Laurel Is With the Lord
I read Gary Nagel's brief but poignant e-mail message with a sober heart. It said:
Laurel is with the Lord.
She lost her battle with cancer on September 17, 2007.
I had mentored Laurel in 2004 and 2005. She was a mature woman but a new believer at the time. I turned on my printer and downloaded the e-mail for my records. A few days later, I pulled Laurel's file and right there in the front of the folder was a message from Laurel herself, signed by her hand, dated Monday, May 2, 2005, 7:28 pm.
"Once upon a time there lived a Princess in a far off land...STOP. This is how I would have liked my story to begin but not even close. When I first began with Prickly Perspectives, I was asked to "harvest wisdom from my past." I quickly crossed out the word "harvest" and replaced it with "salvage." This was a grueling experience and I had great resistance to recounting my life, especially my childhood years. I didn't understand why it was important to examine painful times and in some instances, unearth long buried memories. After completing the course, spread out over half a year, I feel I have grown like a plant fed with MiracleGro. I had such a fragmented understanding of God and even doubted whether what I was learning was true. After a particularly difficult Christmas holiday, I was about to give up. The only thing that made me keep my January appointment was the knowledge that I would find comfort in my hour and a half with Holly. Somehow she always managed to give me some hope for a better tomorrow. I was hanging by a thread. It was hard for me to trust anyone on such a personal level especially when my own parrents taught me gross lies and had molded me into a child with a skewed view of the world."
Then, she went on to say:
"Now, on my last day of personal time with Holly I am sad not to have more mentoring ahead. However, she gave me wings to lift up and to fly high. Remarkable changes have taken place and that old person I was is no more. There may be some small traces of the unsettled, hopeless woman I was but for the most part I have a new vision, a new direction. There were times when I felt she should be spending her precious time with someone more worthy. She never gave up on me even when I gave up on myself. She got through the many layers of barriers and brought God and me face-to-face. I felt a love I had never known. Everythings looks so beautiful. I look forward to each day with great promise. Never will I be able to thank Holly enough for performing a spiritual CPR on me whose insides were so close to being dead. And, as I write all this, I realize the hand that was working. Thank you, God, for orchestrating my time and my life-changing sessions with Holly. I pray that I live worthy of my new found life."
Memories flood my mind as I re-read these words once again. I am so glad I was available for Laurel and that my help made a difference. I also decided to commemorate her here in my blog and say that her life mattered to God, and because it mattered to God, it mattered to me.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
I've been thinking about dreaming...
FOLLOW YOUR DREAM!
A craftsman in medieval times would work for months on a special piece that displayed his finest artistic skill. Finally, when the work was finished, he would present it to the craftsmen's guild in hopes of achieving the rank of master. The work was called his masterpiece.
In Psalm 139 we see God, the master craftsman, lovingly at work on His masterpiece - a precious child! This Psalm has a profound impact on the way I view myself, especially when I realize that I am not only His child, but His artwork as well!
In instructing Moses about how to proceed with creating the Tabernacle in Exodus 28:3, God says, You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom... The term "skillful" persons here means the "wise of heart" whom God has endowed with artistic skill. This passage clearly states that God gifts His children with a unique contribution or kind of wisdom regarding their place in His world.
My faith rests on Scriptures like these, which tell me God has a unique plan for me. He has given me "a way of seeing" which is a form of wisdom to stir my heart and lift me to fulfill His purposes. He even keeps me motivated by placing dreams, His dreams for me, in my heart.
God placed a dream in my heart to move from Iowa to California where I married a man who committed his life to ministry. He placed a dream in my heart to raise two strong sons. Who, but God, knew that the rearing techniques I learned in my home were His training ground for teaching me how to minister to an ever-widening circle of men and women. God also placed a dream in my heart to reach out to single women, professional women, women alone at church, by providing a safe harbor called Women of Substance.
A recent dream God has placed in my heart is to give myself away in mentoring women in deep and substantial ways through my SoulWork curriculum. What is the bottom line? His dream for me keeps me pressing forward into each new day with a clear vision and grateful anticipation for all that lies ahead.
What about you? Do you have a dream? If not, have you asked God for His dream for your life? When you know it, I encourage you to follow it with all your heart!
A craftsman in medieval times would work for months on a special piece that displayed his finest artistic skill. Finally, when the work was finished, he would present it to the craftsmen's guild in hopes of achieving the rank of master. The work was called his masterpiece.
