Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Story Keepers

For the past 15 years, I have led a weekly book club at my church.  At each meeting we gather together to discuss just a portion of the book and this leads to the sharing of personal stories.  Did I tell you this Book Club is all ladies?   That's a lot of story telling in one hour.

In book club a few years ago, we read, The Story Keeper.  This story revealed the responsibility each of us has to keep our stories alive by entrusting them to the next generation.  And in so doing, we make them the story keepers.  While reading this book, I became a bit nostalgic as I thought of the stories my parents entrusted to me.  

My father told us about things from his childhood, how he met my mother, some of his youthful mischief, that the words “I Love You” are not to be given away to just anyone but saved for the one you will marry.  He told us when he accepted Jesus as his Savior and about his passion to someday be a missionary.  He made his five children Story Keepers. 

My mother also shared her stories with us.  She was the youngest in her family of four children.  Her brother who was a few years older than her died when he was five.  Shortly after his death, my mother became ill.  She told us how my grandma begged God not to take another one of her children and my mother recovered.  She told us about some of her mischief which only endeared her to me.  (The apple not falling far from the tree and all!)     

My mom told us about her Pa (father).  He was a kind and gentle man.  She took .25 from her aunt’s purse and her pa found out.  He didn’t scold her or spank her…he silently walked to the bathroom, closed the door and cried.  My mom told us that she could hear him crying.  His heart broken by her thoughtless behavior.  My mother stood outside the bathroom and pounded on the closed door crying, “I’m sorry, Pa.  I’ll never do it again.  Please forgive me.” 

We are the Story Keepers of our family history, but we are also the Story Keepers of a precious book, the Bible.  This is the story that has survived famine, war, prosecution, death and even 400 years of silence.  Yet, it lives on.  It possesses the keys to eternal life.  We can keep the stories of the Bible all to ourselves, or we can entrust them to the next generation making them the Story Keepers--keeping the story alive for future generations. 

I want to be sure my children know the stories of my family, but more so, I want them to be the Story Keepers of God’s Word!  


Your faithfulness endures throughout every generation.  
You set the earth in place, and it continues to stand.  
Psalm 119:90 (GW)

It's you responsibility to make someone you love, a Story Keeper!


Every Wednesday, I share the stories from God's Word with my little Story Keepers (Rainbows)!
In this picture the children are praying. 
For the past 16 years the kids have done this when we pray.  
They lay prostrate on the floor before the Lord.
We didn't teach them this.  
It has been passed from one Rainbow group to the next.  
They follow by example.





Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Pursue Me

I got me a winner!
It's not too late to stop reading.  You are about to enter the embarrassing Beverly Roberts Story Zone.  You've been warned.  

Blush. 

When I was 15 years old, I threw all decorum to the wind and decided to pursue a young man at church who caught my eye.  I was relentless.  I actually climbed over people to sit in the empty seat next to him at church.  

He didn't even know me...yet!  

I watched him from afar for awhile and then decided.  He was the one.   Looking back, it is highly embarrassing.  I would gaze down from the choir loft directly at my intended target.  If by chance we made eye contacted, I'd flash him my brightest one-dimple smile.   If he was talking to his friends after church, and happened to turn around, there I was with a big goofy smile.      

I'm dying right now!

Okay...let's not drag out my humiliation any further.  Here's the happy ending:  my persistence finally paid off.  He noticed me, liked me and married me.  

I'm embarrassed now at how bold I was in my purist, but in reality, I knew what I wanted.

That word "pursue" is a strong word.  It means to follow in order to overtake.  The purser is someone who is determined to follow, not giving up, keeping their eye on the prize.    

In Psalms 23:6 in the NLT version. The word pursue caught my attention.   

Surely your goodness and unfailing love 
will pursue me all the days of my life, 
and I will live in the house of the LORD forever. 


Wow!  What an amazing promise, and it's so easily overlooked...unless you really understand what it means when you read "pursue me."  God's goodness and love is following me in order to overtake me.  It is determined...not giving up...always watching.

Here's how I understand it.  The Lord's goodness and love is climbing over people to sit by me.  If I turn around...it's there watching me.  It's always waiting for that moment when eye contact is made.   Hoping to draw me into relationship.  Jesus loves me and wants me to be His Bride.  

I think I'll slow down a bit today, and let HIM catch me.



Wednesday, July 12, 2017

It's good to be home!


