A Little Getaway

This past thursday was our forty-third wedding anniversary (really?). My sweet husband decided that was a good reason to take a little getaway. We just traveled up the road a piece to one of our favorite little towns. We browsed through the shops and then went to our B & B log cabin. It was absolutely perfect. It is an original Texas log cabin ( a rare find according to our delightful host and hostess - who prepared the best breakfast for us!) that they moved to the property.

They restored it beautifully, leaving much of the original cabin while adding some modern touches - like a wonderful jacuzzi.





It was a rainy couple of days so we didn't get to relax on the porch swing. I think we'll have to come back some time when the weather is more conducive to swinging and relaxing with a cup of coffee.


This fireplace was my favorite thing. We don't have one at home, and I just love sitting by a fire.



Comfy and beautiful!

There were so many warm little touches throughout the cabin. After spending time talking with our hosts, I know they come from a real love for this little place.












We had a sweet time together. It all just gets better and better.

Blessings,
Linda

A Holy Lord

I walked, clutching my little spiral book of index cards filled with my memory verses, reciting those I had already learned by heart:

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!” Psalm 32: 1,2 (NLT)

I thought about living life in complete honesty. Am I living that way? Do I come before the Lord with open heart and confess my sins – even the ones hidden in the darkest corners of my heart?

The rest of this devotional is here, at Laced With Grace. Please join me there?

Blessings,
Linda
Linda

In This Is Love

"In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
I John 4: 10,11

In This Is Love

Knowing, before creation,
the path that He would walk,
He chose love
And came.

Knowing my bent for sinning,
for selfish choices and willful pride,
He chose love
And called my name.

Seeing the gift held lightly,
grace and mercy trampled underfoot,
He chose love
And forgave.

Grieving for loss,
wasted years and needless pain,
He chose love
And restored the years the locusts had eaten.

Knowing such love, lavish and unconditional
Poured into my undeserving heart
I must chose love
And love others as He has loved me.



For more thoughts on the Father's Love, visit Ann's blog.

Blessings,
Linda

Contentment Revisited

It isn't something new for me. I have struggled with it all of my life - this need for approval. When we studied contentment in our Bible Study, it spoke volumes to me. I wrote about it here, hoping that I had settled the issue once and for all.

However, as with so many things that I understand intellectually the difficult part is getting it settled in my heart and living it out. I identify with Paul when he says:
"For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish." (Romans 7:19)
So while it isn't something new, it is something the Lord wants to change in my life. I am so humbled by the grace and patient love He extends to me, by the gentle way He reminds me of the truth He wants to graft into my heart. This morning I read this in my devotional "Joy and Strength:"

"If your sphere is outwardly humble, if it even appears to be quite insignificant, God understands it better than you do, and it is a part of His wisdom to bring out great sentiments in humble conditions, great principles in works that are outwardly trivial, great characters under great adversities and heavy loads of encumbrance. Let it fill you with cheerfulness and exalted feeling, however deep in obscurity your lot may be, that God is leading you on, girding you for a work, preparing you for a good that is worthy of His divine magnificence. If God is really preparing us all to become that which is the very highest and best thing possible, there ought never to be a discouraged or uncheerful being in the world."
Horace Bushnell

It is a curious thing that, for me at least, when we do the thing we love it is not fulfilling without the approval of others - without some sort of tangible evidence of its worth. My desire is to quietly walk in obedience, seeking only His approval. I humbly admit that it is a difficult thing. It ought not to be. It is far too easy to get caught up in the here and now, forgetting the eternal things.

I am placing another marker on the path that I might remember to walk in contentment, knowing He is working all things together for good in my life.

Blessings,
Linda

Something New

Having chosen "new" as my word for this year, my fertile imagination cast around for the amazing new things the Lord might possibly want to do in my life. I won't embarrass myself by going into detail; suffice it to say I always dream on a grand scale.

The Lord's dreams are invariably quite different from my own. I know His are better, and they usually involve a little serving of humble pie.

He began a little stirring in my heart concerning a new way of speaking. I sort of knew this was coming. For some reason taming my tongue has always been a bit of a challenge for me.

