One reason I love our church is singing our praises together each Sunday. Whether we are on key or not, we have the privilege to vocalize our love for Jesus. Some enjoy quiet hymns others fast-moving praise songs. If we are truly showing the Lord how much we love Him, it’s worship!
I enjoy travel! I like the variety of places. And I have found it helps to be prepared. If I go to the mountains, I bring long pants and sweaters, preparing for colder temperatures. If I go to the ocean, I bring swimsuits, sundresses and shorts, preparing for hotter temperatures. I research a new place to learn what to bring and what to do while I am there.
Think of your favorite scene that brings you contentment. It brings peace, no more want. It is the thought that if I could just live here… life would be good! Is it a home with a beautiful view of a landscape of lush rolling green fields? Or a beachside view? Or maybe a home with a view of a mountain range?
When my daughter was about two years old, she loved to play games with her daddy. During one of these games, she would run to her daddy, he would catch her and throw her up in the air. She would giggle and as he put her down, she would run away and say, “Do it again!” and run back toward him giggling.
When I was young, our family was driving through the beautiful mountains of Colorado. It was my first time to see it. As I looked out the car window, amazed at what I saw, I asked my mom, “is this heaven?”
Looking at a beautiful mountain range, I considered how life is full of peaks and valleys. There are good moments and bad moments. But at the height of the peaks, I cannot see the valley ahead… just looming past the horizon.
I love to see scientific studies back up Bible verses. While I’m not surprised, I just think it’s fun to watch science catch up.
Just today, I read an article on how complaining and negativity rewires your brain for anxiety and depression.
I listen to Christian music throughout the day, so it’s no surprise that’s how I hear God speak many times.
I got an unexpected email this weekend from the first babysitter who ever kept my boys.
What moves you?
I mean … moves you to action … compels you to do something.
Anger? Injustice? Anger can motivate.
What do you build on?
For many years … I found hope and joy from my next vacation or the next new, fun thing for my house or fancy meals eating out.
I built my hope on the things money can buy.
Wow, Hebrews is intense! I am becoming more and more aware of that since I’ve been sauntering through its pages. I see that even God’s man Moses, at the base of Mount Sinai (12:21) said, “I am trembling with fear”.
And so, with our eyes fixed on Jesus we have entered that race marked out for us (12:1-2). Make every effort is not lost on me. To race is to do just that—to expend all the energy you have till you reach the finish line. The Greek underscores your effort with godly fear—with the reverence of a minister or deacon (Strongs).
What a lovely May day it was. As I gazed out my back window, mesmerized by the deep blues of the hydrangeas and the emerging pinks and reds of the roses, a couple of horn-rimmed eyeballs caught my attention. What in the world was an owl doing in my pecan?
How easily we can slip into outright sin and its entanglements. Tie on your godly truths securely; or like your dangling shoelaces, the ways of the world will trip you up. Sir Walter Scott's quote may possibly encompass all the devil desires from us: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Deception could be the root of all evil. The serpent in the garden used that ploy, and look at the sin that entangled us all.
As I longed to be out on the mountain trails this summer, the following quote by John Muir, writer and naturalist, caught my eye:
“People ought to saunter in the mountains, not hike! …people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre, to the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers.”
We spent the day in lawn chairs watching my brother, his grandsons, and a “windmill expert” assemble a 100-year-old windmill in our pasture. By the evening, the seemingly random pile of metal transformed into a functioning mechanism for pumping water from a hundred feet below the ground’s surface.
My Sunflower Vine vigorously twined up my garden trellis. I allowed a wild vine to grow nearby thinking they would just mature side-by-side. However, by the time I realized my mistake, the damage was done. The wild vine had choked my Sunflower Vine!
But, for that instant, I could rest in the quiet beauty when all was well. I must not miss those moments, for they are rare among the rush of the world. They exist as God’s good gifts, like His Son, His Salvation, His grace, His love, and His ever-present counselor, His Holy Spirit.
On multiple occasions God lifted David’s feet from the slimy pit and gave him a new song of praise. David faithfully documented those rescues with pen and parchment.
