Mama,

Today is your birthday.  It is a Sunday morning.  You would have been 86 on earth today,  and knowing you, you would be just as neatly dressed and coiffed as ever!  I sincerely doubt you would have on long pants unless it was bitter cold…which it certainly is not right now!  But your out fit would be a complete ensemble of panty hose, shoes, purse, and jewelry that matched.  (I think some of that stuck with me…but I’m really OK with the pants thing now…just never shorts or jeans.  I think you would approve!  Very few men wear a suit and tie anymore.  Church is way more casual.  But, Don and Tommy and Pop and a few others who are our age or older still do.  Joy wears pants, too!) 

You would sit in your special place next to daddy.  You would not be very at ease in the song service,  There would be mostly songs you didn’t know.  And all that clapping would not set well with you, for sure.  However, You would sit next to Pop and smile and just hold your clasped hands gently in your lap.  We usually sing 1 hymn. You wouldn’t need a book…you always knew all the words to every hymn we sang!   And you wouldn’t even look at the screens… (you did not like those either.  You said it made our church look like an auditorium instead of a sanctuary.)  I guess its a sign of the times…every church you attend has those screens now…no one uses hymnbooks anymore.  Of course, hymns are very rarely sung, either.  There would be many familiar faces missing in church this morning and that would make you very sad.  But, there would be a lot you still recognize and you would hug and love on them!  You would also see a lot of new faces…and this would make you very happy.  It always bothered you that we did not reach more of the community that surrounded us.

  Don and I would be sitting behind you and Joy at the piano…Tommy sitting with her.  None of your grandchildren go to Southside now.  But, they are all serving in churches around the city.  They would make you proud.  Even your great grandsons who you never met on earth, are very involved in church.  They have made a profession of their faith at their own churches and have both been baptized.  Their parents are bringing them up just like you and Pop did…and like Joy and I did.

You loved to hear Joy and Pam play a beautiful offertory.  You listened to every note.  You would know if there was a single mistake.  And, your beautiful white hair would be bobbing in time with the music until they finished.  Everyone else would clap when they finished…but you wouldn’t.  The words to the music they were playing were holy and reverent and you held your hands and smiled and thanked God in your heart.

The beautiful flowers in the church today are in honor of your memory. You have so many friends who still love and think about you.  The work you did in missions and on missions trips is still talked about.  The little 3’s who passed thru your group ’s class were indeed blessed.  You reached out to those who were shut in and sick and lonely.  You must have baked thousands of your famous pound cakes and took them warm to those who were on your heart.  You wrote note upon note upon note!  The recipient never knew if it would be silly or serious!

You made people smile, Mom, everywhere you went.  You were a lady.  You are a gem of a mother.  I hope you get a party in heaven today.  Perhaps, angel food cake!  Or maybe all the celebration you need is to remember your family and your church and your friends.  We all love you still and always will.  I, for one, feel your spirit close to me all the time.

I’m sure today you are worshipping in a temple so grand we would not believe it!  And, I know…I just know…that you are in the choir with the angels!  And, you see Jesus!  Oh, Mom!  I am so happy to know you see Jesus face to face!

I love you forever!

Hey, save me a seat in the choir next to you!   It’s OK…God’s gonna give me a new voice!

I recently visited one of the anchor stores in our local mall.  My hubby said it would be impolite to name the store, so I won’t.

From the time I walked in to the time I left, it was frustration upon frustration.  First there was NO sales help.  I take that back.  In a store the size of this one, I saw 2 sales people.  I had a pair of shoes to return.  I went first to the shoe section…no one there.  Then to the make up…on to women’s…then to girls…then to jewelry…back to shoes.  No one was working!  Finally I saw a line of about 8 people snaking out of the handbag section.  One young lady was kindly ringing people up as fast as she could.  Of course, several of the folks had questions and so she had to leave to show them something.  But those of us in line stayed in line because where else would we go? After a good 30 minutes in line, I finally returned my shoes.

As I walked through the store, I spotted a pair of jeans that I wanted to try on.  I really debated about doing this, but they were just what I was looking for.  So, I take the jeans, and go to the nearest dressing room.  OH! MY!  I can not tell you what each of the 3 stalls looked like…so let me show you.  Is this atrocious or what?  Who would leave a dressing room like this?  What kind of person leaves new clothes not even purchased on the floor?

**********Now this harkens back to my last post about the buggy.  Friends…it is just rude to leave all those clothes in that condition.  You don’t even own those clothes.  They should be returned to their proper place.  Now the dressing rooms in this store happen to have a rack by the door for you to hang your clothes that did not fit.  But if not…at least return them..folded or hung…to the cashier’s area.  Here they may put them back in the correct place.  Just as with the buggy, there is a place to put the clothes after you try them on.**********

And, the dressing rooms were nasty.  Dirty carpet…trash on the floor…slats knocked out of the doors.  It was awful.  I chose the least messy of the 3 and was very careful as I tried on my jeans.  Didn’t want to touch anything.  Nope..don’t like the jeans.  OK…I had enough of this place and I am ready to go.

