Today's Love Note: Isaiah 58:10-11

.....and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

 then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will become like noonday.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Valentines Day 2016: Today's Love Note

Thank you to my friend Karen who shared this on Facebook this morning.

When all else fails, His promise does not.

A Bit of a Day

Today I have had to remind myself of all that I have to be thankful for.

Actually, the longer this winter goes on, it seems that I need to be reminded a thousand times a day.

What is it about us that loves to cater to these great inner pity parties? 

Do I wake up in the morning wondering if today is the day my village will be invaded and destroyed? That I may loose my head for loving and following Jesus? That the only choice that I have to quench my thirst is between dust and the water running with sewerage; or that my meal is picked from a pile of refuse, and that is considered a feast?

I have had way too much time on my hands this past couple of weeks since I broke my leg; filled it with reading, day-dreaming, seeking the Lord, and yes, forgetting completely about Him, and making social media my church.

I look at all there is to bombard myself with; that feeds the frenzy of discontent.

The lies and whispers of failure in the standards that the world has set. I make a mental jump onto the bandwagon of frustration at my stead.

And then, the most wonderful thing happens.

That still, small, voice that reaches through the clamor when I allow it.

I realize; I have the answer to every dream of security, wealth, peace, and life that will outlast everything here in this time and place.

John 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the the world might be saved through Him.

And He is with me.

From the Sheep Shed

Thinking about......

I'm thinking about a lot of things today.

It has been one week since I slipped on my steps and broke my leg in three places, had surgery and have now been home for a few days in the re-cooperating stage of things.

In many ways, I have put my thinking part on hold, and immersed myself in distraction; books, watching the chickadees at the feeder outside the window, and thanking my husband for his care.

I am winter-weary. Truly.  I realized just how much so when yesterday, a dear friend slipped on her steps, and broke her back for the second time in four years. Even my mind was speechless when I heard the news.

So here I am this morning, finally drawn out of my own shell, so grateful in the end that He truly gives us the peace that passes all understanding. 

I have been turning my mind toward spring ( which will come) and I thought of lilacs; the ones outside my window with the bird-feeder hanging on them, and imagined them in bloom.

I went to my favorite place for pictures with scripture and God is ever-faithful.

Thank you to Peter.      1st Peter 1:7  

These (trials) have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Blessings to you,

From the Sheep Shed

Today's Love Note

Sunday

I love chickadees. They are such brave little souls, as are all of the other birds that brave these cold Maine winters.

They gather around the feeders and put such a cheerful face on things as the cold weather seems as though it will never end.

They are the picture of what God says in Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?  NIV

I am so for these constant reminders sitting right outside my window.

Today's Love Note

Happy Valentines Day

Photo credit: Matthew Russell/Visuals Unlimited, Inc.
The Heart Nebula


How big is the God of the Universe!

Provision and Busy-ness

I am writing this in retrospect: Case-in-point.

A Monday morning on the third day of June. Summer has finally shown up and the tourists and cottage residents are arriving in fits and starts.

After a winter of almost no work, I have finally been able to get a job at a local retail store that is a family run business. There are a number of stores throughout the state and it is considered a Maine Adventure to pass through it's doors.

I have really been exercising the muscles that allow me to trust in God's provision for me. What does that look like? It is something that I have to listen for and then to ponder on a day by day, minute by minute basis. It is a re-calibrating of the whole thought process. Of realizing and living by application, a life of faith and trust in someone much bigger than the world; who in fact, holds the atoms of creation together in the palms of his hand.

The default mechanism of so many who seek to follow Christ is to think that we have to help Him, to help us. It brings to mind that old saying : Heaven helps those that help themselves.
Where did that come from? Yet it is what I believed before I knew God for who He is. God helps those who seek his will and are willing to take "no" for an answer. The true desire of my heart,  would be what He gives me , no matter what that turns out to be. It's a hard thing to wrap my brain around a good part of the time, yet time after time He has proven himself to me.

Though most of my life has been that of feast or famine, last year was  one of the biggest challenges I have faced in terms of having employment. I live in a State where it is a constant battle to make a living, even in the best of times. Many folks work two and three jobs to barely break even. I know that is the case in many places these days. Just how much work do I need to take on? When am I making it happen on my own, or giving God a chance to bless me in His own way? It is a question that I wrestle with.

We are taught that being busy is being responsible. It's that Yankee thing I guess.

We need to re-calibrate and listen for that still small voice