Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

 Let me begin with this: I’ve been a caregiver for more than 42 years to my oldest daughter, who has Down Syndrome. Together — with my second husband, a blessing I never expected and a direct answer to prayer — we’ve walked through heart failure, pneumonia (more than once), yearly bouts of bronchitis, and COVID three times. One of those times, we truly feared the disease would win. But by God’s grace, and with so many prayers storming the Throne Room, she came home. She is doing well. All of that to say this: I thought I understood caregiving. I thought I knew the terrain. I’ve done well-ish, but, as the saying goes…"you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Three months ago, I received a call from a dear friend of my sister-in-law, a woman nearly in tears as she described the changes she’d been witnessing. There was no anger, no judgment, only love and deep concern for a lifelong friend. She believed the family needed to step in now. When I hung up, I prayed. I told God that if this was the r...

 I just read an article on praise music on Yahoo News. It was an interesting article, mentioning that certain songs have been on the Billboard Top 100 charts for quite a long time, some for more than 77 weeks. Many listeners are drawn to songs featuring references to Heaven, God, altars, and strong emotions. However, my main concern is that these songs, while sounding spiritual, are actually secular and not focused on worship. This blending of secular themes with spiritual language is not new—it has often occurred in songs that address topics such as loss or longing, sometimes even invoking God's name for personal gain rather than worship. Now, understand, a great deal of music is generic, focusing on loss of a loved one, a dog, or a truck. Or expressing strong desires to achieve a goal, and there’s nothing wrong with that – at all. Music will always influence a reaction, but true praise and worship music stirs the soul and helps direct the listeners toward God, not a goal or a...

  One of my senior citizen cats passed away yesterday. He was a pretty cat, did not act his age, really. In two days, he would have been sixteen. I have no idea what that is in cat years, but I know it is old. Yoda was, how do I put this? A brat. He always got on counters and refused to get off the table when Andrea told him to. He ate like he had been starved all week and stole the other cat’s treats, and you’d better watch your popcorn because he would use one nail to grab a piece and run. He would give judgmental stares, he frowned really well, and yes, he pouted well, too. His life was a series of “get down, Yoda!” “Leave it alone, Yoda.” “Get out of there, Yoda.” “For crying out loud, you dumb cat! What part of no don’t you understand?” That was Yoda. But he was a lovebug. He liked daddy cuddles, hovered under my desk to clean up lost fragments of yummies, hated having his nails clipped, and he was Andrea’s Foofie. All that to say, as I stood ugly crying in the shower today, I...

  John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist Church within the Church of England. Originally ordained an Anglican priest in 1728, he led a society called the Holy Club, which was unsuccessful, and he returned to London two years later. He joined a religious society called the Moravian Christians, and on the 24th of May 1738, he experienced what was called his evangelical conversion. Subsequently, he left the Moravians and developed his own ministry...the Methodist Church.  So, why this background? Partly so that you would know who I was talking about, and partly because I thought it was interesting. You can find this and much more here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley Recently, I came across a devotional that mentioned John Wesley and I found it very interesting, so I investigated further. The original wording, "How does your soul prosper," has since become, "How is it with your soul," and the devotional brought up an interesting thought. How often do w...

  When was the last time you just sat and thought about absolutely nothing? When was the last time you walked outside, enjoyed a cool breeze, dipped your toes in cool water? When was the last time you just stopped and listened? Too long? Not enough hours in the day?  Psalm 46:10a says, "Be still and know that I am God:" And in 1Kings 19:11-12, Elijah is told to hide himself in the cleft of a rock. There was a great wind, an earthquake, and then a fire. After all of these, a still, small voice. We are so distracted in these times, that hearing that still small voice is difficult at best. Drowned out by fears, anxiety, television, radio, electronics, doing , that even if we heard it, we wouldn't be able to discern it from everything else.  We have, as a general rule, a cacophony of voices vying for our attention every minute of every day, and sometimes in our sleep. Unless we are deliberate in taking time each day, we will miss those sweet whispers, that feeling of peace ev...

I Want to Hold your Hand, was a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles, recorded by The Beatles in 1963 at EMI Studios in London for the Parlophone label (1). The song speaks of a young man asking a young woman to let him hold her hand. Sorry, that's all I'm giving on this, but the link for the Wiki article is at the bottom. 😁 The reason I started this way is this. A few weeks back, our Pastor talked about holding God's hand, and it has been on my mind off and on since, but, it had a bit of a twist to it. God wants to hold your hand . Okay, you ask, what exactly are you trying to get at? Glad you asked. When you hold someone's hand, you have control in a way. Think about a child. Do they hold your hand, or do you hold theirs when you are walking? You hold theirs. What's the difference? When they hold your  hand, they can let go and take off to their next adventure. When you hold their hand , you have control of the situation. You protect them...

