The Least Of These

"...Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to see me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."    Matthew 25:34...40.


I recently did a very stupid thing.  I know, any of you who have read my blogs are probably thinking...AGAIN?  No, I didn't glue my fingers together this time, not even my toes, but I did manage to break my baby toe!  We had just checked into our motel room a week ago in Jonesboro, Arkansas on a Saturday night where Keith was to preach the next day.  It was around midnight and I was tired, not looking, and managed to  kick HARD the leg of a sofa with my baby toe, immediately sending excruciating pain up my leg.  My poor little baby toe has always been a source of embarrassment to me since it's always been short, fat and stubby and to my girls' dismay they have inherited my ugly baby toe gene (Ashley calls it her potatoe toe) but now it became increasingly fat, purple and ugly!  It was amazing to me how hurting the tiniest, most despicable part of my body could affect my life.  For the next several days I hobbled barefoot around the motel, only forcing my toes in a closed-toe shoe to  hobble into church, slump down on a pew, then kick off my shoe.  The most humiliating thing about injuring my toe is having to back down on my new-found comittment to walking three times per week with Keith.  Just when I was beginning to look forward to our long "walking and  talking" sessions I've had to give it a break.  Keith hasn't complained though!  It has reminded me of what Paul said to the Corinthians about treating even our weakest body parts with special honor and how if one body part suffers, we all suffer with it.  It's also made me think of what Jesus said about us serving our weaker members, "the least of these".  I admit that my focus is sometimes on myself and what makes me comfortable instead of reaching out to the hurting.  I wish I could be more like my husband who has ALWAYS since I've known him shown kindness and compassion to the little guy and treated everyone as if he were Jesus Himself.  Just in the last 24 hours I've seen Keith spend hours counseling with the hurting, both on the phone and face to face, take in a homeless young man to give him temporary shelter in our home, visit a murder convict in jail, take food to a family whose loved one is on hospice care, all while suffering himself with bronchitis.  Keith not only preaches the word but practices it.  He would be embarrassed if he knew I was typing this but there's not much of a chance of that since he refuses to embrace technology...doesn't have time for it.  Keith doesn't blog, text or tweet and says "I plan to go to heaven without any Facebook friends!"  I have no doubt he'll make it there.  I just hope God gives me grace and a healed toe so I can walk and talk on those golden streets by his side.

Happy Birthday, Ben!!!

Today marks a milestone for someone who is near and dear to my heart.  My sweet father-in-law, Ben Paul Parker, aka Papa, turns 80 years old today.  I know that this isn't that noteworthy in an age where more and more people are living into their 80's and even their 90's but for the Parker family this day is pretty remarkable.  For the last few years Ben has faced death over and over again, even had CPR performed on him by  a team of doctors and nurses in the operating room as recently as four months ago.  For several years Keith has prayed that our parents would live into their 80's.  My parents reached the goal of that prayer a few years ago and Keith's mother will this August.  Keith and I are all too aware of how many of our friends have already lost all their parents and are very grateful to have all four of ours still with us.  But no matter how old they become, no matter how many health challenges they have or how feeble we see them becoming right before our eyes, we're never ready to give them up.  So today we rejoice that Ben has lived to celebrate his 80th birthday with his family.  I watched him last Saturday as he got ready to go to his birthday party and delighted in his excitement as he donned his party hat and kept urging us "C'mon..let's go!" like an eager eight-year-old.  Ben has always had a zest for life and lived it to the fullest, whether taking his grandsons fishing or taking his granddaughters on special trips, pushing the grandkids to go on just one more roller coaster ride at Opryland or stay up past midnight to yell "Roll Tide" one more time on Bourbon Street!  Though he has slowed down considerably physically, his appreciation for life hasn't waned.  Every one of his kids and grandkids can probably tell you of the number of times he has persuaded them to come sit with him in his car so he can play for them one more time the tape of Daniel O'Donnell crooning the words to his favorite song:  "Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery and only this moment is mine."  Last Saturday I couldn't help but think that the last time Ben was surrounded by that many of his loved ones was in the hospital room when we were afraid that day might be his last.  Ben had requested for his party that there be no gifts (though we all ignored that request).  I think he knows that for him at this point the greatest gift is life itself.  And though he would be the first to tell you that he is prepared spiritually to leave this life and go to live with God, for now he is going to love this life and live each day to the fullest.  Happy Birthday, Ben!!!

We Have A BIG Family!

It's now been three years and three months since Keith and I hit the road as he became a full-time traveling preacher (or circuit-preacher, as they were known in the olden days).  Really?!?  Thirty- nine months on the circuit?  Time flies when we're having fun!  After a recent three week extension out in California  I just enjoyed a few days at home "catching up" on things as I sent Keith and Pete on to Alabama to preach the word without me.  When I visited on Sunday at the Hendersonville Church (I say "visited" because even though our membership is still there we are gone more than we are there...not unlike a few of the other members :-} ) I was asked the question that I often hear:  Are y'all  still enjoying all this traveling?   For Keith the answer is always, "Yes!"  As long as he can be preaching  somewhere he's having a ball!  And Pete is quite a trooper as well.  And for the most part I'm still loving it too....but every now and then I think back to our wedding vows when I quoted  in an innocent, child-like 19-year- old voice from the book of Ruth,  "Wherever you go, I will go.  Wherever you lodge, I will lodge..." and I wonder if I REALLY knew what I was comitting to.  Yet after almost 35 years of marriage I still tell Keith, "I go where you go, amigo!"  And for the most part I do go and LOVE it.  I mean, what's not to love, getting to travel the country seeing God's creation, meeting wonderful people, eating countless pot-luck meals, hearing God's word preached almost every night of the week (he keeps me on the straight and narrow!)  Our grocery and utility bills have been drastically reduced since we're never home and we now spend ALL our time together 24/7 (which may be an advantage OR disadvantage).  But honestly sometimes I just crave to be sleeping in my own bed, enjoying the home that I spent over 30 years building, furnishing and maintaining.  I just want to stay home long enough to cook a nutritious meal and do a thorough Spring cleaning.  Keith laughs at this and finds it hard to believe but I really mean it and, truth to be told while Keith was born a rambling man, I was born to be a homemaker. It's what I've known and loved for most of my life...it's my comfort zone.  But I'm learning that I can also be comfortable in Alabama...or Arkansas...or  Kentucky...or Missouri...or Georgia...or Alaska...or California because home truly is wherever your family is.  And I'm not just talking about husband and children but my CHURCH family.  It's been amazing to me how many times we've pulled into a place not knowing a soul and left with a true connection to our new brothers and sisters and a reluctance to leave them.  We've discovered so many wonderful family members everywhere we go and our family just continues to grow!  And the amazing thing we've experienced is that wherever we go there is someone who knows someone else that we know and the connections just go on and on.  We recently enjoyed our "family reunion" (that's exactly what visiting different congregations feels like to me) in California.  Folks there get especially excited when they find out we're from THE SOUTH...and to them THE SOUTH is anywhere west of Colorado and south of Michigan.  They immediately start telling us of  Brother & Sister So & So that they know in THE SOUTH and would we tell them hello for them when we get back.  Last Sunday when I was conveying those greetings passed on to one of the members at Hendersonville he remarked, "It really is a small world, isn't it?"  And I replied, "No it's not a small world but  We have a BIG family!"