That is how Ron greeted me this morning, he from the bed to me as I was walking into the living room before 5 this morning...why was I up then...who knows...but I was.

So I had some quiet time with the Lord,

read some emails,

sent some emails,

and then this sweet little girl arrived

Miss Liberty or Miss Libby as we call her.

Her mommy, daddy, grammy and papa all work at Silver Dollar City

and when they all have to work we get to claim her as our adopted grand.

We then decided to head out to church.

Pleasant View Baptist Church

in Highlandville, MO.

We have been blessed to get to know Dakota, the recently called pastor and also the manager of our sister business, The Cliffs at Table Rock Lake.  

The church is a little country church and about 45 minutes from us here in Branson.

We were warmly greeted by members of the church.

Dakota's message was on 

2 Timothy 1:5 that precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.

And the Legacy of our Mothers and Grandmothers

Today was the first time I had been in church on a Mother's Day in many years. I have a very hard time listening to how sweet and loving everyone's mother was or is, how mothers were/are so perfect and how thankful people are for their mothers.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my mom, but she was not the perfect mother, not even a great mother.  She worked hard and I know she did the best she could with what she knew and had but my childhood was far from a happy and blessed time.  And it makes it hard to hear all the sweet, mushy things people say about their mothers.  

I think God protected that thought from my mind this morning as I was getting ready to go to church.  I wanted to be there, to be a support for Dakota as he brought the first sermon since he was actually called as pastor.

I am glad I was there.  God spoke to me in a couple of different ways.

First, that just as I am choosing JOY and sometimes that is hard to do in different situations, like when you are sitting in an emergency room and the doctor treating you acts like you are nothing but an irritant or a problem and the check out lady is asking for more than half of your weekly pay as a deductible and you were wondering where the money is going to come from just to make ends meet...but I chose Joy that my hand was not infected...but I digress...

that what I can do is find something to be grateful about in relation to my mom.

I am grateful she did not stop me from going to church after I said I was not going back to the Catholic church (I was 12 and it was boring) and that opened the door for me to meet Rita Roth...a mom of 4 who kind of adopted me as one of her own from the time I was 12 till I lost contact with her when we were stationed in Holland.  Rita was the godly mother in my life at that time.

I am grateful that she did not stop me from marrying Ron...she was not too delighted that I wanted to get married at age 18 and she could have stopped the wedding has she had legal guardianship of me till I was 21...but she didn't put up any roadblocks.

So for those two things I choose to be grateful for my mom.

The second thing that I garnered from the sermon and the scripture in 2 Timothy 1:5 was that just as Timothy's mother and grandmother prayed for him that I am reminded that even though I am not in the daily lives of my kids and grands I can pray for them each and every day.

And then when I do get to talk to them on the phone or via Facetime or Skype I am so blessed to have my children, grandchildren, daughters-in-love in our lives.

So thank you Dakota for your message this morning.

And thank you Lord for bringing me to the service this morning.

In closing I would like to ask you to say a prayer for Dakota's sister and her family...they were in the tornado that went through northern Missouri last evening and they had the roof blown off their home and their church (her hubby is a pastor as well).  Our understanding is that no one was hurt in their little town but almost every home and business lost their roofs.  Thank you Jesus that no one was hurt.

May all you are reading this have a blessed evening or day!!