Category Archives: Family

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Cement Pond

If you ever watched the Beverly Hillbillies, you probably remember Granny talking about the “cement pond”. The “pond” was a beautiful clear blue pool that was the setting of many of their adventures. When we bought our house it too had a “cement pond”. The problem with ours is that it looked like a real pond or swamp. The first time we looked in it we could see about six inches deep and it had swimming critters in it! It had sat for two years with nothing done. It had been covered at one time, but the cover had disintegrated and now some floated and some had sank. Water weights had held it down and a few remained on the surface, but others had fallen in and submerged or partially floated. When we removed the first water weight from the pool after being half submerged, something jumped at us and I screamed! We eventually got a pump and began to remove the algae and critter infested water. AS we got to the bottom, sludge remained and had to be shoveled out. We pressure washed the surfaces then had an acid wash applied to rid it of any bacteria or infestation. Then we sealed the pool with a coating. (the sealant was $200 per gallon so it must be liquid gold)

The sealant left the pool clean white and was ready for the top coat of paint. You will never see the sealant we used because it was covered the next day with a beautiful blue top coat, but it plays a valuable roll. It sealed the pool from any minor cracks and it smoothed the rough surface of the concrete. The liquid sealant protects from moisture getting into the pool wall as well.poolafter

In our spiritual lives we have a seal as well. He is called the Holy Spirit. He is described in detail in John chapter 14. He was given when Jesus was taken into heaven, and He comes into the heart of believers at the point of salvation. He is also described as The Helper, Guide, and He leads us into all Truth. He only speaks what He hears from the Father. Ephesians tells us we are sealed with the Spirit until the day of redemption when Jesus comes back to take those who believe home to be with Him. Wow! That is encouraging. No matter what comes in our world we can know His abiding presence! Just like the pool, He seals all our cracked and broken places and prepares us for what is ahead. He comforts, directs, encourages and so much more. We will never see the Holy Spirit in person just as you will not see the sealant for the pool, but you can definitely see the affect He has. The affects are found in Galatians 5:22-23. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The more we listen to the Spirit’s guidance and choose to follow His instruction the more we will see the effects of the Spirit on our life.

In the near future we will fill the pool with fresh water and we too will have a beautiful “cement pond”. It will be safe from minor cracks and will be smoother on tender feet. Best of all it will not have critters!

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Give and Take

“I AM NOT HAPPY!” That is how my text to Les began.

I had rearranged my entire schedule, driven back from another state, stayed by the phone expecting a call from the man who was delivering the very storage units that I had told Les from day one I did not want! (I am smiling about it now)

When Les and our contractor determined we would need some type of storage to hold supplies as we makeover the house they determined a steel container would be the best thing. I had already told Les that the one thing I did not want was a big box in my front yard that looked like it fell off of a rail car.

I did not want the neighbors to immediately think we were “That Family” who doesn’t care about their property or the property of their neighbors. Les and our contractor proceeded to convince me of all of the benefits of the very storage containers I said I did not want. They sold me by saying we could convert them (yes 2 of them) into a barn with a roof and a place for the horses to run into. So, I caved knowing at least they would be to the back of the property and out of sight.

You can imagine my horror when I drove out to the house to hang out and wait on the delivery since I had not been called. As I drove up to the drive, the delivery man was preparing to exit my drive having delivered the two storage containers.

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He had dropped them right in front of the house beside the drive! I stopped my car in the middle of the road preventing his exit and turned on the flashers. I stomped right up to the delivery man’s door and said “This Will Not Work!” I was pointing to the horrid boxes bearing the name of a foreign company. My next statement was “Why didn’t you call? I have been waiting all day.”

Immediately the driver realized he was not dealing with a rational woman and he did his best to find some answers. He said “I did call your contractor and he said to leave them here and he would move them to the back in a few days.”

I eyed the containers weighing a ton each and decided it was too late to fix the problem and I could not lift them. I was hotter than the summer heat! I moved my car allowing the driver to leave and fired off the pictures and my “note” to my sweet husband.

He responded with “I will call you.” After a conversation and his allowing me to rant he got in touch with the contractor who got in touch with the right people and before the sun set the containers were moved to the back.

