Musings on Marriage

Month: May 2021

Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones?

The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones

is how you use them.  ~ Unknown

Dear Daughters,

 Disruptions.

It’s a word no one likes, but it’s a reality of life.  You know how you sometimes have a day planned, a picnic scheduled, a vacation intended, a wonderful life you imagined, a marriage you had hoped for?  And then something comes up to change your plans.  Sometimes it’s a physical or mental ailment, other times it’s rainy when you want sun, a car accident occurs, postponed flights annoy, a microscopic virus disrupts life, and then there’s always those people who make life difficult.

 When Dad and I married 45 years ago I had my long-range plan in place – to live a peaceful yet challenging life on a dairy in Idaho.  As you know, only four years later my nostalgic plans were disrupted when Dad and I answered the call for him to become a pastor.  Moving cross-country to Michigan was not how I expected my life to unfold.

 Living in four different states and 12 different cities, disruptions have become a way of life for us.  They have not become any easier, but we have grown accustomed to making new friends – again and again.

  We are often offended by disruptions.  Schedules and busyness can become addictive, making us feel like we are in control of our life.  We bring the kids to soccer practice, make sure there are clean clothes for tomorrow so we don’t have to dig some out of the hamper, try to have something edible on the table for dinner, get the homework done, try to have a little quality time with our husband….and the list goes on. 

If you remember Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit, he was a person whose life was completely disrupted without his permission.  He was called on a journey he wasn’t prepared for, didn’t sign up for, never remotely volunteered for, and really was not at all interested.  But Gandalf came, brought him some friends and comrades and off they went into unknown, uncharted territory.  In the end, Bilbo grew up.  He did things he never thought himself able to do.  He became courageous, brave, bold, daring and creative.

Or think of Dorothy.  She too was taken on an adventure unexpectedly because of the tornado.  She had not chosen to be carried in her dream to the land of Oz, but once there she made friends with Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man.  On the journey with them she learned compassion, bravery, and how to become a warrior.

 When God disrupts our lives with whatever circumstances he chooses to use, we are not typically grateful.  We would prefer to order our own lives, follow our five, maybe ten-year plan for our life.  We like to be comfortable, doing things that make us happy.  However, God wants us to learn to love others as we love ourselves.

 I was surprised 20 years ago when I read Victory over the Darkness by Neil Anderson and learned that God’s basic goal for my life is character development: being and becoming the person God wants me to be.  Really?  That’s it?  It sounded too simplistic.  I thought it was doing all the right stuff, being a fairly good wife and mother, teaching all my students to sing and play the piano. 

 Yes, those things are important, but the bottom line is that God wants you to become more loving, patient, joyful, peaceful, faithful and kind.  Nobody on earth can keep you from becoming that kind of person. And that’s precisely why there are distractions, disappointments, trials and disruptions in our lives. 

We often interpret the hardships in our lives as, Why is God mad at me?  Perhaps we need to see them as,

God loves me enough to mature me.

            Helen Keller, the woman who was both blind and deaf, wrote:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. 

Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened,

vision-cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

 So, we have a choice.  We can choose to see our tribulations as stumbling blocks, get angry about them, whine and complain about them.  Or we can accept disruptions as stepping stones and embrace the changes and challenges that come into our lives, knowing Jesus will use these incidents to grow us up.

I don’t know of any parent who wants to keep their children in diapers.  We want our own children to mature, and God our Heavenly Father wants maturity for us as well.

For each person, the specific story of circumstances will be different, but the Larger Story is always the same:

The goal of our instruction is love. (I Timothy 1:5) 

Our disruptions can be seen either as stumbling blocks or stepping stones, the choice is ours.

Love, Mom

The Chosen

Dear Daughters,

Several years ago a friend of mine posted a new TV series called The Chosen.  Again and again I would see his posts, commenting on how much he enjoyed it and encouraging others to watch.  I remember thinking to myself, I’ve seen several Jesus/Bible movies and have never been impressed with them.  Most of the characters looked like Americans, Jesus was always white and handsome, the plot lines seemed anemic and the dialogue stilted.  The Jesus in the movies never seemed real to me; he seemed other-worldly, not at all connected to his humanity.

So I never looked into it – until a month ago.  Recently, because another friend of mine was so enthusiastic about how she loved the series and had watched some episodes several times, I finally decided to give Season 1, Episode 1 a try.  It was titled

I Have Called You By Name. 

