The Loft Link-Up

The Loft Link-Up [Hope…]

January 21, 2016 1:47 PM 8

It has been a while, too long actually, since I was able to join you Loft Link-Up bloggers. My word for 2016 is “LESS” and part of the less I am lessening involves less social media. I don’t include blogging as part of the less! Bloggers are writers, special folks, and I am proud to be one of y’all. The word HOPE resonated with me this morning, and I really wanted to share the reason for my HOPE! And I dearly love my friend and women’s ministry partner, Leah Adams!

Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

Years ago I attended a Women of Faith event in Atlanta, GA and I heard Thelma Wells speak. Her theme was HOPE. She said something that has stayed with me all these years. Her statement was “GIRL, YOU BETTER GET YOUR HOPES UP!” This is the opposite of what we usually hear…don’t get your hopes up. The big difference is location, location, location! Where do you place your hope! Taken from the old hymn THE SOLID ROCK, I can confidently say “my hope is built on nothing less that Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

About seven years ago our family went through a season where our hope was deferred over and over again. It involved my oldest son and his wife in their heartfelt desire to become parents. After several years of infertility, they had decided to adopt a child and within weeks discovered they would be the parents of triplets, two boys and a girl. After several months and the discovery of a scam, all hope was deferred. But within one day, ONE DAY, my daughter-in-law discovered she was pregnant. You can read the story on my blog at the link below.

What A Difference A Day Makes

The Tree of Life from the second part of Proverbs 13:12 is found in the three beautiful children my son and his wife now have, from three healthy, wonderful pregnancies. And yes, they have two boys and a girl. HOPE FULFILLED by the power of God and answered prayers. So my friends I want to encourage you today. Get your hopes UP – but keep your hope in HIM. The only One who can bring that peace, that Tree of Life, that dream to you.

HOPE HAS A NAME! Jesus.
My Hope is in Him,

Jan

January 21, 2016 1:47 PM 8

The Loft Link-Up [Potluck…]

July 8, 2015 2:39 PM 4

I’ve been away from “THE LOFT” for two weeks and I’ve missed this weekly connection with new friends and certainly my friend Leah Adams. However, I thoroughly enjoyed some time away from my office and all things electronic and media – but I’m glad to be back today with this Potluck topic.

My dictionary app defines potluck as “a food or a meal that happens to be available without special preparation or purchase; a meal especially for a large group to which participants bring various foods to share; whatever is available or comes one’s way.”

To me, the word Potluck brings to mind memories of 38 years as a pastor’s wife and many, many, many (did I say many?) covered dish lunches, suppers, and fellowship times around the table. I believe meal time is so important and something sadly missing in today’s families. A time to relax, connect, and share conversation. When I was growing up we didn’t eat on the run, or really even eat “out” very often. Most families ate at home…together. Some of my sweetest memories surround being in the kitchen with my mother and my sisters. Although I do recall many squabbles with whose turn it was to wash the dishes and whose turn it was to dry! Gotta love being raised in a house full of sisters. To this day one of my favorite times is when both of my boys have their feet back under their mama’s table! So for our potluck gathering today at The Loft I am going to literally share a potluck with you – some of my favorite recipes. Click on the title link below for each one and I hope you will try one, or some, or all of them. I will tell you that the meatloaf recipe receives more “hits” than any on my blog! So fun!

Icebox Banana Pudding

Morton Meatloaf – Delicious!

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Jalepeno Cornbread Muffins

Southern Tomato Sandwich 🙂

Peach Cobbler!

Quick & Easy Lasagna

Buttermilk Biscuits

Happy Potluck! It’s Wednesday, how about that? Many churches have potluck suppers on Wednesday night!

July 8, 2015 2:39 PM 4

The Loft Link-Up [Picture Prompt…]

June 18, 2015 11:38 AM 12

How fun to have a picture prompt for our writing assignment for The Loft Linkup this week! Especially when these hay bales are tugging at my heart as they remind me of my father…and of course, it’s also Father’s Day Weekend.

