Thoughts on my Granny

by Kimberly | Mar 3, 2011 | Uncategorized

Well, this is what I do.  I write.  So, when something happens – I write about it.  This is a way I pay tribute.

Lorraine Olson Hatcher.  Just turned 86 on Feb 21.  Granny to me for over 34 years now.  She was adventurous in her young age. One of the favorite pictures I have of her is her standing in front of an airplane when she was about 20 – gorgeous, movie star quality.  She marred my Papa and had 4 kids, my Mom being one of them, tons of grandkids, and even great grandkids.  I’m sorry she never will have the opportunity to meet my husband or kids.  That they will never know their granny.  That they will never get her birthday money that she would give us or get cooking lessons for chicken and rice or hush puppies or goulash.  Man, she could make a good goulash! 

I was Kimberly to my granny.  She would always call me that.  I guess she figured my Mom named me that for a reason, so I better be called that.  I love how she would write my name.  Kimberly…I like that name.

She was such a big help to our family when my Mom was so sick for many years. 

She knew how to wrap mullet after my Papa would catch like 300 of them.  Now, that is a great pairing right there.  I mean, I don’t know how to wrap mullet so it won’t smell up the entire freezer and kitchen. 

I remember being so afraid of the dark and having to run across the pasture from our houses.  She would leave the porch light on when I would leave and stand out there waiting for me to get across the pasture.  I would run faster than I had ever run before. 

She got me hooked on Nutty Bars – the Little Debbie ones.  So yummy. 

So…I sent her a card last week, it was a birthday, anniversary, and get well card all wrapped in one.  I wrote it big so she could read it (she was pretty much blind with macular degeneration).  I hope someone took it up to the nursing home for her.  I told my Dad to pass along to her I love her, from Kimberly.

I have sobbed today.  I don’t like sobbing.  It is dehydrating and makes my eyes hurt.  I’ve done it too much this week.  But, as I just told a friend…Curtis and Granny are now there together.  Curtis had prayed for her daughter and her granddaughter many times.  I hope somehow she knows that.  But, they both knew Jesus.  That’s what was important.

And, I hope, when I’m 63, I am able to sit with my Mom and she goes on to see Jesus.  I need a good 30 more years with my Mom to learn everything that I need to learn about being a daughter and being a Mom.  I hope I have kids one day that I can tell stories about their Granny to them – and teach them how to wrap mullet and make hushpuppies.  And eat goulash.

My Granny loved me.  I never doubted that.  Tomorrow night, I’ll get to my hug my Mom’s neck.  I can’t wait, LW.  I love my granny.  Thank you for all you taught me.

Tears and all.

Thursday Thoughts: She Does Him Good

by Kimberly | Mar 3, 2011 | Uncategorized

You know how you sit down to write and read for a certain post – you start with one thought in your mind and you end up going in a different direction. This is one of those posts.  This will be a two-section post. 

Proverbs 31:11-12 “The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.  She does him good and not harm, all the days of her life.”

First: to single ladies: (I myself, being one of those said single women)

1.  She does him good all the days of her life.  The idea of 24/7.  Before she is married – all the days of her life.  Most of us live in the “when I get married I will…” (fill in the blank).  If it is something good that you could be doing, that if you weren’t doing would bring harm, then you should be doing it now.  It doesn’t matter that you aren’t married – how can you do your husband good now – all the days of your life?  Serve well, take care of yourself well, pursue Christ well, protect your heart well. 

2.  Carolyn McCulley says this well in her book Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye: “In our friendships with single men, we can’t presume that any man is the one.  We might hope that he will be the one, but only time will unfold God’s plan for us.  The woman of noble character, therefore, doesn’t live just in the present, but carefully considers her interactions from the persective of an entire lifetime – and thereby earns the trust of her husband (should God provide), as well as the numerous men who will friends and brothers in the Lord.  We have to consider what will bring him gain, or as the NIV translates it, that he lacks nothing of value.  This is the bedrock of trust.” 

Does your husband, whom you don’t know him yet (as your husband) have your trust?  Do you act in such a way that would honor him as your husband, to speak well of your brothers in Christ, to serve them as a sister in Christ would, to encourage them in their walk with the Lord and with the Word of life? 

For married women:

As I was reading a book by Elizabeth George this morning on this very passage, I came across a list I wrote in the book.  This is why I write in books – so I can go back and be encouraged, hopefully this list will encourage you: ( I wrote this list back in 1998 when I first read this book, I was 21 – thinking I would be married long before I was 34):

1.  Open your heart to him. Be honest in your feelings and thoughts.

2.  Praise him when he does something you ask him to do (even if its not the exact way you would have done it).

3.  Quickly do the things he has asked you to do.

4.  Resist the temptation to criticize your husband.

5.  Spend quality time with your husband: communicating, laughing, loving.

6.  Thank him for being the man of God He called him to be.

7.  Unite with him wholly.

8.  Value his opinions.

9.  Wait on him, don’t make haste judgments.

10.  Excel in things he may not do well.

11.  Yearn for his love, his companionship.

12.  Zealously serve the Lord.  In doing that, you will in turn serve your husband.

She brings him good, all the days of her life.  As I typed this list, I know who I learned much of that from, especially the last one.  I may have wrote those with a naive heart, but those are still true today.  May there come a time when I can practice those, but until then…I will do my husband good all the days of my life, and encourage you to do the same.

