My ESCAPING cat!

We have a relatively new cat that has joined our household. Oh such fun our dog and cat have playing together. They are a delight to watch together. We enjoy both of them as part of our family. BUT lately the cat has started to ESCAPE when someone comes in or goes out. I mean there is no catching this cat, it ZIPS out faster than your body can move.

Now we have a pond behind our house where an alligator lives. WE also enjoy watching the alligator who most everyday suns himself on the bank about 50 feet across the pond from our home. He is easily seen and we enjoy watching him slither in and out of the water and tool around the pond. Now alligators like little animals. They like to eat little animals. We have tried to tell our cat that we are protecting him by insisting he stay inside the house where he has everything he needs.....yet still there is something inside this cat that wants to roam where he is not to roam. He wants to be out from under our protection for a few minutes a couple times a day. He never goes away for long and soon comes to the door meowing to come in. But the cat does not really understand what danger he is in. I am SURE the alligator now knows that a cat lives here, along with a little dog.

The other night, about 2:00AM our dog started to bark repeatedly. We both got up and turned on all the lights. We didn't SEE anything, but undoubtedly there was something there for our dog to carry on so. Th next morning there was a story on the news about a lady's dog that woke her up barking and to her surprise an alligator was in their yard. (It is mating season for alligators, so they are roaming). So perhaps our alligator was in our yard too in hopes that the cat would come out to play.

I think how similar itis to people, even Christians. We should be MORE than content with just being in the presence of God, His Word and being with His people- and yet how often we play around on enemy territory not really believing that we will ever be devoured, or caught. WE just want to enjoy both worlds or a season.

But one day we may be minus our cat. We hope he learns to be content and stayinside the house, where all of his needs are met, and he is well loved. But if he insists on sneaking out, he may pay the price and it would be our loss.

Oh I pray that I will stay miles away from the enemy's territory. I do not want to see how close I can get without getting caught. I want to stay cuddled up to my Savior, my Lord who is all that need. He meets my every need and HE adores me.

Humans do the Funniest things

Sometimes we humans do the funniest things!

We have been dog sitting for some friends for two weeks. Now I must tell you that is about the LAST thing we WANTED to do. But we knew that we could do it, so we offered our help in this year and they were pleased. Well, to our shock, we all enjoyed the dog. She was MUCH better than we had anticipated and it forced us to take those walks that we know we SHOULD take daily. So now that the owners are home and the dog is safely back where she belongs ....we find ourselves wondering if we should get a dog of our own.

SO....we believe we have one on the way...to be delivered tonight or tomorrow! Today my daughter and I went to two pet stores and "window shopped" for what we will possibly need. It was fun to window shop although the prices for simple necessary dog items are VERY expensive. As soon as the news gets over, hubby, daughter and I will go to Walmart to see what they have and check their prices. WHAT FUN as we prepare for the arrival of a dog.

Now we know there will be times when we will regret this decision -we will not be as free to travel without making plans for our dog. But we trust the benefits of having a pet will outweigh the nuances. Time will tell.

So who would like to make an analagy of this experience to something spiritual so I can use it for a Children's lesson?

We have to ASK!

I just got back from our Nursing Home ministry. What a JOY this ministry is. We have two teams. One goes to the assisted living section. The other team ministers in the Dementia unit. What a joy each are and yet so very different. I am the "StoryTeller" in both groups.

Since the Bible lesson today was from John 2, I brought in my wedding album. In the assisted Living section they really enjoyed looking at my pictures and talking about my wedding...then I went into the lesson how Jesus, his mother and some of the disciples were among the guests at a wedding in Cana. This is the first miracle Jesus did, and it is always a hard one to teach. As a good Baptist (smile) I would have preferred Jesus to change the water to milk, or punch or juice, but instead he didnt change the menu, he reproduced more of what they had run out of - wine. The Master of Ceremonies even described it as being the best wine ever.

Today as I was teaching, the Lord highlighted a different part of the account for me to see. Jesus didn't do anything, make any changes ,until someone had asked him to - which was his mom. But after his mom told Jesus about the problem, Jesus then intervened and saved the bride and bridegroom from embarrassment and shame.

So with us, when we get outselves into situations that would be embarrassing or shameful, situations where we cannot see the way out- IF WE GO TO GOD- He will intervene on our behalf- but he only uses what we offer him. He didnt bring in jars of wine, he used the empty jars that were already there. He used what was around him, what was already there, then he put the final touches on it- HIS touch that made all the difference!

