Category Archives: Encouragement

Pause for Poetry — I Will Not Doubt

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meadow lake courtesy pixabayThe following poem, I Will Not Doubt, was written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and is found in Streams in the Desert.

I Will Not Doubt

I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea
Come drifting home with broken masts and sails;
I shall believe the Hand which never fails
From seeming evil worketh good for me:
And though I weep because those sails are tattered,
Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered,
I trust in thee.

I will not doubt, though all my prayers return
Unanswered from the still, white Realm above;
I shall believe it is an all-wise Love
Which has refused those things for which I yearn;
And though at times I cannot keep from grieving,
Yet the pure ardor of my fixed believing
Undimmed shall burn.

I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain,
And troubles swarm like bees about a hive;
I shall believe the heights for which I strive
Are only reached by anguish and by pain;
And though I groan and tremble with my crosses,
I yet shall see, through my severest losses,
The greater gain.

I will not doubt; well anchored in the faith,
Like some staunch ship, my soul braves every gale,
So strong its courage that it will not fail
To face the mighty unknown sea of Death.
Oh, may I cry when body parts with spirit,
I do not doubt, so listening worlds may hear it,
With my last breath.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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I wish you well.

Sandy

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There’s No Place Like Home

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There’s No Place Like Home

If you’ve visited the gift shop inside the Kansas welcome center on Interstate 35, then you undoubtedly know there’s no place like home.

The first time Pilot and I stopped there, “Over the Rainbow” played in the background. Tee shirts with pictures of the Good Witch of the North, ruby slippers, Toto teapots, and emerald green coffee mugs lined the shelves. The place was filled with Wizard of Oz memorabilia.

I found Pilot and asked, “What is with all the Wizard of Oz stuff?”

He looked at me, as he often does when what I just said makes absolutely no sense to him. “We’re in Kansas.”

“Sooo?” It took a minute. Then I said, “Oh, yeah. Of course.”

Duh.

Now I am sure none of you reading this would have been as dense. But in my defense, Kansas wasn’t our end destination on this trip. Colorado was. We were merely passing through the great state.

I wasn’t thinking about where I was in relationship to Dorothy’s there’s no place like home. I was thinking more in line with what I saw. Wheat, buffalo, and the Santa Fe Trail.

Before we left the gift shop, I purchased several books on early pioneers, a few trinkets, and a music box that plays, “Over the Rainbow”. Pilot chose one that plays, “If I Only Had a Brain”. I am positive he did not buy that for me.

On A Quest For Home

In Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is on a quest to get home. Because, as we know, there is no place like home. We too, are on a quest to reach our eternal home. Heaven.

On our journey we sometimes run into people who need a heart because theirs is mean-spirited or callous.

We may meet people who need courage for the difficult tasks they face.

Often times, we are surrounded by people who appear to need a brain since they seem to keep making the same bad choices over and over again.

And of course, there is that wicked witch with her flying monkeys who seems to make life miserable for those in her wake.

Maybe we are the ones who need the heart, courage, or brain. Or who, occasionally, hiss, “I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too.”

Jesus Is The One Who Will Get Us Home

Instead of looking for the not-so-great Wizard behind the emerald curtain, we need to turn to our true guide, Jesus, to get us home. He’s the one who can make our hearts brand new.

He’s the one who will give us the courage we lack.

If we let him, Jesus can straighten out our brains, and help us make the right choices.

As we follow Jesus, he can also teach us how to deal with the flying monkeys in our life.

Your Turn

We may not have ruby slippers, but we have something far superior. We have a Savior who will lead us home. For there truly is no place like our heavenly home.

Which character from the Wizard of Oz do you most relate to?

For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 Corinthians 5:1 (TLB)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Image by Keith Johnston from Pixabay.

A Man Named Job

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A Man Named Job

If someone mentions the name Job, what’s the first thing we usually think of? Patience in suffering? Trust in God? Friends with not so wise counsel?

