Browsing Tag

Grandmothers

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Holiday Contest Winners!

Posted on December 17, 2024

Grandmothers. You had two of them, even if you never knew either. But those of us who had really grand ones and were able to know them and be nurtured by their positive influences, were given these treasures far prior to the time when we could really appreciate their value in our lives—even in our eternities. 

I would venture to say, for many readers, the holidays are memory handles that allow us to keep in touch with the good natures, generous spirits and attentive offerings of time that our grandmothers brought to the magic of Christmas. I had that grandmother and there will always be sounds and smells that arrest my senses during the season of giving, and make me wish that I could have one more conversation with my grandmother. I can feel closest to her during the holidays while simultaneously missing her the most. 

Because we had so many wonderful submissions about grandmothers, we have five winners instead of four this Christmas.  I just had a hard time choosing. The winners are: Rachel Gardner, Rachel Valentin, Maxine Knoll, Deborah Dull and Leah Wright.  All of you will receive your  $25.00 gift card via email within the next few hours. Thanks for entering and thanks for the memories! 

If you’re a Christian grandmother, don’t take the Lois charge of 2 Timothy 1:5 lightly. It’s your blessed privilege to be instrumental in the placement of the faith that saves in the little hearts of the grands. If you’re not  yet to the grandmother “stage,”, watch and learn from  those who are grand-parenting for that grand day of eternal consequence when the grands will, prayerfully, hear the words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”  If you’re he granddaughter of a woman who’s still serving and evangelizing and whose eyes are focused on heaven, count yourself rich…and follow that woman!

The first winner in Rachel Gardner. Here’s what she said (and she sent some vintage photographs). I thought it was sweet that, while she recognizes and tell us that her grandmother was not a Christian, Rachel can still pinpoint  areas in her grandmother’s life that were influenced by a culture that was magnanimously  molded by principles of the Bible.  I long for those days in our society again. We move farther from them each year.  Look for hospitality, lack of materialistic focus, generosity, laughter and  contentment.

When I think of grandmothers and Christmas, my mind goes back to my own grandmother. While she was not a Christian, she was hospitable and loving like all Christians should be. Whether it was Christmas or not, her house was always welcome to visitors. She had a modest sized house, but that did not matter to her. During Christmas, all four of her children, their spouses and their children, crammed into her house and enjoyed wonderful fellowship and delicious goodies! Half of her living room was filled with gifts and twenty (or so) of us would spread out in the living room and dining room to make sure we had room to open the gifts. My grandmother also had a sense of humor and would give a gag gift to a different person each year. Not only that, but she would hide it in a different spot each year so that it would be opened last while everyone else gazed on. My gag gift was a gallon jar of pickles and she hid it in her water heater closet. Those pickles were gone within two weeks! Years later, she allowed all of us to take the Christmas decorations we wanted.

I’ll post the other winning paragraphs through the next few days!

P.S. Please message me if you  are one of the five winners and you have not received your redemption code in your email. Happy shopping!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Holiday Contest 2024…All about the Grandmothers!

Posted on December 2, 2024

Do you have your tree up yet?  It’s time to get the stockings hung again. I hope you can make The Colley House a part of your gift giving this year.

We, at The Colley House, would like to be the givers, each Christmas, too! Four lucky winners will receive $25.00 gift cards in your email on December 16th. Here’s how you enter:

Write, in 200 words or less, what special grandmother holiday memory you have. It can be about some special memory with your grandmother from your own childhood…OR…it can be a memory you, as a grandmother are currently making or have made with your grandkids. It can even be some happy idea you’ve learned from another grandmother. It can be about her tree, the smell of her cookies or your own baking traditions with your grands. It can be about the holiday traditions that are between your mama and your kids. Just two things are essential: Your writing has to include something about a grandmother AND it has to include something about the Christmas holidays.  It can include a recipe, a poem, a song, or a photo with caption (and none of those addendums will count in the 200 word limitation.)

Winner will be chosen on December 13th and gift cards will be emailed that weekend, so you can get your free item(s) back in time for holiday giving. Only submissions emailed to byhcontest@gmail.com will be considered. By submitting, you give permission for your submission to be printed on The Colley House site.

We hope you all have the best of holidays and that your new year is filled with HIS abundance. We are excited about a couple of new products we will be completing (three, actually and prayerfully) in 2025, so stay tuned.

