Margaret McSweeney's Blog, page 65

Weekly Pearl

Good Monday Morning!

I have a question for you this morning. How are your tongues? No really. How are they? No, I’m not asking the state of your tongue. I’m not asking if you remembered to brush your tongue when you brushed your teeth this morning. I’m asking about your tongue as a tool — do you control your tongue?

I’ve been reading through the Proverbs and thinking about words and tongues. Goodness! is there a lot of references to tongues! (these are just a few that have been on my mind lately):

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword (ouch!!), but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 12:18 (NASB)

The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. Proverbs 13:3 (NASB)

As we go throughout this week, let’s make sure we are guarding our tongues. Let’s not be like thrusts of a sword (which if you think about getting thrust with a sword it would be very painful), but let’s guard our mouth and words.

Blessings, Pearl Girls.

Magaret’s new book Mother of Pearl is currently touring the web on a blog tour! Be sure to see what everyone is saying, sign up to win a beautiful pearl necklace, and RSVP for the fun Facebook party we’ll be having in September over on the Litfuse website!

A Beautiful Life, Rescued and Changed after Haiti’s Quake | Melanie Dobson

Last October I was honored to go to Haiti with a team of women from our church. The devastation in and around Port-au-Prince was unfathomable and yet in the midst of what Satan clearly meant for evil, there are many beautiful stories of what God used and continues to use for good.

Pastor Elizabeth Guelis has one of those stories.

When my sister Ann Menke and I met Pastor Elizabeth, the first thing I noticed about her was her beautiful, infectious, joy-filled smile that lit up her face and eyes like the Haitian sunrise. In her face, you could see the glory of God.

The second thing I noticed was her right leg. It was prosthetic.

Elizabeth’s smile grew even larger when I asked about her leg. Hers, you see, is a story like no other. Instead of bitterness about her loss, the prosthetic leg is a testimony to her of God’s love and grace.

Until the earth shook Haiti, Elizabeth told me that she and most Haitians didn’t know what an earthquake was. Hurricanes had threatened their country for many years so the buildings were often built with concrete to withstand the terrible winds. The concrete worked well to protect people from the hurricanes, but it was devastating when the earthquake hit.

On that Tuesday afternoon in January, Elizabeth had an appointment to meet an American friend at the woman’s two-story home. The women sat down in the corner of the concrete house to pray, but they hadn’t even begun to talk when the walls began to tremble. Dust filled the house and in an instant, it became so dark that Elizabeth couldn’t see.

Elizabeth tried to get outside, but she’d never visited this woman’s home before. In the darkness, and the dust, she didn’t know which way to go, and she couldn’t see or hear her friend. When she finally made it to the front gate, it was locked. She was trapped inside the compound.

Then the unthinkable happened. A wall collapsed over Elizabeth, pinning her legs. With the lower part of her body under the concrete, the upper half of her body facing the street, she drifted in and out of consciousness for hours.

When Haitians finally broke down the concrete wall around her, her legs were badly cut. Help had not yet arrived in the country so

someone put her legs into bleach and then wrapped plastic around them, leaving her to die. Her legs smelled terrible, she told me. I can’t imagine…

Three days later, Americans set up tent hospitals in the streets. She was the first one to be operated on at one of these hospitals. As her three children and the people in her church prayed, the Americans amputated her leg.

“I passed out when the American doctor began cutting my leg. I thought I was in heaven because I saw angels all around me.”

Her husband had died seven years ago, and when the doctors told her family she was dead, her children mourned for her.

But Pastor Elizabeth wasn’t dead. When she woke, there were people crying all around her. She was weak and dizzy, her leg gone, but she was alive. “God would not let me die,” she explained.

For nine months, Elizabeth was in the hospital. God had told several members of her church that she would live, and they continued to pray for her every day.

“I made a promise to God in the hospital. If He would let me live, I would serve Him the rest of my life.”

When she got out of the hospital, Elizabeth went to Bible school. She was glowing when she pulled out a picture from her Bible to show Ann and I. It was a photo of her on her graduation day. June 25, 2011. Elizabeth Guelis is now Pastor Elizabeth. She shares the Word of God with the people in her country and dreams of one day spreading His Word around the world.

“A lot of people criticize me,” she said. “They say I don’t deserve to be a minister since I never finished my high school education. Ministry is difficult, but God is with me.”

People criticize her because of her ministry, but there is also a stigma in having a prosthetic leg in Haiti. The handicapped are often treated with disrespect in this country, and some have questioned why God would allow her to lose a leg. She asked us if her sisters in America could pray that:

• God would give her strength to continue her church when people criticize her and tell her she can’t do it.

• She would hold the Word of God close and continue to do His work.