I imagine myself being the servant and Jesus telling me to dip into the jar of water and give a cup to the master of ceremonies. I would be scared to death! I would possibly decline his request. I would for sure obey with fear and trembling afraid that the master of ceremonies would be upset when I handed him a cup of water. But Mary had told the servants to obey every word he said, and they obeyed....and they had the privilege of giving the Master of Ceremonies the biggest blessing and surprise he had that day!

So many times we have issues, and we just see the impossibility of it all. We are overwhelmed by our situation and cannot see the way out. . . .we may ask people to pray, we may say that we need to pray but so often we do not ACTUALLY PRAY. Oh how our lives would be different if we would just trust and obey! Jesus LOVES to restore what is gone from our lives, our marriages, our families, our finances, our health, etc. Jesus cares about us, BUT WE MUST TELL HIM and ASK HIM FOR HELP.

Jesus is worthy of our trust.

He will answer us, but we must tell him the situation and ask for his help. Then His touch will be life changing!

My shadow passed me!

I had the strangest thing happen last night. IN fact it happened many times, over and over and over again. And each time it seemed to startle me, and my mind was racing to remember my science classes as to WHY it was doing this. Do I have your curiosity?

My husband and I were heading home after a nice motorcycle ride. We were on I75 and to my surprise I saw our shadow to my left passing me. Yes there we were, our two torsos on the motorcycle going faster than we were. It passed by once, then again and again. Each time catching my attention and it was the strangest sensation to be passed by my own shadow!

As is true when riding on the back of a motorcycle there is a lot of THINK time, so my mind went back to when our children were small and we would take a flashlight into the children's rooms, lay on their beds with them and we would make shadows on the walls. We would get to laughing as we tried to create animals and various creations with our hands. We felt this helped the children not to be afraid of the dark, plus just good creative family fun.

I remember playing shadow tag, where we tried to step on each others shadow for points, thus it was active as you not only had to keep yourself from others but your long shadow from contact with others.

I remember Peter Pan always made such a big deal of his shadow. I watched that movie over and over mismerized by the shadow, as well as dreaming I could fly to avoid growing old.

Shadows are fun because they are not real, and yet they reflect something that is real. Shadows require an object and sunlight to create a shadow that you can make move the way you move. Although sometimes your shadow is much taller than you are, much wider or more slender than the real object. It is not an accurate representation, but it is a result of something real.

I am so glad that the Bible says we walk through the valley of the SHADOW of death (Ps 23:4). As a Pastor's wife, I have seen several people take their last breath. It is a beautiful experience to be in the same room with a Believer in Jesus who one second is in a bed before me, and another second is in the presence of the Lord. It is such a holy experience. One second there is life in the hand I am holding, and the next second it is obvious, that the body is still and lifeless. Believers just walk through the shadow of death, the sting of death is gone, for we walk right into GLORY!

All of the above, in greater detail, went through my mind as I was riding on the back of our motorcycle. I was praising my Lord that a simple, but startling, Shadow of myself passing me on the road caused me to thank Him for my past, present and my future with Him.

Healthy Choices

Life is not easy, I bet you never knew that! (smile)

I find Life to be full of choices and I am always seeking God to help me make wise choices for myself. I have made many bad choices in the past that have hurt my loved ones. I do not want to walk that way anymore!

Just a few minutes ago I found myself having to make one of those choices! I heard an invisible voice say: 'Who will know?' ; 'Who will care?'; 'It is the only way you can get the benefits.'; 'It is only a website!'

Let me explain. I am always looking for good graphics online and I am about to teach a sign language class, so I have been spending more time online looking for deaf related graphics. I learned of a website today that has many good graphics, even deaf ecards, and the opportunity to interact with deaf people around the world....so of course I went to the website. It is a dating website. I am happily married and desire to stay that way.

Well I began to fill out the required form so I could obtain the benefits....then I came to the place where I had to make a choice: Do I want to meet a man, a woman, or a couple?

Well I do not want to meet anyone for the purpose they are talking about. For about two seconds I pondered what to do: "What would it hurt to just fill out the form?" But I am not looking for a partner, so it would be dishonest to who I am.

Since it was required to make a selection, I closed the site and praised God that HE gave me the strength to do what was RIGHT.

Would it have hurt anything to have filled out the form and just gotten my graphics? I will never know. But I must tell you there is much peace in my heart for having made this decision.

We all must protect ourselves, our minds, our hearts, our bodies, and our marriage at all times.

