Beware of leaning...

I like order.

I function better when loose ends are tied down, relationships are smooth, and circumstances don't get me riled up. Don't we all!

When things are unsettled or uncertain... I begin to meander in my mind and run the whole series of what to do, how to do it, should I do this, or that, or what??

God says:

'Trust in the Lord with ALL of your heart... and LEAN NOT to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.'

This verse not only says clearly what I should do, it says very clearly what I should NOT do!

I'm afraid my tendency many times is to begin to 'lean' as I seek solutions to what may be going on.

I know I've told you before that I love a good visual picture. I like a message that is clear and to the point. Even if the message is long, it's the bottom line that I carry away with me. (maybe it's as simple as the fact that I can only remember that much!)

Not only does He tell us to trust Him with all of our heart... what follows is something that I need to remind myself of just about every day...

Lean not to your own understanding.

Like this little guy in the cartoon, he leaned and then lost his balance, probably not even aware that his feet were about to slide out from under him because as he leaned, he stepped onto a banana peel...

Not only should he not have leaned in the first place, the perils it brought were more than he bargained for.

If we begin to lean, we can loose our footing, and the consequences will appear before long. The thing that I love is that there is no gray area here. God is clear. Trust Me with ALL your heart... DON'T lean! When I begin to lean, I always have to go back to the place of obeying the second half of that verse.

My own understanding is limited. My own understanding includes my past experiences and some common sense, and what God has taught me to this point. It also includes what His Word says... but it doesn't include what God already knows about the whole situation or about the future... until I trust Him with it. ALL of it! Then He begins to 'unfold' the right answers.

Trusting God with every circumstance and relationship doesn't leave room for the 'leaning' part. Those are His words, His instructions.

I love it when His Word says it so clearly that even my 'leaning tendencies' are left with no wiggle room!

THAT is safe ground!

Lessons...

When my mother and dad went to heaven 10+ years ago, (one year and a day apart)... I went through a dark period in my own faith.


Two very important things I have learned in the past 10 years:


Much of my walk with Jesus through the years was based on the strong faith of my parents, it was as if THEIR faith was MY faith.


I know in looking back, that I rode on their coat tails for a lot of my christian walk. If I was worried, or fearful, I was okay with it because THEY were okay with it. They had lived through their lives and learned who their safety net was. I sensed that and thought that it was the same for me. They 'did the work' of learning God's ways.... I put that on like a warm coat, and felt safe.


When they died, I felt the normal feelings of grief and sadness, we were very close. But I also had an additional grief... where did my faith go, it seemed to have disappeared, and God seemed so distant.

This first great lesson God taught me was... the same God that was THEIR God is also MY God!

It was later that I re-learned... 'He was there all the time'... I was already His, from the time I invited Him into my heart at 5 years old.

Second...

The things they learned and lived in their lives were not mine simply because I was their child.


That may seem so obvious, but it wasn't as clear to me. Just as my parents learned to know God through their daily walk and obedience... so do I.


My life is my own responsibility, and what I learn of God is coming because of my choices, not theirs.

Yes, they taught, they lived and they showed me by example, but it is not MY experience until and unless I have obeyed God in the ways He is teaching me. His plan for my life is for me. He has a special blueprint with my name on it. The title is "Sonja".

We begin this life with a clean slate, even though the sin nature is there, and what we do, what we choose, how we live, how we obey God... is what we are filling the slates of our lives with.

Sometimes I feel like my slate is coming along pretty well...

Other times I know that it looks like a confusing mess.

But...


Above all, I know that HE is the one who enables me to add, eliminate and clarify what it written on the slate of my life, and it is never too late for the confusion and the mess to be cleared, organized and made right!

A couple of lessons I'm learning as I journey onward...

PRAY BIG...

PRAY BIG...

This is a wall in our son and daughter in law's home, and the minute I saw it I loved it. They have the sign right next to a huge clock and the whole thing struck a chord.

What does it mean to pray big??

I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean praying for huge ideas of 'pie in the sky' stuff, although I do pray for the things that are the desires of my own heart, and once in awhile I know that I veer off into praying for things that are sort of like cotton candy... even then... I know He understands.

No, I think PRAY BIG means to pray KNOWING that our God is able to answer BIG requests, BIG needs, BIG concerns, BIG problems. The BIG things that are part of our lives, the things that are way beyond what we know how to solve... the BIG things.

Sometimes I pray big, and then after time passes, and the answer didn't come the way I had hoped, it fades out, and I sort of stick a 'please Lord' onto the conversation I am having with Him, after I've wrung my hands and pleaded for His help. I am sure I have stopped short of His answer when I didn't see it come the way I thought it would, or when I thought it would.

But maybe it's even more than this.

Maybe PRAY BIG means 'go ahead, stand straight up and trust that He is going to answer this!'

I think it means that my PRAY BIG is backed by all of the promises of a God who IS big! He has said 'go for it'... trust me with it... trust me for the answer! You can PRAY BIG because I am a BIG GOD!

The box...

I've got big news for Larry!

If he opens that box at mid life, he's still going to have to box those childish things up again... and it won't be easier the next time!

Doesn't it seem to take a long time to move past those things that we should have put away long ago?

Just like Larry...

It's easy for me to hold on to a thought, an action or a habit that is complacently comfy, but not productive!

... instead of tossing the thing out, I am afraid that many times I've stuck it in that 'do not open until midlife' box.

