Little Things

I so often take God's biggest gifts for granted: unconditional forgiveness, purpose to my life, and eternal life with Christ.  I have a much harder time trusting the Lord with my daily details.  I unconsciously feel little, petty needs are beneath God's dignity.  I avoid praying about daily concerns, feeling a bit ashamed that such superficial things are concerning me. I have often shared with other people Melissa's words: "God answers our needs with the little things, so we can trust him with the big things."  So I cognitively know I'm suppose to pray over trite concerns, but still feel pathetic doing it.  This week, God immediately answered my prayer for a special dress for a special occasion.  Now this is a really superficial concern, right?  But our Loving Lord made a point of rapidly giving me just the right dress in the perfect color to make a point: to show me how much He loves me.  After all these years of living with the Lord, I'm still learning to talk to Him about everything!  I hope you are, too.  Because there is so much of God's love for us to experience! Blessings on your day!~  JBM

All You Need Is Love

We all want to make a significant contribution in this world. We want to make a difference. We want our lives to matter. We want to be remembered beyond our lifespan. Many people spend their lives building things or acquiring things to prove their importance. Think McMansions. But they are all wrong. Only three things will last: faith, hope, & love. The most powerful is love. You will be remembered for how you love. You build an eternal legacy by how well you love. You get to take your heart with you to heaven. " People are not remembered for what they make. People are remembered for what they gave away."* It is not acquisitions or achievements that matter in life, but relationships. Loving God and loving people are the ultimate goals, the eternal work, really the only things that matter. So on this Valentine's Day, spread love everywhere. Show loving kindness to everyone, especially those who are hard to love. Because it the end, such invisible work is the only actions that will last forever.  Sending you love ~JBM


*Warren, R. (Feb 6, 2014). 40 days of love: Love matters most, Part 1,.2-6-14,  Daily Hope with Rick Warren Podcast

Joy

I was reading a refection (March 7) today that explained how we can feel joy even in the midst of difficulties and even sorrow.  The author explained that it is the tough parts of life that bring us close to God and help us really feel His love!   When we draw near the throne in times of pain, we are lifted above our circumstances in a way that gives us irrational joy, an exuberance in life, an exhilaration in feeling God's love for us! We are not joyful FOR the difficulty or even in spite of difficulty, we are joyful in the midst of difficulty! Why, because feeling God's love is SO amazing. When the Creator of the Universe says "I love you" in the small details of our lives, you feel a deep joy.  Melissa spoke of this joy when she wrote in the last months of her life, "I can hardly contain my joy in the Lord."  Now I finally get it!  She felt God next to her at a level of intimacy that was beyond description.  And so shall we, as we draw near to our loving Lord in all circumstances, knowing that He is big enough to lift us up above everything and anything!  May God bless you today! - JBM

Priorities

Melissa starts her Prayer Journal  explaining to God: " You need to be my priority because You are the key to the fruitfulness of my life, the preservance of my well-being, and, most of all, the closest to heaven I can get to on earth.....I would be lost without you, and somehow that can slip my mind.  So it's time to prioritize. Come into my heart and stay." Melissa's Prayer Journal, p.4   Melissa knew how much God loved her, how well God cared for her, and how thoroughly God's presence turned her life from suffering to joy.  That full knowledge only came after she really gave her life to God, the night she was diagnoses with cancer and cried out to Him.  We have to take that first step of faith, then we have to prioritize to reap all the abundance in life that God wants to pour out on us!  God is good, all the time. So, spend some time with Him today, and feel real love straight from heaven. Blessings, JBM

Role Model

I had a precious opportunity to honor Melissa in a brief ceremony dedicating a terrace in her memory.  As her friends shared their memories of her, I was struck again by how much she reached out to others, even in the last months and days of her life.  She had a clear mission: to support other people and to share God's love.  She lived this mission at every opportunity until her last breath.  When time gets short, our priorities become more clear, as did Melissa's.  I tend to get so caught up in my own concerns, my own "to-do" list, making it so difficulty to focus on others.  When God places a need in my path, I get frustrated at the interruption of my plans, rather than seeing this opportunity as God's provision for my ministry to others.  Melissa had no such cloudy vision.  She knew every interaction was another chance to give God's love to others, and she made each contact count.... every day she lived. She coped with her lungs filling with cancer by making every day count to bring God's love to a hurting world.  I want my focus to be the same.  I want to realize petty, little worries have no place in my life.  Each day is a precious opportunity to give comfort and love to every person we meet.  I pray for that razor-sharp focus on being an Ambassador for Christ, which only possible through constant connection with the Holy Spirit. So, I'll keep trying to stay connected with prayer, renewed by God's Word, and focused on what really matters: sharing God's love.  Blessings-  JB