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You may wonder why I share this story. It is because I want you to know that Les and I are far from perfect people who face real struggles just like you. We love each other beyond words, but we don’t always agree. We have learned over the years to respect each other and to give and take when necessary, remembering to always try to honor the Lord and do what is best for our relationship and our family.

Sometimes that means one of us yields our desires so that the best can happen. Marriage can be hard, but the end result is that we want our marriage to represent Christ and the church.

That means:

*love is evident,

*pride is lost,

*humility reigns,

*and our first thought is for others not ourselves.

The further we go with this house I pray that our attitudes toward each other and toward the Lord’s priority in our lives is evident. That is why we chose the theme, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” Psalm 127:1

We covet your prayers, and we encourage you to invite others to share in this with us as we all build this house together with God as our lead contractor. I also encourage you to think about the truths we just shared and if they are not evident in your relationships pray about making them priority.

May the house and our relationships be built for His glory be used to make His name great for years to come.

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Unless the Lord Builds the House

Psalm 127:1 “Unless The Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.”

We are beginning an adventure we have never tried before. About three months ago a friend called and said, “I’ve found it.” He knew we were thinking to move back to the Birmingham area and were looking for a great house with about 5 acres of land. We also wanted a pool but knew that would be the whipped cream with a cherry on top. The biggest struggle was going to be that we needed all of that at a really low price. Our friend said we may could get some of that but it would take time.
We were raising a questioning eye brow when a few days later his text appeared. We set an appointment to see the house. To say it was a diamond in the rough would be a gross understatement!

It had a firm foundation, but the roof leaked and had caused some of the ceiling to come down. It had not been lived in for about 2 years and the once manicured yard looked more like a snake breeding ground. The pool side area was overgrown with weeds, vines of poison ivy, small trees, and the pool brimmed with growing things, algae, and frogs. As if these challenges were not enough, the inside had at least 2 rooms with Chinese sheetrock. That was like speaking a foreign language to us. Upon further study we found this sheetrock was used during the housing boom in 2004 to 2008 when the supply of sheetrock here in the US was limited. Katrina had just hit and especially the southern states were desperate for sheetrock. In their haste to come up with product, companies began to purchase sheetrock made in China. Unknown to them the sheetrock had been produced next to a sulfur mine. The sheetrock absorbed trace amounts of the sulfur. When placed into a home or building it emitted sulfuric gas. It affects all wiring, corrodes any copper, and can make people very sick. The house had been foreclosed on and could not be sold for fair market price because of the Chinese drywall. Our friend suggested we offer a low bid and see if the bank would take it. That would allow us to make the needed renovations and still stay within our budget. We went home praying and decided to make the offer. We knew that in order to get the house we would need to sell our home in Louisville, Kentucky so we made an appointment with a realtor. We place our house on the market and the next day it sold for much more than our asking price. Wow!!! We felt like that was God reminding us He had this! A month later we moved…well actually we packed all of our possessions and stored them to be retrieved when the house was ready. We expected God to act quickly since the house sold with haste, but that is were our story took some turns!

We have set up our house keeping at the home of our friend Cindy. She has been gracious to let us use her garage and a bed for when we are not traveling. God has been so good to keep us busy during our Meanwhile. For more than a month the bank gave no answer telling us they were moving forward, but with no decision. After two months and a few days we finally got a contract!!!!! The next step was financing and can I just say that is a MAZE OF CHAOS!!! It is all about having the right forms completed, having all the information and documentation. Because the bank had takes so long our first approval was no longer applicable so we had to complete the process again. It has certainly been a test of perseverance! But… the good news is this week we were approved and now we wait for a closing date.
God had already taught us so much during this process. Here are some of our lessons:
God has taught us to pray with open hands
Instead of holding on to this specific house we have prayed asking God, “If this is not the house you want us to have, we want Your Will more than this house.” Just because we want something doesn’t always make it His will. We knew if it wasn’t the right one, another would come along. Praying with our hands open instead of clinging to our wants, plans, and ways allowed us to receive God’s best for us.
God’s timing is perfect
Because we had to wait, interest rates had fallen!!! The company who will end of up financing the house allowed us to borrow the money for the house but also the improvements that will be made. That was huge!!! God has been so good!
God taught us to praise Him no matter what
The best lesson was to praise Him no matter what. The temptation through this process has been to worry. There are so many challenges and concerns that try to captivate our minds. In
2 Chronicles 20 God told His people to march out in praise because the battle was His. They saw a mighty route of an enemy army that day as they marched in obedience. We too marched in praise. We thanked God for what would be. Les even marched around the house seven times as he prayed and ended with a shout. He will have to write more about that. We have believed and praised God for who He is, His concern for us and our well being. Our praises have gone from the smallest thing to the largest. As we praised, the practice taught us that He was the treasure and in the end, if this house come to be ours it would be the bonus.
I have gotten long and we will write more about these later. Thank you for joining this journey. He is building so much more than a physical house. He is building us into a place for His glory to rest!

