Jackie's Journey "On Guard!"

Our friends have a five-year-old Downs Syndrome boy who was having a fabulous time at Sea World.  In an instant, his parents realized he had wandered off, and in a panic, they began to run in every direction, calling his name.  After a few minutes others joined in…frantically searching the vast pools of deep water filled with every aquatic fish imaginable. 

 Finally, after a series of hopeful leads, he was spotted…head to toe, dripping wet and muddy…running to his dad, who scooped him up in relief and hugged him reassuringly! Upon arriving home, they bathed him and tucked him into his cozy warm bed and proceeded to get his wet clothes out of his over-stuffed backpack.  In disbelief and total amazement…out popped the cutest little live penguin they had ever seen! (Story shared by Yvonne Foust)

.Our little ones can certainly identify with this little happy and excited boy…I know I do!

 We are sometimes like that little boy.  We see or hear something that captures our total attention.  We get caught up in the exciting moment and throw “caution to the wind”.  The something may not be bad, but the distraction keeps us from following the best.  God has given our children a safety net in times like these by giving them…US!  Parents carry the responsibility of protecting their children.  They make sure these little ones are taught and learn to choose to stay close to where mom and dad can see and hear them.  Hence, they sense protection and security. 

 Alertness is the awareness that we are being stalked by a deadly enemy.( I Pet. 5: 8)   Listening and obeying…especially when we are in new places…keeps us alert to danger!  When little ones slip away where they cannot be seen or heard, they not only hurt themselves…they hurt others.  That little boy’s daddy and mommy were afraid because they love him.  That little boy had been in water somewhere and could have been in great peril!  That little boy took something that wasn’t his (his friend penguin). That little boy took iniative and made a bad decision on his own…without asking permission from his parents.  That little boy made the circumstance life-threatening for the baby penguin and himself!

 We need to stay alert under the umbrella of protection.  Our authority keeps the rain and pain of life from hitting us and gives us peace and security, IF we stay under its shelter.  When we choose NOT to listen and go off on our own, we walk away from our safekeeping.

 This, of course, is true for us, adults, too…

Do we remind ourselves in these busy days that we are in a spiritual war?

Do we maintain and guard our daily time with the Lord and His Word?

Do we see the need to be on guard to the subtle dangers

creeping into our lives and homes?

 Let’s be alert this week to our spiritual condition…

and  aware of what is taking place around us

so we can have the right response.

HAVE  A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Trial by Fire"

In “Princess Grace and the Lost Little Kitten”, the frantic search for her special friend taught her a valuable life-lesson.  The fearful unknowns were over-whelming, but she did not give up…

 Ever had one of those days?

 …This was one day in my life that marked me forever…

 Dusk was cascading over the torrential waters, enveloping our dugout into the dark silence of the unknown jungle.  Along the mangrove-lined shoreline we could hear twigs breaking and see shadows of what appeared to be dark bodies racing to us to the remote landing in the deep stillness.

 For eight hours we had traveled upriver, pressing on against the rapid current of the Tuira River, through lightening bolts, thunder and rain.  The river had risen 8’ as we fought the current in our long journey up the turbulent jungle waters.  Our goal to reach the isolated Indian village on the Colombian border in Panama was now within our reach!

 Underneath the make-shift tarp that protected us from the worst of the violent storm were two little princesses.  One almost three, was exceedingly excited and could not wait to get out of the wet boat and the other, just a few months old, was securely wrapped in my arms.  Our piragua was piled high with everything we would need for the next six months.

 The boat brusquely hit the bank and as I stood, dripping wet, to face all the unknowns that had brought us to this sandy beach, the warm little bundle in my arms was abruptly snatched from me and disappeared into the darkness of the night!!  I quickly grabbed my once excited and happy three-year-old by the hand.  She was now very confused.  Her contentment was exchanged for eyes full of fear!  I pulled her close to me and began calling for my kidnapped daughter…

 At the same time, the crowd pushed and shoved us up a short trail that led to our mud-floored, bark-walled house.  My insistent calls were ignored and unanswered.

As I stepped over the threshold of our unfinished new home, the rats…at least, I prayed they were rats’…scurried among the barrels that had been sent a month ahead of us and now stored our rice and dried beans in the very open tin-roofed room.  The sound of the rain on that tin roof was deafening!

 My worst fear had come upon me!  Job said it first, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.  I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job 3: 25,26   I screamed again into the crowd and again received no response.  I lifted my three-year-old into my arms and determinedly turned back through the crowd to return to the river’s edge…

 Where had my baby gone?  Who had taken her?

