Year: 2013

You all probably would never guess it but I’m just a little bit OCD—Obsessive  Compulsive Disorder. When combined with Perfectionism, this can be serious. I’m not one to make fun of psychological problems, but I guess it’s okay if you’re talking about yourself..

I started taking piano lessons in the 3^rd grade and stopped about halfway through my senior year, because I was too busy with senior things to practice. Then I took a year of piano and music theory at ORU in college. I will never be a concert pianist, but I can play hymns and praise music. I have always considered myself a singer who plays piano to accompany herself to sing.

I have one peculiarity—I have to finish the “phrase” in a song. If I am interrupted when playing, I have to go back and finish the verse or chorus. There is something in my brain that nags at me until I go back and finish it.

Then you add Perfectionism, and if I get stuck in a song when learning it, I have to practice it over and over until I get it right.

This is not to say, I always play every song perfectly, but I strive to practice to perfection, and then when it’s time to play it for real, I do the best that I can do, and don’t feel bad if it’s not perfect.

King David brought the ark of the covenant into the city of David, Jerusalem, and placed it in the tent or tabernacle that he had built for it. Then he appointed musicians to minister before the Lord in the tabernacle, singing and playing the musical instruments of God. (See I Chronicles 16:4 & 42.)  These musicians were well-trained and spent their lives worshiping the Lord.

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23 New King James Version.

I would never compare myself to those musicians of God, but I strive to be perfect in everything I do. Every song I sing or play, I do it for the Lord.

Do you remember this little song from childhood days?

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, Think I’ll go eat worms,

Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.”

To tell the truth, I’ve never been quite so despondent that I ate a worm, but there have been times in my life that I wondered if I would make it through overwhelming circumstances.

David the writer of many Psalms knew what it was to face discouraging circumstances in his life. While David and his army were off to war in another part of the country, bandits attacked their hometown of Ziklag, stole their belongings, burned their homes, and kidnapped their wives and children. When David’s army returned, expecting a welcome-home party, they found a burned and deserted city. David and all his men broke down into tears, not knowing if their families were dead or alive. It didn’t seem like things could get any worse, but they did.

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”  I Samuel 30:6 KJV.

David was a musician, so he probably got his harp out, started to strum, and made up a new song about God’s great deliverance.

David probably sang, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:1-4 NKJV.

David sang until his heart was encouraged, then in verse 8 it says, he prayed, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he (God) answered him, ‘Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.’” And that’s exactly what David and his men did, they went after the bandits, recovered their families and fortunes, and brought them home to Ziklag.

Sometimes you have to encourage yourself and remind yourself of the goodness of God.

I’ve got one of those new-fangled iPhones, which will do everything except butter your toast. It has GPS and a map. I can read my Facebook, send text messages, tell SIRI (the electronic secretary) to make a call or remind me later of some appointment. The iPhone takes high resolution photos and can store hundreds.  I can even use it to make phone calls through my car stereo system.

I was posting pictures to Facebook one day while visiting Mama, when suddenly I heard a trumpet call. The thought flashed through my mind, “Is that the Lord Jesus Christ, returning with the sound of the trumpet?” I can’t explain the excitement that gripped my heart, along with a wide mixture of emotions.

I wasn’t immediately raptured, but I wasn’t too worried since my 95-year-old saintly mother was still sitting there across from me, alive and well. If anyone is going to go to heaven, it will be my mother, who has faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ for 80 years. However, I couldn’t figure out where that sound came from. I called my two sisters each and laughingly told them about it all. The first thing out of each of their mouths was, “Is it the Lord’s Return?”

Several weeks later, I was again at Mama’s house. I was taking pictures and when I posted the first one to Facebook my iPhone sounded, “Tah, tah, tah, taaaah, ta-da,” like “Charge!’ The sound was attached to my Facebook program on my iPhone so that when I posted, it made a sound to tell me it was successful.

 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:16-18.

I guess the Lord was giving me preliminary practice for the great Day of the Lord when He will return to take His children home to heaven.

Easter was always my favorite holiday next to Christmas when I was growing up. Besides the excitement of getting a new dress and new shoes for church, it was because we got to see our cousins from Wichita after a long winter apart.

Our cousins came home to Vinita for Easter, Memorial Day, 4^th of July, Rodeo Week, and Labor Day, but they stayed in Wichita the rest of the year to celebrate the holidays there. Their daddy and my mama were brother and sister who had grown up out north of Vinita on a little farm and still called Vinita home. Since there wasn’t a house on the old farm, everyone always gathered at our little house to visit.

If they didn’t have any car trouble or flats they usually pulled into Vinita by 9 o’clock at night but I started watching for them as soon as supper was over. Every few minutes I’d go look out the front door expecting them to drive in. Any time a car drove by, I just knew it was them, so I’d race out the door.

. When the lights of the car shined on the front door, I ran out the front door, slamming the screen door behind me. I always wanted to be the first one there when the car pulled into the driveway.  Before the car had even come to a complete stop, I already had the car door open, and I was inside, on their laps, hugging and kissing.

That’s how I imagine it will be when we are ready to go to heaven. Our loved ones who have gone there ahead of us will be waiting for us to arrive. Some of them will be so excited they might even show up early to escort us across the great divide. You know, it is common for people who are getting ready to go to heaven to see a loved one coming to escort them home.

Jesus told us, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:2-3.

This isn’t home. Heaven is home.

When we were small, we would go to the corner store to buy groceries and occasionally my mom would let us buy a carton of 6 eight-ounce bottles of pop. Mom usually wanted Seven-up, but we kids got all kinds. There were four of us, counting Mom, so there would be 2 left over to drink later. We kids guzzled our 8 ounces down and then begged Mom until she finally let us drink the rest of her pop. She seldom got the whole bottle to herself.

If one of the neighbor kids came while we were drinking our pop, we had to share, so we usually timed our drinking for when we were sure no one would come over. But my best friend from next door frequently came over and we shared everything with her—soda pop, snacks, hair spray, nail polish. She was just like a sister to us. In fact, once she took a swig out of my pop bottle and swallowed the gum I had dropped down inside to “keep it fresh.”

I remember the Monday after I got married. My hubby went off to work and I went to the grocery store. I remember the pride I felt in being a grown-up and buying the makings for my first meal. And buying 2 six-packs of Pepsi.

Soda pop changed an entire generation. I have to force myself to drink water. I seldom drink milk or juice. I always reach for a bottle of pop.

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O Lord. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Psalms 42:1-2NIV. The deer naturally longs for water, pants for water.

How long has it been since I was thirsty enough to want water? Pop doesn’t satisfy the thirst, that panting thirst, like water does, but I never let myself get thirsty. So this is another lesson on nutrition from the Lord;  a practical lesson that I seriously need to learn.

My soul thirsts for God. My body thirsts for water.