Beverly Joy Roberts

A few weeks ago, in the early hours of the morning my husband woke me up from a lovely, sound sleep to tell me the powers out .   I lay there a bit groggy, and wondered why it was important for me to know this at 5 A.M. in the morning—I surly would have slept through the whole thing!    Then he added, “I hope the sump pump is okay and the basement doesn’t flood.”   He promptly rolled over and went to sleep. Grrrrrrrr!    I got up, checked the sump pump and used my phone to get the restoration info from Consumers Energy.   (Estimated time was 7:45 A.M.)    Did I mention…GRRRRRRRRR? I went back to bed my mind racing.   I asked myself, why did he need to wake me up to tell me the powers out ?   And as fast as I thought this—a scripture I memorized as a child came to mind.   Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ .   Galatians 6:2 (NKJV) I smiled.  After 40 years of marriage it actually felt good to be my best friend’s "burden bea

Recently someone shared this simple phrase with me.   “ There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.”   As she shared this, I could hear the relief in her voice, and I saw a content smile formed on her lips.   (…and no it wasn’t me looking in the mirror!)   For those who struggle with being accepted , loved or mistakenly feel they actually play a part in earning the love of God—that phrase can bring an enormous amount of peace.   ·         God's love for you is not conditional on how many Bible verses you read or memorize. ·         His love doesn’t fade if you don’t meet your prayer quota for the day. ·         He is not checking off a “to-do-list” of things you must accomplish in any given day to be worthy of His love. Nope—not happening.   I love this passage of scripture in Hosea 11:1-9 (MSG).   God is crying out as a loving father to his rebellious son, Israel.   It brings tear

The spring and summer storm season is upon us.   A few nights ago there was a big storm that blew through.    Bob asked me in the morning, “Did you hear that storm last night?”    I replied, “No.   I didn’t hear a thing.”     He said, “The wind was blowing, it was pouring rain and the thunder was so loud.” In surprise I replied.   “Really?”   Then I pulled back the curtains and looked outside.   Within my view I could see that everything was wet and a few garbage cans were tipped over and tussled around landing far from their owners.   I slept through it unaware and unaffected by the storm because I didn’t hear a thing .      There have been many storms in my life that were not weather relate that I wish I could have slept through.   I would have loved to say of those storms… I didn’t hear a thing .   And guess what?   Some of them were of my own making.   Have I shocked you?   I think not!  I wish I could unhear the cruel words, unsee the cold s

A few weeks back I had two of my sweet grand-kids over to spend the night.  I was fixing them a snack and told them to sit at the small kids table downstairs.   Moments later, there was an earth-shattering scream.   I ran to see what the problem was.    My 4 year old granddaughter had the only kid's chair in a death grip while my two year old grandson sat on the floor in tears.   It was pretty obvious that he had been forcefully evicted from the chair.    After a few questions, I took the chair from my granddaughter, and I gave it back to its rightful owner. Then I tried to explain to her that I had another chair exactly like that one.   Tears streamed down her face, loud wailing resounded and I realized words weren’t going to work.   This girl needed proof.    I ran back up the stairs and retrieved the matching chair.   It was the same size, same color but it still wasn’t good enough—until I said, “I’m going to put this chair in the best place.   You can