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Water on the Altar: This was written by my spouse, Dr. Les Hughes

 

Anne Graham Lotz is the daughter of Evangelist Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth. She also is a gifted speaker and Bible teacher. God has used Anne many times to speak to me personally. That was the case when I heard her use the phrase, “water on the altar.”

The phrase comes from an account in the Old Testament when  Elijah challenged the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. The gist of the story is that Elijah, the prophet of God, called out 450 false prophets of Baal. Baal was  an object of idolatry. Elijah told the false prophets to prepare a sacrifice to place upon an altar. He would do the same. Then they were to call upon their god to send fire to consume their altar. Elijah would do the same; and whichever god answered by fire was the true God. Two altars were built–one for God and one for Baal. Elijah challenged the false prophets to select a bull to sacrifice to their god. They were to cut the sacrifice into pieces and place the pieces on the altar, but they weren’t to set fire to it yet. Elijah told them to call on Baal to send fire and consume the sacrifice on the altar. So they began to call upon Baal to send the fire. They called out to him from morning until noon, but nothing happened. They continued to beg Baal until well into the afternoon, but the heavens were silent. Finally, Elijah said, “Enough.”

Then it was Elijah’s turn. Just as the false prophets had done, Elijah selected a bull for the sacrifice and had it killed. Bulls were cut into pieces and placed on the altars. Then Elijah gave orders to dig a huge trench around each altar. He instructed the people to pour water over the altar, which was interesting, especially since there had been no rain in the land for three and a half years. I can’t imagine what must have gone through the minds of the people as they witnessed the apparent waste of such a precious resource, but the water flowed anyway. Finally, the sacrifice was soaked, the wood was soaked, the stones were soaked, and water filled the trench?

“Elijah made the burning of the altar humanly impossible. If God didn’t send down the fire, that thing was never going to catch fire. He wanted all the glory going to God, so when the fire came down, everybody would know it was the Lord.”

If you’re like me, you don’t understand a great deal about the ways of God. Sometimes it seems to me that he makes things very hard that He could make easy if He chose to. But instead of becoming frustrated and grumbling against God or making excuses for why didn’t achieve something or accomplish something significant, what if we considered those challenges water on the altar? Think about how that might change your perspective.

What types of water has God poured on the altar of your life? Physical limitations? Introversion? A dysfunctional family? Allow the water to flow. When God sends down His fire from heaven and does something supernatural in your life He’ll be glorified, because you couldn’t have done it on your own. You were all wet.

If you’d like to see a real-life example of someone who saw a major physical challenge as water on the altar of her life, watch the movie Soul Surfer, which is based on the life of Bethany Hamilton. You may also listen to some of her talks on Youtube.

What are some examples of water on the altar in your life? I’d like to hear them.

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The Changing Seasons of Life

Caleb Hughes: our second son

Tears seem to be at the edge of my eyes these days as the seasons of my life prepare to change again. Today at the table Caleb said, “I have been at Westwood for 10 years and 8 months. It was hard knowing today was my last day there for some time.” As the words left his lips, the tears left my eyes. Caleb is the second of our children to leave home, and I am probably more sensitive this time knowing how our oldest has not come home since moving away. This time I know what is coming. This time when I say goodnight I know it will be one of the last times he will have his things in our home and truly call this home.

I know the truth is I really do want him to grow up and leave home to become the man god wants him to become, but this mama’s heart is breaking knowing the new season has come and God has much more in store for both of us.