Antonina

Antonina.

There was a day last year while in Kenya, Africa that a team of us were visiting and cheering on a church sponsored soccer event in an open rutted field with a team of mostly juvenile slide-sandal players.

I met Antonina.

She was on the sidelines.  A little unapproachable at first, I thought.  But, I made my way towards her choosing to engage instead of watching the recreational play.

She shared she’d been working nearby that day for a family that she housecleaned.  She admitted trying to work enough to earn money to get her children back from her mother who was caring for them until she could afford to do so.  Feeling little worth, she was making mere dollars a day to clean one family’s home.

Through the mission trip we were on, I had been learning how the churches work with their members alongside Life in Abundance to help restore hope, dignity and self-sufficiency to generate more income by offering micro-loans to begin a business.

I had shared with her a woman’s success story that we witnessed who had borrowed enough money to purchase a bag of flour to make and sell mandazi, a fried bread.  The goal for each business is to make a profit that allows tithing back to the supporting church and also create a personal savings program for themselves.  This success story had that woman working her way up one bag of flour at a time that was now operating with 20 bags of flour.  To the glory of God, she was successfully working her way out of the slums in which she lived.

It has been a year since this first encounter.  Our return trip to Kenya was to a church we visited and we were being introduced to the members and their businesses that help support them.  When all the introductions had been made and our time was closing, Antonina came up and asked if I remembered her.

I could not immediately recall this happy, smiling, bright-eyed individual before me.  She told me about our encounter on the soccer field and that she is now a member of this church and selling charcoal to earn additional income to become self-reliant.  She wanted me to know that she remembered my prayers for her.

I was reminded of the success story that I had shared and that I had prayed with her in hopes her future would hold something brighter to generate additional income and bring her children back to her.

This faithful woman of God is enduring life’s trials in present time yet holding on to hope for the future of her children now, but also believing in the greater hope of eternity.

“For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children.  It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.  And God, in His mighty power will protect you until you receive this salvation because you are trusting Him.  There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.”

Antonina is her name.

It has a meaning.

“Priceless.”

1 Peter 1:4-6

Grown Grass

The grass is freshly mowed.

What a temporary enjoyment.  It’s been trimmed and blown, too.  It looks nice and I’m so content with it for this one little minute.

I’m going to sit in the pleasure of it. But, only for a moment.  In less than one week,  I’ll soon find myself restless and discontent with the sight of grown grass needing cut again.

Grass grows so fast.  So does my discontent.

It’s like the short-lived satisfaction of an empty laundry hamper. Fleeting.  Fleeting.  It’s all so fleeting.

There is pure momentarily delight, but then grass grows and laundry baskets refill.

King Solomon, the wisest man in all the world who had all that anyone could ever want concluded, “What do people get for all their hard work? Everything is so weary and tiresome!  No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.  Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless, like chasing the wind.  Everything is meaningless.  Utterly meaningless.”

So life from a purely earthly perspective is meaningless.

The opposite of a king was the apostle Paul living in a Roman prison who stated that he had learned to be content with whatever he had.

So I think, contentment can be learned.

He said he knows the secret of living in every situation.

So I think, there’s a secret.

He determined it’s to do everything through Christ who gives you strength.  It’s this same God who takes care of you that will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

So, it’s in Christ Jesus!

I want to be content to watch this grow.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-8

Philippians 4:11

Bandana Bandit

This little bandana bandit strutted on the court and professed, “I love cheating.  It makes me win everyday.”

He snookered his little brother.

Wisdom straight from King Solomon 101 says, “What is gotten by cheating others will soon be gone.”  I mean, proverbs aren’t promises but they are probabilities.

He’s only knee-high to a grasshopper, yet without God’s wisdom we can all be tempted by some kind of greed for some kind of gain.

The book of Proverbs has a purpose to teach this wisdom and discipline.  It states,  “through these, people will receive instruction in discipline, good conduct and doing what is right, just, and fair.  These proverbs will make the simpleminded clever.  Proverbs give knowledge and purpose to young people.”

I suppose it’s easier to master the mind to know things than try to rule our own heart to do things. But, Proverbs tell us this wisdom is better than silver and its wages are better than gold.

“Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  Cry out for insight and understanding.  Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure.  The Lord grants wisdom.”

That’s worth a lot.

It makes us win every day.

Proverbs 1:2-7; 2:2, 3:14

Matthew 11:19

250 Years

“Four score and seven years ago our Father brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

That’s all I have memorized.

When Abe Lincoln wrote this Gettysburg Address it had been 87 years since the birth of our new country.

That’s just one whole grandma.

I’m the grandma of these two little American girls dedicated to that proposition.

It’s now been 12 score and 10 years ago since the birth of our country.  That’s only 3 whole grandmas.

If you look at the average lifespan of a nation it turns out to be just 3 whole grandmas.

Since the beginning of grandmas, we have had a history of the Lord telling us how to live one nation under God to lengthen its lifespan.   None yet have.  God modeled and instructed how to build a nation.  And under the inspiration from the Holy Spirit, King David prayed for  such a nation under God.

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory and the majesty.  Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is Your kingdom.  We adore you as the one who is over all things.  Riches and honor come from You alone.  You rule over everything.  Power and might are in Your hand.  It is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength.  We thank You and praise Your glorious name.   But, who am I and who are my people that could give anything to You.  Everything we have comes from You and we give You only what You’ve given us.  We’re here only for a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us.  Our days on earth are like a shadow gone so soon without a trace.  Even materials we’ve gathered all belong to you.  I know my God that You examine our hearts and rejoice when You find integrity there.  O Lord, make Your people always want to obey You.  See to it their love for You never changes.”

This nation’s posture gave praise, bowed low, and knelt before the Lord.

We’re living here in this land.  It’s only for a moment, as our grandmas were before us.  The Lord examines the posture of our hearts.  Let’s give praise, bow low, and kneel before the Lord.

May He rejoice and extend our nation to another whole grandma and another whole grandma.

Under God.

1 Chronicles 29