Small beginnings, it’s a great way to learn. I started this webpage years ago, long before I began speaking to groups. I was a busy working mom, and it was a good outlet for my contemplations.

Now I’m learning the skills needed to post videoblogs. Just like little ones learning to walk, it’s a learning process, but I will soon gain speed.

Hope you’ll head over on the video tab and watch my newest video; I call it ‘The Art of Walking.”

So glad you checked in.

Blessings,

~Debbie G

#LittleStepsBigChange #changingpatterns #learningtolean

In today’s vernacular it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted anything. I moved twice in seven weeks this summer… does that earn me a bit of grace?

Honestly, being back in full swing in my writing chair has been utmost in my heart, but precious time with family and other obligations needed to be balanced in. So here I am, late-February a bit rusty, but eager to connect again.

I’ve got much on my mind, but with so many changes I thought I’d start with that topic. New beginnings… not a ‘do over,’ as much as it is adjusting to a new space, new neighbors and honestly, not knowing where a lot of your household items are anymore.

After selling my house, I tried apartment life for a bit. But after a year and a half, I’m in a new house. Do you know what the key feature was that I was looking for in a house? Could I fit my large family inside this house for holidays? Yup, it was family.

I ended up in a new area, not too far from friends, where I could still meet weekly with my lady study partners. And honestly, I was surprised that within 2 months I have 4 new neighbors joining us each week as well.

There was not a lot of planning on my part, but certainly I’ve been brought here for a reason. And it’ll be exciting to watch these friendships unfold in my comfortable little corner of the world.

I guess my takeaway is: that even when life hits a bit of turbulence, we may discover a blessing as the waves settle. Lots of hard work and walking through an open door lead me here and I feel blessed already! I hope you have some exciting plans on the horizon too!

Be blessed and be a blessing!

~Debbie G

#hotminute #WelcometotheNeighborhood #FromBumpsToBlessings

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

I’m not sure why my husband bought me teddy bears, but he did. One little guy was white and looked quite grand in his black sequined vest. He clutched a heart shaped pillow, embroidered with the word ‘love’, between his hanging paws. Teddy lived in a house full of kids, and eventually both paws fell free. I could have reattached the pillow, but I never did. It was a choice I made.

Unfortunately, life doesn’t come with a ‘do-over’ button. And choices have consequences. Looking back, you may wish you had chosen differently, and often the best we can do is learn from the past. When the change is beyond our control, sometimes it means shifting gears. In driving, it is a one-step process, you’re already moving, and the goal is to smoothly increase or decrease speed. But life transitions take time, especially when faced with unexpected heartache.

Honestly, when I lost my husband after a five-week illness, I told God that I wasn’t interested- NOPE, change that… I told God I would follow Him anywhere, but please NO more marriage for me. Don’t read anything into this about the state of my marriage. It was wonderful, God-honoring and I was richly blessed in our years together.

Suffering loss after a long illness drains you emotionally. Death is always difficult, but the repeated waves of rising hope followed by difficult news is exhausting. You fight emotions, people’s well-intentioned comments, and often lose the battle and begin playing the game of ‘What If.’

Then comes loss. It’s a fifth gear slam to full stop. Emergency brake applied! For me, there was no brain connection at this stage. Very little computes. Nothing in life to compare this to. Call it brain fog. The only way forward is shifting into neutral, and to let others push you though.

 Healing? Oh healing… ever seen a someone learning to drive a manual transmission? Spits and sputters, and constant engine stalls. Eventually getting the rhythm of depressing the clutch in unison with moving the shifting knob.

In my loss, my heart was like that teddy bear, my hands now hung loosely. There was no repair for a missing heart. We both simply had to learn to live without it.

 I believe my comment to God about not wanting another marriage was because I needed to decompress. To relearn how to live solo again. Eventually I got my engine running smoothly again. Now it was my schedule. My plans. My comfort level. 

The last time my pastor had mentioned how good his marriage was during a sermon; I silently reminded God, “That’s good for him, Lord, but not for me.”

When I heard this reply, “But what if it’s not about you. What if he needs you to complete the work I’m calling him to do?”

Man, did that bring my refusal to the forefront. In essence, God was saying, ‘I want you to be willing to go where I desire you to go’. It only took a few moments for me to agree to ‘be willing’ to do what He called me to do. Not that I believe that God was indeed bringing me marriage, He just wanted me to be willing. To yield to His plan for me.

So for the past year I’ve mostly been running from any interaction with men. Avoiding eye contact. Clinging to my comfort levels and disappearing anytime I feel the possibility of a connection. Yikes! I wasn’t very honest in my agreement to be willing, was I?

Last week I confessed to my study group my hesitation and my new commitment to not run the other way anymore. Being willing to engage in a conversation was a good first step, right?

 Two days later at a gathering, I sat at a table with a couple I knew. A few of their acquaintances joined us and soon after one man, about 15 years my senior, asked me if I was married. It was like being hit with a spotlight. I spluttered that I was a widow.

After expressing his condolences he asked, “Would you like to get married.” I think I physically gulped. Then I lied! I told him I hadn’t really thought about it. I followed that by saying that I was happy in the state that I was currently in. And as soon as was most naturally possible and in my ‘running away’ fashion, I removed myself from the table and I didn’t return.

Yes, Teddy now has a comfortably running engine with what appears to be empty hands. But he also knows that the Good-Gift-Giver has never failed, and His hands are always open. Teddy has filled his days with adventure, his arms with the people he loves, and is open to conversation on most subjects!

How’s your engine running, friends?

~Debbie G

#shiftingGears #soloAdventures #willingtobewilling #teddybearheart

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:7

Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Psalm 143:8b

It was last spring during a life change that I decided to sell my house. Suddenly alone and tending to more property than I could handle, I was contemplating my next season. Living on the water and being blessed with a dock held a unique challenge for me when a tree floated downriver and lodged itself there.

“Oh Lord, that’s not my job.” Wait, I guess it is now.

With shovel in hand, I easily walked the tree down the dock, but when I got to the end, I had to give it a good shove and silly me, both the shovel and I went in for a dip. (In April- brr)

Lord, are you baptizing me for the next season?  And that was my decision-making moment.

There are three shining moments I’ve been contemplating this month. I guess my early spring dip was the catalyst.

It wasn’t the first dip in the Jordan River, nor would it be the last, but it was and still is the most significant one in history. It was pre-planned, purposeful, and symbolic. We glimpse the first shaft of light when John, baptizing many unto repentance, reluctantly agrees to this special request. The Spirit of God cascades down from above and a voice from heaven declares relationship with this man emerging from the sea.

The second spotlight comes on a mountaintop amid close friends. First his face and clothing begin to glow, then historic heroes of faith appear and again an authoritative voice from the cloud asserts affection for the man accompanied by a command to, “Listen to Him.”

Our final scene of illumination arrives amid a silenced mob gawking at the tortured man draped on the tree.

This time His internal light darkens as does the noon-day sky above as life leaves His body.

This time the earth shouts as it quakes, and the dead witness to their own resurrection as tombs releases these holy people.

And this time it was His executioner we hear exclaiming, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Three testimonies and three shining moments exhort us to action: A dip of repentance. A charge to listen to Him. And to strive to be His living witnesses until He returns.

 Who YOU say He is; is THE ultimate decision-making moment… determining one’s eternal destiny. 

Shining the light…

~Debbie G

Matthew 3:14-17, Matthew 17:1-5, Matthew 27:45-55, Romans 10:9

#HolyDip #LivingWitness #DecisionMoment #JesusShines