Recently I came across this story. I have no idea who wrote this.  I have no idea when it was written. I have no history of the author or who it is written for.  However, it touched my heart. I share this on this month of the celebration of not only all Mothers but all Women.

“Imagine With Me for a Moment”

  “Imagine with me for a moment, if you had a beautiful picture in your home that was worth over a hundred thousand dollars because of the artist who had painted it. It was a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. The artist had put excellence into every stroke of his work. The colors were awesome. The depth perception was amazing. It was the final work of the artist who was abruptly killed in a car accident. You knew the painting was going to continue to increase in value. You gave it a place of honor in your home.

  One day you come home and the lock on the door is broken. Petty thieves have broken into your home and stolen several electronic items including the painting. You report the items to the police. Fortunately for you, you had the items marked and numbered. A few weeks later, the police inform you that several of the items showed up at a large local flea market. You go out in the rain in search of the painting hoping against hope that it was there.

  You look and you look. Finally you see the frame of the picture sitting in some mud, in the rain with about five other pictures that you could purchase at any Salvation Army for less than ten dollars. The picture itself is now torn. It is obvious that whoever had taken the picture did little to protect it. There’s a shoe mark where someone stepped on it, and there is a hole where someone poked something too hard in the back of it. There is a rip going across the bottom of it where something sharp had caught it.

  As you see your magnificent piece of art, laying there among cheap imitations, battered and bruised, what kind of thoughts go through your mind. Are you angry at what has been done to the picture? Are you angry at those who stole it and felt it was theirs to do with as they pleased? Do you feel sorry for the one who is trying to sell it at far less than its true value? Are you grateful that you found it and will have the opportunity to restore it to its former position of excellence?

  Saints, when it has come to the beautiful painting that we call women, far too often we have hijacked them for our own purposes, failed to realize their true value, and injured them in ways that have left them feeling stepped upon, wounded, stabbed and torn in various pieces. If you are a woman and you are feeling like this today, I want you to know there is a God who created you, who has been searching for you, and who is willing to heal you, mend you, and put you back together again with the glory he intended for you to have. When you read the gospels, you discover that Jesus had a special place in his heart for women who were being used and trampled upon”.

Praise God for the women who have changed our lives for the best. 

Grace & Blessings;

Pastor Brian 

Special Heartfelt Thanks!!!

We are so appreciative and grateful for the dedicated service Karen and Jeff Ekstrom have provided to our church serving as Treasurer and Financial Secretary for 25+ years.  Year in and year out, they kept up with our church finances and responsibilities.  Their service, in the name of God, has been immeasurable to our church.  Thank you!

Janet Painter and Martha Keene have agreed to serve as their replacements.  They will begin taking over the responsibilities on July 1st.

Thank you Don Griffith, for working on our church website:

Lakeviewunitedmethodistchurch.net

Thank you Becky Child, for keeping our Facebook presence alive and blossoming.