Beverly Joy Roberts

Why is it—when someone wants your attention—they think you should drop everything you’re doing and run to them?   Spouse , children, grand-kids, they all stand their ground and yell for you to come.   It doesn’t matter if you're busy with something important or unimportant.  Or maybe you don’t want to scream back at the top of your lungs.  " WHAT!"    Whatever the case—it’s you who should stop what you're doing and run.   Okay-I may be venting a bit, but we’ve all been there.    Okay, now how can God use this to speak truth to my heart?    I guess I should be extremely thankful that HE isn’t like me.    He listens for my voice.  He's never too busy for me.  He doesn't answer me in anger.     The Bible tells us that as we draw near to him—he will draw near to us.   Best part of all He wants us to call out to Him.   The Bible uses these words: “Call on me...” when you’re in trouble. when you’re downhearted. when your enemies are in hot

I want to start this out by saying, "Ooooouch!" At times in my life, the Lord has brought people into my circle to sand off some of my rough edges, which by the way isn’t a fun process.    Usually during this sharpening procedure I don’t always appreciate what my friends may say.  But in my heart I know they are spot on! Bob does the knife sharpening in our family.  When I watch him sharpen our knives there is nothing gentle or kind about the method.  He holds the dull blade between two fast moving girt stone.  (It’s an electric knife sharpener thingy.)  A grinding sound is heard as the dull blade is sharpened.  This process of resistance is the only way that I know to restore a knife to it's full potential.        Which brings me to my point, when a friend causes friction in your life—it may not be a bad thing.  Because friends keep each other sharp.    Sometimes, I've been smart enough to connect the dots by watching my friends live out

A few years ago our son, daughter-in-law and two precious grandchildren lived with us for about six weeks before leaving to be missionaries in Asia.  The clock was ticking down to their departure.  It was no longer years, months, weeks or days away—now it was only a matter of hours.  We cherished every moment together.   Just hours before they were to leave, our 3-yrs old granddaughter had a high fever and had just returned from the doctor with an ear infection and strep throat.  I was cuddling with her in the rocking chair when the doorbell rang. Our son, who has a heart to reach the hurting and lost, answered the door.  The next thing I knew there was a vacuum cleaner salesman doing a demo in my living room.  Guess what?  I was not welcoming. The poor kid knelt on the living room area rug and tried to convince me how much I needed his product.  I was not polite. While the salesman was talking, I looked at our son and say, “Really?  You’re doing this right now—