Monthly Archives: March 2012

Springtime In The Country

 

This Saturday is damp and foggy. The ground is wet from the rain…

and there is goodness, even in the gray of this day.

Last Saturday was wrapped in sunshine. Wonderful warmth.

These are the beautiful opposites of Spring in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens…  Ecclesiastes 3:1  NIV

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A Gift

Česky: Modrý budík English: Blue alarm clock

Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy peasy!

the gypsy mama

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on:  GIFT

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As much as I sometimes complain or gripe about certain days…. time truly is a gift, no matter what kind of day I happen to be having.

Time is a most valuable gift, and sadly, most of the time I don’t appreciate it like I should.

Once minutes are gone, they cannot be recaptured….and yet, I am so cavalier in the way I spend

my precious moments.

On days when I am contemplative, I think back to the day my late husband uttered these words,

“Dawn, the vacuuming can wait. Just sit with me for awhile. I’m dying and I won’t be here forever.”

A profound moment in time,

that is forever etched in my mind.

Two weeks later, my husband was gone.

If I could say anything at all with my writing…..it would be this:

value the time you have.  Enjoy it more. Savor it more. Use it more. Appreciate it more, because once it is gone, it is gone.

God gave us a certain amount of time in this life.

He expects us to be good stewards of the gift He has given us.

 

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Knowing My Limits

"TUESDAY" production sign

"TUESDAY" production sign (Photo credit: Vaguely Artistic)

I read her words…. once. Twice.

“Stop trying to work things out before their times have come. Accept the limitations of living one day at a time.” –Sarah Young

Isn’t it apropos that this should be what I read today? Especially, after the kind of day I had on Tuesday.

Accepting the limitations. Learning to live one day at at time.

One day at a time is enough, more than enough, to do what needs to be done.

Because aren’t there always going to be needs? And the desire to get things done? And aren’t I always pushing for more time?

And isn’t He there in the midst?  Already. Working things out according to His will?

Isn’t this, after all, what I should be seeking? To know Him. To trust Him. To believe Him, more.

Limitations are not a weakness, but a strength.

It is those very things that limit me, that allow me to draw closer…

to the One who is limitless, and unchanging.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 NIV

 

 

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Fighting My Own Will

Sasebo, Japan (Dec 18, 2003) -- Sailors practi...

The day went from bad to worse.

I woke up achy. Not sick achy, just yuck achy. I was already tired and I had only been up a few minutes. The cat had puked and I almost stepped in it on the way to the kitchen. I was short with my son, blurted angry words, and it caused hard feelings. The rest of the day went downhill from there…and I’d only been up for 15 minutes.

I was frustrated, angry, and resentful….and in my defense there are some very real issues that need addressing….but, my attitude certainly was not helpful.

At all.

Big, huge, huffing, SIGH.

I knew that today I’d be writing on sacrifice. Oh, great. Just what I needed.

Sacrifice….the last thing I wanted to write about, and the thing I needed to write most about.

It’s difficult, the stepping back. The letting go. The not having everything perfect.

I so badly want the “perfect”.

It is a struggle to say, “Okay, it’s not the way I want it, or the way it should be, but….I’m not the one in control.”

God is.

His, was the greatest of sacrifice. A sacrifice that makes anything I might or might not do, seem almost irrelevant.

It isn’t though, not really….not to Him.

God sees and knows my sacrifice. He sees me struggle to die to self. He understands my hand to hand combat in the fight against my own will.

Sacrifice isn’t easy.

It never is.

But, it is necessary.

Because, it is through our sacrifice and struggles that we become more like Him…..and that makes it all worth while.

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Choosing Promise

Cloudy sunset

At times it is impossible to see down the road and around the corner. We have to go on the journey, not knowing what might happen. Life has both

mountain top exhilaration, deep valley grief and a myriad number of feelings in between. If we take that and throw in our own emotions and attitudes….well…..it can make for interesting scenarios.

There have been times in my own life when I didn’t know why certain things happened to me. My finite mind wanted to make sense of the situation. I just couldn’t. There have been other times when I’ve had the privilege of being extremely blessed, well beyond what I deserved. I tried to understand.

And yet…..

God understands. There is nothing that happens to me, or for me, or about me, that He is not aware of.  God is never surprised or taken aback by circumstance. He doesn’t “wake up” one morning and say, “What will this day hold?” He is already there, and He knows.

God, the Alpha and the Omega, makes promises. To me. To you. Unlike us, His word is one hundred percent true. He never makes a mistake. He is unable to tell a lie. What He says He means and what He promises happens. Always.

Isn’t there comfort in that? No, “I’m sorry’s”. No, ” I didn’t mean that.” No, “opps”.  His world is true. As I go through my days, trusting in His promises when the days are good and full, then when the days turn shades of gray and full of grit, I am ready. I have built my foundation strong upon the promises of the One who knows the plans He has for me.

Abraham, the great Patriarch, couldn’t see the future. He did not understand why God would ask him to take his son’s life…..the child that was his future. This child that would be the beginning of his father’s lineage…. that Abraham had been promised. When the way seemed confusing and the vision was murky…

Abraham chose to have faith.

He chose to rely on God’s promises to him….that he would have as many ancestors as stars in the sky.

He could have said no. He could have turned and run away. It would have been understandable. It would have made sense.

But, Abraham had spent years of his life….preparing. Walking with God. Trusting in Him.

And he saw God’s promise come true.

