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Girl Meets God

    by Melissa Mathews

December 19, 2010

On July 29th several years ago, the Mathews family went to Baskin Robbins (or the Big BR, as my dad would call it) to celebrate our oldest son's birthday. When the ice cream was almost gone, we remembered to sing: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…" I was choking up and couldn't finish the song because I realized other people in the restaurant were singing along with us.

It reminded me of that painful, sweet, and surreal night when Max was born. I had experienced this same feeling, but for the very first time.

I don't remember the exact sequence…  ( Click for more )

August 29, 2010

“Crisis always reveals character.”

Oswald Chambers

It feels like God is scrubbing on the stove top of my life. Back and forth, up and down, the steel wool moves. (Your stovetop might only need a spritz of cleaner and a paper towel). Then the steel moves in circles-- scrubbing, ungriming, and creating friction. Agh, I can’t stand it, but the pressure keeps coming—unhappy people, hard decisions, pleasant tasks mixed in with unpleasant ones, self-denial. Aghh, again!! I just want things to be easy!!!

But I’m beginning to recognize that with…  ( Click for more )

Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there. --Elizabeth Elliot

"How are we looking this month?" Scott said one Saturday in August (2005) on our way home from my sister's house.

"Not good," I said.

We had just come out of summer- the first summer I hadn't worked in several years. I had resigned my SermonCentral.com job in Spring, and in May, Scott hired someone to take my place as worship leader for our church plant.

"The ends aren't going to meet this month."

"Ughhh." He groaned.

We had…  ( Click for more )

July 4, 2010

"Winola! Winola!"

What a strange name I thought.

"WINola! WINOLA!!"

And why was the nurse saying her name so loudly?

Mom and I were walking from Mamaw's room to Papaw's room at the assisted living home where they had only been living for a few months.

"WINOLA! Wake up Winola! Come on honey, WAKE UP."

It was almost time for dinner, but I couldn't imagine dinner being this urgent. We were passing Winola's room, and looked at each other with that strange look you have when you've just figured something out, but hope you're wrong.…  ( Click for more )

Some stories of faith are flash-in-the-pan, over-night wonders. Most of them are not.

My Papaw Bell’s story of faith is one that took years and years of plowing fields and walking levees for its full measure of fruit to be borne.

Roger Bell, my grandfather (or “papaw” as we Southerners say) had a life that was sometimes unpleasant, and often unfair. He’s was the first son of his father, Oscar Bell. Back in the day of shot-gun weddings, my papaw’s conception was the cause of one. Oscar got Mae pregnant and was forced to marry her. The final…  ( Click for more )

O Lord, that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness. William Shakespeare

Several years ago, I was visiting a friend, and we were shopping. My friend Julie, a true wardrobe genius, was trying to help me put a few outfits together after too many years of saying "when I lose weight, I'll go shopping."

We had just pulled into the parking lot of our 3or 4th store. "Melissa, I've finally gotten everything I want, and I'm bored," she said.

I hope my eyebrows didn't go up too far. With a fresh satisfaction in her voice, she went…  ( Click for more )

As I looked across the table at my oldest son Max, he put a smile on his red-freckled face. It was Friday evening. I had had the worst day of school on record and wasn't about to cook, so we were on the patio of a Mexican restaurant along the banks of the Sacramento River.

I don't remember what we were talking about, but something had made Max smile. And when he did, I couldn't help but notice the dimple high on his left check. When he laughs it gets deep, then it blends back in with the reddish-brown spots that make him look like my child.

He only has the one dimple, because…  ( Click for more )

April 11, 2010

One poor son in our home had been stuck cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms way too long, so we re-assigned chores at our house this month.

It would be nice if children came with innate knowledge of proper chore procedure, but they don't. Being the excellent parents that we are, we usually wait until they mess up, then we give them the instruction they should have had before they started the job. Grant and I spent 3 hours last month taking apart the vacuum because one son (who will go unnamed) didn't know that vacuums don't like water.

