Tonight we continue our advent celebration.  It is a wonderful time to focus on the reason for all the wonderful merriment of Christmas.  Tonight we celebrate His LOVE for us.

          “Starbucks – Check”, “Target –  Check”….my hubby was sending short text updates to me while on his recent adventure,  shopping with our daughter this Christmas Eve.  I was enjoying a quiet morning at the house and each text brought a smile to my face.  I loved that the first task involved Starbucks for themselves.   I marveled at how efficiently they seemed to be getting tasks done.  But the best text was his final proclamation…”bonding with baby girl-check”.   Our kids are grown up now and life is spinning exponentially fast it seems.  We have to plan our time together more these days.  I like knowing that in the midst of an errand filled morning, he recognized the value of the time spent with our 23 yr old baby girl.   I know it is because she is his, and he loves her.  I think God is just like that with us.

          I can’t help but think what God’s Christmas Eve check list would look like.  “Son born in dusty stable – check”,  “Shepherds notified of birth – check”, “salvation for all  people – check”…Would His final text be, “bonding with all who believe – check”?   We are His and He loves us. 

          They say it is better to give than receive….But let us not be too quick to devalue the “getting” of gifts.  I do not think my family would approve of us leaving any of the pretty packages under our tree wrapped until next year.  No doubt ALL of them will be opened and enjoyed by noon Christmas day.  We will tear through paper and ribbons, dig into stockings for treats and eagerly meet at the table to enjoy great food and fellowship.  We will thoroughly enjoy our gifts and the gift of time spent with loved ones. 

It is possible to leave one gift unopened.

           When God sent Jesus to us, a baby in the manger, that night long ago, He was giving us the gift that would keep on giving.  Jesus would live to show us how to live, die to conquer death for us, and rise again to provide a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and no longer be separated from God.  This is the love we celebrate at Christmas…..the love that God pours out for us because we are His.  We don’t have to earn it or deserve it.  We only have to receive it.

I pray this Christmas you know how much God loves you.  I pray you open the gift of forgiveness and a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. 

Remembering God loves me – check

           This week begin our Advent celebration.  Each week, four prior to Christmas Eve, we gather to light a candle and consider the coming of our savior, the birth of Jesus.  It is a time to focus on the real reason for the merriment of the season.  This week we celebrate Hope.

I listened to a sermon the other day in which the pastor made reference to a practice of prisoner guardianship.  In Acts 28:16 we find the apostle Paul once again being detained while the government tried to figure out what to make of this Roman who spoke of Christianity and the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ.  Paul was under a type of house arrest.  He would be chained to soldiers, but allowed to be in their home.  Paul could receive visitors and had even entertained large groups who would come seeking a better understanding what he preached. 

          Paul was indeed a prisoner still, not able to travel or go and do as he pleased.  He was restricted and under the watchful eye of a Roman soldier 24/7.  Some say the soldiers probably relieved one another in shifts every 12 hrs. This is what caught my attention…can you imagine being chained to Paul????  I mean the guy NEVER stopped talking about JESUS! 

          I can almost hear the wife of the soldier who had to have Paul in his home….

“Honey, the good news is I get to come home tonight, the bad news is I have to bring some work home with me…his name is Paul.” 

“What? You’re bringing a prisoner here??? Again?” 

“Look, honey, this one is not so bad, he’s just a talkative troublemaker.”  

          Yep, Acts 28 chronicles 2 years of such confinement.  During that time soldier after soldier would be exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They would no doubt witness conversations and relationships Paul had with those who would visit.  They would see and hear the message of HOPE Paul adamantly preached and lived.

          Day in and day out Paul would take any opportunity to speak…”for this reason therefore, I request to speak with you, for I am wearing this chain for the sake of the HOPE of Israel….explaining to them(Jews) by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God, and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus….from morning until evening.” Acts 28:20-23

          Hmmmmm….there was Paul, certainly NOT wear he wanted to be, but also sure that he was where God had wanted him.  I thought instantly of my mom.

          Last month I found myself at the hospital bedside of my mother.  One week she was a busy lady, teaching Sunday school, visiting friends and caring for our family, the next week she was sidelined by lung surgery.   It was a quick turn of events, but we are praising God that a “small spot” that was actually an early stage cancer, was successfully removed!  Unfortunately, this entailed removing a portion of her lung and at almost 75 years of age this meant a difficult recovery.

