Most of the time, I don't mind living in central Illinois, in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.
But today I mind. Today I am sick of the flat, dry farming country that surrounds us.
Today, I was supposed to be in Ohio at my sister Ruby's house and because of circumstances beyond my control I am stuck in ILL. I am super sad and extremely disappointed.
Right at this minute....my sister Ruby and her husband Sam, my dad and mom (from Ind) , my brother, Gene and his wife Sharon from Georgia and my youngest brother Kevin and his wife Leslie are hanging out together having what I will call....."Miller Time on Mount Hope". It's not what you think-they aren't Miller beer drinkers. My maiden name is Miller and I love to hang out with The Miller's. Sam and Ruby live on a hill, which I see as a Mountain, near Mount Hope. It is absolutely breathtaking beautiful. From their front porch you can see miles around. Not a piece of flat land anywhere within eyesight.
I'm just frustrated to not get to be there. I was looking forward to seeing all of them. I even thought....life is not fair and said it out loud.
"Life is not fair!!"
The problem with that saying is that my own sermons came back to haunt me. When my children were younger they learned they do not want to say that saying around me. The shpeel went something like this......"You are right-Life is not fair. You have food to eat & a lot of children don't, you have eyes to see & a lot of people don't, you have a home & a lot of people don't....."
I know there are a lot worse things than just not getting to be with my family tonight but seriously, they are really great people and what I love the most is that I just get to be myself around them. I can just be the quirky person God created and they accept me just like I am.They get me. They don't try to change me or force me to be anything I'm not. I love that about my family. Most of all they think I'm funny. That is my favorite thing about getting together with my family. We laugh a lot. We laugh loud and get a bit obnoxious. Then we also talk about really deep stuff. My favorite earthly conversations are with these people.
I know I would have felt strengthened and refreshed to be with them.
So tonight I am in ILL wishing I was in Ohio. I can almost picture how it's all going down and I wish I was there.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Thursday, June 30, 2011
We are getting ready to have church
I just had to write about her. I met the cutest Amish girl this week. I sat beside her in a lobby and she was sitting with her dad, I'm guessing she was around 7. I asked her about her summer and what she's been doing. She answered my question with this information....."we are getting ready to have church". She seemed excited about it.
If you have never been around the Amish people and how they live, you would not have understood what she meant.
In the Amish culture, they don't have a church house but instead take turns "having church" in their homes, or in their sheds or barns. The neighbors and friends get together to help the host family prepare for this by cleaning the house from top to bottom and they actually clear the spaces in order to set up backless benches for everyone to sit on. The church services are not preached in English; but rather they preach in a mixture of Pennsylvania Dutch or High German. The services normally last a long time and about half way through the sermon a few women bring around a container with cookies for the children to eat. Those are awesome cookies!! I think there's even a recipe called..."Amish Church Cookies".
They don't have any musical instruments in the service but sing German songs. If you wanna hear "Gott is de libe" sung in German -I can give you my sister Leah's cell number.
Last but not least, is the lunch that they serve before you go home. It's not a big meal but they often have homemade bread, Amish Peanut Butter, veggies, cheese, etc.....A lot of the menu probably depends on which Amish community you live in.
So, if you have ever been told that the Amish life is simple. Don't believe them. They work very hard. I see nothing simple in having to go catch a horse (to hitch up) to a buggy in order to go anywhere. I see nothing simple in sewing clothes for the whole family. I see nothing simple in the truck patch size gardens. I see nothing simple about not having electricity or air conditioning.
The things that are simpler for the cute little Amish girl. She knows how to have fun without being entertained by a tv, radio, xbox, ipod, ipad, gameboy, internet , etc.... and I love how excited she was about "getting to have church".
I wonder..........if I would go to church (at her house) this coming Sunday.....would they bring me cookies???
If you have never been around the Amish people and how they live, you would not have understood what she meant.
In the Amish culture, they don't have a church house but instead take turns "having church" in their homes, or in their sheds or barns. The neighbors and friends get together to help the host family prepare for this by cleaning the house from top to bottom and they actually clear the spaces in order to set up backless benches for everyone to sit on. The church services are not preached in English; but rather they preach in a mixture of Pennsylvania Dutch or High German. The services normally last a long time and about half way through the sermon a few women bring around a container with cookies for the children to eat. Those are awesome cookies!! I think there's even a recipe called..."Amish Church Cookies".
