OPINION

This post was written for Five Minute Friday 

Word prompt--OPINION

Five minutes to free write about it 

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Back in the day I used to have many opinions and was very outspoken about them. Now not so much. I mean, I still sometimes have opinions, but mostly keep them to myself.

Back in my outspoken, opinionated days I often had regrets because many of my opinions had been based on faulty judgments, or jumping to the wrong conclusions about people or things. 

Fast forward to the present day.

Recently I have been of the opinion that it was time to stop procrastinating about throwing out the remnants of my dead and dying plants still out on the balcony. I was going to do it yesterday, but it rained hard all day.

This morning I overslept and was too late to make it to the early service at church. It was drizzling out and looking very dreary, so my opinion was that I should go back to sleep and watch the service on Livestream later. The Lord, however, had a different plan.

He convicted me to get up and get dressed and go to the second service, which in my foggy state of mind I thought was about to start in half an hour. He also convicted me to text my next door neighbor and ask her if she wanted to join me. 

I started quickly throwing on some clothes, but she did not answer, so I was of the opinion that meant it was okay not to go. Wrong!

The conviction to get going was so strong that I rushed out the door without eating anything or taking my supplements, or doing any of the things I would normally do before leaving the house. 

I made it to church right on the dot. Or so I thought. There were no greeters outside the door, and the pastor was up on the stage instead of the worship team. Turns out I was early. Half an hour early. I had arrived just as the first service was ending.

It felt strange walking into an empty sanctuary, but it brought back memories of how years ago before the pandemic I used to come early and pray over the chairs. I checked my messages again to see if my neighbor had responded. She had, but only to tell me she was glad I had gotten some extra sleep.

My opinion was that she was not interested in coming to church today but I texted her back anyway to tell her I had been wrong about the time, and it was not too late for her to join me. I told her where I was sitting in the back corner of the room and that there was an empty seat next to mine. 

In my opinion, she was not going to come so I probably shouldn't be reserving the empty seat for her, but I did. About halfway through the praise and worship I checked my phone again and to my surprise, saw a message that she was on her way in. 

The sermon turned out to be just what my neighbor needed to hear today, and the events of this morning turned out to be part of a God-orchestrated plan to get her here. 

As for me, I felt very blessed and privileged to have been used as part of this Divine appointment. And as for those plants I had been procrastinating about bringing inside, when I went out on the balcony with trash bag in hand after getting home from church, I was in for another surprise. 

RELY

This post was written for Five Minute Friday 

Word prompt--RELY

Five minutes to free write about it 

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The other day I was reading a devotional that spoke of how we tend to make plans, projections, and proposals, but have no idea what a day may bring. Given the unpredictability of life, it's best to hold our plans lightly and remember that we are not in control. It was a very timely reminder not to rely on my own understanding of things.

Timely because slowly, slowly, God has been revealing idols in my life I didn't even realize were idols, and how I have been relying on them instead of on Him and trying to micromanage outcomes that only He has control over. One by one, He has been stripping them away and redirecting my focus to where it needs to be. 

He has been doing many things in this season of my life, but not what I expected, and I have had to give up my concept of what I think is best and trust in His ways. I need to remember that He sees the whole picture, the end from the beginning, whereas my view is very limited. 

ABSENCE

 

This post was written for Five Minute Friday 

Word prompt--ABSENCE

Five minutes to free write about it 

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Today I was really feeling the absence of my long-time prayer partner.  

I've been trying to remind myself all day that seasons come and seasons go, and despite the best of intentions, people will sometimes disappoint us. God never will though. He has told us in His Word that He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews: 13:5).

I think He was reminding me of that today with the two Godwinks I just posted about in my previous post.

TWO GODWINKS IN ONE DAY

 

Every morning while I'm eating breakfast, I play word games like Wordle.

Today, as I started typing in my first word, I felt a sudden prompting to switch two of the letters around, so I did, and was rewarded with an instant win. That was Godwink number one.

And then this evening a friend texted me to tell me to go check out the moon. I did. It was yesterday's giant super moon, still pretty awesome looking even though a day later it was no longer perfectly round. 

On an impulse, I had taken my camera down with me. The camera that has been such a disappointment because it has no setting for night shots, and when I've tried taking pictures of the full moon with it before, the images have been no better than the round ball of light I get with my cell phone. 

I don't know why I thought tonight would be any different, but it was. To my great surprise, I got a pretty decent shot that included the craters. A very big Godwink number two.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I'm going to bed a happy camper tonight.

A PERFECT DAY -- PART 5

Just as I was getting comfortable, my daughter texted me to say there was an exhibit of miniatures in the upstairs gallery. She attached a picture of these tiny wine bottles that actually had wine in them and real corks. That convinced me to muster up my strength and join her, and I'm so glad I did.

The exhibit turned out to be one of the highlights of our visit. I'm in awe at how the artist(s) who created these miniatures managed to craft such tiny details. These pictures do not do them justice at all.

I am so, so, so grateful to the Lord for enabling me to enjoy this perfect day and the company of my very special daughter. It was a real gift that I would never have thought possible at this stage of my life. 

A PERFECT DAY - PART 4

The ground level of the museum was where I decided to park while my daughter went up to the second floor to check out the gallery. I told her to text me if there was anything up there she thought I would love.

A PERFECT DAY -- PART 3

The vegetable garden included a fun storybook walk of Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny." By then, however, it was starting to get really hot, and I was petering out and did not have it in me to go around and read all the pages of the story. Instead, I took a rest in the shade before tackling the indoor exhibits.

 

A PERFECT DAY -- PART 2