Once again, it will soon be “Mother’s Day.” (5/10/26) My mother (and Ellen’s) has been with the Lord almost 20 years now, but we always cherish their memories. And, as has been my custom since before Mom’s passing, I want to pay a tribute to not only our mothers but all mothers.
This one will be brief, but I will share another one in my “You and God” blog on Thursday. Here is this year’s tribute to mothers:
Mother’s Heart
Deep within her breast of clay,
Filled with love from day to day;
All for you from life’s first start,
Is your mother’s holy heart!
Heart of passion, peace and prayer,
Heart of Mother’s daily care;
For her children one and all,
Should they stand, or should they fall.
Heart endowed with God’s own love,
Filled with goodness from above;
Heart that cheers and wishes well,
When your world has turned pell-mell.
Blessed heart—that gift from God,
Heart that softens cruelest rod.
Heart that weeps and heart that prays,
All her life-long earthly days.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mothers!
ALS/2021
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Health update and personal note: This fall I will have been “pastor emeritus” for seven years, passing the “baton” to Pastor Joel Stevens in September 2019. After pastoring full-time for 48 years, Ellen and I took up temporary residence in Maranatha Village in Sebring, Florida, for six weeks, returning to Indianapolis on the day that everything pretty much shut down due to the pandemic (Covid). When things began to normalize, I accepted a call to be interim pastor of the Coatesville Missionary Baptist Church, where we served for about a year until Pastor Brian Harr became the full-time pastor. Next, for a couple of years, I assisted Dr. Larry Hufhand in filling the pulpit of Pleasant View Baptist Church in Noblesville, IN, alternating Sundays in the pulpit ministry there for almost two years.
In late 2021 I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone cancer for which there is no known cause, nor any known cure. With treatments, the cancer does sometimes go into remission. New treatments are becoming available all the time. I am now in “deep medical remission.” From what I understand, that means I am not in full remission but am a lot closer than when I started treatments. I get fusions weekly and take a daily chemo pill. The cancer has not caused any major problems, but the medicines have side-effects that cause some mobility problems, along with a few aches and pains.
Your prayers have been “felt” and Ellen and I deeply appreciate your loving concern. My caregiver is just the absolute best (Ellen), and our children have gone above and beyond the call of what might be expected or hoped for. Thank you all! Our church has been generous, gracious, and patient with us at every turn; and Pastor Joel has called upon me to teach or preach when needed, if I am “up to the task.”
I will be 84 this fall and, for all practical purposes, should have been graduated to my home in heaven by now. So every day is a gift from our heavenly Father. I write this bi-weekly blog, “You and God,” and have archived over 600 installments so far. If you are reading this on a smartphone, you can access any one of them by scrolling down to the end of any post and looking for “Read in Browser.” Click on it and the text will reappear. Scroll down to the end of the text until you see a list of the months of each year. You can click on any one of those months and a listing of the titles of each blog post published for the month will appear. You can print off any one that you want to use or file for future reference. This can be especially helpful for holidays that, like Mother’s Day, are always on the same date; so you can pull up four or five (years) of the posts for that holiday.
Feel free to use any of the material in those posts. I have tried to give credit to anyone I have quoted, where possible—but if you are using any material of mine, do not feel that you need to contact me for permission. I have tried to pass on, especially to preachers, the choicest “gems” that I have gathered in 50 years of ministry so that present and future generations can enjoy them and use them, as I have.
That should suffice for now. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I want to thank my son Theo, a freelance researcher/writer by profession, who is proofreader/editor of each blog; and Sandra Wagner, our daughter, who uses her skills as a professional marketing specialist to publish the artwork that accompanies each blog post.
Best wishes to all who faithfully read these blog posts; I would welcome any feedback or comments!
“And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom: to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (II Tim. 4:18)
YOU and GOD 