Tag Archives: Family Life

Secrets to Find Freedom from Burdens

9 Nov

“Did you read that?” my friend said. “What an idiot…”

Harsh words, I thought, but part of me agreed with her.

A man was fishing in the ocean somewhere. He cast his line and hours later, he got a tug. But it must have been a fat, papa fish because the struggle got fierce. The fisherman gripped the line with all his might. The struggle grew more intense. And what’s to be expected happened—the fish won. One strong yank pulled the man right out of the boat and he splashed into the ocean.

Not funny, not really. You and I have done the same thing. We ask, pray and believe that God will take care of our concerns and all the ugly stuff that happens. But when we do, in our heart, we’re still gripping on so tight. And before we know it, we’re about to be pulled off from the boat of peace into the ocean of turmoil.

Here are three secrets to let go our burdens today so tonight, sleep can come back.

  1.  Choose to whom you will cast that pain, that disappointment and fear. If the Lord is the first choice, the solution has already begun.
  2.  Believe that He, the God of the universe, powerful and mighty can sustain us, carry us and provide what we need for the journey.
  3.  Change your grip—instead of holding on to your burden, hold on tight to God’s promise and to the belief that He wants to set us free And trusting that no matter how dark it gets, how much the pain sears and how deep the fear burns, He will never, never let us fall.

God said so: “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” (Psalm 55:22).

Father, I confess the burdens that trouble my heart still have my fingerprints on them. I vow to let them go, to release them, and be set free from the. Grant me the wisdom to remember the battle is yours and you already proclaimed victory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
• What are you holding on to right now?
• Where do you go first when troubles come through?
• What will it take for you to be set free?

Freedoom

Janet Perez Eckles,

Grateful for the privilege of inspiring you…

My website in English
En Español
My story (video)
Inspirational video just for you.

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 7

3 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 JUDY

We decided that our last day in Maui would be an easy one, since we had been “on the go” the rest of the time.  So we drove up the coastline to Kapalua.  Kapalua is a rather expensive “plantation” resort, and home to the PGA tour’s, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions every year.  If you are into golf – that’s the course to play, and the tournament to watch.

The drive up the coastline was breathtaking.  We stopped quite a few times, just to get some pictures.  Fred found some catamarans in a little bay, that was literally “picture perfect.” He found what we think are some coral beds. We saw swimmers on the beach as well as in the water..Blue, blue water.  Really gorgeous. We drove down to Lahaina and had lunch at the Aloha Mixed Plate again.

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The remainder of the day was spent just resting and packing for our return flight to the mainland the next day.  And then we just spent time visiting with Fred’s Dad.  It was a quiet and very precious time for us. We decided to have one last meal of that delicious Ono fish, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day, on our way to the airport, we stopped and took a picture of the island of Molokai – the only one we have without clouds covering the top of the island.  Lovely! 6
We had a short hop from Maui to Honolulu, and then from there to Seattle.  We were late arriving, so we stayed the night in a hotel before driving the next day back to Shelton.

Our Maui trip was over – so fast!  We are just so grateful that God allowed us to have this wonderful vacation time – and time with Dad, and for him to rest.

And then, home sweet home – our bed felt soooooo good that night!

The End

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Two Sure Steps to go to Heaven

19 Oct

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

We took pictures, from every angle. Our granddaughter was the flower girl at my brother’s wedding. So our camera was smoking from those umpteen pictures we took of our princess. We planned to send them to the world.

But all that planning fell apart. On the way home the camera slipped of the console between the seats, right into a large cup of water.

We lifted the dripping camera. There went our pictures. There went our hopes of those priceless images.

To diffuse the tense moment, I gave a silly grin at hubby. “Maybe this is an underwater camera, and we just didn’t know it?”

“Wishful thinking,” he said.

