I was rushing yesterday afternoon from my son’s house to a funeral viewing in Cookeville Tennessee and I was running late. I got off at the Cookeville exit and this man was sitting by the intersection with his bicycle, his ragged clothes and his sign.

I wizzed right by him and was caught by the red light and took another look at him through the eyes of my side mirror. His sign read, “Happy New Year”. My heart in my body wept!

Life is so busy crazy for me at times and I try really hard to do good and be a child of God but this man made me realize how very little I really do. I did not turn back around and honestly don’t even know if his needs were authentic but his little sign spoke volumes in my soul.

What is the New Year bringing to him? What will the year bring to any of us? We don’t have the promise of one more day or even one more second. We rush around like we are fighting fires when all God really wants us to do is love and care like He would. We are not the judge over people but He is!

My New Year needs to be more compassionate, more caring, and more loving! I need to seek God’s will more and ask for directions before I head out on my own instead of waiting until I am bogged down and then asking God what to do.

Maybe some of you saw this same man and you stopped or you helped. I commend you if you did and I feel ashamed that I didn’t.

I remember thinking how can he of all people in his predicament be wishing others a Happy New Year…. what is Happy about his year thus far? I don’t have any answers but just thoughts tonight as I let the words flow. Do we have the time to be Christians?

I will leave you with that thought. How do we really spend our time?

I heard some words today that really got me to thinking about something. The words were in regards to invites and who should and should not be invited and how certain events are for VIP’s only.

I have Christmased it up around home all week and have sewn, decorated, mailed cards, and got in groceries. All my busyness is in regard to the big event of Christmas!

I try so hard to make it special for everyone and plan for months in advance and this year even more so because for the very first time all of my grandchildren will be here under my roof at the same time.

Back to the VIP topic. I treat everyone who enters my home as a VIP and I try to make them feel at home and comfortable but I got to thinking about all of that. The VIP of Christmas is Jesus and unless we put Him in that high regard then we have failed miserably!

Jesus extends his invite of membership to all regardless of status, color, creed, personality, or looks. To join the membership of Jesus does not cost you a penny and it is for life.

I just wanted to throw that out there tonight because sometimes we all forget about what Christmas is all about. We don’t have a God that picks and chooses who can join his membership. The door is open to all and He has enough love for everyone!

So, we all have access to VIP privileges if we are a child of the King!

I never realized that I was in a VIP club until today!

Our youngest child, a son, had graduated high school and spent that first summer working for a company that built houses. I was pleased as I always wanted a carpenter in the family.

Summer was coming to an end and our son’s friends were going away to register at their selected colleges. On one of those occasions he tagged along and decided that very day that he did not want to build houses, nor did he want to go to college.

I received a phone call that night and our son told me that he had decided to join the Air Force. I was floored and he could sure hear it in my voice. He said, “Mom, are you not happy for me?” I replied that he had just graduated a short while back and he had never once mentioned going into the military as his Dad and older brother had done. I told him that I was just not ready for him to leave home I guess and he said we would talk about it that night when he returned home.

I waited up for him and we talked until 3 in the morning. I accepted the fact and after all America was not at war or anything so I guessed it would be ok.

He went ahead and signed into the Air Force and was due to leave home in October. I was sitting at my desk at work on 9-11-01 when my phone rang and it was our daughter, Rachel. She was a stay at home Mom at that time and had her programming interrupted by a news flash. A plane had flown into one of the twin towers in New York and no one at that time really understood why.

I quickly turned on the radio that sat on my desk about the time the second plane hit the other twin tower. I began to shake violently and my first thought was, “ We are at War!”. Our son was already legally bound and heading to the military and we were at war now! Oh my! I began to not only shake but to cry as I heard the episodes of the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania farm field. It all happened so fast and then I heard George W. Bush come on the radio and I laid my head over on my desk and I prayed.

The President was to address the nation that night on television and a few minutes before broadcast time I began to see headlights coming unannounced down our driveway. Every single child we had showed up at our house that night and we all heard the president speak together. It was a very sobering and a solemn time.

Matt left in October for the Air Force and my husband and I were empty nesters. I could be wrong on the date but I think on March the 8th 2004 on a Sunday morning, my husband at age 51 got a call and he was told that he had been called up for active duty with the Tennessee National Guard. Not only did I have a son in active duty but then I had a husband too.

