The Greatest Compliment

The compliment of all compliments came my way, about me, in front of me the other day.

It was about 3 1/2 months of knowing I needed to be ministering in Oklahoma, that I finally got in the right place.  I wasn't ignoring the call, I was just making it more difficult that it was.  I'm like that, sometimes.  I had no intentions of being disobedient at all!  Every place I went, the door was closed very quickly.  I have matured in that I don't bang on closed doors or brick walls like I used to, but my quest was not a simple one.  Here, I thought I was supposed to make a purchase toward the project, when that was simply not the case.  I have been called, however; to invest heavily in time and energy . . . and much prayer.

So here I am back in a church I'd visited several years ago.  I never joined and I didn't leave on bad terms.  It's simply a fact that Christian churches use the terms "set apart" and "come out from among them," but as a rule have tossed out the Instructions as to how that is to be done.  They felt a leading to go a direction I could not support, and with different celebrations, our paths simply crossed less.  We all stayed on friendly terms and always enjoyed seeing each other.  I've even spoken a few times through the years as a guest, but we all understand there are some significant differences.

When Abba told me to go to this pastor, I wasn't quite sure how it would go, but I showed up for Sunday morning service on Shavu'ot/Pentecost with two loaves of bread.  I told him, "I knew this was the one celebration we all shared and Deuteronomy said I was to bake two loaves of bread and go outside my gate, so here I am."  He smiled and said, "Great!  It's also Memorial Day and the service is more toward country and honoring our veteran members, then when that concludes, I'll turn the service over to you."  Well, I wasn't expecting that!  Clearly Abba had prepared his heart to receive me.

I left that Sunday afternoon, knowing I would contact him about the plan I'd been given.  Abba has led me to share natural remedies, as well as correlate the fact that sin is often the root problem in health, emotions, and finances.  I visited again in June and asked if we could meet to chat about an idea YHWH had given me.  He seemed a bit evasive, so I wasn't sure if he was truly that busy or just trying to kindly dismiss me.  As it turns out, he's truly been that busy . . .  I attended a couple more Sunday morning services, being asked to pray or speak, every time . . . So I realized my old weakness of being rejected and unwanted was unfounded.  It was time to take the bull by the horns and move forward.

I caught the pastor in his office that morning and told him, I was still wanting to talk to him and he began again with just how stretched his schedule was, when I simply said, "we're both here now and this won't take long."  I presented to him, my situation of being led to Oklahoma to share spiritually based health and I wanted to "rent" the church on Sunday afternoon between services for the same price I would have to pay to rent a conference room.  I asked him if he'd pray and think about it and he said, "No need, he had already been asking for something like this."  He did add that I did not need to pay for using the building, but in my heart it only seems right.

So, this past Sunday morning, it was announced that I would be there all afternoon.  The pastor then proceeded to share with the congregation that he wanted to tell them a couple of things about me.  He said, "When this woman prays, G-d hears, and results happen.  And another thing . . . anything you tell her stays between you, her, and G-d."

What humbling comments to hear.  I couldn't imagine a better compliment!

Reality

A thought occurred to me the other day.

Keeping alive the "old arts" of self-sustainability, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and canning are talents I am grateful to have been given, but . . . Here I've been thinking about doing what the older generations did, when a simple reality hit me.  I am now a member of an "older generation!"  That just slipped right up on me.  I remember delighting in being a young mother and young grandma, and young great grandma, but that's still 3 descending generations.  No way around it.  I'm not a young woman keeping the old arts alive, I'm now an older woman, thinking the younger ones need to be learning what I'm doing.

I have to chuckle at my denial.  The reality first hit in 2012.  A long hard year, a couple of serious injuries, and by late August, there was an old woman looking back at me in the mirror.  I've since been somewhat renewed and refreshed, but the reality remains.  After recovering from the spiritual attack that ensued after writing, "Can We All Be Wrong?" and the difficult lesson from Matthew 10; I was then blessed with a great granddaughter.  Although feeling much better about life, the reality remains, young women are simply not great grandmas!

In the past few weeks, I received an email from a gentleman making enquiry of ministry and homesteading.  Phone numbers were exchanged and we had a conversation regarding self-sustainability and living by faith.  In that conversation, he made a comment that he'd expect a much older less attractive person to be doing what I'm doing and included a compliment regarding my social media profile pic.  Before I even considered thanking him for the compliment, I asked him point blank, if he was sure he had contacted the right person.  Life has simply moved past feeling young and pretty.  In moving past that, however; I am blessed to hear comments that folks appreciate my wisdom, knowledge, and compassion.  Thankfully, by the grace of G-d, those traits can actually increase with age and spiritual maturity.  I pray they do.

The icing on the cake happened last night, however; in a conversation with Daddy, inquiring about a place I'd been about 15 years ago.  I remembered two generations working there then.  One was obviously nearing retirement age at that time or even perhaps past, and the daughter appeared to be a late boomer with teen agers if I remember correctly.  As he and I spoke, he said they were still at the same location, but their daughter was now running the place.  I had no idea if that referenced the generation that had gone to school about the time I did, or the next one.  Knowing my kids are 40ish, I thought maybe a granddaughter of the founders might now be at the helm.  I asked if the one whom I'd seen all those years ago that was about my age was now running the business, to which he mentioned her name and said, "I don't think she's as old as you are."

My grey hair and great grandchild certainly date me.  My abilities, interests, and entertainment ignorance also are huge age indicators, but now, my own father has called me old.