Instantly, my panic turned to terror…

 The familiar promise in Proverbs 1: 33 eluded me…”Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” 

 What was happening?  Why had God allowed this? 

There are three Biblical Principles regarding trials:

1.     Trials are common to all of us. No one escapes unscathed  “No temptation has seized you except what is common to men.  And God is faithful.  He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear and He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”  No excuses and no victims here!  The real question is “Why not, Jackie…don’t you trust ME… I am in All your circumstances?”

2.     Trials are given with divine purpose and will pass.  “In this you may greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” I Peter 1: 6

3.     Trials are life-lessons NOT to be wasted.  “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1: 4

C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Great Divorce,“  “There are two kinds of people: Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, “All right then, have it your own way.”

I was standing at the door of decision!

 What is your attitude toward the trials in life? 

How would you respond?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Unthinkable Sacrifice"

This Friday is “Good Friday”.  This day is “specifically set aside for us to meditate on all that Jesus suffered, all the pain, the shame, and the curse that characterized his death. My eyes well up with tears when I consider the unthinkable affliction Christ endured.

 Every year around this time—right before Easter—a certain plant comes alive on my patio with bright, red blossoms. It is commonly known as “Crown of Thorns.” 

I always enjoy parking my chair close to it to examine its delicate flowers, so thin, fragile, and brilliant with red color. But then, I take a moment and let my eyes linger on its huge, thick, nail-like thorns, rumored to be those used in the crown placed on my Saviors head.

The pain and humility Jesus physically suffered leading up to his death was a mere warm-up to the real dread he faced.

As he hung on the cross, he began to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during those hours that his body was impaled, an earthly foul odor must have wafted, not around his nose, but in his heart. He felt dirty. Human wickedness began to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls.

The apple of the Father’s eye began to turn brown with the rot of our sin.

I let the thought settle deep, forcing my heart to imagine the rage, the wrath of God being poured out like hot oil on the wounded heart of the Son of Man. God the Father watching as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sank drowning into raw, liquid sin.

There is no room for a casual sentimentality regarding the cross—as an instrument of unspeakable torture, the cross is far too gruesome for any light-hearted fondness”. Written from the heart of Joni Erikson

 After reading Joni’s article, my heart began to sing and

I took on a new, magnified, eternal gratefulness

 for all that HE did for me on the cross of Calvary… 

  How about you?

Join me today in carving out quiet time to reflect on the awful weight of Good Friday. And then, breathe a prayer of wonder and thanksgiving to our Savior

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Enthusiasm Rocks!"

My Enthusiastic Granddaughter!

Do you experience emotional drain or depression by trying to act enthusiastic when you feel anything, but?  I have always associated energy with enthusiasm.  I lived with a man for 60 years that had boundless energy and his enthusiasm was outrageous and contagious! We, moms, encounter  it at our children’s soccer games as we stand and cheer them on or in an auditorium where our little princess is performing…

 In the Princess Parable Series each princess had her own source of energy (their names are Grace, Hope, Faith, Charity and Joy) that expressed itself in never-ending momentum.

Enthusiasm turns ordinary actions into extraordinary achievements. Jim Elliot wrote, ”Whoever you are, be all there.  Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”  Abraham Lincoln once said, “When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees!” Biblically speaking, enthusiasm is God’s energy in my spirit expressing itself through my mind, will and emotions. The provision HE gives for us to be “fervent in spirit”. Rom. 12:9-11

 Am I energized and inspired by God today?

If any people ought to radiate passion, joy and enthusiasm…we should!

 Then,  I guess the question is, “Why aren’t I?’ “ What should I be enthusiastic about? How do I become a zealous Influencer for good?”  Genuine enthusiasm is not something we generate on our own.  It is the harmony we have with God when our spirit is expressing the joy of our soul.  How fervent am I about the things that have eternal value?” 

 What and who do I get excited about?  Do I look for it by pursuing social media, etc.… more than the Word of God? Am I zealous toward God, His Word, prayer, good works?  Am I “exceedingly glad” when I am spoken evil of? Matt. 5: 12  Do I, like Paul,  “pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,  in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses?” I Cor. 12: 10

 Am I an example or an excuse in my responses to life’s situations?

 Enthusiasm is the by-product of having a life purpose that is worth dying for.

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "You say...JOY?"

