Faithful Fridays~Radical

Hi everyone!  Phew...yesterday, Mama said, "What are you doing for your Faithful Fridays post?"  It had completely slipped by me!  So I'm a bit later than I usually am, but I wanted to make sure I posted!

I started Faithful Fridays so that Christians could have a special day of the week, Friday (although I don't think that Christians should limit themselves to once a week) that they post about their faith: prayer requests, praise reports, encouragement to other Christians, Christian songs, etc.  If you participate in Faithful Fridays, please let me know in your comment and give me the link back to your post (I don't have that Linky thing figured out yet).  Also, don't forget to grab the button above for your post!

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Last Friday, Mama and I went to the nursing home to help out with giving the ladies manicures (VERY fun!) and I sat down to do a lady's nails.  She was a bit plump, she had very gray hair, and I wondered if she might now be all...you know, there.  Believe me, she was.  I began talking with her.  This woman has lost both her sons--one didn't make it through a heart surgery and another was a bad diabetic.  She has lost her husband.  She has lost all of her family except for her grandchildren.  But she told me over and over how the Lord must have her here for something.  She's in her ninety's.  She has had both hips replaced, both shoulders replaced, and two back surgeries..."And the Lord's brought me through it all," she said.  "He's got to have me here for some purpose and I'm going to do whatever it is!"  This lady is a gem.  She's so sweet.  When I heard what all she's gone through, I said, "Wow...the Lord must really have you here for something...and maybe you've already done it!"  And she said, "Well maybe it's just telling people about Him!"  Later on, she said, "I talk about Him, talk to Him, all the time."

And all this got me to thinking the other day.  Take a look at my Mama's post here.  It's called "Every Little Thing."  She played a song by S*even Curtis C*apman called Every Thing.  It talks about how no matter what you're doing...sweeping, working on your house, taking care of your kids, teaching (blogging) or whatever, it all matters just as long as you do it to the glory of God somehow.  And then I think of that lady at the nursing home...Ms. Mozelle.  Everywhere she goes, I'm sure she tells EVERYONE about what God's done for her.  Why can't I do that?  That would be really radical.  And you know, sometimes I love radical.

Mama was doing some shopping on C*aigslist the other day and called someone about a refrigerator for The Cedar Loft.  She got the guy's voicemail, and in it he said: "I care about why you called, but I care even more about where you'll be spending eternity."  And he goes on to say that "We'll be talking real soon."  And Mama turned around to me and said, "I love it when people are radical like that!"  I love it too. 

The other day I thought of this: Radical Glorification to God.  That's what I'm shooting for. 

What if we took up the challenge from my Mama's post?  What if we sought to find some way to glorify The Creator Of All in every.single.little.thing.we.do.?  What if we were radical?

Faithful Fridays~Our friends at the Nursing Home

Hi everyone!

Before we started Luke's adoption, my mom and I went up to the nursing home with friends every Tuesday and helped out at bingo and visited with the residents there.  When we started Luke's adoption, we stopped.  We just got WAY too busy.  But, now, we've started back going on Thursdays.  We have special friends there.

There's Mr. Marvin, who is a WW2 veteran.  He was a cook.  He has cooked for President Eisenhower, General Patten, General Sumner, and more.  He told us that he liked Sumner better than he liked Eisenhower.  He was smarter.  But, Eisenhower had five stars, and Sumner had four.  He told us about what he called "booby traps" from the enemy.  They were attached to souvenirs.  They told the soldiers not to pick up the souvenirs, but some of the soldiers were hard-headed and they picked them up anyway.  He said he bet he could name two hundred men that he had fed that had died at his side.  They would be walking beside him and pick up the souvenirs and they just ripped them to pieces. 

Mr. Marvin told us about his wife.  "She wasn't what you call a 'party woman.'  Partying takes money, ya know, and we didn't have it!"  He said they never thought about getting a divorce.  They were married for sixty-five years. 

He told us that his Papa was born in 1894.  His brother died a little over a year and a half ago.  He turned eighty-eight on February 3rd, and he died on February 7th.  Mr. Marvin himself will turn ninety-four on November eighth!