• God would give her the power and opportunity to share her testimony with thousands of people around the world.

The last day of our conference, Pastor Elizabeth found me in the crowd. She showed me her graduation picture again, pointing out the prosthetic leg with a sense of triumph. It is her testimony to what God has done and continues to do in her life. Then she held out the picture to me, signaling for me to take it.

“I can’t,” I said, shaking my hands and head. This picture meant so much to her, and I knew it was probably the only one she had. I couldn’t possibly take it from her.

But she held it out again, insisting that I keep it. It was her gift to me.

With humility and tears, I took her picture. And I continue to cry today when I think about her gift.

I wanted to give something to her in return, but I didn’t know what could even come close to equaling what she’d given me. Then I remembered that I had brought a picture with me to show the Haitian women. It was a photo of me, my husband, and my daughter when Karly was a baby. It seemed like nothing compared to Elizabeth’s gift—I can make another copy of it at any time—but it was all I had at that moment. I rushed to get it, and she gave me a precious hug in return. We’re sisters, you see, for now and eternity.

On that October afternoon, Elizabeth gave me her picture and her friendship. She reminded me of God’s love for His children, that even through terrible adversity and hardship He sees and loves each one of us. Not once did she complain to me about what had happened. Instead of being angry at God, she poured out her love for Him.

I pray that we continue to remember the stories of God’s goodness in the midst of tragedy, of the beauty He made and continues to make from the ashes. And that we continue to pray for women like Pastor Elizabeth who’ve devoted themselves to spreading God’s love and grace in Haiti.

***

Melanie Dobson has written ten contemporary and historical novels including five releases in Summerside’s Love Finds You series. In 2011, two of her releases won Carol Awards: Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (for historical romance) and The Silent Order (for romantic suspense).

Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master’s degree in communication from Regent University. Prior to her writing career, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family and a publicist for The Family Channel. She later launched her own public relations company and worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for more than fifteen years.

Melanie and her family enjoy their home in the Pacific Northwest. The entire Dobson family loves to travel and hike in both the mountains and along the cliffs above the Pacific.

When Melanie isn’t writing or playing with her family, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.

For more about Melanie Dobson and her books, visit www.melaniedobson.com.

Desire | Elissa Branum

DESIRE: to long or hope for.

This isn’t a word we use often anymore. But I really think it can be compared to the word “obsessed.”

If you are like me, you tend to get a little obsessed with things. You may have your focus stolen by music, fashion, makeup, movies, TV, friends, or guys (no particular order).

This is going to be major self-examination, so let me admit right now that I am personally convicted. But let’s take this a step further. Do any of these things describe you?

~You spend several hours in front of your TV or laptop watching shows and movies, but you can’t keep focused long enough to finish one devotional.

~You love listening to music, but you find secular lyrics seeping into your brain and causing you to feel dissatisfied (“why won’t any guy say those words to me?”).

~You love wearing makeup and cute clothes, but you don’t ever feel like you can own enough of the right styles to be beautiful and flawless.

~You spend more time texting, facebooking, kik-ing (everyone has this app, right?), or tweeting your friends than you spend praying (this is a personal kick-in-the-gut).

~You worry that finding the right guy is going to be impossible if you follow the “perfect Christian” model and wait on God.

These things are not, initially, wrong. However, once your focus is off God, you find yourself walking down a very dangerous road and you may not feel like you can ever return. We can term them as “sin” when they start separating us from God.

2 Timothy 2:22, one of my favorite verses, says, “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” There’s that word desire I wanted you to think about! Do you see its connection to our obsessions?

Paul is writing to a young man named Timothy. And since Timothy is a young guy, he is obviously faced with the same issues as we teenagers are (just because this was centuries ago doesn’t change the teenage brain!). Paul offered a godly solution—run! The only escape is to have nothing to do with this evil.

So how do we apply this to our problem with being too obsessed with everything but God?

We flee. We become willing to take time away from these distractions and simply be with God. I’m not saying we need 10 minutes in the morning sitting in a closet and meditating (not that there’s something wrong with that!). No, I’m saying we need to make a conscious effort to put Him first. We need to turn off the computer and read a page in our Bible. We need to put down the phone and journal about our hopes and fears, aimed as prayers to Him. We need to look in the mirror and realize that our physical flaws are not flaws in the eyes of the One who created us. We can stand still and know that the creator of everything knows enough about us to find us the perfect husband, if that’s in His plan for our lives.

And when we do this, we have successfully achieved freedom. Not because we are stronger than we were before, but because we obeyed His command. What if we fail and turn back to these things? That’s what confession and forgiveness are for (1 John 1:9).

And when we have freedom, something amazing happens.

