Good Friday, TGIF Devo

It's Friday, TGIF, people! Good Friday is a time to reflect on our Savior and what he gave up for us; how He suffered for us and what a great love He has for us.


I have a lot of devotionals that haven't been published, so at times I will post them online:
Here is one as my Easter gift to you:

A Constant Image
For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Galatians 6:14 The Message

In the front of my mind

In the back of my mind,

To the left and to the right,

There’s an image of a man on a cross.
Dallas Holm

These are the words to a song written by Dallas Holm that really moved my spirit. This is how I want to live my life, with the Lord in the front of my mind and in the back of my mind. As I go to the left or the right, may His image never leave me. May this picture in my mind help me to walk differently in the world I live in. I need to walk worthy of the calling God has put on me. Let me walk in a way that would not shame the one who is my Lord and Master. Jesus was born in a stable---yet He is the King of Glory.

He lived a simple life. He amazed His mother, confounded his neighborhood, (could anything good come from Nazareth?) called together a group of outcasts to disciple and write about His story.
He carried a heavy cross on which He was crucified for my sins and yours, years before we were ever conceived. He knew what pain was like. He understood how it felt to be rejected by friends and family alike. He wept. He understood what it was like to lose a loved one. But for the joy set before Him, he endured the cross. That joy was giving life to us.
Prayer: Lord, please keep the picture of what You did on the cross for us, ever before us.

Thought: What I allow myself to think on may control my day for good.

Focus: The Cross of Christ and his compassion towards His body of believers.
Donna Collins Tinsley



Wisdom to Know; A great resource for Crisis Pregnancy Centers!

Wisdom to Know by Elizabeth Maddrey may be the best book I have ever read through a Book Crash promotion. It was very well written, the characters were engaging, and the storyline drew me in immediately.

The issues, concerning abortion, addictions and forgiveness are issues that so many families wrestle with right now. There was a lot of education concerning Crisis Pregnancy Centers and the resources they have to give to the community. This is the first book in a series of books, evidently called the "Grant Us Grace" series. I can't wait to read the next one.

I do really relate to reality fiction and as far as something I would've liked included in the story, was more about the emptiness she felt after having the abortion and also the pain that her parents felt, knowing that their grandchild was aborted. The time spent in rehab was not portrayed very in-depth and I would really like to know more about what goes on in rehab. That seemed a bit brief but all in all especially with the surprise ending, I loved it. I also think with the title, there was a place that The Serenity Prayer could have been expounded on. It was because of the title and what that phrase means to me as I pray it so often that I ordered the book for review. I especially love the whole version of the prayer, by Reinhold Niebuhr:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.


Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.

This book really portrayed a person trying to live by asking for the wisdom to know. Elizabeth Maddrey I am now a big fan of your work. Keep writing. I would love to be a pre-reader for the rest of the series.

*I received this book from BookCrash and the publisher in

exchange for my honest and fair review.

I Became a Zumba Mama Yesterday!

After attending Florida Christian Writer’s Conference I am finding it hard to get back on a blogging track. A lot of little dilemmas just seem to keep me playing catch up. Yesterday was a wild and crazy day with an opportunity to present a Bible Study, picking up my daughter and granddaughter afterwards for some errands, taking the van for a transmission check and ending with (at nearly 62 years of age,) my first Zumba class! Yay! I made it through without falling down or stepping on anyone else’s feet. Jacquee is a great teacher and uses it as an outreach ministry for FWC. So until I get to blogging better here is my introduction to the Bible Study I did yesterday, titled, “God’s Waiting Room.”


"Return to your fortress, o prisoners of hope, even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you" (Zechariah 9:12, NIV)

Have you ever pondered this verse about being a prisoner of Hope? It is such a beautiful verse and the book of Zechariah has so much in it concerning hope. I want to talk about being a prisoner of Hope and also about being in "God’s Waiting Room." Many of us are in various waiting rooms of life.

I’ll never forget the day my friend called me “the mother of dreams.” We were talking on the phone at that time; I was discouraged. She was cheering me up. She meant it in a special way, as if I was the mother of her dreams, a prayer warrior, faithful and kind. Yet I, knowing myself as I do, struggling at times just keep my sanity, heard it as what I truly am, a mother who dreams.

I dream of the day when my family will be whole and delivered from all dysfunctions and addictions. I dream of sanity in our lives instead of chaos. I dream of peace and right standing with God for all my children and grandchildren. I dream of testimonies given of overcoming by God’s grace and the mercy He lavishes upon us each day. I dream of happiness, wholeness and health. I dream of restored relationships. I dream of learning to go down a different path and being happy to stay on it, instead of falling in the dark pits of familiarity. And I dream of the day that all my children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace of my children.
“Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed." Isaiah 49:23

I’m praying that you will find being in a prison of hope is a good place to be.

