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I just wanted to post a little update on the babies that hatched on our front porch last week. There are 4 babies, as we had originally thought. And they are growing up nicely, thanks to the care of their mother, Robin. The little guy in this pic is looking for a meal. Notice his sporty new mohawk. 
Below all the siblings pose together. They have changed quite a bit in one week, just like my youngest grandson!
Counting beaks- Can you see all four?
Watching these babies grow has been a new experience for me, and I’m enjoying it immensely. There is a window nearby that I am able to peek through and watch Mama feed her babies without disturbing the family. I have been reminded many times this week of an old Bible verse that goes like this: “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Can you imagine? Not only is God peering into my life from His nearby window in Heaven, but He actually is keeping track of every hair on my head! I can’t even do that! I am blessed, humbled, and amazed. I don’t understand why He watches over us the way He does. But knowing that He is there helps me be strong, and gives me courage to face the road ahead. I know that I am loved, and someone is watching over me.
Blessings,
Tea Lady Darla
Good morning and welcome to all tea lovers who enjoy getting together to visit with friends and chat over a hot cup of tea. I’m feeling a bit more contemplative and reflective today, than I usually do. There are so many trials going on in the lives of my friends. It really makes me wonder how God determines which trials each one of us will have to endure. I do know that, according to the Bible, even good people have to face difficult times. There are so many examples such as Job who lost every material thing, along with all his children. And then we have David who was hunted like a wild animal for years because he was anointed to be the next king of Israel. Then there was Joseph who faced false accusations by the wife of Pharaoh when Joseph refused to succumb to her repeated attempts to seduce him. So many times it seems that life is unfair.
I’ve witnessed this within my own life from time to time also. Several years ago when my 8 year old daughter was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Lukemia, we spent several long days in hospital rooms. I would regularly slip out for a cigarette break. It seemed unfair to me then, that she was the one suffering with cancer, while I was the one puffing away. I would have traded places with her in a minute if God would have given me the choice. He didn’t. Eventually I quit anyway. And she got better. But why? Why did she get better, while so many other children we knew died? We watched in agony while other children did not get better through Chemotherapy treatments, still others got better only to relapse later and lose the battle completely. But why? Why did God decide that our outcome would be positive, and theirs would not?
As I write this, my heart is heavy for many of my friends and acquaintances. I know a little 2 year old who has recently relapsed from Nueroblastoma. This is so beyond my understanding, it hurts to even think of it. Why did God let this little girl come into the world in the first place, if the only life she would ever know would be pain filled and tragic? Another friend stands falsely accused of illegal business practices. Another friend has been out of work for weeks and they have nothing. They cannot even afford their medical bills. Another friend is in chronic pain. Another friend has lost her teenage son in a car accident. I could go on and on, but I think you understand my point. You too may be experiencing hardships, injustice, poor health, financial ruin, a broken family. Where does this come from? Why does God allow it? Can it really serve any purpose? Does God really hear us when we pray?
Jesus talks about prayer and teaches his followers to pray in Matthew 6. Certainly He believed there was value in prayer. Repeatedly in the New Testament we see Him stealing away to be alone and meet with His Father in prayer. That would indicate to me that there is some real value in prayer. I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that God gives us some choices in how things are run on earth by the way we choose to pray. This is not to say that we are in complete control of the outcome of all things. But certainly, we are allowed to voice our opinions to God through prayer, and cast our votes for what we’d like an outcome to be.
I don’t think people spend enough time praying these days. Maybe it’s because they don’t believe it really does any good. Or maybe it’s because they have such a hard time committing themselves to being a part of what God desires to do in each one of us. Praying is not an easy task. I’m not talking about the fleeting “God help me through this mess”, prayer. But really being on our knees to interact with God. To hear from Him first, and speak to Him after.
My point in posting this is to tell you that God does answer prayer. I have so many documented answers to prayer, you would have to spend an entire day visiting with me to let me share all my stories. I usually write the prayer request, and the date it was answered, and I place in a big wooden box I refer to as my “family alter”.
