A Moment in the Kitchen by John D. Smith

They had all gathered together, most of the seven children, 17 grandchildren, and 29 great-grandchildren of John and Betty Jo Worden. Surrounded by friends and family, "Grandfather", as he was known to everyone, sat in the corner of the kitchen at Aunt Dianne's home. Sitting at the table, flanked by nephew's Jack Smith and Louis McDaniel, along with Son in laws Eddie Smith and Ted Forrest, old Jack Worden began to tell a story.

 

The story began as an evaluation of his life. JH told of how God had blessed him and kept him through the good and the bad. He noted the number of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren had been born, all without defect or abnormality. He discussed how God's graceful hand was upon him even before he knew Him, providing protection as the then young man moved through life in search of "peace." Grandfather described the scene in which he found the peace he was in search of. He told of his cousin Shirley Stanley approaching him in Rock Hill, SC and inviting him to church. Like many good men, Grandfather dodged his cousin's invitation, citing a variety of reasons why he could not accompany her to the church service. Finally, though, after two months or so of inviting, Grandfather gave in. "Betty Jo, get ready to go to church. I've run out of good excuses."

 

Grandfather recounted how he felt the presence of God as he entered the building, saw God's holy anointing on the man of God (Brother Mike Hanley), and responded to a call for salvation by coming to an altar. It was at that point that grandfather "confessed Jesus as his personal lord and savior (and changed the trajectory of the generations after him!). Moving along the timeline, JH discussed how he soon went to a revival hosted by his cousin Patsy and David Emge. He told how he entered a prayer line to pray for deliverance from smoking cigarettes. After smoking cigarettes from the age of nine years old, the man had been delivered from smoking and from the desire to drink by an instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Of course, by this time a decent crowd had gathered around. Grandsons listened reverently as the old preacher gave his testimony of salvation, deliverance and life-change. Taking advantage of the moment, Grandfather began to encourage the men in the room to make Jesus the Lord of their lives. He explained Jesus' reconciliatory work on the cross, his grace and mercy, and the peace that passes all understanding. He told of the God-sized void in every mans's heart. A void that success and pleasure could not fill, but Christ alone. He encouraged the men to make certain that they knew Jesus, accepted him as savior, and knew where their eternal home was.

 

Grandfather spoke of the peace that he had. Peace with God, peace with others, and peace with death. Cancer was not the end. He quoted Jesus, saying "in my house are many mansions...." He knew that Jesus had prepared a place for him. He seemed to understand that the end was near. Grandfather was echoing the apostle Paul, who told his protege, "I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." He seemed to be embracing the inevitable, pouring himself out into the vessels around him and preparing those he loved for the journey ahead.

 

As he continued, the house took on a hushed tone. Three generations strained to hear the wisdom from the patriarch. It was obvious that this was not an ordinary conversation.

 

This was a moment.

 

Seizing the opportunity, he continued the monologue. Moving further back into his past to instruct the room from his personal pain. He told of how when his own father passed, he grieved that they had not verbally communicated that they loved each other. With tears in his eyes he shared that they both knew mutual affection existed, but they had not spoken it. He shared how, in that moment, he made a life change. He decided that he would share his feelings of love for others. He admonished those in the room to communicate their love and to resolve any conflict they had with others. He spoke of his own personal journey with conflict resolution and reconciliation with lifelong friends. He declared with confidence, "I can honestly say that I do not have an enemy in the world." He encouraged those closest to him to be reconciled with others, live in peace and declare love where it exists.

 

"Now let's pass the plate and take up an offering." He laughed. It was a needed break in the tension. By this time, eyes were moist and sniffling filled the room. Uncle Jack Smith, in his ever abrupt way, quickly jumped in, "Can we pray?"

 

It was an appropriate conclusion to the sermon of a lifetime by John Harrison Worden Jr.. An unforgettable moment in the kitchen.  

 

 

Legacy

 

Proverbs 22:1

"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold"

 

A good name, a legacy, is chosen.

