My girlfriend who lives in California just had a baby girl and I wanted to go see them. My husband and I had 3 very young sons, all close in age and I thought I needed a break. I became even more exhausted from trying to make sure all was prepared and planned for my family before I left. When I got on the plane and settled in my seat I fell fast asleep before the person sat down in the seat next to me. I slept the entire flight. As the plane was descending I awoke and the man sitting next to me said “Did you sleep well?” I couldn’t speak because I realized he was Ryan Seacrest, the television host. He noticed my being star struck and laughed then exited the plane before I could gain my composure. I wiped my mouth hoping I hadn’t drooled all over the place while I was sleeping.

My friend picked me up from the airport, she too was exhausted from being a new mother. Our week included quick site seeing trips and visiting. San Francisco was a beautiful place. My friend seemed happy and I had a great time. The flight home from there invoked sleep again until I had a plane change in Dallas to connect to my flight home to Oklahoma City.

I was given a seat close to the front of the plane. As the plane was boarding I could see it was a full flight. Refreshed I was wondering and watchful as to who might be sitting next to me this time. I had a Bible study teacher who was an amazing lady who flew a lot. She would come back from trips and tell stories of people she was able to witness to and I dreamed of being like her one day.

A young man came in the plane talking non-stop to the stewardess. He paced back and forth in and out of the plane. He clearly had some sort of mental disability. He kept saying he had been to his sister’s wedding. “It was a beautiful wedding” he said over and over with such emotion. She escorted him to the isle seat on my row, I had the window seat and no one ended up sitting in the middle seat as he was the last to board.

Have you seen the movie Forest Gump? Tom Hanks must have met this man and modeled the character after him. The young man had a lot to say, over and over again. I just smiled and listened like the lady that sat on the bench and listened to Forest while they waited for the bus.

The young man was a huge Oklahoma Sooner fan. He told me several times that the flight path was over the stadium and asked me if I would let him know when I saw it. So, as we drew near I saw the stadium in the distance, pointed and said “there it is!” He didn’t give me a second to move and leapt across the seat between us, plastered his face in the window and stayed laid across me until we passed the stadium.

After the initial shock, I snickered and blew it off. He was so happy and thanked me several times for allowing him to see the stadium. As the plane stopped at the gate he quickly undid his seatbelt and bound for the door. As he was leaving he told the stewardess how he had seen the OU stadium. I gathered my things and rose out of my seat a little shaken.

As I stood up and looked toward the back of the plane to see if someone was coming others stood and stared at me. Then the crowd of passengers clapped for me. I was shocked, confused and embarrassed. I left the plane went to baggage claim and gathered my bags. I met my mother and our small boys at the passenger pick up. After hugs and kisses we went to McDonalds. We got our food and went to sit down as one of the passengers from the plane came over to my mother and said “your daughter is a saint!”

My mother was startled and was in shock, she knows I haven’t been a saint but as I told her the story she realized why he thought that way. I didn’t think I deserved that title, I was just being nice. I realized then there are different ways to be a witness.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
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What a stark difference between the two encounters. Ryan Seacrest and Forest Gump. I actually didn’t see the movie Forest Gump until awhile after the plane trip. I didn’t know the story either and at the end of the movie I cried like a baby. My husband was shocked! I used to not cry much. I said “that’s exactly how the man on the plane was!”

This is a story I will never forget and about how important it is to be kind to someone.

There is a tree on our 180 acres in Hugo, Oklahoma. A cedar tree which Oklahoma has an abundance of. My husband keeps an immaculate place mowing, trimming and picking up endless fallen branches. He was looking across the pasture one day and saw this scraggly tree and said “I am going cut that tree down!” I looked out the window and said “It’s alive, leave it alone.” And so he did. The tree has struggled, a harsh winter broke many of it’s branches. It is forked into looking like two trees. Cedars trees don’t normally fork. It has been plagued by bag worms which my husband has sprayed to kill. I have looked at trees and wondered why aren’t they perfectly shaped? What in their life has caused them to lean one way, twist or die. My mother told me when I brought home a painting of a dead tree from school how she never thought a dead tree could be beautiful until she saw it painted. I think trees are like people, God didn’t make us perfect. Things in life happen to us that make us look or act the way we do. Some bad, some good. If we live for Him, God, He can take those events and care for them. Pruning and shaping our hearts to cope and recover.

