Liz's Letters

Adam's girlfriend, Thien , made it to Texas this week. (she is the one on the far left) It is fun to watch both of "my boys" interact with their girlfriends. I have a friend who recently said to me that she is praying that all our boys will turn out to be good guys...as in good men to the women they marry. She also has two sons about the same ages as mine and we concluded that so far, so good. As I watch my now adult sons as they court these two young ladies, I see that they are caring and respectful toward their girlfriends. Adam clearly enjoys sharing his joys with Thien and is very considerate of her and the way she feels. Aaron is loyal to Amy, protecting her and respecting her thoughts and feelings. It is a wonderful thing as a mother to look at these two grown men and remember them as my baby boys. They are grown up, they are now my men. They are good guys, good men, and good boyfriends. They will make good husbands, when the time comes. I am so proud of both of ...

And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised. -Colette Hmmm. When I first read this, it stopped me in my tracks. I thought, the last person that I would want to make friends with is someone that I despise. Eeewww! The thought of this being delightful was more than my mind could comprehend. But as I gave it more thought, I realized, yes, I can see this as being a delight. If I actually despise someone, I must actually care deeply for them. If I despise them, most likely I have invested a lot of energy into this person, but unfortunately it has been negative. But, if I did not care about them, I would not have invested any time at all. If I respond to this person in my natural self, sometimes the negative energy becomes almost an obsession. It can consume my time, gnawing at my self-esteem and taking my focus off of what really matters. But, with God's help, there can be one moment of lightening like change; a moment of release from the bonds of o...

This Christmas season seems to have barrelled through my life, challenging me to keep my focus on the birth of my Savior, on love, and on family and friends. It started with my father-in-law being diagnosed with cancer just days after the Thanksgiving holiday. My husband has had to travel back and forth to Tulsa, our hometown, to help with care giving and to spend time with his father. His absence has been difficult for him and for me, but an absolute necessity in regards to love and responsibility. We traveled to Virginia for our son's graduation right after Fred's dad's surgery and right before he began his chemotherapy treatments. It was stressful to leave at such a crucial time and then the traveling weather was horrible due to the winter storms that were making their way across the nation at the time we were driving. The graduation was fabulous, and it was great to bring our son home for the holiday season, but it was difficult to focus on the peace of the seas...

Prayer. It works. That is the first real truth about God that I understood when I first asked Him into my life. When I was first checking Him out, and checking out the people who said that they believed in God (and even NEEDED Him...interesting thought for me prior to my relationship with Him), I saw things happen in the lives of these different people that I knew who called themselves "Christians". I watched my father-in-law become well when the doctors said he would probably die, I saw a friend of mine manage a family situation that I thought would certainly tear her family apart. I watched another friend stand beside her father (and my then pastor) as he was pushed out of his pastorate for no reason, and remain loving and caring toward the people in that congregation. God keeps His distance from the wicked, He closely attends to the prayers of God-loyal people. Proverbs 15:29 Provision. He has never let us down. Finances have not always been easy for my husband and m...

The countdown is nearing the end. I have been counting the days until our oldest son, Adam, graduates from Virginia Tech! I started counting in August of 2002, when we dropped him off and left him in that stinky, noisy, all boys dormatory on campus. As my husband and I walked down the hallway to go back to our car, I could hear Adam's new roommate's loud music echoing profanity from his computer. I walked, stiff as a soldier, trying to keep as much composure as possible, as tears rolled down my cheeks and we left our first born child in that crazy place to get an education! The mommy in me wanted to go back and tell his roommate to turn off the music, and while he was at it, he could take down the poster of the band members in thier underwear! But, I left the two of them in that dorm, puttering around and probably excited to finally be alone in this new world of college, and dorms, and freedom, and loud, unmonitored music. I have to admit, I did call about 15 minutes down the r...

Since I started keeping this blog, there have been a lot of comments made to me about my writing. Almost all of them have been positive, most of them complimenting my ability to put my thoughts to words. I am a little embarrassed by these compliments, but I take them with a thank you. It does make me think about writing. Why do I love to write? I could write all day long if I had something to write about. And when I do have something to write about, there is an urgency in my brain to get it down on paper (or web). Some people don't like to write. They think it is difficult and I tell them it is easy...just talk. I usually type out one of these blogs in 10 minutes or so. They come together quickly since the thought has already been born. I don't always know where they will go, but there is usually a theme, or a message, or even just the need to get something off my chest. Writing is cool. My grandmother was an English teacher. If I remember right, one of the subjects...

Recently, I was talking with a friend of mine who is on the verge of becoming a Christ follower. We were talking about the Bible, tossing around different reasons of why we read it, how we read it, and the different ways of applying it to our life. She mentioned that some of what she had read seemed like just stories, and wondered what the purpose to that was. I had the opportunity to share with her that God recorded these stories for us to read so that we could learn from other people's examples. She noticed that he was descriptive, he told who the person was, often times, calling them by name and where they lived. We discussed how it is helpful to read about the ways that other people succeeded in their walk with God. It is encouraging and gives us goals to strive for. Then we began to talk about the stories that didn't seem to go so well. Some of them end up being good, like King David and his horrible choices with Bathsheba. Or Peter and his denial of Christ. But some of th...

It seems that I have had several opportunities lately to really appreciate the man that I married. We have been together for over 27 years. Yes, we were but babes when we started dating. Even though I would not change a thing about how and when we met, the fact that we were only 18 and 21 when we fell in love has added to some of the challenges that we have faced over the years. I did not believe all the advise that was thrown our way about the difficulties that couples face when committing to one another at ages so young. I felt that I was quite mature and knew what I was getting into. Well, it wasn't exactly what I imagined and it has been a little difficult at times. Now, here is where the appreciation really comes into place. I realize now that many of the difficulties that we faced were brought on by my own immaturity. Me?? Immature? I wouldn't have thought so 27 years ago! But I had some ideas in my head about husbands that my immature self couldn't seem to find in th...

I LOVE LIFE!!!!!! I love Christmas time! I love my family! and friends!

My daughter and one of her best friends have had a few conflicts (over 8th grade sort of stuff) the last couple of weeks. They are both good at working through these conflicts, but they are a little worn out from all the drama. Tonight, they wrote a treaty. I ran across an unsigned copy and found it entertaining and worth sharing. At any age, here are some things that should be agreed upon between friends. Peace Treaty of the B.F.F.L.'s Number One: Never get mad at each other without laying down all the facts and getting each other's point of view. Number Two: There is no reason to get mad at somebody if they don't wait for you. Just catch up! If they ask you to though, that is a different story. Number Three: Never cancel each other's plans or overlap them with something else. Write them down if you have to! Number Four: Never talk about each other to anybody behind anybody's back. If you do, it cannot be serious: it will have to be an innocent joke. Number...

' Tis the season for gift giving. In my last post, I commented that I would strive to give gifts out of love, not entitlement. So, I have been thinking about the people that I love, the gifts that I think they will love, and even about those people who don't have anyone to love or it seems no one loves them. The nursing home resident's gift went out today. Rebecca proudly carried it to the drop off location at our church this morning. And as I signed on to my computer this evening, she was standing over my shoulder as I read an email about a family that my Home Team is adopting for Christmas. Our agreed amount to spend per family is $125.00 and when Rebecca read that, she exclaimed, "Wow! That's a lot of money!" So, I had another opportunity to share with her about how fortunate we are and how so many people cannot even pay their bills, much less think about buying gifts for their children. She thought this over and agreed with the amount that we were givin...