Posted again in honor of Sweet Granny who went to Heaven March 10, 2013:

Three ladies and a box.  All blessings.

First let me explain the blessing box.  A friend suggested this to me and I love it! You take a box, or some type of container, and put it somewhere convenient in your home or office.  Tell your family members and/or coworkers about the box.  Everyone places blessings in the box throughout the year.  It can be an answered prayer, a poem, something funny that someone says, something silly, a Bible verse, a thank you card, a gift, a song, a whisper, a sunbeam shining through the branches after a stormy night…whatever blesses you.  At Christmas you all sit down and read all of the entries from the blessing box.  I promise if you do this it will enhance your Christmas joy more than you have ever experienced.  Your blessing box participants will laugh together, cry together, remember and rejoice.  It will remind you that life is worth living because God blesses us immeasurably in ways beyond what we can think or imagine.  It will remind you to be thankful for your blessings and to be a blessing to others.  Wouldn’t you like to have someone enter you in their blessing box this year?

It is my privilege to introduce the following blessings:

We will call the first Shoo Shoo. Shoo Shoo grew up in Africa.  As a little girl over 60 years ago, she had to work to help her family and to pay for school.  She helped her family with firewood, carrying water and other chores and then ran miles to school each day.  She grew up and married into an abusive relationship.  It was very difficult in her country to leave a man and she feared for her life.  She had an opportunity to go to the United States to serve the Lord.  While in the US she worked hard and went to college.  She now has her doctorate degree and is a chaplain at a hospital.  Even when she left her husband to protect her life, she never dreamed she would have to divorce.  He tried to stop her from going to school and receiving her degrees.  He could have had her returned to Africa and worse.  Thankfully, he did not but did divorce her.  Her children are here with her now and she is a blessing to our country, patients, and to all who meet her.  God has a purpose for each of us and even as a little girl Shoo Shoo worked toward that purpose.  Through poverty, abuse, hard work, and fear she held on to the hand of God.  She believed His love would prevail.

She is an example that our purpose is to know God and lead others to know Him.

The second blessing I introduce is Sweet Granny.  She was not raised in church.  She married at 19 and she and her husband did not go to church. Some ladies asked her to go to a class at church and she went.  At 25 years old she accepted Christ as her Savior.  She started going to church even though her husband did not go, which was difficult because she was a submissive wife.  Over 10 years went by and finally her husband followed his wife’s example and said yes to his young daughter’s plea and went to church.  He gave his life to Christ that day and later became a Baptist minister.   Sweet Granny is my grandmother. My brother, cousins, and our children were born into Christian homes because she was the beginning of Christianity in our family.  She has lived a life of example as the kind of woman Solomon speaks of in Proverbs 31.  She has a gentle and quiet spirit that Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 3.

She is an example that our purpose is to know God and lead others to know Him.

The third lady I would like to introduce we will call the Collierville Christmas Angel.  She is a janitorial employee of a hotel.  She does not have fame or fortune, yet she has a certain glow and peace in her countenance.  She rejoices in her love for Christ and shares that love with those she meets.

She is an example that our purpose is to know God and lead others to know Him.

So I guess, when I reflect on my favorite quote, thought, etc., for 2009 it is all summed up:

“Our purpose is to know God and lead others to know Him.  Be a blessing. Start a blessing box.  Count your blessings.  Record your blessings.  Share your blessings next Christmas.”

Be a blessing,

Kim