That’s me—the wishful thinker. I used to wish about lots of things. In fact, I wished my way would be the one that would bring me to heaven: By being good. By praying. By staying out of trouble. Through my religion. Or wishing God would be good enough to swing open heaven’s doors and unable to resist my pitiful look, He’d say, “C’mon on, silly chica.” I wished that.

Then some powerful truths evaporated my wishful, wrong thinking. God’s truth—the spiritual GPS programmed my destination: heaven.

The map showed two turns outlined in chapter 10 of Romans:

1. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’

2. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Father, how awesome of you to make it so simple to be saved from hell and enter heaven. I confess there was a time when I doubted the path would be as simple. But now I know when I made the commitment to follow you, my heart was transformed. My life was changed. Joy was renewed. And hope for eternity turned to reality. I thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

• When you take your last breath, where will eternity find you?

• Were you like me, wrong about the way to be saved from eternal gloom?

• Is Jesus knocking at the door of your heart?

Would love your comments: www.janetperezeckles.com

Janet Eckles Perez

Janet Perez Eckles,

Grateful for the privilege of inspiring you…

My website in English

En Español

My story (video)

Inspirational video just for you.

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My Parents in a Nutshell

14 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

When they were six years old Ivan and Dora became playmates in their Canon City, Colorado neighborhood. When they were fourteen and their Author, Poet and Artistparents took them to the Fireman’s Ball a spark was struck that would warm them for the rest of their lives.

Three years after graduating from high school they were married in April of 1937 and set up housekeeping in Lovelock, Nevada. Ivan was a meat-cutter at Safeway and Dora worked in the commercial laundry downtown. DiVoran was born in October, 1938.

In April 1939 Dora’s dad died and they moved back to Canon City. There Ivan worked at the gas plant. David was born in June of 1941.

The next move was to Crowley, Colorado. Ivan kept the machinery running at the tomato factory while Dora fed the crew their noon meal for five dollars a week each. They raised chickens and goats to help with milk and eggs.

In 1944 World War II became personal. Ivan joined the infantry that slogged, in mud up to their knees, all over Europe while Dora and the children lived upstairs over Ivan’s parents in their apartment house in Canon City. Dora picked apples and did odd jobs as they came up.

When the war was over and Ivan came home, they bought Min’s Café and moved to Westcliffe, Colorado. After a few years, they purchased the old train station and renovated it. The family moved there and they rented out rooms downstairs. Ivan learned to fly and bought a Piper Cub which crashed on Pike’s Peak one cold winter day. Ivan and friend, Sweak Jeske walked away from the crash, even though Ivan’s heel was broken.

Toward the end of 1951 Ivan and Dora sold the café. For a while Ivan was a molybdenum  miner in Leadville and Dora clerked at Tomsick’s Hardware in Westcliffe.

A break came when Ivan got hired on as a security guard for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Los Alamos, New Mexico. At first, Dora worked in a jewelry store, but she soon got on as a bomb sample counter with the AEC.

By 1955 Ivan was promoted to courier, which required a move to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dora’s job with Sandia Corporation had her shredding secret documents by hand.

By 1960 Ivan’s job took them to Livermore, California. There, Dora got a job with Lawrence Laboratories sorting microfilm.

Both retired from government jobs in 1975. Ivan bought a commercial salmon trawler and they moved to Fort Bragg. Dora kept house, gardened, and raised chickens. She had time to do a bit of beach combing while Ivan was fishing.

When fishing was no longer good, they bought a vacuum cleaner store in Vista, California. But Ivan wanted to try commercial fishing one more time, sold the store and became a lobsterman. When they finally retired they fished every summer at a remote location. For years it was in Washington state, then it was Salton Sea in Colorado, and their last place was Sapinero at Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado. They lived long full lives, died peacefully in Vista, and went to Heaven to be with our Lord, where we will most certainly see them again someday.

