Terrie's Tender Touch

I have always been considered by my husband (and children) to be on the picky side when it comes to restaurants, hotels, or even general places we would go for entertainment. It would not be unusual for me to go to a restaurant, perhaps get seated, and then determine that the establishment was below my "standard" for "acceptable." I always think that if I am going to pay for something, than it should be worth the time and investment. The thing about "standards" is that they are individual because what may be acceptable to one is not acceptable to another. For example, I am not comfortable with most restaurants that have the name "pit" in them. Not because of the name, but because most of the ones I have visited have been just that "pits." My husband on the other hand usually looks around and says, "I don't see anything wrong with it." Is he wrong? No. Am I wrong? No. We have our own standards and there is no law t...

Today is Good Friday - Easter is this Sunday, and it will be the first time since 1979 that we haven't had any of our children with us for the holiday. We are spending the day today with our oldest son and his family, and then on Monday we will spend time with them again, as as well as with our daughter and her family; we're making the best of it:) One of the things that has been on my mind is making sure that our kids are taken care of for the holiday...I know, I know they are all grown, married, and have their own children - but a mom never stops being a mom! Thankfully the two that live close to each other are spending Easter Day together. Yesterday I read a "tweet" from one of my sons as he was happy that one of his converts had been baptized, has been faithfully attending church, and has begun attending a discipleship class. I was blessed as I read it, and then further blessed when I saw that our other son responded to his tweet expressing his shared happines...

This morning in my Bible reading I read Luke 5:16 which says, “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” It caught my attention because yesterday I saw how that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness – today Jesus withdrew Himself to pray there. I started thinking about “wilderness” and as I mentioned yesterday – I thought of a barren place, a lonely place, a sad place. Today, I saw it differently – I saw it as a place of refreshing – a place to get alone with God…and it didn’t sound so bad; after all when I get alone with God and know that I have been in His presence I am strengthened and refreshed; I have joy and peace. (play on words intentional = p's in the wilderness:). I looked up the word wilderness in the Bible and saw that it is there 294 times! The wilderness is by definition a barren dessert – but it is also a place suitable for pasturing sheep – aha…that’s why I found it for so many applications – “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that ...

When I think of the wilderness so many things come to my mind. I think of being alone, and nowhere...it seems sad. I think of the children of Israel and how they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not believe or trust God. Today in my Bible reading I read Luke 4:1, which says, "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness." The first thing I thought about after reading that verse was that Jesus was led to the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The other day my husband and I were talking about trials, and how that after having gone through various and difficult trials we have realized that God entrusted us with those trials so that we might bring Glory and Honour to Him. I say entrusted because during these "wilderness" times or trials, we have the opportunity to experience the grace of God, and grow our faith. II Peter 5:10 says, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us un...

I love my family! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and fun family! This past Thanksgiving we all got together and enjoyed a great time together. We were able to have our pictures taken and each time I look at them (there were literally hundreds of pictures taken) I am reminded of the time we shared together. Pictures are a wonderful way to remember special times and special people. Through pictures we can see what people we have only heard about look like - like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, relatives that have passed on before we were born - people that have made a difference in our lives. As I was thinking about how pictures can mean so much, take us back to places we've been, remember joyous occasions, and allow us to see things we would never see otherwise - I thought of how we paint a picture - a portrait of sorts of Christ. We have never seen God, yet we are made in His image. We know Him through His Word, and by what we see in His awesome creat...

On March 28, 1998 my brother Rick went home to be with the Lord after battling cancer for 13 months. Yesterday marked 12 years since I have seen my brother, since I have been able to have a conversation with him, or since our family has been able to get together and have “everybody” present. This past week in my Bible reading I came upon the following statement, “ Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee…” These words were spoken to Hezekiah after he prayed and asked the Lord to extend his life. As I pondered those words, I thought of all the times I have prayed and cried to the Lord, and received a definite answer and assurance that God indeed heard my prayers, saw my tears, and met my needs…hallelujah! You might wonder how those two points in my life meet together, because surely we had prayed that God would let Rick live longer, certainly we had prayed and cried to the Lord for his health, and yet ...

In my reading this morning I saw again how important the influence of a wife can be on her husband in II Kings 8:18, “And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.” This is speaking of Jehoram, and then I also thought of Solomon and how the many women he loved turned Him away from God! “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” I Kings 11:4 God had appeared to Solomon twice, He had given him wisdom above all men, and yet his wives were able to turn his heart away from God. The role of the wife is that of an help meet for her husband. That means that the wife should help her husband, and be meet or proper and fitting for him. In Genesis the first time we see that God says anything about His creation is not good, is when He said...