God's Love is Always There

 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7

God's love is always there, it never leaves us. At times though we may wonder "does he even care, because this is not the way life is supposed to be."

Someone we love dies and all we wanted is more time with them. A friend has an illness that the doctors can't figure out. Family members won't speak to you. There isn't enough money to cover this month's bills much less buy food to eat. Where is God's love?

These past two years we wonder where has God gone? Why doesn't He just wipe away this virus? After all I trust in Him, I accepted Him, and I do what He asks of me.

Noah was a righteous man and he had to float on the water for almost a year. David was known as a man after God's own heart. Moses followed God, but He had to stay in the wilderness 40 years and never got to enter the Promise Land. God loved David, even though God loved Him, David spent a good many years running and hiding from a man who wanted to kill him.  Paul was a missionary for God and he spent most of his time in jail.

Life here on earth is hard! I have had to face unplanned surgeries and some days it feels like my body is falling apart. We've struggled to have enough money to pay our bills. My husband and me gripe at each other. We don't live in a rose garden where everything is perfect, but don't rose bushes have thorns?

The good news is every struggle we face, every trial that comes up, every rough patch God's love is always there. The hard days...God's love is there. The unexpected trial...God's love is there. The death of a loved one...God's love is there. In a crisis...God's love is there.

Through it all one thing remains God's great love!

The Bible

 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

God creating the world, Noah building the ark, Moses freeing the Israelites, the Ten Commandments, David and Goliath, Daniel in the Lion's Den,....all of these stories I heard growing up in church. They were stories I heard every year. I also heard about Jesus and how he was born in a stable, grew up and died on the cross, and then rose from the dead.

I would also read these stories in my Children's Story Bible. 

It wasn't until one Easter when our church decided to act out Holy Week. Someone washed my feet and all of a sudden the words of the Bible came to life. Jesus humbled himself and washed His disciples feet. He didn't have to but He did. He showed them how to put others before you. That night I felt the sacrifice this person made to wash my feet.

My first real Bible was given to me at church. It was a Bible geared towards teens, it simply said "The Way". It looked inviting with pictures of teens in the words on the front. I was also given a tiny Bible which just had the Psalms and John. I brought it to Sunday School and we would read it there, but I don't remember reading it at home. The words though were in me.

Whenever I felt scared or unsure, I remembered God could help me. My prayers went from "Now I lay me..." to more personal prayers. At first it was a lot of asking God to help me rather than what do you want me to do, Lord?

Soon I began to hear songs using God's word, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." So when I couldn't handle our money anymore, and we were about to lose our home. I knew the only place to go was to God. He was the one who could take away my guilt and I was willing to deal with the consequences of my bad choices.

This was my turn around. After this my prayer life increased and got deeper. I was asked to coordinate the prayer needs at church. I began reading devotions and the Bible. Did you know there is a lot more to the Bible then the stories I heard growing up?

The Bible is God's living word. It speaks to me when I need it to. It's amazing how I can read a verse one day and then at another time read that same verse and it will speak to me in a completely different way.

Whenever I am having a tough time God's word it there to help me. Of course God is always there for me to talk to, but sometimes He speaks to me through His word. The Bible is that important. Don't be afraid to get it off the shelf, blow off the dust, and open it up a read it. It's time to dive in.

Cats They Are Something

 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:8-9

I watched this black and white cat as he walked across the sidewalk and up our stone pathway. He was cautiously walking up, wondering if it was safe. "Hey kitty, it's alright." He sat there until we sang "Jesus Loves Me".

There our orange cat sits on his perch, not moving much except to eat or to take care of business. If he by chance does step on the floor he does it very cautiously in case she's around, he's afraid of her. Sometimes he takes a chance to traipse around the house, but he knows she's there just waiting.

Our Siamese cat at times can fly through the house often landing on the computer chair so it can roll across the room. She stands at doors "meowing," because she wants to be on the other side. She let's her voice be heard. She will sniff her food and if it isn't to her liking she turns and walks away. 

Our son's black cat is very glad to have company, she will crawl on your lap as soon as you sit down. She stays there as long as you're there. She will appear wherever you are and meow, she likes to be around people.

These cats could easily describe us. We could be sitting on the outside and see people gathering together. We want to be apart of the group, but as soon as we find out they're praising Jesus. We turn and walk a way. Why we would we want any part of that?

We can end up so frightened that we're afraid to move. If we have to go anywhere we move cautiously. We think something is always out to get us. We live in fear.

Maybe we take time to play and have fun, but then we worry about what others are doing. We feel we're being left out. We're finicky and want things our way. We worry.

We could be the one who demands all the attention whenever we're there. We do things to make sure all eyes are on us. We need loved.

Each of us are gifted with a God given personality and it makes sense we are different. We just can't let our personality, worries, and fears keep us from the one who loves us most of all! God is love without him is no real love. He sent us Jesus so we could live our life for Him.

That's A Violation

 For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Romans 3:22b-24

I believe for the most part I do my job well. Sure there are days when I'm a little grumpier and less patient, but we all have good days and we all have bad days. I know I'm not perfect, but who is?

Since I care for children, licensing has to come in and does inspections. That's perfectly fine with me after all I want to do the best I can and keep the children in my care as safe as I can, so why not be accountable.  For years this has gone well, sure there are things the inspector points out and I do my best to do a better job. Problem is now, I have inspector who is a bit over the top.

One thing to keep in mind, I have a home day care. Which means I actually live in the home where I have my day care. There are other people who live here as well my husband and my daughter. We also have pets: a dog, two cats, and around forty fish. This is our home. At one time I could have become a part of the head start program, it meant a guaranteed salary. The problem was wherever the place was where the kids would be could not be entered or gone through when children weren't present. This would have been totally impossible, so I chose not to take part. We enjoy our home.