We can “pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Wouldn’t you like to feel and live and breathe all those things? Imagine the feeling of being surrounded by what is pure! If you call on His name, He will answer. Here’s another promise: Psalm 91:15, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”

What are you waiting for? What I am waiting for? Let’s go out and flee evil and pursue Him. It’s the only desire that can be fulfilled.

***

My name is Elissa Branum . I’m 17 years old and I live in Arkansas. I’m going into my senior year of high school and I am planning on studying English Education in college. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and there is nothing I enjoy more than creating devotionals, essays, short stories, poems, and book reviews. Check out my everyday ramblings on my blog! http://elissanicole.blogspot.com/

The Weekly Pearl

Hello, Friends –

I hope everyone is having a great August. Are you gearing up for back to school (or are you, like me, only wishing you were going back to school)?

In the midst of all the craziness life brings around this time of year remember this important Psalm from David:

Be still and know that I am God… Psalm 46:10

Don’t forget to take moments, snippets of life and just be still in the present of God and know that he is God.

Be blessed this week, Friends.

An exciting note: Margaret’s book Aftermath is currently touring the web with Litfuse! Be sure to check all the great things that are being said about Aftermath!

Am I Really Supposed to Write This Book? | Margaret McSweeney

Writing Aftermath was like leaning over to take a sip of water from a fountain and realizing that it was instead a fire hydrant spewing a forceful stream of memories, emotions, and questions. When New Hope Publishers asked me to write Aftermath as a follow-up to When Grief is Your Constant Companion: God’s Grace for a Woman’s Heartache (written by my mother, Carolyn Rhea), I accepted without hesitation. Tragically, at the same time my mother’s book about grief was published in 2003, she was diagnosed with a terminal illness and died within months. Ironically, at the time of Aftermath’s release in 2012, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Thankfully, the surgery was successful and the subsequent treatment plan should ensure an excellent outcome.

My plans vs. God’s plans

Before writing this book, I thought I was ready to help others by neatly packaging and sharing the tangible handles that helped me through my own grief process. But you can’t neatly wrap a wrecking ball like grief and God had other plans for the book.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.—Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

Aftermath became an extremely personal process of revealing and healing. In writing this book, I had to painfully excavate my past and examine my relationship with my mother. I cried when I typed the truth—that I was not very close with my mother until I became a mother. However, the surprising discovery of my mother’s letters, private journals, and her notes in the margins of her Bible and devotional books ultimately strengthened my relationship with God and brought me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of her. Finding and reading my mother’s words has been a “hug from heaven”—an unexpected blessing and affirmation of God’s living presence in my life.

Excerpts of my mother’s writings along with letters written by my father and grandparents are included in Aftermath. These multi-generational footprints of faith provided a path that led me closer to the Lord. My heartfelt prayer is that you too will grow in grace through grief.

 ***

Margaret McSweeney is a well-published author often writing online articles for Make It Better (the former North Shore Magazine) and freelance articles for the Daily Herald, the largest suburban Chicago newspaper. In addition, she has authored and compiled several books including A Mother’s Heart Knows; Go Back and Be Happy; and Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace.

Margaret has a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina in international business. As is the founder of Pearl Girls, Margaret collaborates with other writers on projects to help fund a safe house for WINGS, an organization that helps women and their children who are victims of domestic violence, and to build wells for schoolchildren inUgandathrough Hands of Hope. For the past 10 years she has served on the board of directors and leadership advisory board for WINGS. Margaret lives with her husband and 2 daughters in the Chicago suburbs.

The Weekly Pearl

Good Morning, Friends –

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. What did you do?

This weekend 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 was on  my mind a lot.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately how this needs to be applied to my marriage, my parenting, my life… (especially that patient bit…)

Here is to hoping your week is filled with lots of love.

Have a blessed week, my Friends.

Three Ways to Lose Guilt and Find Joy

[image error]Guilt! She pokes you as you write about your quaint, eccentric aunt. She grabs you as you wander from e-mail to Facebook to laundry instead of focusing on your work. She kicks you as you complain about your husband to a friend.

Have you noticed? Women seem riddled with guilt. And it’s hard to know if guilt is legitimate or simply a product of our imaginations. After all, should we really feel guilty about things over which we have no control?

The three of us share in a speaking ministry and we have learned a few things about losing guilt and finding joy through the years:

1. We are not perfect. Sooner or later we say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing or fail to do the right thing. That’s life. While we feel guilty when we flub up, we thank God that memory fades and the rhythm of life continues. If our actions have hurt someone, we apologize—to the other person and to God—then we joyfully move on, guilt free.

2. We have no control over some things, so it’s no use feeling guilty. For instance, our children may suffer injuries as they participate in sports. When that happens, we look for ways God may be teaching us and them life lessons and trust God will use the experience to the good of all involved.

