Life Illuminated

Regina Chandler Tolbert

ISBN 978-1-64468-079-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-080-3 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 Regina Chandler Tolbert

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

The Navigation System Is Down, Which Way Do I Go?

It Really Is a Small World after All

Caught Up Trying to Be This or That? You Have a Purpose

Test Me on This: The Floodgates Will Open! Sound the Alarm

Run the Race and Do Not Quit!

Love: It Is a Choice

What Makes You so Special?

Thoughtful Sentiment #1: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Thoughtful Sentiment #2: There Are Three Kinds of People in this World

How Can Anything Beautiful Come from This?

Live Every Day to the Fullest

Be Still and Be Quiet

Wisdom, Ask For It

Who Do You Represent?

Me, a Farmer?

When You Need Two or More

Thoughtful Sentiment #3: Meal Time Is a Family Time

Thoughtful Sentiment #4: I Call This Meeting to Order

Bloom Where You Are Planted

What Do We Say? How Do We Pray?

Your Life, Put into Words

Don’t Worry about a Single Hair on Your Head

Nothing Is Impossible!

Use Your Powers for Good Not Evil

Inside Your Mother’s Womb

Thoughtful Sentiment #5: Sound the Alarm—No One Is Watching the Stove

Thoughtful Sentiment #6: Your House Has a Smell

Sin Is Sin

Pardon Me, but Your Cake Tastes Awful

TMI! Too Much Information

Everything Means: Every. Single. Thing.

Count Your Many Blessings, See What God Has Done

A Promise That Never Returns Empty

Where Are All the Workers? Look in the Mirror

Thoughtful Sentiment #7: My Tongue Twister: To Laugh or To Cry?

Thoughtful Sentiment #8: Keep Your Zipper Zipped

How to Eat an Elephant?

Get in Your Closet

Input = Output

Temptation is Real, It Happens to All of Us!

Who Are You Trying to Impress?

Train Them Up, in All Areas

Do It For the Least of These

Thoughtful Sentiment #9: Every Day with You Is a Celebration

Thoughtful Sentiment #10: Use It or Lose It

What Would People Say Your Addiction Is?

Birds of the Air, Animals of the Field

How Much Fruit Is on Your Branches?

Be Thankful and Stop Complaining

Make a Happy Noise

Build on the ROCK

Narrow Is the Road

Thoughtful Sentiment #11: If It Walks Like a Duck

Thoughtful Sentiment #12: Imagine with Me for a Moment: The Perfect Woman

Sleep in Peace

A Name with Power

Home Invaders

Hopeless Situations

Status Symbol

What Is Your Offering?

Never Judge the Book by the Cover

Thoughtful Sentiments #13: Fake it: Until You Make It

Thoughtful Sentiments #14: Tow the Load

All You Have

Any Earthly Good?

Where Do Your Feet Take You?

Only Allow Room for the BEST!

Trade One Day

Do the Best with What You’ve Got!

Receive the Same REWARD?

Thoughtful Sentiment #15: Don’t Date Someone You Wouldn’t Marry

Thoughtful Sentiment #16: Watching Over You, Cheering You On

He Is In Control

The Things You Will or Will Not Do

The Lord Knows the Number of Days

The Child You Have Prayed For

You Are Rich!

Protect Your Marriage

Entertaining Angels Unaware

Thoughtful Sentiment #17: Twenty Questions

Thoughtful Sentiment #18: Leaving a Mark Wherever You Can

Laying Your Life Down

Reconciliation of the End

There Are No Orphans of God

Power in the Presence

Are You Mary or Martha?

There Is Purpose to Your Suffering

God’s Love and Provision

Thoughtful Sentiment #19: The Turtle Move

Thoughtful Sentiment #20: Hard Work and Preparation Pays Off

Careful Not to Put Our Wants Over God’s

When One Door Closes

God Shows Up Unexpectedly!

How Do You Know Your Spouse Loves You?

Even the Blind Can See

Daughters or Sons in Love

A House of Prayer

Thoughtful Sentiment #21: A Time to Laugh or to Cry?

Thoughtful Sentiment #22: Unpredictable, Changeable, Life

Dedication

To Jeremy

My only love, better half, and partner in this journey of life.

To Jackson and Reagan

My children, my friends, and my most treasured gifts. The reason for this book is you. So take these small pieces of light from my life, a person that loves you and only wants the very best for you, and use them along your own journey. May they give you the light you need at the very point of your life that you need it most. May you be blessed. My prayer and goal is that I be broken and spilled out on these pages; for the love of you and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Just as it states in Philippians 2:17, Yet even if I am being poured out like an offering as part of the sacrifice and service I offer for your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my Heavenly Father, for your grace and forgiveness. Thank you for loving me and guiding me every day of my life. Without you I would have nothing, but with you I have everything.

Thank you to my talented friend Amanda Bond for all the beautiful photography that fills this book. Each one represents a familiar place or special memory. You are truly talented, and with all your help and heart we brought some precious memories to life.

