So, I return things.

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So, I return things. It’s #FiveMinuteFriday! I was drawn to the word prompt today and although I will probably not stay within the five minute writing guideline, I hope it still is a blessing to someone.

So, yeah, I return things. I do it for the typical reasons most people return an item purchased:

  • It didn’t fit
  • I didn’t like it
  • It was damaged
  • It was used (i.e., the toaster oven had crumbs!)
  • Or, insert reason here ______

I am an avid online shopper. With my back issues, I have had to resort to Amazon and Kroger Click-List! Kohl’s is, of course, a favorite because, according to their policy, you can return just about anything just about anytime (watch that Kohl’s cash though!)  and so is Macy’s because they do not charge to return by mail on most things. (Kohl’s you need to return in-store or pay for shipping.) You are most welcome for my insider shopping tips. (smile)

I do seem to favor stores that have free shipping and free returns, who wouldn’t? I do not abuse the policy, I do not wear an item on purpose and return it later just to have a new outfit. (Not ethical, people.) But, they offer the service, I didn’t care for the item , so yes, I will return it if possible; tags are attached and I have my receipt.

But lately, the news has been abuzz with stories of the colossal giant, Amazon, banning faithful customers because of their many returns! Of course there are always two sides to every story but according to the customers interviewed, it was unfair. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. I have to admit I went to count the number of items I had returned in comparison to items kept. Whew! Wasn’t near as bad as I had thought. Hopefully, I am still in their good graces.

Many stores are following suit, or had started to crack down long ago and with The Retail Equation tracking a customers returns, policies could change drastically in the future.

Naturally, you would guess that my entire post is not just about the number of returns I generate. My posts are always about Jesus. (mic drop!) And how does He come into the picture on this one? Hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with praying before you step up to the return counter.

He accepts returns.

I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have returned my sorry self to Jesus. I am more than a mess, more than a disaster when I come crawling back, ashamed, confused, tired, weary and beyond exhausted. But He never turns me away, He never questions me or chides me for not having my receipt, i.e., dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s!

Deuteronomy 4:29 “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

He knows I have worn this same sin or regret many times and here I am at His feet returning…again. But He doesn’t push me away, He doesn’t tell me I have met my quota and He doesn’t ban me from coming back time and time again. He knows I will be back and yet He welcomes me, like the prodigal son, over and over again!

What do you need to return to Him today?

  • A broken heart?
  • A bad attitude?
  • A rapidly dissolving marriage?
  • Children who have strayed from Truth?
  • A job situation that is more than desperate?
  • Insert need here ______!
  • Worried about contracting the virus or financial stress since the quarantine started.
  • Worried that you haven’t seen your grandkids in two months!
  • Anxious to get back to church but maybe apprehensive about being in a crowd again?

Jesus knows them all! He hears your worries, your cares and your prayers and He is near to your broken and anxious heart.

Psalm 37:23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

So, pack up your worries, troubles, anxieties and cares and return them to Jesus. Today. His arms are open and His mercies are new. Every morning.

For the kingdom

To the frazzled young mother on Mother’s Day

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I always did pretty well in school growing up, at least until high school. I loved grade school, loved everything about it including the teachers, and I even wanted to be a teacher. When I hit the teenage years I changed my outlook a bit. Boys were a little more interesting than teachers but I still had many interests that kept me busy. I loved Sunday School, reading, the clarinet, and babysitting. The latter because it paid!

Then I met The Sweetheart and I knew I had fallen and fallen hard. Of course you will say I didn’t know what love was as a teenager. That’s what The Parents said too. But when July 20 rolls around it will be 39 years and whatever it was has lasted a long, long time.

I have never been happier than when My Three Sons were little and in school; the house was busy, messy and crazy. I dearly loved the daily routines, fixing breakfast, getting them ready for school, seeing them off to school, enjoying the little ones that were still at home, and trying my best to keep the house clean.

I miss that big old two-story, four-bedroom house with the wood floors that made so much noise when the three boys were chasing each other up and down the hallway. The memories of the wild things they did like duct-tape four-year-old Korey to the wall, pretending they were Tarzan only to have the vine break just as they soared halfway over the gully, or slamming doorknobs into each other’s foreheads…at least we kept the ER busy.

I miss riding the tractor for hours, the growing grass was just an excuse for quiet time! I could watch the world go by and see everything the boys were doing while the lawn was getting manicured: the softball and basketball games, chasing Molly the Beagle back onto her own property, or trying their best to pull a catfish out of the pond.

I couldn’t wait until they came home, even though I may not have gotten everything finished that I had intended. Even though they were going to pick at each other and there would probably be some punching and name-calling before the night was over, this is what I had chosen for my life. I didn’t want a career in the corporate world, nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t for me. I had helped to get The Sweetheart there and he promised I could stay home with the boys. We never regretted it.

But seasons change and…

  • All of that time that I wished for a clean house?
  • No laundry flowing out of the basket and into the hallway?
  • No dishes in the dishwasher?
  • No dirt on the floor?
  • No Legos puncturing my tender feet in the middle of the night?
  • No calls from the schoolteacher?
  • No sound of little fists pounding on the bathroom door?

Those wishes have come true and I would give anything to relive them. You don’t know what you have sometimes until you are missing it.

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I remember when I was a young mother so many older women would say to me when I was frazzled and chasing three little boys, “Oh, you had better enjoy these days! They will be grown before you know it!” And I would just want to turn around and smack ‘em! I DID love my boys and I DID love everything about my life but sometimes it was just plain hectic. It is hard to realize that when you are in the middle of it.

And you know what? It is true…it does go by so fast. It is such a wonderful time in your life that you would love to be able to do over again if you could. Now I am the old lady saying the same thing to young mothers in the checkout line!

But God has given us seasons in our lives for a reason. And I am learning to enjoy every single one, even if it is sometimes painful. I didn’t know then what I know now and I didn’t have the relationship with HIM that I do now, which is so much to be thankful for.

And if you ARE that young mother who is so sleep deprived you can’t stay awake through church, remember they are only little for a short while. Drink in the smiles, the mischievous antics, the endless “Why’s” and “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” God has entrusted you with His most important treasure and most important task: to bring up your child in the way he should go so that when he is grown, when she has children of her own, they will remember a frazzled mother who even made mistakes but they will also remember the time you spent with them and the love that surrounded them.

For God is in control of each new day and if we let Him, He makes every season beautiful in its own way. And, don’t forget, the grandchildren are coming!

(photo courtesy of Shelby Fannin Photography)

 

 

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.