Time Passages

Today is a new day!  As you can see, it has been awhile since I made a commitment to writing.  So much has happened, and it seems like it has been a very short time. As I look back over the last few years I can see where God has brought me to this point.  They say hindsight is 20/20...that is not far from the truth!  I remember talking with Ray one evening, the house was quiet, (which didn't happen much at the Ellis house), and wondering where our 20's went.

 That was in the eighties...we were out in the world living life, starting our family, kids were little, money, well what was that anyway...we had Love!  Maybe it was a good thing that we forgot much of that time!  So funny!  But really, it seemed to go in the blink of an eye, looking back...

Being real is what I am.  It was what our life is, and was and is to come.  Nothing I dislike more than leaving out the reality, because I really think that our imperfections helps us to connect to one another and help to encourage others who have walked a similar path, through our stories.  The Bible says,
In I Corinthians 10:13 The Message:

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face.  All you need to remember is that God will never let you down;  He'll never let you be pushed past your limit; He'll always be there to help you come through it.

I believe the bible is our training manual.  In this verse it says that we go through the same things as other people.  Circumstances may be a bit different, But God...will not let you down.  Sometimes, I would think, "How much more can I take?"  He DOES give us more that WE can take, or at least He knows our limitations.  HE knows...He's there...He gives you options.  He also gave us this little thing called free will...As I have gone through my life I can think of countless times that I made mistakes, bad choices even when I knew better.

He has been there like a shepherd going after that lost sheep...there's been times that like a sheep, I've done things wrong more than once...and like a shepherd, He's had to break my legs so I couldn't run, so He'd have to carry me, so I would depend on Him and Him alone.  Not on myself.

The next few weeks, I want to show you...my scenic route on this journey of life on earth, for the benefit of those who read, to encourage, to understand, to help us all dig deeper and seek first...God!

Family-Made to Shine

Here is a post that I did not complete, was written in 2014, just finished it!:

Tonight and Sunday, I am privileged to be teaching kids about Family.  This is the 4th part of the series.  God never ceases to amaze me, in that He gives me exactly what I need, WHEN I need it.  

The first weeks we learned about how Family is our foundation.  You need a strong foundation to build your life upon, with of course, Jesus as the Cornerstone.    We learned that Family is made for teamwork.  We need one another, we can't do it alone!  We learned that Families are there to care, share, and just be there.  This week we will be learning that Families are there to SHINE!  All this was meant for the kids...but moreso...for me.

This week has been a hard week as I said goodbye to one of my favorite Aunties, My Auntie Glenda passed from this world, broken from the effects of cancer to the completeness of Jesus and into heaven, where she is with all who have gone before.

As she was leaving, she said, "Love, love, love!"  Aunt Glenda loved everyone.  I remember a time when my dad and I lived with her in the upstairs room of their house and she took care of me along with my cousins, as if I were one of her very own. As I grew up, we would visit, I'd get to spend the night with my cousins.  Always fun times. 

In my twenties and thirties, my husband Ray, and the girls and I would go to their cabin in Pine Grove "Our Mountain".  We'd tent camp and always had a great time with family.  Our family knew how to LOVE!  They also knew how to Party, as we'd spend many nights around the campfire, singing songs, playing guitar, between my cousin Mark on guitar, Kelly (who'd sometimes break out the spoons!), me on guitar and everyone singing, it was always a great time!  In July, the last weekend we went one year or two to "Garibaldi Days" on the Oregon Coast, we'd camp and crab at Jetty Fishery and go down Saturday morning for the parade after being up super late playing and singing around the campfire.  I remember this time one of my aunties or their friends let me know, when I was telling them I was going to head for the tent to sleep, "You're done playing, when WE say you're done playing!"  Met by roars of laughter.

My Aunt Glenda has a son, Tony, who when I was a little girl, teased me relentlessly.  Threw my Chatty Cathy doll out the window, she was never the same.  You'd pull the string and nothin'.  He was 6 months younger than me and we could get into trouble.  We went into the lumber mill next door to the house, had to pick out switches when we got back.  We weren't supposed to go over there, it was dangerous.  Didn't do that again!  One day when we were older, he drew my name for Christmas.  Always a practical joker, I didn't know what to expect!  I gingerly opened the gift and out popped a springing snake!  Of Course!  Should I expect less? But, there was something in the bottom of the box that brought me to tears.  It was a Brach's candy wreath with scissors attached and a big bow!  What made that so special is that my Great Grandmother, we called her Gra, always made these for each family at Christmas time.  What a precious gift!  Tony facetimed me the other day.  It was so good to hear from him.

My Aunt Glenda came to my play my senior year, my karaoke contest when I was older.  Ray would stop by her house just to say hi and give me updates as in his job he traveled.  

A lot of my Aunties and uncles are gone now and we are now the "old guys" in the family as Tony stated to me.  We have been and we are now the ones that need to SHINE for the next generations of our kids, and grandkids.  

There is a verse in I Corinthians that sums up this Shinyness and Love, Love, Love that I am reminded of when I think of my family, both by blood and those people who are close to me.


The Way of Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I five away all I have and if I deliver up by body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.  As for prophesies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will ceasee; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but then the perfect comes the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.                   I Corinthians 13

My Auntie got it!  She shared it!  She was and is a living example of it!  Love, love, love!  Lord, may I be an example of this Love to  everyone!