Browsing Tag

Eliza Jane Giselbach

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

As We Stepped Off the Elevator…

Posted on October 13, 2025

Getting off the elevator in our hotel last week, we ran into a sweet little family. It took us a bit by surprise when the dad asked Glenn “Are you a pastor?” We never knew exactly why he thought Glenn was a pastor. Maybe he’d seen him walk in with his Bible or looking over notes in the lobby.

Glenn explained that he was a preacher for the church of Christ and I added that we were in town for Glenn to preach at the local congregation. We told him the name of the church and he looked it up right then and showed me the website, asking. “Is this the one?”  We told him the service times and invited him to come an hour early and eat tacos with us. It was Taco Tuesday and the Christians were planning to enjoy this Mexican fiesta prior to services.

We  were surprised when this man, his wife and young daughter and even their friend, who had traveled with them from Los Angeles California to South Carolina  (They’d all been on the road for seven days!) showed up in the fellowship hall of the local church of God’s people. Their traveling friend was in a wheel chair and suffered from cystic fibrosis or some similar disability. They were so very kind to him and he was very interested in the Word of God.

We visited with them until time for services to start and, during this time, Imelda, the young wife and mother, expressed an interest in becoming a part of our Digging Deep group. She is very interested in doing the Spanish version of the study, since Spanish is her first language. (Jacky Retana, take note!) Eliza Jane, our five-year-old granddaughter immediately made a friend in their daughter, Anna and Eliza shared her “church bag” items with Anna while Glenn preached.

Following the service, Glenn shared with them his work at the Gospel Broadcasting Network and they were all about finding the station online and connecting with the GBN app. We learned that the reason they had traveled to South Carolina was to watch their older step-daughter graduate from boot camp. Imelda told me she’d been sad that their daughter had joined the military, but that it would all be worth it for her, “if she could just find Jesus” along the way.

Well, it just so happened that her daughter was moving to Fort Bragg in Columbus, Ga for her next military assignment. Brother Matt Jones is the preacher for the church there and he and his sweet wife, Nancy, will be so very happy, once Imelda’s daughter relocates, to go and get her and bring her to the local services of the Lord’s church. I haven’t even asked them, but I already know they will! Imelda was very excited to get my email address so we could work out these logistics for her daughter, who wants to go and worship God.

All the providential connections are so typical of the way God’s plans come together to provide opportunities for obedience. I’m still amazed at how often someone is willing to “follow the light’ and go toward the kingdom, even if our time with them is so very short. The following morning was the graduation ceremony and then, the long trip, for them, back to California would begin. But they are traveling back with information that could actually change their eternities if they pursue that light.

Perhaps the best thing that came from our short time together is Eliza’s burgeoning enthusiasm for evangelism. She wants to mention the Lord to everyone we meet, and she mentions Him in such a forthright and unassuming way. As soon as we got back to the hotel last Tuesday night, she walked right over to the hotel desk and asked the clerk, very concisely “Do you know Jesus?”

He replied that he does know and love Jesus. He then asked Eliza about her own faith.  She responded profoundly:  “Jesus loves me and I love Him.”

I hope you can pray for this sweet traveling family. Pray for the penetrating power of the light in their lives!

 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The God of More: 1…2…3…Go!

Posted on September 1, 2025

This is the day I’ve been working and waiting for since the idea for this study crystallized about six months ago. There are so many people to whom I owe a large debt of gratitude for helping me in various ways to get the study written, ready and distributed. It’s been a journey, already, but the best part of it happens now.

As I was contemplating this week and some of the new things we are hoping to do this year, I got a little audio clip in a text from my daughter, Hannah. It contains a portion of the bed-time prayer of five-year-old, Eliza Jane, last Thursday night. It’s exactly on theme and I think I could never have said it so well. She portrays perfectly, in five-year-old jargon, the idea of “more than we can ask or imagine.” She does it from the purest heart. Here are a few of the moments I loved most from her prayer:

I shared this recording earlier with my good sister, Tonja McRady and Tonja said “ Don’t we all need to keep that awe?”

That’s my hope for the study: that we could all keep the awe of His ability and His desire to answer the pleas of His children; that we can constantly ask “How do you do this, God? Can you do this with your hand?”

Yes, Eliza. He has given us all that we are and have with His hands.

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2)

May we, in the next 12 months, study His greatness, with humility and contrition. May we tremble at His words. May we keep the awe! May we come to love the “more”!

