When All Else Fails

Summer, 1970 something


My Grandpa, my mother,my brother,
Michael & I at Grandpa's house.

Summer fun at my home always included a week long visit from my Grandpa. He loved to play & I loved to play with him, especially croquet. Each visit he would bring us little gifts. One I recall was a “to go” cup, a collapsible cup with a container for your vitamins! I don’t think the marketer had grandkids in mind when he designed those cups, but I cherished that cup as if it were fine china. One of the funniest gifts he brought was one he brought for my Dad. It was a little round piece of wood with a nut attached and the words “When all else fails, follow instructions.” My Dad and my Grandpa were two of the most different men you could find and this little gift was a humorous reminder of one of their difference.

I’ve thought of that little phrase many times in my life & chuckled. Usually when I had ignored the instructions and bullied my way through a task only to either have it fall apart or see that I had made it more difficult than necessary. Wonder where I got that talent!


Today
 I love reading Paul’s letters to Timothy. Timothy, like me, was a church kid. He had been taught the scripture since childhood. Maybe I just enjoy the fact that the he, too needed to be reminded of all that he had learned! In his second letter Paul reminds Timothy that he has been given all the instructions he needs to prepare and equip him for good works. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. “ II Timothy 3:16 and 17 (NLT)

Jesus concluded his sermon on the mount with this , “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT)

I remember a Sunday School song that sounded a lot like that. I don’t want to be the fool whose house goes splat.

My Grandpa experienced torrents coming against him, troubles rising all around him and beating on his house in his lifetime. He once shared with my mother how during one of those times in his life, he had been assured by God that if he would take care of the people He put in his path, He would take care of his children who were at that time outside of his care. When my grandpa died, the service was held in a native American church in Oklahoma City. One person after another told of how Bro. Perry had ministered to them. While we mourned the loss of a dad and grandpa, the congregation celebrated the life of a saint. Some may have called my grandpa foolish at times. He even liked to call himself, peculiar. ( I suspect that some who witnessed the pink and white checked roof he once put on a house might have agreed with him!) I think he was wise. He listened and followed instructions and God used his life to minister to many. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, my grandpa was not a renown speaker or a famous missionary to the outer ends of the earth. He was a school janitor who turned his garage into a church and ministered to his neighborhood. And those 5 children of his, all came to be believers with 3 of them following his example by serving as missionaries, teachers and pastors.

If you are feeling like everything around is you failing or the storms of life are about to take you down, re-read His instructions, remind yourself of things you know to be true. When you follow His instructions, you will not collapse! And take heart in knowing, that even when you are foolish, you can return to the instructions that will put your feet back on the solid rock.

Thanks for listening.
See you next Sunday,

Ronda


“Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.” Proverbs 4:13 NLT

Here a few of my favorite, practical instructions for living from Proverbs whose whole purpose is to teach us to live disciplined and successful lives and to help us do what is right, fair and just. (Proverbs 1:3 NLT)

“Those who control their tongue will have a long life; opening your mouth can ruin everything” (13:3 NLT)
“Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.” (10:19 NLT)
“Enthusiasm without knowledge is not good; haste makes mistakes.” (19:2 NLT)
“… don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment.” (3:21 NLT)
“Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise” (13:10 NLT)

“Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren …” (13:22 NLT)
Thank you, Grandpa, for an inheritance that only increase in value with time!

My Grandpa
William Trafford Perry



The Devil is a Sly Ole Fox

1970 something

“The Devil is a sly ole fox, if I could catch him I’d put him in a box, lock that box and throw away the key for all those tricks he’s played on me." In the 70s when I learned this little song, I had not seen very many of his tricks. Oh how many times since then, I’ve wished I had found that box and key!

Today
For many years, it has not been uncommon for me to wake up with a verse or song in my mind. A few months ago, I woke several days with “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” going through my mind. It became so overshadowing that I found myself terribly afraid that someone dear to me was going to die and God was somehow trying to prepare me. After several sleepless nights, I heard Him clearly say to me that it was not Him waking me with this verse. Startled, I said out loud, but it’s your word. To which he replied, he tried the same thing on me. It was only then that I realized the sly ole fox had tricked me! Using something as simple and yet as intimate as my waking pattern, he had used the very scripture that God provided to bring hope to bring fear. And then, I could hear the rest of the verse “I will fear no evil for thou art with me“. The fox left that out!

