Dear Reader:
I have to admit that yesterday was ‘not my favorite day.’ But it was a day that tested my faith and taught me that I was too quick to expect immediate solutions to my ‘worry’ prayers. It was a lesson in patience…don’t we humans really dislike ‘patience’ lessons… if we’re truthful?
Technology gives us immediate answers at the tap of a finger and a click on a pad…God is not in competition with technology…in His line of work…there is a reason for waiting time and patience. Two entities that strengthen human faith.
I was so emotionally depleted by evening yesterday…that I temporarily forgot about the blog post…it was very tempting to consider just explaining my exhaustion and most readers would have understood and life would go on.
But something stopped me….literally… a book… that fell from a book shelf… while looking for a novel a friend wanted to borrow.
I glanced at the title as I started to replace it (Trading Your Worry for Wonder)…and as I casually opened it..my hand lowered…I turned in the book to a ribbon marker left behind…and started reading. It was God’s response to my on-going prayers yesterday.
Did I ever need a God Wink ? This is what I read.
“Persist and don’t give up!” If you have prayed and given your worry to God..but yet it comes back a few minutes later, don’t give up!”
“Remember…the bigger or heavier the anxiety or problem, the more times you may need to give it to God until it’s really released. If the fear recurs, don’t say, “Well, this isn’t working.”
“Instead stop and give your worry to God again…but add “thanksgiving” to God for His help in advance. Each time you will get a little more victory. Your peace will increase until your mind is totally at rest concerning the matter.”
” Rest means mental and spiritual tranquility, freedom from all worries. And that’s when the revelation is released on how to handle your particular anxiety”.
“When we fret and worry…it’s like wearing dark glasses. We shut out the light and can’t see what God is trying to teach us through the experience. But if we keep thanking and praising God we will see His loving hand guiding us …and it is this amazing grasp of divine connection… that changes our worry to wonder.”
When I woke up yesterday…like most Americans…disappointed in the on-going election process with no conclusion in sight…it felt like just one more exercise in waiting…and we all have had our patience tested while waiting in quarantine through the seemingly never-ending coronavirus.
Couldn’t just one thing happen normally on time…why was everything seemingly abnormal in the expected routines and traditions in our country?
After my personal pity-party…God let me sit a few minutes and stew. He let me know that this waiting time was especially allotted me to do a lot of catch-up correspondence (long over-due)telephone calls to check on family and friends with accidents and illnesses…gifts to be bought for loving friends and then mailed or given to them.
In other words, in mortal translation…God told me “To get off my “arse” and do something for someone else!”
It took me all day to accomplish these over-due acts of kindness…but God was right…it kept my mind off the politics of the day and on special people I needed to re-connect with…with no more delays.
So until tomorrow….
May we all learn to use waiting time in the best way we can…reaching out to others.
” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh (Lesson learned 🙂
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
Amen…may we all find solace in the fact that God is sovereign…spent time yesterday checking on my siblings…3 that have significant health issues…one doing genealogy tracing for our family…in doing so I found a letter that I wrote Mother and Daddy 45 yrs ago in Nov about the sadness that I felt that we might not be able to come home because of our car being hit by a deer coming were bot across 126 the day after we married…now 45 yrs later we may not be going home because of Covid…I am 67 yrs old and there has only been 1 time that we were not in NC (except Fred) …it was a God’s wink for me to find that letter because I was working on sending all of them Thanksgiving cards …we never knew last TG how long and if we would be together again. I needed that God’s wink to remind me of God grace and love…Mother must have known to save that one particular 3 page letter I wrote to her thanking them for raising us in a Christian home and for her instilling in us to see the needs of others and to care…really care…it was rare that we ever had a holiday without one or two strangers sitting at our table…
As I read your sweet tribute to you mother, siblings, and family collectively…I immediately thought of Honey. Like you…she said she still will open a drawer or box and find something belonging to her mother…a photo or letter or piece of jewelry…and immediately she is filled with her mother’s presence…as if her mother was trying to contact her and that memoir was there to bring them together again for a moment in time.
Thanks for the great book suggestion. Just what I need right now. I went right to Amazon & ordered it! Love all the wonderful insights & ideas you share on your blog! I might get behind on my reading sometimes but eventually catch up. I hope you realize how much it means to of lot of us to have your blog in our lives.
Thank you Pam…but the reverse is true for me….I hope you realize how much it means to me to have you and your wonderful comments and pictures in my life.