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Investigating Family Ties~Part 3

7 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Mother’s other grandmother was Florenda Jane Bingham Bedell Britton. Anyhow, Florenda Jane was born April 6, 1847. When Dora was six years old Author, Poet and Artistand her grandmother came for a visit, she came to Dora’s room every night and they kneeled by the bed and prayed together. That TLC, Mother said, was what helped her want to become a Christian later in life. Florenda Jane belonged to the Church of God Holiness. I assume from the name they were what we now call charismatic. Florenda Jane died December 28, 1936 at eighty-nine years of age. I was born two years after she died. I wish I had known her. We’ll all sit down and have a fine chat in Heaven some day. Please join us when the time is right.

One of my mother’s grandfathers was Ezra Marshall Bedell. He was born in Syracuse New York in 1844. During the Civil War he was taken prisoner for eight years.

This brings us to Mother’s parents, Mabel and Roger Bedell. They lived on an apple ranch just outside town and settled in to raise apples, vegetables, chickens, a few cows, a son, and two daughters. Roger was manager of the Gas Company from 1917 until the town got electricity. They made water gas. The formula came down through the family, but I’m glad I don’t have to make it in order to have lights and cooking fuel. If the light over the dining room table began to dim, it was time for Roger to get the machines going again.

During the Great Depression, relatives who needed a place to stay came and went. My family has a history of feeding other people. I imagine if you investigate, your family does too. In those days, if you had food, you shared it. Now you can share knowledge with your children about their ancestors. It will make them stronger and more self-confident, especially if they hear stories about how their relatives loved and served Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

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Our Trip to Maui~Part 3

6 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

The next day, being Sunday, we wanted to attend a local worship service.  There was a Baptist Church in Lahaina, and we decided to attend there.It was a lovely building – without air conditioning, of course – but there were open doors all around the building to let the cool ocean breeze blow through, aided by several ceiling fans.  It was a wonderful way to worship – almost like being outdoors.The people were quite friendly, and we enjoyed the service immensely.

After the service was over, we went to lunch at a cute little deli call The Gazebo.  We later found out that Fred’s sister and her husband didn’t even know about this deli – even though they had been to Lahaina for many years.  We sat at the back side of the deli, and could see the beach all the way around Napili Bay.

After lunch, Dad wanted to show us a sight he had seen before on Maui.  It was call the Iao Needle, and is an “erosional remnant” that was formed by wind and rain.  During war times, it was used as a lookout spot.  There was a way to get up to it – but it had 300 steps to it, so we declined that adventure!

