Why Should I Care?

Several days ago, my daughter was giving me a difficult time about all the effort I have been putting into this blog. I had been telling her how excited I was that I now had five “subscribers”.  In her usual direct way, she asked me: “Why do you care, Mom?”  She recently started her own blog.  A number of her friends at school also have blogs, primarily as a vehicle for their college essays and other writings. I have been “bugging” her (nicely, of course) to start a blog and do the same (which she finally did over Christmas break).  She succinctly told me that she did not care if she had any subscribers or even if most people read her posts.

I was forced to think about it. Why did I care? Why should I care? 

Initially this blog started out in obedience to what I felt God was leading me to do. The concept of writing about my thoughts and feelings and putting them in a format where others, and who knows what others, could read them, was terrifying.  By nature, I am a very private person. I have internalized my stoic Scandinavian and Germanic heritage well.  Strong emotions expressed by those I don’t know make me extremely uncomfortable.

In the beginning, I hoped that no one would read this blog. If I could have fulfilled the task without the risk of anyone reading what I had written, I would have been happy.  Each post was a lesson in trust and faith. What if someone blasted me for what I had written, as I have seen in the comments section of other blogs? What if they called me (or intimated that I was) an idiot? How could I survive having to admit that I agreed with them?

With each post, I noticed a surprising thing happening. I began to care. I began to care that, not only what I had written was the best that I could write, but I began to care that others read it. I took a bold step (for me) and had this blog linked to my Facebook page and my meager list of “friends.” As each new post popped up for everyone to read, I waited to see if anyone would “like” it.

One of my daughter’s good friends has been a real inspiration to me. He considers himself called to be a writer (and I would agree with him). Through his blog I have watched and read as he has honed his craft. The honesty and courage with which he has revealed himself, and what is in his heart, through his writing has been a real encouragement to me (he is also reserved). I began to believe that if he could do this, maybe I could too.

Which brings me back to my daughter’s question: Why should I care?  I realized that I care for a couple of reasons.  When you put a lot of time and effort into something, you hope that someone will appreciate your efforts. But more importantly, I wanted to effect change and bring encouragement. I wanted to take my experiences and have others know that God would lead them through, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

A little over ten years ago, my father put together two three-ringed binders of essays that he had written. These essays are my family history in anecdotal form.  As I was writing the post about music, I went searching through his essays to clarify my facts.  I began to read and was amazed at what I found. I had forgotten what a precious gift these essays are. With his usual sense of humor he had related stories of his growing up years, how he met and married my mother, and his thoughts on a number of his life experiences.

My father is getting up in years and it is an unfortunate fact of life that he will not walk on this earth forever. When he slips from his mortal body to walk into the arms of His Savior, I will have him with me every time I read his words. His personality jumps off of every page. This legacy is a wonderful blessing to me and will be passed down to my daughter and to each generation as a reminder of their heritage.

I believe that deep within every one of us is the desire to make a difference, a desire to leave something of eternal value.  So much of what we do in our every day lives doesn’t accomplish this.  Through out history it is the written word that has survived.  Clearly, the written word is important to God. He gave us His Word as a compass and guide for our lives. His Word will survive for all eternity.  It is His Word that communicates to us His thoughts, His character, and His plans for us.

Do I believe that anyone will really care what I have written ten years, fifty years, or one hundred years from now?  No, I don’t. I am not a writer, nor do I pretend to be. What I do care about is that what I write here will be what I feel He has led me to write. If I do that, if I am obedient to what I believe He has asked me to say, then it is my desire someone will be helped to see their life experiences in a different light; that they will be encouraged to hope and keep walking forward into this marvelous adventure that is the Christian life.

It isn’t so much that I believe I have something important to say. It is that I believe He has something important to say.  And for whatever reason, He has chosen this imperfect platform as one of the small ways in which to do that.  That is why I care.  It is a very humbling revelation.

“The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of a fool pours forth foolishness.  Proverbs 15: 2 (NKJV)

Copyright © 2011 by Susan E. Johnson
All rights reserved

True Grit

“But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.” Philippians 2:22 (NKJV)

More praise for the men who daily live their lives with quiet courage and impeccable character. We do not tell them often enough how much we appreciate that they are men.

A Proof Of Worth

Though victory’s proof of the skill you possess,
Defeat is the proof of your grit;
A weakling can smile in his days of success,
But at trouble’s first sign he will quit.
So the test of the heart and the test of your pluck
Isn’t skies that are sunny and fair,
But how do you stand to the blow that is struck
And how do you battle despair?

