She continued to surprise us with new words and phrases all day long. I have definitely noticed an improvement in clarity and flow of words since I was last home just a month ago over Thanksgiving! Praise God! AND thank you to ALL of you for your prayers! I can just feel the conversation at Christmas coming with anticipation.
As I think about the prayer that has surrounded Mom over the past 23 days I am in awe of our God. He has really taught me that if we are doing all we can, he will do the rest! I just loved sitting down at Mom's computer to write this blog. I was greeted by her workspace:
(notice the flash cards (numbers and objects), worksheets (numbers, days of the week, months, alphabet), computer program, and a binder FULL of more worksheets!)
This, just another awesome example of how diligently she is working on regaining her speech! Great work Momma!
And as Christmas is nearly upon us, I was happy to crack open my devotional for a reminder of what it all means:
Manning writes,
THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
In 1980, the day before Christmas, Richard Ballenger's mother in Anderson, South Carolina, was busy wrapping packages and asked her young son to shine her shoes. Soon, with the proud smile that only a seven-year-old can muster, he presented the shoes for inspection. His mother was so pleased that she gave him a quarter.
On Christmas morning as she put on the shoes to go to church, she noticed a lump in one shoe. She took it off and found a quarter wrapped in paper. Written on the paper in a child's scrawl were the words, "I done it for love."
When the final curtain falls, each one of us will be the sum of our choices throughout life, the sum of the appointments we kept and the appointments we didn't keep. The glory of the shipwrecked will be that they habitually failed to turn up for duty. In their defense they claim they were detained by a baby in swaddling clothes. When interrogated as to why they hung out at the stable, they answer, "We done it for love."
In their integrity the shipwrecked preserve the meaning of Christmas in it pristine purity - the birthday of the Savior and the eruption of the messianic era into history.
This Christmas, may you belong to their number.
We love because He FIRST loved us. - 1 John 4:19.
CONVERSATION AT CHRISTMAS-DAY #23 PRAYER:
Lord,
Today I ask for you to show us how to sit in the posture of 1 John. It is all because you first loved us, Lord and we are so very thankful for this truth. I pray that we not only are reminded of this as we pray for a very special conversation Christmas morning with Mom, but everyday, as Manning says, "Until the curtain falls..."
Let every heart prepare Him room!
Amen.
Where have you seen God's grace in your life today?