So last week, as I walked past the…  ( Click for more )

"But I entreat those who believe in ...God, whoever deigns to ...receive this document composed by the obviously unlearned sinner Patrick in Ireland, that nobody shall ever ascribe to my ignorance any trivial thing that I achieved... that was pleasing to God...accept...that it would have been the gift of God. And this is my confession before I die." -Saint Patrick

This coming Wednesday, March 17th, people will celebrate a man they know not of. If they really knew anything about St. Patrick, they might not celebrate in such raucous ways, though the influence…  ( Click for more )

February 21, 2010

"…It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." --Isaac D'Israeli, 1834

jjjj kkkk llll ;;;; ffff dddd ssss aaaa

I'm not that old, but the school I graduated from was so small (and underfinanced) that we learned to type on manual typewriters—the kind where you develop muscles in your fingers that you didn't know you had--the kind of typewriter where you pushed a silver bar to "return" the carriage to the beginning of the next line. Mrs. McKinney wouldn't let us use the four electric typewriters…  ( Click for more )

January 17, 2010

There’s something about the end that makes one look forward to the beginning-- maybe because the end, even a good end, is often difficult.

As I sat at my desk Friday afternoon, the Friday before Christmas and the last day of the semester, I stared at my computer screen hoping to get all my grades entered by the 3:30 deadline. I was at the end of a mental marathon: I had collected a stack of research papers, spent a week studying for a test, spent a whole Saturday taking the test, spent 30 hours (outside of class time) grading the research papers, handed back the research…  ( Click for more )

January 10, 2010

There’s something about the end that makes one look forward to the beginning-- maybe because the end, even a good end, is often difficult.

As I sat at my desk Friday afternoon, the Friday before Christmas and the last day of the semester, I stared at my computer screen hoping to get all my grades entered by the 3:30 deadline. I was at the end of a mental marathon: I had collected a stack of research papers, spent a week studying for a test, spent a whole Saturday taking the test, spent 30 hours (outside of class time) grading the research papers, handed back the…  ( Click for more )

Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there. --Elizabeth Elliot

"How are we looking this month?" Scott said one Saturday in August (2005) on our way home from my sister's house.

"Not good," I said.

We had just come out of summer- the first summer I hadn't worked in several years. I had resigned my SermonCentral.com job in Spring, and in May, Scott hired someone to take my place as worship leader for our church plant.

"The ends aren't going to meet this month."

"Ughhh." He groaned.

We had…  ( Click for more )

October 4, 2009

The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power... and you will be changed into a different person." 1 Samuel 10:6

I'm staring out the window of a plane, and still can't believe my eyes. I've done this many times before, but it still seems physically impossible. How does something that weighs this much get up in the air. Who thought of this? (It's a rhetorical question. I do know who thought of it.) There is something oddly surreal about sitting in a comfortable chair and looking down at bright, puffy clouds and tiny, little houses with swimming pools. …  ( Click for more )

September 27, 2009

The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power…

and you will be changed into a different person." 1 Samuel 10:6

I'm staring out the window of a plane, and still can't believe my eyes. I've done this many times before, but it still seems physically impossible. How does something that weighs this much get up in the air. Who thought of this? (It's a rhetorical question. I do know who thought of it.) There is something oddly surreal about sitting in a comfortable chair and looking down at bright, puffy clouds and tiny, little houses with swimming pools. …  ( Click for more )

Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there. Elizabeth Elliot

As I banged the cup on the counter, I got a groan.

"Mooomm, the cuuup's not fuuull yet."

As if I didn't know that, as if that wasn't the whole purpose in me banging the cup in the first place. The 7-11Slurpee machine was running really slow and thick, and I was just trying to be helpful. (If you don't know, a Slurpee is a frozen, sticky, sweet, foamy drink.)

It's been a long process- trying to teach the boys to use the Slurpee machine correctly- and I wasn't about…  ( Click for more )

Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there. Elizabeth Elliot

As I banged the cup on the counter, I got a groan.

"Mooomm, the cuuup's not fuuull yet."

As if I didn't know that, as if that wasn't the whole purpose in me banging the cup in the first place. The 7-11Slurpee machine was running really slow and thick, and I was just trying to be helpful. (If you don't know, a Slurpee is a frozen, sticky, sweet, foamy drink.)

