Mrs. Gray: May 2013

On Sunday Kyle went to church, without me, and our pastor spoke on prayer. I wanted to try a Step class at the gym and it started during church, so I decided I would skip and watch the sermon later online. When Kyle got home he said, "Greg told a story at church today and if you would have been there you would have cried." I told him, "Well, don't tell me because I am going to watch the sermon online once they post it." He agrees and we go on about our day.

Flash forward to dinner, we are sitting in a corner table at the Olive Garden. My back is to the wall so I'm in a position where I can see most of the people in the restaurant and they can also see me. Kyle says, "I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that story from church because it's just too good." He got to a part of the story and I started crying and he said, "If you are crying now, you are going to lose it at the end." He gets to the end and I'm sitting in Olive Garden bawling using my napkin to wipe away tears. A couple minutes later, I start crying again and tell Kyle he has got to start talking about something or I won't be able to stop. He was right, it is too good of a story not to share, so I wanted to share with the two or three people that read my blog.

The story is told by Brennan Manning, an author and teacher, that my pastor was able to talk with not too long ago. He had just started at a new church as a pastor and a woman in the church asked him if he would go see her father, who had cancer. She just wanted someone to go and visit with him. Brennan goes to the man's apartment, finds him in his bedroom, and sees an empty chair in the room. He says to the old man, "You must have been expecting me. I see you have a chair out for me." The old man replies, "No, that's not for you. I don't know who you are." He explains that he is a pastor and that he was coming to just visit with him and then asks him who the chair is for.

The old man tells him to shut the door and he will tell him why the chair is there. He explains that he has been a Christ follower for a long time but he never really knew how to pray. He would even become angry in services at church when the pastor spoke on prayer because he "didn't get anything out of it." He was given a book on prayer but after reading three pages he quit because he had to look up so many words. He pretty much gave up on prayer.

He was telling a friend that he just didn't really know how to pray and the friend told him, "You know how to pray. You trust Jesus. The easiest thing to do is just set an empty chair out and talk like Jesus is just sitting there right with you. Tell him your concerns and what's going on in your life. Jesus said He is always with you, so He's there, just talk to Him. The old man told Brennan, "It works. I've been doing it about two hours a day. I have to be careful that my daughter doesn't catch me because if she saw me talking to an empty chair she'd think I was crazy." They finished their conversation and Brennan left.

Two days later the daughter called Brennan and said, "Thank you for going by to see my dad. He really enjoyed it." Brennan told her how much he enjoyed meeting her dad and that he was glad he went. She told him she was calling also to tell him that her daddy died yesterday. Brennan told her how sorry he was and then asked if her dad died in peace. She said, "I think so. I was over at his house, he told me some of his corny jokes, I kissed him on the cheek and told him I was going to go to the grocery store to get him some things and when I came back from the store he was gone." Then she said, "But, I don't know what to do with this and it must have happened right before he died because when they found him he was out of bed kneeling with his head resting on the chair. Did he die in peace?"

What a sweet story and just a great depiction of how we should come to Christ with our issues, struggles, hopes, fears, and dreams. I too struggle with prayer. I feel in some ways that I don't say enough or I say too little or I sound dumb. I really enjoyed this sermon on prayer and what I took away from it is to just come to God with what's going on in your life. He knows everything already, so you are not going to shock him. Also, don't be afraid of rejection; He will never reject you. He may not give you the answer you were wanting but He will give you what is best for you. Just talk to Him--there is no need to try and impress Him.

If you want to hear the whole sermon, it's really good, just copy this link and then click on the message titled "Prayer."

https://www.wcrossing.org/default.aspx?page=3699

Xoxo,

Nicole

First of all, let me say welcome back to my old blog. I've decided I like this format better for a few reasons and also I was able to figure out how to use my new e-mail for this old blog so all is well in Blog World.

Kyle is out for the night with some friends and I find that when he is out, my blogging gets done. I enjoy it greatly, but it can be time consuming so I tend not to do it while he is around. I've been trying to also get back into writing in my journal more, but after 12 pages last night my hand was dying. This is definitely much easier; however, I do leave certain things out.

In my journal last night I was writing about my grandma. If you only know one thing about me, it is probably that I think the world of my grandma. My grandma is the sweetest, most kind, and funniest lady I know. I think it says so much of someone's character when you honestly can't think of one person that doesn't like him or her: That is my grandma--likeable to a fault.

Lillie Mae (Jones) Green was born May 1st, 1921 in a dugout her parents lived in about 15 miles south of Tatum, New Mexico. She grew up with two brothers, Zeke and Neil, and a sister, Valerie. Before Valerie was born they moved to a house called Marse Place about 6 miles southwest of Tatum. From what I've heard her say, they had a wonderful childhood. All the kids went to school in the country, 3 miles from their home. They went to school on horse or donkey until her daddy built them something out of an old car that was pulled by two donkeys.

