Category: Just My Thoughts

Celebrating With a Faithful Friend

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Just My Thoughts, Thankful on Tuesday, Uncategorized

There’s a lovely constancy that comes from community, in friends that you know and friends by whom you are known. It’s so nice to share a common thread of hobbies, activities and humor with those close to us. It can bring a touch of vulnerability, but it also builds a sturdy foundation for kinship and camaraderie. Those ties feel safe, not constricting, as we are bound by mutual understanding and shared experiences.

Doug said to me last week that for the child of God, our community should be based in our local church. I completely agree. While we have a circle of family, and the locality of neighbors, the broad overlapping of these should be our local assembly of like-minded believers. We find some of our deepest bonds in those who sit beside us in the pew each week. Or across the large auditorium, as is the case for me. 

I’m celebrating one of those heart-friends today. She knew me when I was very young and still loves me now that I’m getting old. Ha!

She has been a prayer warrior for me down through the years. She was my faithful penpal when we lived out-of-state, and across the state. She has been a teacher and a mentor, but for many years now, she’s simply been my friend. 

Her name is Ruth.

Ruth is incredibly intelligent with a razor-sharp wit and a deep sense of humor and fun. She loves the Lord and has served Him faithfully for many years. She has been a fixture in my memory for as long as I can recall. 

I remember her waaaaay back in the early 70s, with her long black straight hair, sitting on a two-seater bike to join in our “parade” of jalopies and buses, from a nearby corner parking lot to our church property, on one of the very first old fashioned Homecoming Sunday services we had. She served as my Sunday school teacher and camp counselor, my encourager and sounding board. 

If you choose almost any activity or memory of my teen years, she figured prominently there. Always faithful, always serving, always counseling, and always teaching by word and action that a life of following the Lord was the BEST LIFE. 

I’ve watched her walk through the darkest of valleys, without a falter, trusting her God step-by-step. She hasn’t waivered, through years of want or years of plenty. Her eyes have been fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am so thankful for her. I’m grateful for her words of wisdom over the years, and her testimony of sacrifice and servanthood.

Ruth, I’m wishing you the Happiest of Birthdays today!

Thank you for loving me and being my friend. 

I love you.

Alesha

Fifty

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts, Uncategorized

Fifty
by Alesha Conklin, saved July 2, 1972

For fifty years, my God has carried me.
For fifty years, He’s held me so close.
For fifty years, my needs He has provided.
For fifty years, He’s spoken to my soul.

For fifty years, my heart has been His habitation.
For fifty years, He’s guided day by day.
For fifty years, I have been forgiven.
For fifty years, His best for me, come what may.

For fifty years, His Word has spoken to me.
For fifty years, my soul has been at rest.
For fifty years, my home has been in Heaven.
For fifty years, His blood has been my forgiveness.

For fifty years, His love has never wavered.
Even through days when mine has grown cold.
For fifty years, I’ve loved to tell of His salvation.
For fifty years, the story has never grown old.

Keeping the Keel Clear

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, KJV Graphics, Thoughtful Thursday

“Distinguish between the fact of God’s presence, and the emotion of the fact…The religious life is not a brooding over emotions, grazing the keel of faith in the shallows, of dragging the anchor of hope through the oozy tide mud as if afraid of encountering the healthy breeze…If we remain groveling on the low ground of feeling and emotion, we shall find ourselves entangled in a thousand meshes of doubt and despondency, temptation and unbelief. Hope thou in God!” ~Streams in the Desert

9-11 – I Promise to Remember

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, Just My Thoughts, Uncategorized

I’ve promised to remember…
The day the Islamic terrorists attacked our great nation, here on native soil.


But I am also promising to remember…
The man who just empowered those same terrorist groups…
While he stripped our citizens of their God-given, constitutionally-protected rights and freedoms.


The enemy is no longer foreign. He (and the party he represents) is destroying our country from right here in the heart of our nation’s capitol.


If you’re going to remember, remember it all.