Introduction

As you begin this book let me share some of the motivation behind it. I never set out to become a writer or aspire to publish a book. I did not study this in college, and it is not my profession. I guess you could say I don’t even have exceptional skills in English or writing. Yet here we are, only because the Lord blessed me with these thoughts and helped me to put them all together as a means of sharing with my family some precious memories and encouragement through God’s word with personal stories from our lives.

My motivation really began in 2016 when I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. A cancer that I had been fighting since 2010. At age 42, with a husband and two children, getting the news that the cancer had spread; made me really think about the gift of life, and how precious each day can be. I accepted the sobering realization that I might not get to be a part of so many precious events that were to come in my family’s life. I began to question, What would my legacy be? What state would I leave my loved ones in when my life ends? I soon realized in one of my two-by-four moments, the moments where my eyes were opened so wide by the truth of the Holy Spirit like literally being struck by a piece of wood to the head, that my faith and trust in the Lord is the most important legacy that I hope to leave behind. So I began these short devotions as a way of showing the love of Christ to my family and others. May you experience the same light of understanding and wisdom, or light bulb moment, and be transformed from the darkness of ignorance to a place where the giant light is being turned on.

Do I pray for a miracle? Do I seek a healing from God? Yes. And I trust that He has the power to do it. However, even though I know that God has the power to do all things, I also know that it is not always His will for everyone to be healed on this earth. So no matter what His will is for me and this disease of cancer; I must continue pressing on in service and in discovering each day what His will is for my life. My desire is to be useful for as long as I live. My faith in God is strong, and I seek him in each new day and situation that comes up in my life, and especially in this battle with cancer. I often think about Romans 8:28 that states, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." He gives me the strength and purpose, and I trust that good will come from my life no matter how long or short and may it be and only for His glory. So I continue to seek Him and live each day in victory no matter what a diagnosis says or the challenges that come in this life. Through this book I hope you encourage you.

These stories of light are meant to express advice, love, and faith to the people that I love the most here on this earth, my family. They are actual expressions of encouragement and can be applied by all people. Trust me that no matter what you go through, or even how bleak others might say that your future is, as of right now on this day, you have a future and a work to do. Be encouraged and strive to live each day in the light of Christ and in His word. There is no power in my words, but there is power in word of God found on these pages. Just as Psalm 119:105 tells us, Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light to my path.

Make God’s word the focus and use it to direct your path in life. May you be touched and your Life Illuminated in a meaningful way.

The Navigation System Is Down, Which Way Do I Go?

No matter what we face in life: from everyday decisions like how we should spend our time today, to more important things like who will we marry, or maybe what job might be right for us; we do not have a crystal ball to tell us what choices to make. We do however understand that our decisions hold consequences, not only for us but for those around us. As a Christian we want to make the right choices, but how do we know what is right or which way to go? You see I am terrible at directions, and before the days of navigation systems I would rely on directions like turn left at the meat market, then turn left at the twelfth brick house. It’s really a wonder I ever got any place! If you have ever been lost, and truly didn’t know which way to go, it is a scary thing. I remember following my husband, the speed demon, to an event and trying to keep up with him because I didn’t know which way to go. Please note the words, trying to keep up! When we were separated I felt such anxiety because I knew there was no hope for me finding the event alone. Then to see he had pulled over ahead and was waiting for me to catch up was such relief! Thankfully, The Lord gives us a clear promise on which road to take with precise directions. There is no need to speed to get there or feel anxiety that we will not make it where we are supposed to go. With God’s help we will get there right on time and what is waiting there for us will be the right choice. Finding the answer for what choice is right for you, is here in one of my favorite verses of all time, and I have relied on it to make numerous decisions in my life. It is Proverbs 3:6 that states, In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. The word all here encompasses everything! Mind blowing right? Every decision in everything we do or think; acknowledge God and His power in our life. Seek His will, and he will direct your path. He said it, and trust me He will do it. Sometimes the hard part can be, when he tells you the directions; you must follow them. So if you ever feel lost or don’t know which way to go it’s simple, acknowledge the Lord and give Him the control to set your path straight in front of you

It Really Is a Small World after All

I have such fond memories of many trips that my family and I took together. The first trip outside of the US with my husband to England and Ireland is always one that comes to my mind. I was amazed at the beautiful scenery and the differences in the food and culture. We were young, in love, and the world was a beautiful place. I started to realize at that moment that the world was not as overwhelming or as big as I had always thought. Then again, years later during another trip I was reminded of this same powerful message while riding the It’s a Small World ride at Disney World with my husband and children. As I watched these beautiful dolls representing the children from all over the world singing a song in different languages, yet singing in unison the same song, my mind went back to what the Lord had told me years earlier. A gentle reminder for me to look deeper than the differences in a culture, to look deeper than the pleasure you find in a new place, to try and find a way to serve the Lord there, and to try to find a way to make an eternal impact in someone’s life. So yes, I am saying that the Lord can speak to you even on an amusement park ride. He can speak to you anywhere you are, if you are willing to listen. The world is full of many people of different cultures and countries, but we have many things in common. We all have basic needs and desires yet the most important thing we have in common is the simple truth that God loves us all. I started learning