Browsing Tag

Maggie

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

A Good Mammy’s Dose

Posted on March 17, 2023

We don’t believe in any special luck o’ the Irish, and we certainly have no spiritual allegiance to the so-called “St. Patrick” but we do have fun watching the children in our world get excited about the pinching-if-you-forget-to-wear-green, dressing like leprechauns and eating green cupcakes. Glenn is headed to an elementary school to read for several classes (one of his favorite things to do) and I am very blessed to be getting to visit with the Colley grandkids for a couple of days.

Maggie and Ellis are a little farther away and I do not get to see them as much as the other three. But if you’re a grandmother, you know that going for walks, playing games, picking weeds for their mother, rocking and singing and making crafts to decorate the mantel are among the most therapeutic of life’s blessings. Today, we did all that. So fun.

The best part was Bible Time. Maggie’s and Ellis’s mom tells me that what Maggie and Ellis know about the Bible is not a big deal. “Every normal child can learn the scriptures if time is devoted to the process.”  I agree, but Rebekah Colley is so good at Family Bible Time (and every other part of motherhood) and I love the way these two kids are growing in the Lord. They look to their dad as the leader, but their mama surely is creative and diligent and it shows in the fairly vast Bible knowledge of these kids, who are two and four. This is a sampling, but this was late at night for two who had played hard all day. Still, you can tell they are being filled with the Word. Click when you have a minute.

Here’s Ellis, with his Old Testament overview : IMG_1147

And here’s Maggie with the New Testament :IMG_1150

It won’t be as fun for you as for me. My Mammy heart will be full as I go home tomorrow. But maybe you have something very similar happening at your house! If so, you’re blessed. If not, why not get going? There are lots of tips on this site, if you search “Family Bible Time”. It’s a great time to start.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

DD T-Shirts/Hoodies: Last Chance!

Posted on October 14, 2022

Lots of  you have asked if you can still get a shirt, so we’ve decided to order shirts one more time. You have just four days to order here: https://thecolleyhouse.org/store#!/Digging-Deep/c/20688312 Make your purchase by midnight on Monday, October 17th. This will be the last run and we will not get any extras this time, so please order if you want one! Thanks for loving this shirt! Limited numbers of bracelets, mugs and tea towels are still in the store. (Jessica Weaver, I’ve got your shirt coming! I also have someone’s 5X shirt here and ready to ship, but since that deal was not made online, I’m having trouble remembering who you are. I think the 5X was an exchange, Shoot me a message!)

If you want to see the photos and follow the Israel trip, join the public group Digging Deep in Israel on Facebook. That will be for posting pictures. Don’t forget the Digging Deep podcast will be from the Sea of Galilee at 8 am CST on the 7th of November. That podcast will be about lesson two. There’s still ample time to catch up if you know someone who could use a little comfort this year!

My grand-daughter Maggie, who just turned four, was dusting off the top lid of the kitchen trash bin the other day and her precocious little phrase was “This could use some love.” There are lots of things in my house right now that could use some love. I’m going to remember that that’s what I’m doing as I work in this house today. I’m giving a little love. If you are driving, cleaning, baking, washing, typing, disciplining or changing diapers from a home in view of heaven today, you’re giving love. Have a great day and give love in large doses!

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Missing Your Charm?

Posted on October 3, 2022

We’ve made one more mistake in the store for Digging Deep swag. Someone just pointed out to me that the bracelet photo on the site has two charms instead of one. If you ordered your bracelet and you just got one charm (a shovel), and you’d like a charm that says either “Blessed” or “Love” or “Faith” to attach, please send me a message at byhcontest@gmail.com and I will pop this in the mail to you. I will attach the double ring, so you can put it on your bracelet easily. This was an oversight on my part. (The bracelets given away at PTP were single charm bracelets and I failed to adjust that when I got home and started mailing them.) Please forgive me and send an email if you need that second charm to complete your digging deep bracelet. Be sure to include your mailing address. Then watch your mail! I really appreciate your help with this, as it would be very difficult, at this point, to try and go back though all those orders and find which bracelets were not double-charmed. 

You diggers are the best and always, with us, you are big on that “long-suffering” fruit of the Spirit. We are big on the “peace” and “joy” ones because you are so good to us. We all are big on those because HE is so good to us. 

I’m praying for our deepest comfort from the Father of mercies as we keep studying together.

And just for a smile, from four-year-old Maggie today:

Maggie apologized for something she did, and her mama told her that she forgave her and it was over. She told her about how God removes our sins and never thinks about them anymore. Maggie said: “Well, sometimes *I* think about my past struggles.”

It’s a conundrum. We all do. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, when our souls are washed clean because of His wonderful grace and our faithful repentance as His children, we could just forget all the past struggles?  I’m thanking Him this morning that HE does!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“I’m sorry I’m not sorry.”

Posted on May 26, 2022

 

One of my grandchildren had committed an infraction and was not sorry for disobeying. Her mom sent her to bed and said “Tonight you can just go on to bed and I will not be in there to tuck you in, since you are not sorry.” She responded “I’m sorry I’m not sorry.” 

Later, upon seeing that she still was not sorry and even disobeyed once more, her mother said, “One more time and I will MAKE you sorry.” This precocious little girl looked very seriously up at her mother and asked “You can MAKE me sorry?” 

