If you need an “encourager” for an event, please contact me to see if our calendars can coordinate. If you need an “encouragement” written for a publication, please contact me. Any opportunity to encourage other women does the same for me!

 

 

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.  1Thessalonians 5:24

A quick peak into who I am. I am 61 years old and some days I am fine with it. Does being “not fine” change anything? My mind wanders frequently to the phrase, “finishing well.” I want to finish well.

I want to do something worthwhile every day, no matter how small. Somewhere in my 20’s, or early 30’s, I realized something. We make our lives harder than they need to be. Although I have not always made necessary changes to support my truth, I have made incremental changes. I am headed in the right direction. When I became aware of how important my faith in Jesus Christ was my life began changing because of it. Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is monumental to peace and joy, even to a victorious life. That is the most important thing I will ever tell you. To add assurance to my claim, I refer you to the book of 1st John, chapter 5. God reassures us that we can know that we have eternal life. He does not want us to worry about the future. He is our Father and He loves us. 

Traveling as my husband and I did, I have noticed some women of like faith are way ahead of me on their faith walk and I have noticed others that don’t seem to have the concept that Jesus Christ really can change their life. Note: I said they “seem” to be unaware of promises in Scripture. In truth, a woman of faith, knows that God can transform her life, but sadly not all have yielded to their responsibility that will bring about positive changes. Reading biographies and hearing biographies from women like you reminds me that it is never too late to start. My passion is to encourage you to take a bite out of today. Go ahead; take one!

Most everyone has heard the riddle:  How do you eat an elephant? The answer is you take one bite at a time. I’m working on mine, one bite at a time. Many of us have started projects and stopped them and never started again. Be encouraged: Until you have quit, thrown in the towel, you have not failed. That is the philosophy that I endeavor to live by and in these pages, essays and articles it is my deepest desire to encourage women to be more today than they were yesterday.

The essence of who I am has been shaped by my Savior – The Lord Jesus Christ. Most all my foundations began on a farm in southwestern Pennsylvania and I will forever be grateful for the start I had in my life. The greatest legacy I left home with was a deep faith that every word in the Bible was true. That is a legacy to build a life on! I left there to marry a kind and strong man in 1987. Marriage, like life, is never quite what we expect but I am thankful for both. My marriage has given me a man that is faithful to God and therefore faithful to me. We have two little girls that became two little women and now they both have their own families.

My husband became quite ill in 2014, but we had 4 more active years after that. In June of 2019, he passed from death into life. Recently I was thinking about the impact he had upon my life and I realized something in so passionate a way, I wept for a moment because I wanted him to know – Marrying him was the 2nd best decision I ever made. Becoming a Christian would have to be the first. His influence in my life surely had a major part in my spiritual growth. Lois and India bring me immeasurable joy and that is another perk from having been married to the man I was.

 My husband and I committed our lives to full-time ministry in 1994. What I have learned is that full-time ministry is a way of life – not a living. All life, all living comes from God.

Our Lois was born in 1989, almost 2 years after we married. She and Joshua have two sons, Malachi and Joash. 

India was born in 1991 and she is married to Zachary. They have four children: Sakshi, Paisley, Thaddeus and Sophie. In the near future I hope to have a little bit more about them on this website. I’m a grandmother of six and I often think about what my own mother said. I might be old and my body is getting old but my mind still feels young. Her perspective on life was a picture of that belief and my children thought she was the perfect grandmother. While not perfect, my mother was the perfect mother for me. I had a fun and happy daddy until he died when I was 19 years old. Years later, I realized the treasure that he was.

My interests are varied as are my responsibilities. I don’t knit or crochet. I am not crafty and I don’t do scrapbooks. Creating and keeping home excites me. Moving furniture, changing things around. Creating a fresh look with old things; updating the look with creative accents. I love studying how a home looks, how it feels and how it smells. I enjoy what is the ultimate compliment about our home. It tells me that I have accomplished what I set out to create ; when someone tells me that my home feels peaceful.  It is the ultimate compliment. I am interested in many things, but passion for a fabulous cup of coffee is right up there with a peaceful home. Having coffee in a peaceful home … does it get any better?   What gets your juices going?

I will tell you one thing that I do not enjoy and that is web creation, learning new technology skills and things that I need in order to be a better helper to my husband. I am amazed by it, but I think I am better suited to a quill and parchment. A girl can dream.

My words for 2019 is Fruition. TO me, it means that I will finish at least one project started long ago. Being a “woman of a certain age,” I want to be that woman that is strong and very courageous. I want to be an example of a believer. I want to pass encouragements to you, often. Let us determine to help the women of the younger generation to know that it is all right to be strong and very courageous. Let us encourage women of our own age that they must and can be strong and very courageous. We can let our little light shine for the girls in our footsteps. 

Act, and God will act.  Joan of Arc.

Can you relate?