Laced With Grace

I have an ornery side to my character.

It’s my Dad’s fault. No. Actually it’s my Dad’s, Dad who is at fault. I hail from a long and silly heritage of practical jokes and teasing of family members.

Good Grief!

Right now let me publically state my apologies to my family. They have lived with my hare-brained antics now for years and have accepted my need to giggle at their expense as part of daily life with Lynn.

My poor husband after 18 years of marriage still stumbles into my outrageous humor set-ups with full trust. However, he has come to love this oddball side of my charm. *grin* He laughs right along with me. My son and daughter, poor kids, well, they have already inherited this family disease. I already feel sorry for my future grandkids.

I’m telling you about this quirk in my personality to bring you into our family dynamic in hopes you might appreciate the humor and the wonder of the story I’m about to share.

Two weeks ago after dropping my daughter at school, I came home and went into her bedroom to get her dirty clothes to start the wash.

What is it with teenaged girls? It must have been another fashion crisis meltdown that particular morning. Clothing lay crumpled on the floor, flung around the end of her bed and in the giant pile of shoes in her closet. Sheesh!

Feeling charitable, I decided to hang the clothes up. As I was working a shirt onto a hanger, I heard the padded footsteps of my husband. We live in a single story home with several hallways. He was perusing the hallways looking for me. After 18 years of marriage, I know this man well. He doesn’t yell… (like me, HEY, HONEY, WHERE ARE YOU). He doesn’t even call my name. He walks. He paces. He searches and when you’re married to an ornery blonde like me, his search efforts are futile.

Ahem.

So, I hear the pacing of the man. I grin to myself and move farther into my daughter’s room to see just how long it will take for him to find me. Nothing like an impromptu game of hide-n-seek in the morning to tickly my funny bone. Yessiree. I stand in my daughter’s room and continue to hang clothes in the closet. My concealment is perfect and my husband continues to walk the halls.

I hear my husband open the door to the garage. Nope.

I hear him walk the hall by my office again. Nope

Next he walks into our bedroom…. For the second time. Nope, not here.

At this point, I’m struggling to conceal my glee at his wanderings.

Finally, I decide the poor guy needs to get to work so I make some noise in the closet.

He picks up on the clue and moves directly down the hall toward me.

He rounds the corner of my daughter’s bedroom and I start giggling straight off.

I love this man. He’s not mad. He’s actually just glad to find me. He starts to laugh and then holds out his hand to show me something.

He shyly says, “ I found your glasses in our bedroom after searching the entire house for you twice.”

I grin.

He says in a half serious half kidding tone, “I thought you were raptured.”

I rush to him and throw my arms around him, “Oh honey, did you think I was raptured without you?”

He didn’t really reply. But we embraced and I rushed a prayer up to Jesus with a heart full of love and hope for this man.

So, I ask you today; Is my husband a believer or is he not?

Oh how I pray with fervor and passion that on the day of the rapture all of you will find that Mr. and Mrs. Donovan left planet earth together.

Hearing my husband’s words, “I thought you were raptured,” compels me to continue to pray for his salvation.

Don’t give up hope for your unsaved loved ones. Your influence and prayers are monumentally important.

Be blessed this day and come Lord, Jesus, come. Lynn

Find me daily at

I’ve been thinking about spiritual warfare a lot lately.  Not only am I preparing a series of talks about it for a ladies seminar in a couple of weeks, but  I’ve been praying often for friends and family that are battling with depression and other damaging emotions.  I want them to be able to stand strong.  I want to engage and win the battles that I face personally. In order to do that I need to be on the offense.

To be on the offense means that I am keenly aware of the times I find myself engaging the enemy.

• When I am taking significant steps of faith for spiritual growth.
• When I’m invading enemy territory by being involved in evangelism or on a mission trip.
• When I’m exposing Him for who He is.
• When I repent and make a clean break with the world, a long held sin pattern or an unholy relationship.
• When God is preparing us individually or corporately for a great work for His glory.

So how do I engage the enemy and win?