“And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.””
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21:5‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/rev.21.5.NASB1995

The tree I am speaking of is the tree which from behind Jesus spoke to me. A year later I was looking out across the pasture and said “Honey, have you looked at “The Cedar Tree” lately?” Which he said no, I said I have never seen it so green or so full. Even the trunk is like it’s been on steroids (no fertilizer has been given). Birds of many species have made their home in it. “It’s almost as if being in the presence of God it has been blessed!”

Here is a few of my life experiences on this subject. I am a product of a one night stand. My parents decided to keep me and get married, through a difficult time, they grew to love each other very deeply and would have been married almost 50 years if my father hadn’t died of cancer. My mother never remarried and still misses him daily.

I worked at Hertz rent a car data center for many years. I made friends with a girl there that was different, other women shunned her. I don’t know why except she talked a lot and wore thick glasses. She was sweet though, she reminded me of my mother. Her husband was rude and verbally abusive. She would make excuses for him. He told her he didn’t love her anymore and left her. She was devastated and tried to move on. She went on vacation and met a guy, slept with him and got pregnant. The guy didn’t want the child or her so she aborted it. She called me in the process of taking a night after pill, I didn’t know what to say. There was nothing I could do. Her former husband found out and committed suicide.

My husband and I were married when we were 18 and 19 years old, we didn’t have to get married. We didn’t have children until we were 24 and 25. I wasn’t ready still at that age and didn’t take care not to abort the child I was carrying by over exerting myself and lost it. My husband was devastated. I didn’t know the ramifications of what I had done until afterward. We quickly tried again and had a beautiful son. Then two more within three years. When I got pregnant with the 4th, I was exhausted. I had a bad cold and took cold medicine not caring if it effected the baby. My body painfully aborted it. That not only affected my husband to the point that he got a vasectomy, my sons for the loss of a sibling that never was but shame that has never left me. Our sons are extremely successful. What the world could have also lost by my selfish act is forever unknown.

My husband’s brother in the mean time got a girl pregnant out of wedlock. It was a new relationship, they were in high school. His father was a prominent figure in the community so they decided to abort the child. Then he lied about it and blamed someone else for 35 years. He came clean after he was admitted to a psyc ward. We knew he had taken his girlfriend to have the abortion but not that it was his. They broke up, he tried to shoot himself with a riffle and had a life in and out of treatment centers. Highly medicated most of the time which caused his parents unending years of struggles.

I see no good outcome from abortion only lasting consequences. It should forever come to a end for public health and our future. God forgive us. Psalms 127….

“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭127:3‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/psa.127.3.NASB1995

I have a dream…that’s how his most famous speech starts. What was the dream? According to brittanica.com his speech in 1963 spoke of his dream of a United States that is void of segregation and racism. I was born that year, over 60 years later we are still fighting battles everyday over these issues. How do we win these battles? Mr. King said with love. Love does cover a multitude of sins as the old saying goes but covering hasn’t made it go away. Special interest groups seem to have only put a focus on the subject, possibility making it worse.

What I have observed is that it will take viewing character over color.

Mr. King was a Baptist minister, the Bible reads in Proverbs 20:11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right…I have a dream.

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.”

Isn’t God good! I started the day writing about a disappointment I had the day before. My husband, Kevin said he wanted to have communion under the tree where God spoke to me sometime that day. I was excited! What a great way to start the year! But, as the day wore on it got colder and colder from a storm moving in. We didn’t partake in the communion. I told the Lord, I didn’t want the year to go that way, with missed opportunities. Kevin spoke up and said “Do you need anything in Paris (Texas)?” I said “no, why?” He said he needed something from Home Depot. I said “I’ll never turn down a trip to Paris.” Lol! He said “What about going to FFC Church today?” That’s where some friends go to church and we haven’t seen them lately. I said “Sure!” I have always wanted to spend Sundays in Paris. Church, eat and shop. Even if it’s just for groceries. Upon entering the church our friend was in the foyer. He was so excited to see us! He said “grab a communion cup and go sit down front by my wife, just walk in like you own the place.” Communion cup? I just wanted to bawl. A second chance. Yes, God is good!

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:22‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/100/lam.3.22.NASB1995