One of the five books in The Princess Parable Series is titled, “ Princess Joy’s Birthday Blessing”.  In it she finds the real meaning of her name and the blessing of knowing what true JOY is.  “Joy is not a luxury or a mere accessory in the Christian life.  It is the sign that we are really living in God’s wonderful love, and that His love satisfies us.” Andrew Murray 

 How can Joy and Sorrow exist together?  I have had one year to contemplate the answer to that question.  I can affirm that it is possible to have them at the same time because joy is an expression of the spirit, and sorrow is an expression of the soul (mind, will, emotions). 

 Do people see a bright countenance when they look at you and me?  Joyfulness is the bright spirit and radiant countenance that I have when I am in full fellowship with the Lord.(Bill Gothard)  Ralph used to ask, “What is the purpose of joy?”  Joy has no value until it is given away and the one who gives it away becomes richer.

 In the jungles of Panama, a little river otter followed one of the boys up from the river and attached himself to our families.  This little fellow made even the most mundane chores a delight, by turning everything into a playful pursuit!  He made me believe that “Our purest and noblest joys are transformed sorrows!” Alexander Maclaren

 Joy is proof to the world that God can fully satisfy the human heart!  To experience joy, we need to understand that :

§  All things come from the hand of God. He is Sovereign. (Job 1: 21; Matt. 10: 9)

§  Everything that happens to us is ultimately for our good. (Rom. 8: 28)

§  Every circumstance can build character in us. (Rom. 8: 29)

§  Trials & difficulties can teach us God’s ways.  ( Job; Psa. 119: 71)

If you are struggling with grief, as many out here in the California wildfires are, or those mourning the loss of life in the Potomac River plane crash recently, or a multitude of other heart-rending events…know that joy is yours when you surrender to Him, under His protective hands. C. S. Lewis said, “Joy is never in our power …”

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "The Fire of Offense!"

Seems to me that we are a people that are easily offended.  Have you attempted to talk to someone about the upcoming election?  The peaceful world of long ago has left us with angry and entitled people on every front.  We  see it in on the internet, the freeway, in our  homes, churches, on the street,  in grocery stores…

 It’s a great day…you walk into a public place , smiling and enthusiastic, and someone says, “What’s wrong with you?”  Maybe, it’s just California, but I don’t think so.  Verbal dissatisfaction and public controversies are common place.  Words are spoken unguarded.  We are women and we love words! One of the leading problems among women in maintaining relationships is the abuse of the tongue.

 “The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit.”  It’s, also, a source  of offense. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed on us by someone else! “Great peace have they that love your law and nothing will offend them.”Psa. 119: 165

 We are responsible for five areas of our life without excuse, rationalization or wrong response.

1.     Words

2.     Actions

3.     Attitudes

4.     Thoughts

5.     Motives – reveal our character; the why we do what we do.

 I am accountable before God for what I say.  If somebody offends me, it is my problem. They  are only reflecting a need in my life, if I respond wrongly.  When Christ, the great physician, applies a knife to my heart and there is  pain…there  is  evidence of live flesh!  My need to die to my flesh is exposed. God sees what I cannot see, and knows exactly where to place the knife.  He cuts away that which we are most reluctant to give up!  And how it hurts. 

 God does not attack in us that which is lifeless and unresponsive…It is the live flesh that must die.   There is only room for one of us to be alive and in control!  The remedy to my problem isn’t cure; it is to get out of  the way…it is death to my selfish expectations.

 “Great  peace have they that love my law and nothing will offend them.” Psa. 119: 165

 How easily are you offended?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Buckle Up for the Ride!"

Do you ever feel like you just can’t go on?  A bit overwhelmed and stressed with the every-day’s demanding responsibilities, eventful family matters, disturbing health issues, wavering and unresolved relationships, weighty decisions that need to be made now, current world events make that global, conditions….?  

 Do you grow faint?  Are you “keeping on keeping on”, stumbling along the way?

 While living in the Darien jungle, we were not aware that for two years there was a plot to kill us!  We lived in a very remote area and the discovery of our bodies would have never been found.  Upon learning of the plan, my head began to spin.  I looked across the room at my two  beautiful little girls and reality came tumbling into my consciousness like a fast-approaching hurricane!  Fight or Flight…there was no escape…

 …Talk about growing faint!

 Jeremiah, “the weeping prophet”, faced a similar conspiracy and he wrote:

 “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble in safe country,

how will you manage in the thickets by Jordan?”

 If we grow faint with lesser trials and feel like quitting, what will we do when the battle gets even harder?  The river Jordan in flood stage overflowed its banks into a plain that grew up into a dense thicket!  Pictured in this verse is their invaders overwhelming the land like a flood. We, like Jeremiah, need to be ready to deal with tougher times.  “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength!”  Prov. 10:24  He makes His strength perfect in our weakness.  We have to get out of the way and let Him take control!  Where is your confidence right now?