The Book of Job is so much more than a beautifully written poetic story about a man who exhibited patience, and endured unimaginable troubles. This is the story of a man named Job who confidently declared, I know my Redeemer lives, and in the end, will stand on the earth.

Job Was A Man Of Hope

The story of Job is not just a story of patience and suffering. It is a story of hope. Hope in a risen Savior. Hope in a Redeemer. Hope in Jesus Christ as Lord. It is a story that should give us hope, even in the midst of our worst trials and troubles.

Job Was A Man Of Trust

The story of Job shows us a man who continued to keep trusting that God had a plan for his life, even when Job couldn’t see it.

Job had no idea of what went on in the heavenly realm between God and Satan. He didn’t know Satan had to ask God’s permission before he was allowed to unleash his evil against the man God pointed out as his servant. All Job could do was keep trusting.

Job Was A Man Who Sought Answers

During his suffering and loss, Job sought an audience with God. He had questions. He wanted God to give him answers.

However, instead of giving Job answers, God asked questions of his own.

Where were you when I made the earth’s foundation? Who shut the doors to keep the sea in when it broke through and was born? Where were you when I said to the sea, ‘you may come this far, but no farther’? Have you ever ordered the morning to begin, or shown the dawn where its place was? Tell me if you know all these things.

Job Was A Man Who Discovered God Is God And Job Was Not

Job discovered God owes no one any answers for what God permits or plans. He is God. We are not. As Job found out, man’s arm is too short to box with the Creator.

Job Was A Man Who Continued To Love God

Despite his trials, loss, and confusion, Job continued to love God. He continued to petition God for relief. He didn’t understand why God allowed the pain and suffering, but he never stopped loving his Creator. And in the end, God rewarded his faithfulness.

Your Turn

The story of Job is the story of a man who lived in the days of the old and ancient before Jesus walked this earth. It is the story of a man God allowed Satan to test to prove, not only to Satan, but also to Job, how faithful Job was to God.

This is the story of a man who sought answers to his why, yet never received them.

In the end, this is the story of a man who knew and held firmly to this truth. Our Redeemer lives, and in the end, he will stand once again on the earth. We will see God face to face.

Going through troubling times? Hold onto the hope we have in Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer. We don’t have to have all the answers. We just have to trust that God does.

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I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed in my flesh I will see God. I will see him myself; I will see him with my very own eyes. How my heart wants that to happen! Job 19:25-27 (NCV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Six Lessons from Mary Magdalene

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woman at sunriseMary Magdalene Disciple of Christ

Today I would like to talk about six lessons we can learn from Mary Magdalene that I gained from Ann Swindell’s book, The Path to Peace.

Lesson Number One

Jesus can bring light into even our darkest situations.

Luke tells us Jesus freed Mary Magdalene from seven demons. We don’t know the specifics. We don’t know the details. All we know is before she encountered Christ, Mary’s life must have been unbearable.

Lesson Number Two

Once freed, our immediate response should be thankfulness and service.

In gratitude for being released from the demons that tortured her, Mary devoted her life in service to Jesus as one of his disciples. Again, Luke tells us Mary and other women supported Christ’s ministry out of their own means.

Lesson Number Three

Whenever we have to relinquish our dreams to Jesus and let go of what we want, there will be sorrow.

Pre-resurrecton, the death of Mary’s dream to follow Jesus all the days of her life died with him on the cross. Her hope was in the person of Jesus. Now what was she to do?

Lesson Number Four

Do the next thing.

Mary may not have known what her life would be like without Jesus, but she knew she had to do the next thing. She knew Christ deserved a proper burial. She was determined to see that happened.

Lesson Number Five

Serving Jesus, even in our pain, brings healing and peace.

As Mary and the other women set out early in the morning to prepare Jesus’ body, do you think they shared stories of their time with Jesus? Do you think in the sharing, their pain lifted a bit? Do you think they felt a peace in knowing that even in their pain, even in their sorrow, this one act of love and devotion would honor the one they loved?