Thoughts from a Funeral

by Kimberly | Mar 1, 2011 | Uncategorized

I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The LORD will keep you from all evil;  he will keep your life.  The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 121 – ESV

I’ll start it off with a lighthearted one:  I’m glad I didn’t put on any mascara this morning.  I don’t wear waterproof, so it would have not been pretty.

Curtis Crutchfield was a man, 65 years of life, husband, dad, grandfather, friend.  One of my favorite memories with Curtis was traveling halfway around the world to Thailand to serve missionaries there.  Loved seeing how he just loved on those m-kids, prayed incessantly while we were there.  Also, I knew every morning, and sometimes many times during the day, I would get an email from “Putterbud” which was his email address – sending out prayer requests from those at The Summit Church.  While I was at that church for 3.5 years, and even after I moved from Durham to Louisville, and now back to Raleigh, I knew I could send him prayer requests and he would be praying.  As I look back over the emails I have sent him over the years: he has prayed for the salvation of my friends and family, churches I attended in Louisville, a professor at SBTS that I worked for during my time there, he prayed that I would move back to this area (because I asked him to), he prayed for my Mom when she was having medical tests done, he prayed for my brother while he was in Africa with malaria.  I only may know personally of one other person in my life who prays as much or as diligently as Curtis did.  Curtis: Thank you.

I told a friend on the phone after the service that I wish I had been able to live blog it because you would have gotten so many more thoughts (maybe you are glad I didn’t): but I just want to share some with you.

1.  If I die before these three people: make sure the first two play/sing at my funeral and the third one gives the sermon: Chris and Michelle Gaynor and Danny Franks. 

2.  I love the humility and service of Brad and Danny and Chris.  Even in little ways today, I saw these three men of God humbly serving and loving.  Exactly who they are – for the glory of Christ.

3.  A Shadow of a Greater Reality.  This is what Curtis was.  Since he was saved by the grace of God through the cross of Jesus – he lived humbly and faithful and boldly to proclaim His Great God.  That was so clearly evident in this service today: not focusing on a good man (which Curtis is probably the best 65 year old I know), but a good man’s Great God.

4.  “And the joy we share as we tarry there.” – This line stood out to me for a couple of reasons: 1.  I want to know that deep seeded daily joy.  Things in my life have to change.  As a dear sweet friend said to me after the service: “You are going to slow down one of these days.”  My response to her: maybe I will, maybe I will.  Thank you BD for that word of exhortation.  2.  I want my life of tarry here on this earth to be full of joy.  I want to surround my life with things and people that make me smile.  I don’t want to fill my hours with meaningless things.  John 10:10.

5.  The Psalm on the inside of the program was Psalm 121 (read above).  Turned out this was the last daily devotion that Curtis had.  What a glorious truth – not even knowing that this would be the last thing he read in Scripture – but just a stunning portrait of the the beautiful faithfulness of the Word of God in that man’s life.

6.  Always at funerals it makes you stop and think about what is important in life.  And, yes, I thought about some of those things too.  There are only 2 things that I really still want to do in life: praying that God in his goodness would supply in His perfect timing.  For me not to live discontented – but faithful.

7.  The last song that Michelle sang by herself was “It Is Well” – hands down my favorite “old-school” hymn that there is.  “oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul!”  And Curtis didn’t get to experience the trump resounding and the Lord descending…but instead, he closed his eyes here on earth (at his grandson’s bball practice) and opened them to see the Great High Priest welcoming him home.

8.  I thought I was done crying, but no.  The pall bearers carried Curtis out and following him was the family: Miss Kathy and Andy and the rest.  Thinking that pretty soon, they would lay Curtis in the ground, and even though Miss Kathy had said her goodbyes, and tears would continue, and rejoicing was happening in their hearts because of the glorious truth of the Gospel: I couldn’t even imagine the pain that she was experiencing that the man she had cherished all these years was not coming back.  He wasn’t on a mission trip, he wasn’t out playing golf, he wasn’t up at Cole Mill Road setting up for a service: no.  He was gone.  And while she will see him again because of their mutual faith in the Gospel – she will live the remainder of her days here on earth by herself, without the love of her life.  And I saw many couples in the church today: I’m reminded of the beauty and grace of marriage.  Not ones that I’ve read in books or theology of marriage, but the glorious truth, patience, hard-work, grace-abounding, marriage. 

9.  Curtis was also one of the most humble men I knew.  He was quiet, meek, a servant, not caring what the task was, he served joyfully.  I got to serve on the First Impressions team with him while I was at the Summit.  I remember the many Sunday lunches in the Riverside High School cafeteria.  He had much more a servant’s heart than I did.  He never wanted to be recognized for anything, he would point all the praise to Jesus anyway.  May I seek that humility and servant’s heart and meekness, that the qualities of my life would also point others to Jesus.  Thank  you Curtis for loving Jesus – because He first loved you.

I could probably think of many more thoughts that ran through my mind during the hour long service, but I’ll leave you with this.  My first tears shed well before the service started as I read this verse on the back of the program:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8

Curtis: I look forward to seeing you worshipping your Great God when I get there.  Then I can join you again in worshipping our Jesus!