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The Photo Album

Christ's rest, Christian encouragement, Discouraged Christian, Encouragement for Women, Jesus Christ, Love of God, Spiritual Encouragement, To Rest in Christ, , , , , , , , ,

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The Photo Album

Several years ago I had the opportunity to meet an aunt and cousin.  They were actually my husband’s, but they still were “mine”.  Through a series of events and searching by my aunt, she located our name.  Through some unfortunate circumstances we had never met, much less knew of each other’s existence.  

We met for lunch and talked as though we had known each other for years!  It was the sweetest thing.  We had shared some similar experiences, loves, hopes and dreams.  We shared photo albums, marveling at the physical resemblance of generations so long ago.  It was simply delightful.

What joined our hearts so quickly?  It really wasn’t a biological connection, because technically I did not have one.  But we figured it out…we connected our hearts because we all loved Jesus so much!

I saw in my mind’s eye the Father opening his photo album.  He turned the pages ever so carefully, pointing out the characteristics of each of his children.  He told stories of what the pictures meant…”Here my daughter found her first seashell, she was so excited…see her smile?  She was thinking about my creation…how sweet is that?”  He pointed out the resemblance of each of his children.  “Sara loves on the sick children at the hospital.  Jonathan sat at my feet in this picture as we talked.”

Can’t you see the smile?  Can you feel the pride he has over his children?  He continues to look, page by page…picture by picture.  There are millions of albums, and he tires of none.

1 John 4:7  “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  This is just one of many scriptures that shows how powerful the love of God is…there are so many more.

What connected us at lunch? What connects all of us right now?  Jesus.  It is quite simple..JESUS.  Our hearts are one when we know Him as our Savior.  Could it be practice for our heavenly home.

I have to go…I have some photo albums to look at.

Be blessed~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV*

 

 

Give Up!

Christ's rest, Discouraged Christian, Encouragement for Women, Freedom in Christ, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Spiritual Encouragement, Surrender, To Rest in Christ, Trials, Troubles, , , , , , , , , , ,

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I had to Give Up!

I have told a number of “storm stories” due to the fact that: a.) we’ve lost our home twice to storms b.) there are great analogies about storms and life, c.) everyone experiences them at one time or another.

That being said, spring has sprung and with it those lovely spring storms, (note my sarcasm ). We have a funny story from our 25th Wedding Anniversary, and I hope we don’t have one from our 35th coming up, but I do have one from last Thursday!

 It was our son’s birthday and we were at his home celebrating. We had to drive from his home in another town, to ours.  We had kept track of the storm system, or so we thought, and knew we were in the clear.

Well, we weren’t in the clear.  We drove down back country roads with water covering them and the rain was falling so hard my husband couldn’t see 2 feet in front of him.  I know, we should have turned around, or pulled over…but we were concerned that with the rain falling as hard as it was we had better keep going!

Now, people who love us are understanding of my apprehension in storms, so my text messages began to arrive in the midst of it all!  Basically to ask how I was…only to find out rather than taking refuge in our closet,  we were driving in the area where a “rain wrapped” tornado was aloft.  And since all the power was off in this area…the only light we had was the horrible lighting and our headlights.

So what do all good storm watchers do?  I scanned the sky for that rain wrapped tornado!  And of course, with every flash of lightning I saw one!!( not really) Although we both appeared and acted very calm, my heart was sending me another message.

“Give Up” was what I heard in my spirit, and what I said out loud.  We began to laugh and figured that “third time might be a charm” and there was not a whole lot we could do about it anyway.  We just kept driving through it and gave it up.  

A peace fell over us like I cannot describe.  It had not stopped, but our fears were surrendered.  We laughed.  We got home safely, only to see our poor pup at the window of a very dark house. He seemed no worse for the wear.  

But we gave up….I gave up.  I surrendered.  

All was well, but even if something had happened…it would have been ok.  It always has been, no matter what the storm brought before, it was always ok.  I didn’t say it was easy, pleasant or that I wanted to experience it again…but it was ok.

 Ecclesiastes 3:1-4: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..”

So what do you need to give up?  What do you need to surrender?  Might as well do it, it might be the season for laughing!

Blessings dear ones~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

*google image, NIV*

Dandilions! Every Year!

Christ's rest, Grace, Hope, Jesus Christ, Spiritual Encouragement, , , , , , , , , ,

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Dandilions!  Every Year!

 

As every spring begins, there is a lot of yard work to go along with it.  And with the long winter that has been hanging around, it is indeed a pleasure…even though every muscle in my body will be yelling at me tomorrow!

The goal this day:  Remove the dandelions from the back patio.  They grow in-between the division in the bricks every single year.  The task seems so daunting.  But, I will admit, the sea of yellow really is pretty!

Now yellow is one of my favorite colors, so the question runs through my mind every year.  Do I really want to pull them?  They really are just pretty little flowers.  Ah, my reasoning really doesn’t hold up, so seeing the patio does become a priority.  But there is not a year that is different.  Every year.

I lean down to pull out the first one.  That was easy enough.  Oops, the green leaves seem to remain. Strange.  And even more curious is that every year I go through the motions of pulling these things!  One more try…just the yellow flower head!!

I decide that whether I like it or not, I am going to have to resort to the way in which I end up doing it every year.  Pointed blade of one of my garden utensils…first dig deep to the right, then the left….then pull!  Aha!  The entire flower came out roots and all!  I go for another one….great, two…super, three…I am on a roll!  Four…ooops, what happened?  The root was only removed in part.  

At this point it hits me…every year….these pretty little flowers are…..weeds.  Now I know to some they have value, but to me their value is nothing when they are coming up on my brick patio. They do not belong there.  The battle continues…every year.

What does that sound like?  It sounds a little like sin to me.  Sin is “missing the mark” and the result of sin…sins…”the fruit”.  That cute little flower was missing the mark, it was in the wrong place.  These weeds would soon take over and cover my patio.  Sin is so deceiving.  It can appear pleasurable and beautiful and good.  Then you see the root of it.  The consequences overtake you, they are inevitable at some point.

The deception is the key.  It can appear good, even beautiful.  It is pleasurable for a moment…then…

Hebrews 8:12 is one of many scriptures that give us hope.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Do you have dandelions in your life?  I sure do.  I have to ask myself if I am pulling them by the root so that they have no more life?  Or because they are “cute”, do I leave them there to simply overtake my life?  The decision is mine…the decision is yours. Every year, every day.

The Father wants us to live our life abundantly.  He has His “best” for us because He loves us.  Once we discover that truly those dandelions aren’t the best for us…we can replace them with lovely day lilies…and it will happen every, single year.

Be Blessed~

IN CHRIST ALONE

Isaiah 55:8-9

 

 

*google image, NIV Bible*