“…in addition to all, take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.   And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Ephesians 6:16, 17 (NASB)

Be on the offense by taking up your shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.  The shield of faith is the absolute confidence in His promises, His power and His program for our lives.  It’s purpose is to quench all the fiery darts/missiles of the evil one….and they WILL come.

We’re all bombarded by those fiery darts and just don’t realize that’s what’s going on. The evil one will use schemes, temptations, lies, deceptions, and attacks aimed at us, to shift our focus to something or someone other than God.  They’re often rooted in lies about God’s identity or our new identity in Christ.

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. “1 John 2:15,16

How do I identify the fiery missiles?

• Maybe you’ve had blasphemous thoughts (curse words) and you never normally have those thoughts.
• Having hateful thoughts towards someone.
• Doubts.
• Having a burning desire to sin.
• Overwhelming times of depression and you don’t want to come out.

Those missiles of doubt, deception and depression must be dealt with immediately through handling the Word of God accurately.

Action Steps

Write the following 3 questions and verses on 3×5 cards. Keep them with you and claim those verses when you go through a “frontal assault.”  Immediately respond by trusting in the truth of God’s Word

• Am I trusting in God’s character? God has my best in mind.  He is good!  Psalm 84:11, Romans 8:32
• Am I trusting in God’s promises and Word? He will accomplish what concerns me.  Numbers 23:19; 2 Peter 1:2-4
• Am I trusting in God’s program and timing? His ways are not always easiest, but they are always the best!  Jeremiah 29:11, Isaiah 55:8-13

Lord, help me to stand strong against the attacks of the enemy.  Help me to refuse his attack on Your grace by trusting in Your character.  I need to be strong and faithful at reading Your word and understanding your promises and your program and plans for me.  I want to know Your Word so well that the Truth will always win in my life over the deceiver. That I will apply what I know to be true so the accuser is without a case. I want to understand your gospel so well that I will never doubt Your promise of salvation.  And when the fiery darts of temptation, lies and deception bombard me, Lord may I have absolute confidence in You, Your promises, power and timing in my life.

Your humbly grateful daughter,

Mary Dozier Shouse, my maternal grandmother taught me a lot about life and love. Some of her lessons were practical life skills. My cousins and I learned all the finer points of Canasta from Grandma. And I never would have passed my driver’s test if she had not showed me how to parallel park using salt and pepper shakers on her kitchen table.

The card playing and parking skills have certainly come in handy. However, my grandmother’s true legacy came from the example of her life. Here are a few of the valuable things I learned:

1. Love is often best expressed in small ways – Grandma constantly showed her love to her children, grandchildren, friends, and neighbors by letting us know she was thinking about us. For instance, I regularly received clips of articles or recipes in the mail she thought I might like. And although she could not afford gifts everyone received a card from her on their birthday with a dollar bill in it. When a grandkid got married, their spouse began to receive their birthday card and dollar too!
2. Joy can be found in simple things – My grandmother was almost childlike in her wonder of God’s world. She loved rocks, flowers, and birds. She found pleasure just in looking at them.
3. Peace can be found in difficult circumstances – My grandmother lived a hard life. When her mother died at age 11, her father shipped her off from one relative to another. Then verbal abusive and control marred her marriage. Yet, through it all, my grandmother was full of joy and peace from her heavenly Father.

This is the legacy my grandmother left me. Lessons about life, love, and God that have eternal value. Her positive influence on me has often made me reflect on what kind of legacy I will leave my children and grandchildren. What will I leave that has eternal, lasting value?

The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of our God stands forever (Isa 40:8). The truths of God are eternal. They have the power to make an eternal impact on my children. What am I doing to pass the legacy of God’s Word to them? I try to follow God’s directive to the people of Israel. I try to set a godly example. I talk to them about the things of God. I take advantage of circumstances to teach them from God’s Word. (See Deut 6:6-9)

What are you doing to leave a valuable legacy? Share your thoughts with us!

Blessings!  Kathy Howard