God's Plan for Me

When I started the third grade, we were assigned a story to write about how we spent our summer vacation. That happened to be the only summer vacation I had ever taken, to California with our cousins.

While we were there, we went to Seal Beach, where we found sea shells and made sand castles in the warm sand. I loved the water, but was also afraid of it. As the shallow water lapped my legs, I enjoyed the warmth, so I moved a little closer to the sea.

I felt the waves climbing higher and higher; first my waist, then my neck, then my mouth. I could taste the saltwater in my mouth and nose. I couldn't breathe. The sun grew dimmer and dimmer. I was going to drown. The waves pulled me out to sea, but just as I was going under for the last time, the strong hands of the lifeguard dragged me back to shore.

However this was happening only in my mind. The gentle waves were too weak to even draw the seashells out to sea, only deep enough to wash the sand off my tiny feet. I had the feeling that I would drown, but my mother and aunts were keeping a close watch on us little ones.

That was the first story I wrote, but that experience stuck with me and I was encouraged to write poetry by a high school assignment. My senior year a poem I wrote in the form of a sonnet was published in the Oklahoma High School English Teachers Anthology.

I’ll never forget the moment that inspiration came to me, when I suddenly saw, really saw a one-way street sign, so that was the first devotional I ever wrote—that there is only one way to heaven, through Jesus Christ.

God has a great plan for us, and I’m so glad that I seemingly stumbled into God’s plan for my life—to be His writer. 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV.

Lavon Hightower Lewis

Remembering Thanksgiving

I found some pictures of a Thanksgiving dinner table at my mother’s taken in 1986. My husband and my dad sat at each end with my younger sister, all our kids, and me on each side and I guess Mother was taking the picture. The two little kids were seated at a little school desk in tiny school chairs. The baked turkey was on a side table with two pies and the table was full of mashed potatoes, dressing, jellied cranberry sauce, and plastic drink cups. The nice china plates were at each place, with forks, knives, and spoons at the correct position. Oh what I would give to go back to that table to eat. 

Mother can’t cook anymore, at almost 98 years gold, but she was a great cook. I know everyone says that about their mother, but our mother has a real claim to fame in our hometown, since she cooked at the school cafeteria for 25 years. Mother and the other cooks went to cook’s school every summer, put on by the state of Oklahoma nutrition program.

Most of the adults who went to school with us remember her great cooking. They remember the homemade yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls, turkey-and-dressing casserole, and peanut butter cookies. The men talk about getting seconds and thirds, especially of the hot rolls, and putting them in their pockets for afternoon recess. They remember her brown beans and cornbread, and chili and beans. 

And that is what Thanksgiving is all about, right? No, not really, but that’s how most of us end up spending the holidays, as if it’s all about food, and family, and fun. Each of us has developed our own family ways of celebrating but as a nation this holiday is important for us to give God the thanks for what He has given us.

“ It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;  To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night.” Psalms 92:1-2. NKJV.

Let’s make Thanksgiving about the giving of thanks again.