Liz's Front Porch

1. December??? Already????

Suppressing a shudder, I look at the kitchen calendar. November is finished. I want to keep November.

Alas. It has to go. Maybe the next month will be … June?

No. December is next in line.

But, December is cold.

And, December can steal my soul.

No matter. December is here.

    I pour another cup of coffee and crumple at the kitchen table. I know the kids are already excited. I know I should feel some joy – somewhere. After all, it is my Lord’s birthday.

I don’t have  joy. I don’t have time. I just have tired. Choking back tears, I look at the church calendar. It’s full- - practices for Children’s Night; caroling to the shut-ins; the Bible study Christmas Party; regular worship on Sundays and special services on Wednesdays.

I peek at our family calendar. It’s stuffed- -  Christmas parties at school; my husband’s office party- yikes, at our house this year; our neighborhood party; the arrival of my in-laws.

I’m the one to shop, wrap and mail gifts, address cards, decorate, and BAKE.

I groan remembering last Sunday when Pastor stood there and told us we should have family devotions every night during the Christmas Season! He said we should prepare our hearts for the coming of our Savior. He said we should rejoice and be glad. Who? Me? I can’t even cope!

I look at the calendar again and through my tears I see the Scripture for today: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

I wipe my eyes. My coffee is cold. Be still.

Maybe… maybe I can do this – one, tiny step at a time.

I do want to greet my Lord with real joy on Christmas morning. I do want Him to find me ready. I do want to prepare my soul. I do want to show my children who Jesus IS.

I will make time each day to dwell with God so that I can celebrate, with true joy, His Son’s advent to earth.

   

Thank you, Father, for hearing my call.

I will be still and know that YOU are God.

You will be honored in my life.

You will be honored in my home.

From Psalm 46:10 (NLT)

Advent Minutes with Liz

   

Welcome to "Advent Minutes with Liz."

Each day during Advent, please join me for a few minutes to re-center during the Christmas season. Moms, grannies, daughters, wives, and sisters have to do many things, be many things to the many people we serve. Sometimes, in that rush the Reason for Christmas gets foggy.

I always need to remember that the sweet Baby Jesus in the manger is only the first step to the cross and to Easter morning, God's greatest and perfect Gift to me, one of His wayward children.

Please be blessed with my gift to you during Advent, 2008.

                                                                                                                                    

“Advent Minutes with Liz” – Copyright @2008 Liz Hoyt Eberle

I will be thrilled and honored to authorize use of my work for

the personal use of my readers. Please include copyright information and

contact me at eberle2@yahoo.com for permission to share this material.

Thanksgiving Blessings

  Just in case you plop down in front of your computer to hide while the kids clean up the kitchen, I want you to know I am thinking of you and praying God’s sweetest blessings to pour out so full and fast, you’ll have to grab your umbrella before you can offer Him thanks and praise!

Blessings EVERY day,

   Liz

 

P.S. Advent begins this Sunday. Please drop by my porch-or fireplace- often for

Advent Minutes with Liz ------

TV and My Common Cold

I’ve learned two new things today.

    One, daytime television is every bit as awful as evening/nighttime television.

I know because it’s been a long weekend. Even with the flu shot, some kind of awful stuff-in-the-head-throat-chest hit me with a wham last Friday morning. I quickly slowed down, tried to rest,  consumed gallons of orange drink, water, and icy cold 7-Up and called up all of Mother’s Absolute Cures for the Common Cold I could remember. Saturday and Sunday brought no relief, little sleep, a totally plugged up head, and general misery. I dragged around the house, moaned and groaned a lot and loafed at my computer.

