Who has the rights to your story?

We sat in the movie theater as the ending scenes of "Saving Mr. Banks" played out on the big screen.

My husband and I were both moved to tears as Emma Thompson, playing P.L. Travers, the pen name of the author of the Mary Poppins books, watched the premier of Walt Disney's version of her book.

After a twenty year battle she had finally relinquished the rights to her story to Walt Disney, and in doing so, she experienced a great amount of personal inner healing.

The movie impacted both of us greatly, but for my husband it became a quest.  He wanted to know how much of the story was true.  He wanted to know more about  P. L.Travers, more about Walt Disney. For weeks he researched and read.  His research led him to the conclusion that "Saving Mr. Banks" is a pretty accurate depiction of both people and their stories.

For my husband, the movie didn't just spark his curiosity.  He became convinced that God had used this movie to speak to him and that God had given him a message that he was to share.  

The first Sunday of 2014, when the people of our church entered into the church sanctuary they noticed a very large multicolored kite with a long tail hanging from the ceiling, and kites of various colors mounted here and there on the walls, a reminder of the song, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" that was a pivotal moment in "Saving Mr. Banks" and in the Disney movie, "Mary Poppins".   That Sunday, my husband began a series of messages called, "The Happiest Place on Earth".  The first in the series of messages was, "Who has the rights to your story?"  He used the movie as an illustration.  He reiterated how for years, Mrs. Travers fought Walt Disney refusing to relinquish the rights to her story, fearful of what he would do with it.  My husband compared that with us being fearful of giving God the rights to our story, of not trusting what He will do with it.  However, just as we saw in the movie, in the relinquishment of her story, Mrs. Travers found healing from long ago wounds.  My husband said, as we relinquish the rights to our story God wants to use our own story to heal us and set us free.

I was on the front row that Sunday, in my usual pastor's wife seat, saying my amens to what he said.  I believe it with my whole heart.  For here, in this little place online, I have let God have my story, and when He has said to share it, I have.  In that process, healing has come not just for me, but for others who have read my story and related to some of the things that I have written about.

God doesn't waste our story.  He doesn't waste the good parts and He doesn't throw out the bad parts. He doesn't waste our wounds.  Everything, our highest highs and our lowest lows, He truly does work together for our good.  Just as a delicious chocolate cake has the blandness of flour in it, the savoriness of salt in it, the bitterness of baking cocoa in it, and the sweetness of sugar in it, yet all mixed together it is something delicious, in the same way God mixes the sweet and the bitter of our life into something wonderful.  First though, we have to let Him.  We have to trust Him with the rights to our story.  We have to trust, that like Walt Disney did with P.L. Traver's book,  that God's glorious imagination will do more with our story than we could ever ask or think.

Today, (in)courage is asking you to join in and register for an (in)Real Life meeting in April.  This is a meeting where you will hear women sharing their stories, and where you can share yours.  Last year's (in)RL was life changing for me and the group of women I watched it with. I heard stories from women I have known for almost two decades that I had never heard before, stories they finally relinquished the rights to, and in doing so we all experienced the healing touch of God.

Who has the rights to your story, friend?  It's a story we all need to hear.

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Also joining THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 

at 3-D Lessons for Life

On teacups and forgiveness...

My mother-in-law wasn't easy for me to love.

Due to her own brokenness, she didn't love her oldest son well.

That made it hard for me to love her well, 

since I'm married to him.

She's the only living parent that we have left.

Sometimes I almost forget she's still alive.

She's lost to us in so many ways, and us to her.

Alzheimer's is a cruel thief life that.

She was the opposite of my own mama in many ways 

so that made it hard for me to accept her, too.

My mama wasn't a collector.

I don't think she ever owned more than one set of dishes at a time.

She set the table for every meal, but never added a centerpiece or flowers.

To her those things were a waste of her hard earned money.

Mama had had a tough life, and raised us kids on her own after Daddy left her when I was nine years old.

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, was a sentimental over collector.

Every greeting card everyone ever gave her was saved.

She kept all of the sentimental belongings from her children's upbringing, including their baby teeth.

She loved flowers and lace and bone china and crystal.

She had stuff, stuff and more stuff, all of which were her treasures.

Where my mama had to be strong and learn to care for herself and us kids, 

I viewed my mother-in-law as a well taken care of stay at home mom.

She had a husband who loved and served God and loved and cared for her.

He had a great job and was a great provider.

She had a lovely home.

She had three children who grew up to love and serve God.

She lived to see her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Yet, in my eyes, she seemed to be ungrateful and unhappy with her lot in life much of the time.

When she had to be put in assisted living, much of the stuff she collected had to be thrown out.

Anything especially sentimental or of value was put in a rented storage unit.

This fall, the siblings decided it was finally time to deal with her things.

Her English bone china teacup collection was dispersed amongst the females of the family, 

us all getting a chance to pick our favorites.

Since I don't have a place to keep them out on display, they are kept safely in her cedar hope chest, 

which we also ended up with.

Today,  I enjoyed getting them out and photographing them.

What I didn't know was that God, who does all things well and at the right time, 

would use this to take me another layer deeper in forgiveness towards her.

Probably due to Mama's influence my tastes run more towards farmhouse rustic

than to my mother-in-law's English cottage style.

I'm attracted more to pottery or ironstone than china,

to homespun fabric more than lace.

Yet, today as I photographed her teacups I thought about all the lovely ways my mother-in-law has influenced me.

She taught me to love and appreciate beautiful things.

She taught me about the joy and beauty of setting the table for a family gathering with china,

a centerpiece and candlelight.

