Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette

Wife to The Sweetheart, Mom to the Fantastic Six, Nana to six of the cutest littles on the planet, Author, The Daniel Fast, A Devotional. UPCI ministers.

Peonies, Surgeries, Seasons and Mother’s Day

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I’ve heard it pronounced several different ways. Depending on where you are from, you might say, “Pee-OH-nee” or I have even heard “Pie-nee” but I have always called them “PEE-uh-nees”. It doesn’t matter how you pronounce it, I will know what you are speaking of if it is early May in the South or a bit later up North!

I will immediately be transported back in time to a bank on the side of the road at my Mamaw Cammie’s house. She had rows and rows of the gorgeous bushes that just beckoned you to sit and fight the ants for a chance to drink in the aroma. My grandmother had pink peonies, white peonies and the gorgeous dark pink, almost a raspberry peony.

Simply a rare treat that only came once a year and much to my dismay, only lasted a short while. In Indiana, where I am from, they were wise enough to make the peony the State Flower. Go Indiana! I discovered that it was also our national flower until 1929 when it was replaced by the plum tree. Someone obviously didn’t have a Mamaw Cammie or a row of peonies from their childhood to remember!

Peonies and Mother’s Day go together like peanut butter and jelly. I have always enjoyed the entire season. Florists around the globe are saying that the peony is still the number one flower in a Mother’s Day bouquet. And, with the admission from another future princess-bride-to-be, that the peony is also her favorite, Meghan Markle, who will soon marry Prince Harry, will push the love of peonies over the top in 2018!

This may well be the first season I will miss smelling a peony, holding a peony or chasing ants that have invaded my kitchen table because of a peony. I have been house-bound since having major back surgery April 4. I had a lumbar spinal fusion of my L4/L5 and L5/S1 with lovely instrumentation (my ortho surgeon says not to call it hardware as it sounds as if I went to True Value for a quick fix!) 

If that wasn’t enough, the day I was to be discharged from the hospital I decided to break out with shingles! That is another blog post for another day. Drama, drama and more drama!

I have been overwhelmed with help from family and friends. In fact, this week is the first time I have really even been alone for the last 35 days! My wonderful church family brought meals the first week, my mother has been here twice from Indiana. My sister stayed ten days and my sister-in-law also drove from Indiana and cooked up a storm! My daughter-in-law Alicia and grandbaby Lark came and stayed several days to help even though she was fighting morning sickness herself (Baby Elkins is due 11/16/18!) My good friend and Norah Jayne’s other favorite Nan-Nan, Tonya, also came and spent a weekend taking care of me while The Sweetheart was out of town. Rachel, Kyle and Norah Jayne have been here constantly. If she wasn’t cooking a fabulous meal she was cleaning and I am forever indebted to them all.

And of course, that same Sweetheart has babied me and cared for me the last five weeks even when I might have, possibly, been a little difficult. Ahem.

Needless to say I have not been around a peony bush or bouquet this year and I can hardly believe this season will pass and I will not experience my favorite thing about spring. But sometimes we don’t get everything we want, things do not go our way or life just hands us difficulties we hadn’t planned on.

Missing out on peonies? Bummer.

Missing out on what God was trying to show me the last five weeks? Tragic.

This is a season, just like the peony. It came and it will also go. The pain will eventually subside and I am trusting I will be walking and moving like I haven’t been able to do in years. And in this season of pain, as the song says, Through it All, I’ve learned to trust in my God. I’ve cried His name in the middle of the night and He has been there for me. When no one and no medication could help, He was my comfort and my strength! Sometimes the pain would remain but His presence brought peace and sleep. He has been faithful.

Mother’s Day is also a difficult season for many. Some of us look forward to the celebration and remembering of our mothers who may have gone on to be with our Lord. But there are precious friends and family around us who dread the day because their hearts are broken and empty. Whether it is the unbearable loss of a child, the emptiness from not being able to conceive, the death of their own mother or possibly their childhood was not a happy one and their relationship with their mother was not one they even want to remember, not everyone is looking forward to this Sunday. (Read my post What if it isn’t a Happy Mother’s Day)

God knows when our hearts are hurting and He is One that can heal the hurt, fill the void and send comfort and peace, which sometimes comes on the feet of another. Be that one! If you know someone who dreads Mother’s Day, don’t ignore their hurt and pain. You don’t have to say anything if you aren’t good with words but a squeeze of the hand or a hug if appropriate, goes a long way in letting that precious soul know you care.

We face seasons all throughout our walk with God. Some we delight in, like the blooming of the peony, others we do our best to stay away from such as surgeries, shingles or the approaching Mother’s Day celebration. But whether it is sunshine or hard times, our God will always be there. We whisper His name and He is present and that surety of His presence is better medicine than any flower He has ever created.

Until next year, dear peony, until the next season, until the next trial, Amen.

So, there was that time I was STUCK

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So, there was that time I was STUCK….It’s #FiveMinuteFriday and today’s word prompt is, you guessed it….STUCK!

Years and years ago, my mother, grandmother, youngest brother and first of My Three Sons and I took a trip to Florida. The Sweetheart was working and my inlaws owned a place in the Ocala area. Free vacay!

Everything was great, the weather, the place, the company, until we decided to go to the beach.

Now, in my defense, I have been to the ocean many, many times. As a young girl growing up, my family vacationed in St. Petersburg for many years and even if we weren’t in that city, the ocean was our destination of choice.

But…as an adult…the designated driver and sort of Leader-of-the-Pack, I had never driven to the beach.