    Although today is a beautiful autumn Monday in Texas and my flowerbed needs urgent attention, I grabbed a stem of mint for hot tea and ran back inside. I feel worse but none of the symptoms yell out: “call the doctor,” so my self-medicating program demanded that I spend the day in bed. Staying in bed all day is the blight of existence for me. I find nothing fun, restful, or helpful wasting time away lying in bed in daylight hours. Dear Heart and my daughter carefully and dutifully checked on me from the doorway. They handed drinks to me at arm’s length then rushed to wash their hands. Watching me suffer encourages them not to catch whatever “it” is. Since I don’t even remember how to twiddle my thumbs, I turned on the TV and got a cramp in my finger changing channels on the remote.

    The TV commercials show products that only a young, stay-at-home mom would need. Sorry, but I don’t know a single one of those young women who ever have time to watch daytime television. Some of the new-fangled, modern cleaning materials seemed too good to be true, so I clicked away from them. Watching Sandra Lee take an amazing assortment of semi-homemade Thanksgiving leftover’s to her perfectly appointed table complete with hand-made napkin ring/name cards exhausted me so I took a nap.

    When the phone rang, I woke up and drank another glass of cold 7-Up. It was then I knew I had learned a second lesson.

Wham – smack in the head – I could have prayed!

    Today, I had quiet time handed to me on a silver platter complete with an afternoon of no interruptions. With curtains drawn and the room darkened, I pulled out my Bible but I could not focus on the words. Instead of lying quietly and worshipping my Father, I pushed my Bible off to the side of the bed and flicked on the television.

    Typical, I guess, of us human kids of God’s.

The food channel can show us how to make leftover’s appealing, but I want to give God the first of my fruits and of my days and of my life.

 

Thank You, Father, for giving us new days and new chances!

Blessings on your prayer life!

     Liz   

   

The Joy of Adult Grandkids

Funny thing about open doors and sad hearts…

After arriving back home on Wednesday from our trip that didn’t happen, Friday afternoon, some of Dear Heart’s Texas grandkids blew in our front door!

Two of ‘em. Along with two buddies and one grand dog. Young adults. Texas deer hunters. A fireman, a college kid, a schoolteacher, a dad in search of deer meat for his family. And Willie, our granddog.

The hurt of missing the other family evaporated and there was no time to sit and sulk!

We laughe and hugged then while spreading a little cash around a local eatery instead of washing dishes at home, we got to know the new "best gal" of a grandson.

The kids and Willie slept in their campers on our west slope and didn’t complain about the light freeze that descended on us. When the girls sneaked inside to take hot showers Saturday morning, we didn’t tell them that the tough guys did, too!

After bagging a deer, they took in Fredericksburg, including kidding around with my grandson while he waited on them at the restaurant where he works. Then before heading out to the famous Luckenbach Dance Hall that night, the four of them provided supper for us! They went to the store, bought groceries themselves, cooked dinner in our kitchen, sprawled around wherever to eat and visit with us, and cleaned up the whole mess. Sassy, our guard cat argued about sharing her space with Willie while the young adults hung out and talked to us. They told us about their jobs, school, and asked us questions about our “old days.” They actually listened to our stories!

It doesn't get much better than that.

So, we missed out on one blessing but we got another one in its place, proving that growing old does come with good things: adult grandchildren! Perhaps King Solomon was thinking of our adult, grown-up GRANDkids when he wrote, “A wise son makes a father glad.” (Proverbs 10:1)  Makes a Memaw smile, too!

As King David admonished in Psalm 69:30, this week Dear Heart and I have “Praised God’s name in song and glorified him with thanksgiving.”

In fact, since we’ve in the season of Thanksgiving, I refer you to Psalm 100. All five verses!

I’m certainly going to be diligent about searching for all the sweet things my Holy Father has for me. I hope you’ll do the same!

Hugs and Blessings,  Liz  ©

Rejoicing at Home Again

Hi Dear Ones.

We absolutely INTENDED to take a trip. And, we did - - - of sorts.

After packing our new van full to the brim, and driving all afternoon Tuesday, we arrived at the eastern border of Texas, long about late news time. Exhausted.

In the middle of the night, Dear Heart's back said, "I hate traveling."