"Unconditional" a book and movie you want to see!

I had a great time at Florida Christian Writer's Conference. Totally awesome classes, speakers, sermons, VIP breakfasts, Banquet and of course the icing on the cake was when our Word Weaver of Volusia County Group took home the"Word Weaver's Americas Cup" for having most members attending.

My sweet roommate, Sharron Knight Cosby gave me the gift of the book by Eva Marie Everson, "Unconditional" and after having some minor work done at the doctors's Friday, I gave myself a gift of taking time for myself. Not only did I finish the whole book, but then found the movie at the library and shared this powerful story with my family. You don't want to miss either of these, the book or the movie. I absolutely loved them both but I am partial to books and our lovely Eva Marie.

I promise I will get back on the blogging ball this week:) I'll be giving something away for those who sign up to follow my blog.

Race Week and Racing to the Throne of God

It's Race Week in Daytona Beach Florida and I'll let you in on something I am working on before we race to the throne of our Lord. There is an offer of a free poem at the end if you sign up to follow this blog, so don't stop reading until the end.
Somebody’s Mother devotional is a compilation of devotions, vignettes, and musings to jump-start your day as you, a mother (or grandmother) learn to take better care of yourself amidst the chaos of dealing with life, dysfunctional relationships and adult children with addictions.

It will include the joys and pain of life from a mother and grandmother among you living a day at a time, letting go and letting God, learning and loving just like most of you.
Somebody's Mother Devotional invites you to take a deep breath, learn to treat yourself well and give yourself three weeks of concentrating on yourself. You need to refocus and realize that you dear one, are so worth it.


Let’s Pray:
Lord, Jesus, I come before you on behalf of mothers and grandmothers in need of a break, in need of some time with You, in need of refreshment.
Please cover each one with Your blood and protection and cover their loved ones, too. We don’t want to neglect the problems that are all around us, but we have come to the conclusion that we can’t “fix” adult children. We can only open our hands up to You and say, “They are Yours, Lord.” Heal, restore and work the miracles that only You can do.

I've updated this poem to be more inclusive as I strive to write a devotional It previously was called SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER:)

SOMEBODY’S CHILD

Somebody’s child is hurting
Somebody’s child is in pain
Somebody’s child feels lost
Life isn’t worth what it has cost
Somebody’s child is using
Fighting memories
Of the abusing
Life is too cruel
To take sober
Wake me
When this is over
I just wanted to be
Somebody’s good child

Donna Collins Tinsley copyright 2013
For anyone who signs up to follow my blog http://thornrose7.blogspot.com/ and sends me an email at thornrose7@aol.com with Somebody's Mother in the subject, I will send them the responding poem called Somebody's Mother.

Free Article this weekend

I have an article called "Help, My Child is in Jail!" that I am offering free to people this weekend who sign up to follow my blog.


Here is an excerpt from the article which may be helpful to those on The Addict's Moms groups:

     If you are a mother I imagine you never thought you would ever receive a call from jail when that child was in your womb. In all your plans for your child, all your prenatal planning, all your hopes and dreams and prayers, this scenario never came to mind. But for countless parents, jail calls have become a reality. Domestic violence, driving under the influence of either prescription drugs, illegal drugs or alcohol, disorderly conduct; these things were never supposed to come into a Christian parent’s life, right?  Yet, they are sometimes part of life’s hard reality.

If you sign up then please email me at thornrose7@aol.com with "Help, My Child is in Jail!" as the subject.

Peace,
Donna

TGIF, People! This and That to End the Week

Some days it is just hard to figure out a subject to blog about. On those days I go to my old quote files. It was hard for me to want to update knowing the blog about my mama, “Mama Said,” would go by the wayside. I’ll probably end with some of my favorite quotes as I am trying to get in gear to go to the next Florida Christian Writer’s Conference at the end of this month. That is taking up a lot of my thoughts. Many times I feel I am way over my head there but then I so enjoy the whole experience that I can’t stay away.


TGIF, people:

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anis Nin

“I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings of stone are worn down by water.” (Amy Tan)

“Lord, I am willing to stay in this prison for the rest of my life if only I may know you. At that moment I was free.” Kari Torjeson Malcom


“Prayer is a working instrument that does certain things, just as a pencil writes and a knife cuts.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.” Alice Walker


“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” ~Winston Churchill

“A smile is a powerful weapon; you can even break ice with it.”

--Anon.


“By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.”

