An ordinary suburban girl with an extraordinary passion for seeking the Lord’s will in her life, Sherrill is more than a poet. She is a retired elementary school teacher, mother of two grown children, and wife for over 31 years. One dreary morning's drive awakened her passion for writing prayer-poetry as God greeted her with a spectacular sunrise. Her flow of words and faith has filled two self-published books so far.
March Madness
By Sherrill Schlimpert
I know the term March Madness is used lightly for everything from store sale advertisements to dances at senior citizen centers. But as I write this phrase, at the tail-end of a harsh winter with many snowed-in days, it takes on a literal meaning for me. I’m not kidding, I can feel stark-raving mad by March. I once had a doctor suggest that many of his patients invest in one of those expensive natural sun lights for Seasonal Affective Disorder. But, I have to admit I sometimes find grey days in the summer affecting me the same way! I’m the kind of person that looks for the sunny table at a restaurant even if I have to sit with the sun in my eyes.
But this morning, facing another grey, chilly day with no signs of spring as yet, and routine duties looming large in front of me, I found true light. It came in the form of the most simple words given to two women who really believe God gave them the words they wrote in the book, God Calling edited by A.J. ….. Simple words. Words that I already know. But words that I really believe God sent me this morning, just as he once sent them to the two women who originally were inspired to write them.
I take the liberty now of taking those thoughts and forming them into a recipe – a kind of comfort food for grey days, a new kind of Chocolate Cake to ward off the devastating feeling like you’re drowning in a downward spiral that may not be true depression, but is none-the-less depressing. And, since those kinds of feelings are surely orchestrated by the devil himself, we are going to title this recipe: Anti-Devils Food Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup rejoicing
2 T. singing
3 heaping cups of prayer
a pinch of rest
Mix together with the leavening of fighting fear and worry.
Fold in calmness, once the gladness and joy begin to rise.
Ice with thankfulness .
After reading these ingredients, like me you are likely to say, “Duh!” because you’ve got these ingredients as staples in the pantry of your heart gathering dust. It’s so easy to let these vital staples get past their expiration date from lack of use. But, the ladies in God Calling illuminated my day with these simple words, reminding me “ we must say thank you on the greyest days. You must do it. All cannot be light unless you do. There is grey-day practice. It is absolutely necessary.”
This morning as I licked the knife after finally icing that cake (on this icy morning at the beginning of March), I began to rest and calm in the sweet taste of thankfulness once again on my lips. Thank you for the words in that timeless book. Thank you for my warm house, thank you for this cup of steaming hot coffee, thank you for a second car that allows me to get out of the house on most days, thank you for the praise song on the radio, thank you for the carwash will get the soot and grime off after the ice melts off the road, thank you for …allowing me to feel thankful.
