Saturday 26 March 2011

Being at your Best!









Scripture: “As for me, I will see your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” Psalm 17:15

Satisfied

Amos is a good performer. I am very satisfied with what he can do. There are some things that we could work on however. He has a tendency to lift his head when I try to put his bridle on. I anticipate with time and training we can get beyond that quite easily. I am short in stature so when he lifts his head putting the bridle on is very difficult. I want to also work on his “go” and “whoa”. I want to make sure when I want him to stop and give him the cue to stop that he does just that. On the other hand, when I cue him up to step up I want him to move. Most of my issues with Amos are “fine tuning” issues and we can accomplish those improvements with ground training. Every so often I will work with Amos to make sure those trail horse traits I want are right where I want them.

As a Christian I will be satisfied with my spiritual growth when I “awake” in His likeness. That is quite a challenge for me. In other words I need to keep at it. I haven’t “arrived” yet. I must stay in His word, pray and keep up a good devotional life. As I go through each day I must be conscious of a need to keep working to be more like Him.

Prayer Thought: Lets see, what area’s of my life need “fine tuning” today?

Wednesday 16 March 2011

My sweet grandchild!

Now this picture is of my "sweet" grand daughter Sara! I sure do love Sara. She is precious. However, she is "fitting in" to her family with her other 2 siblings just fine. She is the youngest and I was concerned that maybe with being adopted, and wondering how quickly she would "adjust" into the family - NOT A PROBLEM! For her anyways - we had to adjust quick!

This picture? An interesting situation for Papa! Want to guess what Papa did wrong? Oh my! If I remember right, Sara had only been in the family a few (couple?) of months and we took her to a parade, her first parade. Remember? They throw candy? Well I got into her "space" - she learned quickly that this was her space and I had crossed the line! Even mama, behind her, backed up!

We all (including Sara) had a great time and laugh over the parade - it was special.

How do you do when someone gets in your space? We do set limits and have our lines drawn. We learn to do that quickly. Even as husband & wife, mama and I have to be careful with drawn lines. I am learning to be flexible - it doesn't always have to go my way. Even though I am probably right!! (smile)

Monday 7 March 2011

Life Changes

Today as I looked at this picture I wept. Do you ever lack faith? Do you ever just "assume" that God has enough to do and does not have time or resources to give you miracles?

Mama and I prayed for our children before they were ever conceived. We prayed for them before we even met. We wanted God's blessings on our family and prayed that God would help us be the best parents possible when that day arrived. But we did not really pray much about grand children. Maybe that sounded too old.

In October 1991 I prayed several prayers - we were in the midst of a MAJOR family crisis. These were the major prayer requests I had in 1991.

1) God please protect my daughter!
2) Keep her healthy.
3) Work a miracle in her education goals.
4) Restore her spiritually to your family.

I will not go into the details of the crisis, those of you that want to know can call or talk to me anytime about that - I will share.

I had faith that God could answer any one of those requests, But had doubts that he would answer all four, after all, her being alive at this time was even to me a miracle.

It is now 2011 - almost 20 years later. Lets reflect on those prayer requests of mine.
1) He did - she is doing fine - we were able to bring her home shortly after that prayer.
2) She is now a 40 (almost) year old young woman, doing well!
3) She went on and finished her RN education goals and is an RN at a major hospital.
4) I can remember the night several months after my prayer that she went to an altar and recommitted her life to Christ - a wonderful Christian lady today.

But the picture above? Oh my, as I weep now I am ashamed. You see that baby is my grand daughter Sydney - who will be 10 this month! Grandma is holding her in that photo for the first time. The picture was taken in 2001.

I did not pray for grand children - that wasn't even a remote possibility - I Had put God in a box.
He has blessed us with 3 wonderful grand children! Thank you God for going beyond my prayer expectations. Thank you. He can and will do that for you if you trust him.