No Place I Would Rather Be

I’m here in my sweet spot – with my two youngest grandsons while their dad and mom are away for a few days. The oldest here -- the handsome dude -- Monday chapel requires ties and jackets. Be still my heart! The youngest is home schooled so I get to step up and be his mama’s eyes and ears. I love it. I actually learn right along with him. I was never a lover of history but with this guy, I can get quite excited about how far we’ve come AND how far we still have to go!

As most know, I’m a daily blogger – so I have to find my quiet spots when I can to wrap my mind around what God would have me say for the next day. Quite often, it’s in those “hiding times” to be with God, my sweet little man interrupts my train of thought to ask me to come watch him climb (seen here – he can’t seem to help himself), or to help him clean out the chicken coop, or feed the other animals, or to watch him play a video game.

To be perfectly honest, sometimes, instead of being glad he popped into my quiet zone, I get a tad annoyed my time with God was interrupted. Then, as he pulls me away, my Heavenly Father whispers in my “spiritual” ears and reminds me “My dear daughter, this is not an interruption, but an illustration of My love, care and affection for you.”

Peace, joy, confidence, hope, faith and love all at once erupt in my heart, moving me closer to Christ. My Heavenly Father illustrated through an interruption what I was seeking all along: His loving presence. And along with it, came this blog.

Our lives are full of interruptions, from a phone call from a needy neighbor, bottle-necked traffice, a sick child, a flat tire, or an illness. These all look, sound and feel like interruptions, but with eyes of faith we have the ability to look beyond life’s interruptions and instead see illustrations of God’s love.

Interruptions can be appointments for compassion. Life may feel unfair, but in our everyday routine, we can recognize the Lord in the little things and love like Jesus. Interruptions represent people to love and be loved! Loving people is the business of Jesus’ followers. It may be a person in our immediate presence, or it could be someone in our peripheral vision, such as a restaurant server who needs to be included in our mealtime prayer. A doctor or nurse who cares for us, a loved one who needs to be encouraged, or a critic who doesn’t have the full story — they too need the gifts of our patience and grace.

Guess what I’m doing – I’m getting us ready for the holidays that are fast approaching. We’ll have many opportunities to look for illustrations of God’s hand in our work, our families and especially during the holidays. Maybe God's intent with interruptions ARE to slow us down, so we can better focus on receiving and giving God's love.

I’m Growing….On Purpose

Who knew that when I headed for Austin on Saturday to be at my grandson’s baseball tournament and celebrate Father’s day with my son and his family, that I just might be growing more than I had planned on in this season of my life. But, I’ve learned that if we don’t want to grow stale, become dormant and start withering up like a plant, we need to KEEP GROWING on purpose.

The family was getting ready to go away a few days and were about to hire a couple of people to attend to Bryson’s animal kingdom while they were away. Since my time is flexible right now, I boldly exclaimed: “Let me do it!” So here I am – attending to 32 animals. Bryson, my 11-year-old trainer set out to model every detail of his animal responsibilities so that I would acquire his skills. Some say “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks" and I’ll admit – it’s taken some tough encounters with these animal friends that almost convinced me to quit and call in the REAL pros for the job.

Not being on high alert to an enormous longhorn, I got too close to his 6-feet horns wing-span and got whacked in the face. Then, not being the pro that Bryson is, I let the goats overpower me when I was taking their feed bowls out to them and got tangled up and fell. Then there are the chickens that a new brood of seven that has been added to the already 9-chickens. The nine are quite accommodating at night when they go into the chicken coop, but the seven haven’t adapted just yet to the nine and they have to be rustled up and individually caught and put into the coop. Needless to say, I thought this is too much for this gal to take on during this "mature" season of life.

BUT, then, as I always do when life seems to get overwhelming, I muster up those spiritual muscles and apply scriptures that are indelibly imprinted in my heart to remind me WHO I AM and WHOSE I am and I begin to declare “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) And, “I am MORE than a conqueror through Him Who loves me.” (Romans 8:37) And new vitality and vigor come inside me. Yesterday, was VICTORY day as each task I was able to handle with confidence and competence – even gathering up each chicken and putting them into the coop! Whoop! Whoop!

We all have treasures inside of us -- there are skills, talents, and potential that God put there, and it's up to us to grow and develop them. If we don't, we'll find that rocking chair or recliner and just switching channels on the remote control, becoming "that's all there is" to us. We will have stopped growing and when we do, we'll start dying to ambition, risk-taking, living life large, and refusing adventure and excitement.

I'm going to keep learning new skills, reading books, taking internet courses, going to seminars, gleaning from mentors – like my 11-year old Bryson. I refuse to coast through life. I'm purposing to make the moments count -- I'm going to keep on KEEPING ON...I am going to live and grow on purpose and help a lot of other folks GROW ON PURPOSE with me!!!