Bibby's Blessings:
April 13, 2016
My beloved ones! My heart is so incredibly full knowing that EACH of you now knows what it is to love a child of your own! That I have lived to see this day is one of the greatest blessings God will ever give me!
("May you live to see your children's children.") Ps.128:6
As I sit here praying for you as you all have entered this journey, I want to tell you one very, very simple truth yet one of the most profound words of wisdom you may ever hear!
Someone asked me a few days ago when dad and I were going to write a book explaining to others how to raise such great kids.
Speaking for myself, I can tell you this: The assignment He gave me was beyond me. I knew that I was being asked to do something that I could never accomplish, something that absorbed all my energy and wore out my patience.
This, in a nutshell would be my most accurate answer to that person:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength." Mark 12:30
It sounds too simple but I am convinced that it's true.
As we bring to Him our love, He in turn brings to us His power....
The greatest success will be determined by how much we truly love God.
Pretty profound, huh?
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Open Hands
Bibby's Blessings
April 15, 2016
"For you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high." Ps.3:3
There are few verses, as your mother, that I have found more comforting than this; that there is an invisible shield around you, my beloved ones.
As I prayed for all of you this morning by name, I took each of you in my hand, held my opened hands up to my Father and asked that He be a shield around you.
I offered you to Him with my hands opened, confessing that I dare not cling to you tightly, for you belong, not to me, but to Him; that you were on loan to me from Him for a brief time but that I have never truly had the control of how life happens for you. That is His call.
My simple prayer for years has been this: "I pray that You will protect and shield my children in all ways. May nothing ever touch their lives except that which You deem necessary to fulfill Your purposes for them. Whatever Your wisdom and love decrees, I will say 'Yes' to because I trust You That much!"
Because I believe He hears and honors such prayer, I have and will continue to live without fear of your futures!
I pray that you will learn early to always hold your babes in an open hand up to the God who loves them even more than you do!
God blesses that kind of trust!
April 15, 2016
"For you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high." Ps.3:3
There are few verses, as your mother, that I have found more comforting than this; that there is an invisible shield around you, my beloved ones.
As I prayed for all of you this morning by name, I took each of you in my hand, held my opened hands up to my Father and asked that He be a shield around you.
I offered you to Him with my hands opened, confessing that I dare not cling to you tightly, for you belong, not to me, but to Him; that you were on loan to me from Him for a brief time but that I have never truly had the control of how life happens for you. That is His call.
My simple prayer for years has been this: "I pray that You will protect and shield my children in all ways. May nothing ever touch their lives except that which You deem necessary to fulfill Your purposes for them. Whatever Your wisdom and love decrees, I will say 'Yes' to because I trust You That much!"
Because I believe He hears and honors such prayer, I have and will continue to live without fear of your futures!
I pray that you will learn early to always hold your babes in an open hand up to the God who loves them even more than you do!
God blesses that kind of trust!
Supernatural Glue
On Feb. 6, 1982, we entered into a covenant with God and one another, vowing to love one another just as Christ has loved us, giving Himself up for us; to live, no longer to find happiness merely for ourselves, but to seek it, most importantly, for the other.
He entrusted to me his name and I gave him my supreme devotion to promote his name and his character.
"And they lived happily ever after"?
Not quite. There have been mountains so steep to climb that we'd have given up; except.....The One whom we seek to emulate never gave up on US.
We've failed one another and we've broken each other's hearts. We've both learned to say with utter sincerity, "I was wrong!! Please, please forgive me!" Those words rip your heart out to say them. But there may be no other words in the human language that can endear you to another as much as an honest to God confession (and often a tearful one) that I need mercy here!
We've learned to tap into a love that is not human. It is a love that is patient with the other, it's kind, and not so proud that it can't admit that "I may need to change."
It values the other more than self; it is not easily angered and does not drop eggshells all over the floor!
It forgives and moves on. It protects the other, it has high hopes, and it always perseveres.
This man is the greatest friend I have on this earth. He's always on my side and you better know that I'm on his! If you don't like him, then you don't like me. It's that simple, and visa versa.
He makes me laugh every single day and the older we get, the more I know that I don't ever, ever, ever want to live without him! I want to grow old with him and I want us to die on the same day!
He's been a Rock of safety for me and for our children.
I'm so glad the Lord glued us together with SUPERnatural glue! I love him, folks!
He's my man and I’m his girl!
