Photo Memories

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Lynn

Now that our adult children are living on their own, I have felt the need to claw back the space that they once occupied in our home.  It is amazing how much we have accumulated in the 23 years we have lived here on The Ponderosa (the name we chose for our homestead just north of Cochrane, AB., Canada) – Kudo’s to Bonanza!  My kids, bless their hearts, are all minimalist when it comes to decorating their own homes, but that’s only because most of their “stuff” is still being stored here!  *sigh*

So, for the past two months I have gone on a purge of epic proportions, to get rid of, donate or sell stuff we haven’t used in years.  As stated in my last post, it hasn’t always been easy to get rid of things but now I feel like I’ve made huge strides in reclaiming back our space.  It also includes boxing up my kid’s items to drop off at their minimalist homes in the near future.  Fair warning kids!

One of the most pleasant chores over this past month has been my going through boxes of family memorabilia.  I’ve saved a lot of precious “stuff” that my children have made for me, and now I’ve got another box started with Grandbaby things.  I know it’s silly, but as a Mom, I just can’t let go of those sentimental things.  My kids think it’s gross, but I’ve saved their baby teeth.  Am I the only Mom who’s done that?  I don’t think so.  My mother-in-law saved my husband’s beard when he shaved it off before joining the army.  Now that’s gross!

As I started the gargantuan task of sorting through our family pictures, at times I smiled, cried or laughed out loud at the memories and emotion each photo evoked in me.  My kids are right, I take WAY too many pictures, but it is so worth it to see our family history come alive in pictures.  Pictures do indeed speak a thousand words, and bring back thousands of memories!  I have noted that this current “selfie” generation of millennials snap pictures and post them for instant gratification and “likes”.  They seem to think that their Snapchats or Instagram photos don’t have any real staying power.  They don’t make photo albums other than what can be stored on their smart phones or downloaded onto Facebook.  Some photos may haunt them later,…I keep telling young people NOT to post pictures of themselves doing things that they wouldn’t want their grandmother to see.  Am I right?  Not so with these thousands of photos I have taken over these many, many years.  My next project is to scan all my photographs and make digital photo albums.  That task alone may take me a lifetime to complete based on my picture-taking prowess, but it will be a labour of love, because my pictures commemorate the Dove family from birth to adulthood and provide a testimony of God’s provision and faithfulness to us throughout those years.

There is something particularly poignant looking at pictures and remembering the kids as babies, toddlers and children.  Taking photos at sporting events, concerts, Christmas pageants, birthday parties, holidays and all the zaniness associated with raising three very active teenagers.  Then there are the professional photos of their graduations, weddings and the first snapshots of my grandbabies.  Even as I am writing, the tears well up in my eyes as I think of how fast the time has flown by.  I don’t get to photograph my children as much now that they are adults, but I “steal” their pictures from Facebook once in a while and store them away in files on my computer.  It’s not nearly as satisfying for me because I am not there in person when some pictures are taken of them, but that’s what happens when kids grow up, and grow away.

Still, I won’t stop taking pictures as long as there are future memories to be made and smiles to be captured.  I love this quote I saw on Pinterest: “Life is a collection of photographs and memories, and we are the container that holds them.”  As a memory container, my heart will never be full.

 

 

 

 

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Purging “Stuff”

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Lynn

Over the past few weeks I have been busily purging “stuff” from my home.  It’s been quite a process!  I inherited quite a bit of my mother’s china and décor items when she passed away many years ago.  Then I inherited more from my Dad, and most recently from my in-laws.  Not to mention, over these many years I’ve amassed my own collection of “stuff”.  I’ve told my kids and my sweet husband to please not buy me anymore things that I need to dust!

So I’ve been de-cluttering the house of “stuff”.  Some people have even asked if we are moving because I’ve tried to sell a lot of my stuff online.  No worries friends!  So far God has not given us a go-ahead to leave the Ponderosa yet!  Instead, I have been going through boxes, closets and cupboards and basically weeding out items that I haven’t used for years and are just dust collectors.  It hasn’t been easy.  We live in a throw-away society but I have really struggled to let go of some things.  There is a lot of sentimental value associated with some items.  For example, my dear mother-in-law started me on my collection of Royal Albert tea cups and china ware.  It pains me to see them on display but unused in my china cabinet.  I dust them faithfully, but the sad reality is that I don’t even like tea!

Stuff.

It clutters up my space.  I hang onto it, because it has been a part of my life for so long.  I have to let it go…

But, it’s so hard to let go!

Oswald Chamber’s words struck me to the core the other day while reading “My Utmost for His Highest” Daily devotional:

“Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption.  In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin.  God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin.  The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but it is when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation.”  (Oct. 5)

Sin.

It clutters up my space.  I hang onto it, because it has been a part of my life for so long.  I have to let it go…

But, it’s so hard to let go!