A fool can seem wise when the pathway is clear
And it’s easy to see the way out,
But the test of man’s judgment is something to fear,
And what does he do when in doubt?
And the proof of his faith is the courage he shows
When sorrows lie deep in his breast;
It’s the way that he suffers the griefs that he knows
That brings out his worst or his best.

The test of a man is how much he will bear
For a cause which he knows to be right,
How long will he stand in the depths of despair,
How much will he suffer and fight?
There are many to serve when the victory’s near
And few are the hurts to be borne,
But it calls for a leader of courage to cheer
The men in a battle forlorn.

It’s the way you hold out against odds that are great
That proves what your courage is worth,
It’s the way that you stand to the bruises of fate
That shows up your stature and girth.
And victory’s nothing but proof of your skill,
Veneered with a glory that’s thin,
Unless it is proof of unfaltering will,
And unless you have suffered to win.

Edgar Albert Guest

The Plea

GOD grant me these: the strength to do
Some needed service here;
The wisdom to be brave and true;
The gift of vision clear,
That in each task that comes to me
Some purpose I may plainly see.
God teach me to believe that I
Am stationed at a post,
Although the humblest ‘neath the sky,
Where I am needed most.
And that, at last, if I do well
My humble services will tell.
God grant me faith to stand on guard,
Uncheered, unspoke, alone,
And see behind such duty hard
My service to the throne.
Whate’er my task, this be my creed:
I am on earth to fill a need.

Edgar Albert Guest

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
    But, he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
    Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
    On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
    That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
    At least no one has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
    And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
    Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
    That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
    There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
    The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
    Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
    That “couldn’t be done,” and you’ll do it.

Edgar Albert Guest

The True Man

This is the sort of a man was he:
True when it hurt him a lot to be;
Tight in a corner an’ knowin’ a lie
Would have helped him out, but he wouldn’t buy
His freedom there in so cheap a way–
He told the truth though he had to pay.

Honest! Not in the easy sense,
When he needn’t worry about expense–
We’ll all play square when it doesn’t count
And the sum at stake’s not a large amount–
But he was square when the times were bad,
An’ keepin’ his word took all he had.

Honor is something we all profess,
But most of us cheat–some more, some less–
An’ the real test isn’t the way we do
When there isn’t a pinch in either shoe;
It’s whether we’re true to our best or not
When the right thing’s certain to hurt a lot.

That is the sort of a man was he:
Straight when it hurt him a lot to be;
Times when a lie would have paid him well,
No matter the cost, the truth he’d tell;
An’ he’d rather go down to a drab defeat
Than save himself if he had to cheat.

Edgar Albert Guest

Good source if you like Edgar Albert Guest: http://sofinesjoyfulmoments.com/quotes/edguest.htm

Copyright © 2011 by Susan E. Johnson
All rights reserved

The Perfect Gift–The Blessing

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7 (NKJV)

There is no argument that the greatest gift we have ever received is that of Jesus Christ’s birth, atoning work on the cross, and His resurrection.  In this Christmas season we are mindful of that Perfect Gift to all of mankind, but, we can also be distracted by the commercial emphasis in the market-place as merchants bombard us with the need for giving gifts to each other. 

This Christmas, as never before, I want to focus on something of eternal value in my gift giving.  So few of the gifts any of us will exchange this year will even be used or remembered by next year at this time. The gifts that we give to our children are often quickly broken or forgotten as they are turn their focus onto the next hottest item advertised by commercial interests.

Our church has a lovely custom for its graduates, one which I had not previously been aware of. It is based on the Biblical principle of the father’s blessing.  Each graduate is given a Bible and then the father (or mother, if no father is present or available) is encouraged to pray for his child and speak a blessing over him as he enters into the next phase of his life.  It was a great disappointment to us that only two of the fathers in the group of graduating seniors officially blessed them. My husband was one of that small group. He spent a number of hours working on the blessing that he would speak over our daughter during that ceremony.

It is so easy, as parents, to focus on many things where are children are concerned. We work diligently to pass down to them the knowledge and skills that they will need to make their own way in the world.  We try to provide them with a rich environment for learning and character development. Within the home school community this becomes a full time occupation for at least one of the parents.  However, I believe that most parents omit one fundamental gift to their children in this growth process: the father’s blessing.

There are a number of examples of the father’s blessing within the Old Testament. As a father passed down to his sons their material inheritance, he also spoke over these sons a spiritual blessing.  Genesis 27 recounts Isaac’s blessing to Jacob:

“Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near now and kiss me, my son.’ And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: ‘Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed. Therefore may God give you the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!’” (Genesis 27: 26-29 NKJV).

