In Loving Memory

A beautiful spirit has gone Home.

Yesterday we laid to rest a woman who, in her quiet, gentle ways, impacted the generations. A woman of unconditional and unlimited love. A simple woman who served her family and her God, and shared her love for family as her lasting legacy.

I first met my mother-in-law–to-be more than thirty years ago. Back then, their family held nearly weekly family parties, or so it seemed to me. This was hard for me, as a twenty-year old who wanted to be spending weekends going out with my man. And I wasn’t accustomed to sharing that much time with extended family, as my own extended family got together only for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Not so with the Reske clan. Every birthday and anniversary was cause for celebration, and celebrate they did. Plenty of good food and fellowship were shared as the large group jostlied for space in Ma’s kitchen. After the dishes were washed, out came the cards as the men played Sheepshead and I tried my best to learn to play poker with the ladies. Grandkids ran around and played, and often my husband-to-be would be wrestling and playing with them as they all tackled and climbed on him at the same time. I knew then he would be a great father.

Fast forward several years, and it is our sons who are the little ones running through my in-law’s house. Living out of state, we would fly back home with the little ones for visits and for their Christenings. Mom and Dad would host a big party after the Baptism as well as putting us all up in their home for the duration of our stay. Their graciousness and love for family showed through everything they did.

While we lived away, Mom and Dad would send “care packages” for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. Mom would send big containers of cookies, baked with love, sent across the miles. Oh, how we loved to get those packages!

Sixteen years ago we were able to move back to our home state and share Mom & Dad’s golden years together with our growing sons. More frequent visits were a blessing for all, and many more memories were made and shared.

As they crept into their upper eighties, Mom and Dad were requiring more care. As Mom’s health declined, the four siblings and other family members helped to provide in-home care. For many families, this would be a time to look into placement in a care facility, but not this family. It was difficult at first for me to understand how the siblings could sacrifice so much of their own time and their lives to care for their aging parents.

One day I figured it out. It was all about love. That beautiful, unconditional love that Mom and Dad had given all of their years was being given back to them through the loving care of their children and grandchildren. Many sacrifices were made so that Mom and Dad could remain in their home. 

As a young woman, Mom taught me many things about love and family through the example of how she lived. Before we moved away, she taught me how to make her son’s favorite cookies, chocolate nut peek-a-boo’s. Somehow mine never came out as good as hers did. And her famous carrot cake was requested for every family gathering we held at our own house after we moved back. Her cake was so lofty. Mine never rose that high! And the thick layer of cream cheese frosting was the perfect delightful topping.

 

Mom never had a harsh word to say about anyone, and she didn’t waste her time complaining. One stand-out memory for me is when we were running errands together one day. Someone was in more of a hurry than us, and pulled out around us driving aggressively. Mom simply said, “God Bless You!” in a tone that showed she meant it. No profanity or incredulity at their rudeness. But a simple blessing. I still shake my head in wonder of her example to this day.

Our culture spends so much time concerning ourselves with our outward appearance, when what really matters is who we are inside. Our lives should not be measured by the things we possess. Instead our lives should be considered well-lived if we have given with our heart to the betterment of mankind. 

Many lives have been blessed to know the generous, caring spirit of my sweet mother-in-law. And the example of her life will live on through the generations.

A favorite quote of mine from the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin states that "we are not human beings in search of a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings immersed in a human experience." Our life on this earth is temporary. While we are here it is up to each one of us to nurture our own spirit while sharing the gifts we possess with others.

 

Give freely of your love while you can. A simple act of kindness can spread further than you may ever know. Love is an easy gift to share, and the world needs all that we can give. 

 In loving memory of Blanche A. Reske

1924-2012

Love you forever, Mom

Life Renewed - Bring the Rain!

A gentle spring rain patters on my skylights, and the fat droplets bounce off tulip petals and new spring leaves. The rain is cleansing, and the air smells fresh. How often does God bring the rains to cleanse the earth?

After a long winter of snow and ice, we welcome the first deluge of spring rains to wash away the remaining salt residue from our roadways. More spring rains thaw the ground, awakening the roots of plants that have been sleeping for months.

Subsequent rains bring green growth back into our lawns, and before long buds begin to swell on the trees.

Color has returned to the world where only browns and grays existed for a very long season. The bright spring green of new leaves on the trees and shrubs awakens my senses and brings me hope. Flowering crabapples are awe-inspiring; the colorful palate of spring bulbs dotting the landscape brings smiles to winter-weary faces.

This celebration of new life brings us back to life, too. Hearing the birds’ happy songs as they begin courting and preparing for a new season of parenting fills the morning stillness with beauty that makes my heart sing.

Creatures of the natural world no longer need to only strive for survival. They are free to find joy in living as new life is bursting all around them.

