Lessons from the Lord

Lessons are always very difficult to learn, especially for me.  If I lived several hundred years ago, lessons could mean anything from Latin, Mathematics, History, or the type of lessons that applied to life -for example, Papa taking his son to the wood shed, giving him a spanking, looking at him sternly, yet kindly, and saying, "I hope you have learned your lesson."

For me, many of those lessons, school and life related, are difficult to learn, as they are for anyone.  Math has never been my 'thing'.  It takes lots of concentration and wearies my brain.  However, God has gifted me in other areas of school that others, who might be good at math, are not good at.

One thing I struggle with the most, is taking criticism or reproof from someone, even my friends.  When I write my books or stories, I hate the thought of someone telling me there is something wrong.  When I clean the house, I don't like dear Mama coming in and saying I need to redo something.  When my character is not as it should and I get impatient with my siblings, or angry at my parents and let my anger come out instead of battling it down, I hate to be told I am wrong.

The Lord has many ways He teaches me my life lessons.  When I feel like I have been extremely patient and haven't gotten angry at my brothers, He finds a way to test and strengthen that patience.  For instance, I thought I had been doing very well on my patience.  I hadn't gotten angry with my brothers, or been short tongued with them. I was doing well! ('pride goeth before destruction'....)
   Thursday afternoon comes, Mama and I are rushing to get me to choir on time.  As we pull out of our mile long drive way, I realize we have a very bad flat. My brother was able to come to the rescue, but the result was being 30 minutes late.  I will tell you my patience was sorely tested that day.  I was very frustrated that I wasn't going to be on time for Choir. I had already missed last week's session, so I couldn't miss this one, let alone be late!
   Yet, later as we were slowly driving down the road, I realized that God has a sense of humor when teaches us a lesson.  Satan had me believing that I was donig well with my patience, though when I look back, I probably was very hasty with my hurtful words to siblings when I was frustrated, even though I thought I was in the right.  God brought me 'round (or hit me on the head with a 2x4.. it left a nasty bump, by the way) through His mercy and Grace.
   Mercy because He didn't use a dire situation to bring me to senses, but one that wasn't a matter of life or death. Sure, I was late to choir, but did it kill any body?  You always feel sorry, sometimes, for characters in books who learn their lessons the hard way.  I am thankful that the Lord didn't have to use a terrible situation to bring me around.  Sure, it was only impatience, but I hope that by Him giving me small lessons here and there, He won't have to use harder ones later on because I will know His voice and will be able to recognize the situation with His help.

Another thing I struggle with is letting go.  I like to have control. I like to have the security that things will go alright if I handle them (soft snort here..).  I know many of you are chuckling, as I do after the Lord gives me lessons (notice the plural) on this subject.  Yes, I have had many lessons on this subject. You would think that eventually I would get the picture. That suddenly it would hit me: Ah! If I give it to the Lord, it always turns out right!
   However, this isn't the case.  Perhaps it turns out right, but it never turns out the way I  want it to.  I often lose focus of the bigger picture. I forget that God is the Divine painter. He knows exactly how His magnificent art work will turn out.  If a person were to walk into His studio, he would only see a huge canvas with paint splotted on it and different and obscure half pictures painted in random places. Pictures that didn't even seem to correlate with each other.
   He has the finished picture fixed in His sight, and He knows what it will look like in the end. However, our little random friend does not, so he simply turns away from it tsking to himself while thinking that The Painter has no idea what He is doing.
   The Painter smiles sadly, but gazes at His work with loving eyes. He knows.