 

 

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

A Letter to Daughters…

Posted on January 9, 2024

(I first wrote down these thoughts about 10 years ago. Much water has gone under my bridge since then. I still mean every word. He is faithful!)

Dear daughters, in the flesh and in the faith,

I am very proud to call you daughters. I am unworthy in every way to call you daughters, as every single day I learn so much from your dedication to the large tasks that lie before us and from your intense desire to place children around the throne. Still, you ask me sometimes, and you ask other older sisters, things. In the way of Titus 2, you seek simple advice, even though you often have far more “on-point” intuition than do I about many things domestic and spiritual. There are some of you who are even extremely patient about my ignorance of this culture’s nuances for millennials and those women of generation z.

Your job is increasing in difficulty and intensity every day. It’s really sort of breathtaking— the way the devil has stepped up his game through cultural shifts even in the past decade. Drag queens are influential in community library story hours, in middle and even elementary schools. Media outlets that were historically child-friendly are now bent on anesthetizing children to any dangers of behavior that we used to call “sin.” Our United States legal system is often unfriendly to anyone who has a firm adherence to Biblical truth and morality, while accommodating those “victims” who commit crimes of negligence—even abuse— to family and to those who inflict the consequences of harmful behavior on society. Your children and my grandchildren are growing up in a world that’s very different in some key and harmful ways than was the world of our childhoods. Lots of sleepy Christians of the past half-dozen decades have paved a smooth road for the takeover of  relativism and apathy in the young adults of our churches. Sometimes, especially when I travel through our nation’s airports and metropolitan areas, the effects of the devil in this undressed, ungrateful, and uncaring world are shocking. To top it off, those talking loudest about loving Jesus, are often averse to his commandments and are mocking the New Testament church as it works in the world today.   

But yet you are still in your homes putting your arms and shields of love around the innocents. You are offering prayers multiple times a day in your homes and your children are hearing you say their names as you petition our almighty God for their spiritual safety. You are there placing limits of time and content on the media of the world, when your neighbors and, sometimes those who share your pews, are chuckling at your extremism.  You are more concerned about the spiritual feeding of your children than you are about what’s on their plates for dinner, in a culture that truly has that all backwards. You’re more careful about stopping the recycling of moral trash than you are about getting the plastic in the right bin. You are disciplining in the gentle, but firm, Biblical way that includes both corporal punishment and the withholding of instant gratification, rather than buying into the culture’s idea of “gentle parenting” that puts children in premature and dangerous positions of reign in the home. You are having daily Bible times in your homes and you’re diligent in memorization  and role-play and ethical direction and singing and having heart-to-hearts in those Bible times. You are determined to seek first the kingdom in your attendance patterns and in your entertainment choices. You are consistently showing your children the numerous opportunities to evangelize that are in their interactions with those outside of Jesus. You are teaching them boldness as you voice your concerns about the safety of the unborn in our country and, in the process, you are transferring respect for God, who breathes into every human, the breath of life and transfers His very image into men. They watch as you reach to those who are in need at every opportunity.  You dry tears that are cleansing little hearts of despair and discouragement. Your shoulder is the safe place for little people who cannot help but be afraid because the devil deals in fear and uncertainty. He wants your family to be stifled by fear.

And I cannot tell you how precious you are to this grandmother’s psyche. I am, in short, surviving right now on your spiritual fumes. You emit courage, determination and the love of the cross through your daily grinds. What seems so hard every day is actually a testimony to your faith. When you’re so very tired and, really, wondering if you can put one foot in front of the other, remember the value of just one of the souls living in your house. Your job is one that culminates in the retention of value that’s larger than any other pursuit in this world. You are the vehicle of saving grace to your children. That value makes you willing to make any sacrifice to see those souls safely to the eternal arms of Jesus. Some of you are giving one hundred percent to three or four or five or more souls that are depending on your fortitude. Some of you are doing all of this without the help of a faithful spouse and a few of you are doing it in spite of the oppositional work of husbands who once were committed to heaven for your children. You are the bravest of all,  and you do not even know what your example may mean to someone in your circle who is complacent or fearful. Someone who is tired and is on the verge of throwing in the towel may glance over at you and think “If she can do it, with all of the obstacles she faces,  surely I can persevere a while longer.” Sometimes that tired person is me.

May God render His mercies that are new with each sunrise, His providence that is just for His children, and His promise of your ultimate good through the seeking first of His kingdom. I’m in His debt for your presence through days that are long. You fill those days with hope!

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

 

 

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.