3. We can’t do it all. Much as we want to solve others’ problems, achieve perfection on our jobs and keep our homes neat and clean as a plastic dollhouse, we can’t. Maybe someday when we’re old and gray (Ha. Shirley already is, and it hasn’t helped her.) . . . .

We shared our insights in our book, Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides. We would love to have you visit www.friendsoftheheart.us to learn more about us, order the book, invite us to speak.

May Romans 8:1 help you enjoy the abundant life in Christ: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Kim Messinger, Janine Boyer and Shirley Brosius had a common bond of Christian service when Christ drew them together for their first small group meeting in January, 1998.

Since then they have drawn closer through life’s joys and struggles and found God to be sufficient for their every need. They call themselves “Friends of the Heart” because their passion is to help women open their hearts and find joy in Christ.

***

Kim and Janine supported Shirley in writing Sisterhood of Faith: 365 Life-Changing Stories About Women Who Made a Difference, which was released by Howard Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster, in 2006. More recently the three women worked together to write another devotional book, Turning Guilt Trips into Joy Rides. They have spoken at women’s retreats and events in five states. All three women live in Millersburg, Pennsylvania.

The Weekly Pearl

Hey, Pearl Girls,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I can’t believe it’s already the start of a new week and in a couple days the start of a new month. If you haven’t already, it’s time for back to school shopping. Here school starts in a little over a week! Wow this year has flown by.

In the midst of life flying by, I want to take a minute to encourage you to make a point to spend time with your Savior. Make sure to feed your soul.

How do you make sure you have quite time when life gets crazy? 

Have a wonderful week, Friends.

A Soft-Spoken Loud Mouth

“But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9 (TNIV)

I am soft-spoken, but I am also a loudmouth. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. In general, I am content to listen to conversation going on in front of me, but when I do have something to say, I say it. Sometimes rather forcefully.

And sometimes, after the words come out of my mouth, my foot goes in. I’m sure some of you can relate.

But sometimes, I feel like the words are burning inside me, like the other day at the college Bible study at my house. I wanted the students to know a biblical truth related to dating relationships, and I spoke to them passionately about it because I care about them.

Jeremiah talked about how the word of the Lord was so strong within him that he couldn’t keep it in even if he tried. It was a fire inside him, raging to come out.

When Jesus was entering Jerusalem and the disciples were praising Him, the Pharisees told Jesus to stop them. He answered that if they stopped, the stones would cry out in their place.

When God wants to say something, it gets said. Like with Jeremiah, it will burn inside you until it has to come out. It’s a powerful thing, and it can be a little scary, but it can also be awesome, like the disciples praising Jesus. We just have to be willing to be used by God—we have to be willing to be those stones crying out.

Faith step: Pray for Jesus to show you who to speak to today and to give you the words to say to that person.

—Camy Tang

Reprinted with permission from Mornings with Jesus 2012

Pearl Girl Bonnie St. John offers an insider’s look at the London Olympics

Pearl Girl Bonnie St. John has been having a whirlwind of a summer! We recently caught up with her when she gave the Huffington Post an insider view on the London Olympics…

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As the Olympic Games in London approach, I want to be sure everyone remembers to also pay attention to the second part of our international Olympic experience — the Paralympic Summer Games, held in the same British venues, from August 29th through September 9th. This spectacular competition is sure to be every bit as exciting as the first Olympic session — often even more so. The extraordinary achievements of these incredible athletes are nothing short of amazing.

Two years ago, I was invited to go to Canada as a member of the official Presidential Delegation to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. I was thrilled to once again represent my country in a Paralympic milieu, albeit from the cushy sidelines of the VIP seats. To serve side by side with distinguished fellow Paralympians Jim Martinson, Mike May, and Melissa Stockwell, not to mention a Special Assistant to the president, two Cabinet members, and the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, was one of the most exciting honors I have ever experienced…

Be sure to read the rest of Bonnie exciting insider look at the London Olympics at the Huffington Post.

Bonnie and her daughter, Darcy’s new book, How Great Women Lead, has recently been chosen for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s “Off the Sidelines” book club. They will be doing an online chat on August 2nd, so be sure to mark you calendars and tune in!

***

[image error] Bonnie is a 1984 Paralympics silver medal winner in ski racing. Her education includes a degree with honors from Harvard, a Rhodes scholarship, and an M.Litt in Economics from Oxford.  Her career includes positions as an award-winning sales rep for IBM and a Clinton White House member of staff. She now is a much-in-demand speaker, who makes nearly 100 speeches each year to corporations and civic groups. You can visit her on the Web at www.bonniestjohn.com.