He entrusted to me his name and I gave him my supreme devotion to promote his name and his character.
"And they lived happily ever after"?
Not quite. There have been mountains so steep to climb that we'd have given up; except.....The One whom we seek to emulate never gave up on US.
We've failed one another and we've broken each other's hearts. We've both learned to say with utter sincerity, "I was wrong!! Please, please forgive me!" Those words rip your heart out to say them. But there may be no other words in the human language that can endear you to another as much as an honest to God confession (and often a tearful one) that I need mercy here!
We've learned to tap into a love that is not human. It is a love that is patient with the other, it's kind, and not so proud that it can't admit that "I may need to change."
It values the other more than self; it is not easily angered and does not drop eggshells all over the floor!
It forgives and moves on. It protects the other, it has high hopes, and it always perseveres.
This man is the greatest friend I have on this earth. He's always on my side and you better know that I'm on his! If you don't like him, then you don't like me. It's that simple, and visa versa.
He makes me laugh every single day and the older we get, the more I know that I don't ever, ever, ever want to live without him! I want to grow old with him and I want us to die on the same day!
He's been a Rock of safety for me and for our children.
I'm so glad the Lord glued us together with SUPERnatural glue! I love him, folks!
He's my man and I’m his girl!
He who Loses His Life will Find it
By 1988, the Lord had given us 3 children. We gave them back to Him. (I don't mean that like it sounds....unless maybe I do a little bit... 😉)
It was at about this stage that I released them from the clinched fist in which I held them, opened my hands, raised them toward heaven, and gave them over completely to His Sovereignty. Hardest thing a momma ever does...and perhaps the wisest!
While giving mothering every single ounce of my life, I sooo often felt like a failure. I had thought I would be good at mothering, and at this point, I was doubtful. I had begun keeping a journal of prayers during those days because Blake was rarely ever home, my best friend moved away, and I needed desperately to pour out my heart to someone who knew it all and saw it all.
I knew, as Gloria Gather put it, "We have this moment to hold in our hand, and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand. Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come....
But we have this moment today."
I treasured every "today." I could only keep them forever as memories.
And so, I wrote.
Someday, I desperately want to share that journal with young mothers who are now living what I lived. As an older woman, I now have SO much encouragement to offer them!
It was during these days in which I lost myself...
That I truly found myself!
These were the sweetest days of my life...
It was at about this stage that I released them from the clinched fist in which I held them, opened my hands, raised them toward heaven, and gave them over completely to His Sovereignty. Hardest thing a momma ever does...and perhaps the wisest!
While giving mothering every single ounce of my life, I sooo often felt like a failure. I had thought I would be good at mothering, and at this point, I was doubtful. I had begun keeping a journal of prayers during those days because Blake was rarely ever home, my best friend moved away, and I needed desperately to pour out my heart to someone who knew it all and saw it all.
I knew, as Gloria Gather put it, "We have this moment to hold in our hand, and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand. Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come....
But we have this moment today."
I treasured every "today." I could only keep them forever as memories.
And so, I wrote.
Someday, I desperately want to share that journal with young mothers who are now living what I lived. As an older woman, I now have SO much encouragement to offer them!
It was during these days in which I lost myself...
That I truly found myself!
These were the sweetest days of my life...
Batter Up!
...." You shall be called a repairer of the breech." Is.58:12
There just comes a time in one's life when you know it's "Batter Up"!!! "You're On!" You were born for such a time as this. If you're ever gonna make a difference in this world for eternity, now is your moment. It's time to walk in a power that is not your own; to speak forth words that are true and living and powerful and piercing...right down to the souls of men! It's time to clothe yourself with kindness and truth and zeal as your cloak!!! It's time to put away lame and worldly visions. This world and all it contains is passing away and will soon be gone. There is another kingdom that will soon overtake us. We best be about the business of campaigning for it! Onward, Christian soldiers! You're up to bat! Make it count......
There just comes a time in one's life when you know it's "Batter Up"!!! "You're On!" You were born for such a time as this. If you're ever gonna make a difference in this world for eternity, now is your moment. It's time to walk in a power that is not your own; to speak forth words that are true and living and powerful and piercing...right down to the souls of men! It's time to clothe yourself with kindness and truth and zeal as your cloak!!! It's time to put away lame and worldly visions. This world and all it contains is passing away and will soon be gone. There is another kingdom that will soon overtake us. We best be about the business of campaigning for it! Onward, Christian soldiers! You're up to bat! Make it count......