So, this is how I am. I am the person who tsks and shakes my head. What does He know? He doesn't know what our situation is. Besides, this is a small detail that He doesn't bother with.  Yet, every painter must look upon every detail in order to make His picture just right.
   And so this very thing happened just recently.  I had a situation where everything was running smoothly until I hit a bump in the road.  I cleared the bump, jolting my head against the ceiling of the car, and looked ahead. There were more bumps in the road! So many that it seemed like there would never be an end to them.
   "Well," I thought to myself. "Perhaps if I speed over them quickly, I won't feel the bumps as badly."  However, by doing that, I created more and more bumps.  This time, not only were these bumps representing small scheduling matters, but people's feelings were at stake too.  Now I had to stop.  I carefully guided my vehicle around as many bumps as I could, though I still hit a few.  Suddenly, looking up I saw miles and miles of bumpy road. As far as the eye could see!
   "No! No, this cannot happen! I can make it. I can do this! I don't need help, I am quite capable to handling this on my own." I fumed to myself.
   An angel appeared beside me in the form of my loving Mother. "Sarah," She gentle rebuked me. "Sarah, why do you continue like this? Do you not see that by continuing you are just making things worse? Why don't you just give this up to God?"
    "Because I don't need to."
"But you do. You must let go of this and let God take care of it."

For weeks after this, still sitting in my car (don't worry, I don't die of starvation.. this is just a story any way.)  I fumed and wrestled, wrestled and fumed.  I gave it God, and just as promptly I took it back.  This happened a number of times.  Why did I take it back? Because just as I gave it to Him, Satan let the situation look better.  "Aha!" I thought. "I can do this now, thank you for holding it, God, but I can take it now."  I snatched it back and everything went wrong again.  This happened, like I said, several times.
  Finally, wearied of my long struggle, I gave it up, gladly.  I no longer wanted the stress of it, the pain of it, the burden of it.  Ok, perhaps I still worried a bit about it, and may have reached out a hand to take it again, but always God gently pushed my hand away, smiling as He did so, and saying, "I need this paint for the picture, Sarah."
   Suddenly, on a day when I least expected it, the matter was cleared!  The bumpy road was no longer bumpy because Someone carried me.  Everything is going well because God is managing it, not the reckless Sarah who only sees a blotted canvas.

This may be a rather tiring naritive/story but I want to put into my head that God really does have things under control in every situation.  No matter how sad or frustrating it may be to us, God sees it as another detail in His big picture.  A simple stroke of the brush to create a beautiful landscape.  A different color in His vibrant sunset.
    Every person has gone through some trial, and as Christians we must have them. Bearing them is not easy, I can tell you that, and nor was it ever promised to be.  However, God is with us all the way. He is carrying us, even when we don't know it.  The pain we might feel for one day, God feels ten times worse! 
   When we face hard decisions, we know that God will lead us, even if one step at a time because we must learn to trust Him. Trust Him like a lamb trusts it's sheperd. 

I am really only speaking to myself, but I also felt lead to share.

In Christ's amazing Grace,
Sarah

Back again!! Hurray!

Hello dear friends!

I have been gone for a while, though not actually gone from my home.  I had said in the post below that I felt like I was spending too much time on the computer.  So, a week and a half of no computer period was what I needed.  I must say it was rather hard, at first, but by the end of my time I wasn't thinking about it all the time, and could really care less if I actually got on right away or not. 

Well, I am back and with news too!!  The Lord has blessed us richly this past week.  On Saturday afternoon, we got some rain.  For a good 30 minutes, it was just raining sheets and we couldn't even see the barn (which is about 130 feet away).  I would like you to try to picture what this might look like.  Towards the east, the pasture (known as Arena pasture because the Arena juts into it) has a slight valley.  There are gentle slopes close to the house that dip down, and then rise again for even higher slopes father away.  This little valley runs all the way across the pasture to the South. 

When we get large rains during this season (all of the hurricanes and tropical storms along the coast bring us moisture!) we typically have little 'ponds' in certain places.  We kids have named them all.  We have Arena pond (very original, don't ya think? ;-) ), which is at the bottom corner of the arena; Tadpole pond (behind the corrals towards the north), Banana creek (this floods the banana curved road behind the old adobe, which is north of our house), Trailer Gully (this is a spot where the waters made a small canyon of sorts right on a road leading into Arena pasture.  We got a trailer stuck in it once, thus the name Trailer gully), and many more little ponds that don't stick around long enough to get a name. 