So often when we’ve been tricked we want to hide, give up, or berate ourselves. When what He wants us to do is lock the box and throw away the key! “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight, Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin” Romans 4:7 and 8.(NLT)

I think this is what Jesus wanted for Peter after he had been tricked into denying he even knew Jesus. When Jesus next saw Peter He had only one question, Do you love me? One question He asked 3 times. I often wonder if this was because Peter kept trying to remind him of what he had done. He wanted to make sure Jesus knew he had fallen prey to the enemy‘s schemes. What Jesus wanted to know was, Do you love me? He had an assignment for Peter to move forward and the only thing that mattered was that He loved Peter and Peter loved Him.

We’ve all been tricked, but He still has an assignment for each of us. And Jesus says, Do you love me? Then, go in my name and …. .
 
Thanks for listening,
See you next Sunday
 
Ronda

Stephen's grandmother always had something good to say about everyone. One day, he said to her, Grandma Dear I think you would have something good to say about the devil.  To which she quickly replied, he's persistent! 

Jesus will go with me

1970 something

Everybody out to go to Sunday School was more than a song at our house, it was a way of life.  If it was Sunday, everybody went to Sunday school.  One of my favorite visual aids teachers would bring to class was a peep box. A peep box, usually a shoe box, depicted a scene from the morning's story.  The top of the box would be covered with crepe paper with a hole in the front of the box for "peeping". Sometimes we would take turns peeping to see if we could guess the story for the day.  One of the boxes I remember included a piece of fake greenery, red cellophane paper, a lot of dirt, a small flash light and an empty pair of paper sandals.  Can you guess the story? I'll give you a hint. The cellophane paper was wrapped around the greenery with the flash light shining through the paper.  You got it, Moses and the burning bush. 

Fifteen years or so later , during my morning prayer time - well, let me honest, my prayer was pretty much me whining and complaining to God while driving to work. I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed with what I felt was more responsibilities than I could handle.  The more I complained, whined and fretted to God the clearer this image became in my mind; the image of shoe box with burning bush inside! I began rehearsing the story in my mind. Moses kills an
Egyptian, flees to a foreign country,  encounters God in a burning bush, says to God I think you have the wrong guy. Well, I hadn't killed anyone, I was driving in what still felt like a foreign country and I might have been wondering if God had the wrong girl, but I didn't see any burning bushes, only large irrigation systems and a lot of dirt. The image and the story stayed with me through the work day, through my evening Economics class and all the way home through my 32 mile drive in the wilderness of SW Kansas.

When I finally made it home that night, I found my Bible and began reading the story in Exodus, chapter 3.  A little more honesty - I was not expecting to read anything I had not heard a million times since my first remembrance of the story in the peep box.  However, when I got to verse 12 reading words I had read many times I heard words that I had missed before.  In verse 10, Moses is given an assignment, in verse 11, he says, "me?", and in verse 12, God says, "I will be with you...". Those words leaped off the page at me.  Of all the things God could have said to Moses at that moment, this is what he chose.  This was a moment that defined the purpose of Moses's life. A moment God had prepared for him from the time he spared his life in a basket.  Who better than Moses to rescue the Hebrew people from the Egyptians? Moses who was born a Hebrew and raised as the grandson of the Pharaoh.  It seemed so obvious that God had prepared him for this moment and this assignment. It is more than interesting to me that God did not chose to remind Moses of these things. He didn't say, of course you Moses.  He simply said, I will be with you. Even as Moses continued to question if God had the right man, God did not bring up any of Moses's experience or qualifications.  He answered Moses's questions with what He would do.  He would lead, He would prepare, He would perform miracles and He would give the words.

In that moment in my life, all I needed to hear was that God was with me and that He would direct, He would perform miracles, and He would speak.  My inadequacies nor my adequacy were the issue. 

If you are in one of those moments where you like Moses are questioning God's choice, hear His words to Moses from Exodus 4:12, "Now go! I will be with you ... I will instruct you." (NLT) 

Moses's journey was full of challenges, but I believe he learned the value of the presence of God.  One of my favorite sermons I remember my Dad preaching comes from a later conversation between God and Moses found in Exodus 33.  Moses says to God, "If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place." (Verse 15) I think he heard the lesson at the burning bush!

My mama & I shortly before I started
school in 1969.

My mom loves to tell about a time just before I started school.  She was a little nervous about me being without her and she tells me I said, "Mama, Jesus will go with me."  (How precious is that!)  I am so grateful for a Mother and so many others teaching me this lesson early in life.  I am more grateful for a God who brings peep boxes to my memory exactly when I need to remember.