Lesson Number Six

Everything wrong will be made right in Jesus.

To me, one of the most tender passages in all Scripture is the scene where Jesus meets Mary Magdalene outside the tomb that once held his sacrificed, lifeless body. It brings tears to my eyes every single time I read it.

Everything that seemed so wrong for Mary Magdalene at that moment in time, became right, the instant her Lord Jesus spoke her name and she recognized his voice.

Then the followers went back home. But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she bent down and looked inside the tomb. She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and one at the feet.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

She answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.” When Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Did you take him away, sir? Tell me where you put him, and I will get him.”

 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

Mary turned toward Jesus and said in the Hebrew language, “Rabboni.” (This means “Teacher.”) John 20:10-16 (NCV)

Your Turn

Just as he did with Mary Magdalene, Jesus brings light to our darkness. He is our hope. He is our peace. Our response should be one of gratitude and service.

When we let go of our plans and dreams, and embrace what Jesus has for us, there is peace in the midst of circumstances we didn’t choose.

Jesus knows our name just as surely as he knows Mary Magdalene’s. Even in our deepest darkness and greatest need, Jesus knows us. He sees us. He loves us.

If that doesn’t bring joy to our heart and tears to our eyes, I don’t know what does.

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Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.

Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. Luke 8:1-3 (NLT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Last June I reviewed The Path to Peace by Ann Swindell. In March I wrote about six lessons Ann mentions in her book that we can learn from Samuel’s mother Hannah. If you missed that post, you can find it here. Last week I wrote about six lessons we can learn from Jesus’ Mother Mary.

Photo courtesy of avi_acl / 146 images.

Are We Plank-eyed?

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speed limit sign

Plank-eyed Moment

The other morning two vehicles flew past me in a 40 MPH speed zone and I had a plank-eyed moment.

“I hope you both get tickets!” I said out loud. I figured saying it aloud, might make it happen. I looked at my speedometer. Yep. Right on 40. I wasn’t breaking the law.

To my knowledge, those two law-breakers got away without having to pay a penalty.

Imagine.

Selective Memory

Of course, I chose not to remember all the times I have exceeded the speed limit, broken the law, and deserved to pay the penalty. Selective memory.

Whenever I caution my son, Pie, about his speed, he tells me he drives fast because that is what he learned being a passenger in my car. We don’t call my 1985 Monte Carlo SS, Zoomer, for nothing, I guess.

At the moment the two cars whizzed past, instead of removing the plank from my eye, I chose to point out the speck in someone else’s. 

All Have Sinned

So, I’m sitting in my car feeling self-righteous that I wasn’t breaking the law by speeding, and I feel God tap me on the shoulder.

Here is what I believe God wanted me to consider.

While in my corner of Texas, the fines for speeding increase the greater you deviate above the set speed limit, in God’s eyes, all have sinned and fallen short. ALL.

Our sin separates us from God. There are no big sins, little sins where God’s righteousness is concerned. No incremental increase in the fine depending on how much you deviate from the law.

Sobering Thoughts

And the person who keeps every law of God but makes one little slip is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is. James 2:19 (NLT)

A gossiper is just as guilty of falling short of God’s law as a murderer. A little white lie separates us from God’s holiness as much as child molestation does. Sobering thought.

There is no sliding payment scale of punishment. We’re all guilty. We all deserve to pay the penalty of eternal separation from the Holy and Righteous Judge.

A sin, is a sin, is a sin.

But God

God made a way for our sins to be forgiven through the death of his Son Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Jesus’ sacrifice paid the penalty that we deserve.

Jesus received the ticket for our speeding. He paid full price for our law-breaking so we wouldn’t have to. It was a debt we owed, but couldn’t pay. A debt Jesus did not owe, yet willingly paid.

