The Women In Me

Generations of women crowd inside me.

There’s a carpenter, a seamstress, and a gardener squeezed beside a hairdresser, a bookkeeper, a caretaker, and a homemaker.

Women who worked long hours. Mom balanced managing four kids running in different directions, working part-time, and re-planting the family every time Dad’s work called him to a different city. Her mother toiled in the fields of a farm and ironed others’ clothes to earn extra pennies for her family of eight. Dad’s mom worked inside the home, corralling two sons and later nursing an invalid husband after his stroke.

One had a heart for praise music and the church as family. Another had a heart for people and hearty meals gathered around the table.

All outlived their husbands and fought anyone who messed with their children. Each passed on legacies of fierce independence even during times when a woman’s strong-mindedness was frowned upon or misunderstood.

All were survivors.  All trusted God to deliver them through their circumstances. Mom still does while she battles persistent pain that comes with health problems.

All these mothers crowd inside me. Collaborating, as women will do, whipping me into shape. Encouraging me to embrace the person He created me to be.

“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…” (2 Timothy 1:5-6, NIV)

Who are the women and mothers in you?

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

 

Breaking Old Habits

The shrill buzz of an alarm jolted me awake. I sat up in bed, trying to get my bearings on the day. It was still dark outside, and the clock flashed 5:00 AM.

“Oh, yeah, I was going to exercise before work.” Dragging my body to an aerobics class or power-walking after work proved improbable. I excused myself for one reason or another — too tired, too busy with other chores, or too focused on some project I wanted to finish. I pushed exercise lower and lower on the priority list. For the last four weeks, I changed my routine and exercised first thing every morning.

“Maybe not today,” I said for the fourth day in a row. Falling back on the pillow, I pulled the covers over my head, and hoped to claim another hour’s sleep.

Sleep didn’t come. Instead, I lay awake under the comforter, realizing I had drifted away from my new routine. I had slipped into my old habit of skipping exercise when it was too inconvenient or too uncomfortable to make happen.

The author of Hebrews understood the danger of giving up new routines or new beliefs when challenged or enticed by an easier path. Struggling with their new faith, his audience leaned toward a hybrid, a blend of Christ and old religious habits. A compromise of who they were called to be and who they wanted to be. They drifted off course.

We, too, can drift spiritually. We may grow lax in daily time with God when busy. Skim the surface or ignore altogether how a sermon or lesson applies to our daily life. The roots of old habits can run deep, so we create a hybrid faith … one easier to practice and that compromises our desires of the heart with His. We look for solutions and consolation in this world’s words instead of direction in His Words.

So, I threw the covers back and recommitted to starting my day with exercise. I focused on how it re-energized me and gave me a sense of well-being after just 30 minutes. I decided to stay the course.

“It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.” (Hebrews 2:1, The Message)

What helps you shake old habits and stay the course?

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

 

The Potential in Small

“There’s got to be an easier way,” I said, exasperated after six phone calls and four fruitless hours hunting for resources. A typical day in the life of a hospital social worker.

I canvassed every community resource I knew to help a cancer patient pay for a piece of equipment his insurance would not cover. His family was already strapped for dollars since he missed work from the recent hospitalization.

A kernel of an idea sprang to life. If only a fund existed for such cases.

I pitched the suggestion to the hospital administrator who won approval to seed a small pool of dollars. We crafted a brochure — sunflower yellow with summer-grass green lettering. Marketing called it gaudy, but to me it spoke Hope, Life. The Cancer Crisis Fund was born.

With the brochure and an article in the hospital newsletter, the fund took root. Some gave ten dollars. Others, twenty-five. Occasionally a contributor sent $100.

The seed grew into a seedling. The seedling into a tree where patients and families found a moment of relief while flying into storms of chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and challenging side effects. I purchased a walker for one patient, medications for another, and next month’s health care premium for a third. The Cancer Crisis Fund bridged a gap between hospitalization and discharge home where patients and families continued to wage war against disease.

When I left the hospital two years later, Fund had grown to $10,000. Three years later, contributions swelled the fund to a $20,000 California redwood of support and served countless patients.

My lesson …when God is in it, we can never guess — or may never see — how small ideas prompted by His Spirit grow into trees of potential.  How one word of encouragement brings a paragraph of changes to a life. How one simple deed compounds into a wealth of impact.