God has not answered all my prayers. My first marriage fell apart despite my pleading with God that it would somehow survive. The tumor in my brain did not shrivel up and disappear so that I wouldn’t have to endure surgery. But the surgery went well, and I am healthy today. And my daughter is alive and well twenty years after the chemo treatments. That is not just a coincidence. She is a miracle. But I’d need to write a book to explain it to you. And I’ve been seriously considering doing just that. The house I live in is a miracle, but that’s another incredible story. Countless times we have had financial needs provided for in the nick of time.
And just recently another answer to prayer. A big one. I am not at liberty to share because it involves other people. But it was a miracle. I promise to share the story as soon as I am able to go public with it. Not all my prayers have been answered in the way I requested God to answer them. But I am certain He has heard me cry before Him, and He has considered carefully my requests and made the best decisions on my behalf because He dearly loves me.
I think it’s important to pray alone, (as in Matthew 6:6). But I also think there is incredible value in praying with friends and family members, (Matthew 18:19-20). My husband and I have been astonished to see some amazing answered prayers that seem to have been the direct result of kneeling together and speaking out, in front of one another, the petitions we are lifting up before God. And while I cannot, by any means, claim to know everything there is to know about prayer, I hope that I can leave you feeling inspired and encouraged to pray more often, and to have faith in the process, even if the end results are not always the hoped for, and anticipated results. Sometimes God answers prayers in a different way for a reason we simply cannot understand in the fragileness of our humanity. Whether you understand prayer or not, I encourage you, in the words of Martina McBride, to do it anyway. I leave you now with the lyrics to a song that has touched my heart, and inspires me to never give up hope on the requests I bring to God daily.
DO IT ANYWAY
You can spend your whole life building something from nothing
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway
You can chase a dream that seems so out of reach
and you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway
Chorus:
God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good
And when I pray it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway, I do it anyway
This world’s gone crazy and it’s hard to believe
that tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway
You can love someone with all your heart, for all the right reasons,
and in a moment they can choose to walk away
Love ‘em anyway
God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good
And when I pray it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I pray anyway….I pray anyway.
You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in
that tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway, sing it anyway
I sing, I dream, I love, anyway
[Thanks to Mike Sublett for lyrics]
This month marks the 14th anniversary of our blended family. You know we still meet people and watch their jaws drop as we explain that we started our marriage with custody of 7 children between the ages of 11 and 18 living under one roof. “How did you ever do it?”, they ask. It wasn’t easy, I’ve got to tell you. And I would never recommend starting a marriage this way. But in our case, it was a God thing. And that’s the only reason it could have worked out as well as it did. The Lord blessed us with a big house, and all but the two youngest children were able to have their own bedrooms. We lived out in the country, so our home wasn’t inundated with teenage guests all throughout the day and night. Thank God for that! Our oldest son left home within the first year of our marriage. But we definitely locked horns a few times before he moved out. I was not used to having my authority be challenged. But step children are really good at that.
My three children were more quiet and subdued than the Elliott children. In fact, they felt as though they were being swallowed up by all that Elliott presence and energy. We had moved up here from the Central coast of California. My kids were having to start new lives. Their old friends, their history, their stories all seemed to evaporate, as they left everything to follow their mom on this journey to Oregon to become the new Mrs. E.
The Elliott kids were having to re-adjust their lives in order to make room for new siblings, and a new mother. Clearly this was not a choice any of these children had made for themselves. Everyone of them felt like they were being victimized. And then there was Dan and I, madly in love, and wanting everything to work out brilliantly. Oh my! But there were some bumps in the road!
I thank God for the wisdom God granted Dan and I from the very beginning. We made a pact that while we sorted out things in our family, and tried to make decisions, and blend parenting styles, we would ALWAYS present a unified front to all of our children. Disagreements would be handled privately. NEVER in front of the children. We knew they would chew us up and spit us out if they could….if there was ever even a hint of a crack in the parental block we had created.
Who does the disciplining for each of the children? The original parent or the new step parent or ??? We did it together. Always. Privately, Dan and I would meet and discuss what the situation was, and together we would sit down with the child who needed correction and spell it out for them. In most cases, I would spell it out, with Dan at my side, to my three kids. And he would be the verbalizer when his kids needed correction. Eventually those lines became more and more blurred, and we both would have input whenever any of our children needed correcting.
