So, the miracle has arrived.

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A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankrolls smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

If you already follow me on social media, you have been overwhelmed with posts of our little miracle grand baby, Norah Jayne Elkins. If you are a new follower, you can read all about the ten year infertility struggle of my son and daughter-in-law here. Go ahead. I will wait for you!

The family headed to Tennessee, just south of Nashville, last Thursday afternoon. For some reason, two of our grown sons wanted to hitch a ride with Mom and Dad so of course we didn’t pass up that opportunity to be totally annoying for a five hour car ride.

My parents, the great-grands, also drove down and Friday morning we all met for breakfast at The Readyville Mill. (Formerly known as Goodness Gracious) We had the place to ourselves since we arrived so early, and had a scrumptious breakfast.

family

The plan was this: My sweet DIL was to go into the hospital on Friday night and then she would be induced early Saturday morning. Of course we had to have dinner first and Rachel had made reservations for us in Smyrna at La Tavola Restaurante Italiano. Another hit! I did not want to share my cannoli!

Kyle and Rachel, a.k.a. Mommy-and-Daddy-to-be, headed to the hospital to spend the night. The grandmothers (that’s me too!) were to show up to the hospital around 7 a.m. since we were invited to witness the birth. We would keep everyone else posted, figuring it to be a long, long day as it usually is for the first baby.

Unfortunately for the grandmothers, but so very fortunate for Mommy Rachel, Norah Jayne, this miracle from our God, decided to make things quick and easy. Even though I couldn’t sleep, got up at two a.m. and showered, dressed and was completely ready by 3:30…we still missed seeing her exciting arrival into the world.

Everything moved so fast that even the doctor was literally running down the hallway just in time to catch our miracle!

Norah Jayne was born on April 2, at 6:44 a.m. She weighed 6 pounds and one little bitty ounce. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Meet our miracle…

Norah Jayne

Meeting Mommy for the first time.

And Daddy’s turn.

miracle

With The Sweetheart, now lovingly referred to as Poppy!

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Though worn out from too many days without sleep, Mommy, Daddy and Norah pose for a picture as they arrive home for the first time as a Party of 3. We are forever grateful to the Lord Jesus for answering our prayer for this special gift. Our family promises to love her forever and raise her to love her Savior. Thank you all for your prayers of support. nana

Sharing with Faith Filled Friday, Home Matters , Coffee Shop Conversations

Zonk

When you can’t decide

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The last ten days have been a challenge for this little blog. We have been down for more than a week and the technicalities of getting back up and running were almost more than I wanted to tackle. I am thankful for my son, Korey, who spent countless hours on the technical side helping me fix everything and for The Sweetheart who finally made it go live again. I appreciate you both! Now on to #FiveMinuteFriday and DECIDE…

When I was little, I used to sing in the shower. Now, I make LIFE DECISIONS in there.

Door #1.

Door #2.

Door #3.

I can remember Monty Hall asking the contestant who had made it to the Big Deal of the Day, “Which door do you want?”

Monty Hall is long gone and replaced by Wayne Brady but the show lives on. Let’s Make a Deal is chock full of decision-making. Some of those decisions leave you with a super nice prize, maybe even a…wait for it…BRAND NEW CAR!

But sometimes, unfortunately, you could be left with what is infamously known as a ZONK. (For those that are not familiar with the game show, a ZONK is a not-so-nice prize and you never get to take it home.)

Zonk

Life is like Let’s Make a Deal in so many ways. We are bombarded with choices on a daily basis and some of them are just trivial things that we must do but others could be life-changing.

Joshua lays it out in the Old Testament, reminding the Israelites of where God had brought them from and then asks the important question, “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 NLT.

As for me and my house

It had come down to just that. The Israelites were always waffling and forever going back to their idols of worship. But that day they made the right decision and put away their worthless idols to serve the One True God.

It comes down to just that for us today too. We have so many things facing us and so many things clamoring for our attention that it is easy to put God on the back burner. He becomes a choice, but a lesser choice; when nothing else is available or whenever we can fit Him in.

