Guard Cat

Guard Cat
Psalms 4:8

The sun sets abruptly in the African bush.  For us, electricity was rationed to just 3 hours at night.  We all kept a flashlight under our pillows for any venture outside of our beds during the night.

One typical night, as I proceeded to check the lock on our home office door, I had the strangest, compelling urgency, something hard to even describe, to rush out of the room.  A few minutes later, our daughter hollered from her room across from the office, "The cat is playing with something behind the office door!"  Her Daddy grabbed his machete to check it out.  The cat was swatting its paw at something hidden behind the door.  As Dale slowly pulled the door to look on the other side, his eyes beheld a black mamba snake that the cat had cornered!!! Mambas are very poisonous snakes but not as aggressive as the green mambas. Thank the Lord for brave husbands and fathers!

We had no idea when that snake had entered the house -- during the day and then was hiding all that time?  What if one of us had gotten up during the night?  We could have been traumatized for life or possibly bitten!  That snake was there in the office when I went in to check the door!!  I knew immediately two things:  God had given me that urgency to leave the office.  Secondly, He had protected all of us by using our cat to alert us to the presence of that snake.  And before the lights went out!!!!

"I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety."

No matter where or what God asks us to do, He is our shield and protector!

Who am I?

I need to catch up and post the most recent devotionals...this is why I get behind on posting my crazy escapades growing up!!!  The deadline for monthly devotionals just sneaks up on me and then it is a pressure cooker to produce by said date!!!  

So here are the updates....

Who am I?

I am...a woman...daughter...sister...aunt...sister-in-law...cousin ...wife...mother...mother-in-law...grandmother...friend.  However, this is not the complete essence of who I am when I allow God to write my life story.

I am...
...created by God (Psalms 139:13-16)
...a child of God (John 1:12)
...chosen by God (Ephesians 1:4)
...a saint (1 Corinthians 1:2)
...a servant (Colossians 3:24)
...a branch (John 15:5)
...an epistle (2 Corinthians 3:2)
...the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)  And the list goes on...!

When my story began on a blank page, God already had the chapters titled.  I am eternally grateful for the fervent prayers of my grandmother as she knelt beside my bed to pray for me.  God used her immensely in my life, as well as the firm, loving home my parents provided.  As I reflect on the previous chapters, I see Him at work.  God liked to keep it interesting as He blotted a page with discouragement one day...erased the failures the next day.  A new chapter excited Him as that page began with the joy of service.  God's footnotes of love were a refreshing reference when frustrations overwhelmed.  He also had a sense of humor along the way as He edited my wants!!

There are still chapters to be written in my story.  Only He knows when the final chapter will be written.  My continuing assignment is to daily transcribe my story as a testament of God's grace as the Holy Spirit works in and through me. Praise the one True and Holy God who loves me beyond anything I can comprehend!!

Let God write your story and bask in His gracious, patient love as you glorify Him.

Junior High...Sink or Swim!

This is yours truly ready to do the Mexican Hat Dance in 6th grade at the one room school...mentioned in previous post.





Bottom left is the end of 5th grade.  And then on the right is 8th grade.  Notice that the "silver fang" is showing in this picture!!!

And off we go again!!!!  I really think my brother and I could qualify as professional movers!!!  It was always our Daddy and us two loading up the home built trailer!!!! Such fun with a huge Amana upright freezer, beautiful console piano and an awkward king size bed!

This time we temporarily moved into my paternal grandparents home as my father once again went to work for his father.  Now, this house was really a mansion in my 11 year old eyes!!  Located in Arcadia, California in a well-to-do neighborhood, it sat on two lots that included a small pond, detached garage with a bathroom and laundry room, tennis court, barn and horses.

As for the house itself, it was set back from the road with a sweeping, huge, green lawn.  We desert rats loved the soft, green grass to run and play on!  Any time we visited, I beat it to the side of the house where rhubarb grew.  I would pull up one, cut off the ends and eat it with salt.  In those days, bread was delivered to the door (if you could afford this convenience!) as well as milk.  I loved watching the bread man open up the back of his wood paneled truck and pull open the drawers to show Grandma all the choices of bread.

Inside the two story house were large rooms, complete with a small music room with my Grandfather's organ. We 3 kids occupied one of the two bedrooms upstairs.  I will never forget the other bedroom that had wallpaper with these huge green leaves.  Downstairs was an office that displayed all the trophies the matching Palamino horses had won at shows...one of my grandfather's hobbies for awhile.

A couple stories from the past when we visited this estate...

