Author: Barbara

My passion is to encourage women wherever they are on their life journey. In everything I write and in every opportunity to speak, my goal is to offer hope. May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NIV

What I Like about Summer

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

Each season I blog about what I love during that time of year. I always feel disingenuous when I proclaim, “I love summer,” because I don’t. Yet, there are things I do like about summer, so here’s my more honest assessment of summer’s blessings.

  • Watermelon—red and ripe, juicy and drippy, sweet and refreshing.
  • Ice cream cones—I know, there is no off-season for this creamy treat but it’s especially good in summer, particularly from the Belville Creamery in NY state with its picture postcard view. It is worth the trip (and the calories) for a scoop of coconut ice cream with almonds covered in dark chocolate.
  • The slower pace that invites us to relax and unwind, to take deep breaths, reset our internal clocks, and appreciate life and living.
  • Barbecues—paper plates, cold salads, hot dogs, warm friends, and easy conversation.
  • Lightning bugs, flying, flickering, adding sparkle to lazy summer evenings. May we never grow too old to thrill at their display.
  • Iced tea, but not just any iced tea, only the family recipe passed down from my mother-in-law. Just enough sugar and lemon, half decaf, steeped to perfection, delicious and refreshing. 
  • Seasonal flora and fauna—fruits and flowers, birds and butterflies, each with their own unique beauty.
  • Summer storms—sometimes sudden, always fascinating, breaking into the monotonous heat with a spectacular show of rumbles and flashes, drenching and replenishing the earth.

Hmm. Maybe I do love summer! What are your summer favorites?

It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;
    you made both summer and winter.
Psalm 74:17

Retirement?

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.

Psalm 92:14

Today is my husband’s last full day of work. He entered the work world delivering newspapers when he was only nine and ended as a care pastor looking at 75. We’ve talked a lot about what it looks like to retire. Mirriam-Webster defines it this way:  

  1. to withdraw from action or danger 
  2. to withdraw especially for privacy
  3. to move back
  4. to withdraw from one’s position or occupation 
  5. to go to bed

In the past ten months we have relocated, renovated, recovered from health challenges, and now retired. Each of Webster’s definitions sounds appealing but, while we will take some down time to recover, we will not stop. We think about traveling some, enjoying open calendars, and living at a slower pace. Age has slowed us down, but we’re convinced that if we’re breathing, there’s more to do.

Perhaps our friend, Pastor Marty, said it best: “Rich won’t retire, he’ll re-fire.” And that’s what we anticipate—new fire. We’re excited to see what God will do in this next chapter and expect to encounter grace-filled opportunities.

If you’re reading this, you’re breathing, and you, my friend are not finished yet either! Join us in expecting God-surprises.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:8

Pause to Ponder your Body

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

Psalm 139:13, 15-17

Every vein was perfectly placed when I was in my mother’s womb. As a child, I ran and played without a thought about the miracle of my heart beating or my blood flowing. When I was a teen my body changed into womanhood, including all the normal mood swings, but I was still oblivious to the wonder of my brain directing my body parts or my veins carrying my blood. I had children and aged, but my health allowed me to come and go at will, my worst ailments being a backache or headache, so I was still mindless of the miracle of the daily ebb and flow of my body… until now.

Now I am mindful of my heart beating irregularly, of the intricacies and cooperation my unseen body parts, of the miraculous complexities of the human body. I had a stroke, went into a-fib, and, this week, had a cardiac ablation. We call a CT (computed tomography) of the brain, the loop recorder in my chest, and the ablation procedure modern day medical miracles.

As I contemplated what was about to happen—a doctor would insert catheters into two veins, directing them up into my heart, and sensors would record my heart’s electricity, identifying the area causing the arrhythmia and create small scars in my heart to block the irregular rhythms—I was awed. Yes, a modern day medical miracle. But it pales in comparison to the miracle of my creation.

God wove those veins in place when He formed me. They were in place when I toddled and grew and aged. Throughout those years my heart beat with regularity, until it didn’t. The mercy is that I overcame the physical challenges of stroke and a-fib. But, with all due respect, I must put modern medicine in its place because, as astonishing as it is, it pales in comparison to the miracle of God’s intricate creation. Indeed, medicine only discovers the details of God’s amazing design and learns aspects of the human body’s functionality that God ordered. He is my Creator, Designer, Sustainer, Healer. Selah.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (verse 14).

Ponder the River

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, 
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Psalm 46:4

The river is for us—a source of supply, an origin of life, a spring of hope—a river of blessing that flows from God. It makes us glad by feeding our faith, satisfying our souls, and renewing our spirits. In times of turmoil I find it is often enough to simply say, “There is a river.”

God is the source, supplying all we need when we drink deeply. There is no shortage where God dwells; He is with us and promises help (verse 5). Even when “nations are in uproar” and “kingdoms fall,” the earth melts at the sound of His voice (verse 6).

There is a river. Let the certainty of that truth assure your heart and minister peace to your soul.