As I sit here this morning I look at my desktop wallpaper. I am reminded that it is a photo of what I would like to have. A screen porch with comfy chairs looking out onto a wooded back yard. It’s an idyllic setting to me. It’s not my screen porch but it’s certainly my dream porch. Oh beloved, what are you waking up to this morning? Unrest and insecurity? Looking for your idyllic setting? Wishing you were elsewhere? Wishing things were different? Wondering what happened to your peace in your own place of beauty? God speaks …
He is Your Shelter in Place
Numbers 35: 13 And the cities that you give shall be your six cities of refuge (ESV) 1 Timothy 2: 3-4 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (ESV) I just finished reading through the book of Numbers and all I can say is “Wow”. This book has provided so much revelation regarding what we are experiencing as world right now. If you think about the times we are living in, we are literally …
The Glitchy Life
Working from home has its perks and I’ve been doing it now since mid March. I have an app downloaded that allows the calls to the office to ring on my cell phone. Yesterday was a big day for phone calls. But it was also a big day for glitchy internet at the office. And for some reason not all of the calls would connect right here. I did a lot of calling numbers back here. Oh beloved, aren’t we thankful that with the Lord there is never a dropped or missed call? Never. Technology is awesome, but we don’t …
One Day Closer
One day closer. Those are the three words I heard one morning recently. One day closer. It’s a good word from the Lord for us. It’s a positive rather than a negative statement. I know this event we are going through can be a pessimist’s daydream. But we aren’t pessimists because God isn’t. Oh beloved, you are one day closer. To that answer to prayer. To being released from social distancing. To seeing your loved one again. To gaining access to heaven. One day closer to whatever it is that is the longing of your heart. Most of all you …
Work In Progress
We have visited the Stockyards in Ft Worth before but not in a few years. Yesterday we returned and our middle daughter and her family were with us along with Danny’s cousins and their grands. We discovered that our favorite Mexican restaurant was no longer there. And the leaders are being in more hotels and parking. I guess things change for progress but it’s a shame that what we used to enjoy so much will be changed even more in the next couple of years. Oh beloved, are you reeling from changes going on? You liked the old ways just …
Life Changing Events
Life Changing Events We’ve had a few life changing events in our life. The birth of children and the passing of parents are at the top of the list. Nothing compares to this most recent event. The illness of a spouse, however short in length it may be, tops all. It changes a couple. Suddenly those things that were important become a narrowed list. Oh beloved. God wants you to know this morning that even in the midst of your life changing events He is with you. He never changes. He never leaves you. You …
Concentrate and Breathe
Danny is being asked to concentrate a lot lately. It is hard work. But it is producing results. Sometimes he finds he is holding His breath and the visiting therapist will say breathe! I have had to remind myself more than once during all this to just breathe. And to concentrate. Concentrate on Danny. And most of all God’s Word and His faithfulness to it. Oh beloved, God is with you and He is telling you that you don’t have to hold your breath. He also says now is the time to concentrate. Remind yourself what the Word says. That’s …
Be Still and Know
Be still and know… So many lessons to be learned in nature if only we take the time to quietly sit and listen. Maybe that is what location God had in mind when He said in Psalms 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” What better place to sit, be still and wait than when observing nature. You can’t be causing a ruckus and expect the wildlife to not go running. We must sit, be still and wait patiently for the animals to make …
Never Alone in the Storm
It has been a very stormy night in Arkansas. It began earlier in the day with heavy rains all during the day in the northern half of the state. There is thunder rumbling in the distance even now in the early hours of the new day. Nobody minds a spring thunder storm but this has been an intense amount of weather. It’s gone on for too long and it hasn’t let up yet. It is relentless. Friends have even spent time in their safe places and some are still there at this hour. Thousands are without power. Oh beloved, the …
Power
Storms rolled through our state recently. It reminds me that as a teenager we lived in a town where the electricity almost always went out when stormy weather came. My dad would use his huge flashlight (didn’t all dads have huge silver flashlights back then?) and mother would bring out the kerosene lanterns. We’d sit together in the darkened living room. Pretty soon we’d be singing old hymns and having wonderful conversations about life. By the time the lights would come back on we’d be sorry they did because it had been such an intimate wonderful time together. Oh beloved, …