A Wife and a Witness

09/17/2026

Worship in Spirit and Truth
Ephesians 5:1-5
"5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."
Thoughts- One of the first signs of worship when you have an idol, a sports hero, a movie star, a musician is imitation. For those who are sports fanatics- we have to wear "their" jersey. We may spend over $100 to get the jersey of their team with "their" number on it. We want to identify with that person. We may try to dress similar to the movie star or the singer. Michael Jackson's fan base, might where the black parachute pants, black dress shoes and a glove on their hand. Tom Cruse fans may get their hair styled like his and get the aviator sun glasses. We want to identify with those who we "worship."
We don't often carry that over to spiritual life. Many of us hold our "fan-anctics" in higher regard than our spiritual condition. Football on Sunday may take precedence over worship services if we are fortunate enough to have season tickets to events. Even at elementary and high schools levels we encourage sport over athletics in not voicing opinions when our children's activities keep them from Godly spiritual education opportunities.
Instead- We are to be imitators of God! We are to look and act as His kids! We must put off the ways of those around us. We aren't of this world. We don't have to 'Identify" as anyone in it. We don't have to dress the way they dress, talk they way they talk, live like they live. In fact, God tells us to flee from it! No one who lives like the world will inherit what God has for us! It is all in or all out. I want to live "ALL IN!"

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09/16/2026

Worship In Spirit and Truth
Ephesians 4:25-32
" 25 Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."
Thoughts- How do we "grieve the Holy Spirit?" By walking in ways contrary to God's plan. We grieve the Holy Spirit by walking in ways that are fleshly and demonic, disobedient to the laws of God. When we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, we are "Kept" by God for our eternal reward. He places that seal upon us. We are a letter "sealed" by a seal bearing the symbol of our Father, our Lord, our Master. To be opened again to the fleshly desires, our human-ness, our bent to sin over again, causes grief to the One Who is given to us to protect, and comfort. Instead the Spirit must again convict and bring us back to holiness in Christ. When we allow our seal to be broken, we give the devil back power to deal in and through us all over again and our reputation, our testimony, our witness now becomes tarnished and unreliable to those we are leading to Christ.
Instead, we are to be kind, compassionate, forgiving one another just as Christ forgives us!

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09/15/2026

Worship in Spirit and Truth
Ephesians 4: 17-24
"17 So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."
Thoughts- I am continuing on in the who's who at the birth of my great-grandson, but today I am sharing about 2 important individuals. The prayer team- NOW don't get me wrong there were a lot of people praying for this little baby and from all over the United States. California, Florida, Texas, MI, you name it! But there were 2 who never gave up in prayer- one who was on sight in Cincinnati and another who was miles away in Napoleon, OH. My husband, Bill Bowser and the other Jeanne Miller, the other great-grandmother. Jeanne and I attended school together and have both always had a Biblical foundation but sometimes when we are young we get into wrong relationships and we hurt ourselves spiritually by those decisions. I think I can speak for both of us by saying we have a shared history in doing things on our own and then coming back to our faith when we were older.
Bill's story is different in that he came to the Lord after marrying me and he has become my spiritual head, my prayer warrior and he probably prays more than me on most days. (Not that it is a contest)
I know that Jeanne was praying for a complete healing before Dalton got here, and the reality was although he was not completely healed, the outcome was better than we had expected. He continues to amaze us and we praise God for every step of the healing process.
Bill and Jeanne prayed through the delivery process, from before we left home for Cincinnati, honestly at 5 am as they were leaving for the hospital to be induced. Again as we left the driveway to go to Cincinnati to be with them and every step of the way.
What is important in this passage to know beyond the prayers is that God does not leave us where He finds us! He lifts us beyond our darkened understanding and brings us into His light. A place where we see ourselves and others as He (God) sees us. We are not who we once were. We have learned about Christ and have experienced Christ in other ways. Ways that we are being taught daily by the Holy Spirit to emulate and imitate in our own thoughts, actions and reputation. It is coming through that new birth that we pray for others to receive the same and come to that same salvation!