 Jeremiah knew the scheme the people of Anathoth had against him to kill him, because God had told him. Like many of us, he wanted to know “why the wicked escape for a time unscathed and appear to prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” Jer. 12: 1

 Do you ever ask yourself that?  Why me?

 God’s answer was simply, “Buckle up, Jeremiah, your life, as a prophet of my truth, has yet to see my nature revealed!  I have the plan…albeit, a longsuffering one…I am forever looking for repentance and a yieldedness to My will, unlike the rebellious and defiant ones.” (Paraphrased)

 Our Challenge:

  “If we falter in times of trouble,

 how small is our strength!”

Prov. 10:24

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "...Got Purpose?"

So often we think to be successful we need a sense that we are getting more out of life…more me time, vacation time, more quality time with our children, more opportunities to develop a more mature relationship with our husbands, more exercise, less weight…”It’s all about me!” 

 We are blinded by schedules and activities (work, practices, meets, tournaments, tutors, recitals, award ceremonies and more).  We moms live in a maze of taxi driving (pick-ups and drop-offs), carpools, careers, pickle-ball, parties, sleep-overs, play-dates, fears and circumstances that keep us from seeing the clarity of our designed purpose.  We are forever seeking balance…

This is the opposite of what God envisions for us.  We are to live life with a due sense of responsibility…not as(women) who do not know the meaning and purpose of life, but those who do…making the best use of our time, despite all the evil of these days…not being vague but grasping firmly what we know to be the will of God.  Eph. 5: 15-17

 True success in life is measuring what we are by what we could be (always seeking His purpose and meaning in life) and what we have done by what we could have done (by His grace).  “Faithful is He who called you who will also do it (is we get out of the way, relinquish our self will and yield to His!).  It is achieving the full potential God planned for us.  We are destined with His purpose on our life…”It’s not about me!” Col. 1: 28,2

 Are we focused on what God is focused on or are we hastily and thoughtlessly doing our own thing…running through life?  If we have not realized our life purpose and set eternal goals, our present priorities to reach that goal are short-sighted and superfluous!  Our focus is blurred by the demands of the immediate on the altar of the permanent.

 When I was a young Christian, I was challenged by Betty Stams Declaration of Purpose.  She was a missionary to China and was martyred by the Communists in 1949.

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes and accept Your will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to You, to be yours forever.  Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit.  Use me as You will, send me where You will, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.”

 While at Bible School, I stapled that statement inside the flap of my Bible and it is still there today…a reminder of my commitment to my God, who gave His All for me, to die daily.  “If anyone would come after me (Christ), he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9: 23

 Taken from Philippians 1: 21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die (to my will, rights, ambitions, entitlements…) is gain…”  This has carried me through life and has been my comfort while serving in the jungles of Panama until this day…

 Where is your heart?

What is your Declaration of Purpose?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "What Does Your Future Hold?"

Life had become routine in the Darien jungles of Panama. The sounds of Howler monkeys, the screeching of magnificent multicolored parrots and the beauty of the bright colored Toucan had become commonplace.  One morning we woke up to find two little spider monkeys on the front porch crawling on the girls’ bikes!

I still could not reconcile with the colossal hairy spiders, the over-sized scorpions, the copious species of slithering snakes, the blood-sucking vampire bats or the jungle army ants!  Nor would I ever find harmony with the dripping humidity and the ever-present roaches, chiggers and mosquitos!  However, I did learn to appreciate the large Iguanas for their tasty eggs.

 Daily, the Kuna’s would greet us, early, looking for sugar or oil and a morning visit.  We had become part of the community and they had begun to accept us.  We had brought healing medicine, oil, and sugar after all!

 The Indians had, somewhere along the line, become part of our family and we had become attached to them and their way of life.  We had learned so much from them and were amazed at their physical strength compared to their small stature.  Their ability to take one bullet and return with a deer or two bullets and return with two deer was uncanny.  We, also, learned much from their survival skills in the dense jungle.  But their openness to listen to the truth of God’s Word after a year and a half of total mistrust and resistance was the most astounding of all! 

 Watching the young mothers with their babies and the respect and trust these women had for the older women in the village was heart-warming  We had grown to love these very special people and had developed a mutually fulfilling relationship.  As they came to know Christ, our hearts were full of gratitude for the privilege of serving the King in such a rugged and remote region.

 The women swept the village once a week during dry season and it was an opportunity for Sue Gunsteen and I to listen to the women chatter and hear the community gossip.  You didn’t want to miss the sweeping because you would then become the object of their conversation that day!  