In Psalm 139 we see God, the master craftsman, lovingly at work on His masterpiece - a precious child! This Psalm has a profound impact on the way I view myself, especially when I realize that I am not only His child, but His artwork as well!
In instructing Moses about how to proceed with creating the Tabernacle in Exodus 28:3, God says, You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom... The term "skillful" persons here means the "wise of heart" whom God has endowed with artistic skill. This passage clearly states that God gifts His children with a unique contribution or kind of wisdom regarding their place in His world.
My faith rests on Scriptures like these, which tell me God has a unique plan for me. He has given me "a way of seeing" which is a form of wisdom to stir my heart and lift me to fulfill His purposes. He even keeps me motivated by placing dreams, His dreams for me, in my heart.
God placed a dream in my heart to move from Iowa to California where I married a man who committed his life to ministry. He placed a dream in my heart to raise two strong sons. Who, but God, knew that the rearing techniques I learned in my home were His training ground for teaching me how to minister to an ever-widening circle of men and women. God also placed a dream in my heart to reach out to single women, professional women, women alone at church, by providing a safe harbor called Women of Substance.
A recent dream God has placed in my heart is to give myself away in mentoring women in deep and substantial ways through my SoulWork curriculum. What is the bottom line? His dream for me keeps me pressing forward into each new day with a clear vision and grateful anticipation for all that lies ahead.
What about you? Do you have a dream? If not, have you asked God for His dream for your life? When you know it, I encourage you to follow it with all your heart!
Friday, May 2, 2008
I"ve been thinking about believing...
Our Children See Their Future in Our Eyes
I was sitting with a friend recently who was describing her frustration with one of her children. She was in the throes of the teenage years when it seems our kids take three steps forward and two steps back as they grow toward adulthood.
As I listened and related, I thought back to my own frustrations and inadequacy in raising our two sons. So many times I came to the end of myself! What I mean is, I suffered an inevitable loss of patience. Of course, that is exactly when I became moldable clay in God's hands.
After times of soul searching and coming up empty for the challenging task of parenting, I would come humbly before Him. He graciously placed His vision for my boys into my heart and soul. As a mother, the effect of this change of vision makes all the difference! He exchanged my limited resources and narrowed vision of their future with His limitless ones. Then, when my boys looked into my eyes, they saw their future as bright and hopeful.
"Picture a crown a few inches above your children's heads, and then watch them grow into it, " someone has said. What a helpful word picture! We do produce a picture of their future for them and if our relationship with our kids is strong, they will respond positively to being loved, trusted and believed in. After all, doesn't it bring out the best in each of us?
Internal attitudes become tangible through the window to the soul - our eyes! The Biblical principle is that I become like what I focus on and what I want to focus on is that my Father God loves me, trusts me and believes in me. So fellow child of God, focus on Psalm 46:10 which says, Be still and know that I am God because the future of our kids depends on it!
I was sitting with a friend recently who was describing her frustration with one of her children. She was in the throes of the teenage years when it seems our kids take three steps forward and two steps back as they grow toward adulthood.
As I listened and related, I thought back to my own frustrations and inadequacy in raising our two sons. So many times I came to the end of myself! What I mean is, I suffered an inevitable loss of patience. Of course, that is exactly when I became moldable clay in God's hands.
After times of soul searching and coming up empty for the challenging task of parenting, I would come humbly before Him. He graciously placed His vision for my boys into my heart and soul. As a mother, the effect of this change of vision makes all the difference! He exchanged my limited resources and narrowed vision of their future with His limitless ones. Then, when my boys looked into my eyes, they saw their future as bright and hopeful.
"Picture a crown a few inches above your children's heads, and then watch them grow into it, " someone has said. What a helpful word picture! We do produce a picture of their future for them and if our relationship with our kids is strong, they will respond positively to being loved, trusted and believed in. After all, doesn't it bring out the best in each of us?
Internal attitudes become tangible through the window to the soul - our eyes! The Biblical principle is that I become like what I focus on and what I want to focus on is that my Father God loves me, trusts me and believes in me. So fellow child of God, focus on Psalm 46:10 which says, Be still and know that I am God because the future of our kids depends on it!
Keep me so focused on You, Lord,
that when my precious children and grandchildren
see their future in my eyes,
they will be inexorably drawn to You
and the difference Your presence makes in a life!
Amen.
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