Category: Devotions

I like familiar things. Like walking upstairs and knowing exactly how many steps and where the bannister turns. I like teaching for the light switch and hit it the first time. I like putting things away right so that when someone asks me where it is I can tell them to the inch.. and I like sitting down with my blue book, my pink journal and my first Bible. I prefer the NIV upstairs but it has October anymore and it’s well, upstairs. I am sitting at the table watching the solar bobble heads bounce back and forth and spending time with My familiar books, some walnuts and chez mix, grapes and God. Daily praise time, confession and pthanksgiving and a focus on what is God asking of me this week, and thinking. I believe the new word is meditation but I choose to think. Last night cowboy church was one of the very best ones. Playing games with friend, coming home and going to bed under an electric blanket all those little things to be thankful for. Familiar places and things keep us grounded. The psalms 92 verse, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name most high.” Yes, and amen. And in those familiar books I write things.. phrases that remind me that God has more planned for my life than I can imagine: right now anyway . Praying for my body to quit acting odd and my heart to embrace today. Praying for my friends who are climbing the ladders in life and for those who are desperately attempting to get up the first rung. Rejoicing with those who are happy; that can be a hard one. I love it when I can rejoice but sometimes there is a sting of, ” wish I could rejoice with that in my life.”

And here I sit with the familiar. The Bible grandma gave me in 1983 for my birthday… 35 years later it means so much more to me than it did then. It’s much more personal. I was it now. I live it in real time and grasp the hope it gives me. The old familiar… last night we sang some of the old familiar. They mean something the way we sing them. The new sound says take an old hymn and redo it so few recognize it’s an oldie. Sometimes just leave the old familiar, old and familiar as let God speak through them….

David- got in trouble because he just wanted more than God gave him at the moment. We do that.  David was the king. He had anything he wanted. But, he wanted just one more thing that God hadn’t given him permission to have. David should have just said, thank you Lord and be content. Of course it’s easy to say David should have gone back into the palace, quit looking where he shouldn’t have been looking and be content. It’s easy for us to tell David he should have… when we don’t.

We have a wants and needs list and not always do we have our wants and needs in the lines they need to be. We think it’s a need and God is really saying, “put it on the want side”. We want something and we tend to think it needs to be a need. After all, doesn’t God meet our needs? He doesn’t always meet our wants.  I tend to put together lists… I love lists. I love lists except when I can’t find where I put them. If I take my list and work it….it usually works for me. I go to the grocery store and get what’s on my list… Unless I lose the list.  If I keep track of the wonderful blessings God has given me, I can say thank you and be content.  It’s when I look at the things I thought I needed, and God hasn’t given me yet, that I tend to be discontent. And then God gives my neighbor the very thing that I thought I needed…. I tend to shed a tear and throw a mini fit! Well, to be honest maybe a major fit.

I need to just say thank you more often and be content. Being thankful helps us be content. Even when the list is still there and the many things we thought we needed haven’t been met, we can be thankful and content knowing that God promised we will have what we need…

In 2 Samuel 12:8 reminds us that God gave David so much.  “I gave your master’s house to you, and your masters’s wives into your arms, I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.”

That last part of the verse really jumped at my heart. “If all this had been too little.. I would have given you even more.”  God has given me so much. But I seem to think it’s too little. God will give me blessings upon blessings… but he will give me based on his measuring cup not mine.    My challenge for the week will be to be thankful and content.  Or perhaps content and thankful. Regardless, I want to let God know I love what he has blessed me with.. and I am thankful!

Continue reading “Sometimes you just need to say thank you and be content” →

I was supposed to go do chores. It was blowing the tree swing straight out parallel to the ground. There is no use of throwing hay; the hay will be in Rochester and the horses won’t have a chance to chase it down. I also knew I had a package being delivered. I waited and the wind was still strong and no package. So, I did what we all do- live via Murphy’s law. I went to do chores. I heard the dogs bark. Sure enough, the mailman was here with my package. After chores being an adventure I went to see Grandpa at his trailer. It was as if the wind suddenly changed… and quite. When I was done doing chores and having hay fly back in my face.

