January 2016

Hidden Treasures

pan flute buskerSometimes, treasure lies buried in a field.

Other times, treasure is obscured in jars of clay.

I found treasure in a dark subway platform in New York City.

My husband Phil and I were in NYC for a trip celebrating our 20th anniversary. We rode the subway several times, since it’s much cheaper and often much quicker than taking above-ground transportation. One time, as we exited the subway and started toward the stairs to take us back to the real world, I heard music playing.

Sweet, beautiful, pure music.

I turned in the dimness to see a man playing a pan flute. As the notes of “How Great Is Our God” soared (yes, somehow soared, even on a subway platform) through the air, I stopped. I caught Phil’s attention, and he and I walked over to the man, who was standing next to a suitcase that lay open on the ground next to him. Inside were stacks of two different CD’s.

The music was incredibly well-played and so very, very peaceful. I bought both CD’s.

Treasure on a New York City subway platform.

It would have been easy to pass the man by. In NYC, you get used to ignoring people in the subway. Nobody pays attention to anybody else, really. But this time, for some reason, I paid attention, and I discovered treasure—two beautiful CD’s of some of my favorite music, and a connection between me and a perfect stranger as we chatted.

I wonder how much treasure you and I miss every day because we’re not really paying attention.

How many diamonds does God place right out there in the open for us to discover if we’ll only focus outward?

Obviously, yes, we have to consider our schedules, our duties, our relationships, our circumstances. But when we focus on them to the exclusion of seeing anything else God might place in our path, we miss beauty. We miss treasure.

May God open our eyes to see His treasures all around us.

Even in shadowy, unexpected places like a NYC subway platform.

Isaiah 45:3—And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name. (NLT)

In Remembrance

On Saturday, I received word that my stepfather had died suddenly from a heart attack.

We knew he had heart problems, including previous heart attacks. We knew his heart was failing. What we didn’t know was that on Saturday, as he and my mother sat at the kitchen table eating lunch, he would suddenly stop in the middle of a sentence and be gone.

Just like that.

Paramedics took him to the hospital, where doctors and nurses did everything they could to save him.

But he was already gone.

The news came in a phone call from a beloved uncle (my mom’s brother). At first, it didn’t hit me emotionally. I said the things that had to be said and asked the right questions before hanging up. I didn’t cry until I went to tell my husband, who had just arrived home.

Then, I cried.

And then, I remembered.

I remembered a man who was always kind and gentle. Literally always. He and my mom got married when I was in sixth grade, and from that point until now, I never saw or heard him being unkind to me or to anyone else. Never.

Not one time.

Someday, unless the Lord returns first, my loved ones will get news of my passing. And I wonder what the first thing is that they will remember about me.

In order for some beautiful quality like kindness or love to be the first thing they think of, that quality has to characterize me now. My loved ones can’t remember about me what they never saw in me in the first place.

Oh, God, help me to be the kind of person now that I want to be remembered as then. Work in me, and through me, and make me the kind of person who will glorify You and bless others abundantly. Thank You for the example of my stepfather Ron, who was always, unfailingly, kind and gentle.

Ronald Rae Sheets
b. November 11, 1943
d. January 16, 2016
Kind. Gentle. Loved.

Matthew 25:23—“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

Ron Sheets

A New Year’s Prayer for Moms

New Year's Prayer for Moms

A New Year’s Prayer for Moms
(Reposted from January 1, 2013)

Father God,

You are holy, awesome, and loving.
You are wise, kind, and good.
Your ways are perfect, and Your judgments are just.
We begin the new year by bowing before You in praise,
Offering You all of ourselves—
Our bodies, souls, and spirits,
Our desires, thoughts, and actions,
Our very lives.

We need you, Lord.
We need Your love, mercy, and faithfulness.
We need Your wisdom and instruction.
We need You, for You are Life Itself.
Teach us to know You, to love You, and to seek You,
Until doing so becomes as natural for us
As breathing.

May we breathe You into our spirit,
Allowing You fill our lives,
And then breathe You out to our precious children.
We want them to see You in us,
To know You through us,
And then to love You with us.

Lord, we confess that as we shepherd Your littlest sheep,
We desperately need Your help every day.
Every moment.
We deeply desire to love them as You would—
With infinite patience, creativity, and kindness.
But we don’t have the wisdom to rightly love our children.
Apart from You, we don’t have the generosity or unselfishness.
Often, we lack the energy.
We need You to strengthen and encourage us.
We need You to teach us.
We need You to forgive us when we fail.
We need You to make us the moms You desire us to be—
The moms our children deserve.

We want to do what is right for Your lambs.
And we know that You want that even more,
Because You love our children
Even more than we do.
You created them, You love them,
And You’ve given us the privilege of shepherding them
For awhile.

We humbly and gratefully acknowledge the gift of our children,
And we ask You to make us worthy of that gift,
This year and every year.
May everything we do as a mom
Be for their benefit
And for Your glory.
This we ask in the name of Your precious Son, Jesus,
Who once needed a mother’s love too.

Amen.

www.MannaForMoms.com