A reminder of the Son's love

     Have you ever wondered why God loves you? The answer is a simple one.  If you love His Son, Jesus and believe that Jesus came from His Father, then God loves you. (John 16:27)  By believing and receiving His love, we are given the right to be children of God. (John 1:12)  Being in a family means you belong to someone.

     God's love toward us reminds Him of the love between Himself and His Son.  He loves us because we belong to Him and we belong to His Son.  We are given an intimate look at a prayer Jesus prayed to His Father in John 17.  He refers to all those the Father gave to Him seven different times. We are a gift they gave to each other.

     Take a look a a new mom and dad with their little baby.  That child is a gift they gave to each other and a gift God gave to them.  Those little babies are loved not for what they can do for mom and dad. They are loved because they belong to them.  For those who adopt children or who have been adopted, its the same. They are chosen and loved because they belong to those who chose them.

     Its easy to relax and be at home with your family when you believe they love you simply because you belong to them. We can relax in God knowing He loves us because we love His Son, not because we always do the right things.  The more we experience their love, the more we will want to do what pleases them.

     We are a constant reminder to God of His love for Jesus and Jesus' love for us. May you be a peace knowing you are greatly loved.

The desire needed to accomplish something

     I recently had a conversation with two of my friends about the need for a greater desire for things we want to accomplish. As we talked we agreed that our desire usually follows what we give our attention to. Sometimes we convince ourselves that life is more complicated than it needs to be. If there's anything we would like a greater desire for we can create that desire by giving more attention to it.
     For example, I now love to knit. That wasn't the case when I first began. I did have the motivation to learn but quite honestly, the desire to actually do it wasn't there. I find it is usually hard to for me to get excited about something that is difficult at first.  My motivation was to learn to knit for grandchildren. At least I was wise enough (or know myself well enough) to give myself a head start. I began to learn when there was no evidence of babies on the horizon, but I did have faith for a grandchild. I'm happy to say God has blessed our family with a gorgeous baby boy. I'm knitting for him and I love doing it now. By the way to show you how desire can work,  that is the little vest I made for Will. His Daddy wears vests all the time so Will needed one early on.  It took lots of practice. I started the vest 3 different times but I was happy with how my attention paid off. That little vest took lots of desire to accomplish.
     In the beginning I was very frustrated because I simply wasn't giving enough attention to doing the knitting. I read books and magazines about knitting, thought a lot about it, but I wasn't doing it. I'm not convinced that old saying, "practice makes perfect" is true but I do know that without practice you won't learn and you won't have enough desire to keep yourself motivated.  It is easy to become motivated but to stay motivated is quite another thing. I'm well on my way into the knitting adventure.  Now I must start attending to the regular exercise program adventure.  I have the shoes, the workout clothes, the videos.  Surely desire is right around the corner.

Four Generations

Our home has been full of joy and delight this past week.  The wait for this four generation picture has been a long one. My father who is 86 years old, my son David and grandson William David (Will) and Mimi Pam. Children are truly a blessing from the Lord.

Under the paper

     My friends know I love gift giving and that I give special attention to the wrapping.  I'm not partial to any one type of wrapping. I love bags, paper, ribbon, tags, charms, flowers. Once the present is wrapped I will look for something that puts what I call a "Pam stamp" on it.  A book or article on gift wrapping always calls out to me.  Sometimes I have to wonder if the presentation speaks more to me than the gift. . . which led me to do a little soul searching. Do I want others to see the value of the gift more than the presentation?
      Our lives should be a gift to others. Do I allow myself to be unwrapped? Do I unwrap the gift within others? I read a wonderful book by Florence Littauer titled, "Silver Boxes."  The book is based on the scripture verse Ephesians 4:29 which says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth,except that which is edifying so that it might minister grace to hearer." Mrs. Littauer asked a group of elementary children if they understood what the verse meant. One little boy said that our words should be like building blocks; another said that we shouldn't go around knocking other people's blocks down. Knowing how much children like presents, Mrs. Littauer explained that when words come out of our mouth they should be like presents we give away. Finally one little girl simply wrapped it up by saying, "What she means is that our words should be like little silver boxes with bows on top." She ends the book with a very personal story of her own mother and how dreams can die with us.
     It's no wonder I love this book because I love words and I love wrapped presents. I don't want to waste my time evaluating or envying someone's wrapping.  I want to spend my energy finding the valuable gift inside of them and encouraging them to let it be unwrapped.

Living with Lagniappe

     Having been born and raised in New Orleans, this southern girl knows about lagniappe. For those of you who haven't a clue, in New Orleans, the term is used to describe "a little something extra," and it is pronounced "LAN-yap." It's a Louisiana-French word derived from the American-Spanish word "la napa" which originally meant a gift. Mark Twain described lagniappe as "a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get." You can find the principle of  lagniappe in many cultures including the once norm "baker's dozen" in North America. Lagniappe in the true sense is unexpected.
     There is so much lagniappe in our lives that goes unnoticed and unappreciated.  You can't earn lagniappe. You can't buy lagniappe. You don't deserve lagniappe.  It's a gift and you can't receive a gift if you think you deserve it. I'm convinced God smiles about lagniappe because it's all about Grace.  We don't deserve his love and his salvation.  We can't earn it or buy it.  We can only receive His love and then turn around and give it to others.  Lagniappe living is delightful. It's fun and it's rewarding.
    I'll tell you about a recent lagniappe I received.  His name is Will.  He is the most wonderful gift God sent his Mom and Dad on April 18, 2010 and there isn't a day that goes by that his Mimi (that would be ME) doesn't fall head over heals in love with him again and again. Will doesn't know it yet, but he is in store for a lot of lagniappe from his Mimi, and I'm sure from many others as well. I've just begun this new journey of being a grandmother and in case you can't tell, I'm excited about it.

    I hope you discover lagniappe on your journey today and then turn around and give lagniappe to someone on their journey.