But, NO!  I am not going anywhere!  The door is stuck!  Not where the latch I can reach to lock it…but up at the top.  There is a screw halfway out of the wall, and when the door shut, a metal piece got stuck behind that and was not willing to budge to let me out.  I am 5’1”…I could not even reach the top of the door.

I pushed it as hard as I could.  I jiggled the door.  I pushed it again.  Then I thought about crawling under the door.  No way…the opening at the bottom was only about 8 inches wide.  Wasn’t gonna happen.  So, I called out, “Is there anyone who can hear me?”  No answer.  I called again.  “Is there anyone who can hear me…I am in need of help in the dressing room.”  No answer.  Well, of course there was no answer…no one was working!

So, ‘I had a little talk with Jesus.  And, I told Him all about my  troubles
He will hear my faintest cry and He will answer by and by…’

Do Ya’ll remember that song?  Well, those words came flooding into my heart as I was standing in that nasty dressing room…locked into one of the smaller stalls…and getting unhappier by the moment!  When I was a kid, I remember thinking it would be so fun to get locked inside a department store at night and just roam the store and and try on anything you wanted!  That was then.  Now I am sure they have motion detectors and and the whole DPD would bust through the doors and have me in jail before I could explain!

But, back to the song.  I told Jesus, “I need His strength.”  He says,   And, I was surely in a very weak situation.  So, I took Him at His word.  I asked Him to give me the strength to get out of that door…and get on my way.  I stood back and braced myself with my hand on one wall.  And took my foot and one hand and hit that door as hard as me and Jesus could manage.  Friends, that piece of metal popped right in half!  The door swung open and hit me in the head!  But, I was free!  I gathered up my jeans and hung them back in the right place and I headed for the door.  I have never been so glad to smell fresh air in my life!

Did I tell anyone that I broke their door?  No.  I didn’t see anyone to tell.  Remember?  No one was working   And, obviously, no one heard my body slam through the dressing room door ..cause no one came to investigate, either!

But, last night, I did write a complaint to the Dothan store and told them about my horrendous experience in their store.  I received a generic note this morning saying “Thank you for your comment on our store.  Please let us know how we can make your shopping experience more enjoyable.”  Really?  Really?

I better just stop right here before I say something that’s not nice.  Anyway, the lesson here is this.  God knows where you are all the time.  He knows what you are doing.  He see you when you get in trouble…and He promises to help you out!  Take him at His word!  You might not be stuck in a filthy dressing room and need His help to escape.  But, tapping into His strength is for any situation you find yourself in.  And,He delights in sharing it with you!  He wants every day to be a day of joy and happiness and He’s there to make that happen…if we just ask!

What’s wrong with this first picture? Today I pulled into Lowe’s parking lot and and could not park close to the door because someone left their buggy in the middle of this handicapped spot! I pulled on down…actually way on down to find a place to park. As I came up the aisle, I headed for the buggy to take it inside. Lo and behold, I saw a lady, quite a bit younger than me, taking the buggy she had just used and putting it behind this one. “Oh, my, I guess you didn’t see that this is a handicapped space,” I said to her as I hobbled up with my cane. “I tried to park here but some one else must have thought the same thing.” She said, “Well, I just saw this one here and thought I would put mine here, too.” I said, “Well, if you will excuse me, I’d like to get that other buggy and take it in so the next handicapped person doesn’t have to pass up this space.” So, I got the first buggy and started walking to the covered entrance. I pushed it up next to the door and turned around to see the woman still standing in that spot…just staring at me…hands still on her buggy. So, I turned around and went back to the parking lot. When I got close enough…she still had not moved…I said, “Just a minute and I’ll take your buggy, too.”. She gave me a look meant to do me bodily harm and then she sashayed herself right past me and said, “I can put up my own buggy.” I just turned back around to go into the store . She put her buggy right next to mine and said, “You’d think they would tell you where to put them when you are finished with them.” I couldn’t resist. I said, “See all those buggies next to those red poles…right there in front of your car. The sign on the other side says, PARK BUGGIES HERE or something close.”

Then she just looked at me and said, “Well, I never.” Never…what? Never saw the cart corral?  Never saw someone put a buggy away before?   Or never put one up herself?  I left her at that point. ‘Cause I had made 2 trips from the parking lot to the store and I knew I had to make that trip again to get back to my car!

Please do the right thing and put up your buggies! And, please don’t block handicapped spaces. It is a kindness to all those who need them!