some people. It freezes the cost of the funeral at the time of purchase and it is funded through an insurance company for your protection, if the funeral home goes out of business, or you move, or even if you decide you don't want to use that funeral home, you are able to transfer your pre-paid funeral to another home.

Think of it like funding a college plan. It is one of those investments that you hate to fund but love it when you cash it in!  

Actually, it is a sure fire investment that you will use!!  Unlike the college fund….your child may or may not go to college, but you will definitely get to use a prepaid funeral! 

Now Johnnie and I did not prepay our funerals  because we get a family discount.  In this line of business there aren’t that many perks!

Well, we did get the use of the limousine, but when you are the ones driving it, it kinda loses some of the allure.  Unless of course you fill it with all your friends on a Saturday night !!!!

So check out your neighborhood funeral home……

Say your prayers, say I love you, trust in God, and always try to Go Out In Style

Dee

Listen Up!

By Lisa Robertson

For the next few months several Changing Seasons leaders will be learning about the Art of Listening.  This is the chosen topic for our four week study which will begin on Wednesday, June 6 and run through June 27.

Since learning how to listen is one of my 2012 resolutions, I have had several interesting thoughts on listening,  swirl around in my mind.

Much to my surprise, I discovered that I have lost the discipline of listening.  Yes, I have come to believe that listening is a discipline that needs to be learned and practiced.   Often I think that I know what the person is going to tell me, so I tune them out because I think that I already know what they will say.

Occasionally, I receive an email that looks long, my eyes glaze over and I scan for the “trigger” words.  Through the trigger words, I assume that I know what it said or what was meant.  Again, I have missed important information.

Over and over again, I am reminded to slow down and concentrate on listening before I jump to shallow or incorrect conclusions.

If I am hearing correctly, in this study, we will learn about how we listen to ourselves, others, emails, and most importantly, how do we hear God? How does He speak to us?

These are few of the topics that will be discussed.

Hear, oops, I mean Here- are some listening nuggets for you from Proverbs…

”Those who listen to instruction will prosper.  God blesses everyone who trusts Him.” 

Proverbs 16:20

“Come to my home each day and listen to me!  You will find happiness.”

Proverbs 8:34

“Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;  he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all.   Run to God! Run from evil!”

Proverbs 3:6

The above wisdom insights are enough to interest me in learning about the art of listening.  There seems to be so much to gain and so little to lose.

Seems like a Win-Win to me and I like that.

In the months before we begin this short study in June, let’s start listening and writing down some of the things that we think we hear.   By writing them down, we’ll be able to remember them, review them, and gauge if we are listening to ourselves, to God or to the world. 

Who knows, this experiment just may surprise us!

God is Love

A message for all of us, God's children, 

so beautifully grasped through His smallest children...

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called children of God! 

And that is what we are!

  Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. 

But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

 This is the message you heard from the beginning: 

We should love one another.

We know that we have passed from death to life, 

because we love our brothers.

This is how we know what love is: 

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

-Excerpts from 1 John 3

 How truly incredible that we can pass from death to life simply through love!    

We pray today you will walk in the truth that you are God's child and that you will unabashedly spread His love to others.

THROUGH the Valley...

By Trish Ryan

Confession: I don't like Valentine's Day. The word "loathe" comes to mind. I'm not sure there's any other holiday with such potential to stir up dread and misery in so many people. I'm a little stunned we haven't banned it as a menace to national happiness.

-Little kids exchange those tiny cartoon cards in class and then (for the girls at least...I'm not sure the boys care) spend hours parsing what it "means" that so-in-so gave them the card that says X instead of Y.

-Couples have approximately a 97% chance of disappointing one another with the gifts they buy, because really, who wants your relationship represented by a pair of lipstick colored boxer shorts or overpriced roses that will smell in three days? (The 3% of gifts that go well in this category mostly come from the humor aisle, like my sister-in-law who once bought my brother a bedazzled red Speedo. But THAT would be awesome any day of the year).

-And when you're single on Valentine's Day...oh, the horror. I won't go into it in detail, but suffice to say that if there was ever a day to call in sick to work and hide under the covers with back issues of Vogue and the New Yorker until the storm passes, this is it. And heaven help you if you are a Christian, because YOU get the special privilege of reading 101 blog posts about how "Perhaps you should use today as an opportunity to thank God for your singleness, because you can do so much more for Him without the burdens of a husband & kids." (These are ALWAYS written by married moms, by the way.) Infuriating.