Your Turn

Like me, do you have any plank-eyed moments where you need to remember that even though we may be driving within the speed limit right now, it isn’t always so?

Like me, do you also need to remember in God’s eyes, going over the limit by one mile is breaking the law, just as sure as driving 30 MPH over the limit is?

As law-breakers who have escaped the penalty because Jesus paid it for us, let’s remove the plank from our own eye before we comment on the speck of dust in someone else’s eye.

Grace.

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Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Photo by Tungsten Rising on Unsplash

Pause for Poetry — The Refiner’s Fire

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meadow lake courtesy pixabayThe following poem, The Refiner’s Fire, was written by James M. Gray and comes from Streams in the Desert.

The Refiner’s Fire

He sat by the fire of seven-fold heat,As He watched by the precious ore.And closer He bent with a searching gazeAs He heated it more and more.

He knew He had ore that could stand the test
And He wanted the finest gold,
To mold as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems of price untold.

So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Though we fain would have said Him, “Nay.”
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
As it melted and passed away.

And the gold grew brighter, and yet more bright
And our eyes were so dim with tears,
As we saw the fire, not the Master’s hand,
And questioned with anxious fear.

Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above
That bent o’er the fire, though unseen by us
With a look of infinite love.

Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause a moment of pain?
Ah, no, but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.

So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat
Than was needed to make it pure!

James M. Gray

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I wish you well.

Sandy

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In Times of Crisis

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man in despairCrisis

According to the Oxford online dictionary, crisis is defined as a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. It is a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

Merriam-Webster online dictionary further describes crisis as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending.

We might consider different things a crisis by varying degrees. What one person considers a crisis, another may view differently.

When I hear reports of earthquakes or other natural disasters, I think crisis.

When I read reports of devastation in times of war, I think crisis.

When I talk with friends with about their major relationship concerns, I think crisis.

When I consider those without food, housing, or safety, I think crisis.

When I consider those with life-threatening diseases, I think crisis.

What I have found with the crises in my life is this. Crisis often catches us off guard, and always requires attention.

Joseph’s Life of Crisis

We don’t have to go past the book of Genesis to find someone whose life was one major crisis after another. At the beginning of chapter thirty-seven, we read about Joseph, the seventeen-year-old son beloved by his father Jacob.

By the middle of the chapter, we read Joseph was hated and rejected by his brothers. So much so, they decided to kill him.

By the end of the chapter, Joseph’s brothers changed their mind. Instead of outright killing their younger brother, when a caravan of Ishmaelites arrived from Gilead on its way to Egypt, they decided to sell him into slavery instead.

Crisis Number Two

In chapter thirty-nine, we see that a man named Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, bought Joseph from the traders. Because the Lord was with Joseph, Joseph prospered. Potiphar noticed God was with Joseph, and put him in charge of his household and everything he owned.

Potiphar’s wife made sexual advances toward Joseph. He refused. She falsely accused him of rape. He was thrown in prison.

Forgotten in Prison

Chapter forty-one tells us that after two years in prison, Pharaoh had a dream. A former prison remembered Joseph had a gift for dream interpretation, and suggested Joseph might be able to help. By now, Joseph was thirty-years-old.

Elevated to the Palace

After interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph was placed second in charge of Egypt by Pharaoh himself.

What We See About Joseph’s Crisis

During Joseph’s times of crisis, we see someone who remained faithful to God. We never see Joseph getting angry or blaming God. We see someone God walked with through each turn of events. Not only did God walk with Joseph through each crisis, others noticed.

Near the end of Joseph’s story, we see someone who endured his life of crisis. We also see someone who forgave those who set that life in motion.

Joseph declared that what his brothers meant for evil, God meant for good. It wasn’t Joseph’s brothers who sent him to Egypt. Joseph said it was God.

Forgiving his brothers didn’t mean Joseph forgot what they did to him. What it meant was that although what they did was extremely painful, the wound of their betrayal could no longer hurt him.

