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Christian Living, Guests

A Parallel

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Good report from the doctor for my beloved today; recheck in a month.

It has been an on and off, hit and miss process but I am continuing to read A Love That Multiples by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. Obviously, I cannot say that it’s a book that I could not put down but I can say it is a book that I cannot not finish; there’s too much good that I don’t want to miss. Today’s reading portion is one of those lessons I cannot afford to miss.

Proverbs 15:1 21st Century King James Version (KJ21)
1 A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. via Proverbs 15:1 KJ21 – A soft answer turneth away wrath but – Bible Gateway.

Michelle says she battles anger. Who of us does not?? And she has 19 children!! She has reason, right? But let me share a portion of her book with you – hope she doesn’t mind.

Let me set this up for us.  One of the younger sons wanted some pineapple. The can was on the counter and Mama said as soon as she diapered the baby she would get the pineapple for him.  It was a large can as you might expect.  And you know what happened while she was diapering the baby, don’t you?

Yes. On the floor, under the frig, splashed up on the cabinet doors –  all over! Sticky, sticky pineapple. Just that morning she had taught them from Proverbs. You got it, the verse we just read.  A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.  She sent up a SOS asking the Holy Spirit for help to speak softly. He answered and she sent her son to his room to wait until she cleaned the mess.  It took a while which gave the Holy Spirit time to minister to her. As she said on page 222 of her book: “. . . I felt a surge of God’s grace filling me with peace and erasing all traces of bitterness and frustration.” Then she went to her son.  And what she told him is way passed marvelous!! She spoke and lived out before him what we must know about our ABBA if we are going to live victorious Christian lives. Her children are blessed indeed!!

Here’s what she told her son as written on page 222: “There are things you don’t understand right now that Mommy does understand,” I told him. “Sometimes I don’t have time to explain why I’m telling you to do something or not to do something, but you can trust that it’s because I love you and not because I’m trying to spoil your fun or make you wait for something you really want. God is teaching you patience–while He’s teaching me how to teach you.”

 Do we see the parallel? There are many things that God does that I don’t understand. Even more things He allows that I don’t understand. But what Michelle said is the key: trust. When we trust that He loves us then we don’t have to understand. We don’t have to know why. Trust is enough.

And perhaps if we trust more, soft answers will come more easily too; or at least more often. :)

A blessed Tuesday to you — Braving the Dark with The LIGHT,
Kathie

Please click HERE and pray.  Many need our prayers.

Guests

A Red Jacket

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Juicing done, a cup of coffee, my beloved and Guidepost — want to come along? Good. Here’s today’s reading.

“To counteract the rainy, gloomy afternoon,I put on my red blazer to meet an architect friend, Jeff Wierenga, for lunch. As we sat near a window at the mall entrance, I watched damp shoppers scurrying in. “What awful weather, ” I said.

Jeff, who is an award-winning photographer, replied, “When I was traveling, I used to be disappointed when I reached a great spot to take pictures and the weather was bad. Then one day I saw a photographer in England standing in the pouring rain without an umbrella.

“I had to ask him why he was shooting in such a downpour.  He said, ‘Look at the shine on those slate roofs. It will make beautiful photos–the kind visitors to England want to buy.’

“After that,” Jeff told me, “I didn’t complain again about bad weather on my trips, because I found I could get really good photos on rainy days. Sometimes they were better than the ones I took when the sun was so bright it washed everything out.”

“What does the camera capture that we don’t ordinarily see?” I asked.

“In the rain,” he explained, “colors are more saturated. The best time to photograph brilliant fall foliage is on an overcast day because the colors stand out so much better. I’ve found that flowers are better to photograph on a rainy day. You just have to turn your lens wide open.”

I looked  over the shoppers emerging from the mall into the grayness, and I was suddenly startled to see what Jeff meant. The little girl wearing the bright orange sweatshirt seemed to glow like a torch; the lady carrying the yellow, red, green, and blue umbrella looked like a walking carousel. The gloomy landscape was a neutral canvas that made colors come alive.

I looked down at the red jacket I was wearing. Funny, I had put it on in an attempt to brighten up a gloomy day. Now I saw that it was really the gloominess of the day that had brightened my jacket.

*Father, open wide the lens of my spirit  to see the beauty brought by the rain.  — Karen Barber “

I get it!!  Any body for a red jacket today?

Click HERE and pray and we will be able to

Brave the Dark with The LIGHT,
Kathie

A blessed long weekend to you all — Tee off time is 8:30  :)