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Home and to bed – as we were still getting over our jet lag.

~~~~~More to come~~~~~

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Investigating Family Ties~Part 2

23 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Even though I haven’t studied it in depth, I do know that genealogy can be exciting and interesting, especially if you have a passion for history. If it is your own history, you can enjoy it even more.

My Mother’s grandparents lived with Mother’s family in their old age. Mother was named for her grandmother, Dora Bell. One day when we were in that hometown, we went past a small house on the main road where Dora Bell once had her own shop. She sold gifts and items she had designed and crocheted herself. She was very creative and she taught my mother to crochet too. Neither of them ever used a pattern.

For fun, they made tiny dresses, teddies, shawls, coats and hats for Mother’s, “Little Dolls.” She had homemade furniture and other clothes as well. When I was a child, I got to play with the “Little Dolls.” I remember the non-crocheted hats best. They had deep crowns and wide brims and must have been the fashion in the 1900s. I like seeing that type of hat in pictures. I think it’s still my favorite style.

My playing with Mother’s dolls, and the fact that she and her grandmother made the clothes made a wonderful continuity in my life. So did Mother’s story telling. I feel as if I know my great-grandmother, Dora-Bell as well as any other member of the family, though I was only four years old when she died. It gives me a warm feeling of belonging, and I understand characterization mostly because of my mother’s stories.

Dora Bell loved her family deeply. When she grew old and frail she wanted them around her as much as possible. Mother said when she was a teen-ager Dora Bell would get ill whenever Mother went away for a short time. Once when Mother went shopping in the next town, Dora Bell had a heart attack and Mother was convinced it was because she left her. They both survived. Maybe it wasn’t even a heart attack, perhaps it was a panic attack.

In a way, I can understand that and relate to her, but in another way, I can’t. Her first husband left her with two daughters to rear, and that was enough to traumatize anyone. I’ve been to the cemetery where Dora Bell is buried next to her second husband whom everyone dearly loved. Her daughter, my grandmother is there along with my grandfather and my other two grandparents plus some other relatives. My parents are there too. I don’t know, it all just gives me a feeling of belonging that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

So there’s another plus for knowing where you came from and where your ancestors came from too. What do you know about your family history? Does it give you a feeling of belonging too?

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You’re in The Navy Now Part~8

18 Sep

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Navy

 

My transfer finally came through, and my orders took me to the U.S. Naval 1Base in San Diego, and assignment to the fleet repair ship, USS Hector (AR-7).  The Hector was one of three sister ships stationed in the Far East, to service the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s ships.  The three ships usually rotated their operations between the U.S. west coast and Japan.  The Commodore, who headed the Navy’s Pacific fleet repair organization, maintained his headquarters on board each of the three ships as they rotated through the San Diego Naval Base, about every six months or so.  Soon after I reported aboard, I learned, as an Engineman Specialist, I qualified for the vacant position as the Commodore’s driver.  What a cushy job that was!  I spent most of my duty hours cleaning his Navy staff car, running errands for him, and driving him to and from his many meetings ashore, as well as, to and from his home in town.

My family had friends living near San Diego, who stopped to see them in Albuquerque during their vacation.  DiVoran wangled a ride with them, as1 wedding they returned to San Diego area so she could visit me.  As she was leaving on that trip, her mother, Dora, had told her, “Now don’t do anything foolish while you are there.”  Of course, once she got there, we decided it would be a good time to get married.  Our mothers hurried out to California, made all the arrangements, and we did the deed on Labor Day weekend in La Mesa, California.  DiVoran and I spent the next four months in marital bliss in our little one-room Balboa Park bungalow, located just five minutes from my work at the naval base. 

It was during this time, when we had our first disagreement about automobiles.  When I first got to San Diego, I had bought a “Street Legal” 31932 Ford five-window coupe hotrod, and was in the process of restoring it in my spare time.  The car had been chopped, channeled, and gutted for use as a dragster before I bought it, and had only one wooden bucket seat for the driver, bolted to the frame.  Hey, it worked for me!  The rear end had been locked, so when you went around a corner, the inside wheel burned rubber.  DiVoran couldn’t reach the peddles, and complained, “This was not the kind of car she had expected her new husband to ask her to ride around in.”  That was mainly because there was no seat for a passenger, and she had to ride on the plywood floorboard, with no backrest and no seatbelt.  Also, she didn’t like having to ride the bus to get to work at the diner where she was waitressing,        