In fact, he reminded them of their betrayal when he said, “Whom you sold into Egypt.” No denying what they did. No denying Joseph knew what they did.

Although Joseph’s times of crisis caught him off guard, his response was to trust God and remain faithful to him.

Your Turn

I pray you never find yourself, or someone you love, in a state of crisis, but I fear you might. One thing I’ve learned through the crises I’ve faced, and the crises my loved ones have faced, is this. Our particular crisis may have caught us off guard, but it didn’t catch God off guard.

Before the beginning of time, God knew the exact moment our crisis would hit. He allowed it to happen. And because God filtered our crisis through his hands before it ever reached us, we can trust he will see us through it.

God may not get us through our crisis in the way we’d like, but he’ll never leave us as we walk through it. Like Joseph, may we trust God, and remain faithful to him in our times of crisis.

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But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. Genesis 50:19-20 (NLT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Photo courtesy Pixabay

Six Lessons From Hannah

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Hannah, A Woman Who Trusted God

Last June I reviewed The Path to Peace by Ann Swindell. Today I would like to mention six lessons we can learn from Samuel’s mother Hannah that I gained from her book.

In 1 Samuel we read the story of Hannah, the prophet Samuel’s mother. Her husband had two wives. Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children. Hannah did not.

For years Hannah prayed for a child. For years God answered no.

Lesson Number 1

While it is difficult to live in bodies that don’t work and don’t seem to measure up, there is peace in knowing our hope is not ultimately in the healing of our bodies, but in God.

Even in the midst of her troubles and grief, Hannah made a deliberate choice to worship God. She turned toward God instead of away from him.

Lesson Number 2

Comparison can cause deep pain.

Hannah chose not to compare herself with Peninnah and her ability to have children. Instead, Hannah looked to God for her identity and purpose.

Lesson Number 3

Take our sorrow to God in prayer.

Hannah poured out her heart to God in prayer. She was honest with her hurt and pain.

Lesson Number 4

Leave your requests with God.

After Hannah prayed, she got up and continued with her life. She surrendered her dreams, got off her knees, and moved on, doing the everyday things that needed done.

Lesson Number 5

Trust that God is at work in your situation in his way and his timing.

We must decide if we will continue to follow God even if he doesn’t answer our prayer the way we want him to. Hannah’s obedience and worship weren’t dependent on God’s answer to her prayer. She chose to trust that God heard and saw her, and that he would do what was best.

Lesson Number 6

Even when we receive what we most desire, it is ultimately for God’s glory, not for ourselves, lest it become an idol.

Hannah prayed for a son. She promised to dedicate him to the Lord as soon as he was weaned.

When Samuel was about two-years-old, Hannah took her precious, long-desired child to the temple to serve God. She left Samuel at the temple under the priest’s care; returning once a year with a new tunic for the gift God gave in answer to her prayers.

Your Turn

I love Hannah’s heart. I love her obedience. I love her dedication to God, even in the midst of such anguish and pain. There is much to learn from this woman of God.

For me, the hardest thing she did was walk away from her son after all the many years of tears and prayers asking God to give him to her. It was her choice. It was her way of honoring and glorifying God. And through Hannah’s sacrifice, Israel received one of its greatest prophets.

Would it have been difficult for you to leave Samuel at the temple?

We can choose to praise God for who he is and for what he has done for us, even after waving good-bye to what we hoped to keep. Ann Swindell

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After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. 1 Samuel 1:24-28

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Photo by Chiến Phạm on Unsplash

Pause for Poetry–They Are His Waves

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meadow lake courtesy pixabayThe following poem, They Are His Waves, was written by Annie Johnson Flint.

They are HIS waves, whether they break over us,

Hiding His face in smothering spray and foam;

Or smooth and sparkling, spread a path before us,

And to our haven bear us safely home.