We like hearing Mr. Marvin call out his bingos.  He announces so proudly, like a soldier would!  His entire room is decorated with little flags and he has a picture of him in the army hanging on his wall.  He always makes us smile!

We have other friends, too, like Mr. Richard. 

Mr. Richard was living by himself fine, with a friend coming over daily to check on him.  One day, his dog ran to the door like it heard someone, so Mr. Richard got up and went to the door.  Someone knocked the door down on him.  He fell back and hurt his hip, hands, and knees.  He actually broke his hip.  The person who broke the door down didn't even bother to come in and rob Mr. Richard.  He just left.  Eventually, Mr. Richard's friend came by and saved Mr. Richard's life.  Now Mr. Richard is in the nursing home until he can walk.  He can stand just fine, but he can't walk.  Please keep him in your prayers--he needs to walk!  He's also been sick, so pray about that too, please. 

Mr. Richard LOVES kids, but he and his wife couldn't have any, so they took several kids in to raise.  I don't think he meant that they adopted them.  I think he meant that they fostered them. 

Mr. Richard has met two movie stars.  One of them was a man who was with his brother.  Their car broke down in front of the place where Mr. Desmore worked.  Mr. Desmore also showed us a picture of him when he was younger.  Mom said he looked like Clark Gable!  He had that little black mustache. 

Another friend of ours, Mr. O.D., LOVES his music.  We've brought him Marty Robins music before, when we were going regularly, but it's been a year since then, and the CDs started skipping.  So we brought him some John Denver.  He likes Rocky Mountain High.  When we brought him the CD, we turned it on for him and we all just sat there and listened to one whole song.  It was one of those good silences.  :)  Mr. O.D. was just taking it all in.  He sort of looked like he was going to cry! 

Mr. O.D. is a big man who ALWAYS wears a cowboy hat.  He's lived all over Texas. 

Mr. O.D. has a very good memory.  He remembered what my dad did for work.  He remembered what birthday I came up to the nursing home for (that was my tenth.  I thought it was my eleventh, but he had a better memory than I did!  Mr. O.D. is so sweet--he gave me money on that birthday!).  He also remembered part of my last name.  He said that one of the best things about John Denver was that he wrote all his song himself.  He wrote Rocky Mountain High.  He said that the plane he was flying when he died (plane crash) was one he had built himself.  He said that he heard that John Denver got drunk, so he may have been drunk during that accident. 

Another friend, Ms. Wanda, is very upbeat and smart.  She has the reddest hair!  Before she went in the nursing home, she told her son that she would go in if he made sure she kept on getting her hair fixed!  She had us arrange her pictures for her when we were going before, and now she had some more for us to arrange.  She mentioned something about making a collage, and so we asked my dad to make a big wooden frame for us to collage all her pictures into.  He went above and beyond and made it look like a house with a chimney and roof!  So we collaged all her pictures together and it looks great! 

Ms. Viola is another great friend.  She is in her nineties and she gets up every morning before six and makes up her bed and cleans her bathroom.  The only reason she is in the nursing home is because she can't walk.  She offered, though, to mop her hallway from her wheelchair if the staff would give her a mop!  She doesn't like "any of those inside games (bingo)," she likes being outside!  When she was eighty years old, she was up on a ladder helping paint her house.  She never drove.  She always walked to her work. 

Still another friend, Ms. Ruberta, LOVES jewelry.  She's a sweet lady and the assistant activities director told us that sometimes she will wear just ALL of her necklaces at one time. 

There's a Chinese lady at the nursing home, Ms. Shun.  She is unresponsive.  Her family owns/operates a local Chinese resteraunt.  They have a Chinese TV channel set up for her and her bulletin board and wall is decorated with Chinese things.  Her daughter was in her room once (or we're guessing it was her daughter) and we met her. 

This week, we're going on Friday to help out with manicures...fun! 

All in all, we go into the nursing home with a goal to make the residents smile, and by the time we walk out, they're making US smile!  It's true: It's more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35)!

God bless,

Joy