But He must be first. He always has been first and He forever will be whether we choose Him or not. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:7-8.

Let’s put Him in His rightful place today and not make Jesus a choice. Let Him be Lord of all and everything else fall in behind Him. Then the rest of our decisions will be easy ones to make.

What will you give me?

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“For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Some scholars speculate that Jesus and the disciples rested on the Wednesday before the Passover. Maybe they stayed with Lazarus, Mary and Martha in Bethany, which was about two miles east of Jerusalem. It is just speculation but it had only been a short time since He had raised Lazarus back to life. And also, just a few nights earlier in Bethany, Mary had anointed His feet with expensive perfume.

Let’s look a little closer at Judas… It wasn’t just his betrayal, there were also the betrayals yet to come: Yours and mine. His blood covered them all. We have all been betrayed at one time or another and because of sin and iniquity, we have all betrayed Jesus. But the Good News is that His blood still covers!

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests and asked, ‘How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?’ And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.” Matthew 26:14-16 NLT. 

From this scripture text, and the account in Mark and Luke, it is apparent that Judas went to them. It doesn’t mention them coming to Judas and asking him to betray the Lord. He went on his own! Perhaps it would have never entered the minds of those in the Sanhedrin that one of Christ’s very own would turn on Him.

But he did. “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” Was Judas so desperate that He would sell out the Lord of glory for money? To give away the Everlasting for something that would not last, that would pass away? 

Did you know that Judas was the treasurer for the followers of Christ? He wasn’t voted on or suggested by the others, he was chosen by Jesus! According to Augustine, tradition says, “Jesus had delivered Judas often from death, and for his sake healed his father of palsy and cured his mother of leprosy, and next to Peter he honored him above all the other apostles.”

Judas became a traitor. A traitor is someone that is WITHIN the camp, so to speak. You can’t be a traitor if you are not in the inner circle! The enemy was in the camp, right with the disciples, one of the chosen, one of those closest to the Master. As many times as I have heard this story and read it over and over again I have never thought about what made him do it. What happened to him over time that caused him to fall away?

Luke 22:3 “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot…” 

Maybe he began to doubt, perhaps he was listening to outside voices that were constantly berating that Jesus wasn’t who He said He was. We aren’t given all of that information but we are told that he was listening to one distinct voice and that was the voice of the enemy of our souls.  

It really wasn’t about the money because thirty pieces of silver, research reveals, likely would not set you up for the rest of your days. Whatever caused Judas to first become frustrated, aggravated or disillusioned with Jesus became an open door for Satan to come in and begin his whispering.

It doesn’t take long, when you entertain lies from the betrayer, you  eventually become one yourself.

And if it can happen to Judas, who walked with Jesus, shared supper with Jesus, heard Him speak, watched Him work and even saw Him pray, what will keep us from doing the same? What must we do to keep ourselves from straying from this Truth, from losing our way like a lost sheep or worse yet, turning on the very One who would give His life for us?

We look at the story and think we would never do such a thing as walk away from the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. Maybe not but are we replacing Him with other things in our life? Are we busying ourselves so much that we don’t have time for a talk with the King of Kings? Is our relationship faltering or failing because we no longer put Him first?

This Holy Week is a good time to reassess our walk with the Lord. He is either Lord of everything or He isn’t Lord at all. Let’s see what we might be allowing to get in our way. It may be the love of money or the accumulation of stuff.  Perhaps it is things that cause us to habitually waste time. Or it could be friends or co-workers, maybe family members that we know bring us down. We should take inventory every now and then and ask God to show us those things that may trip us up!

We must make sure that He is first in all things and our relationship with Him is the most important thing in our lives.

“What will you give me?” Judas asked this question of the Sanhedrin with the worst in mind; he was no longer a servant of Christ. Let us ask THIS question of our Lord, “What can I give YOU?” And then be prepared to offer ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service.

 

For the kingdom