The children were gathered around Pastor on the steps leading to the alter. He was asking them what they cherished. As I sat there I was thinking, I wonder if they even know what that means. I mean, does anyone use that word anymore? I’ve probably thought of it, much less used it, only a dozen times since back in the day when David Cassidy made it a household word with his song, Cherish.
Pastor went on to show a recipe of his grandmother’s that he cherishes. My mind quickly came back from the Partridge Family and started sorting through all the recipes that I have of my own grandmothers, still in her little metal box, written in her handwriting. Although I rarely use those recipes anymore, they are some of my most cherished possessions.
We all cherish things in our lives, whether it is something someone gave us or a memory of a time or season in our lives. I cherish the memories I have of my grandmother and the gifts she brought me from her travels throughout the country and abroad. In fact, I have a box full of those treasures, a leather purse from Mexico, a doll from Alaska, a necklace from Jerusalem, none of them useful to my life now other than the memories of my first best friend.
The shadowbox in the photo with this story displays some of Grandma’s treasures. It serves as a daily reminder of her.
I cherish the belongings that were hers that I accumulated through the years. The hankie she gave me, the victrola her maiden aunt bought decades ago, the rocking chair that belonged to her father, and a shadow box of her belonging my mother made for me almost 20 years ago. Ironically, my favorite treasure is a wooden set of Indian Head salt and pepper shakers she got at an auction and gave me when I was probably four or five. She kept them in her china cabinet until I was an adult and I can still remember opening that door and just holding them and marveling at how precious they were to me. In truth, they have no intrinsic value, but to me they are priceless.
I cherish my family and the moments we spend together. There never seems to be enough time for that, but cherish the time regardless of what we do when we are together, especially when we can all be home at the same time.
I cherish books and the days when I can cuddle up with a warm blanket and savor every word. I especially love the ones that take me in so I feel I am in the scene with the characters. It doesn’t matter whether it makes me laugh, cry, or cringe, I know it is an especially good one if it keeps me thinking for days or even weeks after I turn the last page.
More recently, I’ve learned to cherish my faith and what it means to have faith. For years I’ve had a saying above my buffet that says, “Faith…isn’t believing God can, it’s knowing God will.” I’ve thought about that a lot through the years and have, through a variety of trials and challenges, learned in different ways what it means. I’ve spoken in past episodes about the belief that I have about my coaching practice and the trust I have that I am on a path that God has chosen for me and having absolute faith that it will be everything I can imagine when the time is right. It’s been frustrating, discouraging, and somedays downright defeating. But my faith has carried me through.
Have you had moments when you had to live in blind faith? Maybe it was a time when you put every ounce of effort you had into a project and then simply had to sit back and wait to see if it would end with the result you had planned. Or maybe you or someone you love has had a health scare and you suddenly realize how fragile life can be? Or worse, you’ve lost someone you love and cannot see how you will ever get your life back.
In each one of these, and really in every scenario on life, you simply just take the next step and pray for God’s guidance to get you through it. Life is full of uncertainty. There is no guarantee that the work we do will get the results we hope for. That the steps we take will help us regain our health or the grief we bear will ever completely go away. But if we turn to Christ he will show us the way and give us the strength to do what is ours to do. If you’ve been to my website, you’ve seen that my tag line for the coaching and mentorship I offer is, Living in Courageous Faith. Little did I know when I chose those words that they would grow to be my mantra for every day.
It really does take courage to take the next step sometimes. I had no way of knowing that God was preparing me for a time when I would live days on end under a cloud of uncertainty. A time when tests that were to bring clarity and answers only raised more questions. I go into more detail about that in this week’s podcast, but the short story is, I am happy to report that all is well. I share the experience with you now, not for sympathy or concern, but to show that is it possible to have peace in the storms of life. To courageously have faith that everything will turn out even before we have all the answers.
Wrapping up today, I just want to share that I have many things that I cherish in my life, but without a doubt, the one thing that I cherish most is the gift of faith that I can carry through every aspect of my life and hopefully can help others to do the same. I feel blessed to be relieved of the weight I have carried for this last month but know it was meant for good and not harm. If I can help others to strengthen their faith in times of trouble, it will have been worth every moment of pain, uncertainty, and frustration.
Thank you for sticking with this long post today. I know this was longer than usual and if you are still with me, I am especially grateful for you and hope that you were touched by my words. If you know of someone who might be encouraged by my story, please share this or my podcast of the same topic with them. I pray every day that the people who need to hear my message will find it, but I know that the only way that can happen is if the people who listen to the show or read the blog will care enough and have the courage to share it with others.
If you were one of the many people in my life that said even one short prayer for me during this time, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Go, be well, and have faith.