My mother related to me an occurrence when I was two years old.  My grandparents hosted a Halloween party in their big barn for all their friends and family.  I was only two years old and still sucking my thumb, despite all my mother's efforts to bring an end to this habit.  Attending the party was someone dressed up as a witch.  My mother, using all her parenting skills available in that decade, pointed out the witch to me and said, "If you don't stop sucking your thumb, that witch is going to get you!"  Boy, how that must have damaged my psyche!!!  Ha!!  Ha!!  I have no recollection of this nor did I develop an aversion to witches!  But I did stop sucking my thumb!!

Also at this age on a visit to these grandparents, Daddy was tasked to watch me while we were outside by the pond.  Guess what?  I fell head first into the pond and both Daddy and Grandpa did not think it was a big deal! But my mother sure did!!!  They laughed and she scolded them..."She could have drowned", etc., etc.!!!

Fast forward to my 7th grade year as we began a brief sojourn with these grandparents while my parents searched for a house to rent.  Unfortunately, I had to begin school...junior high school!!!! What a traumatic experience for this country girl!!!!  Those first few weeks, I was trying so hard a lot of mornings to be sick with something and not go to school!  This was a school with mostly upper class families and the kids knew each other.  Changing classrooms for every class was a brand new idea to me!  And dressing for PE!!!  Oh, my!!!  So many changes!

I did enjoy PE as we learned to play Speedball.  Such great exercise, spending the entire period just running like crazy up and down the field after the ball!!  But then there was a different kind of PE...teaching us ballroom dancing!!!  Our family did not dance (except the brief time in 5th grade we did square dancing in class!).  By the time my mother got around to considering putting a stop to it, we had finished that section of PE!  Of course, I would be partnered with the class clown...he was cute but not my favorite person because he sat beside me in Art class and pulled the chair out from under me one day!!!  So embarrassing as the new kid!!!

We soon moved into our own house with my two brothers and another baby on the way.  I had my own room for the first time. But I hated it!!!  It was separated from the other bedrooms at the back of the house that was right by a canal and an outside door.  I never felt safe there.

But no worries!  For whatever reason, we moved again in a month or so!!!!  Still in the same city so I didn't have to change schools!  This house was an old, cozy house and I was back to sharing a bedroom with my brother.

For Christmas that year, my maternal grandmother made me a darling outfit and took me to the famous Grauman Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to see "The Seven Wonders of the World."  Wow!  This was a very special time for me, not only to go to the theatre but to be with my Granny.

Shortly after Christmas, in February, I finally got a baby sister!!  Yea for us girls!!!  I now was tasked to help with the dishes since there were more to take care of in our household. At least I had 12 years before dish washing entered my life!!  :)

September to April...life in Arcadia...then pack up and off to Hinckley, California to another ranch!  With only a couple months of school left!

Sixth Grade

  Sixth Grade

And now another new adventure...a new home and a new school!!!  Our new home was the "house that Jack built".  For those who have never heard that expression, it means that it is a house that began as a very small place and then rooms were added on as needed in a hodge-podge fashion.  This house began as an one room adobe, supposedly occupied by a famous Indian, Ramona.  Hence, the ranch was called Rancho Ramona.

My brother, Brian and I would usually walk home from the little one room school house that was just over the hill and across the highway.  As I recall, we usually had a ride to school...no doubt because we were running late as usual!

It was fun being in a classroom with grades 1-6 together.  There were probably only about 20 of us kids.  This is where I learned the game "Kick the Can" and "Steal the Bacon".  I also learned  the Mexican Hat dance that we performed for 6th grade graduation.

Our walk home was sometimes a hike up the big hill (not the road) and then a run through brush and weeds down the hill to the house.  Fortunately, it was not summer as we probably would have run into a few rattlesnakes!

We also loved to take our bikes up to the top of the road and ride down to our house.  Boy, did we get them going fast!!!  We would entertain ourselves as well playing cowboys and Indians!  We saved some kind of coupons and sent off for an Indian headband and a few other Indian things.  We had found a mortar and pestle to use for our "cooking"!    Oh, the joys of living in the country and just being kids!!!  We lived on this ranch 2 different times...6th grade and back again for the last couple months of 8th grade and all of 9th grade so some of my memories run together!

Whatever time it was, (6th grade I think) I will never forget the CHICKENS!!!

My parents, for whatever reason, decided to raise 125 chickens to butcher and freeze for future meals.  Here we go again!!!  Feeding chickens!!!  And that dratted water dish that never worked right for me!!  Sure enough, one afternoon, it must have broken apart 2 or 3 times and I was so frustrated!