They are HIS waves, whether for our sure comfort

He walks across them, stilling all our fear;

Or to our cry there comes no aid nor answer,

And in the lonely silence none is near.

They are HIS waves, whether we are hard-striving

Through tempest-driven waves that never cease,

While deep to deep with turmoil loud is calling;

Or at His word they hush themselves in peace.

They are HIS waves, whether He separates them,

Making us walk dry ground where seas had flowed;

Or lets tumultuous breakers surge about us,

Rushing unchecked across our only road.

They are HIS waves, and He directs us through them;

So He has promised, so His love will do.

Keeping and leading, guiding and upholding,

To His sure harbor He will bring us through.

Annie Johnson Flint

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I wish you well.

Sandy

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God Knows Our Need

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icy road

Our Trip Begins

The end of January, Pilot, our dog Daisy, and I took our RV to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas to celebrate Pilot’s birthday. Although we knew it would be cold, we didn’t know how cold, nor how dangerous the weather would turn. However, the God who knows our need, did.

Before leaving on our trip, I searched my bookshelves for a devotional book to take with me. The book I chose was The Words and Mind of Jesus, by the Rev. J.R. Macduff, D.D. (23 May 1818 – 30 April 1895), published in 1858.

Although the language is formal and archaic, I found the truths inside this book no less relevant as a winter storm of ice and sleet descended upon us as we camped. In this post, I include Rev. Macduff’s thoughts from his Second Evening devotion that I read during our trip.

Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. This may be taken as a motto for the child of God. It should lull all misgivings, silence all murmurings, lead to unquestioning submissiveness. The Words and Mind of Jesus–J.R. Macduff      

The Weather Starts to Change

At 6:00 P.M. on Saturday the outside temperature was 62 degrees. By noon Sunday it was 40 degrees. At 6:00 A.M. Monday the temperature was 30 degrees.

Although the campground was full of campers when we arrived Saturday, at this point, only two other RVs remained besides us and the campground hosts. Undeterred, we stuffed blankets and towels around any space we believed cold air could enter, and continued our hikes of the area tracking down dinosaur tracks. 

We are poor judges of what is best. If we are tempted in a moment of rash presumption to say, “all these things are against me”, let this word rebuke the hasty and unworthy premise. Unerring wisdom and Fatherly love have pronounced ALL to be needful. The Words and Mind of Jesus– J.R. Macduff      

Decision Made

Our original plans were to leave on Wednesday. However, when we woke to 28 degrees and sleet Tuesday morning, our plans changed.

Since Sunday we kept an eye on the weather, noting the winter storm warnings. We read the updates and weighed our options as areas around us became impacted.

When we knew it was either get out now, or be iced in until Friday morning at the earliest, we packed up and headed out. Since our route home was southeasterly, we reasoned things would only get better.

He crossed your worldly schemes and marred your cherished hopes. There was a lurking thorn in the coveted path. There was some higher spiritual blessing in reversion. He prevented you with the blessings of his goodness. The Words and Mind of Jesus–J.R. Macduff   

 Your Turn

The beginning of our drive home was icy and threatening, but the God who knows our need went ahead of us. He cleared a pocket along our route home that escaped the worst of the storm that hit all around us.

The drive home took 2-3 hours longer than usual, but the closer we got to home, the clearer the roads, and better the weather.

God knew what Pilot and I had need of, and God knows your need as well. Although it may appear on the surface as if our plans are a shambles, God knows our need. He knows we have need of THIS.

Is something disturbing your peace? Providences dark, crosses heavy? Write on each one, “Your Father knows you have need of it.” God knows we have need of THIS as well as ALL these things. The Words and Mind of Jesus– J.R.Macduff    

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So don’t worry at all about having enough food and clothing. Why be like the heathen? For they take pride in all these things and are deeply concerned about them. But your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them, and he will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to. Matthew 6:31-33 (TLB)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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You can find a previous article I wrote about Dinosaur Valley State Park here.