It seems that if we are waiting, the wind will never change. But, if we wait long enough- we don’t want to wait.  Not that we aren’t patient, but waiting takes time. The horses were hungry. I had places to go and things to do. Waiting, well means waiting. God tells us that regardless of the timing of things in life, we will need to wait for the wind to change. And there are also times in life when we just have to walk out in the wind and make the best of it.  Hebrew 6:15 “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”  I wonder if Abraham got a bit itchy to get on with it. God made a promise. God made a promise saying I will surely bless you. We know the story. Abraham and Sarai weren’t really waiting without trying to help in their own way. I can relate. I have so many ideas, I can’t sleep at night. My ideas are awesome, relentless and very real in the middle of the night. That’s sometimes when we wander from God when our ideas and thoughts seem awesome and relentless and we don’t consult God. Or, perhaps we consult God and he says, well, just wait a bit.  I never liked that little phrase; “Wait a bit”. And we know that God’s bit (time) is a lot different than our bit.

I look out the window and the leaves are waving but the swing is pretty still. That’s my indication that it’s changed. Along with the sunshine it’s a pretty perfect day. Two hours ago it wasn’t that way- I was waiting for the wind to change. I have to remind myself that God will come through on his promises. I need to change my “wait a bit” attitude and just watch the leaves and the swings in life. And when God says that it’s time to go out in the wind, I just have to depend on him that he will keep me from blowing away.

It’s raining. Again. I can almost relate to Noah. We can’t get in the fields. We can’t use outdoor arenas. We can’t mow lawn. We just watch it rain and listen to sump pumps that work and put down towels and pans to catch the water coming in where the roof leaks.

However even in the rain some things are beautiful. Leaves in fall. The sound of the rain on the roof. The mist in the morning. But mostly the leaves. On my drive up north usually I stop to take pictures of the fall tree colors as they explode across the Wisconsin countryside. They are exploding… but I am not stopping. It’s raining too hard. Even with the rain, the trees are beautiful. Perhaps even a bit more because right now we need to see beauty. Rain, especially for this long and with this much, we are struggling to find the beauty in the mud. But when we look up at the trees, the beauty cannot be denied even with rain droplets on our glasses and dripping off the leaves. Perhaps it’s God reminding us that there is a beauty we miss when we don’t look up. There is a beauty that we need to reignite when we look at the simple things amidst the uncomfortable and let the beauty be more prominent. There is beauty…. even in the rain.

Eating together. We do a lot of it. It’s a culture thing for us although for some it’s survival physically, for us it’s survival emotionally…or perhaps I should say for me.

Last week I ate a lot with people. I made pot roast, mashed potatoes, fresh bread and cookies for my son and his roommate at Emmanuel seminary in Tennessee. He made me tacos. We are at a German cafe in town, at a taco place with a whole pile of friends, I ate at the counter, back-deck and cafe with my friend. Last night we had three large pizzas and a pot of green beans in the kitchen before playing games; yes we eat together.

Jesus ate with people. He gave them worth by eating with others. They were important if he ate with them. Meals also bonded people’s hearts. We live in a culture that doesn’t eat together much. They call it being busy. Personally, I think it’s easier to eat on the run that invest the time to pursue eating with more than one. I feed a lot more people than I can claim on my taxes. Our house seems to be a place for kids, friends and that’s ok. I will go grocery shopping today and plan a menu for the week and that’s ok. When I feed people, I give value to them. I took someone out for lunch yesterday…I listened to her talk. We solved none of her problems, nor changed how either one of us looked at our world, but there was a value placed on her heart by me driving an hour to sit across from her and eat cheese curds and salad.

Place value on someone’s life and eat. Be Jesus’s and eat with someone who may be different than you. It’s amazing how good you feel being Jesus and getting fed at the same time…..