I can tell you that this little girl is really too smart for her own good. I can also tell you that her normal pattern is obedience and compliance. The reason for her compliance is that she receives consistent and loving discipline. But on this particular night, for reasons unknown, she displayed a little child-sized Illustration of what the scriptures call  “presumptuous sin.” It’s doing what I want to do even though I know I am disobeying. It’s doing it without remorse. It’s being sorry I have to experience negative consequences or punishment, but void of any repentance for the commission of the transgression, itself.  

Scripture first mentions presumptuous sin in Numbers 15:30ff:

But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him.

Here are some things we can learn from this little “not-sorry” saga. 

1. Immediate and true repentance upon recognizing there’s been disobedience in my life will save a lot of pain in my world. I should exhibit the kind of repentance that Simon exhibited in Acts 8. 

2. Deceit about repentance (Putting “I’m sorry” in between a bunch of disobedience and stubbornness) is adding sin upon sin and makes for worse eventual consequences. Hebrews 3:13 teaches us that we can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

3. Sin separates us from the One Who cares for us. The one who keeps us in his bundle of the living (1 Samuel 25:29 ) gives us security even in the darkness when we choose obedience and humility. He “tucks us in.”

4. There is coming a day in which God will, in a sense, “make me sorry” if I choose to persist in sin. The Bible teaches that one day the presumption will be finished. Every knee will bow and every tongues will confess that Jesus is Lord. (Phil. 2:10,11).  On that great day when opportunity has escaped all men, there will be no one who can presume upon God. Complete compliance with His will is what is certain on the day of judgment. There is no sense in which any man will not be sorry for persisting in sin. When I come face to face with the authority of God in commandment form, may I remember that one day He will make those who rebel, sorry. But it will be too late, then. I want to go ahead and bow my knee right now.   

5. The home is the primary academy for respect training.I’m pretty sure that my little granddaughter “bowed the knee” in the end. I’ve been around for several little contests of the wills in their house and I have never seen her win one of these. She’s learning respect for her parents, which translates into respect for school, civil, and church authorities, which ultimately and foremost prepares her for ultimate submission to divine authority. This little girl is blessed to be learning respect right now! 

“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.”- Psa 19:13

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Abraham: The Condensed Version

Posted on May 13, 2022

Maggie is three and I’m excited to share with you the life of Abraham as she recalls it. Take your blog reading time and watch, instead. today. I know it will not make you smile as broadly as it makes this mammy smile, but I hope you enjoy.  I want you to know also, that diligent, daily Family Bible Time is what puts accounts like this one into their hearts and minds. It’s not super intelligent kids or  great Sunday School programs, or Bible story books.  It’s parents getting into the Word daily and diligently with the kids. I guess My daughter-in-law, Rebekah, is getting three of the Deuteronomy 6 times in, right here. “Teach them diligently when you sit in your house and when you lie down and when you rise up.” She keeps doing all three.   Here’s Maggie:

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Praying Children in this New Year.

Posted on January 3, 2022

Happy New Year! 

When you married the Lord on that day when you were immersed for the forgiveness of your sins, you made vows to love, honor and obey Him in sickness and health, in adversity and prosperity, for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer—to have and to hold Him till death unites you with Him forever and ever. 

I hope this year is health and prosperity. I hope it is better and richer. I pray, for our Colley family, that it will be an easier year than the past year.—the year that has certainly been our most challenging year to date. I’m praying for all readers and for us, that no matter the ease or difficulty of the 365 days ahead of us, that it will be a year full of loving, honoring and obeying the One who died for us. I’m praying we will all have Him—His mercy, His correction, His salvation and His advocacy throughout the coming year. I’m praying we will all hold Him, clinging tenaciously to His sovereignty and His promises that are as good as accomplished. I pray that we will all have the security of claiming Romans 8:28. 

As a new year dawns, I’m thinking about the children who depend on women who may read this blog regularly. I’m thinking about their place in a world that has become so secularized that it often mocks those who even believe in a Creator. It’s a world that rejects absolute truth and the idea that one system of morality may be better than any other. It  is a world that calls what is really evil, “good,” celebrating what God terms “vile affection” and giving adherents of sin the moral high ground in society. 

There’s a big group of mamas today who are determined to make spiritual heroes and heroines of the little souls entrusted in their care. There’s an army of truth defenders arising from among our ranks in a time when the challenges for this army will be greater than any time in our country’s history. 

Some of these mamas have asked for resources for teaching our kids to pray. “How do we practically teach our kids the value, the necessity and the how-to of daily prayer? How do we help them develop this personal communication with the God Who has promised to be the refuge and strength in a time of trouble?” I surely do not know all of the answers, but I’m learning from those of you who are working so hard to do this important mama’s job. 

So for the next few posts, let’ s absorb and integrate some of these ideas and help our children and grandchildren grow up around the throne in prayer. Watch for these!

Finally, it’s snowing in north Alabama! This is Maggie’s first time to see snow and it happened at Mammy’s house! She’s three and she’s my Florida girl, so she’s pretty excited about the snow. She kept telling her mom that she could not wait for the snow to start falling while they opened up their Christmas presents (in Florida!). Well, this is our morning for cousin Christmas gifts—our first day to have them all here (without extended family) to attack that big stack of gifts in there…and Maggie’s snow has just fallen! God is good like that! 

Happy New Year! Let’s give every day of it to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

(And the podcast is tomorrow night!)