Tuesday 4: Names

Names

Welcome to Tuesday 4 kept up for Toni Taddeo our dear friend who was taken home to God on December 14, 2019. She would be pleased to know you all join in.

Note from Pam (me)
I did not realize that this Tuesday, December 14th, would be the anniversary of Toni's passing.  I am so glad we are keeping up this meme in memory of her. (Thanks to our friend Annie). Toni was such an inspiration to all of us who "knew" her, even if we only knew her through her blogs...that's how most of us know each other, and I feel like we are a pretty close family.

Speaking of our blogging family, most of you have heard by now of the sudden passing of the beloved son of our friend Linda Conley at Just Simply Linda.  Please keep Linda and her husband Dave in your thoughts and prayers as they grieve the tragic loss of their precious son Liam, their only child. 

"Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted."

Matthew 5:4

Now on to today's topic:  

This week let's talk about your name!

1. What name would you take if you had to change your name?

 I don't think I would want to change my name. I can't imagine myself being anyone else. It was hard enough to change from my maiden name to my married name...I had to get used to being called Mrs. John Steiner instead of just plain Pam Mursch. I went through a little bit of an identity crisis at that time, but that was over 52 years ago, and I've been Pamela Mursch Steiner ever since, and now I wouldn't want to change that ever again. It's who I am.  BTW, most people who know me just call me "Pam". But I like the name "Pamela", and have often said that name is my "alter ego"...the old fashioned, more "victorian"  feminine form of me...rather than the more modern, rather outdoorsy active  "Pam" side of me.

By the way, did you see my last post, where I showed you this picture of the three "Pamela's" in our church:

It seems rather strange that for such a small church there should be three of us in one place! But also in my school class grades 1-12, there were two of us Pam's.  We always thought we were pretty special. LOL. (there were only 50 students in our graduating class). 

2. What is the meaning of your name.. how about your last name, do you know it's meaning?

"The name Pamela is primarily a female name of English origin that means All Honey, Sweetness. The name was invented by Sir Philip Sidney for a poem titled "Arcadia" in the 1580s; used by Samuel Richardson for his novel Pamela in the 1740s."  

I just looked up my last name (Maiden) Mursch: According to Ancestry.com

Mursch Name Meaning: German: nickname for a frail person, from Middle High German mursch ‘brittle’.

I really don't agree with that description. I have not met any of the Mursch family who I would consider to be "frail" or "brittle".  Of course, none of us are totally what our maiden name was. We are a combination of both parents.  

3. Do you think you fit your name and it's meaning? Yes, I am surprised by the description  of Pamela above, and somewhat humbled and blessed at the same time, but I do believe that I possess many of those attributes, although I'm not too sure about the ingenious ideas part....LOL.

4. Were you named after anyone or given your name for a specific reason? How about your kids?

I know I've told this story before...Here's ONE link, but there are others.  My birth name is Pamela Anne...Anne with an "e", like Anne of Green Gables.  Because I was born a redhead, my mother wanted to name me after her favorite heroine, Anne of Avonlea or Anne of Green Gables.  I'm not sure why my parents chose the Pamela part of my name, but I definitely know why they chose Anne for my middle name. 

As far as our kids are concerned, our oldest son is named after several people. His first name is William, which is after both of his grandfathers and one of this Great-Grandfathers. (as well as a couple of great-great grandfathers)

This is his paternal grandfather: (William G. Steiner)

This is his maternal grandfather. William F. Mursch: (my dad and mom on their wedding day)

And this is his great-grandpa William H. Mursch, my paternal grandfather:

His middle name is Benton, which is what we call him, and that is after my maternal grandfather: Benton Tedlie:

Our other two sons were named a little differently: Matthew Everette wasn't really named after anyone, but his name "Matthew" means "Gift of God", and that he was. Matthew is now with God in heaven, but he was God's gift to us for the 41 years we enjoyed him here. His middle name of Everette we picked at random because it just seemed to sound good with Matthew. I added the extra "e" to the end of it because I thought that looked extra nice, kind of like my middle name with the "e" on it.

Our youngest son is named John Scott. We call him Scott.  He is named after his daddy, my hubby John, (who, incidentally was named John Frank for his two grandfathers),  but the name Scott was chosen by our two older sons.  We asked them what they wanted to name their new baby brother, (because I really didn't have any boy names picked out, thinking for sure that the third child would surely be a girl and we didn't have "gender reveal" tests back then)  and they said "Scotty", after the little boy who lived across the street from us.  And so we named him John Scott, and then learned afterwards that the little boy across the street was also named "John Scott". So...there you have it. We have no clue where that little boy is today (of course he'd be probably in his late 50's by now).