Again, in my defense, everyone else was doing it. Parking their car in the sand on the beach. This was the early 80’s, maybe things were different then, maybe it was a secluded area, I can’t remember particulars. All I remember is that I was following The Crowd. Until I didn’t notice that The Crowd had all moved their vehicles OUT of the sand and onto the parking lot.

There was no notice. No text message. No Guy-in-Charge-of-the-Ocean that came around and said it was TIME.

Time for what you ask?

Tide. Not the kind you wash with or eat either. The kind that comes in every evening and causes the ocean to envelop everything in its path. If that happens to be a vehicle? Too bad.

I was kindly alerted to this impending disaster when a group of young people come running to me saying I needed to move that car and NOW. I jumped in the driver’s seat but it was already STUCK. It wasn’t that waves were lapping at the car but the sand was already wet and those tires were digging in fast.

Intent on saving the day and impressing all the teenage girls, this group of guys began to push and push until they had successfully gotten my new Buick out of the sand. Yes, I said NEW BUICK because it hadn’t been too long since I had totaled The Sweetheart’s beloved little truck, hit head on by a little old lady in a tank. (You can read that hilarious story here!) So, we had a nice new car that was about to be carried out to sea.

Have you ever been STUCK? So much so that it seemed as if all of life and the world around you was about to suck you in and drag you into oblivion? That might seem a little extreme and even a stretch for a spiritual analogy but it happens. Every single day.

We become STUCK in routines, STUCK in relationships, STUCK in financial hardships, STUCK in so-called friendships that are sucking the life right out of us.

Sometimes, we just need a push.

Jesus came to save, to deliver, to give us that PUSH that will help us become un-STUCK and encourage us to make the right decisions. To leave unhealthy relationships, to manage our finances better by putting Him first and to even help us to realize that our routines are time-wasters and show us a better way to manage that time!

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV

If STUCK describes you today, turn it over to jesus and let Him give you life abundant!

For the kingdom

 

Who will turn on the light?

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Who will turn on the light?

i have not written for Five Minute Friday in forever! As many of you know, I just had lumbar spinal fusion surgery of my L4, L5 and S1 two weeks ago. Somehow, I also picked up the shingles virus before I left the hospital (I am writing about that and hope to be done in a couple of days!) I am just now feeling like conversing, writing or just existing. So, my five minute post is a little long! I hope it is a blessing.

Twenty plus years ago, we had just returned from a trip, late at night, and I had put two of My Three Sons that I had at the time to bed. Kyle was just about seven and Kristopher was not quite two. Now, my neighbors knew we had been gone and that my husband was away for three months with his job and they were not expecting us for another day.

Enter Kristopher, The Mischievous One. I did not know he had taken the garage door opener to bed with him, sneaking it out of the diaper bag. I assumed he was asleep, you should never assume anything with Kristopher! He was not the least bit sleepy. He was busy standing in his baby bed, flipping the bedroom light on and off, on and off and pushing the button on the garage door, up and down, up and down until it stopped midway and just flashed its emergency button on and off.

Naturally, the neighbor called he police and you can imagine the rest or you can read it here. A pint-sized, blonde-haired and not quite two year old had created havoc with a turn of a light switch.

Had it been in the middle of the day, no one would have even noticed…except for the fact the garage door might have been stuck halfway. But at night?

That small TURN made way for light to pierce the darkness!

Light makes others stand up and take notice in the dark. People are drawn to the light, they respond to the light, even bugs flock to the light! (Except for cockroaches, who RUN from the light, but that could be an entirely different thought and post…)

Even Genesis tells us there was chaos until God spoke the light into darkness.

What is The Church if it is not Light in darkness?

What is the duty of The Church, at this dark point in history, if it’s not to turn on the Light?

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Let us not be surprised at the events that we see taking place around us. The Bible tells us that all of these things must come to pass before He returns! It would be easy, as Christians, to get so caught up in the chaos that is happening in our world that we forget that those who do not have Light, who do not know Jesus, are waiting on us to help them. They are looking for hope, for an answer and they won’t find it if we are just harping and jumping on every bandwagon that comes around on social media. Of course we can’t just sit back and pretend nothing is wrong but our enemy is not of this world!!

Our fight is for the souls of men and women that we come into contact every single day.

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“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12

These things will happen but the fight is with the rulers of the darkness of this world…against the enemy of our souls, Satan himself. He would do anything to cause confusion, even among the people of God, especially among the people of God! Because we are human, we all have differing opinions, and he will purposely divide The Church, in the time when the world needs us the most, and get our focus off of spreading the Light, keeping us consumed with who is right and who is wrong.

John 8:12 tells us, “…I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” If we have that Light of life, HIS Light, we should automatically shine it everywhere we go and those that are in darkness will be overcome by the Light, they will be drawn into it because the Light consumes the darkness!

Do you not think that your co-worker, neighbor, family member or friend, who doesn’t know Christ, is worried, possibly dreadful at the events that are unfolding in our country and our world? Hopelessness is everywhere!! Maybe they aren’t sleeping at night, maybe they are concerned for their soul but don’t know where to turn. Maybe there is true conviction in their heart and they are just waiting for someone to turn on the light for them, to point them in The Way.

Who will turn on the light?

Can we bring hope into hopelessness? Yes, I believe we can and I believe we should in these last days. We are The Church, it is our one mission to share the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus died for everyone and that they can have eternal life, eternal HOPE, through His name.

Take in these scriptures about being Light in darkness today and then let’s just do it. Before we go about our day, let us ask the Lord to help our Light to shine, to not get distracted and lose our focus, what Jesus has commissioned us to do, to turn on the Light!

“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Romans 13:11, 12 NASB.

“…for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.” Ephesians 5:8 NASB.

“For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE PLACED YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.'” Acts