I find with sin, like with my china tea cups, there is a kind of sentimentality involved with hanging onto it.  I have become far too accustomed to it that there is almost a feeling of comfort surrounding it.  Why, there are even memories associated with it!  I don’t even realize that sin is there anymore.  I’ve tucked it away in the cluttered, secret closet of my soul, and I have become so accustomed to its presence in my life, that it has become part of my inner décor.  Over time however, the dust accumulates and begins to affect every area of my life.  Unfortunately, the longer I hold on to it, the harder it is to let go of sin.  I only realize the grip it has on me when I think about what would happen without it.  That’s the turning point.  Keep it, or let it go!  This is not a simple effort.  Sin is inherited.  I was born with it.  It requires seeing sin for what it is, useless, and destructive to my well-being.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23)

“Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.” (Oct. 7)

“Jesus Christ rehabilitated the human race.  He put it back to where God designed it to be, and anyone can enter into union with God on the ground of what Our Lord has done on the Cross.  A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God’s “bit”, it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action.  A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life”  Oswald Chambers

That conscious determination only comes once I realize that I need redeeming and I consciously say, “Yes!” to Christ so He alone can purge the stranglehold of sin upon me.

Let go and let God!

 

 

 

 

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Is Prayer Enough?

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Lynn

No doubt my response to the past week’s senseless violence in the States and Canada is much the same as any individual’s: shock and horror.  A graphic video from Edmonton shows a young man run over and then stab a police officer repeatedly.  That this brutality has occurred in my home province seems too unreal to believe.  Thankfully, the officer and the other four victims this man careened into with a van, are recovering in hospital.  Still, it is disturbing that even in our seemingly peaceful land, we are not immune to radicalized terrorism.

On Sunday, a deranged man, opened fire on a crowd of people gathered in Las Vegas to hear a country music concert.  He fired nearly a thousand rounds from semi-automatic rifles from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and killed 58 and left over 500 people wounded.  It is the single largest mass shooting in American history…for now.  No one truly understands why someone would perpetrate such a heinous crime, but perhaps President Trump said it best, that the shooting was “an act of pure evil“.

Whenever tragedy strikes, we ask whether or not this could have been prevented.  Certainly, there will be many professionals, politicians, celebrities and many, many more who will be outspoken in their opinions.  The sad and universal truth is that no matter what authorities do to try to prevent shootings and acts of terrorism from happening, evil will not be thwarted by OUR doings.  Only God can prevail against evil.

A question posed on Twitter forced me to respond.

In a country as deeply divided on gun control and the right to bear arms as the U.S., this question cannot be easily answered using 140 characters on Twitter!  I am adamantly opposed to civilians, being able to purchase a firearm (rifle or handgun) that fires in bursts multiple rounds of ammunition with the pull of a trigger.  Those types of weapons should be for military use only.  Having said that, I truly think that most gun owners in the States and Canada are responsible, law-abiding citizens, who carry licenses and have been trained in the safety and handling of their weapons.  The point I’m making is that those responsible gun owners: hunters, gun enthusiasts, and home owners, who feel the need to protect themselves and their property by owning a gun, do not have need for a weapon that fires dozens of rounds of ammo in seconds!  Am I right?

Unfortunately because “pure evil” seems to be the motivator in these acts of violence, if a person is set on shooting someone, or purposely running into a crowd of people with a vehicle, chances are that person will find the means to do so regardless of any imposed gun control or any other security restrictions.  Limiting a lunatic’s access to guns that only fire one or two rounds before needing to be reloaded, may cut down on the numbers of victims but it does not negate the agony and heartache to the victims or the families and friends impacted by these acts of pure evil.

There has been much negative conversation on social media about those who are “praying” for the victims and families as if that activity is useless in itself.  Jimmy Kimmel, late-night talk show host said, “”Your thoughts and prayers are insufficient.” and went on to expound on the need for gun control legislation and called out politicians and others who opposed it.  Then he made an interesting observation: “It feels like someone has opened a window into hell,” he said.

I do agree that a window to hell has been opened, it has in fact been opened since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.  Up to that point, man and woman walked in close fellowship with God.  Their disobedience caused a separation from God and sin was loosed upon the world.  “Pure Evil” in all its forms has plagued man ever since, but the most effective means given to us to thwart the plans of “pure evil” is ongoing and persistent PRAYER.  Any nation that chooses to ignore God, abandon Biblical values, and persist in rebellion against God will suffer the wrath of “pure evil” because no one is standing in the gap against it.  Bible-believing prayer warriors know that we are in a spiritual battle with the enemy (Satan) everyday, knowing that he “prowls around like a roaring lion, waiting for someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8

The fact is that wickedness is running rampant in our two countries and around the world because we have abandoned God and allowed all manner of sin and evil to corrupt us so we may propagate more evil.  We fail to acknowledge that there is only One Who can completely and utterly destroy pure evil…God!  “The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”  1 John 3:8

Jesus can change the hearts and minds of all peoples to live in peaceful harmony with one another. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  John 10:10  THAT is what we should be praying for!  Pray that all peoples would come to salvation through Christ, become disciples, and then join Him to make more disciples, by submitting to the authority of God.  “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  James 4:7

Only when people turn from the wicked ways and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, will we see these acts of pure evil lessen and eventually stop altogether.   “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  1 Chronicles 7:14 

Keep praying!  It is our greatest weapon against evil.  It is not insufficient, or insignificant.  It is life changing!  When we pray in faith, scripture tells us that whatever we pray for will come to pass.  “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  Mark 11:24

Pray for peace, pray for unity, pray for revival!  Only through prayer will we see “pure evil” defeated once and for all!

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.   And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.”  Matthew 16:15-18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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