Centered

I'm about to send my only surviving child to the farthest corner of the world by herself for the first time.  This is not a comforting feeling. Yes, she is in college and will be a part of a reputable program, but she will be far from my reach.  Any difficulty she encounters, she has to handle without me. I literally have to hand her over to God. As I was driving to New York to visit Melissa's grave site, I had an "ahaah" moment.  The light bulb went on over my head!  A verse came into my mind, "You will keep him (her) in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because (s)he trusts in you."  Isaiah 26:3.  I had to look up the verse, because I had no idea where this came from, but there it was in my head.  I remembered Melissa and the incredible peace she had even has her life came to a close.  I know that peace came from her constant praying. She stayed connected to the source of peace. She stayed centered, focused on God, and that gave her "perfect peace", just like the verse says.  So, what is my challenge during the next 7 weeks with my daughter not even on email most of the time?  I must keep my mind centered on Christ, because I trust God.  She is, after all, his child, not mine.  So, I hand her back to her Loving Father who actually is even more concerned about her well-being than I am, as impossible as that is for my pea brain to imagine!  I hand her over to our Faithful Creator, and keep my eyes focused on the invisible.  The God who loves her even more than I do will not fail!  Thank you for journeying with me!  Blessings- JB

Miracles

I keep a journal of miracles, little things that go beyond coincidence, also called "signs".  I began this journal shortly after Melissa went to heaven, when I noticed so many wonderful signs giving me comfort, like the Mylar balloons sending us messages. But yesterday, I've been struck by a bigger miracle: the miracle of God's presence inside of us!  I know that sounds so corny, but I've been listening to sermons by Ray Stedman on "Basic Needs". He emphasizes that the basic message of Christianity is not just forgiveness, but God living inside of us as we accept Jesus.  Think about this for a minute.  God actually wants to enter into us and be a part of US!  Is anything more valuable than the divine?  We are part-takers of a divine nature by God's grace.  I think this is the miracle Melissa kept telling her friends and everyone who would listen:  God LOVES YOU!!  She just wanted to shout it from roof-tops, because God's love was so very real to her.  God's presence living inside of her, not because she deserved it, but because she just turned to Him in her need. When she talked about "the miracles of God's love," she really meant that phrase, even though we have heard it so many times we no longer realize the power.  So, I'm certainly inadequate to express it any better than my Princess.  I just encourage you to look for those little "more than coincidence" signs in you. Remember that the signs are tiny clues to the greater truth that the Holy God of the Universe loves you more than you can begin to comprehend, and is ready to really be a part of your life, as you invite Him in!  God bless you!

Christmas Blessings

"So Lord, help us all remember that Christ is the focus now..." Melissa writes in her Advent poem.  She got it. She knew the secret of a real Christmas: focusing on Christ.  The real message isn't the manger, it's the cross.  It's not the babe, it's the Lord breaking into human history, paying the price for us, so that we can go back to paradise with Him.  Jesus was born to die, so that we can be raised and live forever.  God's love is so all encompassing, that He came in human form to bring us to Him.  So, even if we have disappointments or losses or pain of any kind this Christmas, we can be enveloped by God's love and surrounded by His promise to be with us even to the end of time.  God's amazing love is the true meaning of Christmas. May you be surrounded by His Peace and Love this Christmas and always....

Gifts

Melissa worked hard at giving thoughtful gifts.  She most often made gifts, but she also considered carefully what each person would enjoy. She noted little things, like my enjoyment of Beatle songs on the radio. One Christmas she made me a CD of Beatle tunes.  She wanted her gifts to show her love.  She made collages from magazine letters to tell friends how they were special, or prayer journals to encourage a dear friend on her own prayer journey. When she was told she had only weeks left to live, Melissa first went shopping for her sister's birthday gift and her two Dad's Father's Day gifts, and then birthday gifts of friends for that summer.    We all tend to think we have plenty of time left on earth to say "I love you" with gifts, but we never know. So, now is the time to use gifts of all kinds to show your love to those precious to you,  keeping in mind that the gift of your complete, full attention and the gift of words of  sincere affirmation and praise are always the most powerful gifts anyone can give.  Thank you for your gift of reading this blog!   

More Gifts from Melissa