          We were blessed to be able to stay in her room at all times and took shifts each night and day.   Looking back I now see how mom was much like Paul.  Mom’s hospital staff rotated throughout her stay.  Each new shift of nurses and technicians would expose more people to mom’s faith in her God.  Yep, even in the midst of difficult days, pain, frustration and exhaustion she would let them know about her God.  She made certain they knew she was prayed for by faithful friends, and gave God all the glory for each aspect of her recovery.  Those hospital workers had no chance to escape her…they were chained to her like Paul’s guards.  Tasked with keeping a watchful eye on her, they would no doubt be exposed to her God, the reason for her hope.

          This week of advent, as we celebrate HOPE, I am challenged to be mindful of who God has “chained” to me.  Who has God placed in my life, and how can I share the HOPE I have in my savior?  Do I live my life the way I feel in my heart?  Does my faith show?  Do I consistently place my HOPE in God, or do I tend to rely on myself or other circumstances?  If someone were literally chained to me night and day what kind of testimony would they experience?  

           Lord, help us to be ever mindful that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our HOPE, that through the life of Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection, we can know forgiveness and eternal life with God.

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of our deeds,….but according to His mercy….justified by His grace…made heirs according to the HOPE of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7

          It started with a cup of coffee and a justified prayer time on the couch, several friends are facing health concerns and I wanted to be sure to lift them before my God in prayer.  I then deftly transitioned to a second cup of coffee and a morning news program.   I plugged in my laptop intent to spend some time writing.  Long story short, I alternated my time between staring at my blank computer screen, reading, rotating laundry, and researching or seeking inspiration for writing (translation: frequent visits to FB and sucked into the depths of pinterst).  Before long, I was pacing the floor, making list of things to get done and trying to write. (translation: promptly sitting back down and doing nothing in particular.)

          To call the day sedate would be underselling it.  I could only hope my husband would greet me at the end of his long workday with “How was your day?” and not specifically ask me, “What did you do today?”    I looked at Hughie, my porky little yorkie, who had sat sleepily by my side all day and knew I needed to take action.  “Hughie”, I said(because when you are home alone  you talk to the dog…you know you do too), “If we do not get out for a walk we will not be justified in going to bed tonight!”  He perked up his ears and tilted his head quizzically.  When I showed him the leash, he enthusiastically leapt to the floor, his tubby tummy hitting the carpet before his hind legs.

          It was late, but not dark.  It was quiet on the street and a sliver of moon peeked about the trees.  I sighed to myself, “Great, perfect setting for introspection, NOT what I want to do after such a non- productive day”.    In an effort to avoid self loathing I prayed God would give me something to share and that He would help me move out of my self-made rut. 

           I was deep in thought when I noticed the dog and I were already almost a block down our street.   I was surprised to find Hughie trouncing along at a normal pace.  Usually walks with Hughie require patience.  His little legs do not take him far or fast and his incessant need to smell EVRYTHING makes for very slow short walks.  Mind you, he wasn’t exactly pulling forward on the leash, but he was not requiring me to tug him along, which is what I usually end up doing.

          I was kind of enjoying this new dynamic.  For a brief moment, it felt like I was a normal dog owner, walking a normal dog….then it stopped.  Actually “he” stopped.  I looked back, there was Hughie, standing stiff legged and leaning back with his head down, and his eyes rolled up at me.  Apparently, he wanted to stop.  It amazes me how an 11 pound puppy can suddenly morph himself into a surprisingly effective anchor.  Oh, I could move him if I wanted too, but that would require dragging his dead weight across the rough pavement, and that would result in asphalt burns on his backside and cries of animal cruelty from the neighbors.  I tried coaxing him, tugging at him, encouraging him and promising him lots of treats when we got home….nothing was going to move him.   

          After a bit, I walked back toward him resigned to simply carry him the rest of the way home.   As soon as I was alongside him he began walking forward.  Hmmmm, was he objecting to my leadership?  Did he just want to remind me he was there?  Why couldn’t he just follow me?  Didn’t he know that if he just sat there he would never know the rewards of getting home?  Did he not remember that I had clean water, treats, and a comfy couch to offer him?  I watched his tiny tail wiggle slightly as we now slowly plodded homeward…and there it was, God’s answer to my prayer in the form of my own reflection evident in my dog.  Sigh…That day I too had been immovable.  I had resisted motion and had accomplished little. 

          All day, and perhaps most days, God tugs at me and tries to lead me forward and I yet I resist.  I start out enthisiastically following Him but, like Hughie, often find myself stopped.  Sometimes it is because I do not understand the way He is going, sometimes I am just not paying attention and sometimes I just want to be in control I suppose.

