A Mother's Midnight Meditation

A few nights ago as I was in bed, I discovered my hands folded together in prayer, 

without thinking about it, as I would turn my anxious heart to the Lord.

"I live my prayers to You," my heart whispered,

and just like that, I felt like a poem was being inspired. I got up and typed this poem before going back to bed.

     I Live My Prayers to You--A Mother’s Meditation

Dear God, when morning wakes my eyes

   I lift my heart to you,

Before I greet the bright sunrise

   I fly beyond the blue,

I meet You in the morning,

   Before my tea is hot,

And when my duties press me,

    I find a quiet spot,

Just to stand and savor

   A moment still with You

Before my many duties

   Keep me all day through.

  

I pray while washing dishes

   While cooking at the stove,

While looking out the window,

    While hanging up the clothes.

I pray for my own husband,

   For all my children dear,

I pray sometimes without a word,

  Knowing my God does hear. 

I pray when crises happen,

   When tragic news arrives.

I pray when sorrows deep and sore

   Are crushing others’ lives.

I pray when pain becomes my guest,

   When disappointments crush.

I pray when I must patient be,

   And when I’m in a rush.

I pray each day if possible

   Down that day’s list of names,

Praying for Your help that day

   To make Your will their aim.

And when I go to bed at night,

   My hands still pray for me,

I find them folded in the dark,

   For God the Lord to see.

They raise a silent, constant prayer,

  As I close my eyes to sleep.

That God would watch us day and night,

   That He our souls would keep.

Tomorrow I will pray again,

   Not just a prayer or two.

But with my pots and pans and broom,

   I live my prayers to You.

On Task for Masks

Today I helped Hannah sew her own mask! 

With the different stories we are hearing about people not allowed into this or that store without a mask, we figured we ought to have one on hand for each of us.

It was a mask with kitties on it. She was quite pleased with herself for sewing it all by herself, and it only took her about half an hour, for we had already cut the pieces out a week ago.

Carrie found this pattern online and has been sewing quite a few to sell to friends or on Etsy or on Craig's List. Today she and Rose sewed ten masks to donate to friends who have a relative in California who works in the medical field and has no masks. Our friends will send the ten masks on.

As for me, I like to be creative. If I have to wear a mask, at least I'd like it to be a pretty one and not a white or light blue one that looks like it belongs in a hospital!

I had a basket of quilting strips that I had gotten long ago for a few dollars at an estate sale, and

I decided to see what it would be like to turn about four strips into the sections for a mask.

So I sewed four strips together and then used other mask parts for a pattern.

Here's how some of them turned out. I still need to add the seam to the lower one for the elastic around the ears.

While I was in the middle of that this afternoon, I decided to start another project for an upcoming birthday--a clothespin apron, also made from quilting strips.

I don't know why I enjoy projects made from quilting scraps so much.

Perhaps it's how the colors and designs go together--

like a family--

each a separate and unique individual, yet all connected and one family.

Like a church, also unique and separate individuals, yet connected as a family,

and feeling kind of torn apart in a situation like this current epidemic.

It's hard when you've been "knit together in love" to have to worship apart,

yet the love is still there, and the worship is still there.

So anyway, Carrie got a lot of orders right off the bat, so many that she had to take her ad off Etsy for a while! Rose and she spend hours making masks.

Here are three of them.

Rose snipping the inside, curved seam.

 I made these two kitty masks for our pastor's girls.

And these two others for Pastor Christian and Holly.

Oops, I think the photo is upside down!

Meaningful Menu for Good Friday

 We did a little something different this week for Good Friday. 

I got the idea from a mother who did a Good Friday lunch for her children, but it was based on her Catholic leanings, such as the stipulation to have no meat on Friday except fish. 

I decided to tweak her ideas for our Christian family.

Danny carved swords from flat pieces of carrots to represent the sword Peter drew, thinking to help Jesus defend Himself.

He found the Scripture to go along with it, to read at supper when it was time to pass the carrots around. (John 18:10)

I had one can of olives, and I placed one per person on deviled eggs to remind us of Jesus going to the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. (Luke 22:39)

The pickles reminded us of the vinegar the soldier offered Jesus. (Mat. 29:48)

The main dish was chicken casserole, reminding us of Peter's sad denial of Christ just before the cock crowed.

And the buttered beets reminded us of the blood of Christ, so much better than that of bulls and goats offered for sin.

Hannah made each of us a "crown of thorns" from Ritz crackers, peanut butter, and cheese nips, which we had to substitute for pretzels.

Her finished product. (John 19:2)

The lady Rose works for had given her some tubes of cinnamon rolls, which I baked 

to remind us of Joseph of Arimathea "rolling" the stone to the door of the tomb.

Only, as the Scripture was being read, the children thought the cinnamon rolls were to remind us of how they rolled His body in linen cloths.

Either way worked! I got a laugh out of the children's interpretations of that dish!