It is especially true in the midst of those "difficult" conversations (sometimes known as disagreements). So often I hear a gentle whisper, "Don't say what you're thinking right now. It is neither glorifying or edifying."

My usual response is to acknowledge the wisdom of this advice and then to stand back in absolute amazement as those very words come tripping lightly off my tongue. They have the predictable result, and I end up fervently wishing I had listened.

"Let's do it differently from now on," I hear Him say. "Let's break the old pattern and do it My way." Yes, it is time to do something new. The old way simply doesn't work. It ends in misunderstanding and hurt feelings, in time wasted in deafening silence.

I had a Pastor once who advised, "If it is not glorifying or edifying, don't say it." If I can simply take a moment to consider my words, I will either speak more wisely or simply say nothing at all.

I smiled sheepishly when I first read this verse:

"Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent."
Proverbs 17:28 (NLT)

And then there's:

" Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble."
Proverbs 21:23 (NLT)

I long to be a woman whose words are "... like honey, sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."
Proverbs 16:24(NLT)

I think that is a "new" thing to be excited about.

Blessings,
Linda

Mega Memory Month

I am a few days late getting started, but I am taking part in Ann Kroeker's Mega Memory Month. She has things all set up on her blog - tips to help with memorizing, places to post progress and links to others who will share in this adventure. We can encourage one another along the way.

I did some memory work last year, memorizing a verse or two every other week. It made such a difference in my life, and I am eager to take on a little more. I find it really helpful to write out the verses on index cards and then carry them with me as I go for my walk. That gives me about 45 minutes to go over the verses. And I actually learned them - me!!

The best part was the way the Lord used each verse to speak to me all through the year. Each one had such relevance to the places I was walking. I encourage you to participate. The blessings are immeasurable.

Blessings,
Linda

NEW

I have a big callous on the side of my left foot. I faithfully rub it with a pumice stone when I take my bath and then slather on lotion or cream - all to no avail. The callous remains.

I think it is the way I walk. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, making it virtually impossible to correct. The callous remains.

I have come to realize, that in spit of my best efforts and resolutions to change, I have a problem with my spiritual walk as well. In this case I do know what the problem is. I have a tendency to look back. It is very difficult to walk well when I am constantly turning around to see the places I've been. It causes me to stumble and sometimes to fall. Often I stop walking altogether, overwhelmed by discouragement and guilt.

I thought perhaps I wouldn't even bother asking the Lord for a word this year, but He had other plans. He began to whisper something into my spirit that simply could not be silenced. It didn't seem quite right to me. There are so many things I need to change in my life, so many failings I need to correct, so many besetting sins that need to be repented of. I thought of words like "self-control" or "priorities" or "balance." He whispered, "New."

I heard it first in my last memory verses for 2009:
"Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.
Behold I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,



rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18,19

Over and over again the beautiful words spoke to my heart - "I will do something new..."

Then I heard the gentle whisper as I read the last page of my devotional for this past year:

"Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.
Leave the irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him."
"My Utmost For His Highest" Oswald Chambers

Knowing this child, full of uncertainties and doubt, He leaned in once more, speaking through the second page of my new devotional for 2010:

"How could I be anything but quite happy if I believed always that all the past is forgiven,and all the present furnished with power, and the future bright with hope, because of the same abiding facts, which don't change with my mood, do not crumble, because I totter and stagger at the promise through unbelief but stand firm and clear with their peaks of pearl cleaving the air of Eternity, and the bases of their hills rooted unfathomably in the Rock of God?"
James Smetham

Last night in church: "He came to make all things new."

He has imprinted "new" on my heart over these past several days, and I eagerly embrace it. Yes, there are so many things that need to change in my life, but I am going to allow the Father to take control of the agenda. My part is to lean into Him.

I am so weary of false starts, of good beginnings that end in discouragement and failure, of trying and failing and looking back and feeling hopeless. He desires to do something new. I want to be aware of it, not so distracted by the past that I fail to see or hear.

I know that I will not be made perfect, just new. I will still stumble and sometimes fall, but I won't keep looking back because He is waiting just ahead. He waits with forgiveness and grace. He is waiting to make all things new.

Blessings,
Linda