Memory of Lan and Kyla from 2013

October 25, 2013 ·

Yesterday during Kyla's nap time Landon wanted to play doctor with a few of their bears. I was his assisting nurse. His "buddy" bear had a big boo boo on his foot so I wrapped it in a bandage. When Kyla got up and joined us she was visibly upset by bear's boo boo. I tried to explain it was pretend. When they come today, I will need to remove the bandage and say "all better!" and let her kiss it. :-) :-) LOVE being their Mimi!

A BIG Rainbow

Landon & Kyla called us to tell us to go outside and see the rainbow...than Kyla wanted to come to our house to see it...suddenly a five year old has a lesson re: the vastness of God's creation as Mom explained "the rainbow you see is the same rainbow Mimi and Popi see"

Thunder & Lightening

An amazing display of God's glorious power this morning. I sat in the dark of our living room with a glass wall facing North. The lightening strikes over the ocean to the west and to the north of us led me to read God's responses to Job's complaints. God's power left Job speechless "...I lay my hand upon my mouth in silence..." I, too, am speechless. The storms spoke loud and clear.

Death of a Saint

On Labor Day, 9/5/16, God called home a very special saint.  Bruce Isenhauer of Trinity was known for his deep passionate love of our Lord.  It was evident in his faithful praying over Trinity.

His passing, at age 63 was so swift, it was a shock to us.  Bruce was instantly killed in a head-on-collision in which he was the driver.  The driver of the other car was also killed.  But passengers, daughter and grand son were not injured.

Why Bruce?  Why now?  We will probably never know the answer to those questions?  A wake up call?  Saving Bruce from experiencing turmoil in our church and world?  Don't know.  Don't know the conversations he just had with family in the car.  Bruce was almost a 24/7 conversationalist about his belief.  As far as I know he never passed over an opportunity to speak of and for God.

He saw no boundaries in sharing.  He often crossed over into "another's space" in his enthusiastic way of sharing.  One of the phrases we often heard Bruce say was "God is good...God is good all the time"

Bruce will be deeply missed by many.  Those who knew him well commented on their joy for Bruce to be in the presence of our LORD Jesus.  But, also, spoke of the sorrow and sadness in his earthly absence.  Until we meet again, dear brother (and thank you for serving Holy Communion to Charlie and me and others) the day before you left.

All Knowing Facebook vs All Knowing God

Saw a TV program this morning.  The host read pages and pages of personal data Facebook accumulates on its customers' accounts.  Scary.  Makes me want to break my relationship with Facebook.  It is interesting how Facebook presents itself as my friend...ie  "memories from 2, 4, 6 years ago"  FB starts with "because we care..."  Even my private messages to someone are recorded in Facebook data banks.  Hmmmm   How will this information about me be used in the future?

                                                                               vs

My all seeing, all knowing, all wise, all loving GOD... His Holy Word says He knows my thoughts before a word is spoken.  His Word says He will compassionately love me and forgive me.  His Word says He knows ALWAYS where I am, what I am doing, what my plans are and what my future holds.
But, unlike Facebook I know how this information is and will be used:  FOR MY GOOD.

My dilemma - I have chosen my Facebook friends carefully and I want to stay connected with them.  How?   Not email... again it is the issue of having my thoughts recorded on my computer.  Should I return to writing personal letters?  How many of my friends would stay connected this way... takes more time, cost of paper and stamps...and how would I share photos.  God I ask you to give me wisdom regarding this.

AGE - The Great Equalizer

Yesterday a name from my college days popped up on my Facebook connect to friends page.  George Musacchio - my English professor.  We are now connected and I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know him.  He was Dr. M in those days, youthful, witty and challenging.  He is STILL witty and challenging but now in his 80s.  Oh the wonder of computers.  The world seems to shrink with each passing day.

A Really Bad Day

"A Christian trusts a finished work".  I read that in a devotional book today and the words seemed to jump off the page.  A finished work.  And Jesus said (from the cross) "It is finished".  Is this the finished work I am trusting? Yes and No.  Strange that I would read that sentence just one day after a VERY bad day.  In some ways, pain is my enemy.  Yesterday it raised its ugly head.  Kyla and I were building something together and it was quite a project.  We were finishing it on the floor when she looked at me and said, "This is a really good day".  Then she smiled and continued her work.  It was shortly after those sweet words when pain in my lower back screamed at me.  Gingerly I stood and told Kyla I had to stop.  "Mimi's back is hurting".  How well can a 5 year old understand that?  Try as I could I couldn't get the pain to let up --- Tylenol, ice, lying down --- nothing helped.  I needed to move slowly through the house.  But what we built was blocking my movement so I showed her how to easily separate the pieces so I could walk.  She said no.  So I did it for her.  With my foot.  I kicked and the beautiful structure fell into smaller pieces.  To emphasize my anger and frustration I yelled at her.  Oh how quickly a sweet relationship can crumble.  Pain or not, I scolded myself, internally and tried to repair the structure.  "Do you want to help me, Kyla?" "NO!" she said with tears, "You hurt my feelings."

Do I trust the finished work of Jesus on the cross.  Yes.  I believe He died for me because of days like yesterday.  But also No.  I don't trust Him to guide me to a safer place when I am standing on the edge of the cliff of anger.  Because I have had experience with this cliff in different circumstances I have learned to hear His words of warning and words of wisdom of "Come to Me and I will help you with this."  I heard those words of warning on and off yesterday.  In those instances, pain was my friend...part of the warning.  But I chose to not heed His gentle calling me back.  Anger and stubbornness hang out together.  Yesterday, they won. 

Today is a better day...less pain.  But, best of all, I went to that place of forgiveness.  At the cross, I experienced once again His gentle grace.  Now, for the hard part...to restore the broken relationship with my precious Kyla.  Charlie said, "Gini, she will forgive you. It will just take time."  I began mending the bridge for her today.  I rebuilt, as best I could the structure.  Hopefully tomorrow she will build again and I look forward to those sweet words, "This is a good day, Mimi."