Gray Hairs and Grace

 

I looked in the mirror this morning, and those silver streaks peeked back at me.  Oh how I once hated those.  Gray hairs, the confirmation of aging, I had hoped would wait a few more years.  But here I am, at 45, with the silvery streaks, along with other well worn signs of againg.  

I no longer detest these signs.  I've been given longer to trod this earth than many.  Through these years, I've seen and done quite a bit--some good, some bad, some mediocre.  I've earned the marks of aging.  It is solely by God's grace that I've made it this far.  Left to my own devices, I'd have been gone many years ago.  

As my temples turn one day at a time from the medium brown with reddish highlights to the silvery strands we call gray, I at times look back and replay memories.  Those days of young adulthood when a road trip on the spur of the moment was the highlight, with a cassette of 90's country playing in the car, windows down, and travelling anywhere I felt like, paper atlas book beside me just in case.  Those days are long gone, but the flicker of memory brings a smile.  Then reality returns, and I run the brush through my hair and pull it back away from my face, to prepare for the day.  Oh, I could cover the strands with a coloring dye, but underneath that gray is still there and the root would eventually show its truth.  

I am so thankful for God's grace, how wonderfully He's taken care of me.  For all the things I've been through in life, I never really dreamed I'd make it this far to earn those grays.  He has been so good to me.  As the hymn by Julia Johnston reads:  

 "Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!

 Have you found His marvelous grace?  If not, I'd be happy to show you how you can have His grace in your life.  Without His grace, His love, I wouldn't be here.  My family wouldn't be here.  I'm grateful each day for it.  

If You Only Knew How Much You Are Loved

If you knew someone loved you so much they'd die for you...would you love them back? 

If you knew someone paid for your debts, all of them, what would you do?

Would you turn away from them?  Would you run to them?

Someone DID pay for your debts.  Someone DID pay for your sins.  And...someone DID die for you.

Jesus.  He did it all. 

He paid your penalties, your debts, all that you owe for your wrong doings. 

Without Jesus, you are dead in your trespasses, your sins.  Your sin debt keeps getting deeper with no way out. 

With Jesus, you are sin debt is erased, washed away, forgotten as if you'd never sinned. 

He loves you that much...He left His glory in heaven to come down to earth, as a lowly carpenter's son, and lived a sinless life.  No one else could do that.  He experienced hunger and thirst, love, anger, hurt, sorrow, and all the other feelings we feel.  He knew His ending on earth, yet He came.  He knew He'd be crucified for teaching and preaching the Word of God.  He knew He'd die a horrible death between two criminals, the most excrutiatingly painful and lowest of deaths, but He still came.  He allowed Himself to die at the hands of men...

Why?

Because He loves you and me that much. 

If you only knew how much you are loved...  You'd love Him too.  You'd come to Him in faith, ask Him to take your sins and give you forgiveness and a home in Heaven with Him.  You'd read His Word, preserved through the years in written form, and learn more of Him.  You'd know you are loved beyond all measure, by the One who loves us all so much He gave up His life on earth. 

But--that's not all He did out of love for you and me...  He rose again!  He rolled the stone away, arose from the tomb, and walked among men again.  He defeated death and hell, out of his love for you.  He did it for you.  For me.  For everyone.

If you only knew how much you are loved, you'd seek Jesus and find the peace He gives when you trust Him.  You'd find that He is the only Rock to lean on, that He is the only One who can give you strength when you have none, peace in the midst of the worst storms, and a sense of belonging when you're beyond lonely. 

What does He ask of you? 

Faith.  Trust.  Belief on Him to do as He says He will do.  Trusting Him to lead you as your Lord and Savior. 

Do you have to accept His love and sacrifice?  No.  It is absolutely your decision.  Jesus does not force Himself on you, me, or anyone else.  That's not how He works.  He waits for you, with loving arms open for you.  Many choose not to accept the love, peace, salvation He offers, but they lose out on the best of this life and the next.  You have that choice as long as you are on this side of the grave--you absolutely can choose to take Jesus up on His offer.  It is never too late while you're alive! 