This is a favorite picture of what I call "My Three Sons", taken way back before they all went their separate ways of college, marriage, work, etc....while they were still just that, "Our three sons".  Of course they always belonged to Jesus too. Our children are a gift to us, on loan from God.  

It is our job to:

  "Train up a child in the way he should go, 

And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Matthew, Benton, Scott

No matter what name we may give our children, or what name we are called ourselves, the most important name we have is that our name is written down in the "Lamb's Book of Life" in heaven. There can be no more important name than that.

Except for this one:

The Names of Jesus:

The One whose Birth we will soon be celebrating:

Merry CHRISTmas!!

Note from Annie regarding this Tuesday 4 Meme: "As always thank you so much for joining in and making this a success. It just means the world to me. And, remember I am always looking for topics and questions so leave a comment if you have any!"

Friday Foto Friends-Only Believe

 I've got more things to share with you from the past few days.  I thought I'd opened all my special gifts from our ladies' Christmas party the other day, but then I remembered that I'd forgotten to open one special little package.

It came in this little 2" x 3" plastic package that was kind of hard to open, so I had put it aside and planned to open it when I got home. I had no clue what was inside, and it was a gift that each lady received by reaching into a bag and pulling out one of these little packages at random.  More about this in a few minutes...

Well, yesterday, as many of you knew and were praying for me, thank you very much indeed, I had my six week post-op check up with the neurosurgeon who did my cervical spinal fusion. My biggest concern has been that my right arm continues to hurt and has not gotten any better since the surgery. It had been diagnosed with "cervical radiculopathy", which was caused by nerve impingement due to the ruptured disc in my neck, which was surgically repaired and should have released any impinged nerves.

So, upon examination yesterday, the two neurosurgeons who had done my surgery carefully examined my arm and x-rays, and said that they did not feel that this continued pain was due to any further nerve impingement, but that I most likely have a frozen shoulder, and they are referring me to an Orthopedic Surgeon and also to Physical Therapy.

That is not the news I was hoping to hear. I was hoping they'd say that my arm was still just healing and that it would be better in time with some therapy and not to worry, etc., etc., etc.  The possibility that it might require further surgery was not an option that I was willing to consider.

To say that I was disappointed would be a great understatement.

I left there feeling a bit overwhelmed and somewhat depressed, which for me is an unusual state. But this pain has been wearing me down for quite a while, since way before the surgery, and I certainly thought that by now it would be so much better. It is something that affects my every day life in one way or another, but then again, it is not totally debilitating, just aggravating and frustrating and painful. I do count my blessings and am so very thankful that it is just my arm and not my whole body. God has been very merciful and kind to me, and I am very very cognizant of that fact and give Him praise.

That being said, still, I am human, and I was not happy.

However, also being human, and the fact that it was almost lunch time and we were hungry, we stopped at a new to us BBQ restaurant on the way home for lunch. Some BBQ pork, sweet potato fries, coleslaw and a cup of hot tea because I was chilled and needed something to warm my innards seemed like a good way to brighten my mood.

And then we got home and I took a nice long nap.

Now, you are still wondering about that little package that I had not opened, aren't you? Okay...let's move on:

I opened it up and this is what I found inside:

What?  My "One Word" for 2021, "Believe" was staring at me from this tiny little package that I'd forgotten to open until right that very moment when I needed it most.

Coincidence? No...with God there is no such thing as "coincidence".  There are special God appointments, timely messages, words of hope and encouragement at just the right time...but never just a coincidence. God knows what we need, when we need it, and how to provide exactly the right thing right on time.  This was certainly one of those moments.

Then I called the friend who had provided that bag full of these little packages for everyone to choose at random and asked her if everyone got the same thing. She said, "No, each one was different, and these were left over from last year and I didn't know what to do with them so I thought this would be a good way to share them with others."  So I told her my little story about my "One Word" for 2021 being "Believe", and that right then at that very moment I needed to be reminded to believe that God was in control, and that He had me covered, and that "With God all things are possible"...

We both praised God together that He had provided this little bit of encouragement at just the right moment. Wow!  What a joy and blessing!

Oh, there's one more thing. Another dear friend had given me this journal in a package at the party...another one of those God gifts I would say, wouldn't you?

