Fresh Oil

I am the eleventh child of twelve children born to my mother and father.  According to my birth certificate my mother was forty-two years old when she gave birth to me.  My oldest sibling was about twenty years older than me with children of her own when I was born; which means that I was an aunt the day I was born, how amazing is that, but I digress.  When I was young I was surrounded by a loving family and extended family.  We grew up with my Paternal grandparents in the home, in fact I am named after my paternal grandmother who was a twin.   I often think about my grandmother and mother, even more during Mother's Day celebration.  My grandmother was our caretaker, while my mother and father worked. She was a strong woman, mentally and physically, she was a stern disciplinarian, and she believed in children staying in their place, but as stern as she was, she was just as loving and caring.  My grandmother loved animals, especially cats, I rememb...

Recently I heard one of my relatively new and favorite worship songs that brought back a very pleasant memory; it's a song by a young man name Kelontae Gavin, titled, "No Ordinary Worship."  When I first heard the song in 2019 it was during a time I needed to be reminded that the God I serve is not ordinary, it wasn't that anything out of the ordinary was happening in my life, however, I felt as though I was just going through the motions, nothing great happening, nothing bad happening, everything was just, "ordinary."  I remember being in my car driving to work on a beautiful sun drenched morning with my gospel music playing as I crept through the bumper to bumper traffic. It was my custom to turn on the radio immediately when I got into the car and keep it on for the forty-five minute drive to work.  As this particular song began to play, I immediately realized that the station had gone new on me, because I wasn't expecting this song.  Coming through t...