Thanks for listening
See you next Sunday,

Ronda

Hear the Word of the Lord from the Book of Zephaniah.
"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save, He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Definite Decisions

1982

Notice the angle of the cap compared
to my CA classmates. Not the
smartest decision I ever made!

Being a senior in high school it was time to make some decisions. Decisions about where to go to college and what to study. Decisions like do I wear this awful hat correctly and risk bad hair or do I wear it back a little further and pray it doesn’t fall off. You can see I made the 2nd choice and yes, it almost slid right off during the graduation ceremony. Looking at these pictures I’m not sure it helped the hair either!

Yep, it almost fell off!

One afternoon late in the school year my mom informed me of a call from a recruiter from Louisiana College who wanted to know if I had made a definite decision as to where I would attend college. I had made a decision and enrolled at Northeast Louisiana University. However, my mom’s reply was she’s made several definite decision but I’m sure she would consider another one. Too true! And, yes I did make another decision and attended Louisiana College despite the Orientation counselor’s confusion about why an Assemblies of God preacher’s kid would attend a Baptist College.

Today


Five colleges and too many majors to list later, I still hate uncertainty, but I find rest in knowing that an all-knowing, God is a definite decision maker. Proverbs 16:33 says, “We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines (decides) how they fall”. (NLT) While I often fail to understand His decisions, he has cast my lot in pleasant places.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) We often look to this verse for reassurance when decisions seem uncertain or unpleasant. Just recently I sent a message to a friend who is experiencing one of those times when everything seems to be falling apart around her with this verse as encouragement.

When I looked up the verse to make sure I quoted it correctly I was struck by context surrounding this verse. Listen to verse 10, “This is what the Lord says: You will be in Babylon for seventy years.” Wait a minute, this promise of good & hope was sent to the people whom He had just delivered into the hands of their enemy for 70 years! I’m sure they needed to hear message, but the same God making the promise was the God who decided to send them into captivity. You would be correct to say they brought this on themselves by deciding to abandon their God. Yep, they threw the dice. But it was the Lord who determined how they fell. And this time, they fell in an unpleasant place. Was this just a case of disobedient people receiving their just punishment? I think it was more. After all there were innocent people like Daniel who were part of the captives. I think this was about a definite decision God made we he said to Abraham “This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” Genesis 17:7 (NLT) “I am as likely to reject my people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature!” Jeremiah 31:36 (NLT). The purpose of their captivity was to bring them back into right relationship with their God. Read the rest of verse 10; “But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again.” The message goes on to say they will pray and He will listen, they will seek and He will be found. They will trade their mourning for singing. They will find blessing even in a barren land. They will embrace their God!

In Chapter 31 we get a glimpse of the new covenant. A covenant wrote on the hearts of His people. A covenant that includes forgiveness of sins, never to be remembered again. A decision to send His only Son to bring us into right relationship with our God. A decision that brings blessings even in a barren land. One that brings hope even we abandon Him. And yes, one that brings certainty to our uncertainty! As sure as the as the laws of nature, he has not abandoned you even if you feel you have been in exile for 70 years!

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen for he who calls you is faithful”. I Thessalonians 5:23 & 24 (NLT) Sounds pretty definite to me!

Last week we looked at the hymn, Peace, Peace, Wonderful Peace. Here‘s an excerpt from another of my favorites, “But I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day”. I always loved to hear Aunt Bonnie lead this one, too. When she sang, “I know not what of good or ill, may be reserved for me, of weary ways or golden days, before His face I see.” I knew she had seen both and still believed that He is able.

Thanks for listening.
See you next Sunday,


Ronda
P.S. I bet the Orientation counselor at LC might be really confused now if he knew I had been both a Methodist & a Baptist pastor’s wife since then! (Same husband, just some of the decisions along the way.)

Jerry

Jerry & I in 1965

1978

The summer of 1978 brought one of the saddest experiences of my life. I was awakened by my mom one night with the news of the tragic death of my 18 year old cousin, Jerry. Jerry had been the third word I had learned to say, right behind mama and dada, they tell me I said Jer. There are two things I remember the most about that night. One is the long, silent drive from our home to my Aunt & Uncle’s home. It seemed to get darker and darker the longer we drove with my mother’s tears the only sound. The second is the feeling I experienced when we finally crossed the cattle guard into their yard. My brothers and I did not go in the house that night, but sitting in the car I felt the most overwhelming sense of God’s presence I had ever known. There truly was a peace beyond anything I understood.

