Grandmother's Bible

I started this blog for my children. I thought it would be something great for them to have from me. As they get older they can read it and learn more about me and the things I thought and said as I was raising them. My grandmother puckett, my mom's mom, passed away in 1989 before there was such a thing as internet but she also left me something that has helped me get to know her better through the years, her Bible. I read this Bible on the daily basis and I carry it with me to church. I love to flip through the pages and see what she wrote, what she studied and what she prayed.
At first I set this special book on a shelf and didn't want to touch it. I wanted everything to be as it was the last time she had opened the book herself. It stayed like that for years... sitting on a shelf or in a box collecting dust, untouched. I went through my preteen years, junior high, high school and then college. I packed the Bible and took it with me to college. By this time I did open it but I didn't want to move the ribbons in it where she had marked the pages. I'm sure I read it at different times but didn't really pay attention to the things she had written in the margins until the past few years. Then one day something caught my eye... it was my name written in the margin in her handwriting! Actually as I looked closer it said "read to Nikki and Mary Beth", Nikki and I are her oldest granddaughters born just a month apart from eachother and I know she prayed for us often. It sends chills through me to know that years later I can share something with her that she read, pondered, and prayed over. Here is the passage... "Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty." Proverbs 4:5-9 This passage speaks of wisdom and I believe Grandmother prayed for us to acquire wisdom. I also believe that she particularly liked the words I have highlighted in red. Those are beautiful words... I believe these words personify wisdom and my grandmother was praying that one day we would be examples of this. I don't remember her ever getting a chance to read this passage to Nikki and I but when I had the chance to read these words on my own and realize that my grandmother wanted us to read and learn from this passage I think of another verse... "So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11 I think it is amazing how God uses us. More than 20 years ago my grandmother was sitting in her vinyl covered chair in the den off the kitchen reading God's word and praying for her grandchildren, pondering over specific words and then at the perfect moment many years down the road I open this book and see the words she wrote and read what she read and these words begin to accomplish what God desired, and this will continue. How amazing!!

I have heard that others have read my blog and people have shared that it has touched them or meant something to them and I give God the glory for using me. I will continue to mingle God's word with the stories I write because I want it to do exactly what Isaiah 55:11 says. These words will succeed in the matter for which He sent it. Pray that I will acquire wisdom and that I will allow the Holy Spirit to lead me as I write.