They don't have any musical instruments in the service but sing German songs. If you wanna hear "Gott is de libe" sung in German -I can give you my sister Leah's cell number.
Last but not least, is the lunch that they serve before you go home. It's not a big meal but they often have homemade bread, Amish Peanut Butter, veggies, cheese, etc.....A lot of the menu probably depends on which Amish community you live in.
So, if you have ever been told that the Amish life is simple. Don't believe them. They work very hard. I see nothing simple in having to go catch a horse (to hitch up) to a buggy in order to go anywhere. I see nothing simple in sewing clothes for the whole family. I see nothing simple in the truck patch size gardens. I see nothing simple about not having electricity or air conditioning.
The things that are simpler for the cute little Amish girl. She knows how to have fun without being entertained by a tv, radio, xbox, ipod, ipad, gameboy, internet , etc.... and I love how excited she was about "getting to have church".
I wonder..........if I would go to church (at her house) this coming Sunday.....would they bring me cookies???
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wanting life back to normal
I often hear people say......"I can't wait until life gets back to normal". People often long to go back to....before the health diagnosis, before the affair, before the loss of the job, before the death of a loved one, before the marriage, before the job transfer, before the rape, before the accident, before the children, before the children left the home, and whatever your personal "before_____ is"
The Webster's definition of the word normal is....not unusual, expected, standard.
I am a planner by nature, so I prefer routines that are normal.
My 12 year old son, Alex, also loves routine. He has his morning routine down to a tee. He has to feed the animals so he has his chore routine, his breakfast routine,and shower routine. Every day he crosses off the day on his calendar with a black magic marker, he goes to bed without being told, sets his own alarm and is extremely responsible. Today we are doing something brand new and different for Alex.
Last week, he got his eyes checked and his eyesight was no longer "normal". So has spent the past week learning how to wear contacts and today we are going to pick up his first pair of glasses. He couldn't believe how he was able to see, a leaf , on a tree because before the contacts he was only seeing the leaves all blurred together. I wonder how long he has needed these glasses.
In 10 days HGTV is giving away an Apt. in NYC. Their ads keep saying....Millions entered but only 1 wins.
I would love if my normal life would get interrupted by HGTV ringing my doorbell to tell me that I won. I have never been to NYC but Wayne's nephew Eric is living and going to school there.
This was Eric's face book post from 2 days ago....."I was riding the A train @ 6am this morning to school and a homeless guy fell on me and apparently died. They stopped the train and everyone had to get off while the conductor waited with the guy for an ambulance.The surprising thing is that no one seemed like it was unusual.Welcome to NYC"
Can you believe that?? It is a true story. Unbelievable but true.
Just a normal day....wow!!
David, from the Bible had a lot of unusual things happen to him. My favorite story about David is found in 1 Samuel 29 & 30. David was a warrior and had gone to help fight a battle that he was actually asked to leave. David and his men had to travel home for 3 days and when they returned to their town, Ziklag, they discovered that it had been burned to the ground and all their wives and children had been taken captive. David and the men cried until they were exhausted and then they wanted to kill David.
David was having a bad week. But he found strength and direction from God. The men went after the enemy and found them drinking and partying. The part that I love is that after they fought the enemy from dusk to the next evening they recovered everything & everyone that had been taken. They even had a bunch of plunder from the enemy that they took back to bless other people with.
That is what God is still doing today. He is a God that will actively help us understand what the good things are about the hurtful, negative things that have happened to us in our lives and he can actually turn it around and bring back so much good out of what the enemy tried to destroy....that we can bless others with it.
I have a friend that gave me permission to share a bit of her story. She was born into a family that has generations of alcohol addiction. Her dad admitted to giving her alcohol in her baby bottle,when she was a baby, to get her to shut up and pass out. In only 3 days, my friend will be alcohol free and sober for 1 whole year. She doesn't ever want to go back to the "old normal" and how things used to be. She is choosing to break free of a generational curse that she says she couldn't have done without Gods help.
You go girl !!! :) God will use her to help other people get free of addictions.
So maybe today, instead of wishing to be back before__________, ask God to heal that wound & then bring back the plunder to bless other people with.
The Webster's definition of the word normal is....not unusual, expected, standard.
I am a planner by nature, so I prefer routines that are normal.
My 12 year old son, Alex, also loves routine. He has his morning routine down to a tee. He has to feed the animals so he has his chore routine, his breakfast routine,and shower routine. Every day he crosses off the day on his calendar with a black magic marker, he goes to bed without being told, sets his own alarm and is extremely responsible. Today we are doing something brand new and different for Alex.