So, Tadpole pond, as you can imagine, must have tadpoles.  Yes, indeed it does.  In fact, right after a rain, you can just step outside and hear all of the frogs croaking to one another.  Caleb and I got to run outside when the the rain had let up to a slow drizzle and got to see the frogs.  It was amazing to watch their little throats bulge out as they made the neat little rumble noise.   Tadpole pond usually get only to above our knees..  this time we had it flooded all across the road and into small Tadpole pond (that is across the road).  The pond was obviously very full..

Arena pond was more like a lake.  The whole valley was FLOODED all the way down to where it ended.  All the water started to run down to the end of the valley Southward.  This wouldn't have been a big deal except that it then decided to run across our road..  We have a fence on either side of the road as we have pastures on either side.  Well, as the water moved swiftly towards the road, it picked up any debris that might be lying around.  This then built up on one of the fences and eventually knocked it over.  The fence on the other side was totally uprooted and pulled backwards.  The wire was broken, so we had to strings of fence just lying inside the pasture where the current had pushed it.. 

Now, this is NOT a normal occurrence in New Mexico.  Rain does come, but certainly not like this.  How many inches? FOUR!   Compare this to a usual 1/2 inch a month!  Quite a different experience, I must say!

Alright, enough talking, lets get to pictures.  Unfortunately my camera doesn't take great pictures, and I can't imagine why Rebecca didn't want me to take her nice Nikon out in the rain... hmm. =D lol!

The flooded Arena Pasture:

Trailer Gully:

There was a little rock in the way of water flow that made the H2o jump over it...

Banana Creek:

A new little gully (and a little sarcasm "and they said the grand canyon was formed over millions of years... hmm")

Tadpole Pond:  If you look to the Right of where Caleb is standing, you will see this pipe coming up.  Now, only about a foot of that is showing, if even that.  Usually, and this is when we THOUGHT it was full, the water only comes half way up that pipe cage thing... so yeah.

TP flowing out into the road and over into little TP and even into the pasture beyond..

Then we have some pics of the frogs.  They had come out for mating and were making such a loud racket (though a very neat racket!) I got a few pics when their necks were bulged out...

Aren't frogs amazing??  The fact that they just hibernate under the ground until ENOUGH rains come for them to lay their eggs.. it just fascinates me!!  Just another show of our wonderful Creator!!!

Hope you enjoyed the pics.. we certainly did because it meant we got rain! Then, the next day we had even more rain.. a whole other inch!! Praise GOD!! We really need some rain for the grass to get greened up.. even now, after only a day or two after the rain, it is getting green!

Praising God,

Sarah

Home again, home again, jiggity jig... ;-)

Yes, we are home!!  We left for a three day weekend to attend a family reunion (My Dad's side).  We had a pretty good time, though family members can often be rather interesting.. ;-) lol! We have some pretty crazy family members, but I guess that makes us crazy too!! lol!!

Sometimes the trip can be stressful, trying to get over there and whatnot, but we enjoyed ourselves and got to catch up on relatives.  Also neat and interesting to see everyone come together. :-)

My Grandparents house was where everyone mostly hung out.  It over looks Ute lake, which is the Canadian river.  However, because of the dam in Logan, the river has been backed up and is now considered a lake. ;-)

The views are simply stunning over there!!  If you beg enough, I am sure we can get Becca to post some pictures of our fun time. :-)  Not that she has to be begged, but it is sometimes a pain to upload photos, so she needs some encouragement. ;-) lol  There are red rocks that glisten in the sunset, beautiful gold shimmers on the water as you drink in the view from their upper deck.  The sunsets are so vivid and just add to the glory.  Last night we were able to enjoy watching a lightning storm that was miles away.  We couldn't even hear the thunder, but we enjoyed the lightning show while we visited, or simply watched with awe at God's awesome power.  He is amazing, isn't He?  I just love seeing His awesome power displayed in Nature.  You know what it reminds me of?  Have you ever seen a young couple who are dating/courting?  Have you ever noticed how the young man is usually doing things to show off to his girl? Opening the car door for her, carrying heavy things, lifting weights, arm wrestling, etc?   Well, it is almost as if God is showing us His awesome power to show off, though in a Holy way, if you follow me.  You know, the Bible is His love letter to us, so why wouldn't He show off some with His awesome nature?? Just a thought.... ;-)

Any way, we are off to watch the first movie of LOTR (Lord of the Rings).. looks like we will be up late for a few nights! Lol!!