Consider: What small idea, action or word of encouragement have you seen grow to heights unimagined? Never underestimate what God can do with small.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches. (Matthew 13:31-32, NLT)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

Why?

Why did God allow the Boston Marathon tragedy? The murders of the Kaufman County DA’s and one’s wife? The West explosion and devastation?

Why? sat like an elephant on my heart this week. What would Adam Hamilton say? Two Sundays ago I attended a class based on his book, Why? Making Sense of God’s Will. This week’s events pushed me to reflect on his first chapter again, “Why Do the Innocent Suffer?”  searching  to reconcile faith in a powerful and loving God in a world filled with pain. I gleaned three key points.

1.  When God created us, He gave us dominion over the earth. He said, “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  (Genesis 1:27-28, NIV)

2.  With that dominion came free will, the ability to choose right or wrong. And here’s the point I never considered before … God will not take from us our freedom, nor deliver us from the consequences of our actions or the actions of others. Why? Because it is our free will — or theirs – to choose His path or turn away that makes us human.

3. And that brings us to the final point.  Because of free will, good and evil co-exist in this world. Jesus affirmed that fact in his parable of the weeds (or tares in some versions, Matthew 13:24-29.)  Why? Because we have free will and we are still evolving His kingdom here on earth.

I believe God cries with us at the pain our choices cause. Yet, God will not revoke mankind’s free will, but He promises to deliver us through it. And ” … we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28, NLT)

It has already begun if you consider acts like those of the man in the cowboy hat. The one in Boston, who, broken from his son’s death in Iraq and another son’s suicide, reacted to the bombing by running toward the smoke and saving lives that otherwise may have perished from their wounds.

While I share, like many of you, the grief of this week’s horrific events, I trust that we are still His Easter people.  Out of the rubble, death, and chaos left in the wake of tragedy, our God is still in control, loves us, and will deliver us. This week’s suffering is not His final word.

I trust and believe Him. I must. My very life depends on it.

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged,  for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10, NLT)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

If Only They Would Listen …

Did my words reach them? I mumbled on the way back to my office from presenting to another team. Will my words take root and grow them into effective manager-coaches who bring out potential in others?

The audience greeted me and gave me their attention for ten minutes. Then, despite my preparation and passion for the subject, some listeners retreated. One pushed his chair backwards and closed his eyes. My words fell on the table, never reaching him.

Others stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows, some distant thought or plan choking out the sound of any call to action I suggested. And I noticed some, who leaned forward at first and scribbled notes, now straightened in their chairs and frowned as if their energy for the task before them withered under the heat of a challenging climb to success.

I failed to engage them, I concluded.

The email from their manager came an hour later. “Gloria, thank you for coming to speak with us today. The information you discussed was invaluable. Just in the time it took to walk across the hall after the meeting, there were so many comments about … how they can carry out the information into their next coaching sessions.”

I smiled, realizing that for some, my words landed on fertile ground. They took root. These will blossom into solid managers one day.

Heaven on earth would be everyone paying 100% attention whenever we speak or share our passions. Unfortunately, Jesus predicted that would not always happen. He told the parable of the farmer who sowed his seeds. Not all seed produced. Birds snatched the seeds that fell along the path. Those that fell on rocks grew but with shallow roots, so they withered and died in the sun. Other seeds fell among thorns, which choked the plants to death.

The only seeds to produce crops were those that fell on fertile soil. Soil tilled, watered, fertilized.

Did my words reach them? As I consider different soils on which my words may fall, I expect not everyone will listen. Not everyone will hear.

And, lest I get too smug about those who missed my message, I must walk to the other side of the table and ask myself, which soil am I today?

Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown…the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understand it. He produces… (Matthew 13:8, 23, NIV)

 

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

How Do You Get Rid of Weeds?

“Give it up,” Jim suggested in the middle of my back-breaking, muscle straining weed pulling. “We’ll fertilize and the grass will choke the weeds.”

“You’re just being lazy and don’t want to help me.” Sarcasm and sweat dripped off my brow as I uprooted another intruder.

 After Jim disappeared into the garage, the next door neighbor chased his two-year old down the side-walk to where I squatted and dug in the dirt.

“Weeds, huh?” he commented. “We had that problem, too, when we first moved in. We let the grass choke them out.” I peered around the neighbor’s  two-year old and envied his weedless lawn.

