Oh the irony

This may look like an ordinary figurine used to decorate a home, but it is far from ordinary. Every time I clean my house and dust this simple wooden carving floods of memories flow through my mind.


It takes me back to my childhood days in Booneville, AR my starting point in life. This was the small town my parents put their roots down to raise their family - my brother and I. Between the years of 1960 to about 1997 my dad owned and operated his accounting business and my mom was his head secretary. That's right, my mom and dad worked together for over 30 years and stayed married 44 years! Mom said their secret was she let dad be the boss at work and dad let her be the boss at home....Ha!


It was at this accounting office that this statue lived. It was given to my dad as a gift from one of his clients. For years every Saturday it was our family "affair/chore" to go and clean dad's office. Each of us had different cleaning areas of focus, either vacuuming, cleaning toilets, dusting etc...One of my jobs was dusting and this figurine was one of many ornamental decorations I had to clean every week! After spending much of my childhood keeping this statue dust free I find it quit ironic that here I am over 30 years later still keeping it clean in my own home!


The difference now is my attitude has changed toward cleaning this, now special, decoration. As a kid I hated this chore, but now since both parents have passed away and entered their Heavenly Home, this simple beloved object offers me comforting memories of carefree days and loving parents who took the time to instill Godly values in me. This spiritual inheritance they have left behind has now been passed down to their grandchildren. This blog entry is in memory of Billy Dale and Billie Marie Leslie, their Godly example is still making a difference in this world!

1:24 AM Phone Call

Having an empty nest may give you a quiet uncluttered physical dwelling but it doesn't mean you get to sit back and enjoy a blissful trouble-free life.

My husband and I woke up Sunday morning July 4th 2010 to a message on our answering machine from our son Caleb, who happened to call us during the early morning hours of 1:24 am EST from Chicago where both boys are working a summer job. He told us that they went to see fireworks with 3 others and on their way back to John's car they saw someone breaking into it and saw the guy run away as they got closer to the vehicle! He then tried to offer reassurance by adding they called the police and they were waiting for them to show up and they were safe. Tom and I looked at each other in bewilderment as we tried to process what we had just heard.

As we waited with anticipation to speak to them on the phone for the full story all kinds of thoughts
went through our minds of the possible other outcomes that could have happened to bring physical harm. Finally I was able to get a full account of the incident. The assailant was not just satisfied with breaking in to steal valuables he wanted to vandalize the car. The passenger front window had been smashed out and the rear passenger door had a crowbar used on it causing extensive damage (see photo). The trunk had a crowbar attempt as well but this was minimal damage. Apparently nothing was stolen.

Not having comprehensive coverage on the boys cars we could do nothing but trust God to provide for our current need and praise Him for protecting those kids! Several days after the event John made several calls to a glass company to repair the broken window. While I surfed the internet to locate auto salvage yards for a replacement car door. God provided a
wonderful gentleman to replace the glass and lead me to a salvage yard that had an exact match of a door for John's car. With the help of the glass repair man giving John a short lesson in how to replace a car door John was able to fix the door himself (see photo)!

There are still scratches and dents on the car but the major repairs were completed for a total of $275! Through a scary difficult situation God taught each of us lessons to apply to our faith.

As a child I remember the Sunday school lesson of the man who built his house and laid his foundation on a rock, and the man who built his house on the ground without a foundation, Luke 6:47-49, and how the house with the foundation was left standing after the flood came. Watching my kids go through life storms brings a different perspective to this story. We have all walked away from this feeling more grounded in God. It is vital while the kids are home to lay a foundation and ground them in their faith in God. Just like grounding an electrical wire helps to prevent or absorb dangerous voltage so spiritual grounding helps to protect from the devil's schemes.

I picture our experience with raising our boys as that of constructing a ship (God being the designer, Tom and I being the construction workers). An important part of the ship is it's hull, the foundation. It's the part that takes the brunt of the pounding waves. The shape of the hull is entirely dependent upon the needs of the design (and who knows us better than our designer God Himself).
As the newly built ship gets ready to embark out on the open waters, we the parents are holding the champagne bottle ready to perform the ceremonial commissioning in celebration of this momentous occasion. While it's exciting to see your special ship successfully pull away from the harbor you know the further out to sea it goes there will be many storms to face that will challenge it's structure.

When our two "ships" hit troubled water they radio back to Tom and I, and while we can help to guide them from a distance, these boys have to do the actual work to maneuver through and around the rough seas. Use the parenting time you have to focus on the foundation. No matter how calm the horizon looks right now the storms will come.

Our prayer for our boys, Ephesians 3:16-19:
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God".

I break for frogs

"You are the only person I know who breaks for frogs" my friend Kim tells me as I was driving her home one evening. As I turned a corner into her neighborhood my headlights revealed a little frog desparately trying to cross the road as fast as his little legs would hop, probably terrified to see this "monster" with 4 wheels coming toward him. It seems God gave me an extra soft spot for animals. Oh, I like people too. The truth is I don't like to see any living thing, be it human or critter, suffer. But there is something unexplainable that happens to me when I get around animals.


I remember as a kid being mesmerized for hours observing birds, turtles, caterpillars, beetles snakes, and yes frogs. I am drawn to and behave around animals in a mannor that most normal people act around human babies. I get this overwhelming desire to want to connect with the animals. When I look them in the eyes I see so much more than a furry, feathery or scaly object, I see a living creation made by the hand of my God with as much loving delicate detail and care as I was made. Everyone has their "quiet" spot where they go to feel close to our Creator, mine is nature. To experience God's wonder through animals brings a calming peace and heartfelt worship as I stand in awe of His heavenly imagination. Though it's easy to see the beauty in these baby ducks.....

.....I am one of the unsual animal lovers that find beauty in the ugly....

....and the creepy.

Genesis 1:24-25 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds; livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to it's kind". And it was so, God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."



Looking into the eyes of the cute, the ugly and the creepy creatures is like seeing one aspect of God to me. The awesome wonder, imagination and power to create such details that work together so perfectly, what an incredible God we serve!


*Photos taken by Joanna Pfeufer*