Today

I still don’t understand why my cousin was taken from us so young. Many have pointed to my uncle’s salvation after the loss of Jerry as perhaps the reason. While that was certainly something good that came from something bad, I still struggle with thinking that could have come another way. Just a few months ago, I spent the night at my aunt’s home and cried when I laid down looking up at the beautiful senior portrait of Jerry shortly before his death. The truth is there are some things that just do not make sense to my heart and mind. Someday, Jesus will make all things right and I will be able to ask Him about all the things that I didn’t understand. I suspect some of them won’t matter anymore and maybe, when I see Him and Jerry again I’ll forget about all my questions. In the meantime, I rest in the peace that He gives even when life and death do not seem to make sense.

The most often quoted scripture on peace is found in Philippians 4:7. “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” The opening word, then, gets my attention. “Then” suggest there is something important that came before as in an “if, then statement”. So let’s look at verse 6. IF we pray about everything, instead of worrying, IF we tell God what we need and IF we thank him for all that He has done, THEN we will experience … peace…as we live in Christ.

Verse 9 has another If, then statement. Paul tells the Philippians that IF they put in to practice all they have learned from him, THEN the God of all peace will be with you. I don’t know about you, but there are some big IFS in there for me. I am prone to worry, to easily forget what God has already done, to fail to practice all that I have learned. I am grateful that in His grace He still brings me peace in the midst of tragedy. But I want to learn to live at peace, peace that does not depend on my own understanding. Let’s look closer at Paul’s message for some advise on how to practice a peaceful life.

Going back to chapter 3, here’s a few things I see Paul teaching us -

• Whatever happens, take joy in the Lord
• Put no confidence in our own rightness, only in Christ’s righteousness
• Forget the past and look forward to what’s next
• If we disagree with others, let God make things clear
• Be considerate in all you do
• Don’t think only of our life here
• Look forward to the time when He will take away all our weaknesses and bring everything under His control 

And here’s a big one - Fix your thoughts on things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and admirable. It is not that we do not have to deal with untrue, dishonorable, wrong, impure, ugly and despicable things in our lives. But where we fix our thoughts, that’s what brings us peace to guard our hearts and minds. As a good friend of mine says, you gotta get your mind right!

And now may God, who gives us His peace, be with you all. Amen (Romans 15:33)

Thanks for listening,
See you next Sunday
Ronda

One of my favorite hymns, Wonderful Peace
I loved to hear Aunt Bonnie (Jerry’s mom) lead this one.

Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm
In celestial like strains it unceasingly falls
Over my soul like an infinite calm

Peace, peace, wonderful peace
Coming down from the Father above!
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray
In fathomless billows of love!

What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace
Buried deep in the heart of my soul
So secure that no power can mine it away
While the years of eternity roll!

I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace
Resting sweetly in Jesus’s control
For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day
And His glory is flooding my soul!

And I think when I rise to that city of peace
Where the Author of peace I shall see
That one strain of the song which the ransomed will sing
In that heavenly kingdom will be

Ah, soul! are you here without comfort and rest
Marching down the rough pathway of time?
Make Jesus your Friend ere the shadows grow dark
O accept of this peace so sublime!

Words public domain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Daddy can fix anything!

1970

 

As a child I was never one to break the rules. The only time I remember knowingly breaking the rules in elementary school was not turning in a library book. The name of the book was “My Daddy can fix anything” and I was confident that my Daddy was the inspiration for the book. I had full confidence in Daddy’s ability & desire to make all things right for me.

Today

I’m still a lucky little girl whose Daddy can fix lots of things. He is the person I most often call first when something is broken. However, life has taught me that my earthly father can’t fix everything and sometimes he actually breaks things.

Recently I was reminded of a Daddy’s desire to fix things when I was talking to my grown daughter on the phone when she discovered her dog had died. As I sat in tears in our booth at the Red Robin restaurant, the Daddy across the table from me took the phone and offered calming & comforting words to his daughter with tears rolling down his face. When he hung up, he looked at me and said I just want to hold her. I couldn’t help but think that must be how Our Heavenly Father feels when we are hurting. He speaks calming words and offers an everlasting arm to lean on. I believe just as Stephen longed to put his arms around his little girl at that point, our Father longs for the day when he takes us home with Him and makes all things right.