I remember my husband and I driving up highway 111 a few days later and we had a conversation about our golden years and all of our 4 children leaving the nest and who would’ve thought that we would be facing what we were facing at that very moment. It was almost as a dream!

My husband ended up getting orders to go to Iraq as a Bradley Armored Vehicle Commander and our son volunteered to go to Iraq during that same time. I asked our son what he thought he was doing and he said, “Dad might need me over there.” I said, “I am so sure!” I was not happy!

My husband had a roadside bomb explode as he was halfway out the hatch of his Bradley and was badly injured. Sure enough, our son had been right! My husband was transported to Anaconda to our son’s Air Force base. I emailed our son and when his Dad came back to consciousness our son was standing at the foot of his bed.  My husband had his son right there to take care of him!

9-11-01 changed so many things in America and took away privileges that we will never get back. When you have to be at an airport 2 hours ahead of time or go into concerts or ball stadiums with nothing but clear bags just remember why.

Just last week I sat in an examination room with my husband who suffers from PTSD and listened to him recall the man that blew his face to bits right in front of him with a cellphone detonator connected to a bomb. I heard my husband tell the doctor of how that man’s partial face comes to him in nightmares and speaks to him. I watched my husband cry.

9-11-01 changed everything for our family and took from us things that we can never get back.

I remember being at church the first Sunday after 9-11-01 and how at the end of the service someone played the Lee Greenwood, God Bless the USA song and everyone in that building stood to their feet, I remember a country where American flags grew scarce because everyone was buying them and putting them up. I remember sending George W. Bush an email  in the wee hours of

rallied behind our soldiers and rarely a day went by that a care package didn’t go out from home to Iraq to our National Guardsmen.

Yes! 9-11-01 changed us, it changed everything for all of us and tonight I have tears for my friends local that lost their sons and I remember. I also have tears for an America that was united and kinder and I pray for our land that we can all get back to being what we should be!

Several weeks ago as I was scrolling Facebook I came across an invite to a Women’s Fellowship Prayer Event in my local hometown. The guest speaker was going to be a lady named Brenda Harris. I did not recognize the name but in further review of the invitation I found out that she played a behind the scenes role in the making of the movie, “War Room”.

When my husband and I went to the theater to see this movie, I immediately fell in love with it and it touched me so deeply that needless to say I was intrigued by the Facebook invitation and clicked on the icon that I was going to go.

I never know exactly what each day will hold for me but I did know that my Mom’s birthday was the day before the event but sometimes because she is married to an evangelist she is not always in town on her birthday so I did not think there would be any reason that I should not be able to attend.

Yesterday, Mom was actually here on her birthday and I had decided earlier in the week that my day would be spent with her. We went to a yard sale and then headed off to Cookeville to see if we could find that perfect electric fireplace that she had been wanting. My siblings and I were going to go in together and purchase the fireplace for her for her birthday.

I ended up leaving home around 8am yesterday morning and returning around 10:30pm last night as we did find the fireplace and got it and then my stepdad went and picked it up and he had to spend hours putting it together. It was an all day affair.

As I drove home last night I contemplated just skipping the prayer event and sleeping in. I was really tired but in Sunday School recently we had discussed that as Christians we need to recognize the stench of Satan and how he tries his hardest to mess up our life and our plans with God. I decided no matter how tired I was that I was going to set my alarm and get up and be at the church by 8am this morning. I am really glad that I made that determined decision! The blog that I write tonight is the result of me obeying God today.

The morning started off with a breakfast in the basement of the church. I did not know there was going to be a breakfast so I had already eaten but went through the line anyway and picked up some fruit and a couple of miniature muffins. The women there were from all different congregations and churches and I did not really know a lot of them. I chose to sit down with my breakfast food near a young woman that was holding a small child. I am always drawn to women with small children as I feel that I was once in their very same shoes and have never forgotten that.

After the breakfast time, we all traveled up the steps to the main sanctuary of the church. We had wonderful praise and worship music and then a visual example performed by a local doctor. Everything was so good!

The speaker came to the platform and I began to listen and find out more about her. She serves as the communication and prayer coordinator for Kendrick Brothers productions and was the Prayer Coordinator for the movie, “War Room”.

