Category Archives: Hearing from God

Taught by a Child

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After several weeks of traveling, I’m thankful to be home, though I’ll be packing my suitcase again soon. Since “my people” are always waiting at the other end of each trip, the motivation to go-go-go is strong.

Recently granddaughter Emerald’s parents let me take her on a flight to Florida where daughter Linnea, her husband Adam, and their six children live. Baby May was born in January, so our trip was a chance to see how she’d grown and to catch up with all the others. It would also be a chance for Emerald to spend time with half of her faraway cousins.

Two words describe our week there: happy hubbub.

Though monitoring seven children ages ten and under is hard work, it borders on entertainment. Without demanding too much of us, the kids moved through each day in a joyful pack.

 

There were plenty of messes, most of them accompanied by high volume, but the cousins came up with one play-plan after another — stringing them together like beads on a pretty necklace.  

On the 7th day, however, something unexpected happened. As we all headed outdoors to watch a parade of skate boards, scooters, and bouncy balls, Emerald came to us with tears in her eyes.

She sat on my lap, sobbing out the details. “I miss my mommy and daddy.” Linnea and I reminded her that our flight home was the very next day, not too many hours from then. Soon after that she recovered.

Later, though, at bedtime, her misty eyes returned. I was bouncing a fussy baby May when Emerald came alongside in search of reassurance. “When are we gonna see my mommy and daddy again?”

She climbed up next to me and looked at the baby, who was crying, too. I recited our flight plan again, but her response was off-topic. While wiping her eyes and studying May’s frown-y face, her own face brightened. “I know!” she said. “The pacifier!”

 

She jumped down and ran to find it with only one thing on her mind: helping the baby. Her own sad thoughts had evaporated.

How true that is for all of us. If we dwell on the parts of our lives that aren’t going well, our troubles stick with us. If we’re willing to tend to the difficulties of another, our problems shrink – or disappear altogether.

God was the one who thought this up when he told us to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). If we follow his instruction, both parties are uplifted by the actions of the one.

After a happy plane ride the next day, Emerald finally connected with her mommy and daddy in a cheerful reunion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’d forgotten her tears, but I hadn’t. By her example, this old grandma had been challenged to do more for others. And just as God says, if we give to someone else, he’ll give to us.

“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” (Luke 6:38)

God’s Perfect Timing

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In a few short weeks a new book will be published. The back story is that my sister Mary and I wrote it together over an 18 year period.

That sounds like a long time to write about raising children from birth to only age five, but it wasn’t the content that stretched our project. It was the raising of children ourselves.

Mary and I first talked about co-writing a book long ago in side-by-side beach chairs. “Some day we should write for younger moms, so they can avoid the many mistakes we’ve made,” she said.

We began praying about it and our sense was that God wanted us to move forward, encouraging mothers whose efforts to raise children these days are often denigrated by our culture.

We set to work, even though finding time together without kids was a challenge. After we would reacquaint ourselves with what we’d written to that point, it was usually time to put it all away again.

As our collective 14 children grew older, though, new pockets of peace popped up, and we began making better headway. Then a giant stop sign planted itself right in front of us:

Mary’s terminal cancer diagnosis.

Her free time quickly filled with medical appointments, surgery, feeding tubes, and chemotherapy – and the book was set aside. I gathered our materials and folded them deep into a basement box.

We assumed Mary’s remaining time would be in days not years, but how fortunate we were to be wrong. About five months after her diagnosis her health was stable, and she was feeling good. One day, again at the beach, she said, “Hey, let’s dig out the book and try again.”

“Really?” I said, grateful for her forward-thinking.

“ Well let’s try, anyway,” she said. “Who knows what’s ahead.”

The next day we dug out the stack of 10×13 yellow envelopes stuffed full of ideas, examples, and Scriptures for each chapter, and spread them out to see where we’d left off.

As we worked, we followed the pace of Mary’s good and bad days, making sure we had lots of creative sessions at (guess where) the beach. 

One day I told Mary that since the Lord was the Initiator behind our book, he might just keep her going until the project was finished. With her usual pluck she said, “Then let’s drag our feet.”

God always finishes what he starts, and two years later, he brought us to our finish line. We began shooting the book through cyber-space to different publishers who each considered it for several months, and we came close. But before we got a yes, the Lord lifted Mary into Paradise.

Both of us trusted God to publish the book whenever he wanted, and now…this appears to be his time. THRIVE AND SURVIVE, ZERO TO FIVE, will be launched in several weeks.

And I like to think Mary knows all about it.

“It is not for you to know times… that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7)

A Lovely Look-Back

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Reminiscing brings pleasure to those of us getting up in years. We find joy in looking back over our shoulders at the many ways God was active on our behalf.

Not long ago the Lord initiated a look-back that surprised us all. My adult kids and I were following a road map of all the places Nate and I had lived in the Chicago area after we were married – a tour set up by Linnea.

First stop was a tidy bungalow Nate and I called home right after he graduated from law school. We lived there with an aunt who kept me company when Nate had to go on active military duty.

Next we visited the city apartment building where we lived for a year as Nate settled into his first lawyering job in Chicago’s Loop.

After that we drove to a three story walk-up on the north side of the city. Back in 1972, it had charmed us because of its proximity to a small patch of beach on Lake Michigan’s shoreline. If Nate and I hung our heads out the apartment window and looked left, we could see the water.  

We then drove to the suburbs and stopped at three houses, the first in Deerfield where we lived for three years, the second (also Deerfield) for five years, and the third in Prospect Heights where we raised all seven of our children and lived for twenty-nine years.

As the kids and I drove along that day, they urged me to share memories linked to each location. I was honored that they were interested.

We hadn’t planned on getting inside any of these special places except at our last stop. I’d written to the current owners of our old farmhouse, warning them not to be alarmed if they saw a crowd congregating in their cul de sac taking pictures – because it would just be us.

When we knocked, Theresa warmly invited us in and led us to a lavish hot chocolate / dessert bar in the kitchen. She encouraged us to tour the house at our leisure and offered to take pictures.

She got a kick out of our reminiscences and was happy to hear how much we loved the house. Then, as we hiked upstairs, God had a sweet surprise waiting for us.

Louisa’s old bedroom, now pink and green with fresh white woodwork, was a far cry from her decorating — glitter-painted walls festooned with hundreds of 4×6 photos. As we complimented our hostess on the room, she asked a question.

“Would you mind looking in the closet? Maybe you can explain something to me.”

Wedging ourselves into the small space, we turned and saw a loopy ballpoint script written on the inside of the door frame:  “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:13)

Louisa caught her breath and said, “Oh my gosh! I wrote that! When I was thirteen!” It was a quote that had impacted a middle-school girl enough to tattoo it in a private place – seventeen years ago.

 

As Louisa took a picture, her eyes brimmed with tears. Theresa watched in wonder… which is when we asked a question of her. “It looks like you painted around this writing to leave it there. How come?”

Her answer was simple. “We thought it was a nice blessing over our house.”

Louisa remembered that year as being up and down, much like the written proverb. But on our tour day, God showed us that his living words had been on her mind, influencing her young life.

Even now, years after we moved away, those words are influencing still.

“Write [God’s words] on the door frames of your houses.” (Deuteronomy 6:9)