It's been a long process- trying to teach the boys to use the Slurpee machine correctly- and I wasn't about…  ( Click for more )

August 2, 2009

There’s this “thing” I’ve been praying for…for what seems like a million years. But when I stop to count, it’s only been five years. I’ve prayed, written it down, stressed over it, even cried a few times. At times I thought this prayer was on the brink of being answered, and then it wasn’t. A couple of times I actually thought the prayer HAD been answered, but circumstances spiraled to where what I thought was an answer was only a bridge over the crevasse of my unanswered prayer.

But tomorrow, the gap will be filled, the hole…  ( Click for more )

July 26, 2009

There’s this “thing” I’ve been praying for…for what seems like a million years. But when I stop to count, it’s only been five years. I’ve prayed, written it down, stressed over it, even cried a few times. At times I thought this prayer was on the brink of being answered, and then it wasn’t. A couple of times I actually thought the prayer HAD been answered, but circumstances spiraled to where what I thought was an answer was only a bridge over the crevasse of my unanswered prayer.

But tomorrow, the gap will be filled, the hole…  ( Click for more )

“Pick up the candy and run!” our youngest son Grant screamed at the T.V.

“Don’t leave the chocolate. Take the chocolate you stupid idiot!”

Though a bit harsh, this was the advice that Grant offered to little Charlie in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton’s 2005 movie version of Roald Dahl’s book).

It was day two of our trip home from Missouri to California-- the day we drove 15 hours. The bouncing and bickering in the backseat had called for a movie- a movie of my choosing lest they pick Rocky III and the energy…  ( Click for more )

"Great oaks grow from acorns small." "Growth takes time, and every stage of it is part of His sovereign plan." Minette Allmoslecher I'd been working for several days trying to get my new iron skillet seasoned. It was an after Christmas gift from my mom who had listened to me complain for a year that my old one was getting too small. It's amazing how complaining for a year can actually result in exactly what you want--a monstrous iron skillet big enough to cook 6 pieces of chicken all at the same time.

So now that I'd gotten what I wanted, I had…  ( Click for more )

May 3, 2009

Our children have more right to expect that we shall be model parents than we have to require that they be model children. Rev. John S.C. Abbot in The Mother At Home, 1833

My sister and I are trying to loose weight. We've been at it now for 20 some odd years. You think we would be better at it by now.

So, in our hit and miss effort, we decided one Labor Day weekend to start learning pilates (pu-lat-ees) with a video. (Pilates is a combination of ballet stretching and torture.) We moved the big, black trunk-turned-coffee-table from in front of the TV and lay down on the floor.…  ( Click for more )

March 29, 2009

"As your days, so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25

"It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." Issac D'Israeli, 1834

Several years ago, when my sister's in-laws came to California for a visit, the Perrigos and Mathews went on a hike. It wasn't just any hike. It was a 4 - mile round-trip trek with six adults (one of which needed knee replacement surgery, and 9 kids; ages 9,8, 7,6, 5,5, 5,3, and 6-months.

It was all joy when we first started. The trail was beautiful, the kids were excited, and…  ( Click for more )

March 22, 2009
By heaven we understand a state of happiness infinite in degree, and endless in duration. Benjamin Franklin

A while back, I was riding in my car and had this instant desire to see Portia Knowles. I don't know why, but I did. Portia is a wonderful girl who was in our high school youth group in Missouri. She was our first paid babysitter and the one who decorated my Christmas tree one year with handmade paper snow flakes. One fall as we were amping up for a fresh theme in youth ministry, Portia, me, and lots of other people, worked for hours to turn the church's basement gym…  ( Click for more )

March 15, 2009

"Just turn your affairs over to the Lord, and go on and do your duty." --Old Union soldier in Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage.

The Goins family (Dad, Mom, two boys, twin sister and me) lived in a great neighborhood.

We had this empty lot beside our house that had to be at least 3 acres. The boys in the neighborhood had turned it into quite a nice baseball diamond. It had a chain link backdrop, bases, and a mowed infield. The rest of the lot was a different story. Every couple of weeks this guy would come with a big bush hog and mow it. It was an…  ( Click for more )

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