Last week, he got his eyes checked and his eyesight was no longer "normal". So has spent the past week learning how to wear contacts and today we are going to pick up his first pair of glasses. He couldn't believe how he was able to see, a leaf , on a tree because before the contacts he was only seeing the leaves all blurred together. I wonder how long he has needed these glasses.
In 10 days HGTV is giving away an Apt. in NYC. Their ads keep saying....Millions entered but only 1 wins.
I would love if my normal life would get interrupted by HGTV ringing my doorbell to tell me that I won. I have never been to NYC but Wayne's nephew Eric is living and going to school there.
This was Eric's face book post from 2 days ago....."I was riding the A train @ 6am this morning to school and a homeless guy fell on me and apparently died. They stopped the train and everyone had to get off while the conductor waited with the guy for an ambulance.The surprising thing is that no one seemed like it was unusual.Welcome to NYC"
Can you believe that?? It is a true story. Unbelievable but true.
Just a normal day....wow!!
David, from the Bible had a lot of unusual things happen to him. My favorite story about David is found in 1 Samuel 29 & 30. David was a warrior and had gone to help fight a battle that he was actually asked to leave. David and his men had to travel home for 3 days and when they returned to their town, Ziklag, they discovered that it had been burned to the ground and all their wives and children had been taken captive. David and the men cried until they were exhausted and then they wanted to kill David.
David was having a bad week. But he found strength and direction from God. The men went after the enemy and found them drinking and partying. The part that I love is that after they fought the enemy from dusk to the next evening they recovered everything & everyone that had been taken. They even had a bunch of plunder from the enemy that they took back to bless other people with.
That is what God is still doing today. He is a God that will actively help us understand what the good things are about the hurtful, negative things that have happened to us in our lives and he can actually turn it around and bring back so much good out of what the enemy tried to destroy....that we can bless others with it.
I have a friend that gave me permission to share a bit of her story. She was born into a family that has generations of alcohol addiction. Her dad admitted to giving her alcohol in her baby bottle,when she was a baby, to get her to shut up and pass out. In only 3 days, my friend will be alcohol free and sober for 1 whole year. She doesn't ever want to go back to the "old normal" and how things used to be. She is choosing to break free of a generational curse that she says she couldn't have done without Gods help.
You go girl !!! :) God will use her to help other people get free of addictions.
So maybe today, instead of wishing to be back before__________, ask God to heal that wound & then bring back the plunder to bless other people with.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Questions I have
I love asking questions. I love having answers and yet in this life I often feel like I have more questions than answers. Here's a question........today is 10-10-10 and I wonder what are you going to be doing at 10:10 on 10-10-10?
I have been wrestling with a few more serious questions that I am not able to get answers for until I get to Heaven. The people who could answer my questions have already passed away. In the past year I have repeatably heard the verse John 10:10 and I have been trying to figure out how I am to "live out" this 10-10 life.
John 10:10 reads.....
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (NASB)
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message)
Obviously the thief is Satan and the person bringing us the abundant life is Jesus, Gods son. I believe that both are hard at work. I think that a lot of people would agree that the enemy is busy trying to steal our peace & joy and that he is trying to destroy churches, marriages and things; But at times when death occurs people say things like.."it was his time to go-it must have been Gods will and Gods perfect timing". I tend to disagree;But rather I believe that sometimes people are taken long before their time and that the enemy accomplished the killing part.
My maternal grandpa; Henry B. Yoder lived his own hellish experience of this first hand. When my grandpa was 16 years old he found his dad murdered. Someone had shot him and then set it up to look like a suicide. The way I remember the story was that my grandpa and his sister were sent to go tell their dad it was time to eat dinner and they couldn't find him so together they went looking for him. A big white bird flew down at the spot where they discovered his body. (I wonder if it was an angel or a bird?) His hat was across his face, his hands were folded and a gun was at his side with a suicide note. My grandpa never believed that his dad had taken his own life.
But obviously the church did. As if this wasn't enough grief and pain for one family...what the church did next was one of the most hurtful stories of rejection that I've ever heard of happening at a funeral.
The grave site for my Great grandpa was located in the beautiful Holmes County, Ohio hills. I wonder what my grandpa thought when they arrived at the gravesite.Someone had decided that his dad wasn't worthy of being buried inside the graveyard fence and instead dug his gravesite outside the fence and added a new fence around his grave.