She finished high school in May of 1939. One of my favorite stories she tells is how my papaw didn't really play sports (due to a heart condition) and she loved sports, so she would sneak out of typing class and go play tennis while my papaw did her typing for her. She never learned to type. The summer after high school she worked for a German family who lived about a mile from her mother and father, who she was living with at the time. She would walk through the pasture to work where she cleaned houses and did just a little of everything.

Around September of the same year she started to beauty school in Roswell, NM. Neil, her oldest brother helped her mom and dad pay for the school. While in school she stayed with a friend who was already a beauty operator working in Roswell. She was also from Tatum.

After beauty school she went back to Tatum and worked for a lady who had a beauty shop there for about 3 years. She lived in the back of the building while she worked there. The owner closed the shop and my grandma went to Lovington to work for a friend there.

Shortly after she married Houston Almus (Bud) Green on January 2, 1942. He went to work for the highway out of Artesia, NM and they we moved there. While in Artesia they lived in motel for a while then my papaw moved to Hondo, NM to work. He stayed in a trailer house with other workers. At this time, my grandma heard of a beauty shop in Carlsbad, NM. that was in the back of the McAdoo Drug Store.

While in Carlsbad she lived with her boss, Mrs. Bryant, in a bedroom at her house. Then her husband came to Carlsbad and worked at the airiport. After his job at the airport he then went to work at the mines. They moved to another house on Mesquite Street and lived in a bedroom for a while then they got one side of a duplex on Halagueno. After the duplex, they bought a lot on Mesa Street that had a little house in the back of lot and they lived there until they bought a house on Edward Street. The house on Edward street is where she still lives now.

In 1949, at the age of 28, she had her first son, my uncle Troy. About 6 years later in 1955 she had her second son, my dad. Both boys grew up in the house on Edward Street. My papaw died in 1983 at the age of 62. He had heart trouble all his life. My grandma continued to work after he died and worked until she was 80 years old. That is not a typo; she was the Energizer Bunny of hairdressers. She sold her beauty shop, which is now a pet grooming shop on Lake Street.

She really lived life to its fullest. She went on bus tours by herself for many years going all over the country. She traveled with us occasionally on our family vacations. She was very social and had many friends. She would also watch my brother and I when my parents went on vacation.

I have so many fond memories of my sweet grandma over the years. She is truly who I aspire to be like. She was born into a simple life and made the absolute best of it at all times. She was brave. I can't imagine just moving all around and living with different people the way she did. She worked very hard, but absolutely loved what she did and her clients loved her. She never has anything bad to say about any one. She has always been content.

I'd pay you a million dollars (that I don't have) if you could find anyone that doesn't like my grandma. This is something that I wish could be said about me; though I know it would not be true. She is a wonderful mom, was a great wife, is a fantastic mother-in-law to my mom, and has been the best grandma to her four grandchildren. I'd like to say I'm the favorite because I'm the only girl, but she has always treated all of us equally. However, she was super excited when I came around because she wanted a little girl. My mom says when I was born and she found out I was a girl she went straight to shopping for outfits.

She is all lady, so classy and timeless. Growing up she would always tell me what hairstyles people on TV were trying. I would even let her try to do some of them occasionally when I stayed the night with her. Actually, not too long ago she told me I should do my hair like the doctor on the show The Doctors.

She made the best toast I've ever had. I know, it's toast, but there was something special about it; just the right amount of butter, jelly, and crispiness. She and I would play dominoes, have tea parties, draw, color, sit outside on the porch, and she taught me how to count money with money she saved up for me in a rocking horse piggy bank.

She is and always will be my favorite person.

I went home in November, December/Jan, and again in March and at each visit I have noticed a decline in her memory. My brother just spent a week there and has come to the same realization as I have: She is rapidly declining. As a granddaughter, it is so difficult to watch her go through this process. Of course, there are things that can kind of be funny, but overall it's very sad. It is especially sad that every time I call she says, "Are you coming to see me soon?" It really doesn't matter what I say, because she is at the point where she does not remember new information very well so inevitably the next time I call she will ask the same question. My brother said a couple nights ago she said, "I sure wish Coleigh would come live with me." Believe me, in my perfect world, I'd live where she lives in a heartbeat; but, life isn't perfect.

I'm so blessed that I've had 25 years to be around her and that she is still hanging in there. I'm so blessed that she also made it to see my wedding. It broke my heart that my Granny did not live to see that, but I am so grateful I got to have my Grandma there. I will never forget her face and what she said when she walked into the dressing room and saw me. She got a big smile on her face, kind of sunk her shoulders, let out a sigh, and said, "Well, look at you. You sure look pretty." I hadn't cried all day until she came into the room and said that. It's such a special memory that I will keep close to my heart always and forever.

My life has been enriched so much by having her in it and so I just wanted to write her story down and what she means to me while she is so heavily on my mind.

Below are some pictures of her that I love and that I treasure so dear.