Picket Fences

The end of the year. The beginning of a new one. A lot of hopes arise at this time and goals are set. No matter what goals were set last year, so many things out of people’s control put a halt to them. I don’t think I have to recap all of the thing’s that happened throughout the year. Any social media gave news and opinions of the goings on in the world. So many hard things. So many opinions about those hard things. As the new year of 2021 starts I can think of many who are moving into this year with loss. It doesn’t look very hopeful. The steps into it are missing loved ones. Loved one’s that have lost their lives from cancer, car accidents, a dangerous virus, shootings, murders, or some other illness. Saying goodbye to 2020 is also saying goodbye to the last moments they spent with the person they dearly love, outweighing all of the other things that happened in 2020. God does say in the Bible that He has plans for us. A future. Hope. God’s word also says there is a tim

 

November brings us the rain that calls people to be inside. People in the PNW will still go for their runs, their walks, and even do their bike rides. Still, it is time to cozy up in our homes or go to inside events.  This morning I put my big soft robe on, got a cup of coffee, breakfast, then curled up in a blanket on my bed, with pillows stacked around me.  I grabbed my Bible in the fresh, quiet newness of the day and started reading.  These verses really spoke to me today.  " 13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command; "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." With hope I pray I can love my neighbor as myself.  With hope I pray we can start loving our neighbor as ourselves in our community, state, our country, and not destro

Last night I watched the most disturbing video.  It made me cry.   It made me angry.   It made me heartbroken.   It made me devasted.   It made me sick.  I thought of the people involved in the video. It was a rescue mission. The police went way into the deep dark cellar of sin and freed a victim.   I don't know the details of how they were able to find this person and free them, all I saw was the rescue.   I was so happy the victim was rescued.  Once the victim heals from the physical wounds, there will be emotional wounds to heal from.  It hurt my mind and made me sick, that there are people who are participating in victimizing other people in such a dark and evil way. My prayer and hope is the victimwill truly, truly be comforted by God's loving hand.  And the perpertrators will stop doing what they are doing. When I thought of the video this morning it brought to mind how Jesus came into this dark world to rescue people from the deep dark cellar of sin.  Jesus goes where ot

 I went for a walk with my dog.  I let her go where she wanted. I let her just sniff and sniff some more.  I didn't strive to get my steps in.  I just walked with my dog.  There was a gentle breeze.  Not to hot. Not to cold. It was just right.  There wasn't anyone else around.  So nice. So peaceful. I have to tell you, it was an incredible time.  Just me and my dog.  No phone. No news. No social media. Something I desperately needed.  I had woke up in the morning wanting to pray. Pray about everything. Pray about all the darkness in the world.  The virus. People who are sick. Fighting. Riots. Sex Traffiking. Pedophilia. Beirut. Bickering. School. Missing people. Missing interaction. Did I mention the masks?  I AM SORRY! I WAS NOT GOING TO GO THERE! Did I mention it is hard to see so much chaos? So many people getting hurt? So many things getting destroyed? Did I mention people I know are sick? Did I mention people are hurting in so many ways? I asked how to pray?  I soaked up t

Have you ever received a letter summoning you for jury duty? I have. And I know some people who have also. I admittedly try to get out of it. I do not want to take time away from my life to listen to a possible horrible crime and have to determine if the person is guilty or not.  Have you ever been in the position where you have to make tough decisions for a situation? I have. One in particular, I had to fire two employees who did exceptional work, punctual, reliable, and had been with the company longer than I.  The day security escorted them out the door their co-workers came to my office demanding to know why they were let go, and threatening to walk out themselves.  At the time I had to keep the reason they were fired confidential. I looked like a jerk and like I didn't know what I was doing to many people, including some of the higher ups that I had to deal with daily.  It was a very difficult time. No one knew the details except a few people who had to know and were part of t

There is something super important I want to say to all fellow believer's today. PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! I can only imagine the absolute grief George Floyd's family is feeling since receiving the news of his murder. It is absolutely horrible news. May God wrap His comfort around George Floyd's family and may they feel His comforting love.  And I hope ALL involved will be brought justice. ALL. Christian's please pray also for what has happened since the news broke out. The riots and looting are destroying so much. Innocent peoples lives are being attacked and paying a high price instead of the people who were monsters to George Floyd. Prayer is powerful because we are going to our God, our Lord who is above all things.  Our fellow Americans need prayer. Not opinions, but prayer right now.  May the Lord comfort the hearts of all of us in this country. May He bless us with peace within our hearts, minds, souls. May He give us a great love for one another so we can treat each oth

This is one of my favorite pictures that sat on a windowsill in my living room. However, my cats recently knocked it down and if you look you can see the cracks in the frame and there is no longer glass covering the picture. The protective glass is now in little pieces on the television stand. Still the heart of my family shows. We have had many, many things that come and break to pieces things in our lives. Whether it be health, dreams, relationships, financial loss, job loss, deaths of loved ones, lots and lots of other things. On this particular day this picture was taken, we all were exhausted. We were showing our house  for the umpteenth time with no buyer in sight.  We were stressed it wouldn't sell in time for us to move to our new home. We had also been in and out of the doctors and ER for the little guy. There were other things I am not at liberty to share. Peaceful, fun times were hard for us to find last summer. Except, that day we took off with our friends