This was only a very small thing, and it took all of about ten minutes in whole- but I feel like a Giant! I know that today I voted a YES for my marriage! I know that I made a wise choice. Thank you Jesus.

Singing her into Glory

Life can be so tough and yet GOD remains to be so good.

We had gotten the phone call that my aunt had a major stroke and not expected to live. My sister and I strongly felt that my mom needed to be with her sister. We got busy making arrangments to take my mom to Ohio to be with her dying sister. We knew there was nothing much we could do, but we could sing to her as she went to Glory and that seemed like a pretty wonderful assignment to take on.

We left Florida Sunday afternoon and arrived in IN on Monday night were we needed to pick up our mom who was in IN to attend a wedding. Tuesday morning we headed to Ohio. We dialed our cousin on our way and I had mom talk to her sister on the phone telling her that we were on our way. To try and wait for us. It was a tearful moment indeed. We felt guilty and nervous as we stopped to eat on the way, trusting that we would not miss her by this hour delay. We prayed that God would favor us by having her live until we arrived. And yet we knew that request sounded selfish. Holding one back from stepping into Heaven is definately a selfish act, yet we found ourselves expressing it, and praying for it.

Aunt Ruth was alive upon our arrival. How grateful we were and remain! We did thank GOD for caring about us even in our selfishness. Of course we shed many tears to see her in this condition, yet we were able to sing several songs as we held her hands, rubbed her legs and reminded her over and over that we love her.

We are hoping that we will be singing when she goes to Glory....whenever God calls her home. Our aunt is very ready to go to be with her Lord. Her death will certainly be a graduation. All that she has believed by faith is about to become sight. WE cannot help but be jealous of her, but we know that God has things for us to do yet here on earth and we will remain faithful to Him, as He has been faithful continually to us.

Death is such a sad part of our lives, and yet it is a part of life. And yet how special to know that our Aunt will go from this hospice room into the presence of God. We hope that indeed we will be with her at that moment where her spirit will leave her earthly body and be transported into Heaven. What a moment that will be. At that moment the room will transform from being a room of gloom, tears and memories to a room of Glory! We will join the angels in singing the 'Hallelujah Chorus' as another precious Child of God enters the place God has prepared for those who love him. Her earth walk is about over. Her life goes on into eternity! All because Jesus loved us so much that HE made a way for us to go to Heaven. Thank you Jesus.

Never too old to learn

I must say I am ashamed of myself at what I am about to confess.

Let me explain:

Our adult daughter lives with us and I do her laundry every week. I do it mostly because I enjoy it and the washer and dryer are located in OUR bathroom. Our bedroom and bathroom are off limits to others, hubby and I reserve the LOVE SUITE for us (smile).

The last few weeks we have been out of town on the weekdays and I try to get everything done, but I have had to leave a few things in the dryer. Last week when I came home, exhausted on Friday night, I found our little load of towels in a heap on our bed. Now I always wash, dry, fold and take hers into her room. She takes my laundry out and plops it unfolded on our bed so she can do hers. Yes, a bit of anger rose within me. 'What would have been so difficult to fold up the few towels that I had left in the dryer?', my mind argued. OF course my dryer was full of her clothes. So for the first time EVER in her lifetime, I emptied the contents into a basket and put them in her room. I felt dirty inside for doing so. I knew I was justified by human standards, but it wasnt me. I love her.

She didnt say one word about the fact that I had not folded her clothes. I knew that her clothes would look alot more wrinkled every time she got dressed this last week. I felt bad inside for having been so selfish and unloving.

This last week I received a phone call which led to out-of-state travel plans. The trip was unexpected. It was a trip of LOVE. After my mom, my sister and I were on the road, my sister handed me an envelope. She said it was from my daughter. My daughter had put half of her paycheck into an envelop for me, to be sure I had enough money for this unexpected trip! She gave it to my sister to deliver saying that Mom would never accept it otherwise.

Well you can imagine what this did to my heart. She may not fold my clothes but she DOES love me and shows me in HER way, not my way.

I didn't end up needing her money, so was able to give it all back to her, but it would not have been necessary. She gave out of her love for me. Just like I do laundry for her. In fact she came back from being with her horse early knowing I would not have a car when I got home and I may need to go somewhere.

Her clothes are now in the washer and I will have them folded and in her room when she gets out of work.

I am never too old to learn, and neither are you (smile).

"Lord, Help me to love like You love---unconditionally!"