The coming of Spring

Well, it's definitely warm outside. The trees are budding; the flowers are beginning to bloom. The birds are singing and the bees are buzzing. I like the newness and freshness of spring. I just do not exactly enjoy the thought that warm weather leads to hot weather. The Atlanta temperatures lately have been breaking records with these 80+ degree temperatures. I like the cool temperatures. This is one of those areas where my husband and I are opposites. His definition of winter is anything below 70 degrees! He actually likes to be hot. These days I carry around my own source of heat so when the temperature is warm - well, let's just say it can be really hot.

One thing about the spring that I do enjoy is the flowers. There seems to be color everywhere! I would really like to be one of those people that enjoys working outside in a garden/flower bed. I would plant lots of beautiful flowers of various colors and sizes and varieties. I would watch them impatiently until they were in full bloom, filling the flower bed with an explosion of color. But, unfortunately, I am not one of those people. The closest I get is buying a bouquet of cut flowers at Wal-Mart for the dining room table.

Another thing that makes the coming of spring obvious is that everything turns yellow for a couple of weeks. That's right - pollen. Forget washing it off your car; an hour later you have a yellow car again. Pollen also brings out those allergies. I feel for people who suffer from allergies due to pollen. I'm sure they dread the coming of spring. And that is a real shame.

Warm weather also brings out bugs. Honestly, I do not understand why God created bugs. I know His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, but bugs?! Any bug - roaches, ants, spiders, crickets... You name it. Thank goodness for Orkin!

The coming of spring is also when we go through a lot of clothes changing. You know, you put one thing on in the morning and by noon you change into something more for the warm temperature; then in the evening it's cool again, so you put back on the pants you first put on that morning. It's also time to rearrange your closet, but you can't put the long-sleeves totally away just yet.

Right now I think I will go get myself another glass of ice water, go sit out on the screened porch and enjoy the beautiful, warm afternoon. Maybe read for a little while. Rest assured though, as soon as I start getting hot, I'm back inside with the AC!

Psalm 121

"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever."

Notice everything the LORD is and will do in this Psalm? With help like this what is there to fear?

1 Chronicles 29:10-12

So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said,

"Blessed are You, O Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory

and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth;

Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.

Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand

is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone."

Respectable Sins-Chapter Eight

I am really enjoying this book. The title of this chapter is "Anxiety and Frustration." This should be very interesting, to say the least! I deal with these two things on a constant basis for one reason or another. So, here goes. I have a feeling this is going to hurt!

ANXIETY
Pg. 64
When Jesus (or Paul or Peter, who were writing under divine inspiration) says to us, "Don't be anxious," it has the force of a moral command. In other words, it is the moral will of God that we not be anxious. Or to say it more explicitly, anxiety is sin.

First, anxiety is a distrust of God.
When I give way to anxiety, I am, in effect, believing that God does not care for me and that He will not take care of me in the particular circumstance that triggers my anxiety of the moment.

Anxiety is a sin also because it is a lack of acceptance of God's providence in our lives.

Pg. 67
It is appropriate to pray for relief and for deliverance from whatever circumstance is triggering our anxiety, but we should always do so with an attitude of acceptance of whatever God's providential will may be and a confidence that, whatever the outcome, God's will is better than our plans or desires.

WORRY
Pg. 67
Worry is a synonym for anxiety.

Pg. 68
God honors our struggles, and the Holy Spirit will help us. The important issue is that we seek to honor God through our faith, even though weak and faltering, rather than dishonoring Him through rank unbelief.

FRUSTRATION
Pg. 69
Whereas anxiety involves fear, frustration usually involves being upset or even angry at whatever or whoever is blocking our plans.

Pg. 70
There are no events in our lives that do not ultimately come to us from the invisible hand of God, even though they come through some visible cause.

Both anxiety and frustration are sins. They are not to be taken lightly or brushed off as common reactions we have to difficult events in a fallen world. And all sin is serious in the eyes of a Holy God.

~~~~
Ouch! I knew that was going to hurt. I do have work to do. The Bible never promises conforming to the image of Christ was an easy thing!

Respectable Sins Chapter Seven

Pg. 53
A person may be a nice, respectable citizen and still be an ungodly person.
Ungodliness describes an attitude toward God, while unrighteousness refers to sinful actions in thought, word, or deed.

Pg. 54
Ungodliness may be defined as living one's everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God's will, or of God's glory, or of one's dependence on God.

Pg. 56
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." The all of that sentence includes every activiy of our days... Everything we do is to be done to the glory of God.

Pg. 57
First, I desire that all that I do be pleasing to God. I want God to be pleased with the way I go about the ordinary activities of my day.

Pg. 58
The question we should honestly and humbly ask is, "How ungody am I?" How much of my life do I live without any regard for God?

Pg. 60
Our goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible to Him and dependent on Him.

18 and In Love!

18 and in love! It seems so long ago. But I can still remember the excitement I felt knowing I was going to see him. I remember not being able to concentrate on anything because my mind was full of him. I would watch for his car to come pick me up for a date, then watch until it drove out of sight after the date. I didn't think I could see him enough; even though my parents thought we saw each other too much! I eagerly searched the mailbox each day he was away at college hoping there would be a letter, even if I got one the day before. Then I would read that letter 10x a day until the next one arrived. How my heart would skip a beat just hearing his voice after being apart for any length of time.

18 and in love! There were also those times of hurt, pain, and disappointment. Young love is full of hopes, dreams and expectations. When you set your hopes too high and your expectations go unmet the disappointment can lead to many misunderstandings and hurt feelings. There were plenty of misunderstandings in those days. But we would always talk them out and hopefully learn from them.

18 and in love! Now my child is in this wonderful and exciting stage of her young life. I pray for wisdom to be able to guide her and encourage her. What is more difficult is to watch her experience the heartache that can come with young love. No mother enjoys watching her child suffer, physically or emotionally. My heart aches for her. I pray she will grow through this experience and be stronger in her faith. I pray she will have the courage to do the hard thing, if she believes it is God's will. Having to expereince the pain will make the joy so much more joyful.

Beyond 18 and in love! I may not be 18 anymore, but I am still in love. I still look for his car to come down the street after he has been away for a few days. My heart still skips a beat when I hear his voice on the phone for our nightly phone call because he is traveling for work. I still meet him at the door eagerly waiting to throw my arms around him and get the kiss I've waited all week for. I still can't see him enough!

Beyond 18 and in love! I'm not looking at the world through those rose colored glasses anymore, though. Life has not always been what you think it should be like when you are 18. It has been so much more; more joy, more pleasure, more happiness, more love, and yes, more pain. But through it all I have known he loves me and I love him and our love has its foundation on the Solid Rock. So, I will continue to pray for my daughter through this new-found love, come what may. Whether this is the young man she spends the rest of her life with or not, she will learn many valuable lessons if she will keep her eyes on the Source of love.

Channels of Water

"If He is able to move the hearts of kings like little channels of water "wherever He wishes," then He's able to reshape and rechannel lives that we think are unreachable, and calling their own shots, and too far gone to turn back."

"God is at work. He's moving. He's touching lives. He's shaping kingdoms. He's never surprised by what humanity may do. Just because actions or motives happen to be secular or carnal or unfair, it doesn't mean He's not present. Those involved may not be glorifying Him, but never doubt it, He's present. He's at work."

"God specializes in turning the mundane into the meaningful. God not only moves in unusual ways, He also moves on uneventful days. He is just as involved in the mundane events as He is in the miraculous."
~Charles Swindoll's Esther