Talk to all of you soon, and looking forward to your comments!!

Love,
Sarah

Dancing with Jesus

As I was listening to a the Butterfly Waltz on our playlist, I was inspired to just dance. By myself. All alone. However, was I? No. Someone was watching. No, this isn’t from some romantic movie where the gentleman catches the girl in a room by herself dancing, or writing, and he instantly falls in love, etc. Who was watching? Jesus.

As I sat there visualizing dancing with someone, but not knowing who, I started to dance with Jesus. My wonderful Prince Charming. The first one to win my heart.

Have you ever been walking in God’s beautiful nature and all of a sudden you are filled with an extreme joy? A joy that makes you break out into your biggest smile as tears roll down your face? You spread your arms open wide and let the sun kiss your face, while the wind blows your wisps of hair so that it tickles your cheeks. You twirl and just feel SO loved, safe, and secure that every worry you have ever had, every doubt, every sorrow is gone. You look into the great big beautiful sky and just thank the Lord from the bottom of your heart for this wonderful beauty.

God loves us so much, that He gives us a sense of security. Only, this isn't the kind of security where you are constantly wondering if a computer geek is going to break into your computer and steal all of your information. This is a security that NO ONE can shake, NO ONE can take away.

Have you ever been hugged where the person hugging you just seems to envelope you in warmth and love? My wonderful Daddy is a big man and every time I hug him, I feel so safe, so secure that nothing could possibly go wrong when I am in his arms. Imagine God. He rules over the universe! He made the Heavens! He made every living creature on earth. Not even one single tiny bird that no one pays much attention to half the time can fall without Him knowing it.

So, if I feel that safe in my earthly Daddy’s arms, what about my Heavenly Father’s? His arms carry me through every trial and every storm. His arms can even carry me through death, where my earthly Father’s can not.

I Love to dance. Polka’s, waltzes, jigs, reels, and any other dance that is somewhat historical (I don’t care much for the modern dances they do now a days!). Waltzes, when long, can get somewhat boring. However, when we are dancing with Christ, it will never be boring. In fact, we could dance for hours and hours and still beg for more! Life is similar. We have our years when peace prevails, and yet we have those years where it seems chaos every time you turn a corner. There are years full of joy and happiness, and there are years of sorrow and tears. Guess what? God is with us all the time, though! He is with us through every single thing we do. Every single thing. There is NOTHING we do without Him. He is the Master Planner.

Unless you really hate dancing, dancing makes any one happy. Now just imagine dancing with your first Prince Charming!

As we walk, remember those lilies. Even Solomon and all his glory was not clothed as one of these! If those lilies are so precious, imagine what a human, created in God’s OWN IMAGE, is to Him!

So, walk barefooted in the grass, let the sun shine upon you, let the flowers brighten your day, and remember Who created all of them! Jesus loves you SO much, you just can’t imagine! When you are down, or feeling sad, talk to Him. He is always listening. He is always there to hold your heart safely in His hands.

I will be praying for all of you, though I may not know your names, that you will have the love and peace of Jesus Christ in your hearts and lives. There is nothing so sweet, so special as having Christ Jesus’ love in your life.

I encourage all of you to live for Jesus and to remember to dance with Him through storm, trial, and sorrow. No matter what, remember He is always there, ready to envelope you in His love, mercies, and Grace.

Dancing in the Sunshine and the Rain,

Sarah