We also utilized family meetings, where things could be discussed, and the kids could feel as if they had a voice of some sort. Listening to their concerns relieved a lot of their stress, I’m sure. But it also helped our kids bond with one another, as they began to form alliances with each other to try and bring about the changes they desired to take place in our family.
Starting new traditions was a bit more challenging, as we came from such different backgrounds. I remember one year we rented a cabin up in the mountains, during the winter. We had anticpipated having fun in the snow, and then warming up to a nice cozy fireplace, drinking hot chocolate and eating chocolate chip cookies while sharing thanksgiving in our hearts with one another. Ha! There wasn’t one snowflake that year. Only rain, rain, and more rain. The kids couldn’t even go outside it was so disgustingly muddy. The good news was that they had a television in the “cabin”. The bad news was that it only got one channel, and it was running a 48 hour Clint Eastwood marathon. Picture 7 grumpy kids locked up in a small ugly house in the middle of nowhere during a rainstorm with nothing to do but watch Clint Eastwood flicks. Not a pretty site. But then came our time of thanksgiving. It was shameful how very unthankful they were that year! Dan and I had to listen to their moaning and groaning about how much in life there was to hate. You know, God set us up on that one. But we survived. We now look back on that weekend and laugh at how God used it as a measuring device for how far we would grow together as a family in the years to come.
As the years passed, we grew as a family. The kids actually began to show signs of liking one another. But it took years, lots of smiles, experiences both good and bad, and plenty of tears. And much prayer. Dan faithfully got up each morning and made breakfast for the crew before they went off to school. (My kids hated having Dan make breakfast. And really just wanted some plain old cold cereal). I worked as a stay at home mom, attending as many of their extra cirricular events as possible, and preparing a family dinner every night. His kids did not think the world of my fancy cooking, preferring plain old hamburgers, tomato soup, or some of their Dad’s famous hotdog stew. You heard me right. Hot dog stew. A gourmet cooks nightmare of a meal was Dan’s most famous dish. That and the Tatortot casserole. Poor children. I thought I’d show those poor deprived Elliott kids what good home cooking really tasted like. Only to have them turn up their noses and tell me to quit adding all those fancy spices so it would taste better. Not sure how my ego survived intact. But needless to say, I’m far less fragile a person now than I was 12 years ago.
The best piece of advice I could ever give about raising teenagers is not my own advice, but Dr. James Dobson’s. He talks about how so many parents quit making their kids go to church when they become teenagers. That’s an awful thing to do, he warns parents, because the teenage years are when that child need the church most! Our culture is bombarding our children with their godless doctines and sexual immorality. To lay aside the influence of the church during this stage of their lives would be a catastrophe. Dan and I made sure our children always attended church when they lived with us, whether they liked it or not. It’s true that a parent of teenagers must pick their battles. But this is the one battle I would NEVER compromise on! When they are out from under your wings they will make that decison on their own. But while they are in your home, demonstrate faithfulness to the body of Christ, and let them benefit from being in a loving family of Christian believers. If there is any compromise at all, it might be that they could choose which youth group they wish to attend, so they can feel somewhat independent and can hang out with their friends. But being part of a body of believers is a must for their spiritual development.
Our family has not finished blending yet. We are still learning and growing and changing. We have added a few spouses along the way. And some beautiful grandchildren. The blending process isn’t over. But what a joy it has been to be a part of something miraculous. While I will always believe that marriages and families should never have to experience the brokeness that comes from a divorce, I am grateful that my God is a God who can redeem things and make them valuable again. That’s what He has done for me and my family. God took my brokeness and gave me a new life and more children, and new friends, and new experiences, and more happiness than you can imagine.
Thank you for letting me share my heart with you today. I think I need to refill my teacup now.
Blessings-
Tea Lady Darla
One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever had the pleasure of traveling to has to be Yellowstone National Park, an absolute wonderland of scenic and scientific treasures. Within the parks 2,200,00 acres are over 10,000 geothermal features including over 300 geysers. Around every corner are indescribable delights. The scenery unlike anything else you could ever imagine. Photos cannot do it justice. To experience Yellowstone, you must experience it firsthand. 
