Words! Words! Words!
Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are bad. Sometimes useful and sometimes not so much. Sometimes kind and caring, but others are hurtful and unkind. I have been thinking about words a lot lately. Can you tell? 😊
My Sister, Rae Jean, who lives with us, just dearly loves to have me read to her. Sure, she can read, and books are always available, but she always prefers for me to read aloud. She almost always says, “I remember when Mother used to sit down and read to Geniece (another sister) and me when we were really little. I love to be read to!” So, we have been doing a lot of reading these past 15 months.
We’ve read all the Nancy Drew mysteries. (“Remember when we would walk from school to the Bentonville City Library and check out stacks of books every week?” [Actually, no, that, too, was Geniece. I was too young.] We’ve read, I believe, all the “Murder, She Wrote” books. Of course, Reader’s Digest magazine. Dear Friend/Sister Sharron saves her daily papers for us, since Rae Jean was used to having her daily paper to read.
I’d gotten rid of numbers of books when we moved from the ranch over across the lake to our retirement home. But recently I found one on my shelf I didn’t recollect. I pulled it down and offered to read to her. Though I remember reading Marjorie Holmes’ books, poetry, magazine columns, etc., I didn’t recall this particular book. I decided we’d read it, thinking perhaps it was one book that was left here in this house when we moved in.
Talk about a surprise! I opened up You and I and Yesterday and found the following inscription:
“Christmas 1974
Dear Nana,
We hope you enjoy this book. Marjorie Holmes is one of my favorite writers. Have a Merry Christmas and many, many more!
Love,
Lonny and Katy”
This was a book I had given to my Nana (grandmother) almost 50 years ago! I didn’t even know I had it! I think that when Rae Jean and Aunt Tez were selling Nana and Aunt Thelma’s home after they were gone, Rae Jean must have sent it in one of the number of boxes designated to go to us. Somehow it had missed the chopping block on our last move!
Funny thing. I don’t think I had ever read that book. Funnier yet, I’d totally forgotten about Marjorie Holmes. And so here we are now, about the age that Nana was when she received this book, reading about life in the “Good Old Days” when Marjorie was a child growing up in the small town of Storm Lake, Iowa, in the 1920s.
That reminds me: this is 2024.
I’ve often talked about my great leap forward with the old New Year’s Resolutions conundrum. For many years, I, as do so many others, had assiduously sat down at the first of the year with the task of setting forth my New Year’s Resolutions. (Fanfare, please.) The problem, I realized some time ago, was that what I was actually doing was setting myself up for failure. Let’s face it, it’s going to take more than ink on a sheet of paper to perform all the resolutions that are on that list year after year after year….
So several years ago I chose some scripture verses and used them as my touchstones of encouragement for the new year. My memory improved as I read them, usually, every morning and every night, and I am sure I am better for it. But THIS YEAR, this year, 2024, I have another plan. As I told our Ladies’ Bible Study group, I am taking one specific admonishment from the Bible, and I am using it as a framework to build my year on. Are you ready for this? I think you’ll love it a lot.
Speak the Truth in Love
(It’s from Ephesians wherein our Ladies’ Bible Study is studying now. If you’d like to join us, we meet on a conference call Tuesday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00. We’ll be happy to send you the number.)
So many people are delighted to unload their take on world events, churches, other people… whatever. But they seldom have the truth, much less are they speaking in love. Those who are trying to browbeat other believers with their brilliance and erudition need a clearer understanding of Love.