Just for this evening I laid aside the lovely purple tulips Jonathan had brought me a few days ago

and instead put this unique bouquet on the table that Hannah brought me from outdoors today.

It was just dead weeds, but how beautiful they were!

One of the children asked me what they represented, and I said they reminded me of how even in death there is beauty, and that there was so much beauty in Jesus' death.

I asked each one around the table to share what made Jesus' death, despite being terrible and gory,

something incredibly beautiful.

Answers given ranged from the fact that His death was because He loved us, to that He rose again, He was coming back, and death didn't end it all, to the fact that His death meant our redemption,

but the best answer was that His death fooled the devil!

I loved that answer!
The kisses represented Judas's kiss of betrayal.

And these chocolate hearts reminded us of John 3:16 which one of the children quoted for us. 

Getting everything on the table for our Good Friday Remembering Jesus meal.

To help us remember that it was a different kind of meal, everyone sat in a totally different spot around the table.

I lit candles. This one is a homemade one made from beef lard. 

And this is one I found at a Goodwill nearly a couple months ago when it was still open.

Before partaking of each dish, a different person read the Scripture related to it, and then we'd pass that dish around and start eating it. Then read the next verse, pass it around, and partake. So we read the first four or five verses right after each other as we served out the appetizers and main dishes. Then we ate and conversed before reading the verses before the special desserts/sweets.

Granted, the meal was different, and not totally sacred, given all the youngsters around the table, 

but it was a unique and meaningful time for me. 

I hope the children will remember it.

And maybe some of you will get an idea from this to do something to make your next Good Friday supper a little more meaningful. 

The Catholics and Jews do not have to have all the traditions.

We can create a Christian tradition, and it doesn't have to always be the same each year. 

This was our tradition this year--just remembering Jesus in a special way.

Song of the Meadowlark for Palm Sunday

As Jonathan and I were walking hand in hand down our road this morning, 

we suddenly became aware of the singing of meadowlarks--more than one or two!

As if we weren't even there, the meadowlarks flew about, perching first on a wooden ranch gate,

and then flying nearer to us and perching on fenceposts.

Jonathan and I had to simply stop.

Two meadowlarks perched on two fenceposts next to each other, and a third lark flew across the road and perched on a fencepost there, while others stayed behind nearby.

Together, the three larks sat and serenaded a trio to Jonathan and me while the rest of the 

meadowlark choir sang in the background!

We did not know what to do except to stand and listen in awe.

It was as if God sent His own choir this Palm Sunday morning

to two hearts that love good music that glorifies Jesus. 

When those meadowlarks flew away, I wondered what God might be trying to say to us.

And these are the words that came to me, simple but straight from His Word

on a Palm Sunday in April during the Covid-19 pandemic:

"Be of good cheer!"

When the bad news piles up like this stack of cups one of the kids piled one morning,

and you hear conflicting news about nurses in New York with one patient dying every five minutes,

and other news about hoaxes and media lies, 

and the possibility of the mail service going kerflunk by June, 

"Be of good cheer!" is a welcome message.

When you're not supposed to hug anyone but people in your own family,
even at a funeral...

...the words "Be of good cheer" come at a good time.

When most churches are closed, and our own hearts feel uncertain about the future,

thank You, Lord, for sending Your own choir on wings to us this morning!
"Be of good cheer! It is I," said the Lord to His disciples in the middle of the storm.
"Be not afraid!"

Chicks, Kittens, and Books

Several weeks ago Timmy's order of chicks came.

That was during the sick spell, when four of the children were down sick.

Nothing quite as darling as baby chicks.

Unless it's baby kittens.

Or puppies. Danny was having fun with them one day while the others were sick. 

In between doing chores and running around the pasture.

And here he is with his miniature airplanes he makes from cardboard and then paints!

 I just had to get this picture of him through the branches. 

Meanwhile, here are some books we've been reading. This one I read out loud on a long trip several weeks ago. It's about Rhuben Lacy's life, edited by Bonnie Lacy. 

It was partly due to the Lacys asking my family to come sing at their 50th wedding anniversary

and me to speak about Kiev, where I was headed a couple  months later,

that Jonathan heard about me!

Friends of Jonathan told him about the young lady who spoke at the Lacy's celebration,

 about going to Kiev, and gave him tapes of the services where my family sang and played bells, and the service where I sang and spoke.

So it was very interesting reading this book Jonathan's parents loaned me.

And this devotional book below is what we are using for a while for family worship.

It uses antics and issues in the lives of the authors' cat Moses and dog Drover and other pets 

to teach good spiritual truths. 

It has Scriptures, a poem, and a song along with each devotional. 

Very recommendable!

My mom gave me this book the last time we were in Missouri, and I'm reading it out loud to the younger children after supper dishes and chores are done. Such an exciting and sweet story for children.

These are books we use almost every day. Sometimes Carrie plays the hymn on the piano, or we sing a cappella.

One of our delightful meals.

So much to thank God for!