I enjoy having a day care in my home and love each of the families that have been a part of my family life. At one time I thought of the kids as nephews and nieces and now I am beginning to think of them as grandkids, they each have a place in my heart and I remember each of them.

Anyway when this newer inspector comes in and she likes to say "That's a violation." She domineers over me and tends to look down on me. It is a very stressful time when she's here. I try very hard to make sure everything is in order and if something isn't quite up to par I will give her a heads up. 

This last time was the backyard wasn't cleaned up yet after the dog, it is done before the children head out. I informed her and her response is "That's a violation." Then she informs me it needs done before children arrive, so apparently before the sun is up I need to clean up the backyard. Not a good idea to do in the dark. Very stressful.

This though has me thinking how grateful I am that God doesn't yell "THAT'S A VIOLATION!" every single time I sin. Just imagine it, I begin to get angry and speak out in anger, "THAT'S A VIOLATION!". I might want to tell a lie, "THAT'S A VIOLATION."

It would stop a lot of us from making the wrong choices, but just think how stressed we would be. God wouldn't be showing us any grace. You know God's Riches at Christ's Expense. We all deserve punishment, but God gives us grace. We are made clean because of what Jesus did at the cross. He took on all of our violations so that we can be forgiven.

Somehow, someway I hope that each of us can know that not one of us is perfect. We all have violations like it or not.

Now to show grace to this inspector and hopefully one day she can find God's grace, so she can show grace to others.

Anxiousness & Fear

 5 Let your reasonableness[a] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7

These past couple of years have caused the most patient and trusting of God people to have days of anxiety. No wonder, since we would hear one thing and then the next day it would be a completely different story.

Before this started we were planning our trip to Hawaii. We cut back on things and saved our money. We researched and figured island hopping would be the best way to go. When we had enough money saved we reserved our vacation rentals and then our flights. When this first happened we believed we would be alright since we were seven months a way from our trip.

We soon realized that our trip wouldn't be able to happen when we planned and moved it six months later. We researched all the requirements for us to go and trusted God to keep us safe. Our first stop went well, we had our negative Covid results and enjoyed our first few days even if we couldn't stay up past 6 or 7 o'clock because of the time change. We saw beaches and mountains, and enjoyed our Luau.

We were excited to head to our next island. Our flight went well, but when we landed the trouble began. We had read the requirements over and over, but somehow we missed we needed a negative test result for each island. So now we were in quarantine until we received our negative result. We weren't allowed to leave where we were staying or rent a car. We were stranded.

This was a rough time. I deeply and truly trust God, but even with this trust I was anxious. My neck and jaw would tighten and I was shaking. I knew we had not done anything wrong and we weren't sick. But it felt like we were criminals. Several times through out this ordeal, I didn't know what to do. Here we were in one of the most beautiful states and we were stuck in our room.

Every time I began to feel overwhelmed with anxiousness, I would pray. When we are anxious we are not fully trusting God. I tried and I tried but my humanness would kick in. It did help to know I had people praying for us, but it still was hard.

Now God did not leave us alone, he allowed us a place to stay. We had a way to get food. The best comfort of all was the cross that was across the street. We knew God was with us, especially when we loaded our negative results and within five minutes we were freed!

Several times in the past couple of years, I have felt this overwhelming anxiousness try to consume me again. Luckily, I have been able to overcome it with prayers and singing worship songs. We will have times when we are shaken, but with God we can overcome our fear because He is bigger than it all.

A Time to Get Back

 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, Luke 10:39-41 ESV

Several times during a devotion or Bible study I have realized God has called me to write and that I need to get back to writing these simple messages. I ask forgiveness and yet, I rationalize that I am writing once a week since I write my children's church message. Or I am writing a VBS, so Lord I am writing. This is not only what He desires from me.

This week once again God showed me that I needed to get back to sharing. Of course I asked Him, "when Lord, I am so busy? Some days I can't even make a phone call, let alone write my devotion."

He said, "make the time."

Saturdays seem like a good day to take the time, so I was det3ermined that this Saturday would me a good day to begin again. Of course as my week progressed, my list for what I needed to do today grew and grew. Then last night the dog decided to bark a few times during the night waking me. I just want to sleep a little bit later on Saturdays, not lose sleep because of the dog. As I laid there debating about getting up God was reminding me-today's the day.

Why do we let things get in the way of doing what God asks of us? Why do we worry about all the details? Why are we afraid to trust in Him?

Well from what I've learned, Satan doesn't want us to do what God asks of us. If he can fill our days up so we are to busy to talk to God, then he can distract us easier. I haven't stopped talking to God. Most days it's an ongoing conversation. There are times when I have had the opportunity to get on and write only to decide that I just want to sit and chill with nothing to do. Some days my days are so busy that I just don't want one more thing added to my list.

God tells us "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own." So why do we let worry take over. There have been a few times in the past year when anxiousness has tried to consume me. Now my faith in God is strong, but there are still times when I have been shaken. I could feel the tightening in my jaw and the bile rising in my throat because of this worry filling me up. Luckily, I prayed through it. I would remind myself breathe in God, breathe out the anxiousness. Peace didn't enter right away, but eventually it did. I could see God working out the situations, so I knew He had it the whole time.

If I have learned anything over these past couple of years is that trust in God works out a lot better than being anxious or worried about many things. 

I am going to try and not let the busyness of my days get in the way of blogging once a week. Even if only one or two read this, I will know that I am obeying God and sharing what He wants me too. It is time to get back!