 

Legacy is not granted at the end of a life. It is chosen intentionality early on and established through daily decisions.

 

- Legacy cannot be built tomorrow, it must be built today.

- Leadership is not for your future, but for the present

- Character cannot be bought, it must be built  

 

Grandfather was a Patriarch

 

Death reminds us that time is a limited resource.

 

Let us be awakened to the sobriety that we are not NEXT, we are NOW.

 

Legacy at 80 must begin at 30 and build through 40, 50, 60, 70.

 

We are mothers and fathers NOW

We are leaders and spouses NOW

We are building our legacy NOW

 

We are not next, we are now.

 

Let today be the day we lead

Let today be the day we love

Let today be the day we cement our character

Let today be the day we our eyes on significance

Let today be the day we CHOOSE a good name

Let today be the day of salvation 2 Corinthians 6:2

 

A patriarch has passed

A leader lays before us

A Father has finished his course

 

 

Hebrews 12:1

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"

 

We are not next, we are now

Vince Gill and Patty Loveless - "Go Rest High On That Mountain" at Georg...

My Redeemer

LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO wonderful, glorias, awesome, allmighty, beautiful, gentle, joyful, friendly, good, peaceful, patient,  graceful, loving, fearless, holy, faithful and worthy God we serve. 

Declarations and Decrees for 2015

 I am looking and believing in 2015 for the restoration of things lost and stolen--money, jewelry--relationships restored better than they have ever been, restored to God'sSong original design; justice and divine vindication in some areas of my life is coming to pass in 2015. I am seeking, watching, and waiting for suddenlies that involve God's supernatural manifestation of debt cancellation and positioning for favorable opportunities to minister corporately, bring deep healing in corporate settings to the true Church and Body of Christ. . I am expecting miraculous wealth to be gifted to me as promised. My health and strength and youth (vitality and vigor) will be renewed in 2015 as I rest in waiting on The Lord in this coming year. In 2015 I choose to actively participate in those live works initiated by the Holy Spirit and completed by Him that are part of my true identity and victorious destiny as a Son (daughter) of the Most High! I actively stir up the gifts and callings within me, especially as they have divine power to bring forth the Life of God in those around me! I rest in true sabbath and I receive and grasp the true shalom that is my birthright as an heir of the promises of God that will manifest in 2015 in my life. I seek HIS face and my eye is single in that I see what the Father is doing and I wholeheartedly participate in what HE is doing in the earth. I say and come into agreement with what I hear HIM saying and I break every agreement that was made in ignorance or in agreement with the lies of the enemy of my soul. I receive and choose to walk in resurrection life in 2015. The Kingdom of God is advanced through my active agreement with, obedience in and abiding in Him in quiet and confidence. In 2015 I receive and live in the fullness of joy that Jesus prayed I would have--His joy and fullness of Joy. Complete Joy. This joy will be so evident in my life in 2015 that many will be added to the kingdom! Joy is the atmospheric shift that denotes the Presence of the King of Kings in My Life; I rule and reign in life by cooperating with the Joy of heaven intersecting  and invading earth. This is my prayer and this is my choice for 2015 and I activate these things in union with the Holy Spirit in 2015 by Faith in the One who loved me and translated me into His Kingdom. I refuse to react to people and circumstance but choose instead to respond to God in every situation that God provides as opportunity to bring Him Glory and for my joy! I make myself available for seminars, prophetic conferences, teaching, training and equipping the body of Christ including many who have left institutional churches and renouncing religious mind sets. This year I will release prophetic words and prophecies as the Holy Spirit speaks when and where and to whom He sends me. I will see the gifts of miracles,  of healings, of words of wisdom and of words of knowledge released under the unction of the Holy Spirit. In 2015, I place myself at the LORD's disposal out of complete LOVE for HIM because of His love for me and HIS desire to minister to the Body and out of my desire to minister to Him in complete devotion, love and reverence for HIS majesty. This is my declaration and my decree; Let it be unto me according to His WORD!