She taught me that buying flowers for your garden or your home is not a waste of money,

that touches of beauty are worth buying.

She taught me that a leisurely bubble bath in a candlelit bathroom is a little touch of heaven, 

and reading in the tub...even better!

(I don't think my own mama ever thought of bathing as more than a necessary way to get clean.)

She taught me to love to eat and to cook lamb, now our choice for Christmas dinner every year,

along with little baby potatoes roasted in bacon and green onion, yummy!

She shared many of her recipes with me which are family favorites to this day.

She taught me to can fruits and vegetables,

even though I never enjoyed doing it like her.

And when she guilted me into trying to sew for my own three little girls,

it taught me that I simply do not like sewing!

(I kept her "August" cup because she and I were both born in August.)

She taught me to play like a kid with my grandkids.

She camped with her grandkids, ran and played outside with her grandkids,

cooked, crafted and played games with her grandkids.

(Yes, emotionally, I thought at times that she got just a bit too much down to their level, too.)

Because she never reached out to my mama, but instead thought of her as competition,

she taught me to do the opposite.

My daughters' in-laws, my grandchildrens' other grandparents, are a blessing in our lives,

to our children and to our grandchildren.

They are part of our family and deserve to be treated as such.

She, along with her husband, gave her son a good spiritual foundation.

She taught him Bible verses and the books of the Bible.

She taught Bible clubs and Sunday School.

He is who he is, in part, through her influence.

That, of course, has been a blessing to me as well.

She taught me the difference between just tea and good tea.

She taught me that everyone has their gifting,

their area where they can shine.

She was great in dealing with the elderly and terminally ill.

She also helped teach me to try new avenues of creativity.

She tried everything from tole-painting, to wood working, to knitting and crocheting.

Above all, she taught me that God even uses the most difficult to love people in your life

for your good, if you'll let Him.

I love her and I thank God for bringing her into my life.

I hope you enjoyed her lovely teacups today.

(top image edited with one layer of Kim's 1111 texture screen mode,

 50% opacity, and one layer of 1011 multiply mode, 50% opacity)

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Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday

The Power of Gratitude...

I've been thinking about my word for 2014, JOY.

In fact, I've been thinking about the all the fruit of the spirit words,

LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF-CONTROL.

First of all, these qualities are of the Spirit, not something we can drum up by self will.

The Amplified Bible says that it is a work that the presence of the Holy Spirit within us accomplishes.

However, I don't think His work happens in us against our will while we just passively do nothing.

My opinion is that we must desire, ask for and cooperate with the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in us.

That being said, what I've been thinking about all of those words is that they are often seen as "soft" words, words with an almost feminine quality to them, not words associated with courage or strength.

Yet, in God's kingdom, these are not weak words but MIGHTY WEAPONS.

For example, in Nehemiah 8:10, it says that the JOY of the Lord is your STRENGTH and STRONGHOLD.

JOY is a powerful thing, not a case of the giddy giggles.

What does this have to do with gratitude?

If you read this post by Ann, you know that she wrote about when Jesus healed the ten lepers

only one returned to thank Him.

It was to that one that Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well, ("sozo")."

That word means whole, complete salvation and deliverance.

Gratitude is a powerful instrument that God wants to use to make us whole, complete and free!

This year I'll be celebrating my fifth year of counting my blessings,

and I can tell you personally that gratitude, is indeed, a powerful, life changing thing.

And so, I'm still counting.

****************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#4177-#4198

1-6-14-
-great phone conversation and prayer with my (in)courage group co-leader
-reading scripture I've read so many time before, but seeing it with new eyes
-free downloadable Jesus Project memory prints

1-7-14-

-back to the beginning-reading in Genesis with She Reads Truth

-the blessing of friends, old and new

-texts with the Hubs throughout the day

-grocery shopping-having more than enough food in the cupboard

1-8-14-

-a rainy day to read and write

-homemade stew and cornbread

-the two oldest grands spending the night

1-9-14-

-a really sweet time in the Word

-and a really sweet time praying on my walk/run

-two young women in our church encouraging me as I listened to them tell me 

what God is doing in their lives

1-10-14-

-veggie frittata for date day breakfast

-driving with our second born and her family and meeting our firstborn and her family at a post holiday Christmas gathering with my Hub's sister and her family

-my wonderful sister-in-law and her family

1-11-14-

-a helpful customer service rep on a call about a missing package

-the satisfaction of getting some chores done in spite of the "I don't want to do this" feeling

-a warm, dry house on a very stormy, rainy, windy day

1-12-14-

-powerful worship songs that declare truth

-the joy that God gives is powerful

-attending a happy, long waited for wedding

gratefully yours,

Join the community of gratitude gatherers here...

Romans 15:13...

I'm sure I've shared this scripture before.

It's Romans 15:13 from the Amplified Bible, one of my favorite verses.

This week, as it came up in my devotional reading,

two new things struck me.

(I love how God's Word is like that!  

God reveals new things to you in something you've read over and over and over!)

First of all, it was always the word hope that stood out to me before,

but this time I realized that this scripture talks about HOPE, JOY and PEACE.

That's a powerful three-fold cord!

The next thing that stood out to me is that it's by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we just can't drum up any more hope, can't muster up joy, can't manufacture peace.

We need the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to give us the hope, joy and peace that comes from God.

And lastly, I love that God doesn't want to give us these things in an amount just enough to survive.

He's the God of more than enough!

He gives us hope that overflows and bubbles over!

I always imagine a fountain when I read those words.

He gives us enough hope, joy and peace, not just to sustain ourselves, but to refresh others.

Don't you just love it?

Don't you just love Him?

He's so good to us!

still following,