Thank you God, for my mom.

Is there a day on your calendar that is marked by your heart? October 27th is that day for me. It is my mom's birthday. Growing up, us kids knew that this day was special for mom. Raising four children, this was the one day of the year that demanded we take our eyes off of ourselves and place them on her.

She would have turned sixty-three today.

This day used to be filled with phone calls, birthday cards, family dinners and birthday cake. For eight years now, October 27th has become painfully quiet. In some ways, growing older I need her so much more. We used to talk every day, sometimes numerous times a day to share a story, an update about family, a laugh or just to talk about what we had planned for the day. I miss her calls the most. I yearn for her to be on the other end of the telephone to share highlights of my children's lives. She would have loved to see Meghan go to her first dance Saturday night. Her heart would have swelled with pride over David's graduation from junior high last year. No doubt she would have bragged to everyone about Grace's first goal in soccer this year and made numerous calls to friends after hearing that Samuel scored five goals this Saturday at his game.

To fill you in on this special photograph, it was snapped a few months before cancer took her life. I had just stopped by to visit and while sitting on the stool beside her, I tried hard to talk to her about anything but the heartache staring me straight in the face. A very mischievous thought came to mind. I leaned down for dramatic affect, whispering in her ear, “You know what mom? I just had a great idea. I think I am going to toilet paper you.” Sadly immobile, a frightened smile lit her face, as she looked up at me with a you-wouldn't-dare look in her beautiful green eyes. My sister was my accomplice as we twirled the white toilet paper from top to bottom, creating beauty from the cold steel hospital bed. Lastly placing a paper white bouquet in her hands. All the while laughing until our sides hurt, tears streaming down all of our faces.

Just like vanilla candles, Jean Nate, Aunt Jemimah coffee cake and Greek cookies, October 27th fills my heart with my mother. I loved her so much. I still do. So today, the day that has been forever marked by my heart, I thank God for my mom. Cancer took so much away from her, from all of us, but it never took away our joy and I am anxiously counting the days until I can laugh with her again.

More than you could ask for...

Then God said to him: "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days." 1Kings 3:11-13

The Lord ALWAYS blesses us with more than we need, more than we ask for, more than we can dare to imagine. WOW, that's pretty awesome when you stop and think about it. When I read the above scripture it stirs my heart. After the Lord came to Solomon, He commanded Solomon to ask him for something. Solomon asked for wisdom. The Lord not only gave him wisdom but gave him far more than Solomon had even asked for. God blessed him with wisdom and with riches...and with honor.

He blessed him with an over abundance. Friends, this is the God we serve.

The God who loves us, loves us with a love that is immeasurable. Solomon may be the example used in the Bible, but he is not the exception. He loves each one of use the very same way.

I had to stop and think about how in my own life I have asked for one thing and received in ten fold His blessings. There are quite a few things that come to my mind but at the top of the list would have to be the salvation of my mother. I was saved myself only a year before my mother died of cancer. With my spiritual eyes now open I knew without a doubt that I would have eternal life with my Heavenly Father. My blessed joy soon turned to heartache. After spending more and more time with my mother I realized that she did not have this same hope and confidence in her own impending death. For many months before she died I prayed with all my heart that she would be saved, that she would know the Lord before she died. it was my hearts cry day and night. I couldn't bear to think of not seeing her again. She was my best friend. The Lord fulfilled my prayer on a gentle spring day in March. She accepted Jesus into her heart, silently mouthing the prayer that she asked me to speak softly into her ear and died six weeks later.

On the day of my mother's viewing it would be the first time I would see her in the delicate pink coffin my father had picked out. I had dreaded this day. “Lord please help me get through this.” was my continual prayer. Hours prior to my mother’s viewing my husband and I had made a last minute decision to attend our own church’s annual anniversary celebration. It is a very festive event anxiously anticipated by our fellowship and held at our local fairgrounds. After dropping off our children at their Sunday school classes, my husband Paul and I needed to sit and be washed in His word, worship our Lord together and feel the fellowship of other believers before facing the rest of our day. Both Paul and I looked very out of place dressed in traditional black from head to toe. We would be leaving straight from this celebration for the mortuary afterwards. It was during this church service that our Lord spiritually fed us to a fullness to prepare us for the days’ events to come.

The pastor asked the bulging assembly in joyful attendance if anyone would like to make today the day that they publicly gave their heart to the Lord. Amongst the crowd of onlookers my husband Paul stood up. With the elation of my own mother receiving Jesus only weeks before her death, I felt like my heart would burst with the added joy of seeing my husband commit his heart and life to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In all honesty, I don’t recall the same passionate prayers for my husbands’ salvation that I had had for my mother. With her impending death it was her eternal life that consumed my daily prayers, not my husbands’. It was a true 'joy of the Lord' experience for me that day walking into the funeral home, grinning from ear to ear. Black couldn’t have been a more inappropriate color to wear for us. Not only was my mother in Heaven but I knew that the Lord had blessed me with a godly husband who would now share with me my hearts desire to live our lives for Jesus.

God gave me more than I knew to even ask for.

"And I have also given you what you have not asked." 1kings 3:13


Where in your lives has the Lord blessed you with what you have not asked for? Where has He given you even more than you dared to imagine?

Praise Him for these things today!

Baking Cookies...

"The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both." Proverbs 20:12 nkjv

There are 60,000 miles (97,000 km) of blood vessels in every human.

15 million blood cells are produced and destroyed in the human body every second.

The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.

The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.

Fun facts about the human body and science in general have always interested me. I love hearing how many bones we have in our body (206...350 at birth) and how many hairs we have on our head (100,000). It is when I stop to think on these things that God goes from being a little 'g' God and again becomes a big 'G' God for me. It is when I stop and think about these things that I am reminded that God, well... is God. He has everything under control. He doesn't need any help from me, but because of His loving nature, he allows me to play a part in some of what He does. Kind of like when my daughter Grace helps me make cookies. I surely don't need her help. I can make some pretty tasty cookies just fine on my own. Actually when she does help me there is much more of a mess to clean up and the task does take much longer than if I just did it on my own. But my joy and my pleasure is increased a hundred times when I have the sweet presence of my daughter by my side. You see it isn't the task of baking cookies that brings me such joy, it is the time we have spent together.

God is the creator of all things, most importantly us! "All things were made by Him and for Him." Colossians 1:6 God created us for the sole purpose of fellowship with Him. He loves to spend time with us. He wants us to stop for a moment and think of Him, to talk with Him. He wants us to come along side Him and joyfully work hand in hand with Him.

The God I love has made it possible that my brain cells can live a lifetime, that my heart continues to beat without any help from me, and that I will continue to take a breath even when asleep. When I learn these things about Him, I am gratefully amazed. Think for a moment just how much we do for our own children that goes unnoticed. When I became a mom for the first time I clearly remember laying my brand new, beautiful baby daughter down on my bed. I remember looking at her and just adoring her. I remember thinking after a few days of sleepless nights, "Wow, my mom loved me this much? She fed and cared for me like this when I was young?" When I realized this I called my mom and thanked her. My relationship with my mother changed. In thankfulness I cherished and loved her even more. The same happens to me the more I learn about God. The more I learn about what Jesus has done for me and… for you.

He loves you so very much and He thinks you are just the most beautiful thing in the world. Stop and think on that a while, it may make you want to ask the Lord right now, "Can we bake some cookies?"

God Bless, Joanne