#12Steps

January 3

Our greatest need

“We eventually redefine our beliefs and understanding to the point where we see that our greatest need is for knowledge of God’s will for us and the strength to carry that out.” Basic Text, p. 48 ––––=–––– When we first arrived in NA, we had all kinds of ideas of what we needed.  Some of us set our sights on amassing personal possessions.  We thought recovery equaled outward success.  But recovery does not equal success.  Today, we believe that our greatest need is for spiritual guidance and strength. The greatest damage done to us by our addiction was the damage done to our spirituality.  Our primary motivation was dictated by our disease: to get, to use, and to find ways and means to get more.  Enslaved by our overwhelming need for drugs, our lives lacked purpose and connection.  We were spiritually bankrupt. Sooner or later, we realize that our greatest need in recovery is “for knowledge of God’s will for us and the strength to carry that out.”  There, we find the direction and sense of purpose our addiction had hidden from us.  In our God’s will we find freedom from self-will.  No longer driven only by our own needs, we are free to live with others on an equal footing. There’s nothing wrong with outward success.  But without the spiritual connection offered by the NA program, our greatest need in recovery goes unmet, regardless of how “successful” we may be. ––––=–––– Just for today:  I will seek the fulfillment of my greatest need: a vital, guiding connection with the God of my understanding.

Copyright © 1991-2015 by Narcotics Anonymous 

Songs of the LORD

Tears of joy and sorrow ( are not joy and pain arteries of the heart of Godin this symphony of life!( based on a saying by Ann Voskamp)

Beautiful One: A Song of My Mother

When I wanted to understand the sacred, as I searched, it was in the company of my mother that I knew it and it marked me. Knew it the way truth has power. I watched her hands as she lovingly made a meal for my dad; it was not the conversation—we spoke of incidentals—but my soul was searching, my intellect filled and alert (I had been reading Saint Benedict’s Tool Box and One Thousand Gifts). It was not what she said that day, or even what she did, it was how she did it.

Ever have time slow? Slow and the light pool on something and you see it for the first time, even though you may have seen the same thing a million times. But when you see, you see. I saw with spiritual eyes wide open the act of love in her hands in simple preparation of a meal. She placed the cucumbers and tomatoes and lettuce with her hands so lovingly, that it took my breath. The simple timeless act of preparing a meal, sacred. Holy. That revelation of the sacred, a priceless gift.

I have never spoken of it, until now. Now when I know that she has fed the multitude with her meager loaves and fishes. A priceless gift.

She can swaddle a baby, and wean a child. I am a weaned child who has known the safety and security of being nourished and contented in love. My children were swaddled in blankets made by Mother’s hands. My grandchildren were swaddled in blankets made by my Mother's hands. My mother sang us to life.
A priceless gift.

The way to get six children quiet? Sing. I cannot remember when I could not hear my mother’s singing. I hear it now as I write: my mother’s song. A priceless gift. From her I learned God sings over us.

There’s the time she upped and moved to Virginia and I was at a crossroads in my life; I felt abandonment bone deep but then I found something she left for me. I have it still. A cassette tape of her singing every hymn and song of praise she could fit on a long running tape. When I listened to the Old Story of Jesus and His love, I knew I was not and never would be abandoned. She made it for me; she did not tell me she was making it, but I found it just when I needed it most. Lullabies, how did she know I would need it? A priceless gift.

Like the time she sent me to the grocery store. I was about 18 and tired of helping out, and she was so particular about what kind of corn meal and which brand of beans and exactly which type of toilet paper to buy and I was feeling put out. I went down the list and there it was, “I love you, my beautiful one” and I stopped stilled and tears flowed down my cheeks and I felt bad for feeling put out and elated at the same time and I knew. It was not just an item on a long list of things; her love for me was imprinted upon me and that memory remains a rare and beautiful moment in a life time of moments that become more precious AND are eternal. A priceless gift.

She giggles and when she giggles it is pure mirth. She has giggled like that forever, at least as long as I’ve known her. She is a happy mother of many children. When I ponder my Mother’s happiness and realize that is what girded our souls and prepared us, gave life to us.