Which brings me to a question, and I divert here, but what exactly is midlife?? Some say 40, some say the new midlife is now 60... Is it 50?

If so... it's for sure that my box of that 'stuff' is way past due for the dump!

Larry had a good idea, but his desire to put it off and do it later will only get in his way and keep him from the very best... God's best.

I've been boxing stuff up, and dumping it out all through the years, and yet it accumulates from time to time.

It was never God's plan for us to remain 'childish' until midlife, or beyond. "Put away" sounds like one of the things He expects us to do, which always brings me back to the word... 'obedience'.

He wears many hats...

My husband is a collector of old things that relate to the early west, cowboys & indians stuff...

This is Crew, one of our grandkids. He was here one night recently and spent some time up in the room that has 'poppa's toys'... He was trying on some of the old hats...

I stood in the hall and watched the 2 of them. Crew asked about 100 questions, and got answers to all of them. His questions and the way he processed the answers was so much fun to hear. I know Joe was enjoying it all, and he treated this 6 year old as though he is 'one of the guys'... 'cuz he is!

Later, as he went home with some old railroad keys he told me...'this one is special because they never finished it', which is exactly right. The railroads made blank keys and later put the imprint of specific railroads on them. They had just had that discussion as he tried on hats. Talk about little sponges! I can only dream of retaining all that these young minds do...

The bridge to nowhere...

The bridge to nowhere...

worry...

I'm being honest here... worry is something that trips me up.

Worry is 'fear based'... so I know better...

and yet...

"I have crossed many bridges that I never came to"...

There is a thin line between honest concern and letting that concern slip into worry...

God has plenty to say on the subject...

'don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything'...

'will worry add a single day to your life'?...

'don't worry about the morrow, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof'...

I think God knows how prone his children are to worrying about things, so He is very specific... DON'T DO IT!

I've spent a lot of useless time worrying about things, thrashing around in murky waters that are unproductive. I wrestle with things in my mind, and then...

I end up with the simple truth that I should have come to before I started to worry...

God already has every single worry under His control...

Corrie Ten Boom said...

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest."

I'm not going to worry about what I've already worried about, I'm moving forward on what I DON'T have to worry about...anything!

It sounds 'easier said than done' on some days, but not according to God...

Look around, God is smiling!...

Just look around... God's humor and His smiles are all around us!...

Happy weekend!

Are your prayers being answered?...

I am learning.

I am sure that God has been very patient with my learning curve.

All my life, prayer has been part of my life. It was the main theme in my dad's ministry, and it was taught and lived from birth up in our home.

Many times through the years I have prayed with complete and earnest passion and almost pleading, for God to answer specific needs and desires of my heart.

There have been many times when my assumption, as I prayed, was that God's answer would then remove the problem I was praying about, and the situation would be resolved and my prayers would be answered!

and yet...That didn't always happen.

It still doesn't always happen, not that way.

I am a slow learner.

I AM supposed to ask God, about everything, and I do...

but...

I am also supposed to obey Him in what He has already revealed to me in the situation, and often He has already shown me much more than what I am living up to.

Whether it's a relationship and I KNOW I am in the right and the other guy is SO wrong... and He quietly tells me to love that person as He loves me...

or... if I am seeking His 'next' in my own life and I need Him to make the path clearer, or even to supply an immediate need... and He says 'trust me, trust me, trust me'...

or... if I feel alone in a situation and I sincerely seek His filling of a void... and He tells me 'abide in me... I will never leave you or forsake you'.

I am learning some of His principles for living, living in the world He has placed me in. The answers are all there, or they are on the way, God hears every prayer, every plea.

Many times the answer itself is 'folded' into what He has already told me to do... trust, love, abide, obey, etc. As I do these things... the answer often 'unfolds' THROUGH that very obedience, and in the process, I have grown closer to Him and learned more about His faithfulness to me.

I love it just as much as the next guy, when God slaps a lightening bolt clear cut answer right in front of my eyes, but I am learning that His process in me is usually part of the answer, He is teaching me things as I wait for that answer, and then as I look back...

I see the way He has guided me to the answer, and I almost smile as I think... 'now isn't that just like God? He answered in a way I never would have thought of, and it's perfect!...

Hi Lord, it's me...

Hi Lord, its me.

We are getting older and things are getting bad here.

Gas prices are too high, no jobs, food and heating costs too high.

I know some have taken you out of our schools, government and even
Christmas, but Lord I'm asking you to come back
And re-bless America .

We really need you!

There are more of us who want you than those who don't!

Thank You Lord... I Love you.



A friend emailed this to us today. It kind of fits how we feel sometimes... We so need God!

This is simplistic, but it is that child-like faith that we need in our lives and in our world, the kind that invites Him to do and to be what He has always promised. I know that HE is our answer... to ALL of life!

Summer fun, even in August!...

These are loooong days, July and August in Texas! We have had record setting days of over 100 degrees for weeks.

We have also had some really good times, with the kids and the grandkids. This was last week when they were all here and we went down to the marina. I haven't been there for awhile and it was so beautiful with the sun about to go down over the water. That water is what drew us out here 20 years ago, and we still love it.

We are so thankful for our family! They bless our lives in 1000 ways, all the time. The heat continues, but there are wonderful days in the midst of it.

Hope your summer isn't as hot as ours, and even if it is, that we all remember how much we have to be thankful for, summer, winter or anytime!

I love the old song... 'Count your blessings name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done."...

I'm also looking forward to counting the blessing of days that are back into the 80' and 90's!...