I have been reading and reading and reading about how hard the restrictions are on some people during this quaratine time. Some people are angry. Some people are complaining about the government. Some people think it is just plain stupid. I myself needed a break. I am sad that I am getting a break while others are suffering and dying. Still I really needed a break from my calendar. Each day was so full I was struggling to keep up with life. There are moments during this quaranting when I am dealing with a toddler, trying to get work done, and my daughter getting her school work done that make me feel as though I could go crazy. Despite that, I have had a break. Have I been able to get things done? Sort of. I am blogging again. I have unpacked a lot of things. It is good to be able to unpack since we haven't been able to really establish our home, due to some medical things in our family happening, since the day we moved in.  I don't want to look back at this time

The Easter holiday is tomorrow. For every believer in Jesus this is a time to celebrate the resurection of Jesus! Fortunately we are on this side of the resurrection. Over 2000 years ago they weren't on this side. They had to live through the dark period of watching Jesus being arrested and tortured. Then witnessing him dying in the most horrible way on the cross. He was then placed in a tomb. As the stone was rolled into place to close the tomb, I can imagine all of his followers hopes may have been rolled away too. Some hid in fear from the authorities, not sure of what was going to happen to them. I mean, imagine, your leader was just tortured and killed. Who was next? I wonder, as they sat in hiding, if they asked themselves the big question of "Why?" Have you ever asked that question? I have. There are times in life that it just doesn't make sense how something so painful could happen. Why? There have been times in life when a door is closed in

One night, when I was young and not very smart, I drove with some friends to the mountains. Our goal was to walk through the woods to a hunters cabin and tell each other scary stories. By the time we finished the drive and parked the car by the trail to the cabin, we were well primed with fear about the wild dogs that roamed the woods at night. After we got out of the car, the only thing on my mind, was to make it to the cabin without being attacked by the dogs. The stories that were told in the cabin didn't even compare to the fear I felt walking to the cabin through those dark (very dark) woods. That dark night I felt fear like I had never felt before. I put myself in a position that could have caused me life altering consequences. Over 2000 years ago, there was a time that became dark, in particular to twelve men. These twelve guys followed a man and his teachings. When that particular night fell, soldiers came and arrested this man. Each of the twelve was affected

 Sometimes I am over busy, so much so, I feel as though I am standing still while time zooms by. My lists are long. Chores wait to be completed. Papers pile up on my desk. Stories I start are left unfinished. Sleep is limited. The lists I start out with in the morning, are bigger by the time my head hits the pillow at night. When things are to busy and something happens, the emotional scale tips easily. Time alone becomes something I savor. Sitting. Away. Relief. Overwhelming feelings slip away as I sit by myself. "Be still and know I am God." Psalm 46:10. An invitation from God to take time to be still. How hard is it to just be still? Hard. Even though I want to be still, the overwhelming feeling of stress rushes over me, just thinking of the things I have to get done. I feel guilty for sitting when I know I have a list a mile long waiting for me. However God says be still and the wonderful thing is, there is an "and" to that sente

When the quarantine started and people were called to stay at home, the stores were crazy. For some reason people were over buying toilet paper. I don't know why? But they did. One morning I went and got gas at Costco and then decided to go in and get our monthly supplies which did include toilet paper. I pulled out of the gas area and went to park close by the door. Much to my surprise, despite Costco not opening for about ten more minutes, there was a line outside that went into the parking lot. I jokingly thought, probably for toilet paper. I was not wrong. When the doors opened, I waited until the people in the line were in the store, then I got out of my car. I started laughing out loud, because before I hit the doors, people were coming out with carts full of toilet paper. The line to the toilet paper, and wipes started shortly after I entered the building. I left. I decided I was not battling the lines to get our supplies. I would come back another day. My friend h

A while ago my friend was going through a very stressful period in her life. Her husband had a virus that caused him a lot of physical pain. The virus caused him to become temporarily paralyzed. The paralyzed state eventually disappeared, however some remnants of paralysis remained in his body, and were there permanently, even after the virus passed. While he was sick, I believe his vacation and sick pay ran out, or else it wasn't offered at his job, so my friend ended up supporting their family, (which included a young boy and girl), through the job we worked at together. Her husband was sent to the Mayo-clinic for treatment. The family was unable to see him for a period of time which added more stress to my friends plate. Money was tight even with the over-time my friend worked when she could. Her mom helped watch the children, but also worked full-time hours. It was a very tough season for my friend At one point my friend told me she had reached a point where sh

She pulls onto her street. A group of neighbor kids are playing ball. She stops and waits until they get safely our of her way. Her neighbor is washing his new car, his wife comes out their door and waves a friendly hello. She waves back before she pulls into the driveway of her own beautiful home, stops the car, grabs her purse, and opens the car door hoping the neighbor went inside so there wouldn't have to be any conversation. Instead, her neighbor calls out a friendly hello. She says hi back as she shuts the car door. "How are you?" the neighbor asks. "Good," she nods her head walking toward her front door. "You?" "Really good. Everything is going really well right now." "That's great to hear," she feigns a smile while unlocking the door to her home. She steps in and calls out, "Have a good night," before closing the door tight behind her.  Her cat is there to greet her as she slips off her shoes. She p

I entered the freeway having limited time to get to an appointment. Typically, it was 20 minutes away, but due to traffic it was 39 minutes away according to my Google map. If nothing happened along the way, I would get there with a few minutes to spare. Taking a deep breath I repeated a verse from the Bible, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Then I relived the last couple of hours that caused me to feel stressed out. I thought and thought about who mainly caused the problems and how that person should have done this, and should have done that as I   kept repeating the verse. It suddenly occurred to me that yes, I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me, or I CAN continue to do all things through the stress that put me in this position. I decided I would let Jesus get me through. I decided that whatever actions the other person did, they were not going to propel me through the rest of the day. Jesus would get me through the day. I de