My dear friend, Roxann, recently sent me a handkerchief in the mail.  She loves handkerchiefs and thought I might like one too.

What she didn't know is that I carry one with me all the time, and have all my life.  I don't even know if you can buy those pretty ones that they had when I was growing up.  You can sometimes find them in antique stores or at yard sales.

I told her a story about going to the Saturday matinee at our local theatre and Mother tying a dime in the corner of my handkerchief for my admission feel  She knew I would lose it otherwise.

Roxann loved that story so much, that she she sent back the following letter:
 
"Dear Pat,
I am so glad that you're enjoying the handkerchief.  I was especially intrigued by the story you shared about the dime.  I feel bad that I did not send you money for the afternoon movie.  So to make up for it I am sending you two dimes, one for you and one so you can take a date (hopefully Tommy) to the Saturday movie.  I thought it might be nice if you shared a popcorn and each of you had a drink. Therefore, I am enclosing some mad money (three nickels) 
Be sure to tie them into your handkerchief so that they do not get lost.  Remember, only movies that are rated G.  You are not allowed anything else.  The two of you deserve a relaxing afternoon out together."

Tommy and I are so excited to go on a date.  Now we are just waiting for a G rated movie to show up.  Hopefully before we die.

​I was  recently talking to my friend Marsha and she asked how the barn was working out for us.  I told her it was fine...that I had been able to cook with a table top grill and a microwave and a crock pot, but eventually I hoped to build on a kitchen.

She said that reminded her of a missionary friend she had once, who said she would just like to have a "floor and a door."

Lord forgive me when I whine, I have a floor and a door....the world is mine.

After I wrote my last blog about making Christmas Carolers with Plaster of Paris, I realized that some people might say, "Well, what's wrong with wanting to mold something and have it turn out perfect"?  My answer is, "Nothing."   I think for some people, the mold they are put into, works and they don't have to keep being poured out to start all over again.  I think that  I am probably the exception to the rule.  Or maybe they are!

 I started thinking about an old hymn while I was pondering this subject.  "Have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way.  Thou are the potter,I am the clay.  Mold me and make me, after Thy will;  While I am waiting, yielded and still."

It could be that often I have already "set up" and have to be broken to get out of the mold. Jeremiah 18:1-5  talks about clay that is marred and the potter has to re work it.

Whatever the case..even if I have to be broken in order for the potter to make me right, I am in the Potter's hands....and that's where I want to be.

Many years ago, I bought some Plaster of Paris molds to make  Carolers at Christmas.  If you have ever worked with Plaster of Paris, you know that you pour it into the mold and let it set for quite awhile before you turn it out.  When the time does come to turn it out, you have to be very careful not to break anything.  If you turn it out before it is set, of course it comes out easily.  You won't have what you started out to have but it DOES come out without much effort. 

Sometimes I feel like Plaster of Paris that was turned out of the mold early.  We have moved about 21 times in the 59 years we have been married.  People who stay in the same place their whole life are like the Plaster of Paris that has been allowed to stay in the mold.  It's hard to get them out!  Sometimes, when you finally do get them out, they crack or break. . 

If one is poured out early from the mold, they are sometimes more pliable and can be poured into another mold.  It may take several tries before you get the result you want, but if you keep trying, you WILL get results eventually.  Jeremiah 48:11  "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs.  He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel"
 
There is an old song called "You Got to Move." ...You got to move, you got to move, you got to move, you got to move.  When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.