Can we celebrate this way in our human existence, too? As the spring rains wash away the weight of winter’s hopelessness, can we be born anew? I pray that God will wash over us and cleanse us to renew our hope, that we may embrace new thinking to open our minds to the possibilities before us.

Perhaps as the rains fall outside, we need to pray for God to reign in our hearts anew, showing us the way to live and the reason we are here.

Invite God in. Ask Him into your heart. Invite Him to live in you and show you the pathway to peace. The gentle nudging of the Spirit can be heard more clearly when we are already attuned with God. 


Be ready to embrace life as fresh new hope blows into your heart. The world around us is full of new beginnings. 

When Hope is Scarce

There are days when my spirit soars, free from worry, like a bird on an updraft column of air, reaching a pinnacle of height and effortlessly soaring over all of creation. Then, like the bird, I have to come back down to earth.

Gravity is a force to be reckoned with, but so is despair.

Why is it that I can be so full of the Spirit and feel complete peace within my life one day, and wake the next day to a feeling of hopelessness hanging on my spirit like a heavy blanket weighing me down?

Where do we find hope when hope seems lost? How can we restore our peace when hope is scarce?

Certainly we can’t live on the highest peaks of euphoria all the time, but neither do we want to wallow in the valley of despair.

How do you restore balance in your life?

I know there is joy that restores my spirit when I sing praises to my Lord. My thoughts shift to God and pull me out of my troubles, and I am reminded of His great Love. Yet I don’t always remember that just to lift my voice and sing will be restorative to my spirit. And sometimes I don’t feel like singing through my sadness. But when I sing, I am instantly transformed back to a child of God, loved by my Heavenly Father, and free from worries and cares.

There is a certainty that a walk in nature will make me smile, as I feel oneness with all living things of the natural world. Perhaps it is because the focus moves out of myself and into the world that I am restored. I walk along, one foot in front of the next, and the pattern becomes a soothing rhythm. 

The glorious wonders of nature surround me, and I feel connected to heaven and earth. Soon I realize I am smiling, and there is a song in my heart once again.

For me, these methods help to restore my inner peace. If I can’t get outside, and I am feeling more introspective, I might turn to meditation for its restorative properties. Instrumental music playing softly helps to tune out the rest of the world, and a mantra of “I am well” or “I am healed” calms my spirit and allows a change of inner perspective.

Prayer and meditation are excellent methods of connecting with our inner selves and with God. Through prayer, we can share our troubles with God, and release them. Through meditation, our hope and wellness can be restored. 

As a young woman of twenty years of age, I saw mountains for the first time. It was through this natural beauty that God first whispered to my heart, and I began to believe in a higher power that ordered this natural world.

I’ve always been drawn to the words of the psalmist who wrote, “I lift my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV)

There is power in knowing God is in the strength of the mountains, and peace in feeling His presence in the order of the natural world. Restoring our spirit and finding hope when it seems scarce is as easy as turning our thoughts to God and laying our burdens at His feet.

Releasing our pain and our worries to the One who knows all, sees all, and is Infinite, lifts our burdens revealing our pure inner self which only seeks peace and knows hope is the pathway to finding that peace.

The Joy of Springtime

Sunday Scripture

and a

Song

Mornings are again filled with the sweet serenade of songbirds in the trees outside my window. How I miss their chorus through the long winter months here in Wisconsin. Today I share this scripture from the Song of Songs which echos my joy at the birth of new life. 

We can expereince rebirth in any season. The joy of discovering new life inside of us is the Spirit's way of making us new. I pray your winter 'season' has passed, allowing joy to fill your heart as you experience new life and new hope.          ~ Blessings ~

"Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. 

The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air."  Song of Songs 2:11-12 (NLT)

I chose to share a special song by Cat Stevens today. "Morning has Broken" is a familiar tune to many of you. There is great joy in the beauty of the natural world around us, and even greater joy in connecting with God through the beauty of all of His Creation.

Subscribers please click here to view this video on my blog site.

Freedom from Fear

We come into this life completely fearless. As young children, we will try anything - thus the need for good parenting, with voices of reason and experience.

When did we learn to be afraid?

God did not create us to be fearful. We are meant to shine for Him. Fear grows in the darkness, not in the light. We cannot let fear germinate in us. That tiny seed of doubt hidden in our deepest thoughts is like the seed we plant in the dark soil. But unlike the plants of the earth, fear stays underground.

Buried deeply in our psyche, nourished by repeated review and self-affirmation, our fear grows into an ugly mass of self-doubt and anxiety. It stifles our creativity, preventing us from sharing the beauty within each of us.

We all have gifts that are meant to be shared. Poetry, music, writing, painting, gardening and singing are only a few examples of expression of the beauty within. Hospitality, care-giving, parenting and teaching allow us to share our heart through the work we do. Our everyday interactions with people as we go about our work and our lives can be a reflection of the person we are inside. We can share joy.