She began to tell us a little bit about herself and then got right to the meat of why we had been invited today.

The first statement that she made will stick with me the rest of my life and to paraphrase went something like this:

The original 12 disciples who walked with Jesus on a daily basis and saw numerous miracles and happenings that were unbelievable, only made one request of the Lord after being privy to all of that and that was for Jesus to teach them how to pray. Wow! Just think about all of that for a minute. They had witnessed water turning to wine, people with various illnesses being healed, 5000 people fed with the lunch of a boy, calming of a storm, Jesus and Peter (briefly) walking on water, lame people walking, mute speaking, and the dead brought back to life and they could have asked for many different things but they asked Jesus to teach them to pray! A light bulb moment went off in my head!

The common denominator in all of these things was prayer! 

I looked back at my program handout tonight and these words jumped off the page to me:

We realize that you are not here by accident! Each of you has been prayed for over the preceding weeks. We have prayed that God would bless each of you and your families. He knew exactly who would come and every single circumstance of each individual here. We thank the Lord for your presence.

Satan had tried to keep me from attending this meeting but intercessory prayer for me had gotten me there and I felt really rested.

Ms. Brenda began to tell of a coworker that she had that was constantly telling her stories of her Godly mother and the things that she would do. One day Brenda told the coworker that she did not want to hear any more stories of this woman but to meet her. The daughter introduced Ms. Brenda to her mother, Mrs. Molly Bruno. Brenda and Molly became very close friends. God was already at work in the making of War Room.

2 weeks before the filming of the War Room movie, the actress that would play the role of Mrs. Clara and the house that would be Mrs. Clara’s house had neither been found. The directors began interviewing for the part of Mrs. Clara and a local lady came in and blew them away and they immediately knew that she was the one. As they sat down with her, she took off her wig and they realized that she was a much younger 55 year old lady. She played the part perfectly. Now, they moved on to finding the house and they prayer walked the streets and came across a house that they thought would be perfect and it had a for sale sign in the front yard. Just as they were about to dial the realtor a man walked around the side of the house and asked if he could help them. The directors told of their need and the man said that he would call his realtor as he was in contract. The realtor would not agree but the man took the house off the market anyway and told them that they could rent his house for one month. Immediately the Kendrick production team came in and power washed the house, painted it, and dolled up the inside. The house was perfect!

In the meantime, Ms. Brenda was telling the directors of her wonderful, prayer warrior friend, Mrs. Molly Bruno and they Skyped with Mrs. Molly and what was to be a 30 interview lasted 3 hours. The decision was made to pattern the movie character of Mrs. Clara after the real life Mrs Molly Bruno. Mrs. Molly began a prayer vigil like no other over the making of that movie. Sometimes the filming would be all night long as they wanted scenes of actual pitch black darkness and Mrs. Molly would stay up all night long praying during this time. Mrs. Molly met Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore both via Skype and prayed for them as well.

On the night of the filming of the scene where Priscilla Shirer is basically kicking Satan out of her home, that scene was filmed at 2am in the morning. The prayer team was in the basement of the house and Mrs. Molly was praying at home. Priscilla Shirer asked for a few minutes to go into the prayer closet and she prayed as she wanted that scene in particular to be real and not just some memorized lines spoken out loud. The prayer team was hushed in the basement as the director said, Action! From the basement they could hear Priscilla walking, speaking, and going outside and slamming that door and telling Satan to get out and to leave her family alone! As soon as the scene finished and they could speak again, the team in the basement had an all out revival and praises to God rang out!

When the month was over and the filming in the house was finished, a couple just contacted the owner out of the clear blue and wanted to buy the house and it sold for the full price the very next week.

After doing the movie, the production team wrote some workbooks and devotionals to go along with the movie. The teenage book is entitled, ” This Means War”. Mrs. Molly Bruno was still praying for hours and hours during all of this time. The day after all the War Room projects were wrapped up and completely finished, Mrs. Molly Bruno died. Her task had been completed and God took her on home. Her daughter wrote a book about her and you can order it on Amazon as it is entitled ” The Audacious Molly Bruno”

I remember when my husband was activated with the Tennessee National Guard and was sent to Iraq how I placed Christmas candles in my home windows that were set to light up my whole house each morning at 4:30am because I set aside that time to pray. The candles kept me from over sleeping. I prayed more during that time than I have ever prayed in my life. Today, I felt very ashamed of myself and how my time with God gets so sidetracked at times. The speaker told us that if you are praying and your thoughts wander to take a pad and write down those distractions so you won’t forget but then to just go on praying and get back on topic. The distractions will still be there when you get finished.

