Picket Fences

Lately, it seems I keep writing about giving your cares to God and trusting Him. It just comes up over and over again in my life so I really don’t have a choice. I feel as though I am at a place in my life where my faith is being stretched further than it ever has before. It’s like my husband and I are on the edge of a cliff, hoping stones soon appear, so we clearly know where to put our next step down, so we can get to the other side. But right now, we aren’t seeing anything to help us get to the other side. In one of the scenes from the movie Indiana Jones, he was on a cliff and had to step out before the stones appeared and then the stones showed up one by one. That first step can be a terrifying leap of faith. This last week I’ve been looking back and remembering all of my spiritual markers. I have to say God has never failed us. Sometimes it seemed like He was about too…we could feel air beneath our feet and then…His hand appeared. Throughout the Bible you can find sto...

While having coffee with a friend one morning, she told me some things about her cute little grand-daughter. One thing… her grand-daughter likes to dance around and just enjoy herself. We started talking about how free kids are and how Jesus tells us to come to Him with the faith of a child. I mentioned how one afternoon I came downstairs to the sound of my daughter’s squeals of delight. She had stepped outside on the patio and was jumping on her trampoline. It had started to rain and she was delighting in the feel of the raindrops on her face. I hoped she never stops delighting in the feel of the rain against her face or dancing in a puddle. Childlike things... Childlike faith… It can be harder and harder to just enjoy simple moments with the pressures and responsibilities of life. It can be harder and harder to trust when things in life slip you a curve. How do you keep a childlike faith after watching a dream you’ve prayed about for years slip from your h...

Dandelion seeds…a child’s delight…I remember how fun it was to pick up one of these and after making a wish, blowing on it until it looks like… Then I’d pick up another one and spend many enjoyable moments delighting in blowing and watching the seeds fly through the air. Now as a gardener, I groan when I see a dandelion seed knowing full and well the weed can only ruin the look of a beautiful yard. Each time one of these seeds is sent flying in the air there is a chance when it lands it will ruin someone’s hard work or just cause a field of thistles. I was reading the story of Jacob and how he fell in love with Rachel. He made a deal with Rachel’s dad to work seven years to be able to marry her. The morning after their wedding night he woke up to discover the dad had deceived him and he had married her older sister, Leah. Jacob soon discovered it was the custom that the oldest had to be married before the youngest.   It’s like, uh thanks Laba...

“How on earth am I going to do this?” “What am I going to do now?” “Should I do this? Or should I do that?” “This is impossible.” “There’s nothing I can do.” Ever asked those questions or made those statements? I have. At those times life can be tiring, stressful, or frustrating. One afternoon Jesus, was trying to get some alone time for the disciples after they’d had some incredible experiences doing things in Jesus name. Instead, the crowds followed them and so Jesus taught the crowd. When it became later in the afternoon the disciples suggested to Jesus that He send the crowd on their way to go and get their dinner. Jesus told them to feed them. “Uh…what? That would cost us lots of money. We can’t afford that.” Jesus told them to bring whatever food they could find, to him. They found three fish and a loaf of bread. If I had been there, and I brought the food to Him, my words for people to read throughout history would’ve been something like, “Jesus, th...

Keys… Pretty much everyone has a set of keys. Attached to your key ring, you may have a key for your house, work, and car. So what do we do without them? Have you ever lost your keys? I used to be notorious for losing my keys. Now I’m notorious for misplacing them…difference is…I find them now. It can be so frustrating when it’s time to leave and for one reason or another, my keys aren’t where I normally put them. I can’t leave until I find them. How do I start my car? It’s even more frustrating when I discover I’ve already put them in my pocket or my purse and I’ve been searching for them. It was close to Christmas, last year, and I stepped outside to say goodbye to my friend and her daughters. My daughter thought we were leaving so she locked the door behind us and shut it. We were locked out. No problem. My husband had hid a spare key.   So I thought…he had hid it shortly after he had been in a car accident. His memory wasn’t doing so well and he could not reme...

2 Chronicles 31:20 – 21 NIV 20 "This is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD, his God. In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered." The devotional I read today was about King Hezekiah. As soon as Hezekiah stepped in to reign as King, he began the process of leading the people back to God and His ways. God blessed him and he prospered. Later in his reign when another king came up against him, and said things against the Lord, Hezekiah prayed and God fought the battle for him. He had victory while his enemy fell back in disgrace. The story makes me wonder where Hezekiah’s faith came from since he was raised in an unbelieving household. His dad rebelled against the Lord. I also wonder how hard it was for him to watch the devastation that happened in his community because the people’s he...

The Bourne Legacy movie came out this summer and, of course, my husband and I were right there with the rest of them to watch it. True to past movies, it was an exciting, sit on the edge of your seat movie. On the drive home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. One thing that stood out to me, (I’m going to try to write this without giving away the movie for those who still haven’t seen it and plan on seeing it.) was the main character had a procedure done that would give him certain strengths. He had to deal with his body’s transition, and after a certain amount of days, he woke up, and with no questions asked, popped out of bed and got down to business. He had stuff he had to do and he did it. In the process of reviewing the movie in my mind, a thought drifted through, that just as Jesus was right there with the disciples, leading, teaching, providing, touching lives, doing miracles, so is the Holy Spirit here with us now. The disciples could see Jesus, externally. We ca...