This month, Beyond the Walls is intentionally reaching out to those who care for others: parents, caregivers, essential workers, teachers, ministry leaders and their families. This week we focus on caregivers. If you or someone you know provides care for an infirmed family member or a friend, send this letter from Chef Ben to them. It’ll be sure to brighten their day.

This month, Beyond the Walls takes time to honor all those who care for others. Deliberately, we take the time to say thank you to all who go unappreciated and overlooked although they are valuable to our world. This week we say thank you to health care professionals and first responders. God bless you for the work you do!!

Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes I am!

To write or not to write was never a question.  How I was to write was the object of my affections. So many choices! So many ways to poetically describe, dramatically design, narratively define, or emphatically align expositions, and persuasions like dance parties on paper held first in my mind.  I learned to invite others into this gift.  I learned over time how to share this gift.

Living all of life by The Kingdom Agenda is the way God wants us to live! We need to model in a very powerful way the Kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven, in every area of life. Non-believers will not be attracted to the good news of the Kingdom of God by what we say, but by what they see in our lives.

God created you and me to harness a part of His creation. Every person was created with that divine intent. The tragedy is that mankind went after Satan, stopped trying to be managers, and started trying to be the owner, thus parroting Satan’s sin.

My Mother raised me at an early age to be a nurturer. I can still remember her teaching me to make cornbread at 6 years old and how she’d go next door to the neighbors to brag about how well I could do so at such an early age. She taught me how to starch and iron clothes on an ironing board to perfection. This turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. I soon became my siblings “go-to” person for all their ironing needs, or their “designated dishwasher,” lol!

Shannon Little is my baby sister!!! So proud to feature her work here. She is the mother of 5, a wife of almost 17 years, the first lady of Bethesda Community Church, and an attorney.

“There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home……………” #ClickingMyRubyHeels#Exhaling

Well, this week was a bit turbulent for me emotionally. It’s difficult for me to even be transparent about it because it’s so personal. Telling this even tastefully makes me vulnerable. I mean who likes to be wide open like that? Yet, I am compelled to do so because my life is not my own and prayerfully, my story will give you hope in an area that we do our best never to uncover, never to talk about, never to discuss. After all, what happens in the house, stays in the house right?

Just the other day, my son had asked to check the mail. His eyes eagerly waited in anticipation for my response. You see, we have been in quarantine. The governor had implemented his stay home order and my son would do anything, even if it was a miniscule task of checking the mail, to get out of the house. I smirked and nodded my head in approval as he happily skipped off to the mailbox to enjoy the sunlight and fresh air. Upon his return, I smiled as I took the letter out of his hand feeling complete joy knowing that he had gotten a little relief from being cooped up in the house.

This all seems unreal.

This feels so impossible. We are surrounded by sickness and disease. Finances have been affected. The grief and pain of loss seem unbearable and never ending. There’s so much confusion and uncertainty. Even the strongest of us have found ourselves with head in hand vacillating between “I will Trust in the Lord,” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” Personally, I’ve never seen anything like this before and as full of joy as I usually find myself, I have admittedly struggled in my inward man.The news is necessary but way too much some days. Social media is ok in balance but lately, too much to bear. My text thread was filling up morning, noon and night with distressing news and I found myself not knowing what to do.

Here we are.

Everything that can be shaken has been shaken. All of our comforts have been disrupted. All that we depend on has been rendered ineffective. Not just some of us. ALL of us. None of us is exempt from the current global pandemic and the effects of its accompanying precautionary measures. Location has not exempted us. Finances nor status have exempted us. Education has not exempted us. Each of us has been forced to pay attention to what is happening right now in our world. We've all been forced to take a pause from the movement of our daily lives, to make adjustments, and to follow guidelines to keep ourselves healthy and safe. So much has been affected, so many have been impacted, so many people globally and locally have been infected. Sadly, so many have passed away.

I want to talk about something today that's uncomfortable. With your permission, I'd like to be transparent, open and sincere about a topic that is common to us all but many times avoided in conversation. I told you about the wreck I had in part one. We talked about the pain and progress of physical therapy in part two. But, in part three, I want to share my recent experiences with grief in hopes that our conversation will spark a needful dialogue on healing. Come sit with me on the porch, grab a rocking chair, and a cup of hot chamomile.

After the collision came therapy.

The car was at the collision center being repaired. I had a rental car to ease any transportation difficulties in the meantime. Everything was moving in the right direction until I realized that I too, needed to be repaired.

About three days after the accident, I began feeling pain in my neck and back. This was pain that prevented sleep. This was pain that impaired mobility.

This post is one of three that I finally am released to share. Let me first be fully transparent in saying that the last few months have been extremely trying. I’ll also share that my testimony is yet being fleshed out. In other words, everything is not in place. Everything is not yet back to normal. However, in this journey, I am learning -in faithful application more than in theoretical memorization and repetitive regurgitation- that one mustn’t wait until the battle is over when there is space and opportunity to shout right now.

I've heard it said that the will of God will never take you where His grace won't keep you!

Well...

I've learned that in the midst of my trying times His grace was there!

I've seen that in my weakness His all sufficient grace has been my strength!

In spite of myself-my failures, my shortcomings, my flaws...

The wind blew softly as the raft cut across the waters of the Sea of Alaska. As our raft traveled away from the glacier where we camped, I started to say a prayer. With land fading out of eyesight and only the hum from the raft’s motor to fill my ears, a feeling of fear began to overwhelm me. I was flooded with a million thoughts about the choices that had led to me being there at that moment.

Not too long ago I had an experience with my car that continues to speak to me. As I usually do after work, I stopped to pick up my godson from school and the car wouldn’t start. I popped the hood as if I knew what to do or even what I was looking for. Seeing me looking under the hood, what-seemed-to-be-a-passerby-really-a-church-member that I knew, gave me a jump and the car started right up.

That’s What a Father’s Love Will Do

Once upon a time there was a little girl whose dream was to be the queen of the world

She believed that she would for her

Daddy told her that she could

So she set out to conquer life

It was all good