When we moved to the Morton Farm eight years ago one of the things my dad was most excited about was a 25 acre field of coastal Bermuda hay that was already there. Of course it needed some care and fertilizer and so that’s what he began to do. It now feeds the cows that have been added and dad also sells it to farmers and horse owners around our county. Here is dad on his BIG JOHN DEERE tractor, the hay barn full of baled hay, and the cows getting a fresh bale in the hay ring. So this lovely prompt of the peaceful hay bales reminds me of my dad. He celebrated his 81st birthday this past April. He is active and healthy (slowing down some, yes), a career Marine (still a Marine), and a great daddy to me and my 3 little sisters growing up. He also has 7 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren that call him Papaw. I dedicated a post to him when he celebrated his 79th birthday in 2013 because we almost lost him a few months earlier due to a serious pneumonia and 52-day hospital stay. But he rallied and as he prayed recently over a family meal “Lord, I know I’m really not supposed to be here, but I thank you…”

I say thank you too for a father who I’ve always looked up to and respected.

June 18, 2015 11:38 AM 12

The Loft Link-Up [The Place I Call Home…]

June 12, 2015 1:08 PM 5

This week over on THE LOFT LINKUP at Leah’s Blog our writing assignment is “The Place I Call Home.” I love this topic and claim it joyfully because I am such a homebody. Even as a little girl I wasn’t one to easily spend the night with friends. I love home!

So…HOME is one of my favorite words. I really am a homebody. The dictionary defines me as “a person who prefers pleasures that center around the home; stay-at-home.” That’s me! I have a small TV in my sewing space/happy place that I enjoy. The 1970s series The Waltons airs on the Hallmark Channel in the evenings. That’s when I can usually be found sewing as I also work outside the home during the day. The other night Grandpa Walton said “home is one of the sweetest words there is!” I heartily agree with Grandpa.

This week at The Loft is especially timely to me because my husband and I moved “home” eight years ago to the day. We moved in with my parents on our 30th wedding anniversary, June 11, 2007. So I came back home 30 years to the day I left home…on my wedding day, June 11, 1977. We moved in with them while our new home was being built right across the pasture from them. We all bought land together 8 years ago. So yes, yesterday we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary.

Last night my husband and I went out for dinner for our anniversary to a place called The Carriage House, a restaurant that is in an old home 🙂 out in the country not far from where we live. While there we talked about the different homes and apartments we’ve lived in since we set up housekeeping 38 years ago. We built our country home 8 years ago, and we plan to retire in this home, “Lord willing,” as my Granny Maloy always said (James 4:15). I stopped and took this picture with my iPhone as I pulled out of our driveway this morning…Growing up in a military family I moved many times in my childhood. In fact, I had attended 10 different schools in 12 years by the time I graduated. But my sweet mother always made every home a real home for me and my sisters. She and my Marine Corps father always made sure we girls had our bedrooms set up first…then came the kitchen, which is the heart of my home to this day. So my training for making a house a home is special to me. When I married a minister man 🙂 back in 1977 I figured my moving days would begin again, but it hasn’t been that way. In 38 years of marriage and ministry we’ve served three churches and we’ve been home at Second Baptist, our “Second Family” for 27 years now. That is one of the greatest joys of our lives, raising our boys in one church, one town, one home.

When we moved to the farm eight years ago our whole priority in the move centered around family. A place where we could be near my aging parents (who are active and healthy still) and a place where our boys and their wives could come “home.” Since then, 5 precious grandchildren have been added to our family. They love to come to the farm. We pick blueberries, we fish in the pond, we ride the John Deere Gator around, we rip and run in the fields. We bird watch and we animal watch. We just “be.” It’s our homeplace. Ministry and working are great blessings and are also exhausting at times. Home is our place to center ourselves, to rest, rejuvenate and recover.

I am so happy to share my homeplace “Three Willows Farm,” (named after the 3 big Weeping Willow trees at the pond) with you. The best way I can do that is to give you a little tour through pictures. Thank you for stopping in, and welcome to our home. You will drive down the lane of Willow Oaks and if you turn left you will come to our home and turning right will take you to my parents. They would welcome you too!We could visit my garden and then sit on the back patio to enjoy the blooming Confederate Star Jasmine. Or we could sit in a rocking chair on the front porch, or on the swing by the pond’s firepit. We have lots and lots of choices for sitting places around the farm because we enjoy sitting and talking and sharing and drinking a glass of tea. Farms and cows go together and so do farms and grandkids. We’ve got plenty of each and we’re thankful, most especially for the grandkids of course!The pond is a great place to gather to sit and think, pray, and fish! Lots of family time is spent at the pond, especially around the firepit in the evenings.