One more try and maybe this will work...nope!!!!  Just as I got in the door of the hen house, the thing let lose and splat!!!  Water everywhere! When I turned around all in a huff to pick up the pieces, my eyes are drawn straight to the chicken-wire window ledge...and the screaming began!!!!  There was a snake stretched out on the ledge within a foot of me!!!!  Running out of the hen house screaming bloody murder, my poor mother thought something  tragic had happened to me.  Yep, I was scared half to death!!!!  Fortunately, it was a king snake and not dangerous but who cared???  Up close and personal with any snake is not for me!

Now, time passes and it is time to butcher the 125 chickens!!!  My grandparents came to help us.  Well, let's say that they and I did most of the hard work!!!  My grandfather cut off their heads...anybody ever experience a headless chicken flapping around, squirting blood all over?!!  The chicken was then dipped in a barrel of hot water.  My job...pluck off the wet, stinky feathers!! ( I have no idea where Brian was!  He could disappear quickly!).  Following the de-feathering, they were carried to the kitchen and my mother prepared them for freezing.  They did make for good eating!

Sibling rivalry was not too rampart with my brother, Brian and I.  After all, he could always beat me up!  But I got one up on him one day on the ranch.  We had a pellet gun and Brian thought he was Wyatt Earp.  One afternoon we saw an owl sitting on the roof of the big barn down the hill from our house.  He bragged that he could shoot it that far away and kill it.  So he proceeded to show off his budding manhood and got off a good shot. The owl didn't flinch!  So I asked him to let me try.  I proceeded to aim and shoot...dead on shot and the owl bit the dust!!!  I still like to bring up this story.

Perfect Fit

The following story is true and no names have been changed to protect the guilty!!! Perfect Fit Provers 3 Always such an adventure to follow my daughters around when I visit! One crazy adventure was bed shopping at IKEA. Choosing a twin bed was not difficult..getting it home..a challenge! Abigail was so positive this 2 piece bed set would fit in their Land Rover. I shook my head and kept reiterating my doubts. We push and pull this purchase to the car. I begin to try loading the first mattress in the car. Very obviously it is not going to fit!!! "Let me move the front seat up. We can make this work!", Abigail keeps saying. Finally she recognizes the impossibility of this vehicle providing transportation. Now what??? I am silently asking the Lord to fix this dilemma as this 7 months pregnant crazy woman goes back to find an employee to fix our situation. Abigail returns with 2 former coworkers who "happened" to be leaving IKEA, were driving an Explorer and thought they could fit both mattresses in their car. To my amazement, both pieces fit in their car!!!! Do we not as God's children, think we can fit more and more responsibilities into our lives? Do we rely on our strength, abilities and wisdom to do it all? Until our bodies hit a brick wall that we can't move. Then we think to seek God's direction and strength. Our Heavenly Father desires to use us for His glory but not in our own strength. He delights in hearing our cries for help. These cries mean our relationship with Him deepens as we lean on Him, which is God's ultimate goal. Let us consider our daily agenda and prayerfully ask the Lord to reveal to us the areas He wants us to relinquish to His oversight. He can make it all fit!!

Flying High

About time I returned to regale you with trivia!!!! Writing two devotionals a month has been a challenge and I think I am finally getting into some what of a groove and can get back to posting the past ancient years of one Lynda Elmore Reimer!!! But first, let's catch up on my devotionals. Beginning this month, the Northside Baptist Devotional can be found for free on Amazon.com and downloaded to a Kindle or iPad. Flying High II Timothy 1:7 Admitting we have weaknesses and fears is difficult for most of us to verbalize to a friend or relative, let alone the world at large! Can we even admit it to the Lord?? There is a fear that I have confessed continually to the Lord...desperately, frequently and whining and begging too! Since I can remember, I have had a fear of heights. This fear also affects me when flying. Unless you have personally experienced this paralyzing terror, it is impossible to understand. Kind of like asking a man if he understands childbirth! Until the last two years, all the flights I embarked on were always with my husband and/or children...my moral support. Now I have made innumerable flights all by myself! Why? Because I enjoy a 4-5 hour flight battling the fear that persistently besets me?? Absolutely not!! The why is because I know that God has directed me to overcome this persistent fear in order to follow His directives. Yes, these trips have been to lend a hand to our children for whatever reasons, but in the scheme of things, how much more are they for my benefit as I claim His promises. I have learned to trust Him and take it one step at a time...moment by moment to rest in His power. There is no need to sit rigid and uptight worrying about the next hour, the next flight. And so He has proven Himself faithful in all my pleadings. How much more my faith and trust has grown through this. He knows my fears and weaknesses and is trying to complete His work in me. The Lord does not fly stand-by!! He is with me on these flights!