What is keeping you from sharing the best part of who you are? We may harbor a seed of fear, but there is also a greater desire to express ourselves. You may have been criticized at some point in your life, which has stopped your creative expression. It happens all too often.

Not everyone is going to like everything we do all of the time. And that’s just fine. Our goal in sharing our art or our inner beauty is not to please someone, but to find our self-expression that will lead to more creativity.  The gift of who we are is a beautiful reminder of God’s love inside each of us.

Only by becoming who we are meant to be will we fully understand our place in this world. And through expressing the beauty and holiness inside each of us, through the Spirit that frees us, we honor our Maker and grow in our likeness to be more like Him.

God is pure Love, revealed through His creation. And that includes us. By allowing our inner beauty to flow into the world, we are participating in the expression of God’s love, and this makes life wholly worth living.

The Mountaintop Experience

Have you seen those ads where a climber reaches the peak of a great precipice and stands with arms outstretched as the camera pans around them? While I don’t harbor a fear of heights, if I were exhausted from climbing to the top of that mountain, I don’t think I would balance precariously on a jagged peak. Just sayin’.

The mountaintop experiences I savor are those I share with God, and I needn’t climb to places of thin oxygen to find Him. Mountaintop experiences can happen anywhere, and have more to do with my heart’s proximity to God’s than with where I am.

These intense feelings of joy and peace saturate my spirit, and I can’t help but smile and sometimes weep at the beauty of the moment. Feeling so connected to my Creator, in oneness of thought and pure joy, is exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time.

But I’ve come to realize I couldn’t enjoy these peak experiences if I hadn’t first walked through the deepest valleys. Because it is through the valleys of pain and sorrow where I met my Savior, or rather where He met me.

There have been times when I’ve been at my lowest, when my spirit was dark and my outlook on life even darker, and I couldn’t find any hope to start my day. It was from this deep valley of darkness that I was saved from my situation and from my own dark thoughts by the only One who could save me.

I cried out to God and He whispered into my darkness that I was not alone. That comfort helped me begin to find my way out of the pit of darkness. In my deepest sorrow, a voice spoke softly to my spirit “I am with you.” This ray of Hope shined like a beacon of Light leading the way out of the darkness. “Follow Me.”

I savor my mountaintop experiences with God, in pure joy and oneness of Spirit. Though these may be ephemeral moments, I treasure them knowing how far I have come to know this joy in my life through my relationship with God. I would not have reached these peaks had I not first walked the valleys. And through them I learned that I never walk alone.

"Even when I walk 

  through the darkest valley,

 I will not be afraid, 

  for you are close beside me."
           Psalm 23:4 (NLT)

Music speaks to my soul, and Mac Powell of Third Day shares my thoughts beautifully through this song, "Mountain of God." Subscribers please enjoy this video by clicking here.

The Purpose of Life

Another senseless tragedy. Families torn apart. Pain, suffering and a sense of security that will never return.


How do our sensitive spirits deal with such tragedy? All we can do is pray. Pray for God’s comfort for those involved. Pray for some kind of reconciliation and peace, knowing it may be years before that is felt. How then do we soothe our own fears? 


We were meant for so much more than this. We cannot let the darkness overcome the beauty of this life. Reach down, deep within yourself. What do you crave? We crave love, and acceptance. And when these basic needs are not met in our lives, it seems our psyche may go berserk.

The truth is that there is no satisfaction for our souls in the ways of this world. The peace we seek, and the love we long for, are all transitional in the tangible world we live in. The only way to know true joy, to feel a deep sense of peace and belonging and to realize true love is to know God. 


With God, we are never alone. He loves us inexplicably, no matter what we do or say. His heart and His love are not based on the things of this world. He is in our thoughts, both conscious and subconscious. 


He exists in a realm our minds cannot conceive, yet we know that He is there. His presence can be felt in the nuance of a thought. His love can be known by the communion of His presence. We feel God and we experience God each in our own way. 


While we exist in this world of people and things, our hearts and our minds must be focused on the spirit. Our spirit guides us through our lives, and learning to listen to its yearnings will direct us on the pathway to inner peace.


We will always have the pull of our external world, with its obligations and insecurities. But if we move our focus inward, and realize it is through our spirits that we communicate with God, the noise of our busy lives can be pushed into the background and our true purpose will be revealed.  


Each of us must find our way. When we communicate with God’s Spirit through our own spiritual existence, we begin to understand the reason why we are here. It isn’t to fight the 9-5 rush-hour life. It isn’t to gain notoriety or wealth.


Our purpose is to grow as spiritual beings, bringing us closer to the realization of what life can mean when our focus is not on the things of this world. Through prayer and a conscious effort at gratefulness in all areas of our lives; through connecting with God from our inner spirit, and not through our intellect, we begin to glimpse the beauty of life that we are meant to know. 