Please join us for the first monthly podcast on September 23rd at 7 pm CST!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Well, God can hear my words…”

Posted on March 10, 2025

Don’t forget to make your guess! Lily’s weight and birth time. Instructions here: https://thecolleyhouse.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=19056&action=edit

And speaking of the babes/ It’s always “out of the mouths of babes”…

We have three with us this weekend, while Hannah is speaking at a ladies day at the good Sandyville church near Parkersburg, WV. When three are here it’s a noise competition and a general knock-down/drag out—not of people, but things. Today, I’m actually taking them to explore a nearby cave. I think the damage today will be under the earth and who will know? I think if Eliza Jane says “I a-uh-dentally” one more time, I’ll…well, I’ll probably grab her up again and tickle her. (Actually, I can no longer pick her up, which makes me very sad! But she is off the charts—both weight and height.)

So, it was 3:53 am and I was about done. I’d already been up with Ezra, who had a bad dream, when Eliza came pitter-pattering to my bedside and cried “I had a bad dweam!” 

I must say here that I didn’t really believe her. I really thought that it was all those other times she’d said that and I had lifted her into my bed and snuggled her back to sleep that had driven her to imagine that her benign dreams were a little bit “bad”; bad enough to come and climb in. I lifted her up and put her between Papa and me. That cast on her right arm is “to be reckoned with” in a double bed with three people! (It is a “violet” cast and she is so proud of it.)

Eliza then whispered “I don’t think you can hear my wuhds.” 

I said, :I don’t need to hear your words. We are not talking. We are going to sleep.” 

Then she softly whispered “Well, God can hear my wuhds.” 

I woke up then, for maybe the first time. “Oh, yes, you go ahead and talk to God. I can hear, too.” 

The she whispered, “Dee-ah God, PWEASE, oh PWEASE, don’t let me have any mow-ah bad, ‘cary dreams. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Well, I was pricked. I had doubted the severity of her dreams. But, I did go right back to sleep (With my arm securing the otherwise unruly cast) in spite of my conscience-ache . 

In the morning, I asked her if she could remember her dream. 

“Oh yes. It was mama and me and somebody else. Mama spilled a bag of cookies and a whole bunch of dogs came and ate dem all up. When dey finished eating dem, dey attacked us.” 

I said “Did they bite you?” 

She said “Dey didn’t get us. We ran and ran and while we runned, I waked up.” 

Lord, Help me to be more trusting of the innocent ones, more sympathetic and comforting in their little trials and more assured that You hear our whispers. And help me to remember that sometimes the innocent ones who need me may be bigger people, too.

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish (Matthew 18:14).

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Happy Birthday, Eliza Jane!

Posted on May 15, 2024

She’s four. Kabam! Where did these four years go?  She’s been big enough, tall enough, precocious enough to be four, for two years, now. She’s way ahead in height, but we need her to be just four, for the next year. Four is perfect for her.

She is easily the most expressive person, of any age, that I know. She can gasp at someone taking the name of God in vain, with more disdain than any church leader I know. She can give us her wink and nod when we’re conspiring to trick someone. She can jump out of the corner and scare you with more vigor than you can even stand when you’re walking by unsuspectingly. Most commonly, though, she can move to music in more poignant ways than any interpretive artist I’ve ever seen. She truly feels music and when she closes those eyes and grabs the air above her and moves rhythmically to some dramatic ballad, she does arrest your attention. 

There are a few things I’m glad she’s done being passionate about. She’s done with writing on the walls, wearing pull-ups, and being “taken out” during worship. She’s done with not liking a good green salad, and she’s done with not having her own restaurant preferences. She’s done with indifference about clothing and shoes, cartoons and favorite people. She’s opinionated. 

Her favorite color is still “lellow” but closely followed by “puhple” and “wainbow.” She loves some sweet tea (too much), carnivals, and a walk around the neighborhood. She loves Bible class, although her current struggle is staying in her seat. She really loves painting and she is over-the-top excited about gift-giving. 

She loves to play “Let’s See Who can Find”, “Remember that Day”, “Cow Counting” and the “Red Car Game” from her carseat. And she wants a prize from the joy jar for every win. She’s competitive. 

I hope she always loves to come to her Mammy’s house. I hope she wants more and more, as time goes by, to come into the House of God, His church. I know she will. That’ll be a great day.

She will soon learn to read and she will read some things, on billboards and on television screens and in people, that will fly in the face of her innocence. There will be exposure and then temptation and one day, sin. I’m glad that day is not today. For now, the innocence of being four has her securely in His arms. That innocence and virtue of five grandchildren at once, is the most wonderful thing about this stage of being a grandmother. It’s hard to believe sweeter days are ahead, but He has proven over and over that the best is yet to come. I can’t wait for heaven, His ultimate best for His people.   

Happy Birthday, Eliza Jane!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Eliza and her Euphemism

Posted on October 19, 2023

Eliza Jane is three. She was walking in the hallway at PTP, a large conference for Christians. Her mom introduced her to this new friend, who is in her late forties. They exchanged nice pleasantries and then this lady said “Oh my gosh!”— exclaiming about some great speaker or good food, or something.

