Middle of the Night Godspeak

That is to say, as I sit and crochet with the Word playing in my ears via BibleGateway.com's audio, I pray that as He speaks through a particular scripture being read, and I stop, rewind, listen, stop and put the yarn down, search elsewhere for corresponding scriptures, listen to what He is saying to me in this present time, I pray that I am truly listening as He speaks.


John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?


We get so bogged down in earthly matters that we risk losing Heaven. I'm not talking about parenting, and jobs, and family illness and such. I'm talking about trending issues that take up our time and conversation that WE already know the answer to. Like a woman blogging about not wearing yoga pants in modest respect for her husband and the self-centered ridiculousness that responded to that. Like how modern thinking is a constant argument on the side of sin and immorality, and our younger generation and many of the older generation have allowed it to seep into their own consciousness until they also argue on its behalf. Like how modern belief is that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a thing ... ever see the recent movie Son of God? Was there a scene where Mary M. wasn't there? I'm not sure, I couldn't finish that movie because of that issue. That is down right anti Christ, because Christ was pure and without sin. No deceit, no immorality in Him, until he hung on the cross and took on all our sins. Mosaic law decreed that a sacrificial lamb had to be SPOTLESS.


Satan's specialty is to take what is true and twist it just enough to cause confusion, So a twisted version of truth seeps in because we allow it to, it's what we're watching, what we're hearing, what we're being taught in the world view, until we don't know what to believe anymore. "Traditional Christian" is now spoken with a sneer and many of us avoid the term. Me, I don't want to be a modern Christian. This is not about being puritanical, it's about a balance between living in this world as we must, but living in Him, and balance there must be. To gain that true and proper balance as intended by God from the beginning, what I want is to be a true follower of Christ, focused on Him, His Word, His truth. Not modern man's version of truth. God's truth and Man's truth is not the same!


Habakkuk 1:4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.


Most of us need to do the monkey thing. Hear no/see no/speak no. Get away from all the voices, get alone with HIS WORD. Seek Him, and we shall find Him. Seek Him while listening to the wrong voices, and our humanity struggles in confusion. If we're truly and sincerely seeking Him, He will send us the right people to listen to, people who are in His will. We the individual must pray for discernment to know when we are on the right track and when we're not, when we're listening to the right voices and when we're not. Otherwise, we're just weeds, blowing whichever way the wind blows, our roots torn from the ground. And Heaven will be lost to us because the distractions have overpowered our ability to hear His voice.


Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

Photos versus Selfies

Photos - a valuable tool for ourselves, family, and friends to peer into our past, remember good times and bad, remember each other, a moment of time forever preserved.

Selfies - a dangerous habit that speaks of constant "me".  What messages are young women sending their peers and younger generation who look up to them, when the young women constantly put selfies out on Facebook and Instagram?  Posing and smiling sweetly or sexily at their own camera.  What message are they sending themselves?  Do they need constant public affirmation that they are beautiful?

Social media is not the place for such affirmation. If a marriage or relationship failed, don't look to the world for your confidence boost.  Look inside, and if that's not good enough, look to the Word, work on nurturing the fruit of the spirit within.  If your fruit of the spirit is healthy, then you won't need selfies.  Don't believe me?  Go back and read that fruit list again.

Selfies promote and advertise egotism and narcissism.  Are you teaching vulnerable young women to be strong?  Or to look EVERYwhere for someone to tell them they are beautiful and sexy?  And then we turn around and try to convince them it's not about their outward beauty, but about the "beauty within"?  

The messages you are sending to your audience is confusion.  Not strength.  Not self confidence.  Not independence.