The Long and Winding Road

We experience many twists and turns as we travel down the long and winding road of life. We follow along though we are uncertain of where it will lead us. Faith is what drives us, with expectation and hope guiding us around each bend in the road.

Following a well-known path may offer comfort and familiarity, but we sacrifice the excitement of new discoveries when the path is well trod. Do you want something new in your life? You may need to strike out on a new path, which will surely lead you on a journey of self-discovery.

There are many times when we feel more like a ship at sea, tossed to and fro on the waves of uncertainty. We weather the storms, though we do not feel in control of our circumstances. Who, then is at the helm?

We have more control over our circumstance than we believe. It is easy to feel victimized when situations in our lives cause us to feel out of control. We can’t see our way out of our circumstances. But there is hope.

Nothing in life is static. Life is ever-changing. Keeping this perspective can help us get through those days when we feel there is no hope. Some days we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders, and the burden seems too great to bear. Those are the days we need to lift our eyes to a higher power, and give away the burdens that weigh us down. It also helps to keep the perspective of realizing tomorrow is another day that will bring changes we cannot see today. 

Acknowledge a feeling of helplessness before God is not a sign of weakness, for He knows our human frailty and understands our struggles. When you reach for help, you will find renewed strength. For it is in our weakness that God’s strength is greatest. He will lift you up and carry you, setting you back on your feet again.

Whatever trials we face, we never face them alone. God is always with us, joined to us by Spirit. Hold tight to that knowledge, and trust that He not only walks beside us, but knows the path ahead and is leading us.

In all circumstances, we need to hold onto God’s loving presence in our lives. Instead of fearful, overwhelming thoughts, focus on God’s love and His nearness, and say a grateful prayer. It helps to know we’re not alone, and when we shift our thoughts to gratefulness, we take our focus off our worries. God's steadfast presence in our lives brings us peace.

Each step we take along the winding road of life, leads us closer to the peace of knowing our Savior. Trust Him to lead. He has already seen the road, and knows what’s up ahead. He will lead you. And the more you trust in Him, the smoother the road will be.

"Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you." Psalm 25:4-5

Living in the Light

Welcome back after a Christmas break! The celebration of Christmas with family and friends is a joy we can hold in our hearts long after the day has come and gone. Indeed, it is my wish that we could carry the love and peace of Christmas in our hearts all throughout the year.  



This gift is for all when we remember the true reason for the season. God sent us His Son to show His great love for us, and to give us hope for today and all of our tomorrows. When we focus on this truth, God will live in our hearts and His peace will carry us throughout our days ahead.

My friend Mary DeMuth @ Living Uncaged.com has a wonderful idea for going into the new year. She asked us to pray for God to give us a word or a picture to guide us through the coming year. This year God has given her a picture from which her hope for the upcoming year is springing. You can read about this here.

Our personal challenge is to pray that God will give us direction through a word or picture for our new year, and for me, I already see the light. And it is His Light.

Light is my word for this year! It is my image and my guiding force. It became clear to me through repeated acknowledgements. First through an article I read about how light is so much a part of the celebrations of many faiths, and then through song after song on the radio as I pondered about light as the guiding force of my destiny.

You see, God’s light shines in us, and we are to shine for Him so that others will see our light and know Him. I finally realize that this is the work He has been doing through me. I sing for Him, and I let my light shine for others to feel the joy I share. I write so others will know of His love and the hope He brings, and in this way God's light shines through me to offer hope to those who are searching.

We are beings of light. This is who we are. We are energy and thought. Yes, we are flesh and bone, but it is the spirit within us that guides us on our way through this life, and our spirit is light. It is through our spirit that we connect with people and to the world around us. And through our spirit, we feel God inside of us as He lives in us, helping us find our way through this life.

Sunlight is powerful! Without this light, our species would not exist. In fact, all life on earth would cease without sunlight. The sun helps to grow our food and fodder for the animals that graze. The sun grows life under the oceans and on the land creating oxygen for us to breathe. Light is essential to life on earth. This fact we know to be certain.

For me, personally, I look to God’s Light for my inner strength. By knowing Him through relationship and His influence on my thoughts, words and actions, I feel the strength of His guiding force in my life. I am open to it. Through faith and perspective and belief I have come to know my maker as my companion as I travel the bumpy roads of existence here on earth. He lifts me up, He shows me the way I should go. And when I err, He patiently waits for me to find my way back to the pathway I should be walking.

So my focus this year will center on light; God’s Light, my light, the light of life and the light of hope. This will be my beacon, my guiding force for the year ahead and indeed for my life. God is Light, God is good, and His constant presence in my life reassures me of His love for me. 

Let God be the Light of your life. Let Him lead you to find what your guiding word or image will be for your year ahead. I pray you will know His love in your heart and in your life, and through relationship with Him you will be blessed with knowing His peace.