{"id":15968,"date":"2022-05-01T04:23:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T09:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15968"},"modified":"2022-05-01T04:23:47","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T09:23:47","slug":"april-showers-bring-may-flowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=15968","title":{"rendered":"April Showers Bring May Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And life\u2019s clouds, storms and showers can bring many blessings. This blog was inspired by the opportunity to be in Tulsa for several days. Though I have many precious friends and beautiful memories here, this trip came with a specific purpose in mind. That is to be with my 99-1\/2 years old mother-in-law while my beloved sis-in-law, Karen, gets some respite from her daily 24\/7 care of her.
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I\u2019m not painting a picture of gloom and despair, but one of love expressed to the nth degree. Karen and I talk often about Mom\u2019s ongoing needs, but until I witnessed it 24\/7, I couldn\u2019t appreciate what that looked like. Being a caregiver is not for the faint-hearted. Only through a huge measure of God\u2019s love and joy that is overflowing in His mercy and grace can a caregiver maintain their peace. Endowed with God\u2019s extravagant benefits, caregivers still need a break.
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God\u2019s creation can be a source of finding His peace. That is where Karen is while I\u2019m here. While I\u2019ve tended to Mom\u2019s many needs, Karen is getting to do what she loves most \u2013 setting up her bird sanctuary\u2019s bird baths and feeders that are full of their favorite seeds and nuts, along with planting her flowering gardens that brim with pots full of blossoming flowers.

Karen\u2019s love for her birds and flowers is one of her ways of maintaining peace. She was saddened when her pots of pansies seemed to die in the winter. They were wilted like mushy spinach, but didn\u2019t pull them out, hoping that the roots still had life in them. Good for her because warmer weather gave them the resurrection they needed. Beautiful pansies now with sunflower plants growing in the pots too, from where the birds planted their seeds. \u201cGive and it shall be given!\u201d

Aw! Resurrection power. Yes, I can\u2019t help myself. We\u2019re still in the Easter season. When we realize that \u201cThe Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you (and me). And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.\u201d (Romans 8:11)
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I can\u2019t begin to explain how caregiving 24\/7 could have taken a toll on Karen and anyone who doesn\u2019t have a tight relationship with God. But if there\u2019s anything I know, Karen is relentless in faith, determined in hope, and unquestionable in her care for mom. See those wall-hangings in Mom\u2019s room. Karen even \u201cplants\u201d faith seeds for a weary and worn pilgrim. See those wall-hangings in Mom\u2019s room and having little prayer and scripture times daily with Mom, Karen \u201cplants\u201d faith seeds for a weary and worn pilgrim.
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I\u2019m here for a few days to stoke the flames of the Holy Spirit in my beloved sis. She is getting to do what she loves and with the ones she loves. She knows this season is her God-given ministry. God uses her hands as an extension of His hands \u2013 holding, soothing, supporting, and comforting.
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Mom loved the huge 9-9 balloons that George brought her on her birthday (October 31st). She is proud to have outlived all her siblings and many of her friends. So, those 9-9 balloons bring joy to her. So much so, that when they deflate, they replace them. The most recent ones deflated, and George brought in the gold new ones, attributing them to me bringing them to her. Brownie points for me!!! I subsequently asked: \u201cMom, tomorrow you\u2019ll be 99-1\/2! Do you want to make it to 100? She responded: \u201cI keep talking to God about it and asking Him to please take me home, but He won\u2019t listen to me!\u201d

Mom just wants to \u201cgo home\u201d and wonders why she\u2019s still here. But, like the birds and the plants being fed and nurtured, so Karen does that for Mom. Those actions certainly do sound like the actions and character of God. God with skin on.

As I endeavor to do my part to ease the load here for the next few days, I continue to remind myself of Christ\u2019s resurrection life that promises us His faithfulness in the showers and the storms and the beautiful, sunshiny days of birds singing and flowers blooming. I pray you are reminded, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And life\u2019s clouds, storms and showers can bring many blessings. This blog was inspired by the opportunity to be in Tulsa for several days. Though I have many precious friends and beautiful memories here, this trip came with a specific purpose in mind. That is to be with my 99-1\/2 years old mother-in-law while my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23513,1],"tags":[23510,20342,14412,3513,1210,169,1769,873,2622,15459,23512,40,17223,23509,20193,20251,23511,31,302],"class_list":["post-15968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-respite","category-uncategorized","tag-99-years-old","tag-april-showers","tag-balloons","tag-birds-of-the-air","tag-blog","tag-caregiver","tag-christian","tag-easter","tag-faithfulness","tag-flowers","tag-i-trust-you-jesus","tag-inspiration","tag-may-1st","tag-may-flower","tag-respite","tag-resurrection-power","tag-spirit-lives-in-you","tag-trust-in-the-lord","tag-tulsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15978,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15968\/revisions\/15978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}