No matter what you have done, no matter how low you've fallen, Jesus loves you!  He knows our deepest of secrets and loves us anyway!  Isn't that amazing??  You absolutely cannot have done anything or do anything that He hasn't seen or doesn't know about.  With Him, there are no secrets, and no matter the worst we've done, He still loves us.  Hard to believe isn't it? 

I'd be glad to help you, if you'd like to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  I'd love to have you as a sister (or brother) in Christ!  It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, or your past...I'd love to have you as a sibling in Christ!


Who is Good?
"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.  There is none, that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one."  (Romans 3:10-12)

Who Has Sinned?
"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"  (Romans 5:12)

What Is The Eternal Cost of Your Sin?
"For the wages of sin is death..."  (Romans 6:23)
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men..." (Romans 1:18)

You Cannot Save Yourself
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight..." (Romans 3:20)
"Where is boasting then?  It is excluded.  By what law?  of works?   Nay: but by the law of faith."  (Romans 3:27)

God's Love Has Provided The Way!
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."  (Romans 5:8-9)

You Must Place Your Complete Faith in Jesus Christ
"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering:  not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"  (Romans 2:4)
"Even the righteousness of god which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."  (Romans 3:22)
"Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."  (Romans 3:28)
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)

Do You Believe That Jesus Christ Alone Can Save You?
The Bible states, "And being fully persuaded that, what he (God) had promised, he was able also to perform."  (Romans 4:21)

Here is God's Promise to You:
"...if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:"  (Romans 4:24-5:1)

Pray Now And Ask Him To Save You!
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."  (Romans 10:10)

If you will accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, please pray this prayer or one similar to it with all of you heart:  "Dear God, I admit I am a sinner, going to hell.  I know that I cannot save myself.  I turn from my sins and put my faith in the blood that you shed for me on the cross to pay for all my sins.  I now accept you as my Saviour and trust you to take me to heaven.  Thank you for saving me.  Amen."

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Romans 10:13)

New Year, New Dreams

It's now 2020, and to me it seems like maybe 2000.  Where have all the years gone?  I'm still thinking 20 years ago was 1980's! 

Ah, growing old, it's not for the faint of heart, and not everyone gets to do it.  I'm blessed to make it this far.  My body doesn't believe that, but I know it's true. 

This year, I've started something I haven't done in years.  Writing.  Not blog writing, but prayer journal type writing.  This doesn't make me holier than thou or better than anyone else by any means...it's just a way of expressing to the Lord the prayers of my heart.  Years ago, I loved writing stories and penning descriptions of the world around me.  I'd write descriptions of the rural life on the farm in northern Missouri, with details of just about everything.  I took 35mm pictures of everything in the countryside, which now would seem rather boring to most, but at the time really helped my descriptions. 

Anyway, I don't know about you, but I seem to have prayer ADD.  I get distracted so easily when I pray.  Sometimes it's one of the kids needing attention.  Other times it may be hubby wanting something.  Often times it's my own thoughts interrupting.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this.  I'm finding that writing down prayers, thoughts, hymns, poems, etc, help me to focus on my time with the Lord.  The Lord deserves my undivided attention, and I feel guilty when I don't give it to Him. 

Something new in my little world here I'm trying out as well is something that our church's associate pastor's wife spoke to me about.  That would be doing devotionals straight out of the Bible, with no extra books besides a Strong's and/or dictionary.  We use KJV, and I admit some of the words are a bit harder to grasp, but that's what the Strong's Concordance and dictionary are for...to expand understanding and learn the words the way they were penned years ago.  I enjoy going deeper and learning more, about the background of what was going on during the times each book was written and the context of the verses.  Now, I don't have a college degree nor am I scholar, but learning is still very much enjoyable.  It is amazing, at least to me, to realize something "new" to me, sitting right there in black and white, that had been there all the long.  It's like finding a diamond laying right out in the middle of the page and not seeing it before. 

I'm also finding that there's inexpensive books on Kindle that are amazing for learning history of Jews and Israel in general and other areas during Bible times.  It is very nice to read a bit and learn what the culture was like in different areas, what customs were, how people lived, what they believed and how they worshipped, and so on.  Seeing the different people groups' histories during the Bible times really opens up my eyes to the Bible and how each writer saw things during their times.  I've found some books on Kindle for as low as 99 cents, that are easily 500 pages, full of information.  Ok, it may be dull reading to some, but I absolutely love it.  Yep--I'm a nerd 😀.