“Yeah, I heard that somewhere.” Five buckets of johnsongrass and henbit later, I broke for lunch. Wanting also to justify my time and effort,  I grabbed my gardening bible, Neil Sperry’s Complete Guide to Texas Gardening. In the middle of page 264, the lawn prophet wrote, Even the best lawns have weeds. They’re as inevitable in Texas landscapes and gardens as dry soil and bugs.

So, how do I get rid of the weeds? I read the most common question.

Sperry’s answer, For starters, don’t pull them.

He followed with a list of possible weed killers, and ended his advice on page 269, Rule of Green Thumb: The best weed killers of all may be a bag of lawn fertilizer and a functioning lawn sprinkler. Vigorous turf discourages weeds. Translation … healthy grass can choke out weeds. Dang.

Weeds are inevitable. Not just in lawns, but in God’s kingdom here on earth. Murders, robberies, cheating, and threats of nuclear attacks  … the news pummels our senses every day with the weeds of society … the roots of which lie within our human, self-centered hearts. Weeds like pride, prejudice, fear, and selfishness.

So, how do we get rid of the weeds? Jesus offered Neil Sperry’s same advice in a parable. A farmer planted good seed, but the enemy sowed weeds among the wheat. The servants asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?” The farmer replied, “No, you might root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together. At the harvest I will separate the weeds and burn them.”

So, as I scan my neighbor’s lawn, I know weeds must lurk even there. Because weeds are inevitable. And, I decide to follow His advice. To feed, water, and mow the grasses of my soul and enable vigorous turf. One that chokes out weeds with good seed. The rest, I’ll have to leave to God’s harvest and purpose.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, … The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” “No,” he answered. “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matthew 13:24-25, 28-30, NIV)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

A Stitch in Time

It began as a failed guitar lesson. “You’ll make a better quilter than guitar picker,” Mama Walker said after an unsuccessful lesson in guiding my six year-old fingers across wire strings and frets on her guitar. “C’mon. I’ll show you how.”

My grandmother, mom’s mother, led me to a corner of the middle room in her East Dallas shotgun-styled home. On a chair lay a pile of scrap fabrics — a mix of florals, geometrics, stripes, and calicoes.

“Pick what you like,” she waved her hand toward the material. For the next two hours, I cut 4″x4″ squares using the pattern Mama Walker fashioned from the cover of a steno pad.

“You’re done with the first step,” she commented while peering over my head and drying her hands on a dish towel thrown over her shoulder. “Time to sew blocks together. I’ll show you how.” Mama Walker motioned me to the seat of honor.  The one in front of her trestle sewing machine. The machine from which aprons, bonnets, dresses, and quilts magically formed.

“This way,” she instructed. “Solids against prints. Three to a row. Then three rows to make a nine-square block. Here, you can do it.” I plopped in the chair by her sewing machine and pumped the pedal. The machine whirred to life. My confidence grew with each rise and fall of the needle to the rhythm of my foot.

“Slow down. Don’t hurry,” Mama Walker cautioned when my foot speed increased and the needle ate fabric faster than I could match seams. By dinner time I stacked enough squares at my feet to cover my twin bed. Mama Walker declared my part done. Over the next month and with hands gnarled by arthritis, she pieced my fabric blocks together, quilted the top, and finished the raw edges.

I fingered the now-worn quilt retrieved from the bottom of my quilt box. Close up, I noticed non-squared squares and uneven stitches. I eyed telltale holes where I ripped apart seams after discovering a right side sewn to a wrong side of fabric. I spied traces of knotted thread where my erratic foot rhythm on the trestle tensed the spool of twine feeding the needle.

Yet, when I looked at the quilt from across the room, mistakes disappeared. A shabby chic topper remained, its beauty in its vintage look. Its perfection in its not-so-perfectly assembled pattern. And I smile in awe of Mama Walker. How she guided my hands, stitched together my misshapen squares, and fashioned them into something useful.

Like God. Who, through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, perfected the not-so-perfectly assembled blocks of my life. The same God who still finds a way, in time, to stitch a vintage beauty out of the mistakes and knotted threads of my choices.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you….” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

The Final Call

“This is United Airways flight #2532 to Charlotte. Final call. Charlotte passengers Rogers, Kimble, and Turner, please report to gate A11 immediately for boarding or your seats will be given away. The doors of this aircraft will close in three minutes and will not reopen. Final call.”

Sitting two gates down, I glanced around the terminal and watched for Rogers, Kimble or Turner to storm the check-in desk at A11. No one approached.