 However, I was consistently on guard because of something my Uncle, an orthopedic surgeon, had told me while he was visiting us at Language School.  He spoke quietly: “Jackie, you carry the TB germ from your mother at birth; it lays dormant now but could activate in the right environment or as you get older”.  I was 25 at the time, so I only had to focus on the environmental issue, I thought to myself!  Then, a year or so later, during a Congreso meeting, we knew we had reached a level of tribal acceptance when they offered us a gourd filled with “Chicha” and everyone drank from that one rustic cup!  Needless to say, I did not want to offend by NOT drinking from it! 

 But for me the sweeping and the common drinking gourd became an act of faith because the sweeping stirred up the tuberculosis germs that blew in the village and of course, the tubercular women would contaminate that cup!

 The Lord had given me a promise while we were in missionary training. 

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans

to give you a hope and future”.   Jer.29: 11

 The Lord used these powerful words of promise to banish my fear and sustain me as we swept the village, drank the “sugar cane-sweetened platano (cooking banana) drink” and treated the TB patients in their homes and the clinic. 

 HE knew my future and had it planned. There was, therefore, no reason to be troubled.  My focus was not on my fear but the need to keep in harmony with Him, His assignment and His will.

 Are you ever preoccupied with the future

and what it holds for your life?

 In a world full of uncertainties, it is easy to “roll into” the pattern of helping God design your future, rather than simply submitting to Him and His plan that comes with assurance and hope!

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Imperceptibles!"

There is a group of people that are basically

imperceptible in our culture…

 Do you know who they are?

“Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long-life bring understanding?” Job 12: 12

 Regardless of our involvement in the lives of our children and grandchildren, they reach an age of development (if we have done our job) where their need for us lessens.  They now have their own friends and activities that occupy the time that was once ours!  Life is a whirlwind of academics, team sports, community outreach, horses, piano lessons, theater and musical practices and performances, tennis coaches and tournaments, swim practices and meets, church youth group activities, bible studies, revivals, camps, mission  trips, etc.…!

 Finally, one day… they get drivers licenses, go to college and… get married!

 Keeping pace with all of this is a tremendous challenge…for all of us!  I am a grandmother of seven; my mother, at 101, was a great-grandmother of 25 great-grandchildren! She lived on her own, cared for herself and was alert with a memory that would put an elephant to shame!  She gave new meaning to the verse in Job 12.  There are very few topics that have applicability to our everyday life, that if asked, she could not wisely put in perspective, yet she often felt invisible and spoke of her sense of loneliness and need to keep relevant.

Christina, my eldest daughter, Mom (100 years old) and I

 I have thought about her statement and Job’s proclamation and wondered why in our 21st century culture the advanced in age feel they are being set to one side, listened to less and invisible in a large group of the younger generation.  

 These vital soldiers have earned their place among those that should be the most honored, respected and valuable in our culture. Titus 2: 3-5 admonishes “the older women to be reverent in the way they live and to train the younger...”  There is so much to be gleaned from these seasoned veterans that have gone before us, paving the way.  We will quickly step into the print they have left behind!

 Our local churches defer to the younger generation. The young fill the jobs in women’s ministry and teach the even younger.  They no longer turn to the older generation.  They have been replaced with quick and empty answers found in the latest technology, social media and their peers.

 BUT…“Is not wisdom found among THE AGED”?

 While in Panama, our good friends, the Jenkins, a couple with perfect pitch and harmony, put this definition below to music.  I have been humming it for years and sing it out loud when my natural inclination to think “I’m all that!” overrides what Scripture says should be my godly point of view!

 Reverence is acknowledging that God is using in my life,

people and events to produce the character of Christ in me”. (Gothard)

It is wisely looking at life’s situations (all of them!) from God’s point of view, not my own.

 THEN… the warning:

 Soooo… be wise my son (daughter), heed my instruction (instantly placing myself in harmony with Him and His will and directives), leave that road that leads to destruction, hallow my name don’t walk in shame…Proverbs 23: 17,18

 I want to be a wise mom, wife, grandma and whomever else I am purposed to be.  That means I am commissioned to look at all of life’s situations from God’s point of view and get out of His way. There is no way I can produce reverence and wisdom apart from Him.  He uses the people and events in my life to produce His character in me!  My job is to wisely yield all circumstances with a grateful heart, regardless of how it looks, seems or feels to me.  He knows what He is doing…It’s His plan…

The reward is Wisdom!

 Will you join me in applying reverence

to your life this coming year?

 It’s a win…win.

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.