Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: COFFEE BREAK / TEA BREAK (03/01/18)
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TITLE: Choose and Decide | Previous Challenge Entry
By Elaine Hemingway
03/08/18 -
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“But how will I know? What if I make the wrong decision?”
Uncle Eric chuckled from his position in the big old bed positioned under the window. “Hope it’s not too late to change your mind,” and his few teeth glinted in the sunlight as he turned his piercing blue eyes towards me. He was well into his 80’s, and basically bedbound so when I dropped in for a visit we usually sat in the bedroom and he could also enjoy the chat. His tea-cup was of the old English breakfast size and not such delicate china as Auntie Eileen and I enjoyed, and he made a great slurp of every sip between uttering his words of wisdom. “When you accepted Jesus as your Saviour,” he gurgled, “you were given a priceless gift. You were given the Holy Spirit to guide and advise you. If you are open to His direction, you will be safe.”
“But what if …?”
Auntie Eileen chipped in with her own comment. “In the Book of James”, she said, “we are told that if any of us lack wisdom we are to ask and it will be given to us. In Isaiah we can read that whether we turn to the right or to the left, we will hear a voice behind us, saying, ‘this is the way; walk in it.’”
How grateful I have been for those tea-breaks when I was helped along in my new-found faith. The dear old couple are long gone now, and I imagine them enjoying the talks they have with their Maker, but meantime I have been reminded many times of the responsibility I have as an older Christian myself now and the opportunities that arise for guidance of the younger generation.
My daughter is a good example.
“Mom, please pray,” is a common call that I love to receive.
I recognise the signs. It’s a sort of ‘got the tee-shirt’ feeling. I am at the stage of waking up in the morning and trying to wind up the get-up-and-go mechanism, somewhere in the middle fuddle of my brain. What day is it? Oh dear, look at the time.
“Mom, how are you for ‘Fika’ this morning?” She was living in Sweden and learning the language. I knew I would be in for a long skype and it would be an interesting coffee break.
“That’ll be great, love. What time must I be ready?” A 2 hour time difference was not always a consideration.
“Tack sá Mycket, módrar. Will half an hour do you? I need your advice.”
How fortunate I have been and how easy it is to count my blessings. This daughter is actually my daughter-in-law, but I found her first. I had actually come to know her parents and as a young teenager, she had tugged at my heart from the beginning. Having been God’s instrument in her making a confession of faith and receiving Jesus, I know the date of her being born again as well as her natural, physical birthdate. When my son spoke of the girl he was going to marry it was natural that she was my daughter-in-love as well as law. When the family grew it was just as well that we did not live in the same town but many miles away so I could not be accused of interfering.
But I was always ready to help where possible and keep the precious family in prayer, hence whenever a problem arose, health, school, domestic, it was good to be at the end of a phone. Not least to meet together, one way or the other and hopefully, solve the problems. For when two or more are gathered together, Jesus will be with us.
And so the saga continues. At least two choices will be offered and the correct decision sought.
I wonder which herbal infusion would have been made when Jesus and his disciples took a break.
James 1:5 and Isaiah 30:21
Hebrews 10:25
Matthew 18:20
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