Another happy place is our big old country kitchen. This girl loves to cook and loves to feed folks! Here we are gathered around the table and around the Christmas tree…Home for me the past 38 years and 1 day has been where this man is! He’s led our home and loved our home and taken care of our home and I’m a blessed woman. As believers in Christ we know that God’s Word teaches us from 2 Corinthians 5:1 that “the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Old songs also speak of our heavenly homes, “this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through…” and newer songs do the same “All I know is I’m not home yet, this is not where I belong…” I sang a song with our choir for many years entitled “I just call it home,” and it was all about heaven. The chorus was so beautiful and true:

Some call it heaven, where life will not cease.
Some call it paradise, a land of sweet peace.
Some call it glory, with eyes on the throne,
But I’m longing for Jesus, so I just call it home.

I’m ready for that great homecoming! Thank you all for stopping by today.

June 12, 2015 1:08 PM 5

The Loft Link-Up [I Am…]

June 4, 2015 3:41 PM 20

I am joining in a weekly link-up with my friend LEAH ADAMS called “The Loft” and am really looking forward to this. Topics are assigned and you write and share. This appeals to the student and life-long learner in me. This week’s assignment is a sort of introduction, hence “I am…”

I am Jan, a woman of faith in Jesus Christ…a seasoned woman. Seasoned is a sweet way to say I am older. Born in 1957 – age 57! [I love that number alignment that won’t come around again.] I am a woman of many roles, but I first want to say this – I am a woman who knows THE GREAT I AM. Here is a link to MY STORY! I am a wife, a pastor’s wife ~ I have been married for 38 years to my high school sweetheart Gary. He is such a fine man and we are still in love. I respect him so much. He has been a worship pastor and in ministry for over 40 years. In fact we first met at a country church and I was only 16 years old. He was leading the choir and congregation that long ago Sunday, and we caught each other’s eye even then.I am a mom ~ I have two grown sons and they have brought me more joy than I ever dreamed. Raising them has been my life’s privilege. My oldest is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Cartersville, Georgia. My youngest works as a program manager involving something with the F-15 and the B-1 planes (I’m really not sure – it’s technical) for the United States Air Force (he is a civilian). They both love what they do and I’m so proud of them. They love their mama too. (Oldest on right below, youngest on left.)I am a mother-in-law ~ My boys married two classy girls and they are precious to me. They love my boys and take care of their homes and children. They are tall and beautiful and gifts of God to our family, both of them are answers to many prayers for my boys. (Blonde is married to my oldest, brunette is married to my youngest.)I AM GRAN JAN ~ I had to put that in all caps because…5 grandchildren! Ain’t nothing like it. The inspiration for my blog, the JOYS of my heart! They are ages 6½, 5, 5, 2½, and 1½. To me, grandchildren are God’s best “do-over” and I am smitten with every single one of them.I am a daughter/daughter-in-law/sister/sister-in-law/aunt/niece/cousin ~ My parents live next door and are in good health. I cherish all my people. This is my family of origin, I’m the oldest of 4 sisters. One is in heaven. I am an employee ~ I have a good job working as the Administrative Assistant to our local School Superintendent. I can retire in less than 2 ½ years and I’m longing for that season, but aim not to miss anything in my current season. I am a simple woman. I don’t think I’m even high maintenance (whatever that means). I really love to be home, puttering in my garden, working on a quilt in my sewing room, reading a book, sitting in the swing by our pond, or cooking a meal. I love to sing in my church’s choir, teach the Bible and plan women’s ministry events. I’m healthy and strong and I really do “shout for joy at the work of His Hands.” I love the night sky, full moons, and God’s glorious creation. When I found that dove nesting in my River Birch tree this past weekend…I was recently a guest writer/contributor on Beth Moore’s blog a few months ago as part of a Scripture Memory Team. My post there tells some more about who I AM and the SEASONS OF LIFE. I am looking forward to meeting others in The Loft.