          Does God get frustrated with me when I pull against His leading?  I know I am capable of simply sitting when He desires me to move forward.  It is sort of surprising I do not have asphalt burns on my backside from God dragging me along.  No doubt, there have been times He has had to pick me up and place me where He wants me.  How often have I, like Hughie, just stopped moving forward?  How can God bring me through things in life if I simply stop?  I know God has a plan for me…

“For I know the plans I have for you….you will call upon me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you…you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart…” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

I don’t want to be found with stiff legs, head downward and eyes rolled up in defiance…I want to be found moving and meeting Him every step of the way

Lord, today we pray for Your continued guidance in our lives.  Help us to see You as we walk in the world and to know Your direction.  Forgive us when we sit and fail to follow You, lead us in the path You have set for us.  Father, thank you for graciously returning to us and bringing us along our journey.  Thank you for being a compassionate master and a worthy of all our trust and praise!

       The hubby has joined me in my goal to run a marathon by the time I am fifty!   I am thrilled he is running again, but it is kind of a good thing/bad thing for me at times.   Sometimes it is frustrating, as I find it impossible to keep up and he ultimately ends up waiting quite a bit for me to finish, but I love having a common goal and he is always encouraging.

      One Saturday we went for a run together.  It was a new route for us and we had not communicated exactly how we would go.  We started up a 1-mile steep road and I watched him, as usual, pull increasingly ahead of me.  No problem, I usually see him on the return as he passes me by.  When I got to the top of the street, I realized I could no longer see where he went.  I was not sure if he took another street or if he turned and followed the intersecting street.  I paused at the top of the hill for some time straining to see him in the distance.  At last, I saw him far away, bobbing up and down in the rhythmic pattern I recognized as his running gait.   I turned left and followed him. 

       I was glad to be running down a hill at this point, but it was a loooooong road.  It seemed no matter how fast I ran I was not catching up. He was just a distant figure in dark running shorts and white tee- shirt.  Eventually he slowed to cross another street and I was able to gain on him a bit….that is when I realized this WAS NOT MY HUBBY!  Yep, I was following a stranger for almost a mile!  Fortunately, for all involved I discovered this from a far enough distance away as to not embarrass the family too much. 

       I quickly veered from the path he was on and headed back to the place I began my run, certain my hubby would meet me there.  He did.

       How could I have mistaken a stranger for a man I have been married to for almost 28 years?  I will tell you how….distance.   Oh, it was more than that I am sure…the guy had on similar clothes, was a similar build and pretty sure respiratory distress from running also blurred my vision…but without a doubt the number ONE reason I made such a mistake was DISTANCE.  If I had been closer, there is no way I would have followed this man for that extra mile.  This week “distance” has been on my mind a lot.

       I feel certain that I am not the only believer who struggles to keep closer to the Lord.  I am saddened by how frequently this weakness presents itself in my life.  At times, it is as if the Word of God is like oxygen and I cannot get enough from it.  I take it in every chance I get and it gives life to each step of my journey.  However, there are times, of which this has been such a season, when I lean solely on a past closeness to God.  I find being a good person is easier than being a Godly person and yet there is a HUGE difference. 

       While my long relationship with my Heavenly Father continues to buoy me up, I neglect seeking Him in all things.  I find myself striving under my own accord and not within His will for my life.  Recognizing His direction for my life becomes increasingly difficult and I practically putter to a stop like a car out of fuel.   (It has been some time since I felt lead to post a devotion, when usually I cannot keep up with the lessons I wish to share…all because I let myself drift away from the One who leads me.)

       The less time I spend in The Word, the further I drift from my God.  He, of course, does not lose sight of me…but my lack of closeness to Him influences all parts of my life almost instantly.  The further I get from Him, the easier it is to follow the wrong lead, mistake my personal opinion for wisdom, and accept less than He has planned for me.

      While it was surprising that I could have mistaken a stranger for a man, I have loved and known for more than half my life….it was a striking reminder of how important it is to follow close for clarity.

       Today I went on a run alone.  I had no one to look for and no worries of catching up…but I felt driven to close the gap I created between God and myself.  My prayer today is that God will draw me closer to Him and that I will regain my hunger for His Word.  I pray we will all be challenged to draw closer to God, mindful that He waits for us and will meet us with His mercy and grace.

         My little girl is graduating college this weekend!

           When she was born she seemed so fragile.  I remember holding her delicate hand, and thanking God for the gift He gave us in the form of this precious, blue-eyed, blonde haired baby girl.  I can easily recall the image of her tucked in the crook of my arm as we sat in our rocking chair.  I spent countless hours rocking her and just staring at her tiny features.

          Sometimes, when no one else was around, I would find myself crying at the enormity of it all, the joy of it all…I would later come to realize that being a mom brings with it a lot of tears.  Tears of frustration, fear, joy and laughter would flow freely over the next 23 years of our lives.