Love Grows in Obsurity
June 9,2016
This morning I read the story of Mary and the alabaster box of costly perfume she poured out on the feet of Jesus, washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. This lady was clearly desperate for Him! I get the feeling that there would have been nothing too costly for her,
nothing too humiliating, nothing that could have restrained her complete and total abandonment to Him.
But I can't help but notice all the obscurity in the story...
-Who was Simon, the leper? It would appear from a synopsis of the gospels that he might have been family to Mary...perhaps her brother or her father?
But it was he who said in his heart condemning words of her. "If Jesus knew what sort of woman she is...."
Don't think for a minute that it would be impossible for a family member to be so unforgiving!
Simon, "the leper", a Pharisee, whose home this story is set in, had clearly been healed of leprosy or else he would not have lived in the city nor would there have been a public gathering at his home. If he was the father or brother of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and had seen Lazarus raised from the dead and had been healed of leprosy himself, you'd have thought that HE would have certainly been right beside Mary pouring out costly perfume at Jesus' feet.
There's really a lot about this story that leaves me scratching my head...
But I strongly suspect this...that there's something far more behind the scenes than we are completely aware of...
Which I think is significant and maybe intentional, for learning to love Jesus happens in obscurity.
Is there not always something more behind the scenes in the life of a person who is just clearly uninhibited in their love for Jesus;
who pour out all they are and have at his feet;
whose emotions spill out like streams of water;
Who use every part of THEMSELVES to minister love to Him?
Had she experienced more rejection than we could ever comprehend?
Had past immorality seized her as a direct consequence of her great, great emotional need?
Had she lived her entire life searching in vain for one who would value her and give her dignity?
How deeply had she hurt?
And how completely had Jesus healed her wounds?
We only know that something bigger than we're told had seized her heart and caused her to love Jesus with utter abandonment; that "we don't know (Oh, we really don't know!) the cost of the oil in her alabaster box."
I don't know what she'd been through, but there's no doubt that life had broken her and that Jesus had put her back together!
We don't know how very, very much that was worth to her because we don't know her whole story.
Someday I want to hear her whole story!
Someday I want to hear YOURS...
Because I think there's way more to it than meets the eye...
"And I've come to pour
My praise on Him
Like oil from Mary's alabaster box
Don't be angry if I wash his feet with my tears
And I dry them with my hair
You weren't there the night He found me
You did not feel what I felt
When he wrapped his love all around me and
You don't know the cost of the oil
In my alabaster box."
This morning I read the story of Mary and the alabaster box of costly perfume she poured out on the feet of Jesus, washing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. This lady was clearly desperate for Him! I get the feeling that there would have been nothing too costly for her,
nothing too humiliating, nothing that could have restrained her complete and total abandonment to Him.
But I can't help but notice all the obscurity in the story...
-Who was Simon, the leper? It would appear from a synopsis of the gospels that he might have been family to Mary...perhaps her brother or her father?
But it was he who said in his heart condemning words of her. "If Jesus knew what sort of woman she is...."
Don't think for a minute that it would be impossible for a family member to be so unforgiving!
Simon, "the leper", a Pharisee, whose home this story is set in, had clearly been healed of leprosy or else he would not have lived in the city nor would there have been a public gathering at his home. If he was the father or brother of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and had seen Lazarus raised from the dead and had been healed of leprosy himself, you'd have thought that HE would have certainly been right beside Mary pouring out costly perfume at Jesus' feet.
There's really a lot about this story that leaves me scratching my head...
But I strongly suspect this...that there's something far more behind the scenes than we are completely aware of...
Which I think is significant and maybe intentional, for learning to love Jesus happens in obscurity.
Is there not always something more behind the scenes in the life of a person who is just clearly uninhibited in their love for Jesus;
who pour out all they are and have at his feet;
whose emotions spill out like streams of water;
Who use every part of THEMSELVES to minister love to Him?
Had she experienced more rejection than we could ever comprehend?
Had past immorality seized her as a direct consequence of her great, great emotional need?
Had she lived her entire life searching in vain for one who would value her and give her dignity?
How deeply had she hurt?
And how completely had Jesus healed her wounds?
We only know that something bigger than we're told had seized her heart and caused her to love Jesus with utter abandonment; that "we don't know (Oh, we really don't know!) the cost of the oil in her alabaster box."
