Pausing With God

Special Delivery

Every day I wake up wondering what adventures or opportunities shall I encounter…well today’s was no different.

Sometime this morning the doorbell rings. I get up from my desk and walk over and look out the window. As I pull the curtains back, I notice a delivery truck going down the street away from my house. The Ring doorbell recorded that a package had been delivered. I pause and think to myself, ‘Hmmm, I don’t recall ordering anything.’

Downstairs I go, a tad excited as maybe it was something my husband ordered. I open the door and look down, the box wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. I picked it up to check out the label. Of course you know the tracking and all the other stickers they slap on boxes are larger than the address label. I take a second look, the package wasn’t for us nor did I recognize the name or address.

As I ponder what to do, I begin writing down the information from the label. Who do I call first, the delivery carrier (I won’t mention the name of the company, to protect the innocent as we all could have made the same mistake) or the person’s name on the box. I call the company to advise them that the package had been delivered to the wrong address. Unfortunately, because a few digits were missing from the tracking number; they were unable to help me.

Iron Sharpening Iron…

I wish I had the words to share how the Lord used this devotion in shapening a group of us this morning. It is my prayer that you are encouraged, empowered and equipped to be engaged…in the life of those that God has placed in your area of influence.

May 15, 2021 Iron Sharpens Iron (Devotion courtesy of https://blackaby.org/

As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17
The Christian life is a pilgrimage. At times the road is difficult, and we get lonely. Sometimes we may become discouraged and consider abandoning the journey. It is at such times that God will place a friend alongside us. One of God’s most precious gifts to us is friends who encourage us and lovingly challenge us to “keep going.”

De-Clutter

Spring Is Approaching, here are somethings to make you go hmmm:

SIMPLIFY: do one thing every day that gets you closer to your goal.

DONATE: use your talents or gifts and be a blessing to someone?

TRASH: delete those thoughts and people that keep you from doing what God called you to do!

KEEP: the Word Of God in my heart.

Testimony Time

Pausing In His Presence is just what I needed – A Shut In Experience.

A pause with God where I do not hurry with my praise and worship and take my time praying for the needs of others. Taking time to listen to God. Sometimes we hurry and do not give God time to talk to us.

This book has opened my eyes to so much. It has shown me my need to PAUSE and have that shut in experience. It has been so wonderful! By pausing you will grow in the Lord because it lets God fill you up with Jesus. My goal is less of me and more, more of Jesus.

I have shared this book with others and will continue to do so with anyone whether it be male or female. Thank you (Sheri) for writing this book.

It made me pause.

Sylvia Cain

Dr. Who

There are many women like me who prefer a female OB/GYN. My reason though it is humorous now, was not funny back then. My story begins with, years ago when I was a KIDS Church leader, it was time for my annual check-up and so off to the doctors I went . After completing the check-in ritual, I was shown to the examination room and I waited patiently for my doctor to come in.

A few minutes later, a male doctor pops in and stares at me like he knows me. I have this weird feeling inside my gut. “Do you work at this hospital, you look familiar?” he asked. “No”, I quickly responded.

I knew my regular doctor was pregnant, but her due date wasn’t for a couple of months. That feeling in my belly intensified and so I nervously asked where my doctor was. His reply was that she had been transferred to another unit. I paused for a moment and then decided to proceed with the checkup. Following the exam and after a brief consultation, I left the hospital and never gave this encounter a second thought.

Jennifer Rash

The Gift of Encouragement

We all need encouragers in our lives, don’t we? Having just ONE person in your life who will speak encouraging words to you makes all the difference in the world. Have you noticed that there seems to be plenty of people who will readily put you down and a real shortage of people who will lift you up? Has it ever dawned on you to be the one who builds and lifts up?

As wives, we need to realize just how much we contribute to the atmosphere in our homes and marriages. Proverbs 14:1 says, “A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands.” That is a pretty strong Scripture.

Did I hear you say, ‘Just how can a woman tear down her own home, her own marriage, or her own husband?’ She does it with her actions and most often with her words. In The Path to Becoming a Proverbs 31 Wife, I share about how we as wives can build our homes, our marriages, and our men. I talk about one of the ways we can build our men – it is through our words.

My Family

Pausing To Share…MY BLACK HISTORY MOMENT – A Slave, Midwife and Legacy: Dr. Judy Simmons – uncovered by my cousins Cleo and Melvin Graham

Who are your ancestors?

