R-E-M-E-M-B-E R

One of the most precious gifts of my being home is having the "God time" in the morning before heading into my day. For so many years, I rose with so much whirling in my mind and trying to anticipate what needed to be at the office. However, now, I am able to crawl into my Heavenly Father's lap and let Him not only speak into my heart but sing over me. (Zephaniah 3:17).

On Monday, God gave me a word to mediate and in the word was a hidden meaning. God wanted me to mediate on the word and see if I would discover His hidden treasure tucked lovingly in my heart. So, I began to pray that God would give me His insight into the word and it's hidden meaning.

One by one the letters fell onto the page. Quickly going to my dressing area where my pen and paper lay waiting, the letters formed onto the page. Some of the letters came quickly while others waited to be discovered.

Continuing to pray, the words came and the direction for each letter was made known. On the paper it read as follows:

R - rid myself of unnecessary baggage.
E - emulate Christ to others.
M - mention Christ to others - tell my story.
E - enemies - pray for them daily.
M - miracles still happen - look for them.
B - believe - all things are possible with God.
E - expect God to move when I pray.
R - read my Bible daily and commit what I read to my heart and spirit.

Later I shared the results of this holy treasure hunt with Steve. He was so affirming and said that it sounded so right! In fact, he said, "Wow!"

Thank you, Father, that you are who you say you are; you can do what you say you can do; we are who you say we are; Your Word is alive and active in us; we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us - We choose to Believe God - and Remember!!!

Living Out Our Faith - Out Loud!!!!!

Thought you would enjoy Sandyism that happened this afternoon. It is sooooo me and what can I say??? It becomes more clearer as days go by that God keeps me on the earth to crack people up and prove to them that something truly wonderfully big and creative created this silly loosey goosey child of God and set her feet upon this planet for His delight! Sadly, you who know me get to live it out - out loud with me!

Here is the story - truly this is how it happened!

Our church was are having the Seder meal tonight and Steve and I were hosting overnight the representative from Jews for Jesus. I was not expecting him until this evening after the service or at the earliest late this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when Steve and I returned from lunch and there he was wanting to go home and take a nap...at our house!

Not a problem...I can be a willow. (you know...bend...bend...) As we were in front of Cheryl's office (parish secretary) to leave our new friend from JFJ asked me if I had cereal. I thought that to be a strange question but said answered, "yes, we do. " He said he had not had lunch and was hungry. I felt so badly for him that I quickly responded, "Oh, no worries, I'll make you a sandwich" which he jumped at with both Jewish feet!

So...I am in my car with him in my rear view mirror and I am thinking, "Oh, Lord!" We had not planned food for this meal and all I have is ham leftover from the Friday night "wine and cheese." "Oh Lord, will and can he eat ham????" I grumbled, well, probably not, dang!!! So, I stepped my prayer up a level and said, "Oh, Lord, can we please have turkey at home???"

We arrived home and I showed him upstairs so he could get settled in and as it was to be...hunger overrode tiredness! Dang!!!! Dang!!! Dang!!! He found me in the kitchen (thankfully I was praying silently - "Lord, please, please, please let there be turkey." He asked if we had wheat bread, excited to have a yes, praise the Lord, I proudly said, "We do!!!!!! "

Did I mention that I was fussing at myself on the way home in the car because I was being cranky about the sandwich meat?? I had to remind myself, "Self - shame, shame on you! Okay, time out! Go sit in a corner because you are acting like Martha! You know, Sandy Ferguson (now I'm mad at myself) when you entertain him you are entertaining Jesus." To that the Sandy Ferguson who has been sent to the corner responded, "Well, does Jesus eat ham? I'm just asking!!!"

So I open the refrigerator and found a miracle!!! We had turkey and it was still in date!!!! So, he had turkey and cheese and mustard...are they supposed to eat meat and dairy together??? I'm confused about that...but he loved the sandwich, freshly washed grapes and pretzel chips. Life is good...or so I thought!

When our guest woke up from his nap he came downstairs and asked if we had an exercise equipment he could use. I said that we had a treadmill upstairs and he was welcome to use that. He said that he had put on a lot of weight with all the Mexican food since he had been in TX. So I hear the treadmill going and honestly it sounded like he was struggling with every step and every breath. He was on his cell phone and was having difficulty breathing and talking. Thankfully the treadmill event ended.

It was eerily quiet upstairs when Steve said that it was time for he and I to head back to the church. I asked Steve if he would go upstairs to let our guest know that we were leaving and if he knew the way back to the church. Steve said no problem and went upstairs. I hear Steve call, our guest's name? No answer. Steve calls out again his name...Still no answer. By now I am in full panic mode. "Oh Lord, please don't let us have killed our Jews for Jesus on our treadmill!Thankfully he finally answered. No wonder Martha was so cranky! Entertaining Jesus is stressful business!!!!!

The evening was perfect. He did an awesome job presenting the Gospel and explaining to each one of us with holy and anointed words from Jesus as to how we could see Jesus in the Passover. It was moving evening and there was many moments that we knew that God was present and we felt His Holy Spirit speaking through this sweet and tender man.

Would like to say that the drama had ended at lunch/treadmill event...but ohhhhh....noooooo. We finally get to bed after much visiting and sharing after 11 p.m This part could be borrowed from "Twas the night before Christmas"...because there suddenly in the night arose such a clatter!!!" At 4:00ish a.m. Maggie (our dog) and I were awakened by a crash! My first thoughts were, "Oh Lord, now we really killed the Jews for Jesus man! He has fallen down our stairs!"

