Notes From Our Visit With Betty

Good morning…

Because of COVID restrictions, co-author Kitty Crenshaw and I could not hug ninety-five year old Betty Skinner, which was absolutely the hardest thing about our face to face visit. Betty’s lucky caregiver Lillian was able to give her our huge hug from afar, and Kitty and I will just need to wait until next time to hug Betty again ourselves.

What I did get to take home were my notes from our hour long conversation on the screened in porch of her nursing home in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Now I pull out my journal and transcribe them for safekeeping and for free sharing.

“God breathes the divine Spirit into every person, but not every person activates the power of the Holy Spirit,” Betty teaches us. “Most people don’t even know they possess Holy Spirit power as they face difficult daily choices, choices that can be destructive and choices that can be holy. To be totally transformed by God, we really have to want it, we have to desire it more than anything else in our lives,” Betty adds. “We need to pray diligently to increase our desire for God to activate the Holy Spirit in us. There are some very specific things we can do to increase our desire for God.”

At my urging, Betty went on to describe in detail what each one of us can do to manifest the power of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.

1) “Every day we need to return to a quiet place for a quiet time with God,” recommends Betty. “Often it helps to keep the same place at the same time.”
2) “We need to realize that God – Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit – is a Three-in-One person,” explains Betty. “God the Father is always present, but Jesus is touchable, along with the Holy Spirit.”
3) Betty’s most important advice is this: “Make best friends with Jesus.” Betty says, “As you age, you will lose a lot of things. You may lose your hearing, your eyesight, your ability to walk, to talk, to read. Over time you will have less and less company, so you will have a lot of time to sit and meditate. Jesus is the best friend anyone can ever have. So start now making best friends with Jesus. That friendship will only get stronger as time goes by.”
4) “God is LOVE,” Betty reminds us. “Underline that again and again. God is LOVE. We seem to forget that, but if we learn how to love ourselves and love others like Jesus loves us, we will draw people to God, which is what our lives are all about. As we manifest the Spirit more and more, we will welcome all people with the love of God since all people are God’s people.”
5) “The more we activate the Holy Spirit power within us, it gets easier and easier to talk about God,” encourages Betty. “People will begin to say things like, ‘There is something sweet about you,’ and they will be drawn to us, but they are really drawn to the love of God in us.”
6) “Being in good physical shape helps tremendously,” says Betty, who spent many years awakening from her clinical depression by hiking in the mountains attentive to God. “We practice developing a serene mind, a healthy body, and a powerful spirit. We practice these disciplines separately at first, then slowly integrate them with the help of God.”
7) “Read good books and study Scripture,” Betty also recommends. “Getting new information gives us something fresh to meditate upon.”
8) “Regularly set a time apart with Jesus to just sit, be open, pray that God will speak to you,” encourages Betty. “If he doesn’t say anything, that’s okay. Just come back again tomorrow. Jesus wants to be sure he can trust us with divine revelations. I know him, he knows me, and we know we can trust each other. I will ask Jesus a question, he will talk with me, and it is all so very lovely.”
9) “We have to know the ways of the world,” adds Betty. “What we learn from raising a family, having spats with our spouses, working out disagreements with other people is that every challenge finally leads us to respond in love. If a conversation turns ugly, we just stay quiet and let go of control. When we let it go, we pray for that person more and more, asking God to love them through us.”
10) “When we get to the end of our rope, we let go and we silently trust that the Holy Spirit will intercede in us and for us,” Betty concludes.

“The moment I actualized this gift, I was free: free to go forth into the fullness of gratitude,” remembers Betty. “I understood this and was standing at last on solid ground, in the now that never passes away.”

In this now that never passes away, take time to quietly revisit these notes with God. Which parts of Betty’s wisdom intrigue you the most?

…Sue…