Category: Devotions

I am looking out at the marsh. The marsh was just dry land when we moved here 12 years ago. I planted iris. I didn’t know deer like iris. Pretty soon the deer had eaten all my iris. Good idea- bad plan. But now all over the marsh I see purple iris. For the deer eat and then poop the iris seeds across the marsh. Iris grow wherever those seeds find themselves… I never know where they will pop up. Just like my plans get eaten by life. And then some good pops up where I least expect it.

I don’t like slivers. I have had many in my day. They seem to come when you don’t have time to get them out. They go deep. They fester and they hurt. So…. I have some choices and one of the choices it to avoid getting slivers all together. There are several ways to avoid getting slivers. Wear gloves, let other people do it or just avoid the wood or places you might get slivers.

It’s like life. I have found places and people that are slivers to my heart. A few I cannot avoid. I must be there. I must wear gloves and let others handle as much as possible. But there are times when simply avoiding and not picking up the wood is the best things for my heart. Psalms reminds me to guard my heart. Avoid where you know slivers exist. Sometimes that means people. Well meaning but people who hurt. Passive aggressive people, angry people, hurt people as people who don’t care they are hurting others. Leaders who have not the qualities of being a leader hurt more people than they seem to help. People who won’t admit they might have made a mistake, cut people’s hearts by not seeing the truth and admitting they could be wrong. We all give out slivers from time to time but we need to be people who love not porcupines who prickle. Sadly, sometimes it just has to be walking away is the best. One can handle only so many slivers in ones heart.

As I look out on the lake this morning I see the lily pads and the aquatic plants growing up where I pulled them out art year…. slivers in my lake even🤨….

We want to be… fine. We want to tell people fine when they ask how we are. We want to mean it. We don’t want to lie but it makes it easy to lie rather than tell the truth . Fine sounds so easy to say. One syllable. It rolls off your tongue. Doesn’t even need to go through your brain. It’s a simple and easy answer and they move on to ask the next person how they are . We want to be fine. It’s easier to be fine than to be vulnerable. To be fine just means you have to fake it. To be vulnerable means you have to be honest, it may hurt and it might cost you some pride and a scab may get ripped off a cut on your heart. I want others to be fine too. Being fine means being done with the conversation and that means I can move on to other things and not get caught up in their problems. I am fine. Such a nice answer to give.

It is my day to run errands. It’s been a crazy week of horse day camps. One of the blunt facts is we need more cowboy boots that are small sizes and preferably not girlie ones. Little boys haven’t seen the ads that real men wear pink. They really don’t think it’s cool to wear pink cowboy boots. I began my day sleeping in. I didn’t mean to, bur guess I needed it. That threw off my God time and I told a God we were going to have to spend the day on the run and I would do my study and meditation tonight but oh by the way I needed to find some small cowboy boots. End of discussion! Errands began. Second stop was a thrift store. I went to the kids shoe section and saw a nice pair; $4.49. Happy! Then I saw another pair. Same size, nicer boot but when I turned it over the price was $13.99. I put it back. I walked around and looked for the perfect boot, the right size and had to keep coming back to this boot. Actually the only Childrens boot that resembles anything cowboy at all. I looked at the price and heard God saying, “you just said you needed boots; ignore the price.” I told God what I wanted. He kept his bargain. I found something wrong with his answer to my prayer. I picked up both pair and went to check-out. I probably do that in more than just cowboy boots. I ask God, then when he answers I find something wrong with his answer to my request. I need to pick up the boots more often and just check-out….

Its really hard to make some choices. Some choices are pretty simple and easy to make. Like, where do you want to eat? Or, chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Where do you want to go on vacation or who should we invite for dinner? But then there are some other choices that make life a bit more of a challenge…like, smile when someone snaps at you, or not say anything when the words are being thrown at you and they are not true. And then, Jesus says something that can be interpreted like the above…choose to find joy in the journey set before you. I can choose to gripe, I can choose to worry or I can choose to find joy. It doesn’t really chance the journey but it does change my heart. It’s much harder than it sounds. It’s much harder than it looks and it’s much harder when it’s my journey and not me telling someone else to choose the joy. But, it is a choice….to choose joy…