#selfies
#stopit

Nancy Drew

RUMINATING AND CONTEMPLATING: 

• I fell in love with palominos in The Secret of Shadow Ranch. I had never seen palominos, but I knew they were beautiful. I also learned about glow-in-the-dark paint. 
• I became horrified of black widow spiders in Secret in the Old Attic. Didn't need to see black widows to be scared of those.
• I developed a deep longing for Scotland and and a crazy love for bagpipes in The Whistling Bagpipes. I had never heard bagpipes, but when I finally did hear them, my heart flopped. I had already loved them.
• I became fascinated with invisible writing in The Strange Message in the Parchment. I never did quite get the hang of writing with lemon juice, but I sure tried. 
• I obsessively counted steps every time I climbed the stairs at church after reading The Mystery of the 99 Steps. Took me a long time to break myself of that irritating habit.

Nancy Drew mysteries (and Hardy Boys, who could forget the swimming pool filled with piranhas!) helped form parts of me. Ideas ingrained in my imagination for life. (Don't let a leaf touch my foot in a swimming pool, I instantly become a flying fish)

As a child, I also regularly read the Bible, specifically Old Testament stories. Wasn't much interested in New Testament how-tos, or prophecy, though I got all that too. The Word is hidden in my heart, and created the teacher I became.

What is YOUR child reading. Or watching. It's more important than we realize.

Tunisian Throw delivered

So.  I delivered the Tunisian blanket to my brother-in-law tonight.  I started off by telling him that over the years he had brought a lot of hurt and pain to this family, and it was hard for me, the outsider to watch the pain in his mother, his brothers, his grandparents.  But that was the past, and just doesn't matter.  I asked his forgiveness for any and every time in the past I had offended him.  I told him about how this yarn, this blanket, was supposed to be for me and only me, learning a new technique I figured it would have flaws, but somehow when I put my hand in the box and touched the yarn for the first time I just felt "Chad", and from that moment I never had a doubt that this was for Chad and only Chad.

I told him that it was after that that Jason (my husband, the oldest of the brothers) told me that he, Chad, had been clean for more than a year.  That that was just HUGE, after all the years of struggling with addiction, he was clean?  And then shortly after that he had the incident where Jason called a friend to get him medical attention in jail (he got picked up again, but this time not for wrongdoing.  He was a passenger in a car that got pulled over, the cop ran him, and found he had unpaid fines and took him to jail for it), he was released and taken straight to the hospital, where they found his L4 through S1 spine is nearly completely compressed.  Chad has a nearly full left leg amputation so has been walking on prostheses for 30 years.

Anyway.  When I pulled the blanket out of the bag and handed it to him, you could just tell.  He knows this blanket was special.  I prayed over it and him for many hours while I was working on it.  I took it to my mother's prayer partners and had them anoint it and pray over it.  In the night time hours when he feels all alone, he has this to hold onto and KNOW that he is never alone, and never has been.  Someone is out there praying for him.  God is watching him and knows his struggles, his pains,

There are flaws in this afghan throw.  I definitely see them, and they make me cringe.  But when he sees them, he will be reminded that he is flawed, but in his darkest thoughts, in his sorrow for his past, in his worst flaws, God has been watching over him, waiting for him to stand and say "no", to look toward the Light, to reach for Him.  His flaws are part of him, and it's okay.

He is not alone.

These words resound in my head every single day.  You are not alone.  He is not alone.  She is not alone.  He watches over you, and in your darkest moments you are to be reminded .....

You are not alone.

Daydreams

What do you daydream about?  I confess, I'm a daydreamer.

Since I had a mama/daughter date and spent time with Dara yesterday evening, I didn't take an afternoon or evening nap, so I slept during the night.  Got up around 4 a.m., came in here and sat on the couch and crocheted for about 4 hours.  Dead silence, dog curled up beside me, nothing but me, my crochet, and my thoughts.

And I dreamed about having my own fiber shop and all the activities I'd have going.

Of course, reality always rears its proverbial ugly head ... it's this town.  I'd probably be doing all the activities all by myself and *forget* making an actual living at it.  It's a good dream though, having a fiber shop, having classes, having meet-ups, stocking stuff the big-box stores have no clue about.  Knit, crochet, spin, weave.  Downtown near all the coffee shops and museums.  

Daydreams never last though.  Back to the real word and real job that is just nowhere near as fun as hooks and yarn.  Ah well, back to work.