09/14/2026

Worship in Spirit and Truth
Ephesians 4:14-16
"14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."
Thoughts- Continuing in the story of my great-grandson's birth. Today the focus is on our 23 year old granddaughter. Born with a congenital heart defect herself, she is no stranger to a cardiologist. She's had 6 month check-ups or annual check ups all her life and earlier testing in the pregnancy showed all was well. Until it wasn't.
Our granddaughter took the news of a congenital diaphragmatic hernia with the right amount of concern and hope, trusting in what she was told in advance. When she found out that the first plan would not happen because of her own health, she did what she could to plan in her heart and her mind for a couple worst case scenarios because that's what I generally do. What is the worst, then whatever less happens is a blessing,
I watched this young woman go through most of 18 hours of very intense contractions on day one. We left after about 10 hours of it because my husband's heart was breaking for his little "monkey-toes", a nickname from her own infant days.
Fast forward another 12 hours of not as intense labor (there was an epidural involved) but much frustration and fatigue. The promise of a c-section in an hour. The reality of a baby in distress with every contraction and the urgency of others needing more emergent care than our granddaughter in the busy hospital, became another 4 and a half hour wait for her "turn" for the operating room for her delivery.
There is nothing like mother-hood to grow a young lady into a new "maturity." On the day after her baby's birth, with the baby in a different hospital altogether in a NICU awaiting surgery, this young mom is looking ahead despite her own limitations. Swollen legs and feet, from too much fluid- her own cardiologist visits, still tethered to an IV stand, she and I worked on the breast pump and feeding the baby in the NICU after surgery and hopefully once she is able to hold and nurse her precious baby boy for as long as she wants to do that. She advocated for herself with the doctors she dealt with, on a facetime meeting with her son's team at Children's hospital she spoke out her own questions about his care. She did things that were difficult in order to go and visit for a few hours before being released from her own hospital the next day, which was also the day of his surgery.
Spiritually speaking about this passage- growing up spiritually requires an influx of the Holy Spirit. That nudge that says " It's Time to make a change." Whatever that change might be- we need to take action and follow through with the course of action needed. We may be still tethered to sin, God will deal with it in his time. We may not be confident in how to carry out all of the aspects of it, we will be directed day by day.
Just as my granddaughter doesn't have all the answers this week, the love for that baby will guide her into the day by day needs and concerns. We walk this earth one day at a time with a promise of an eternity when we are done- we choose where we will spend that eternity. As we grow up in Christ we put aside the foolish young desires and they are replaced with Godly virtues and wisdom, compassion, grace and faith as we rely on the blood of Jesus to save us from our sin and learn to walk in God's ways by the power of the Holy Spirit.

09/13/2026

Worship in Spirit and Truth
Ephesians 4:4-13
" 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When He ascended on high,
He led captive the captives,
And He gave gifts to people.”
9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
Thoughts -picking up today where we left off yesterday. Things I learned about God while waiting for a baby to be born. I found out that our son-in-law is more like my husband than I thought. Sometimes the greatest leaders are not the men who cry out "look at me" but instead are the "quiet strength" that you need in all of life's uncertain moments. The man who books the hotels and the air b and b's, orders the groceries to be delivered to the same while everyone else is on baby watch at the hospital. While he's waiting he's watching the grand-puppy who has missed her family while they were waiting in Cincinnati the past 3 weeks. He's the guy that drives the baby's father to the NICU following birth at a different hospital. Tries to be at the hospital for his own wife and asks "Do you need anything?" Every time he leaves the room.
It isn't that I've not known these things about him, I knew that he loved my daughter (adored her) from a time in her life when she was the one in the hospital. He had asked me to stay with her while he went to a friend's house who was watching our granddaughter while our daughter was in the hospital and took our granddaughter (his step-daughter now) to McDonald's and home to play for a few hours- for some normalcy. I said absolutely.
Sometimes this is exactly what love looks like. You don't find it during the family meal or the birthday parties. No, you find it in the hard times. You see it in the quiet face that wants to do something but doesn't know exactly how. So he does what he knows how and what to do. Keep the wheels spinning. Do the next thing that he knows to do, and then do the next thing after that.
In the body of Christ this comes down to relying on the Holy Spirit telling you what needs done. We may not all be preachers but some of us are the quiet strength. Andrew, Jesus' disciple compared to his brother Peter. seems overlooked sometimes. But Andrew followed after John the Baptist, seeking Truth. Then he introduced Simon to Jesus! What a day! It was also Andrew that found the food from the little boy when the disciples were called on to feed the five thousand.
Sometimes we need to encourage the Andrews in our lives. Thanking ours as soon as I can do so without making everyone cry!

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09/10/2026

A book on Christian Marriage and how a wife can become a better Wife and Witness to her husband, whether he is saved or not

09/10/2026

This morning my phone had a message on it from my fitness app.."you may have had a challenging night with your sleep"
My first thought..."Duh....do you think?" My second thought was how I could use this today in my meditation.
I KNOW what kept me awake last night. If you've ever waited for a child or grandchild to have a baby that is taking his/ her time arriving, you know. Our little fellow and his momma both have health concerns that will be addressed either by delivery and medication for her, or surgery shortly after his birth. We appreciate all who are praying.
But I quickly thought about what other things challenge our sleeping. Maybe a disagreement with someone, the Bible says to "not let the sun go down on our anger. " Get rid of the conflict before closing your eyes.
Maybe we've done something we know is wrong and can't believe God will forgive us. The Bible says "if we confess our sins He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us." Faithful because He will do it every time, just because he doesn’t take our atonement for our sins but Jesus, who pays it for us!
Maybe we are worried about our finances, God tells us to test Him on this, bring our first fruits to Him and see if He won't provide. It also says He clothes the flowers and feeds the birds, we are much more valuable to Him than they.
Today we are leaning on God's understanding of what is happening with our granddaughter and great- grandson. We are believing that he is preparing the perfect team for our special delivery.