--Winston Churchill


“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step

into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things

shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you

will be taught how to fly."~ Edward Tellar

And now, smile for this one, sounds like something my mama might have said:

“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning” - Catherine Aird

Mama Said, updated in honor of my Mama

Reposting a story I wrote a while back. I am posting in memory of my Mama, Linda Lee Wirth Reece Lewis who went home to be with the Lord, 15 years ago, today. Some of you may have already read this, but I hope it is a keeper!


Mama Said

I woke up from the dream weeping, "I want my Mama!" I am 61 years old and she has been dead 15 years. Will the need to reconnect with the one who gave me life never end? Is the cry of grief endless?

I first experienced it on the day that she died. It is uncontrollable, inconsolable. Involuntarily, it came from my mouth. A piercing scream to match the piercing pain in my heart. But in my mind's eye, I flash back forty years. I heard that same scream coming out of my mother's mouth at the news of her mother's death. It is nearly a primitive sound.

I was assaulted with thoughts of things I felt I could have done or should have done. In previous months, Mama had stayed with us for a few weeks to recover from several surgeries. We were in close contact but the week before she passed away, my children had been sick and we didn’t get to see each other.

Our last conversation haunted me. We had always been close and I usually called to check on her every morning. It was about 8:10 AM. I was in the midst of Monday morning rush. “Hi Mom, I’m on my way to take the kids to school and thought I’d see how you are feeling and what you are up to.”

“I can’t talk now, the nurse is here,” Mama said. It was her routine house visit to check her post-surgery wound. How I wished I had said, "Call me when she leaves." Because of such a quick call I spoke no meaningful words and felt a lack of closure.

At her moment of death I thought I would be at her side. Although I reached the hospital before the ambulance got there with Mama she had already passed away at home in her own bed.

“Please let me go in,” I begged the nurse.

“A doctor has to check her first,” I was told. Assuming she was still alive, I waited; but Mama had died at home in her own bed the way she had wanted to go.

It was hard to accept not being with her at the end. I had always tried to be the "perfect daughter." As the oldest child wasn't that part of my job description? Yet I couldn't control the uncontrollable; there is a time to be born and a time to die.

Many times when I have a dream about her I wake up and try to think of all the happy times we had. Mama was raised in the Deep South and there was always an “old saying” coming out of her mouth. Mama used to say, "Men will go after anything in a skirt!" but I'm sure we don't want to go there. As a teenage mother, divorced two times, she was probably trying to keep me from repeating her mistakes.

It wasn't easy for Mama to raise four children under the age of nine alone when my stepfather was put in prison. Her own mother and father had already passed away, and she was left on her own when she bypassed advice to put us in a children's home until she could get her life together. Although, she was a high-school dropout she was smart enough to know it could take a long time, and she wasn't going to be without her children if she could help it. I will forever be grateful that we were kept together as a family. Just sixteen when I was born she was quite a survivor! She loved to dance and I remember thinking what a pretty Mom I had as she danced to "Be Bop A Lula;" she adored Elvis, Dick Clark and the American Bandstand, and Chubby Checker, "Everybody do the twist." And everybody did.

Even though we moved often, she always worked and made sure there was food on the table. She had a lot of common sense and was so generous you would think she was a rich woman. Her employers loved her because not only could she work circles around everyone else, she made them laugh while she did it.

She used to say "It's a great life if you don't weaken," "You have to laugh to keep from crying,” and "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

And Mama always said, "What goes around comes around." That is wat I would like imitate. That is why I want to sow seeds of goodness, kindness and love because those are the types of things I want to come back to my family. Bless your children and they will bless you. Love your husband and see what a return you get. It is the principal of "sowing and reaping."
Mama also said, "Only the good die young." This must certainly be true. She died unexpectedly at age 62. Sometimes I try to imagine life with her still here. Many times I have gone over in my mind the things I wanted to do for her when she was alive. Whenever we have a family celebration or are eating at a restaurant, I am often wishing she were still alive and here enjoying herself. She loved to eat and used to say, "I'd rather die than not be able to eat what I want."

Diabetes helped that statement come true.

Mama, if I had you back for even one day, I would treat you like a queen. I would take you anywhere you wanted to go. I would make you whatever you liked for me to cook, carrot cake or the little fancy sandwiches for a picnic. We would find a “Po Folks” restaurant even if I had to drive you from Florida to Tennessee to do it. I would take you to a movie and to the flea market. I would rub your back with alcohol and then lotion and I would wash your tired feet with warm, scented water and my tears. I would pray a blessing upon you and show you how much I love you.

These are thoughts I have when I meditate on my mother. Our relationship had its ups and downs, but it is still the strongest bond on the earth, that mother-daughter connection. I will always remember the things my Mama said and it’s funny, but I seem to be saying a lot of them to my own daughters, now.

