Accountability and Fun…..

Weekly I meet with a couple of ladies for accountability. We encourage one another about staying in the word, prayer, and ask the hard questions like: Have you put anything evil before your eyes this week? Have you been any place you shouldn’t have been? Have you gossiped, lied, etc, etc. Today, I shared with them that the biggest thing I’m dealing with is my mom’s retirement. You know I have counseled people for over 28 years that have had to deal with the issue of retirement. I remember when my Spiritual Dad retired, I got to see my Spiritual Mom ‘really’ practice what she had taught me over the years about how to honor your husband, and submission with a pure heart, etc. That was so much easier before he retired. Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha In fact, I mused many times as I watched her make the adjustment to my Spiritual Dad being home and around all the time. The funniest thing was her frustration with his nibbling between meals habit. I remember her commenting one time that he eats from the time he gets up till he goes to bed! Yes, you guessed it……He never gained a pound. And there you have the root issue! Hah,a,ha,ha

Funny how easy it is to live with each other when one or both of you are at work and only see each other for a few hours in the evening and then go to bed and get up and start the process over the next day. Even the weekends are something you look forward to in regard to spending time together. But all that changes when you are together 24-7.

My mom and I are blessed in that I still go to the office and spend most days. However, we have had our share of adjustments and are still working on it. Let me share a few laughs with you.

The first thing that started happening was the cleaning syndrome. It is almost funny. Women start cleaning. Men start building, remodeling, etc. And the really smart people travel! My Spiritual Mom and Dad do a lot of that.

My mom has cleaned anything that sits still longer than one minute. Her closet, my closets, her drawers, my drawers, her cabinets, my cabinets, etc. In fact, several weeks ago I told her, "just don’t tell me what you’ve cleaned today. If I end up missing something I will deal with it but don’t tell me if you cleaned anything of mine. Then if I don’t miss it I didn’t need it anyway".

Once the inside of the house was cleaned then you got it…we moved to the outside. Shrubs, flower beds, trees, etc. Can we say ‘heat exhaustion’? I finally had to just tell her that I have accepted the fact that one day I may drive off to work and come home and find her dead in the yard. The hard part of this is that last week she decided to dig up a pecan tree trunk outside our screened-in porch. That was last week. Monday night of this week,when I came in from prayer time, she was out there digging and hacking away at that tree trunk. So, Tuesday when we came in from our day of Doctors visits, again she was out there digging and hacking away. Yes, I went out and helped take part in the digging and hacking. Not because I really wanted to dig and hack. But, it was the right thing to do.

After about 30-40 mins of digging and hacking I started thinking maybe I was going to be found dead in the yard! Ha,haha,ha.

Another thing that has happened since my mom retired is ,for some reason we both have this tendency to want to help each other DRIVE! I don’t know how either one of us got to where we were going before she retired!

All and all I must say however, my mom is a gem! Not many mothers and daughters get the opportunity to have the friendship relationship that the two of us share. God is so good to have allowed it during our life time! I’m praying for much more life time with my mom, but this means she will have to retire from digging and hacking or you will find us both dead in the yard!

I told my accountability group that I have found myself praying for a husband since my mom retired because we need someone around to do all this work!

Don’t forget our Middle East trip is just two weeks away. Pray, Pray, Pray!

His,
vickie