WEDNESDAY 9-28-11
MY JOY is not YOUR JOY. But it comes from the same SOURCE. LIVE your LIFE as you are called to LIVE IT. WE will share in JOY again and again, sometimes more than others. We are INTERDEPENDENT at the SOURCE.
When I was 16 I spent a week with my Amish grandmother. She was the woman who had adopted and raised my mother from the time she was 3 years old. Her name was SALOME. Grandma Salome wore a mesh head covering over her hair which was always neatly pulled back in a bun. She also wore a cape dress and black shoes. She had a wonderful sense of humor and always an encouraging, wise and thoughtful word to offer. That week we went shopping together, baked cookies, looked at old photographs and talked about the work she and Grandpa did with refugees during and after World War II. As one point in the conversation I asked Grandma if she thought I should wear the kind of dress she wore to be close to GOD. She chuckled until tears rolled down her cheeks and said with a grin, " I don't know. You have to ask God. " Then came a more somber look, " You see I am in a covenant with God. I told him I would be faithful and wear this clothing and read the Bible every day and do certain things with my life. If I don't keep the promises I made then I am sinning which means I am going back on my word. I don't know what God will call you to do. Nobody does. That's between you and God. "
I always appreciated her acceptance and candidness. I felt free to seek what GOD, that is the powerful UNIVERSAL ONE was calling me to do. And having Grandma's permission was real important to me. My mother had died when I was 15. We had never really had that kind of talk. My mother's actions spoke to me as I saw her love and advocate for peace with justice in a harsh and sometimes uncaring world. She loved her husband and her four children but for some reason cancer claimed her life in 1974 and I could no longer walk with her physically, only spiritually. Grandma was still with me though and so at this important passage in my life it was she whose opinions counted the most.
I AM SO HAPPY SHE SET ME FREE TO LOVE, LAUGH AND ENJOY THIS ADVENTURE WE CALL LIFE. I HAVE BEEN A BETTER PERSON BECAUSE OF HER LOVE FOR ME, ENOUGH LOVE TO TELL ME TO BE THE BEST THAT I CAN BE, ONE DAY AT A TIME. ~ Mom Nanhi-Marie http://betternbetterministries.webs.com/dailyjourneyjournal.htm