Phone Misuse

I've been having issues with Dean's phone use lately. First of all, a presenter at the Alzheimer's meeting that I attend now and then told us about all the scam artists that prey on seniors, many of them via phone calls. It's made me nervous about Dean answering the phone on his own. He's pretty vulnerable to that sort of thing, as we all are. Even though he doesn't have a credit card number to give out, he still knows his social security number, and on good days other personal information that shouldn't normally be given to strangers.

The other issue is when I get personal phone calls. I've caught him listening quietly on the other line--in other words, eavesdropping. He's lonely, so I understand his need to listen, but it's been very hard for me not to be impatient with him about this. I've admitted to listening to some of his calls (see first paragraph), but told him I would try to make sure he knew I was listening. And he should let me know the same. It's not polite to listen on the sly.

But what about our conversations with God? Isn't it wonderful that the Holy Spirit is there to make sure all our prayers are only heard by God Himself? No scam artist can reach us on that privileged prayer line. And no one can eavesdrop without our permission. Our personal prayers are always just that, very personal. I'm assured that one area of my life, my relationship with God, will always remain private.

 

Hearing the Ocean

Every other Wednesday night, I get a bit of respite from caregiving. I so enjoy doing a storytime for the youngest ones at our church youth night (called Pathfinders, by some of you). These littlest ones have their own name, Lil' Lambs, and their own matching T-shirts too. I just read them a book before the meeting starts to give the adult leaders a few more minutes to prepare for the official activities.

Last night the book I read was about the ocean and besides all the little seashells I had to show them, I borrowed a big conch shell from a friend, after noticing it laying on her front porch. They all got to take turns trying to listen to the sound of the ocean in the shell.

One little boy was quite surprised when I told him I had borrowed the shell from his grandparents' porch. He didn't seem to remember that it was there, even though I have seen it every time I go to their house.

What goodies am I missing when I study my Bible? I'm sure I overlook treasures that are just laying there, ready for me to discover. Wait...is that the sound of heaven I hear coming from that verse?

Here are the shells I had them pick up from a beach towel, spread out on the floor, er beach.
 Some of them were trying to hear the ocean, even from these smaller shells!

Whale of a Time!

It was great fun being the fill-in for mommy in Sabbath School this morning for my two granddaughters. When it was time for the big cardboard "whale" to "swallow Jonah", little Julia jumped from her seat and proceeded to crawl through the whale's "belly" from the wrong end! This caused a bottleneck for the kids who had started crawling through the other end to exit from the whale's mouth. I thought for a minute I would have to crawl in there myself to bring her out, but fortunately she listened to the teacher's directions and backed out gracefully on her own. (Actually, she WAS following the Bible narrative when you think about it; Jonah went in the mouth and came out that way too.)

There were other directions that Julia was not as prompt to respond to. And that was anything her older sister suggested or tried to guide her to do. Invariably, Julia did the opposite of what sister proposed.

I wonder if I am as apt to listen to some people's advice as I am to others'. It really does depend on who the person is, doesn't it? I pray that I can be the type of grandmother, mother, wife, sister, and aunt that the valued people in my life will want to listen to. However, I realize that I can't be that for everyone all the time. That's why God recommends a multitude of counselors. We need several people in our lives to give us advice and direction, including and especially those in our church family. I praise God for giving me family of both kinds.

Because we all need direction. You don't want to cause a bottleneck in the belly of the whale now, do you?

You can see the "whale" behind the boat on the left here. 

And this is Julia about to go up for her birthday celebration a few weeks ago.