An old, worn-out tooth of mine whined, "I've lived long enough. I'm giving up!"

The next morning, Dear Heart looked at me. I looked at him. We nodded in agreement and drove all afternoon, arriving back at our own hearth and home Wednesday evening, about late news time. Exhausted. And sad.

We would NOT see his grandson, Captain Nick, play his last college football game. We would NOT see the other Ohio grandkids and their special others. We would NOT visit my active-duty-Marine-son and family in Kentucky. I would NOT do the last bit of research needed to finish my historical novel. We would NOT be renewed by the vibrant colors in the forests and hills of Ohio and Kentucky.

Back home, we saw our own physicians and gave thanks that wisdom had over-ruled our grandparents' hearts.

I've heard it said that when God shuts a window, He sometimes opens a door.

Somehow, “rejoice” comes to mind.

Deuteronomy 12:7 says: “There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and SHALL rejoice in everything you have put your hand to…”

Why, I asked? “.. because the LORD your God has blessed you.”

Isn’t He an awesome God?

I think I’ll rejoice by the open door on my front porch!

I hope YOU, also, will rejoice as we go into this time of Thanksgiving.

Blessings,

    Liz   

Back Up and Listen

Hi, Friends. I'll bet you thought I forgot you! Not a chance. And I really missed spending time with you!

Even though our November weather in Texas is front-porch-delightful, we haven't spent much time out there lately because in addition to preparing to leave on a 16 day car trip, things have been extra hectic around our place.

But this afternoon, Dear Heart announced, "It is Porch Time!"

It was good to just sit and rock for a while. We looked ahead to our trip and pondered the last three weeks. Ouch!

The day after I wrote about wiping up spills on my desk, my computer died. Had nothing to do with the water and coffee drenching all my papers or with me or worms or viruses. Just this plain-old-modern-technology world we live in that gets out of hand now and then. One program refused to talk to another program, then some hardware started sulking, and before I knew it, a cyber war was raging right under my fingertips.

Nevertheless, through a bunch of long nights, many harried telephone conference calls with parties of the first, second, and third parts, floods of tears, miles stomped back and forth to our gate to let off steam, and after the manufacturer erased everything on my harddrive back to factory settings of 9 months prior, there was a beautiful light at the end of my long, dark tunnel.

It took about five days altogether, but-- GUESS WHAT!!! Every dot and tiddle, every file, picture, document, tax record, blog entry, favorite, and every single one of the 45,000 words of my novel are ALL back, each nestled in its own safe file and folder on my desk top, resting beautifully. Absolutely amazing.

The only credit I can take is that I listened to an excellent computer guru who God sent my way last summer. At his advice, I purchased a fancy, way out there pie-in-the-sky internet back up system. Since I do NOT believe in accidents, God over-ruled technology and reminded me to recall my grandmother's advice: "Better safe than sorry!" The best $50.00 I ever spent. So, along with Rush and Kim Komando, I absolutely and highly recommend Carbonite at www.carbonite.com.

However, I think there is a deeper lesson here about being still and listening. I have a hard time with both of those. I'm glad God is patient with me. It seems to me that He cares about all things in our lives. Afterall, if my little aches, pains, joys, sorrows, problems, glitches, and hard work were not important to Him, He would not have gone to all the trouble to send Jesus to the cross for me. I think He meant it when he said in Jeremiah 33:3: "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

Our friend, Jeremiah, also records in 29:12 that "you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you." So, I'm standing in the gap for some dear ones with really big problems. Isn't it awesome to KNOW that the Most High God Himself is listening?

Remember to do your back-ups, check the smoke-alarm batteries, turn your clocks BACK, be sure to vote on Tuesday, and take some time to listen. I'll be spending some extra quality time with my Heavenly Father. I hope you'll do the same!

Enjoy your extra hour tonight! I'll chat with you while we're roaming between Texas and Ohio.

   Blessings from

         Liz

                   ©