MEND

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--MEND

Five minutes to free-write about it

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There is so much in my life right now that needs mending. Mending that only God can bring about. 

The prompt made me think of Kintsugi, which made me think of how God fills the cracks of our imperfections and failures with His amazing grace so our scars can become testimonies that encourage others and give them hope.

(For those of you who don't know what Kintsugi is, it's a form of Japanese art that uses gold to mend broken pieces of pottery instead of throwing them out, turning them into objects that are even more beautiful and valuable than they were before.)

This season has been a challenging time of learning to fully trust the Lord and keep my focus on today--sometimes just this moment--instead of projecting and worrying about what may or may not happen down the road. 

Despite all the ways He has manifested His trustworthiness, I have been a slow learner. And yet, He has continued to be patient and longsuffering, and to never give up on me, even though I would have given up on myself long ago. 

Among the sources He has used to encourage me, are Brant Hansen's books. Especially the one I just finished reading--Life is Hard. God is Good. Let's Dance. One of its main premises is that God is in control, so we have nothing to fear. The future is not my department. My deal is to keep my focus on today's stuff.

Not that it's anything new I haven't heard before, but sometimes it takes hearing the same thing over and over in slightly different ways to have it finally sink in and take root (or at least that's how it works for me).

Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they? . . . Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  (Matthew 6:26, 34a)

Some other good reminders in the book that I'm really, really trying to take to heart and put into practice are that I don't need to know the answers to everything. I just need to trust God for everything, and do my thing and let Him do His thing. 

Hansen exhorts us to bring what we have to Jesus and see what Jesus can do with it, and that is exactly what I'm purposing to do.  

P.S. Among other things, I've been suffering from writer's block, so to be honest, this post has taken me quite a bit longer than five minutes to write.

THANKING GOD FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND LONGSUFFERING

This year did not start out peacefully and balanced the way I had hoped it would. Not even the first day of the 21 days of prayer that my church starts the year out with, and that I had been so looking forward to, to set the tone for the months to follow. Instead of going according to plan, it too was filled with unexpected frustrations and upsets. 

Instead of the special day I had prepared for, it felt like a squandered one. Instead of spending it quietly with the Lord and in prayer, as I had wanted to, I allowed myself to get hurt, disappointed and upset, right on the heels of listening to the book Unoffendable by Brant Hansen--not just once, but twice. It had not taken me long to fail the test. 

Sitting in my prayer corner weeping tears of frustration over everything that's been going wrong, how I have no control over anything, how I can't seem to get anything right, and how hopeless everything seems, the Lord met me right where I was at. 

I picked up my cellphone and clicked on what I thought was my Bible Hub icon to look up a verse, but somehow wound up on Facebook instead, and there was a memory someone who used to be a friend, but who is no longer in touch, had shared to my wall with a comment asking if I remembered it.

For sure it was a divinely appointed moment, because it was a memory reminding me of how her parents had "dragged" her into the prayer room at church years ago and I had prayed life over her, and how that prayer had been the first step on the road to her salvation experience not too long after.

And then, a little later, I was checking my e-mail and I saw a comment on my blog from someone unfamiliar, so I went to her blog to see who she was. That too was a divinely orchestrated moment. Her blog, Visits With Mary was so full of encouragement, and one post in particular, which I hope she doesn't mind me sharing a small piece of, really spoke to my heart.

She wrote about how she was humming the old Frank Sinatra song, I did it my way, when she heard the  Lord put the words in her heart, "You should've been doing it MY way--blessings would have been more abundant."

What He spoke to my heart in that moment was that these past few days had just been, as I later realized, a test, and yes, I had scored pretty low on it, but tests can be taken over.  

I still need to work on patience, and on trusting Him and His perfect timing, and remember that His thoughts and ways are not my thoughts or ways (Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 27:14, Galatians 6:9). They are far superior (Isaiah 55:8-9). Only He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

And I still need lots of practice being unoffendable, and not letting myself get rattled by the lies Satan plants in my mind--no matter how real or true they may seem. If they don't match up with the truths in God's Word they are not to be believed or acted upon (Romans 12:2, Psalm 119:105, Matthew 4:4-10, Ephesians 6:17).

I am so grateful that God is so patient and longsuffering, and that He never gives up on me, no matter how badly I keep messing up.

SNOW

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

(linking up at Andrew's place while Kate is on leave)

Word prompt--SNOW

Five minutes to free-write about it

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Last night I was rudely awakened at 4:30 AM by a piercing alarm on my cell phone announcing a severe weather alert. A couple of minutes later it sounded again. And then again. 

Finally I got up, turned on the light, and put on my glasses so I could read the details and figure out how to stop getting the continuous alerts. . 

The alert was a warning to drivers that a snow squall was about to hit my area in the next hour or so. At the bottom there was a button you could click on to confirm you had seen the alert. Once you did that they would stop.

I did not know what a snow squall was so I Googled it. 

Apparently, it's a sudden intense burst of heavy snow and strong winds that does not last long, but like a blizzard, drastically cuts visibility by creating a whiteout and, in just minutes, also makes the roads extremely icy and slippery.   

The squall could not have lasted more than a few minutes, because when I got up the sun was already shining, and the only evidence that it really had happened was that the parking lot and cars were covered in snow. 

Wish I had thought to take a picture so I could have added it to this post on snow. (The one I've used is from my archives.)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

LIGHTS ON THE LAKE

Christmas week ended with a family outing (20 of us) to the Lights on the Lake walk- through event at Shannondale Lake in Harpers Ferry, WV.  It was my first time, and I took so many pictures it was hard to pick out just a few to post. They were all my favorites. 

This next section of the walk-through consisted of a series of community decorated trees sponsored by local businesses and organizations to help raise funds for local nonprofits. I didn't count how many there were, but I think there must have been at least 20.

 

My four great-grands had watched the movie Elf the day before our outing and were excited to spot this life-size cardboard cutout of him they could pose with.

There were ducks swimming on the lake. The white one seemed to be in the lead and then there was a tight circle of eight or nine other ducks following it. I tried to take a picture but my cell phone camera accidentally got jostled into video mode and all it captured was a very disappointing blur.

My three-year-old great-grandson seemed to be mesmerized by the sight of them swimming back and forth. 

Here we have a shot of one of my out-of-town grandsons and his girlfriend posing for the camera. 

My daughter, leading the way.

Me and one of my out of town granddaughters. 

One of the other out of town grandsons posing with Santa.

My daughter posing with four of her grandchildren.

My oldest granddaughter.

One of the littles checking out the sheep in the petting zoo at the end of the walk-through.

If you made it all the way to the end of this post, thanks for taking the time to view all my many pictures. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

SUNSET OVER SPRINGFIELD VA

This Christmas I did not have to drive myself back and forth to our family get-togthers. My family provided rides so I would not have to cut my visits short by having to leave before dark.

One big perk was being able to take pictures along the way, like this view of the sunset on our way home from Springfield, VA on Christmas day.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This morning after church I went for a little walk to see the Christmas decorations in my neighborhood. To my surprise, there were hardly any on the road between church and home, which is usually highly decorated. This was all I saw.

As I was about to drive home, a bunch of "Happy Birthday" signs caught my eye. 

Could they be Happy Birthday Jesus," I wondered as I pulled over to check them out, but they were not.

I wonder who Emerick is.

The arch shaped like a Christmas tree ball that welcomes you in is so pretty. I'm sure it's even more lovely when it's lit up in the dark.