God speaks through His word and His Spirit, but sometimes speaks in whispers. (1 Kings 19 verse 12. You can’t hear whispers unless you are close to the source…..excerpt from “This Means War”

I wanted to share my thoughts from today while they were still fresh in my mind. I gleaned a tremendous lot from today’s lessons and I want to change my ways. Prayer is so important and we all have many things that we should be praying about.

When I was a little girl one of my grandmothers taught me a bedtime prayer that went like this:

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Yesterday in Sunday School class we watched a video about a man that always lived a life where everything he did or touched had always gone his way. He was up in years and most of his life had been nothing but peace.

One day he began to have these headaches. At first the headaches were not that bad but then they got worse and worse until one day while trying to leave the house to go to the grocery he passed out in the floor. When the man came to he was able to call 911 and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

After a series of tests the man was found to have a cancerous brain tumor that required immediate surgery and only a 30 percent chance of regaining all of his normal brain activity back.

The man that has always been so calm, cool, and collected became a man of fear and anxiety.

On the morning of his surgery as he lay there in dread, a thought came to him. Always as a child his mother would tuck him in at night, read him a story, and then ask of him if he had any fears or worries or concerns from his day. He would then voice to his mother any problems that were bothering him from the day. The mother would then begin to pray aloud over him and ask God to help him and to give him peace.

Now as the man lay in that hospital bed in the worst predictament of his life, his mother’s soothing voice came flooding back to him and he prayed and as they rolled him to surgery he had peace like no other!

Right now in my life I spend a lot of time babysitting my grandchildren. I realize that I have been failing them in so many ways. God has given me a golden opportunity here to speak words of kindness to them, to share Godly wisdom, to teach them child-like prayers like my grandma did for me, and to pray over them.

As these little ones grow they will then have a compass, a well of living water, a measuring stick, and a God to look to and lean on.

As I write these words under the shield of my bed sheet as to not wake my sleeping 11 month old granddaughter in the crib beside me, my eyes fill with tears as I feel like my time here is running short and I could have done more.

In a few short weeks, my granddaughter will be out of my care and entering daycare with her brother. I vow today to share my Jesus more with her and her brother and to give them words that someday could guide them through troubled times or anxieties like my grandmother did for me.

We Watch TV, we look on Facebook, we read magazines, or listen to songs and there is nothing wrong with any of that but do we do the most important things or are those things getting crowded out?

Yesterday as I watched that Sunday School lesson my grandma’s words in prayer came back to me. Let us leave legacy words and actions that continue long after we are gone.

Our God is Awesome and we should be directing others to Him!

Today Mark and I drove the Tennessee National Guard Parkway heading to Smyrna to get our military ID’s renewed.

All along this road are memorial signs with fallen soldiers names on them. Some names are SFC and one I noticed had the II after his last name which means he was not senior, not junior, but the 3rd in his family with that same name.

The route was very touching to me and I knew somewhere soon along that route we would see the fellow soldier of Mark’s with the name of Robert Wesley Tucker. Sure enough we passed his sign and someone had placed 2 small United States flags in the stake that holds up his sign.

I know Wesley’s family personally and this got me to thinking that his Mom and Dad may have placed those flags there or maybe a fellow comrade pulled over to the side of the road and that was the way they paid their respects and remembrances.

Some of these families lost the only son that they had and me losing a son let’s me know firsthand that pain. None of those families nor I wanted to give up our sons which led me to thinking about God.

In John 3:16 it says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God knew ahead of time what would happen to his Son and He did it anyway because He loves us that much!

This weekend is Easter and it is all about remembrance. We have Easter each year, not for bunnies, chicks, colored eggs or fancy clothes but we have it to remember the God that loves us so much that He gave us His Son to die for our sins so that we can have eternal life…. I think that is pretty special and well worth remembering!

Happy Easter!