I don't know what she'd been through, but there's no doubt that life had broken her and that Jesus had put her back together!
We don't know how very, very much that was worth to her because we don't know her whole story.
Someday I want to hear her whole story!
Someday I want to hear YOURS...
Because I think there's way more to it than meets the eye...
"And I've come to pour
My praise on Him
Like oil from Mary's alabaster box
Don't be angry if I wash his feet with my tears
And I dry them with my hair
You weren't there the night He found me
You did not feel what I felt
When he wrapped his love all around me and
You don't know the cost of the oil
In my alabaster box."
My Last Moments with Mama
Four years ago late last night, I would receive a very unexpected call, "Your mother got sick... she is not responding."
I discovered in those days surrounding my Precious Mother's leaving us just exactly where our souls are located in our bodies because mine had a sword through it; a literal physical hurt right in my gut!
This could not be happening. She was SO well just a few days ago.
But this is not a dream...This is real...
The doctor says the bleed is so bad that even if she survived, she would never be the same. I would need to tell him whether or not to remove the ventilator the next morning.
I rejoice that I did not have to make that decision.
The next morning, Mama was already on her way home. I went in and sang to her a song I had written for her 50th birthday; Every word of it.
In her final moments, I laid my head on her chest and her last heart beats beat the words, "I love you, my little girl...." I sensed it with all my heart!
"I know, Mama! I love you, my mommy," I told her!
Her children gathered round her...And she left....
How odd is it that the moment she left, I was filled with great, great JOY!!
The Angels at that moment were escorting my Mother to the place where her faith would become sight! I'm certain that there is no greater legacy that one can leave than the absolute assurance that we truly LOVE Jesus Christ more than anything or anyone on this earth! She did! And she was SEEING her faithful Lord and I was ecstatic for her!
My heart was crying, "Run, Mama! Run! There He is!!!!"
Oh dear Father! How I miss her!!
But let me just tell you....NEVER in my life have I experienced such a supernatural take over of my heart! I could only rejoice because I had just watched our worst enemy, death, be SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY!!!! Death, where is your victory? Where is your sting???
Even and especially now....We are more than conquerors because of Easter Sunday so many years ago!
My Mama taught me how to live well and how to die well and a million things in between!
I miss you so terribly, my mommy! I'll miss you until it's my turn to come to where you are!
In the meantime...keep on helping Jesus make me some more grand babies!! Y'all are doing great so far!!!!! 👧🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👍🏻👍🏻😉🙌💝❤️
I discovered in those days surrounding my Precious Mother's leaving us just exactly where our souls are located in our bodies because mine had a sword through it; a literal physical hurt right in my gut!
This could not be happening. She was SO well just a few days ago.
But this is not a dream...This is real...
The doctor says the bleed is so bad that even if she survived, she would never be the same. I would need to tell him whether or not to remove the ventilator the next morning.
I rejoice that I did not have to make that decision.
The next morning, Mama was already on her way home. I went in and sang to her a song I had written for her 50th birthday; Every word of it.
In her final moments, I laid my head on her chest and her last heart beats beat the words, "I love you, my little girl...." I sensed it with all my heart!
"I know, Mama! I love you, my mommy," I told her!
Her children gathered round her...And she left....
How odd is it that the moment she left, I was filled with great, great JOY!!
The Angels at that moment were escorting my Mother to the place where her faith would become sight! I'm certain that there is no greater legacy that one can leave than the absolute assurance that we truly LOVE Jesus Christ more than anything or anyone on this earth! She did! And she was SEEING her faithful Lord and I was ecstatic for her!
My heart was crying, "Run, Mama! Run! There He is!!!!"
Oh dear Father! How I miss her!!
But let me just tell you....NEVER in my life have I experienced such a supernatural take over of my heart! I could only rejoice because I had just watched our worst enemy, death, be SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY!!!! Death, where is your victory? Where is your sting???
Even and especially now....We are more than conquerors because of Easter Sunday so many years ago!
My Mama taught me how to live well and how to die well and a million things in between!
I miss you so terribly, my mommy! I'll miss you until it's my turn to come to where you are!
In the meantime...keep on helping Jesus make me some more grand babies!! Y'all are doing great so far!!!!! 👧🏼👶🏼👶🏼👶🏼👍🏻👍🏻😉🙌💝❤️
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