Plan & Purpose

I woke up and had my quiet time and the blogging urge came suddenly. I haven't had any time at all to sit and put my thoughts down and it seemed like I was "on a roll" as a friend once used to tell me ALL the time.

When reading from the devotional, Streams in The Dessert, by L.B. Cowman - It said..."Life is not wreckage to be saved out of the world, but an investment to be used in the world."

Wow!  As a young girl, I wanted to be a mom and grandmother.  That was all I wanted to be "when I grew up."  Little did I know that "Growing up" would be so tragic and difficult.  Facing all of the many trials I have experienced in this life, has certainly given me a sense of "wreckage."  

Nick and I just celebrated our 34th wedding anniversay and of course instead of going on a cruise like most people that have milestone dates, we on the other hand - bought a new frying pan. Hmmmm. 

I thought about it in a couple of ways and came up with this, one, it's sad that the wreckage of our immediate past (cancer) has NOT allowed us a cruise, instead a $21. frying pan.  Then I have to rethink it and realize that after all these years, things have just gotten old, used and, become wreckage and they need replacing.  I have to look now at that new frying pan as a tool to "Make pancakes for my grandchildren when they come visit."  Eggs for the company that will visit now that God has planted us here in Franklin TN.

Opportunities arise out of the wreckage  - when we often this of it as being tragic. 

I have had several golden opportunities this past few months to dig deep into the minds of several of my little grandkids and find out what they like, dislike, their fears and even tell them who my grandparents were when I grew up.  They never knew my dad died when I was only 13 years old and they gleened that going to the nursing home to see my grandfather was an exciting time for us kids and that old people aren't just smelly.

I also was able to show them the home I grew up in in a picture and told them my dad built it from his own two hand and who my mom and dad were and all their relatives.  Now, mind you coming from a HUGE family, they won't remember all of them, but when we get to the "planned family reunion in 2013"  hopefully that light bulb will come for them to remember the time that God used my dreams and aspirations of "being a mom and grandmother" growing up to say - I know who that lady or man is - my grandma told me.

I like to think of things in this way, if a tornado came through today - and our family was safe, we would still have each other, the $21 frying pan might be history, but- I would still be their mom, and still be their grandma and I could still tell them all about the good and not so happy things in life.  Wreckage, maybe, better yet, rewards.