Have you thought about your connection to them lately?

Is slavery and freedom a part of your family’s legacy? If so, what impact did it have on your family’s life?

Here is a story about one of my ancestors, who played a remarkable role on the South Carolina plantation where my family was enslaved and later the community where she lived. According records we have found, my third great grandmother, Judy Simmons, was born in South Carolina or Alabama. She was initially called Judy Pickens, a surname of her slave owners Governor Andrew Pickens Jr. According to Andrew Pickens’ 1834 will, Judy and her family were deeded to his son, Governor Frances Pickens, who owned the Edgewood plantation in Edgefield, S.C. Fortunately, Frances Pickens preferred keeping slave families together rather than separating them, as so often happens after the death of a slave owner. After Emancipation, Judy’s last name became “Simmons.”

Judy figuratively stood on the shoulders of her strong African heritage and tapped into her familial knowledge of medicinal plants that she commonly used for delivering babies of plantation slave and freed women for more than fifty years (1830s to 1880s). Although she was not credentialed, she became known as “doctor” by other slaves and slave owners, out of respect for her knowledge. She was a remarkable midwife, who traveled between Edgefield, S.C., and Augusta, GA, to purchase traditional folk medicines that she used to deliver hundreds of babies. And after the War, she crossed the bridge from slavery to freedom. She crossed the bridge from dependence to independence, and in so doing she left her footprints as a path of grace that is traced to her descendants.

The Wright Firm

LaShawnda Wright is the CEO of The Wright Administrative Firm and founder of Yes! I Got The Promotion course. She’s born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida and has a heart to serve God. She’s happily married to her husband of 8 years, Sheldon Wright, and mother to 4 little beautiful and bright girls. LaShawnda is a mentor, teacher, administrator, coach, and most importantly a servant of God.

Barbara Hollace

Don’t you just love it when God confirms the season you are in. We are one week in our Bible & Group Study Pausing In His Presence: A Shut-In Experience by yours truly and I receive the following article by my good friend and editor, Barbara Hollace. I thought this word of encouragement was too good not to share. We hope you are as blessed as I was when I read it.

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11 AMPC)

In times of uncertainty, I have found a place of refuge and strength. In the midst of the storm, I have found a shelter that is waterproof. When the hurricane-force winds of turmoil threaten to blow me away, I have found a solid rock that cannot be shaken.

There is no other name like the name of Jesus. There is no greater power than His resurrection power. There is no greater hope than what we find at the empty tomb.

As we emerge from the chaos of 2020, our lives have not instantly changed. Even what we thought would “stay the same” has not. If we put our hopes and dreams in a person, business, a leader, our bank account, or even our health, we will be sorely disappointed.

The only place where we will remain stable and secure is in His presence. “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” Are you experiencing the fullness of God’s joy today?

On my journey through 2020, God brought me new revelation and new “tools” to add to my “toolbox.” One of them was a new song in the night.

History Made

Over the past few months we had been praying about transitioning from the Pausing With God quarterly magazine to something different for the new year. When I received this wonderful article about my cousin, I couldn’t wait to share her with you all.

HARTFORD — The Rev. Cleo Graham, a New Haven native, has accepted a call to serve as pastor of Faith Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Hartford.

The Faith Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ is a historic church, located at 2030 Main St. The brick Romanesque Revival-style building, completed in 1872, houses the Faith Congregational Church, whose lineage includes the city’s oldest African American congregation. It was established in 1819. To learn more, visit https://faithmatterstoday.org/

“The UCC is the first denomination to ordain a black man,” members said in a statement. “It is the first to ordain a woman into ministry in this nation. We are a historic local church, having taken part in the nation’s first civil rights case, the Amistad trial, where the captives on the ship La Amistad were eventually set free. Faith Church raised significant dollars for the captive’s defense.”

The Rhode Island Conference UCC ordained Graham in 2013. Next, she co-pastored at Hope Congregational Church in East Providence, then served Beneficent Congregational Church for seven years. Beneficent’s community outreach programs, weekly open sanctuary sessions, and service to the sick, homeless, and aging populations of East Providence were a model for how people of all backgrounds can come together for the greater good, according to a statement. She was also asked to serve as Vice President of Administration for the Rhode Island Conference Board of Directors, a post she held for two years.