Eliza Jane looked at her with big mortified eyes and said “Mrs. Jenny, we do not say ‘oh my gosh’”!

I think Mrs Jenny was mortified, too. She has since worked harder than anyone I’ve ever seen to stop saying that phrase. Now you have to know Mrs. Jenny. She was in the military in her pre-Christianity days. She’s worked hard to put down lots of baggage that the devil likes for us to carry. There are some pretty exhausting addictions that Jenny has conquered. But Mrs. Jenny was so kind to Eliza, assuring her that she would work hard to eliminate “Oh my gosh” from her vocabulary. Eliza even offered her some phrases that we can say instead of the offending one. 

Fast forward to last week, when Mrs. Jenny visited our services at West Huntsville. Eliza Jane went to her and got the report that she had, indeed, kicked the “oh my gosh” habit. Eliza gave her a high five and a thumbs up and said “I’m so pwoud of you.” Then, in a clearly empathetic tone, she added “I used to say ‘oh my gosh’ when I was a baby, too.”

Eliza, the speech police in the halls of PTP, did decide to try the phrase once more in the living room of their home. I heard her say it pretty emphatically, so I walked in there and said “Eliza! Did you say ‘oh my gosh’ What are you thinking?” 

“Well, I was just saying it to the cat. I thought it might not be wrong to say it to a cat.” 

Take-aways: 

1. Little people can do big things.

2.   Everyone needs to be a little more like Mrs. Jenny.

3.   Children have a sweet and innocent perspective about sin.

4.   We should express encouragement when Christians grow. 

5.   We should admit our own faults, being real and humble with people. 

6.   It is wrong to say it to the cat. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

That Last Child Will Not Be Upstaged!

Posted on April 21, 2023

photo credit: Leah Wright

Ezra’s mom keeps telling him. “You better be careful what you do and say, because you have two little sisters who are watching you and they want to be just like you.”  Books have been written about birth order and its effect on personality and character as children develop. I think that some of the birth order differences are due to the fact that parents mature (sometimes, a lot) between their first and last children and they are at varying stages of maturity with each child. So, we’re different parents with child number one than we might eventually be with child number three or four. There is a very real sense in which two children raised by the same parents, were really not raised by the same parents.

But some of the differences in first, middle and last children are caused by the realities of birth order, itself. The very nature of being the first implies that the oldest child will be the first to experience almost everything. He or she will be the leader into virtually all natural growing experiences.  While that’s an obvious reality, its ramifications are sometimes more nuanced than at other times.

Like last weekend at the very large Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville. Hundreds of people were assembled in a large ballroom. Awards had been given for the past hour-plus. Suddenly, Ezra’s name was called very loudly as a high scorer in Bible bowl. He made his way quickly to the stage. Now, if you have ever been to Lads to Leaders, you know that getting to that stage is a pretty big deal to the kids. We’ve stressed all year that getting to the stage means you committed and carried through. It means, in this case, that Ezra did his best to learn the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and he took a test–really just competing with himself–and he knew a bunch of the right answers from the Word.  All of the children who knew a certain percentage of the answers from the Book were up there, as well.

And then there was Eliza. She’s the last of three and all of those last child adjectives–persistent, charming, fun-loving, free-spirited, outgoing, risk taker–went into action mode. The result was a physical feat of kicking,  in a fashion worthy of an Olympic balance beam, her right leg up onto the stage, and proceeding to try and hoist herself up there to join the accolade-receivers.

She was directly in the lens of her horrified mom’s camera. Photography was suddenly unimportant and getting that baby off the stage was happening fast. I’m pretty sure the photo that Leah Wright caught of Eliza’s attempted moment of glory will be included in her senior slide-show in 2038.

A grandmother’s take-aways (things I hope to put in them whenever I get the chance):

  1. I’m going to keep telling that oldest child, in both of my kids’ families, that someone younger is very determined “to be a lot like you.” The responsibility is large and rewarding. “You are a leader.”
  2. I’m going to keep telling all of them that there will be people who try to take shortcuts to glory. But, in the end, giving God that glory takes dedication and hard work on the part of His servants. If we try to “climb up on the stage”, at the last minute without having done His will, there’s no glory for God. There’s no reward in heaven for us, either.
  3. I’m going to keep telling that youngest child, that he/she can do anything he/she sets his/her mind to do. But the mind-setting implies a fierce determination to follow through. It’s a daily grind to accomplish what we set out to do. It’s a daily privilege to set small daily goals that are stepping stones to true success.

And…

I’m going to tell Eliza, one day soon, that ladies don’t hoist their legs up onto objects that are as tall as they are, with two thousand people behind them.

…and here’s the fun reel when she really did get her moment to walk across with the other pre-k to 2nd graders (Not sure “free-spirited” even starts to describe):

https://www.facebook.com/100082639660170/videos/155855607119567