As it turned out, one of my shipmates had his eye on my hot rod, and I was able to swing a deal with him to trade my “Beloved ‘32” for his 1950 4pngMercury sedan.  DiVoran could drive that car, and life was much more peaceful in our little love nest after that.  When it was time for the Hector to leave for its six-month tour of duty in Japan, I took DiVoran and everything we owned, in that Mercury, back to Albuquerque, so she could stay with her parents, and attend beauty school while I was gone.

                        

                                                                                                  

                                   

 

                                                 —–To Be Continued—–

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Fifty Six Years and Counting

16 Sep

Bill and DiVoran Lites

wedding 2

Bill and DiVoran met in Albuquerque when they were seniors in high school. After graduation, Bill took off for Navy boot camp and DiVoran headed for Beauty School. They grew to know each other through letters while Bill was overseas. In September of 1957,they were married in La Mesa, California. Four months later Bill shipped out to Japan and DiVoran went home to Mother and Dad to finish Beauty School.

After Bill’s Navy tour, they reunited in 1958 in Inglewood California where Bill attended Northrop University. DiVoran went to work for Magic Mirror Beauty Salons as a stylist. They both worked hard, but they had a lot of fun too. They went to the beach, the movies, and the pizza parlor. They watched, “Rawhide,” and, “Wagon Train,” on their small black and white TV as the jets flew over their house every three minutes to land at LAX.

In 1962, God blessed them with an incredible daughter, Renie. In 1964, He sent Billy, a bouncing baby boy-who hasn’t stopped bouncing yet. Renie and Billy helped each other through childhood and teen-hood in Titusville, Florida. Bill worked in the Space Program, while DiVoran’s role was as a happy-to- stay-at-home mom. The family went on many exciting trips. One year they took off one weekend a month to go camping. Life got even richer when Renie married Ron, and Billy married Lisa. Then there were GRANDCHILDREN, Lacey and Jacob. Retirement is great! Bill still has a passionate interest in airplanes, writes blogs, volunteers at Valient Air Command as a guide, and with Car Care where people go to get their cars repaired, paying only for parts. DiVoran blogs, writes novels, journals, and paints. Once a week she teaches a wide range of children in Sunday School which is one of the high points of her week. Bill stands in too, when she needs help. Both thank God for the family and the friends He has given them. Nothing would have been the same without Him or them.

“Grow old along with me!/ The best is yet to be,/ The last of life for which the first was made.” Robert Browning

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Wiesbaden~Part3/Frau Katie

1 Sep

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

JUDY

When we were headed to Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1967, I was seven months pregnant with our first child, Karen.  It was a long flight over, and she and I were both exhausted.

At that time, the military was assigning each incoming military family a sponsor, to help with the transition from the U.S. to an international country.  Our sponsor seemed to be very helpful through letters (e-mail had not been invented yet).  When we told him we were going to stop in Albuquerque to visit with family before departing for Germany, his comment was for us to enjoy our time there – it was his home, as well.  Hmmm…. Interesting.

He met us in Frankfurt and drove us to Wiesbaden, about an hour down the road, where we checked into our hotel.  He apologized that his wife was not with him (it was about 5:30 a.m.), but they had a small child that was still asleep, and they would meet up with us that afternoon for a trip around the town, and dinner.

After a good nap and shower, we headed out to meet them.  As we got closer to the family, the wife called out my maiden name!!  Turns out, she and I had been in Rainbow Girls together in Albuquerque.  She had even been in my installation ceremony as Worthy Advisor.  Small world.  And small world, indeed, when Fred and her husband found out they had been in some classes together at the University of New Mexico!  It certainly made us feel more at home, having some ready-made friends there.

We had initially thought that we would attend the Chapel on base, but contribute to the Baptist Church in town.  Fred’s father had been an AF Chaplain, and we thought that we would continue that tradition.  However, some of the members of the church came to visit us, and convinced us to join them.  We became quite a part of that group, and never regretted that decision.  We made some life-long friends there.

Karen on Grandma Wills’ shoulder

After Karen made her appearance, we started taking her with us to church. There was a nursery there, that was manned by a lady they called Frau Katie.  I think she really took a shine to us, since I would take Karen down to the nursery and nurse her.  That was when a lot of American women were against nursing their babies, and only using bottles.  In any case, Karen became a favorite of hers.   On one of our last trips before we rotated stateside, we asked Frau Katie to stay with Karen while we were gone.  We later discovered that she was teaching Karen to speak German!  That gave Karen a head-start on German when we returned to Germany 10 years later.

Katie came to visit us when we lived in San Antonio, and we thoroughly enjoyed her visit.  When we returned to Germany 10 years later, we went to visit her in Wiesbaden.  My mother had come to visit us, and she went with us.  Katie treated us to some home-made cheese cake at an outdoor café.  I’m sure she’s gone to be with the Lord by this time.

But we will always remember Frau Katie and Wiesbaden.

Karen and Frau Katie

Karen and Frau Katie

                                                     

 

 

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