"Mencha"

 Tony scrambled from bed to dress for the day. 

 

Today they were going to the library to read. 

 

When he climbed up into his favorite chair, his mom asked him, "Dry cereal? Or with milk?"

He pointed to the milk and said, "Milk, milk, smo-o-o-oth as silk."

His mother chuckled and poured the milk into his cereal bowl. 

 

After breakfast, while Mom was putting away the clean towels, Tony hurried into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He admired them in the mirror and ran his fingers across them, whispering loud enough for Mom to hear, "Smooth as silk."

 

With their morning chores finished, Mommy and Tony headed to the library. 

 

After looking at almost every book on the shelf, his mother asked him, "Well Tony, which one will you choose?"

He smiled at a big one with a cover the color of a brand-new penny. 

He pointed up at it and said, "That one, Mommy. It's shiny as can!"

Mom laughed quietly and shook her head. "Silly boy," she said as she grabbed the book. 

Climbing up onto her lap to hear her read the story, her wedding ring caught his eye. He pulled her hand close, as if to inspect it and sighed, saying, "Shiny as can be."

He smiled up at her pretty face. "It's shiny as can be, Mom!"

Puzzled but amused, Mom began to read to him. She shared enthusiasm and excitement as the story unfolded. 

 

After another story, Tony asked if they could play on the playground outside before heading home. 

Mom nodded and they made their way through the big glass doors that led to the playground. 

Tony ran his fingers across the clean glass and declared, "Smooth as silk!"

Mom laughed out loud this time. 

 

Tony ran to the slide and climbed to the top calling to his mom, "Watch me, Mom." As he slid down faster than ever before, he yelled, "Smooooooth as silk!"

Before landing at the bottom, he shielded his eyes from the sun and giggled as he tumbled off the end of the slide. 

"Mom! Look at that sunshine! It's shiny as can be!" He squealed with delight. 

 

Chasing him to the swings, his mom asked, "Tony, why do you keep saying that?"

"Saying what?" he asked. 

"This is shiny as can be and that's as smooth as silk. Where did you even learn that?"

 

"Oh," he said, "that's what Grandpa said to Grandma when he was brushing her hair yesterday. She smiled so big and was so happy 'bout it, I figured it must be fun to hear."

His mom smiled and nodded her head. 

"Okay, that makes sense. I guess," she responded. 

Tony looked up at her with happy eyes and he said, "Grandma smiled like she used to, like before she got the mencha. Remember, Mom?"

 

She got a few shiny tears in her eyes and scooped him up into her arms and hugged him tight. 

"Oh yes, I remember, Tony."

After twirling him around, she put him down and said it again. "Yes. I remember."

 

Tony ran off to the swings calling back to her, "Don't cry, Mom. It's a good thing. And - I'm going to beat you to the swings."

He laughed all the way to the swings and yelled, "Come push me, Mom!"

Mom wiped the wet tears from her eyes and hurried over to push him. 

 

"Mom?"

She waited for him to finish, "Did you know your tears are shiny as can be?"

Then he screamed with excitement as she pushed him high up into the sky. 

 

Children notice. God made them that way.

They see more than they can understand and sometimes they share the good stuff!

 

 

Helpful articles about how to talk with your child about Alzheimer’s and dementia:

 Link here.

 Link two.

 Link three.

 Link four.

 ‘For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.’- Psalm 116:8

 

 ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.’ – Psalm 126:5

 

 ‘He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.’ - Isaiah 25:8

 

 ‘For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’                        – Revelation 7:17

 

 ‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.’ – Revelation 21:4

 

 

Holding on Tightly

Sometimes we hold things so closely that we don’t see them change over time. Maybe it’s a painful childhood or a bitter divorce or angry words spoken at some distant place in the past. Maybe it’s how wonderful Christmas was as a child, despite the fact that you grew up pitifully poor. Or maybe even something as simple as how much greener the grass was or how much bluer the sky was when we were younger.

Holding on to something so tightly and holding them so close to your heart can hide the corners or the details of the memories of the event.

That’s how it is when we’re carrying a burden we need to forgive so we can let go of it. Even when the burden is something you need to forgive yourself for – as time passes, the burden gets heavier and becomes more destructive.

Today, are you able to take that bundle that you’re holding onto with a death grip and pull it away from our heart long enough to take a look at it? How clearly could you even see it, if you did?