My first year as a Christian, I spent Valentine's Day repenting, over and over again, of all the terrible thoughts I was having toward pretty much everyone. It was like walking into a war zone, feeling like I couldn't shoot back. But here's the good news: God is IN our war zones, and He leads us THROUGH them, to better places.

As I thought about all of this this morning, I asked God, "Where is the hope?" (I didn't want to just complain, because really, who is helped by that?) He lead me to Psalm 23:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me...

God is with you today. Whatever your dark valley is (whether related to Cupidpalooza or not) you are not stuck: God is taking you THROUGH the valley, and into a good place with amazing provision. Rest, a feast, abundance. Not a wilted red rose in sight. This is where you're headed. Remember this today (meditate on it!) Re-read Ruth. And thank God that He loves you...and has a love for you...that will be steady and certain, 365 days a year.

Ever After

By Elizabeth Robertson Williams

Brace yourselves, ladies, we may get a little cheesy today, but with Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought we could all use a good love story.  

Once of the all time classic love stories is the story of Cinderella.  Here we have a girl whose fate has led her to serve at the hands of her wicked step mother and two evil step sisters.  Until one night, with a little bib-a-dee-bobb-a-dee-boo, she receives the chance to go to the ball and dance with the prince.

Boy and girl meet, boy and girl fall for one another, the clock strikes midnight, and their love story seems to be over.  Cinderella goes back home holding on to mere memories of her magical night. 

But their story is not over, the prince is so captivated by Cinderella that he stops at nothing until he finds her.  He doesn't want any of the other maidens in the land, he only wants Cinderella and will stop at nothing until Cinderella is his.

Below is my favorite clip from Ever After.  I admit, it's strange to see Drew Barrymore playing this role, but I've learned to look past it.  What I love is the way the prince searches for her, finds her, and then rescues her.  Yes, I know how cheesy this is, but I still love it!  (It gets good around 1:30.  E-mail subscribers click here. I apologize in advance for the cheesy title page, but it's the only version I could find.)




I don't know about you, but I love to feel desired and pursued.  I want to know there is someone out there who longs to be with me.  Someone who knows my best and my worst, and still chooses to love me through all of it.

In so many ways, we all have a little Cinderella in us and we are all capable of her happily every after.

God so desperately wants us to know Him, that He seeks and pursues each one of us.  In the New Testament, Jesus tells a story in Matthew 18 of a shepherd who has 100 sheep and one wanders off.  What does he do?  He leaves the 99 and searches determinedly for the 1, because that one is loved and that one little sheep matters. 

"And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."

Matthew 18:13-14

Jesus does not want us to wander around searching and lost, He wants us to be found.  He longs for us to be His because He cares so deeply for us and He loves us with a perfect, everlasting love.  

And when He finds us, He gathers us up, tells us we are loved, and He sweeps us away.   It is then, that we find our "happily ever after" begin to unfold.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you in with loving-kindness."

Jeremiah 31:3

What to Do in Hard Times

I really appreciated Ann Voskamp's post this week entitled "What to Do in Hard Times" and feel it was very appropriate given our family's week of mourning and celebration...mourning the death of our son, Warren, at 19 days old.  And also celebrating his life...the gift of 19 days with him and the gift of his full, glorified life in heaven, and his life that we will someday share in when we arrive there.  

I encourage you to read this blog entry.  Here are a few excerpts that truly blessed me and I hope bless you:

God seizes the days: God seizes time and uses it as an instrument to transform. God seizes every moment to sculpt souls and shape lives and transform ashes into glory. What if isn’t so much about seizing kairos moments and surviving chronos moments — but seeing all as Christ-filled moments? That God seizes the moment to make me more like Christ and what if I seized more of the moments, because there is something of my Savior in them?

What if all that mattered was to live with the scars of the unanswered questions, leaning into the answer —leaning into the God with the scars deep in His side and my name nail etched into the palm of His hand? Our wounds may be our unanswered questions — answered only by the wounds of our God.

To wrestle with God because the hard times are holy times. To not escape time, but stubbornly, fully embrace time, because this is how we stay engaged with God. When we don’t know how to hang on in hard times, to just grip hard to God. The only ones who can rest in God are the one who have wrestled with God… I will not let you go until I you bless me. That is what the pastor said: There is no tighter embrace that the grip of a wrestle.