With the urgency of John the Baptist, the airline agent again beckoned his lost travelers to the gate, raising his voice to emphasize the words, “… will close … will not reopen … Final call.”

Three minutes passed, and no one approached the United Airways agent. He handed the tickets for Rogers, Kimble, and Turner to three unnamed standbys, who rushed onto the jet way without looking back. Then, the agent shut the door.

What happened to Rogers, Kimble, and Turner? Did something delay them or did they change their minds about going?

Ten bridesmaids waited for the bridegroom. According to Jesus’ story, when the call rang out at midnight that the bridegroom approached, five bridesmaids were ready with lamps and oil. The other five were not. By the time the unprepared bridesmaids rushed to town to purchase more oil, it was too late. The door to the wedding party was shut and would not reopen. (Matthew 25:1-13)

Christ wants us to be ready when he returns.

And, with the same urgency of the airline agent, he commissions us to work wherever and in whatever capacity God calls us to spread His good news. While the plane is still at the gate. Before the door shuts. Before the final call.

Consider the last words Jesus spoke before he ascended into heaven …

He said to them:”It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8, NIV)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

What’s going on when nothing’s going on?

Was my good fortune about to die? My lucky bamboo plant looked un-lucky. The third yellow leaf in as many weeks appeared overnight on the thank you gift. After the first one, I moved it closer to the window. After the second, I watered it with distilled water instead of tap which carries too much chlorine.

Still, once emerald leaves turned lime green. I googled, “care of lucky bamboos.” The website listed everything I had done … almost.

Bright light but not direct sun.  It’s on the floor by a window … check.

Use distilled water … doing it.

Keep moist. Don’t let it dry out … check? Uhhhhh, ooops. Rocks around the shoots hid the fact that the plant’s water evaporated faster than I realized.

Unfortunately, my lucky bamboo got an unlucky brown thumb for an owner. I shared my tale of woe with another, “I guessed I killed it.”

They said, “Maybe not. Did you know that bamboo need care and water for three to five years before they take off and grow?”

“No, I didn’t realize that.”

“Why, yes. If you give up on it as dead, then it will die. But, perhaps it’s just trying to establish its root system and prepare for supporting the great heights your plant will ultimately grow. Give it a little more time before you give up on it.”

Jesus told a parable about a man who owned a fig tree. He nurtured his tree for three years, but it never bore fruit. In frustration, the man demanded, “Cut it down!” The keeper of his vineyard protested,

Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down. (Luke 13:8-9, NIV)

The scripture doesn’t say what happened to that fig tree. I believe it bore fruit. And I wonder, how many times have I given up on a goal or dream just before it was about to bear fruit? How many times have I turned away from something or someone or some situation, believing there was no use to try any more after so many fruitless efforts?  How many times have I just “cut it down?” when all it needed was more time.

So, I return to my lucky bamboo. While I can’t see what’s going on below the surface, I encourage it with indirect sunlight and fresh, distilled water two to three times a week. And I wait. I believe with the right care and time, it will grow.

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.

The Way

Traffic halted on both sides of the narrow street. Before I reached the exit from my neighborhood, I joined the line of cars braking to a full stop.

Eleven white geese followed in the footsteps of a wild Canadian goose. Right into the middle of the street, they waddled and wound their way through the stopped cars. I guess they forgot to walk to the corner, then look both ways before crossing.

The lead goose was twice the others’ size, and he set the pace. With his head held high and eyes focused straight ahead, he honked twice and marched forward. The remaining eleven followed in a perfect line, each one equally spaced behind the next. Each one keeping the lead’s tempo like military recruits marching to the mess hall. Or kindergartners following their teacher, holding on to their ring knotted into a rope, heading for the playground.

When the last goose crossed and stepped onto the sidewalk, the cars paused for a ten count, watching God’s creatures follow their leader down the hill and into the waiting pond for a morning swim.

As we each pressed the gas pedal to ease forward to our destinations, every driver I passed had the same broad grin as mine. We glanced toward the pond, smiling at God’s creatures following their leader in perfect rhythm together.

Our day started with a message from God. As hints of doubt about direction wormed their way into my mind, there God was, orchestrating His message. Keep following The Leader across the streets and through the valleys. Let Me set the direction. Let Me set the pace.

I can trust He will guide me safely through the journey. He knows the way. He is The Way.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6, NIV)

©2013 Gloria Ashby. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail.