Birth-days

It's my birthday...so today I celebrate God's gift to me--LIFE. And the icing on the cake is ETERNAL LIFE as freely given to me when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and thus was BORN AGAIN. ("In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." -- John 3:3)

As I read what has become embraced by me as the "Birthday Psalm 139," I'm reminded of God's love, favor and purposes so inventively built into our lives. "...For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be..."

My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue to believe, walk and breath in God's promises, plans, and purposes for our lives. In Jesus' Name I pray this. Amen. So be it!

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker & Author of I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, www.stanice.com

Self-Inflicted

Let us take a moment to briefly look at what a mutated and degenerative web we weave when we duck, dodge, and deceive. We know what the right thing to do is and yet we try to get around doing it. We try to find an easier or softer way—but that way always results in unnecessary and self-inflicted pain. We don’t have to surrender to living that way. We can look up and call on God to help us do what we, in and of ourselves, lack the power to do—the right thing!

© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me

Unconditionally

Photo: My Son & Granddaughter
Many of us have done things in our past that we are not proud of, are embarrassed about, or even feel a residue of shame when we think about the selfishness and self-centeredness of some of the bad choices we made. However, some of us have also experienced the unconditional love of a child, whether our own or someone else’s, and as a result of looking into these forgiving faces our cooled hearts are warmed and we get a glimpse of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.
© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me

Thinking vs. Faith

A little something that I heard on the radio while in St. Vincent and The Grenadines last week:

"THINKING can get you to the bottom of the mountain but FAITH can get you to the top of the mountain."

Poem: Morning in St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Caribbean landscapes and rhythms loom lush
The anxious flap of an exotic bird’s wings
The sway and swing of a sister’s firm hips that
Stride familiar with steep hills and deep valleys
The splash of the sea on the shore’s volcanic rock
Beats out the three-quarter time.

An unclaimed yellow dog barks in thanksgiving at a discarded meal
The mooing of yonder tied-to-the-side-of-the-road cow,
Allows the rhythms to simmer and syncopate.

The wind tiptoes across the small waves of the sky-blue reflected waters
The subtle creak of coconut trees
The palm trees clapping their huge fanned leaves in what must be praise
Puffs of foliage like green paint-soaked sponges dabbed
onto a freshly blue-washed canvas.
Rich hues of orange, aqua, blue and neon green roofs
atop pastel and white houses scattered amid the hills and mountains
like squadrons of carnival-colored mushrooms and
textured paint splatters left by an artist
abruptly called away to a more urgent task.

Could there be more urgency than these Caribbean landscapes and rhythms command?

Tree-adorned mountains loom like giant watchmen
posted at the gates of Paradise.
The distant hills look like a weary giant lady dressed in parrot green accented with dried-brush beige
She lies on the ground to rest
Face tilted up and away at the sky
Knees bent and slightly parted, she welcomes the trade winds’ caress.
With intrinsic beauty she basks in the sun’s summer kisses.

Cars and trucks beep and accelerations strain to meet the hills’ demands
Like sound samples recorded in metropolitan places and patched onto the artist’s palette of Caribbean landscapes and rhythms that God
birthed into this morning in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker & Author of I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, www.stanice.com

Poem: The Caribbean Sea at St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Sprawled out before my eyes—
far from the world I knew before this place—
the Caribbean Sea
disguised from this distance as a slate blue-gray sleuth
a slow-moving fog hovers inches from the surface.
Fluffy dingy-white blankets of clouds pregnant with rain
maneuvers themselves to vantage points that only God knows
A kite’s tail of mountainous islands rise up
from the belly of the Caribbean Sea
like angry sleeping dragons
aroused by what must be beauty’s silent thunder
The kind of beauty
that only God could create.
It’s the difference between an airplane and an eagle.
Between 20,000 earth-bound bridges and one heavenly comet
A camera’s flash and a solar eclipse
The Caribbean Sea
Sprawled out before my eyes
Like a heavy laden desert cart after a six-star meal

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Grand-Ma

This week, I leave for a ministry trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies. My schedule includes speaking at The National Women’s Gathering, talks for youth, and finishing a play that I’m writing. Awesome right? However, I will not be home on Mother’s Day and the thought made me feel a bit sad.

On my last visit to St. Vincent in May 2003, my hosts asked if I wanted to stay another week. I declined because I wanted to be home for Mother’s Day—and that was before my grandchild was born. Now in addition to my own mom, there is my son, Michael, and his daughter, Michal Zoë, here in the US--and me--without them--in another country on Mother's Day.

An unspoken prayer sprang up from my heart, “Lord, please, I need peace for this journey.” Before the day's end, thoughts drifted into my mind and took me back to Saturday, April 23, 2005.

While spending the evening with my son and his family, I gave my granddaughter a vocabulary lesson. Two days into being ten-months-old, we worked our soon-to-be almost-favorite word, “GrandMa.” She sat on my lap and studied my lips, as I pronounced clearly, slowly, and repetitively, “Grand-Ma, Grand-Ma.”

Michal Zoë peered intently into my mouth, touched my lips, and fluttered her eyes as my breath escaped upon each syllable. She smiled at me in between my long string of the unfamiliar word, as if it registered in some newly discovered corner of her brain. Again, I repeated, “Grand-Ma” until something clicked within both of us and we knew the day’s vocabulary lesson was over.

Michal Zoë confirmed this as she slid off my lap and onto the blue-gray carpet. She crawled over to her Mommy and pulled up as if she intended to share her experience in GrandMa's class.

It’s okay, I thought, one day she will say “GrandMa” and so much more. I sighed as I let go and yielded to God’s perfect timing.

I felt happy and content as I watched her. In the next moment it happened. My granddaughter turned toward me. Distinctly and slowly, she formed her lips and said, “Grand-Ma.” As if she knew she aced an exam, she offered Grand-Ma a smile that sealed the day into the annals of our family's history of firsts.

I know now that on Saturday, April 23rd the Lord, because He sees way down the road, gave me my Mother’s Day present early. Once again, God heard my prayer and sealed it with a promise, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7).

Therefore, I joyfully embrace God’s assigned journey. I carry within my heart, mind, and spirit—my mom, son, and granddaughter—even to the ends of the earth.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Maturity Through Perseverance

I once read an intriguing definition for “persevere” in a Bible glossary. “Perseverance is the ability to endure hardship and suffering without complaining or becoming angry.”

Shall I take my own inventory of this essential fruit? I had a long history of trying to circumvent hardship and suffering by whatever means necessary. I was especially good at doing the easier, softer thing. “Hard choices were the wrong choices” was my motto. Choices made, decisions left unmade, habits, lusts, and envy contrary to everything the Word of God lovingly teaches. I also had a nasty habit of crying, moaning, and complaining at any hint of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. Now, I must also admit that most of the suffering in my life has been self-inflicted—even since embracing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Where did my inability to persevere get me? So deep into the pits of despair that only a merciful and loving God could have dug me out. Also, always short of the marvelous plans that God intended for my life when I yielded to His will and cast all my hopes, cares, and concerns at the foot of the Cross.

And you know what else I found out about myself? Sometimes, like a drowning swimmer who fights the lifeguard that’s trying to save her, I have to be knocked out by life in order for God to pull me safely to shore.

Then one day, while reading the Bible I came across James 1:4, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” I prayed for clarity and understood, finally, the necessity to press my way—to persevere. As I kept my spiritual eyes on Jesus, the Holy Spirit imparted His strength and wisdom which allowed me to make the sometimes hard but right choices that propelled me closer to God’s perfect will for this life that He so graciously saved.

When I want to give up, and that thought enters my mind sometimes, I don’t. There are times when I want to stretch out on the road and cry out, “No more, life is just too hard!” But I’ve found that along the way somewhere God has changed my mind—my perspective—and I refuse to give up five minutes before the miracle happens.

I have found that when I call upon my Savior, I am given the ability that I could never give myself—no matter how many self-help books I read—to persevere. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I am able to go one more step, cast aside all fear, chase away my doubts, stomp down the enemy of my soul, speak life to my circumstances, command that the raging storm to cease and desist, write one more sentence, seize opportunities, let go the past, forgive myself and forgive the same person yet another time for the same thing I forgave him for the last time. I find that like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

If there is ever a glossary in any of the books left for me to write, under “perseverance” there will be a solitary picture—Jesus Christ—nailed to the cross. He was, is, and forever will be—the definition and the example.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

Self-Esteem Booster

On those low-self esteem days (and let's get real--we all have them), click this link: I LIKE YOU

A Living Will I Can Live With

Stanice's Website

With living wills and medical directives in news’ forefront, I say this…

I know my son. My son knows me. I love my son and we both love God—more! By faith, I know that God uses my son when it comes to anything concerning me.

Therefore, I’m telling my son this, “Should something happen to me where I can’t make a medical decision for myself, pray and ask God to show you His will for your Momma and make it so plain that even you—with all the love that overflows in your heart for me—will understand.”

It’s like this, we both believe in miracles—we’ve seen God perform them too many times in our personal lives—so, I’ll continue with…

“Son, leave room for a miracle; however, understand that going home to be with Jesus is a miracle, too. For your momma’s gonna get a new—immortal—body that will never wear out! And because we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we will see each other again and never have to say goodbye.”

Now for those of you that say that sounds pretty but how real is it?

I say to you, “Find out for yourself. My word ain’t enough to bank your eternity on—but God’s Word—that’s another story with a marvelous ending. Read 1 Corinthians Chapter 15: Verses 35-58, Revelation 21:4, Hebrews 11:16, 2 Corinthians 5:8, and Luke 16:19-31

Here, I’ve made it simple for you. Click on link below. I wouldn’t want you to miss your blessing.

I'm willing to find out for myself

If you are not certain of your eternal destiny and want to be, go onto my website’s page, “WantPeace?”

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(c) 2005 Stanice Anderson