Often, a mother will snuggle her newborn so closely – she’s used to that child being inside of her; now she holds them in her arms. What felt like a part of her for 40 weeks is now a more independent little person she can snuggle and love in a very different way. Eventually she pulls them up in front of her to admire and take delight in.

With treasures and burdens that we carry around like that, we don’t always make the time to pull them away from our heart long enough to look at them, whether to admire or to curse them.

We just carry them, never allowing them to evolve or change though feeling the weight grow heavier over time. Imagine the damage to both that mother and her child, if 10 years later she insisted on carrying them everywhere, all the time.

Today, if we sit down with God in prayer and ask Him to help us take a look at our burdens, we can discover great and wonderful things, and we may have to take a look at hard, painful things.

But knowing we’re not alone for that big reveal, and every time we dare to peek, will bring healing to us and lighten the burden. We may have to look at it little by little, or we may be able to take it in all at once. We’re all different, and every bundle we carry is different.

We may see that it’s uglier than we remember, or that it’s not nearly as scary as we remember. We may see that a beautiful memory is hiding something behind it that we’d rather not see, so we cling to that good thought – but it still becomes a burden; a hiding place.

My whole point today is to tell you that you don’t have to do it alone.

God is ALWAYS with you. He has ALWAYS been with you. He’ll walk through this with you. He’ll lighten the burden, He’ll heal the wounds, and He’ll bring His joy into your heart…if you let Him.

He will bring the right people at the right time to sit with you and pray with you and cry with you and laugh with you. And as crazy as it may sound to some, that person might not even be a Christian. God can and will use any of us.

And He’ll always forgive first. He won’t ask you to do what He won’t do.

Our first step is inviting Him into the situation. He’ll take the next step.

Pride may come before a fall, but humility comes before healing.

 

Legally Speaking....

 

“Satan is very legalistic. Once you believe that Jesus is your Savior, Satan legally has ZERO authority over our lives, but if he can gain one little inch (through sin, curses, witchcraft, or unforgiveness) he will use that to his advantage every single time.” – Amy Wadlington, “Into the Deep”

Our enemy is legalistic because he must be, he’s bound by spiritual laws. He cannot cross the bloodline of Jesus Christ. Where have we let down our guard and how do we force him back once he’s found an inroad; a crack in our shield of faith? Where have we come into agreement with him without even realizing it?

I recently discovered that I had given something over to the enemy decades ago and have been living with a chain around me, holding me back from freedom God has for me. I’m praying for God to reveal any more chains disguised as mere words I haven’t considered harmful.

“I just meant……” Satan doesn’t care what you meant by your words. You spewed them out and he’ll run with them as far and as fast as he can. God teaches us how powerful our words are. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” – Proverbs 18:21a

In Amy Wadlington’s book “Into the Deep” she points out several (of many) things we might have said that Satan snatched up and ran with, compromising the abundant life God promised us here and in Heaven. I’ll suggest:

·      “No one could love me…”

·      “I’ll never get a good job…”

·      “Obesity runs in my family…”

·      “I’ll never live in a nice house…”

·      “I don’t deserve good things in my life…”

I could give you a long list of my own. If you hang out with me much, you might catch me criticizing and condemning myself in ridiculous ways, concluding that I may have a poor self-image. What lies have I locked myself into?

You may ask yourself the same question. The good news is that God will reveal them to us if we ask Him to, and He’ll walk with us through breaking them off and forcing them out of our lives. I’d love to quote this whole chapter from Amy’s book here, but I’d rather you buy the book and grow through every single chapter she shares with us. I can’t tell you how powerful it’s been in my life.

You may already recognize your own voice in your head, remembering negative things you’ve said about yourself or things others have said to you that you believed. They need to be dealt with. Satan doesn’t get to hold the upper hand. God has given us the keys to His kingdom and shares His glory with us. We are joint heirs with Jesus! Hallelujah!

Take a few minutes to ask God what you’ve said that lines up with what Satan wants you think – versus what God Himself wants you to know, His Truth – about you and about Him and everything else.

He’ll speak to your heart; He’ll reveal everything you need to know.

And as we heard in our childhood, “knowing is half the battle!”

As you pray, break off the chains those words created, let God (and the enemy) hear you declare out loud that you no longer agree with them. Let God show you a scripture that speaks His truth to the situation, agree with HIM and declare that!

Living in God’s freedom isn’t rocket science. But you need to be in His Word regularly to learn about your authority in the spirit realm.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” – Hosea 4:6a

Seriously – life is an open book test. There’s no need to flounder or fail.