Lessons from the Porch at Kenley Cove

By Mary Alice Kenley

Mary Alice Kenley names everything: Stella the new stove; Sherry, the huge houseplant in the TV room; and on and on it goes. If you can get your head around that, its easy to see that she would name her houses. As she and her husband approached what she calls a certain age and decided it was time to move away from the city, they found a shabby little place on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama that they painstakingly chiseled into their sweet little spot. A friends daughter suggested they call it Kenley Cove, and it just felt right. Family went together and bought mugs for them that had Kenley Cove on one side and her favorite scripture on the other, so it was official!

Mary Alice lives in this spot with a man she calls Awesome Wonderful. Dr. Bob Kenley is a retired Christian school headmaster; Mary Alice says he is awesome and he is wonderful, so the moniker fits! She is a retired lobbyist. Awesome Wonderful chose to return to the classroom after retirement, while she choseat age 60to go back to school to learn how to help people through marriage and family counseling. Thats what she does a few hours a week at Kenley Cove.

These writings are taken from experiences in counseling couples, working with groups, and her own personal walk with God. You will laugh and you will cry and hopefully you will be encouraged. Thats the prayer from the porch at Kenley Cove.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490876542

Mary Alice Kenley

Mary Alice Kenley is a retired lobbyist turned counselor and author. In nice weather, she can be found counseling on the porch of their home in rural Alabama. She lives lakeside in tiny Cropwell, Alabama, with her husband of almost a half century, Bob. They enjoy entertaining family, extended family, and friends in their backyard and on the lake.

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Copyright © 2015 Mary Alice Kenley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover Photography Courtesy of Kristen Bruce Photography & Multimedia Trussville, AL

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7653-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7655-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7654-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015905992

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/27/2015

Contents

Why I Wrote This Book

Thank You

Lessons Learned about God

Lessons Learned about God’s Word

Lessons Learned about Sin

Lessons Learned about Forgiveness

Lessons Learned about Praise and Worship

Lessons Learned about Prayer

Lessons about Direction and Guidance

Lessons about Faith and Faithfulness

Lessons Learned about Wisdom

Lessons Learned about Servanthood

Lessons Learned about Identity

Lessons Learned about Children

Lessons Learned about One Anothering

Lessons Learned about Patience

Lessons Learned about Fear

Lessons about Gifts, Blessings and Benefits

Lessons Learned about Aging

Lessons about Fake and Real

Lessons Learned about Goals

Lessons Learned about Joy

Lessons Learned about Success

Lessons Learned about Plans

Lessons Learned about Change

Lessons Learned about Passion

Lessons Learned about Friends

Lessons Learned about Leadership

Lessons Learned about Purpose

Lessons Learned about Sadness and Death

Lessons Learned about Sleep

Lessons Learned about Storms

Lessons Learned about Encouragement

About the Author

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Psalm 118:23

Why I Wrote This Book

The purpose of this little book is to encourage you to see God’s way of living our lives as normal, His Word as the most practical guide for living, and His presence something to be actually, physically felt. If any page here touches your heart, then my mission is accomplished. Although I had been encouraged by my friends to do this, it would never have happened without the urging of the Holy Spirit. Writing a book has never been my goal, but it is what God has for me at this point.

It is my prayer that, as you read these pages, you will make the effort to look up, read and study the scriptures referenced here; and that you would allow God to do a work in you through the musings from the porch at Kenley Cove!

Thank You

… to the ladies of M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Preschoolers) in Pell City, Alabama, who showed me that the younger girls really want to hear from those of us who’ve been around the block a time or two and have the gray hair, fake knees and wrinkles to prove it;

… to Awesome Wonderful, the delightful human God supplied to do life with me;

… to my family who, through their own humanity, forced me to grow up and put on my big girl britches;

… to my Granny, the most awesome woman I ever knew. I’m certain she’s shaking her head at this publication saying, Girl, a fool’s name and a fool’s face are always seen in a public place!

… to my counselees, who teach me far more than I teach them; and most of all …

… to my Father God for giving me life and the ability to love every second of it!

One final note: As you read through, be mindful that these ruminations were created for my social media friends. You’ll see words and phrases like good morning or yesterday, and you’ll know why they are there. Enjoy!

Lessons Learned about God

E xodus 33:16-23: Moses asks God to confirm that he and the people had found favor in God’s sight. The Lord responded to Moses that he had indeed found favor, and that God knew him by name. Many people talk about their desire to have favor with God, but Moses pushed the envelope. In verse 18, he says, I pray You, show me Your glory! According to my research, the word glory translates to splendor or copiousness, or full weight. Moses wanted to see the essence of His God, the God he’d served through some pretty tough times, the God Who had not let him down. So God said to Moses, I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. He goes on to tell Moses that care had to be taken that His face would not be seen by Moses because that would mean certain death. But here’s the kicker: God said, There is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. WOW! Can you imagine being in a place like that—so close to God that He had to hide you and cover you with His hand to keep you alive? There was a bumper sticker once that said, If you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved? Do we squirm to see how close we can get to the One who loves us the most? Or do we struggle to stay just close enough that we’re in the fold, but still look, sound and act like the world? Lord, today here I am on tippy toes, hand stretched high. And like wanting to be picked for a team on the playground in the first grade—PICK ME for that first team, PICK ME to be the one scrambling to get closer!

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I’ve been doing some thinking lately about denominations—why we have them, what the differences are (Awesome Wonderful is super with the details on this), and in general what the job is of the Body of Christ in the world. When Bob was in the Christian school ministry, he always allowed people of different faiths to come—even people of no faith at all. (Hint: That’s why they call it a ministry!) His feeling was that there are enough things in the Word that Christians can agree on to keep the staff busy for all of a child’s time with us and that we would not focus on the things that divided us. BAM! So, bottom line, I’m boiling all of this down. What’s really important to know and to teach your children? The basics, of course, yes. Virgin birth, Holy Trinity, resurrection, etc. But I find a lot of fear in the Body these days. People say stuff to me like, I know God is probably really angry with me. That’s putting God on a human level, and His human phase ended when He was transfigured. Here’s a good one to teach your kids—and yourself: Confidence in Who God is and how He feels about you. Here’s a great place to start. Romans 8:38-39: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Wow, what a way to start a day!

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I love finding little nuggets my Father has tucked into His word, things you could miss if you don’t visit a passage very often. Well, look at the one below—what a surprise!

Do you remember when Jesus was twelve and went to Jerusalem with His parents to the Passover? It’s in Luke 2:41. I found something in that passage that moves me. This time through, I noticed the progression of events that occurred when Mary and Joseph realized He wasn’t with them. First of all, He didn’t leave them; they left Him. They didn’t recognize it at first and the realization was gradual. Then they went into PANIC mode, thinking What if we never find Him? Well, Jesus knew where He was, and He also knew where they were. Is this starting to make sense? Isn’t this the same progression we as believers experience when we move away from Him? Something to think about. The great thing is … He’s ready for a reunion any time!

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After the Great Flood, God wanted to establish a covenant with Noah that He would not destroy the earth again by flood. As with any covenant, there had to be a sign or symbol to mark the occasion and serve as a reminder. Genesis 9:16 says, When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. We know this, of course, as the rainbow. But look at where the sign was—in the cloud. During the dark times in our lives, the times we need to be reminded of God’s