When I showed my hubby the wristband and told him about how it all came together right at that moment, he started singing this old hymn that we both know and love:

Refrain:

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

Fear not, little flock, from the cross to the throne,

From death into life He went for His own;

All power in earth, all power above,

Is given to Him for the flock of His love.

Refrain:

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

Fear not, little flock, He goeth ahead,

Your Shepherd selecteth the path you must tread;

The waters of Marah He’ll sweeten for thee,

He drank all the bitter in Gethsemane.

Refrain:

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

Fear not, little flock, whatever your lot,

He enters all rooms, “the doors being shut,”

He never forsakes; He never is gone,

So count on His presence in darkness and dawn.

Refrain:

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

Okay, friends, that's for today's blessings and Friday fotos!  Thank you again for your prayers. I will be contacting the physical therapists today to set up my appointments for therapy, and I will wait to hear from the Orthopedic Surgeon to hear what he recommends, and I will keep believing that God has this under control, no matter what.  God is good, all the time, God is good.

Have a blessed and beautiful day and weekend.

Thursday Thankfulness-"Jesus The Light of the World"

 Good Thursday Morning! This will have to be quick because I have my six week post-surgery checkup with the surgeon this morning at 10:00 a.m., and it is an hour's drive...so don't let me ramble on too long here!  I may have to finish this later, but at least I'll get started!  

First off, I need to "promote" Lily Grace's latest "ADVENT-ure" over in the "little town of Bethlehem". She wanted to tell you that she loves it when you folks come over and visit her at her place, and she promises you will enjoy this little Advent journey with her.

That being said, let me move on to my own ADVENT-ures.  Yesterday was our church ladies' UMW Christmas luncheon, also known as a "Birthday Party for Jesus".  We always have a special cake made for the occasion, and we gather around and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Here is the cake:

The beautiful star is like the star of Bethlehem, guiding us to the Christ-child, Jesus, 

The Light of the World!

We had such a lovely group of ladies joined together for good food, fellowship, and also a gift exchange. Some ladies participate in a Secret Sister gift exchange throughout the year, so they reveal who they are at this gathering with their Christmas gift to their "secret sister". For those of us who do not wish to participate in the year-long secret sister idea, we each bring a gift and then we swap gifts with others who aren't in the secret sister program. That way, everyone gets a little gift. It's all very lovely and fun and a happy time.

Here's my "gift" to the ladies. I am kind of the unofficial photographer and I go around and make sure I take a picture of every woman present. Then I make this collage to share on our Church Facebook page, and send copies via email of the individual pictures to each lady. 

One of our ladies did a special little presentation which included a gift for everyone present. She read this poem to us and then told us that there would be a cup and saucer for every lady to take home with her after the meeting:

Here's my little cup and saucer (the white set), with the poem attached:

That was such a sweet idea!!

Another dear lady, who could not be present at our party due to health concerns, sent this little gift to me via another friend who is her neighbor:

It's a little lapel "Colonial Teapot Pin", and actually, she sent me two of them! She said she found them in her mother's things as she has been cleaning out her home following her passing last year, and when she saw them, she thought of me! I was so surprised and blessed by this very thoughtful gift. I may have to pass one of them on to another friend since I don't really need two of them.

Here's some of the good food we had, which was pot luck "finger foods".  

And here are the lovely gifts before we opened them. We have this party at our church "Parsonage", which is the house designated for the Pastor and his family to live in, but our Pastor already has his own home, so we use the parsonage for our ladies' UMW meetings, our Ladies' Bible study, and other smaller gatherings. We pretty much had the house full to overflowing yesterday, but it was a warm, happy time together.

Just some of the decor in the house:

Some of you will remember that my hubby and I stayed in this house for about 6 weeks the summer we moved to this town, while we waited for the closing on our new house and made some repairs on it before we could move in. It was a wonderful blessing to us to be able to live in this beautiful home temporarily.  God is so good to us.

Oh, and this gorgeous camellia bush is blooming outside the parsonage right now!