“…being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ” Romans 4:21-22  NIV

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Today I am thankful for:

* a fresh start

* morning solitude

* a warm blanket

* cold water in my water bottle

* slivers of early morning light

*food in the fridge

* baby chicks chirping

* God who promises

* He who keeps His promises

* faith that stands firm

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A Saturday In Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning, sunshine!

The view from my kitchen window always makes me smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The start of a new day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love to watch the neighbor’s llamas, across the road.

Shortly, there will be babies running around, that resemble cotton balls with legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salem kitty is on the prowl.

She doesn’t like her picture taken, but she tolerates me chasing her around the yard until I get one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ace, you goober head!

You cannot lay in what will soon be my flower bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz watches me from afar.

She’s usually curious about what is going on around the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the newest members of our family.

Ten chicks. Typical babies…they eat, sleep, and poop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The neighbor’s barn. Doesn’t it look picturesque?

My family’s barn is metal and doesn’t have quite the same “Norman Rockwell” appeal to me, as this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is busting out all over!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Necessary during the spring months, around here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….and I took the one less traveled by….and it has made all the difference.

 

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Quiet, Please!

Man reading Psalms at the Western Wall. Jerusa...

the gypsy mama

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on: LOUD

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Loud makes me irritable. I don’t really like loud. I prefer quiet, not that I get a chance to enjoy THAT very often.

Three kids who can be (and usually are) loud. A television that blares a lot of the time. (why did my husband and I think “the open” concept would be so great for our house?)  Barking dogs, meowing cats, and now chicks in a cardboard box in the front entrance. The morning news is on right now. I listen to it as I clean up my breakfast dishes. The “loudness” of the news echoes in my head.

Who will be the republican nominee? Why did the terrorist kill the Jewish teacher and children in France? And why do gas prices continue to climb?! The loudness of it all just gets to me.

I WANT QUIET!!! Peace. Isolation from it all?

I wander over to the kitchen window and look out at the sky changing colors, tinged with the morning hues of pinks and purples. Clouds scudding across the open expanse over the fields. I breathe deeply and am reminded of this verse……quiet for the soul.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
   I will be exalted among the nations,
   I will be exalted in the earth.”  Psalm 46:10  NIV

 

 

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First Day Of Spring

The first day of Spring is ushered in…

with a warm hug of sunshine.

Today it is to reach 82 degrees where I live. That is relatively unheard of. The highest recorded temperature was 78 degrees on this day, in 1921. Spring has arrived in all its glory. The grass is greener, the flowers are already blooming, and the days are longer.

Last night I was outside at twilight….just as the stars started to twinkle in the sky. I heard the geese honking across the road, the crickets chirping, and dogs barking. There is just something about Springtime.

I think it is the anticipation of what is to come.

What there is to look forward to…

Springtime at Kent's Green Dandelions in flowe...

New season. New life.

And it is good.

There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens… Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV

 

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His Love Is A Gift

Christ Church Cathedral

 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ……No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8: 31-32, 35, 37-39 NIV 

I will not presume to speak for anyone else,  but when I read the words, “What, then, shall we say in response to this?”, something wells up inside me. In the next several verses the deep meaning of those words jump out at me. God did not spare His own son…..for MY sake. His Son, whom He loved dearly, as a sacrifice for ME. His Son, the only one that could atone, stand in the gap, be the bridge.  As the verses state, if God would allow that for me….can’t I depend on Him for all things? And for all that He chooses to give me, shouldn’t I be grateful? Isn’t everything after that  most holy sacrifice, a gift? And wouldn’t His love, that nothing can ever take away, be enough? Yet, He chooses to bless me a million times over.

This scripture tells me that there are all sorts of things in this world that might try to sabotage the relationship between God, His Son, and me. Spiritual battles, things from my past, uncertainties of the future, deaths of those that I loved, too much of a good thing, or too little of what I long for. A world full of both possibility and peril.

And this is the good part…

the part I savor.

These words penned centuries ago, are just as real, just as alive, just as vibrant as they were when first written….because these words NEVER grow old.

<Nothing> will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Those words are like oxygen to a soul that is dry, and aching for breath. Life giving. Exciting. Satisfying.

His love is a fullness that will never, can never be taken from me. God will not allow it.

A gift. An incredible gift.

Thank you, Lord.

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This day I am thankful for:

* spending the afternoon with my husband

* some help from my husband…just because he wanted to be with me

* late night runs

* glorious sunshine

* getting chores done early

* a chance to make a positive difference in many lives

* reaching out to others

* cool pictures on warm weekend afternoons

* a favorite book with dog-earred pages and the “good parts” high lighted.

* making plans for our chickens….yes, I’m excited about chickens.

*sharing dreams

* smiles that say more than words

* good hair, what can I say?

* friendship

* being a mom…a joy, a job…..an adventure?

* trying again

* laughing, always laughing

* God who loves me much more than I deserve

* The fact that nothing this world can throw at me, will ever steal Him away from me.

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What’s Down The Road?

To me, there is nothing better than a Saturday drive.

I come from a long line of Saturday afternoon drivers.

Wandering the back roads, looking for the place “not yet found”.

Searching for the perfect picture while making memories.

Last Saturday was glorious. I enjoyed the early spring sunshine (late winter?).

I’m hoping for another good day, tomorrow.

Pictures tell a story of days gone by.

What stories could these houses and barns, on the back roads, tell?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Ace. He greets us when we get back home.

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Always curious. Always wondering. What might be down the road and around the corner?

Take time to enjoy the drive. Look at things in a different way.

You might just be surprised at what you find.

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