Yellowstone is teaming with wildlife as well, providing many fabulous photographic moments for novices like myself. But despite it’s many wonders and it’s awe-inspiring beauty, Yellowstone is also a place to be revered, as danger lurks in every gorgeous hideaway, and just off every path, and from every glorious vista. Yes, there is danger. Yellowstone commands our respect in so many ways.
Every year dozens of tourists fall victim to the perils of Yellowstone from attacks of wild animals, to falling off cliffs, and auto accidents as a result of drivers not paying attention to the road. An average of 1.5 persons die every year as a result of falling into one of the boiling thermal features of the park. Despite the parks many warnings, these victims are usually the result of having proceeded beyond the safety corriders and visitor pathways that have been built to protect tourists. My former father in law was a victim of such a fall. Although he survived, he sustained third degree burns over much of his lower body and spent weeks in the hospital, trying to recover.
I cannot speak for why this usually brilliant man decided to venture off the path to get a closer look at one of the hot pools he had come upon while hiking that day. But the cost of his poor judgement was significant.
How do you describe a land so mysterious and beautiful? So awe-inspiring, yet dangerous? There are no words. But to experience Yellowstone once will leave the viewer hungry to experience it again.
The same thing could be said about the God I serve. His name is Yaweh, not Allah. He is incredible beyond my ability to explain to those who do not know Him. I am in awe when I enter into His presence. I cannot describe His beauty, His magnificence, His utter glory. How can I explain this to someone who has never experienced Him or been in His presence? He takes my breath away. Sometimes I am speechless. Other times I am full of praise. I may lift my hands in worship. Or fall to my knees in adoration. Or melt in humility and appreciation that this God of wonders would come to me and invite me into His presence. He calls me His friend, (John 15:14-15). I am so grateful that I am known by the creator of the universe. As small as I am, He redeemed my life so that I would not perish, but have everlasting life with Him, (John 3:16) . If you have never experienced God in this way, I promise, you are in for a treat! If you should stumble upon a church where the parishioners step into the supernatural realm of worship, it may leave you feeling speechless and confused. But in that place, ask God to receive you and reveal Himself to you, so that you too can experience the pleasure of His glory. Don’t be left out. He wants you to participate!
Having said that, please note that Yaweh is also a dangerous God. He has established rules for society. A pathway to keep us from harm. He is, afterall, a good and righteous God. But to ignore His warnings will result in dire consequences. He is patient. He is kind. He is merciful. He is waiting…..waiting….patiently waiting. I have listened in shock at those who blaspheme God arrogantly, speaking of things they do not know and cannot be certain. They dare to challenge God, to mock Him openly, believing He cannot see. Oh Father forgive them. They cannot know what they are doing. For with knowledge of Yaweh, comes words of great praise. Even the demons tremble at God’s glory, (James 2:18).
Tonight I am speaking from my heart about the God I know and serve. His name is Yaweh. The one true God. He is my friend. I respect Him and am humbled in His presence. I obey His laws because I know they protect me from harm. I do not carelessly wander off His path to experience life on my own. I walk close to the one who can save me, just as I would stay on the paths that have been built for me in Yellowstone Park.
Close as I ever want to be to a bull moose, across the river.
To serve Allah would mean to bow in prayer five times a day, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, to fast Ramadan, and to pay zakat. But even doing these things cannot guarentee a place in the eternal kingdom. Allah is not a friend to anyone. Prayer is an act of obedience to Allah, but not a means of changing an outcome, since Allah does not change His mind. He is not the “Heavenly Father”, we speak of in Judeo-Christian circles.
Our God loves His creation, for whatever strange reason. He desires us to be His children. What an intimate picture the Bible portrays for us. We cannot earn our salvation, it was given to us at the cross. And God is familiar with our weaknesses because He has walked among us and become like us through His son Jesus Christ, Emmanuel- God with us. There is no one like our God.
In closing I wish to leave you with the words of a beautiful Christian song that says about as much in the English language as anyone can say to describe the amazing Judeo Christian God that I serve, YAWEH, the one and only.
You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words,
Too wonderful for comprehension…like nothing ever seen or heard.
Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depth of your love?
You are beautiful beyond description, Majesty enthroned above.
And I stand, I stand in awe of you.
Holy God to whom all praise is due, I stand in awe of you.
Amen and Amen.