Make sure your children and grandchildren know that when a nation forgets God, He removes His protection. He allows the enemies to attack from without…and from within.


The only safely we have is the eternal refuge, protection and salvation of the Lord our God.

Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psalm 20:6-7

In Him,

Alesha Kay

Garden Progress

by ObtainingMercy, posted in Blessings, Florida Weather, Household, How Great is Our God, Managing My Mondays, Obtaining Mercy Croft, What's Happening

Just thought I’d share a little progress note with you.

We are starting seeds for the new fall garden. I’m excited to be able to grow things now that wouldn’t grow during the hot summer here.

Lots of sprouting going on!

  • Everglades Tomatoes
  • Purple Coneflowers
  • Oregano
  • Sweet Marjoram and French Dwarf Marigolds

And we’ve been prepping our beds for some special seedlings. These are our Seminole Pumpkins! I’m so excited to be growing this Florida native in my garden this fall! If you look closely, there are nine little seedlings in that bed. We’ll be giving it some more mulch a little later on.

And I thought I’d share some of the ways we get things accomplished here at our house. I’m not able to go outside for hours, helping with all the gardening tasks. And there are SO many, you can be sure! When it’s cooler, I can sit and help outside, but it’s still just too hot for me to sit out there now.

So, this is how I help. We cover the floor with sheets and cardboard, set up a table, bring in dirt and pots and plants and I help get things done. These were our strawberries. They’ve grown and multiplied for several months in this wagon and needed to be separated in order to bloom in the fall and winter. It felt so good when that job was done. Doug rolled them back outside and brought in our other wagon to load up all the pots.

There would be no garden if Doug didn’t help. I am so thankful for him! He says I’m the brain and he’s the brawn…LoL! Not really, but it does sort of describe our strengths. I do all the planning, plotting, choosing seed, buying supplies, laying out the garden; and he supplies the brute strength. I’m so grateful the Lord put us together on the same team.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our day.

In Him,

Alesha Kay

Three Days Alive

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, Focusing Friday, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts

Psalms 68:18 (KJV) Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.

Ephesians 4:7-10 (KJV) But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

When Jesus’ physical body died on the cross on Wednesday & was in the tomb for 3 days, His spirit was not there in that tomb as well.

He was busy. Descending. Ascending. Leading captive ones. Attaining gifts.

It’s a hugely complex study.

But the crux of the matter is that He was still at work during those 3 days, assuring the forgiveness of our sins & our eternal home in Heaven.

His resurrection was the “Hallelujah!” exclamation point to the story He began in that stable over 30 years before.

Because He came, we have hope.

Because He died, we have a covering for our sins.

Because He lives, we live eternally.

Read that first verse again.

“…for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.”

What a glorious truth, that even when my rebellious heart had no desire to know its Creator, He came & died to guarantee I *could* be reconciled to Him one day.

I am filled with gratitude & awe as I reflect on the work He did to ensure I could live with Him in Heaven throughout eternity.

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!!!

In Him,

Alesha Kay

Servants, Not Celebrities

by ObtainingMercy, posted in A Door of Hope, How Great is Our God, Just My Thoughts, Thoughtful Thursday, Uncategorized

Oh, amen to this! I’ve seen the most amazing thing play out in our church over the last year. As some of us were moved to other churches, or sidelined by illness, or afraid to attend because of Covid, God has moved so many “unknowns” into those vacated positions. They have stepped up & filled those positions! They have the talent, skill & courage to get the work done!

Sometimes we get so used to seeing the same people fill the same positions that we forget God has others who can do the work just as well. And sadly, some of US think that we are indispensable, & we have an inner celebrity attitude that God must despise.

It’s good to remember that we are replaceable. God’s will moves forward always…with or without us. It’s our job to stay available, humble & teachable if we want to remain in our role doing God’s work. When we are no longer usable, God will use someone else.

No celebrities in church. Only servants. ❤

In Him,

Alesha Kay