Unanswered Prayers

Have you ever prayed for something and the outcome was not what you wanted? I'm sure we have all had that experience at times. We had some prayers going on Somebody's Mother Online Prayer Support Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/119408188089314/

this week and painfully the ones we were praying for, did not get the answer they wanted. There are so many things that cannot be explained. I pray that the prayers started will continue until the Lord draws everyone so close to Him, that nothing on this earth matters.

At times like these, we wonder where God is, sometimes. The first person I thought of was Carol Kent and how she and her husband, Gene, press on although they did not get their happy ending. I next thought of the parents of the children from Sandy Hook Elementary School and what they are having to live with each day, such loss.
Something I read this morning was good; from a dear woman I know through Winning Women and it was written in a book called, "Dear Daughters:"

"Help me, oh God, help me. Be with me, Jesus. I need you so. Show me Thy way. Tell me what to do, and I will do it. Send your love, your grace, your wisdom to me, for without it I am lost. Give me your strength Father. Illuminate my path. Keep my feet from stumbling. Let me not hinder, but only help every one of your children to see You, to follow You and let me not hinder myself. My dearest Love, who knows me better than I am known, hold me close to Your Heart, your Mind, your Will. Let me feel your hand in mine as I yearn with every sinew of my spirit to walk this life as you want me to. I am nothing dust in human form, so please help me. (Diane West Van Wert)

We live to walk another day, looking for a blessing when sometimes there seems to be none. We are survivors, from stock of survivors, we are grateful for many blessings and for that reason, we will live to praise this day.

As said in Hebrews 11 many died in the promise, many did not get the good answer while here on earth, many will be named as those of whom the world was not worthy. And as Job said, "Though he slay me, yet I will trust in Him." Some will turn away in pain and some will let that pain draw them closer to the only true Comforter in this world, Jesus. I pray that for each one who is hurting today, that you will let Him hold you, draw you and surround you.  

Unanswered prayers; yes, we all have a few. But instead of feeling that they were unanswered perhaps they are prayers in "God's Waiting Room" or even the Lord's throne room, saved for a better outcome that we cannot even imagine.

Donna Trivia, Romans 8:28 and a bit of Proverbs

Donna trivia: My oldest grandson turns 18 today and my youngest daughter turns 22 in a week. Life is always hectic when you have grandchildren and children so close to the same ages. I gave birth to my firstborn daughter at age 15 and I was pushing forty when Shiloh was born. I became a grandmother for the first time at age 33. My Mom was a grandmother at 31. Thankfully the cycle of early motherhood has been broken with my daughters, at least they have all been 18 or older when they gave birth. Shiloh is still a newlywed, not planning on children for a while and Ashley is still single. I have four daughters that are each unique and loved


More Donna trivia: This year I am committed to writing fiction for the first time. My nonfiction at times, in my writer's group has been known to make grown men cry. It always amazes me when that happens as I don't feel that I write for men. I wonder if Daytona Streets will ever be finished, but I will give it a try this year.
Prophecy many years back from the prophet Steve Scheffler, "You are a rose whose thorns will prick the hearts of men." That is where I came up with the screen name of thornrose7. Seven is my favorite number.


This week a woman emailed me and asked for prayer and help. I told her when I get down I try to do something for someone else and I also find a Bible verse to hold on to. Actually, this is what I wrote: “Keep Looking up and when you are lonely and needy, find someone else who is lonelier and help them:)

Hold on to a verse of scripture and keep praying. His timing is perfect.”

My life verse has been Romans 8:28 and I clung to that verse during a very painful first marriage and throughout the years I have always believed that the Lord will work things to my good and bring good from even the most painful things of my life. I would never try to hurt someone by giving this advice, as I have found both things to be true, helping others and holding on to a Bible verse; it is the law sowing and reaping. But somehow she felt bad by what I said and made it impossible for me to return a message back to her. Here is the scripture I would’ve written back and if you are still reading my posts, dear one, I hope this helps.

He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right.

Isaiah 42:3 The Message.

Another thing I go back to often is this quote:

"There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still." Corrie Ten Boom

I'll end with another Facebook post that got a lot of good feedback:
For the sisters among us:) Something from Proverbs 31:26-31 for each of you, as an affirmation:

She speaks wise words

and teaches others to be kind.

She watches over her family

and never wastes her time.

Her children speak well of her.

Her husband also praises her,

saying, “There are many fine women,

but you are better than all of them.”

Charm can fool you, and beauty can trick... you,

but a woman who respects the Lord should be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned;

she should be praised in public for what she has done. (NCV)
Lord please affirm and lift up each woman who reads these words. Help them to be strong in You and to look forward and smile at the future regardless of what it holds. Help them to live to praise Your name, give grace where needed and strength for this day, each moment and hour we pray in Jesus precious name.