Another fun thing! You might have noticed this picture in the collage of the ladies above, and wondered why we three ladies were standing together. Well, we now have three Pamela's in our church!  Can you imagine, three of us????  We called ourselves "Three Peas in a Pod".  First there was me, (I'm in the middle), and then Pamela #2 (on the left) came down for the winter last year and we became good friends...she even made some clothes for Lily Grace you might remember and had a special Valentine's party for her... and we became the "Two Peas in a Pod"

And now there is a new "Pamela"  (on the right) who has recently started coming to our church, so now we are "Three Peas in a Pod".  No telling where this will lead!! But I look forward to getting better acquainted with our new "Pamela #3" and hope she will decide to stay with us at our church. I hope we other two Pamela's don't scare her off! LOL.

Well, friends, it's getting late, and I need to get a move on or I'll be late to my Dr. appointment.

I hope you enjoyed this little Christmas Adventure.

And always remember,

"Jesus is the reason for the season"

Jesus, The Light of the World

 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 

“I am the light of the world. 

He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, 

but have the light of life.”

John 8:12

P.S. I almost forgot! The gift I got from the gift swap was something I needed very much! Since this was a random "pick your gift from the gifts not designated with any name on them", the person giving the gift had no clue who would get it.  Here is what I got:

Believe it or not, I've been saying to myself quite often lately that I need a new hairbrush, and I also need a new hand mirror, with a magnifying mirror on one side and a regular mirror on the other. Well, that is exactly what I got! I was so surprised! It was like God must have told somebody (I still don't know who gave this gift as there was no name on it) to buy this gift because there would be someone at that party who really needed this exact thing!  All I can say is, "Ain't God good???"  He knows the thoughts of our hearts, He knows what we need, He knows how to provide even in the most mysterious of ways.  Our God is an awesome God!! Amen?

Monday Morning Reflections

Well, I started writing this early this morning, when Still Waters Pond looked like this and the morning sun was reflecting on the trees and on the pond...it was so lovely. I thought I'd get something written before now, but the day got away from me...

You know, this time of year there's always something to do!

Our church choir sang this song yesterday:

"Christmas Is Comin'"

(turn up your sound to hear it better, and just remember we are a small church country choir!)

and then if you want, stay around and listen to great sermon by our pastor from Luke 1:26-45, "The Announcement".

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

People celebratin’ the birth of a King

Shoutin’ hosanna till the heavens ring

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

Christmas is comin’, Mary’s baby boy

Bringin’ us a message of comfort and joy.

Glory hallelujah, what a wonderful thing.

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

Glory filled the heavens. Music filled the night

Shepherds heard the angels sing. Wise men saw the light

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

People celebratin’ the birth of a King

Shoutin’ hosanna till the heavens ring

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Glory filled the heavens. Music filled the night

Shepherds heard the angels sing. Wise men saw the light

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

People celebratin’ the birth of a King

Shoutin’ hosanna till the heavens ring

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

Let the church bells ring! Let the church bells ring!

That peppy little song should get you singing along...you'll now be doing like me and going around singing "Christmas is comin', let the church bells ring!"

Speaking of letting the church bells ring...guess what we did last night?

Yes, we set up our train and village!

Here's a little video of the train running around the tree:

This is becoming a new tradition for our family, started last year. Well, not really new.  Just being resumed from probably 30 years or more ago, and carrying on the tradition of my father from my childhood and his childhood too. (Click on that link for last year's story about this to get more history).

So the "kids" came over for pizza supper and to help put together the train and village.

Here's my sweet DIL Rose and I putting together the village

And Hubby was supervising everyone and taking pictures of us working:

(while he watched football on TV)

Son Scott did most of the on the ground work because he's really the only one of us

still agile enough to get down on the floor and get back up again. LOL

Benton and Rose relaxing and enjoying the fun...

I couldn't wait to start playing with the train, but soon discovered that getting down there and back up is going to be a challenge for me this year...

Of course we had to bring Lily Grace into the room so she could see the train for the first time in her life:

And of course she wanted to take over being the engineer right away:

Yes, I think she's going to have a lot of fun this Christmas:

If you want to watch another short video, here goes Lily Grace, enjoying the train for the very first time:

Here's a couple of great quotes I read on one of my newer blogging friends' posts today:

Thank you to Kirsten at "Loving Life" for sharing these quotes.

Obviously, I "resemble" those quotes...

Well, friends, that's it for today. My Monday Morning Reflections became a Monday Evening Sunset Reflection...

Isn't God's artistry in the skies just amazing?

Praise God in the morning and in the evening too!!

Amen!

Good Night!

and May God bless you all with His peace and joy and love.

"Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!

People celebratin’ the birth of a King

Shoutin’ hosanna till the heavens ring

Christmas is comin’, let the church bells ring!"