Completely different from any movie I’ve ever seen about Jesus, it opens with Mary Magdalene as a little girl, then as an adult wrestling with her demons.  It shows the every-day oppression of living under the Roman occupation, the hierarchy of the Jewish religious system, and the day to day grind of being a fisherman. 

As with any good movie, I had a lot of questions and wonderings about different scenes so of course I had to watch it again.  But the most amazing thing for me is the character of Jesus and how his humanity is portrayed – how he loves people in the red quarter, how he carves toys for the little children, how he celebrates with joy and dancing at the wedding feast of his friends.  The honesty and vulnerability of Jesus is refreshing.  He is not intimidated by the religious folk, the poor, the cynical or the Romans. 

On the other hand, the disciples are depicted as the self-centered, hard-to-get-along-with people they were.  Seeing the backstories of the characters helped me to see them as actual human beings who were deeply flawed, argumentative and obviously misunderstanding the entire mission of Jesus.  The apparent animosity between Peter the fisherman and Matthew who ruthlessly collected his taxes, was shown for what it was.  And yet, Jesus called them both to follow Him.  There were spats among the disciples – who was the greatest of them and arguments about how the whole traveling troupe should be managed.  There were biases toward classes of people and speculation about ideologies, mistrust of each other and definite opinions about life in general.  Peter, the guy who seemed the most opinionated of all, constantly gave Jesus helpful hints about how the ministry should be run.

I had never thought about Jesus continually traveling, setting up camp each night, preparing food, walking miles of dusty roads and constantly facing multitudes of people seeking healing, facing intense criticism from the religious folk and being entirely misinterpreted day after day by everyone around Him.

The official statement about the series: 

The Chosen is based on the true stories of the gospels of Jesus Christ.  Some locations and timelines have been combined or condensed.  Backstories and some characters and dialogue have been added.  However, all Biblical and Historical context and any artistic imagination are designed to support the truth and intention of the Scriptures.  The original names, locations and phrases have been transliterated into English for anything spoken.

The Chosen gets two thumbs up from me, and a huge thank you to my persistent friends for challenging me to watch the show.

Love, Mom

Sometimes We Fall Apart

Dear Daughters,

This morning I finished the last page of my planner, my oh-so-valuable Things To Do notebook.  I typically use one each year, glance through it when it’s full, then throw it away.  You probably have something similar – the daily lists and reminders, temporary information that’s important for a time, and then it’s not.

As I was scanning through my notebook, I came upon the schedules for giving Lorazepam and Morphine to Grandpa, the timing for his breathing treatments, the list of Hospice workers, names of the amazing people who came in for the night shift and short statements about his general condition.  Suddenly my mind and emotions were swept back to those last few weeks of Grandpa’s life. 

It’s been almost a year since he passed and six months since we’ve moved back to Michigan, but immediately and unexpectedly today I relived all the grief and heartache of walking toward the horizon of the end of his life on this earth.  It was a sacred time a year ago, yet perplexing in how to give him comfort as well as those who gathered around to help.  I was reminded anew about how important it is for us to have a community of support, to give encouragement and do what we cannot do.  I’m reminded of the saying

It takes a village to raise a child,

but I think I can complement it by saying

It takes a village to escort a life to the end.

I know my statement doesn’t have quite the ring as the original, but it’s the best I can come up with – plus it’s true.

I used to feel young compared to Grandpa and Grandma (I looked quite spry in comparison) but now that I am around all of you, my daughters and your beautiful families, I don’t quite feel that way anymore and I continually marvel at all your energy and youth. But it’s ok, God has given each of us a time to begin life on this earth, a time to carry on and a time to leave.

I also came upon a beautiful song today, capturing all the emotions I was feeling.  So I listened and wept over all the memories – the hard, the beautitful, and a combination of all the others.  The chorus verbalized everything I was feeling:

It’s okay to cry
It’s okay to fall apart
You don’t have to try
To be strong when you are not
And it may take sometime to make sense of all your thoughts
But don’t ever fight your tears
‘Cause there is freedom in every drop
Sometimes the only way to heal a broken heart is when we fall apart  

It’s okay to cry, fall apart, and be weak.  In fact, maybe that’s how we can live life to the fullest.  Freedom comes in our honesty to admit we hurt, to admit we miss those who have gone, and admit we need help.  After all, it takes a village…

Love, Mom

© 2024 Branches and Trees

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