An anniversary poem from my dad

These are undeserved words, but I thought it was so sweet and special, I wanted to share it.  Thank you, Dad and Mom.

A thrill embraced our hearts as she
     Surrendered to God's call;
"I want to serve the Lord", she said,
     "A Missionary Call".

At college she was faithful to
     Her calling every day,
And then she met Brent Williams
     And dated this "M.K."

As parents of this lovely girl
     Our prayers had always been
That she would marry someone who
     Would be her dearest friend,

And share her heart's desire to give
     God's message to the lost.
When she and Brent were married,
     They'd counted out the cost.

Their life together has been blessed,
     As God gave them three more!
They all serve Him together and
     To them, it's not a chore.

It's anniversary time again,
     Now fifteen years, plus two;
Congratulations, Brent and Mir!
     We are still proud of you!

I wonder

As I gaze out my bedroom window at the snow white and gloriously puffy clouds, lazily making their way across the clear blue sky, I wonder. 
 As I study the dark green of the mountains that look like a wonderful, enormous head of brocolli, I wonder.  
As I feel the hot-cool air from the fan, grade my daughter's math, answer a question about rewards from my son, laugh hard at my other son's antics, sweep my shiny, tiled floors, I wonder.  
As I reflect on God's love for me, my smallness and His bigness, as I read His letter to me and strive to understand it, I wonder. 
 I wonder why He chose me.  
I wonder why He loves me.  
I wonder how He can know my innermost thoughts and desires and still want to spend time with me. 
 I wonder why He chose to place me in a third world country, so far from the familiar and family, yet strangely, at times, home. 
I wonder why He chose to grace me with a loving husband and 3 healthy children. 


 My wondering could go on for days, weeks, months.  So much I don't understand.  So much I will never comprehend.  So many questions, and really only one answer for now. 
 God is.  God is love. 
 I don't need to understand or deserve what He gives.  He created me after all.  I am but a tiny dot in His gigantic universe.  

So small, but so loved.  
What a wonder!!!


Miriam

A small tribute to my dad

                                                      My dad and me Father's Day, 2010






Father's Day this year went by in a blur, as we were in the car for 10 hours and exhausted when we arrived home.  A few days late, but just as sincere, here is a small tribute to my father.


David Paul Perdue, born in Texas, the same day as Prince Charles, is the true prince in my eyes.  Brought up by a humble preacher and a hard working mother, his love for the Lord started very early.  


My grandparents, Harold and Ruth Perdue brought him and his brothers up to serve the Lord with fervor and faithfulness.  My dear Grandma Ruth is 88 today and doing great.  My grandpa has been in Heaven for over 10 years now.


The oldest of 4 brothers, he was an example to them of integrity, consistency, and hard work.  These qualities characterize him still today.


My dad's love of music also started very young and he and his brothers sang together all over Florida, where he grew up.  They have recently made a long overdue CD for my grandmother.  He studied music at Baptist Bible College and actually led the college choir as a student.  Also a lover of music is my mom, who my dad met and married in 1969.


Some memories of my dad during my growing up years are his "party pooper" t-shirt, his ability to do tons of push-ups, his gentle way of waking me up every morning, even though I would flail and whine, his faithfulness to God and the local church, his whistling, seeing him reading his Bible every morning at the breakfast table and him telling me he loved me every day.  As I got older, he was a great listener, was not afraid for us kids to ask "why", was an excellent Bible teacher of my Senior class, and accompanied me down two special aisles, homecoming my Jr. year and of course, my wedding day.  


Dad, thank you for your consistency, your example and your love.  I am so thankful God knows just who we need for parents.  I love you very much.


Miriam

Some people are just awesome

There are times in our lives when God chooses to show Himself in extraordinary ways.  Then there are times when He chooses to show Himself in small, quiet ways.  Very, very often, He shows Himself through His children.

We are experiencing some sadness right now, but also much, much joy.  We said goodbye to some dear and special brothers and sisters in Christ a few days ago.  29 men and women from Central Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs, TX spent ten days in Peru, serving in so many ways, from building, to stamping tracts, to passing out tracts, doing mimes in the streets, cleaning, teaching, sharing and all in all, blessing the lives they touched.

I witnessed firsthand several grandparents working tirelessly in the heat, dirt, and at times, physically precarious situations.  I saw six teenagers who love the Lord with all their hearts, who had the best attitudes and were some of the most willing and helpful kids I've ever seen.  I saw a couple of young men start working early in the morning, take 5 minutes for a sandwich and work into the night, building a roof for our church.  I saw ladies, several who had physical issues, walk for hours in the hot sun, passing out flyers and loving anyone they met.  I saw two mime teams do an excellent job acting out the story of God's love for man, a few times in the heat of the day with no shade and no complaining.  I saw 29 people of every age, type, personality and background pull together and share their God-given gifts to accomplish a whole lot in a short time.

I was personally blessed beyond words to see some friends who I had missed very much over the past year.  I was blessed to make some new friends.  I was blessed to hear encouragement and cheering from some people I respect immensely.  I was humbled and amazed at the generosity showed to my family from each and every team member.  I was blessed and appreciated so very much how much love my kids were shown.  I was proud to be a part of this team and I am thankful to have been given the gift of their time these past weeks.

This was one of those times God chose to show Himself in an extraordinary way, in a small, quiet way and mostly, through His children.  All the glory goes to Him.  God used each gift offered in His perfect way.  He worked a mighty work in spite of sickness, schedule changes, frustrations, meltdowns, and just plain silliness.  I truly believe God smiled on our little group of servants, in this small corner of His great world.  Many heard about Him, many read about Him, many saw His love through a smile or a touch.

Heartfelt thanks to the Central missions team.  We love you dearly, we are honored to be partners in ministry with you and we hope to see you all again soon.  You have taken a piece of each of our hearts back to Texas with you.

Brent, Miriam, Olivia, Kyall and Lucas

Hating well

Hate means "intense hostility and aversion, usually deriving from fear, anger.....extreme, intense or passionate dislike."


Since our kids were small, we have taught them not to lightly say "I hate ........".  When they were really little, they thought "hate" was a bad word!  We taught them to hate Satan and sin, but nothing else.  Hate is a very strong word/emotion and should be used as sparingly as possible.


As they've grown, this has seemed kind of extreme and we've pretty much let it go.  Consequently, I find myself saying things like "ugh, I hate this traffic!", "I hate cleaning the bathroom!", or "I hate it when that happens!".  I have let my own rule go out the window, and of course, my kids repeat what I say and I have been disturbed by how many things they "hate" lately.


In the excellent book, "Nine Things You Simply Must Do (to succeed in life and love) by Dr. Henry Cloud, one of his nine things is to "hate well".  We should hate some things.  We should hate lying.  God does.  We should hate pride.  God does.  We should hate evil.  God does.  We should hate murder.  God does.  We should hate dissension among brothers.  God does.  Basically, my simple rule for my kids when they were smaller was not too bad.  Hate Satan and sin.  That about sums it up.


I want to hate well and I want my children to also.  I can't think of any words that would hurt me more than to hear one of my loved ones tell me they hate me.  I don't want them to get into the habit of saying they hate this and hate that.  It kind of sounds like complaining and we know how God feels about complaining.  Punishable by death in the Old Testament!


  I am going to try to remember not to lightly throw around the word hate and hopefully, be able to re-teach my kids the same.


Let's hate well!


Miriam