She loves my Dad, they were made for each other. I was conceived, God said to me, “Out of the intense passionate love of those two young people,” That was His plan for me to come into this world, as me. A priceless gift. I have lived in the shade of their love of each other and of the LORD and of us.
I learned that truly God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies from my mother and I learned how to bless my enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use you from my mother and I learned how to overcome evil with good from my mother. And I learned that you could wear clothes from Kmart or clothes from Sakes Fifth Avenue with the same grace and flair and I learned that people really could not tell the difference from my mother and if they could, well, what difference did that make. A priceless gift.

She loves to laugh. She knows, bone deep, that laughter is the best medicine. She lives that and shares that with many who are privileged to know her. Brevity is one of her many strengths. A priceless gift.
I asked her one time what attracted her to Dad and she said it was his voice; isn’t that just like the Shunamite woman in the Song of Solomon?
I seen her sing and the anchor hold because she sang. I will hear her sing it forever. A priceless gift
I cannot tell about Christmas and all I learned from her. That a flannel shirts and a toy wrapped for a child are priceless gifts – a privilege. Believing--A priceless gift. It is her spirit, united with Christ, and has taught us that Christmas has a reason and a purpose in our lives--we are celebrating life and the light bringer in spirit and in truth and it is liturgy (worship) in my Mother’s home. All who enter know it. A sense of the sacred.
Good literature and thinking and math is not really that hard; my mother is a mathematician. Everything multiplies in her hands. She’s like Jesus like that. A priceless gift.

She cooks a simple pot of beans and it’s like manna from heaven. When I graduated from high school, she gave me a card that told me if I could believe, all things were possible.
When I was needing her attention and she was busy with life and giving out and serving God and family; the LORD put me in a place to receive a deep revelation; as I went out in the Spirit, the LORD showed me scene after scene when my Mother’s hands were busy with babies and cooking and being that Biblical example of a Godly woman. All through my childhood and adulthood, although her hands may have been busy with the younger kids, and though she was about the Father’s business, in her heart she was aware of me and of my needs and she entrusted me in prayer to the LORD time and time again. God showed me her heart for me, though busy with life in a big family, she never stopped thinking of me and what I might need. God healed my heart by showing me my Mother’s heart of love for me; I was out in the Spirit receiving vision after vision scenes from our lives where my Mother’s heart was focused on me, though her hands were busy with other. A priceless gift.

When the storms would come, my mother gathers us under her wings like a great Eagle, often huddles us together with her until the storms pass. I was prone to fly right into the storm and this scared her and she scolded me back safety more than once. We learned the shelter and protection unity brings when the days are dark. 

As the oldest, I learned to prefer others before me and I learned the joy of serving. I learned to be another set of hands for her in the kitchen at her side. Working in unity, doing what needed to be done; the gift of serving and being of service. She trained me to serve God, to be his hands, and His heart in service to others. Learning the principle of preferring others before me, I learned her. I been surprised by my Mother; like the time I came in and caught her picking out the notes of a song on the piano. I did not know she could play; unaware of my presence, she played a pure melody, one note at the time—a song of worship to the LORD. A priceless gift indelibly replicated on my heart.
My mother is a musician; and her gift of music has been imparted to generations in her family and in her church. She is a maestro conductor.

Corporateness, I learned from my mother and that nothing is as godly and pleasing to the LORD as family is. My mother grows family, she always will, forever. So many, so many know her love and devotion to the LORD, her church. Family is church and the church is those who know her, have experienced her, because ultimately to know my mom is to be included in the beloved, the church of the living God. A priceless gift.

I learned that all of life is sacred from my Mother, from the
smallest act to the largest act: all is sacred, all is love.


My mother is a church--a feast of the Word. Betty Hyatt Worden, you are priceless gift of love. I learned that all of life is sacred from the
smallest act to the largest act: all is sacred, all is love.
I love you, my beautiful one.
Thank you, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day.
You are God’s Song and He sings over me.