I sent Steve into the front to see if there was indeed a body at the foot of the stairs. Thankfully there wasn't. Steve looked around (inside) and pronounced the, "All"s clear" announcement and went soundly back to bed and sleep.

Now, Maggie and I are not in full agreement with the "All's clear" announcement as both of us clearly heard SOMETHING! So, Maggie and I emerge carefully from the bedroom to face whatever calamity has befallen us inside the house. We looked carefully through the front of the house and found nothing. No sounds from upstairs and the front lawn was fine.

At that point Maggie determines that she needs to potty in the back yard so I flip on the light on the back porch and open the backdoor. Strangely there was no back yard in sight. In fact, there was nothing insight but the our awning which was precariously draped and wrapped hap-hazard on the patio. Maggie took one look at that and you could almost hear her saying, "Uh, no! not doing it there!" So, we retreated to the clear and safe front yard.

Returning to the bedroom, I awoke a soundly sleeping husband to inform him that "Houston does have a problem." He quickly arose (just like in the "Night before Christmas") and saw what was the matter!

The picture above reflects the awning in the daylight hours. Thankfully our overnight guest slept through the rainstorm and the awning and...does this have a familiar ring like sleeping through a storm in a boat...just asking...

There is always a chance to see Jesus in our circumstances if we stop panicking and be still. The trouble with us is that we are so busy being "Henny Penny" that we don't stop. Would that we like our soundly sleeping overnight guest and sleep through the storm or better yet stand up and say, "Peace, be still!"

It is a choice we make to live our faith out loud. What do we say when we are shouting when calamity crashes in uninvited into our world? "Woe is us??" Are do we loudly proclaim, "Our God Reigns!" Let us be still and know that He is God! His peace is like no other.

Live your faith - but live it out loud - so the world will see...Our God truly reigns!!!

Celebrating Five Years!

To say the day began and progressed as a hectic one would have been a major understatement. That evening my husband and I were to host one of our diocesan bishops overnight in our home. He had graciously agreed to be one of the speakers of a series of talks in our church. Hoping to put finishing touches on obligations at work, my day came to an abrupt and heart-stopping halt. Our expectant daughter who was not due for a couple of months telephoned me to say that she was on her way to the hospital. She had just been diagnosed with preeclampsia. With this life-threatening development for both her and her baby, her doctor immediately admitted her to the hospital for an emergency c-section delivery.

It is amazing what adrenaline can do to help in packing. Within (what seemed minutes) I was packed, car filled with gas and headed westward for the long drive to the hospital and our daughter, in hopes of arriving before she was taken into surgery.

Have you ever noticed that things move quickly in a hospital when a life is threatened? Everything around our daughter appeared to move at “warp speed.” It seemed that our daughter’s hospital room filled and emptied in a matter of seconds. What suddenly appeared in her room, abruptly departed at one time. All of a sudden I found myself seated in the one and only piece of furniture left in the room – a straight back chair.

Seated for the first time since I arrived, the weight of the day's events seem to push me further into the chair. Minutes moved to hours. The room, like me, was silent except for the prayers being offered with every breath I drew. What had once been a room filled with a frantic pace, now moved in slow motion.

Voices in the hallway drew my attention upward to the sound of two nurses talking at the nurses’ station located just outside our daughter’s room. “She didn’t make it,” came from one of the nurses. What was spoken after that, I do not know. I only know that my world suddenly appeared terribly wrong. My first response was, “Please Lord, let this cup pass by me, I beg you.” Then, settling into the peace that is my mainstay, I released my daughter and her new baby girl to the hands that created them both. My prayer then moved to, “Peace, Lord, give us all peace but please let them both be okay.”

The movement of a body rushing into the room brought my face up and to the eyes of my son-in-law. He was dressed in scrubs. He had come down to the room to tell me, “She is okay, but the baby is not doing well. They need me to stay with the baby and accompany her to NICU.” I hugged and kissed him hello and goodbye and sent him on his way.

Soon after my son-in-law’s departure, my daughter returned to her room to find waiting a very thankful mother. Sometime later my son-in-law returned to the room spent. Since the hospital was filled to capacity, it had no other accommodations available, so the nurse offered our son-in-law a mattress on which he could sleep. Our son-in-law gratefully accepted the mattress, and was soon sleeping soundly on the floor in the corner of the room.

For the remainder of the night, I sat or stood next to our daughter’s bed, feeding her ice chips, speaking peace, love and thankfulness for her and our new granddaughter’s safe delivery.

The morning dawn slipped silently into a new day. Seeing the time for me to go, I reach down to retrieve my purse to do a quick touch up of my makeup and hair before leaving the hospital. My services were now required to take the older sibling to preschool. And as you would expect, that day was the school’s class pictures, and a picnic complete with a pony ride! My hands were needed to transform a sleepy little princess into a budding southern belle with pigtails and a bandana. As I bent over to gather my things to leave, my son-in-law stirred on his pallet. Pulling himself to a sitting position he appeared visibly surprised. He wiped his eyes with both hands, looked straight at me and said, “Wow, Nani, you look great! You don’t look like you have been awake all night.” To that pronouncement of a “touch-up” of hair and make-up gone well, I replied with a smile and a wink, “Well, Angel Man, that’s what a Steel Magnolia looks like!”

I know that it is not by my own strength that I have survived the night’s events seemingly unruffled. I know without a doubt that it is solely due to a strong faith that was taught at the knee and on the knee. And that this faith is in a God who not only guides and protects me through the storm but has taught me to dance in the rain.

Now, five years later, the same bishop visited our church on the anniversary of the night this budding Steel Magnolia arrived. Thought it fitting to write this as testimony to God's faithfulness in our lives. Sorry I missed you again, Rayford!