I've been on many vacations over my sixty some years.  I've stayed in rat occupied huts and luxurious hotels with terrycloth robes in the closet.  I've seen garbage dumps where people make their homes and the beauty of the Great Wall in China.  

Every time I'm gone away from home something happens somewhere near the middle or end of my trip.  It doesn't matter if the vacation has fancy buffets or rice served on a banana leaf, I begin to long for home.   

I know when I get home that no one is waiting to make my bed or cook my meals, yet there is something in me that longs for the place I call home.  Home is where there is family, friends and familiar surroundings.  It's a wonderful and comfortable place...it's home.  

I hate to admit this, but when I'm away from home there is a mental countdown going on in my head...four more sleeps until I'm home,  three,  two, and finally one.  The night before my trip is over...my bags are all packed, and I'm ready to go.  

The day of departure I arrive at the airport and pray my flight won't be delayed...I'm almost home...it's so close...I can taste it...smell it...see it.  Then finally I open the door and walk into my house and...inhale deeply and exhale slowly.  It's good to be home.

This makes me think of another journey we're all on.  Let's call it "life."   Sometimes life is luxurious and sometimes not so much.  This journey for the most part is not a vacation,   We can't do the mental countdown because we don't know the day or hour this journey will end.  But we do know that this journey won't last forever.  

What then?    

In John 14:2 (NKJV) Jesus promised this.   "...I go to prepare a place for you."

In Philippians 3:20-21 (CEV) version says this:  "But we are citizens of heaven and are eagerly waiting for our Savior to come from there. Our Lord Jesus Christ has power over everything, and he will make these poor bodies of ours like his own glorious body."

In December, we are going to Disney World.  I'm excited to be with family and friends but I know about halfway through I'll be longing for home again, and I can't help but make the comparison to Heaven. 

Someday...someday...we'll all be saying, "It's good to be home!"  





Wednesday, July 5, 2017

The Perks of Partnership

Have you ever noticed that in the passenger seat of the car you can see everything so much better than the driver?  
My husband asks me to drive sometimes, and when I'm the driver, he can become very opinionated about my driving...way over there in the passenger seat.  

He tells me I'm too close to the curb or turning to fast.  My all time personal favorite is when his arms start waving around in the air and he's gasping for breath like his life is about to end.  Yes, when I'm driving he does stuff like that.  And everyone knows how much the driver loves that kind of stuff...said no one ever.  

Now I will admit, there has been the rare, and I do mean rare, occasion when he truly has warned me, for real, and I have avoided an accident.  When this happened, I didn't have the same perspective that he did.  The car in question was in my blind spot...but not his.   Even then, it was my choice to follow or not follow his direction.

A while ago, I made some notes in my journal from I Chronicles 14.  In my notes, I titled this chapter The Perks of Partnership.  David inquired of the Lord whether he should go to battle or not with his enemy.  God answered, “Attack; I’ll give you the victory.”  The part of this chapter that I love the best is that David partnered with the Lord by asking and then followed the instructions.   How silly it would be to ask for advice from a knowledgeable person and then do the opposite of what that person said.  

For example, when we call on the Lord to help us through a trail or even to remove it from our lives then we choose not to do what we know is right.   Instead, we think we have perfect sight in the matter.  We pull out into traffic, foot on the gas not seeing that car in our blind spot.  Then we wonder why we're not victorious.

Twice in I Chronicles 14 David inquired of the Lord, and in both cases he was victorious because he understood The Perks of Partnership.  The actual verse says this... "and David did as the Lord Commanded."

Now it is rare to hear the audible voice of the Lord giving us direction like he did David, but in place of that audible voice we have the Bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  

The Word is God-given.  It is a road map for life's journey and our instruction manual.  It can even bring comfort.  It has the ability to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.  David asked for the Lord's direction, and then he did as God commanded.  

There has been many times I've sat in the driver's seat and ignored the concerns of my highly observant husband as he grips tightly to the dashboard and calls out his warnings from the passenger seat.  

"There's a pothole."

"You're too close to the shoulder."

"Look out for that car."  

And there has been many times I have hit the pothole, ran off the road and had some near misses.   

One of The Perks of Partnership with the Lord is listening to your partner because HE has a better perspective than you.  





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    The Journals of Tori Drake Click on the book cover to order on Amazon. Book Review: I consumed this book in three days. Although it was ...