Clearly this is more than just the gift of material blessings. This blessing speaks into the spiritual realm something of real significance.  How is it that those of us in the church have neglected something this important?  What has been lost because we have done so?

Prior to my daughter’s departure for college, many people expressed their sincere sympathy about the impending loss in my life. I was told about the difficulties of “empty nest” syndrome and how I would struggle emotionally with it.  I was informed that my marriage would be stressed and that I would continually weep as I grieved over her going away from me. Actually, neither one of those occurred. Did I miss her?  Yes greatly, however, those moments of emotional distress were few and far between.  I believe that this was mitigated by several factors. Besides the obvious grace and mercy of God, the fact that our daughter is exactly where God has ordained her to be has been an incredible blessing to us.  She has not distanced herself emotionally from us, even though she physically no longer resides in our home for the better part of the year. Our marriage has not suffered either. We had twelve years of married life prior to the birth of this child which we never thought we could have.  Our patterns of marriage were well established and we returned to that which we had before she was born.

My husband and I have discussed many times as to why our experience was so radically different from most of the people we know. We have come to the conclusion that this ease of transition had much to do with the blessing my husband spoke and prayed over our daughter during that graduation ceremony. In that blessing we released her into the next phase of her life. As we let go of her in the physical and spiritual realm, God gave us peace in the emotional realm. Here is the blessing that my husband spoke over her that day:

                                     “The Fathers Blessing”

“Hannah, joy and delight or our lives, I charge you today before God, our family, and our friends to serve the LORD wholeheartedly, to seek His kingdom first, and above all, to faithfully run the race He has set before you with joy and perseverance. As your father, it is my honor and privilege to bless you with wisdom and insight, to bless you with courage and grace in the face of the challenges you will face in this next stage of your life and service to the Lord.  I bless you with Divine Protection in every activity–in your daily life, in your travels, in your dance and dance training, that in every way God will cover you with His wings and keep you from all harm.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I bless you and I release you into this next stage of your life and service to the LORD, with our love and our full assurance that God will direct and protect your every step.”

This year as we contemplate what gifts we will present to our daughter on Christmas morning, I have decided that the most important gift I want to give her is a mother’s blessing.  I want to speak into her life that spiritual inheritance which will have eternal value.  Just as my husband and I chose our daughter’s name to exemplify one of the spiritual qualities we wanted to be most evident in her life, I want to continue that spiritual inheritance with a mother’s blessing.

                                        “A Mother’s Blessing”

“Hannah, you are such a treasure to us. We have been blessed to see so many elements of your father’s blessing already manifesting in your character and in your spirit.  I charge you today before God to continue serving God wholeheartedly, seeking His Will and His purpose for every decision  that you make.  As you grow in Him and walk into His Divine plans for your life, I would bless you with those elements of a Godly character that He most values in women.  And one day, if God should so bless you, I charge you to give to your husband and children that which God has so generously given to you.  I bless you with the Godly attributes of the “Proverbs 31 woman”.  It is His Desire, and mine, that you will be an example to all of that which constitutes a virtuous woman: that the heart of your husband and children will safely trust in you; that you will do your husband good and not evil all the days of your life; that you will willingly work with your hands to provide food and a loving home for your family; that you will gird yourself with all spiritual strength to meet whatever challenges come your way; that your lamp will never go out, even during the darkest nights; that you will not be afraid, trusting the LORD your God in every situation; that strength and honor will be your clothing; that you will open your mouth with wisdom and speak the law of kindness; and that you will watch over the ways of your household, not eating the bread of idleness.  As you walk in these Godly attributes, your children will rise up and call you blessed and your husband will also praise you. It is in agreement with the Word of the Living God, that I speak His Truth over you today; that you may continue to walk in His Ways and be a living example of His Love to all those He brings into your life. As you do so, you will bring Glory and Honor to the King of Kings, both today, and for the rest of your life.”

As we think about those gifts we want to bless our children with this Christmas season, let us not forget the God’s Perfect Gift. I would also ask every parent to consider what spiritual blessing you might speak as a gift into each of your children’s lives. This is not a gift that will be quickly broken or forgotten. This is a gift that has eternal value and will continue to bear eternal fruit.

“I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands.”  2 Timothy 1:3-6 (NKJV)

Copyright © 2010 by Susan E. Johnson
All rights reserved