Consider this verse from Psalm 57, repeated in chapter 108, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” When I’ve read this verse I more often thought of fixed as something I did, as in, my heart is focused, directed, set. Reading it today I hear more of some of the other definitions offered by Webster. My heart is repaired, my heart is restored, my heart is made steady. Nothing I’ve done! Something only our Father which art in Heaven can do. He can fix even our hearts! “He will not be afraid of evil tiding; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” (Psalm 112:6-8 KJV)

Today, I know my Daddy can‘t fix everything, but just hearing his voice say It’ll be alright calms my heart. And one day our heavenly Father will fix everything for me, and my Daddy. In the meantime, he offers words that bring confidence to my heart.

Words like, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:26 NLT)

Thanks for listening,

See you next Sunday,

Ronda

Missionettes for Jesus

1973

Bright blue binders in hand, new blue skirts and pressed white shirts with shiny new emblems donned a few of my friends and I began climbing the “Stairway to the Stars”. But before we could put our feet on the first step, there were a few things to memorize. So with our right hands raised we quoted the words we would faithfully recite almost every week for the next few years of our lives.

Motto

We Care

Slogan

Because We Care, We Serve

Scripture 

“Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians. 6:2

And we sang, “Oh, We are Missionettes for Jesus, we want to live for him each day, because we care we want to share the burdens along the way” There would be tons more memorization, a few burdens to bear and lot of lessons to learn along the way. But we were eager for the climb!

Today, almost 40 years later!

One of the most important things I’ve learned along the way is that those words we learned were more than words to memorize; they are words to live by. Caring about others is at the heart of living for Jesus. In 1 Peter 5, Paul challenges us to care for those who have been entrusted to us, not grudgingly or selfishly, but because we are eager to serve God. Later in the chapter he reminds us that God cares for us. Often in my life God’s care has come in human form. No one showed me this more than my childhood pastor, Walter Helms. I don’t remember many of Bro. Helms’s sermons but I can hear him to this day saying, “God cares”. More importantly I can name numerous times when he showed God’s care to me, my family and many others. Thanks to people like him, it has always been easy for me to believe God cared about me. It was not his words, it was his actions. I pray my actions match my words as clearly as his did!

Sharing our lives with others is such an intricate element of a fulfilling life. The thing about sharing is it involves both giving and taking. Much of my life I was not good at sharing. It was not the sharing of my stuff (except for with my middle brother, perhaps!) or even of my faith that was the problem, it was the sharing of my life. Sharing our lives and carrying each other is an intimate relationship that involves so much more than words and stuff. It’s risky and carrying others can be exhausting. But even more difficult for me has been learning to allow others to carry me. Somewhere along the way I realized I was being selfish in being willing to learn from others problems, but unwilling to share my own. Many of life’s greatest lessons are learned from one another. The awesome thing is, if we share each other’s load, no one is left carrying the weight of their world on their shoulders! Paul shared his load with Timothy, Barnabas, Silas and others who came along his way and offered help. He said of Timothy, I have no one else like him who genuinely cares about your welfare …like a son with his father he has served with me. (Philippians 2:20 and 22 NLT)

Jesus called others to share his mission, often calling three of His disciples close to his side to share special times. Even on His darkest night, he called on his closest friends to share his deepest anxiety. “Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room … and went to the Mount of Olives.” (Luke 22:39 NLT) He told them of his anguish, “my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me”. (Matthew 26:38 NLT) None of them were perfect and none able to carry him completely. Only his Father, our Father, could ultimately see him through, but he desired the company of his friends. Earlier on the same night, knowing everything He knew about them, He had declared to His Father that He wanted those whom he had been given with Him in Heaven. (John 17:24 NLT) Amazing!

So how is caring and sharing working out in your life? As Paul said of Timothy, do you genuinely care? Like Walter Helms, do your actions say you care? Like Jesus, are you sharing yours and others load.

We often talk about the company we keep, but what about the company we are? Are we eager to serve God by caring for others? Even with those who have and/or will fail us?

I have had the opportunity to share life with many different groups of friends along the way. I would love to hear from any and all of you!

Any of you girls out there who climbed those stairs with me, how are you doing with those things we memorized from Patty and Kay? What’s your favorite memory of those days? One of mine is riding to and from retreats singing crazy songs at the top of lungs. Anyone remember “The cutest boy I ever met” or how ‘bout “Church on top of the hill”?

Thanks for listening. See you next Sunday.

Ronda

This first post on my new blog, Along the Way, is dedicated to the memory of Walter Helms and my dearest childhood friend, Lisa Gail Estep. Lisa not only climbed those stairs with me, she often pushed me to the top. She was a friend who knew what it meant to put others before herself.