Every night as I held her, I would pray for her.  I would pray for her future, her todays and tomorrows and I would try to imagine all her life would hold.  Though the time eventually came when I no longer held her in my arms, I always held her in my heart and prayed. I prayed for her future, her todays and tomorrows.

She toddled through her early years, scampered through her grade school years, ran through her middle school years, went kicking and screaming through her high school years, and has flown through her college years. 

I am beyond proud of all she has accomplished.  I love the young lady she has become.  I won’t ask where the time went, I know.  I won’t ask how this happened, I know that too.  I may be tempted to think our time with her has been a blur, as if it was only yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital all bundled in pink, but I know better.  I have every day of our time together etched firmly in my heart.  I treasure every sweet memory, funny story, maddening battle and memorable moment we share, always have…always will.

-When she was little I used to sing her songs I would make up.  She especially liked the ones about a princess.  There was one song though, that would become my favorite.  It was not about a princess, it was for my princess.  As she grew older, I would whisper it quietly at her bedside while she slept.  When she was in her teens, I would stand outside her door most evenings and quietly sing it under my breath.  Over the years I have often sung it as my prayer for her.  This morning I found myself humming the tune and quietly singing this song as I went for a walk.  As the day of celebrating another milestone in her life approaches, I find it is just as meaningful now as when I first held her in my arms.

Lord please hear this simple prayer, for my girl with golden hair

Give her rest when she’s weary, give her strength when she is weak

And protect her in this world, from satan’s deceit.

Help her to know your infinite mercy and to feel your boundless love

Lord, watch my child from above, Lord watch my child from above

Lord please hear this simple prayer, for my girl with golden hair…

I love you Ashley Miller

1 Corinthians 1:3-16

While on our recent boating adventure we have visited numerous marinas.  Each marina was unique, there seemed to be one thing they all had in common…GAPS.  I had not really ever paid much attention to the gaps in the boards that make up the docks…but walking Hughie(our porky little Yorkie) down them has made me a lot more aware of them.

Poor Hughie, at each marina he would have to walk down a usually long dock to get to a grassy area for his daily constitutional duties.  Sometimes our slip was near the main dock, sometimes we were at the farthest end.  Each morning, afternoon and evening, he and I would head out down the dock.  The boards that made up the docks were usually weathered and unevenly spaced.  It was as if the dock makers of the world got together and decided to space the boards the exact distance apart as an 11 pound Yorkie’s paws!

Almost without fail, he would be traipsing along when “thunk” his little paw would slip between the boards.  It never hurt him, but it was obviously annoying him.  He is already a VERY SLOOOOOOOW walker.  It takes almost 20 minutes just to get him down the dock on a good day.  He walks carefully along the tippy edge of the dock for some reason and his paws slipping in the gaps only made it worse.

When we are heading down the dock we are usually met with comments from other boaters such as, “He walks as slow as I do!”, “I don’t have any giddy up any more either.” or “Poor thing, must be hard to walk that dock.”  Sigh…

I know I could carry him down the dock and avoid all of this, but I know he needs the exercise and the trip down the dock is sometimes all he gets.  I also know I need him to be comfortable navigating the docks since he will spend a lot of time on them over the years.  I don’t want him to need me to carry him everywhere, he is a dog after all.

I hold his leash taught so he won’t fall off the dock even when he is at the edge.  I am quick to pick him up when he gets stuck and, if the boards are too bad, I do pick him up and carry him.  Sometimes I get in a hurry and I want to carry him to make it faster or easier on myself…but I try to resist the urge to carry him.  What is easy for me may not be best for him.

Every morning, afternoon and evening Hughie and I head down the gauntlet of gaps together and I find myself thinking how much like this my walk with God is at times.

Isn’t life filled with tons of gaps?  How often am I walking through life and find myself tripped up by something unexpected.   My steps are not always met with firm ground.  Sometimes I misstep.  It is easy to stop paying attention to where I am going.   I have been known to walk too close to the edge at times.  Walking through life would be so much easier if I did not stumble so much.  Couldn’t God just carry me over all those pesky “gaps”?   How often have I asked God to propel me through a difficult time or task, or asked to have my path be made more straight?  Does God have to fight His desire to make things easy for me with His wisdom and love for me,  knowing that I need to learn how to navigate the gaps in life?

I know God holds me close and no matter how close I get to the edge, He is with me.  I know He sees the gaps, but knows I need to see them.  I know He is quick to pick me up when I step wrong or stumble.   I know every morning, afternoon and evening of my life God walks the gauntlet of Life’s gaps with me! 

“Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name.  When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.” Psalm 91:14&15