 In Luke 8:4-8, Jesus talks about the Sower and the Seed. Notice that both words are capitalized. No, they aren't in the Bible, but maybe they should be. You see, both the Sower and the Seed are persons; the Sower is the one who proclaims the Gospel, the Seeds are the ones who receive the Word. There are four locations and results regarding the Seeds. Some fell on the wayside where the birds ate the seeds. They are stepped on and ground into the ground, they are the ones who Satan blinds so that they may not be saved. Some fell among rocks. They grew but eventually withered. Those are the ones who have received the Word of God, and rejoiced, but when the going got tough, they got going. They had no root, nothing that held them fast in the ground, and as a result, the shiny things got their attention, and they left the joy they received behind, fully believing that this was a better deal. Some fell among thorns, which grew up around them and choked them out. They are the ones who ar...

  Lately, there has been a lot of talk and news stories about UFOs and aliens. The government has acknowledged "that UFOs exist," and in one article the headline says the government is "worried." The Washington Post, National Geographic, The NY Times, Politico, GQ, NY Magazine, BBC, and NPR, amongst others, have all run stories about UFOs existing. Why? Well, if you're me, you're 'psh-ing' because you believe this is a set-up. For what, you may ask? And I will answer, 'as an explanation for the Rapture.'  Our Pastor touched on this yesterday, but my circle and myself have been speculating this for years. It just wasn't until lately that we have noticed the uptick in mentions. Most of you know that I believe we are in the  Last Days. Too many things are coming to pass to ignore. Pestilences, famine, diseases, earthquakes, extreme weather, they all point to the season of Christ's return. Then we add in a world-wide pandemic, and all of ...

  Now, it feels different.  In Joel 2:28, it says: And it will come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And in Acts 2:17 it says: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. In this case I'm talking about dreams that feel  as if they may be prophetic. Every once in a while a dystopian-type dream has my attention. These particular ones don't fade quickly like most dreams do, and despite the subject matter of the dream, I'm never afraid in them. You know the kind of dreams where you are being chased, are falling or something of that nature, when your fight or flight mode kicks in. Nope. These, regardless of how scary they might be, well, they don't scare me.  About four mo...

 I wrote this some years back, not sure about the date. Hope you enjoy it. I asked the Lord a question this morning; "Why is it so hard to have faith? Perhaps being born to a different family in say, South America, Columbia, Africa...there it may be different. Evil is obvious there, maintaining faith, even in the face of evil has to be easier." The answer was enlightening and astounding to me. "My Child, sometimes it's hard to see the most magnificent forest when all around you are gnarled and knotted trees. The same is true in each of the countries that you mentioned; when that One tree is spotted, the One that stands out from all the rest, the One whose smell is pleasant to the nose, the One who is pleasing to the sight, then the ugliness of the trees that surround you are suddenly obvious and the yearning to be close to the One tree is overwhelming. In America, the One tree is difficult to find because Satan has put artificial trees everywhere. They may be beautif...

                                            Credit: Bjoern Wylezich / shutterstock.com  Do you know how diamonds are made? They are the product of compressed carbon, which over time creates the beautiful stone we call a diamond, but not all diamonds are natural. Lab created diamonds are made the same way, compression of carbon, but in a way that is much faster, that's why LGB diamonds are less expensive than natural ones. I was reading that the the amount of natural diamonds recovered peaked in 2005, but have decreased ever since. The number recovered now can fit in an exercise ball. While that's a pretty big ball, in the grand scheme of things, that's relatively few diamonds. So this got me thinking. I was talking to a dear friend this morning who is recovering from COVID. She is at home and her husband is in a hospital receiving treatment quite a number of miles away. I c...

  Ephesians 3:14-19 14 For this reason I bow my knees to the  Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  16 that He would grant you,  according to the riches of His glory,   to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in   the inner man,  17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you,   being rooted and grounded in love,  18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints   what  is  the width and length and depth and height—  19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled  with all the fullness of God. Good Monday morning to all of you! The sun is hiding, we have thunder boomers, but Praise God! We have life-giving rain! It has been raining for a week here, and I have to admit I'm starting to notice webbing develop between my toes, but rain is really good for my flowers. The water from our hose just isn't ...

  Every day I do devotionals...two in the morning, and one at night. For the last couple of years, because of the brain fog from fibro,  I assume,  I have a hard time concentrating very long. Reading is difficult because at some point I will not be able to completely comprehend what I just read, and have to go back to read it again, or I fall asleep. So the devotionals help me to stay in God's Word, even if it's just a little bit. In my reading today a passage popped up that I don't ever recall reading, but having read the Bible through at least a couple of times, I know I have. It was Malachi 3: 1-6a. M ALACHI 3 The Coming Messenger 1 “Behold,  Matt. 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 1:76; 7:27; John 1:23; 2:14, 15 I send My messenger, And he will  (Is. 40:3) prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Is. 63:9 Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold,  Hab. 2:7 He is coming,” Says the  Lord ...