This year I've got into the "word for the year".  Mine is prayer.  I need to step up my prayer life.  There's things my body just isn't doing well anymore, but I can be a prayer warrior.  I have seen prayers answered in ways unimaginable, and know prayer works.  I want to be known at the throne for praying so much that everyone in heaven says "she's baaaaaaaaaaack".  There's many prayer warriors here in our church alone that I look up to, I want to join among their ranks. 

What is your goal for this year?  I'd love to hear yours! 

Feel free to comment and share with everyone!  :)

Praise His Name

Lately I've been humming this song a lot. It speaks to my heart, and I think it'll speak to yours too....

When you’re up against the wall And your mountain seems so tall And you realize life’s not always fair You can run away n hide Let the old man decide You can change your circumstances with a prayer Chorus When everything falls apart Praise his name When you have a broken heart Just raise your hands and say Lord you all I need Your everything to me And you take the pain away When it seems your all alone Praise his name When u feel, you can’t go on Just raise your hands and say Greater is he that is within me You can praise the hurt away If you just praise his name Bridge Ohhh You can overcome by the blood of the lamb And by the word of your testimony You’ll see the darkness go As your faith begins to grow You’re not alone So How can you be lonely

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A Beautiful Day In The Lord!

From 23rd Day

It is a cooler today than it has been, and I'm grateful.  I'm absolutely ready for fall, cooler weather, changing leaves, open windows and cool breezes, etc.  It's been a rainy day, and for most that is a dreary, "blah" type day.

It's a beautiful day in the Lord regardless!  No matter how bad it looks outside, no matter how much joint pain kicks up, it's a beautiful day.

I've spent the day with the kids, as well as working on baby items for my shop.  Today it is baby skirts in newborn sizes, using little 5" squares in coordinated colors.

I have several diaper covers in sizes small to large cut and ready to sew up too, in all different colors and prints.  I'll be adding these to the shop as soon as I get them sewn up.

I've been working on a stand alone shop away from Etsy, at  www.the-alabaster-box-attire.square.site.  At some point I'll probably give it a custom domain, but so far I'm playing with it and getting items sewn to add in before doing much.  It's through Square, which is a credit/debit card/Point of Sale/etc processor.  This has had the most..."right"...feel, no pressure, no pushing to hurry up, nothing forced.  It feels like I'm where I should be.  I've been a little concerned since reading where Garlands of Grace (a headcovering shop on Etsy and a stand alone shop) was blocked on Etsy for their biblical stance.  As a Bible believing Christian, I wonder how much longer those of us who also stand on Bible beliefs will be allowed on Etsy.  We are being removed from other sites already as it is.  But, God is bigger and will take care of His own, right?

I hope you have a great Saturday, and I'll be seeing you again soon!

**hugs**

Angie

Growing Gray Gracefully

I'll be honest, I never thought I'd make it to my current age.  I've done so much in my past, I was sure I'd not make it past 23 or 24.  Gray hairs were never a part of my future.

Those little sparkles of silver are showing themselves quite well in my darker brown hair.  The temples are becoming silver and white, little white streaks are starting to show up in other parts of the hair too.

At first I tried covering them with dye.  Honestly, to me it's too much work to constantly dye over it.  I'm a low maintenance person, it's just not my thing.

Hubby has a full head of silver now, and he tells everyone he had his hair professionally highlighted that way!!  LOL!!  He once had solid black wavy hair thanks to his Cuban roots.

I've decided that we've earned these gray hairs.  It shows us that we've survived a lot, we've made it through hard times and came out the other side, that we've had some good times and enjoyed laughter and joy.  It shows we've been blessed to live this long, to have chance to enjoy younger years and mature into the age we are now.  We've earned these little sparkly hairs.

So now, rather than trying to cover the sparkly highlights, I embrace them.  I've earned each and every one. One day, my hair will be a gray bun, as my mom's and Grandma's once was.  I won't fight the signs of aging.  There are many who haven't had opportunity to grow those little white/gray hairs...I am blessed to be able to have them.