Rejection-not good enough.
Rejection to who? the dead guy?
Was their intent to hurt the family? I am sure it cut to the bone.
Who was the information for? Were they wanting to remind God that the inside of the fence people- Heaven and the ones outside the fence-hell?
What were they thinking?
Were they thinking?
I wish I could have been at the funeral gravesite service that day. I wish I could have walked up to his mom and lift her head & say....I am so sorry about the loss of your husband but I am even more devastated at these peoples actions. I would have wanted to breath life into her despair. They added shame, judgment by their outward actions. I wonder what they spoke to her. With in a year she also died. Of a broken heart.
I am a great grand daughter of a woman that life didn't appear to be so abundant. My life is a constant mix of the good, the hard, the fun, the painful. My goal in life is to be real. I don't want to live my life pretending its easy.
I want to spend my life looking for the people who's heads I can still lift & say to them....no matter what the enemy has stolen, killed & destroyed in your life....Jesus came to give your life a purpose.
Who's head is God asking you to lift and speak life into today??
Corina Yoder
I am dedicating this first blog to my niece Riane Hope. You beat the rest of us in the race to get across the finish line to Jesus. You never had to live in the real world because you lived for 9 months inside my gentle & sweet sister Lori & went to be with Jesus an hour before you entered this world. I can't wait to meet you.
I have been wrestling with a few more serious questions that I am not able to get answers for until I get to Heaven. The people who could answer my questions have already passed away. In the past year I have repeatably heard the verse John 10:10 and I have been trying to figure out how I am to "live out" this 10-10 life.
John 10:10 reads.....
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (NASB)
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message)
Obviously the thief is Satan and the person bringing us the abundant life is Jesus, Gods son. I believe that both are hard at work. I think that a lot of people would agree that the enemy is busy trying to steal our peace & joy and that he is trying to destroy churches, marriages and things; But at times when death occurs people say things like.."it was his time to go-it must have been Gods will and Gods perfect timing". I tend to disagree;But rather I believe that sometimes people are taken long before their time and that the enemy accomplished the killing part.
My maternal grandpa; Henry B. Yoder lived his own hellish experience of this first hand. When my grandpa was 16 years old he found his dad murdered. Someone had shot him and then set it up to look like a suicide. The way I remember the story was that my grandpa and his sister were sent to go tell their dad it was time to eat dinner and they couldn't find him so together they went looking for him. A big white bird flew down at the spot where they discovered his body. (I wonder if it was an angel or a bird?) His hat was across his face, his hands were folded and a gun was at his side with a suicide note. My grandpa never believed that his dad had taken his own life.
But obviously the church did. As if this wasn't enough grief and pain for one family...what the church did next was one of the most hurtful stories of rejection that I've ever heard of happening at a funeral.
The grave site for my Great grandpa was located in the beautiful Holmes County, Ohio hills. I wonder what my grandpa thought when they arrived at the gravesite.Someone had decided that his dad wasn't worthy of being buried inside the graveyard fence and instead dug his gravesite outside the fence and added a new fence around his grave.
Rejection-not good enough.
Rejection to who? the dead guy?
Was their intent to hurt the family? I am sure it cut to the bone.
Who was the information for? Were they wanting to remind God that the inside of the fence people- Heaven and the ones outside the fence-hell?
What were they thinking?
Were they thinking?
I wish I could have been at the funeral gravesite service that day. I wish I could have walked up to his mom and lift her head & say....I am so sorry about the loss of your husband but I am even more devastated at these peoples actions. I would have wanted to breath life into her despair. They added shame, judgment by their outward actions. I wonder what they spoke to her. With in a year she also died. Of a broken heart.
I am a great grand daughter of a woman that life didn't appear to be so abundant. My life is a constant mix of the good, the hard, the fun, the painful. My goal in life is to be real. I don't want to live my life pretending its easy.
I want to spend my life looking for the people who's heads I can still lift & say to them....no matter what the enemy has stolen, killed & destroyed in your life....Jesus came to give your life a purpose.
Who's head is God asking you to lift and speak life into today??
Corina Yoder
I am dedicating this first blog to my niece Riane Hope. You beat the rest of us in the race to get across the finish line to Jesus. You never had to live in the real world because you lived for 9 months inside my gentle & sweet sister Lori & went to be with Jesus an hour before you entered this world. I can't wait to meet you.
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