I think Eustace spent too much time on the tractor yesterday while we were gone. He was still working when we got home, and stayed out until after the sun went down. The camel looked positively exhausted when he came in for dinner.
I walked him out to the barn after dinner, just to tuck him in for the night. When I went out this morning to check on the camel, I didn’t have the heart to wake him. He looks so peaceful, doesn’t he? What ever would we do without this cheeky, yet, oh so loveable camel, I wonder. I’ll just be grateful for him being here.
I think we should all have someone like Eustace, don’t you? Someone that always thinks of us, of our health, and of our happiness. You’ll have to find your own, though, because this camel is taken!
Ahhhh, the laws of nature, the laws of Government, and yes, the laws of mankind, themselves. One might pick from any number of lists, in order to locate a law that seems in need of being changed. Would the change even remain, once enacted?
If we’ve learned anything at all regarding the law, it’s that if man is involved in it’s creation, modification, or even dissimilation… it won’t last!
After all these generations of humanity, we still struggle with racism, hate crimes, corporate greed and injustice, along with a completely inadequate educational system. Why is this still occurring? Human Nature, that’s why!
Until we learn that we never had any power in the first place, we’ll never stop making mistake after mistake after mistake!
I vote that instead of trying to find some law that we think we have the power to change, we start giving God the space to start making changes within our very hearts! Big, and very powerful changes are possible from the smallest of humble surrenders. I know who holds the power… and it’s neither you nor me, but God and God alone!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He makes a way!
When I am powerless, unseen, and discarded by a very broken and fallen world, He lifts me up, surrounds me, and covers me with His providence… and His Power! Since I never had the power to change the world on my own, in the first place, I never really lost anything of myself, aside from the fear, shame and self-loathing that usually comes with existence.
Since God’s the only one with any true power to change what needs changing, I choose to let Him do that which I cannot! That’s all I wish to focus on til I get home…
Eustace is determined that I should get Valentines cookies that won’t hurt my stomach, so he spent the whole of yesterday baking dairy-free, Gluten-free, and low sugar/sodium cookies… Oh, Joy!
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that they looked and tasted kind of like Playdough.
I’ve even thought a great deal about my dream home…
But it’s not nearly as easy to write about a dream home, as things keep changing, the longer you’re awake!
Beautiful colors, and exquisite designs fill the rooms of this dream house, but each time I try to dream it again, the rooms have all changed…
What makes something dreamy, at all, really?
Is it the sights, the sounds, or the smell of a dream home that make it dreamy?
I’ve found that when you dream on a thing too much, you miss all the other dreams you could’ve been dreaming.
Truthfully, that saying about home is where your heart is, or the scriptures about storing up your treasures…
those are really good things to think on.
You can stuff your home with every manner of beautiful, and yes, dreamy things you wish. Hopefully, you’ll come to realize that it’s not what’s in a home that makes it a dream home… it’s what you do when you’re there!
Love changes the way everything looks and feels, making even the smallest of spaces quite beautiful and dreamy…
Open the door for a stranger, take someone’s cart back for them, allow a car to merge in front of you, offer a smile to encourage another, or even be bold enough to pay it forward, so to speak.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud… It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (describes the nature of love).
Eustace has taken to plowing the whole back half of the barnyard, planting everything green, including zucchini squash, asparagus, romaine lettuce, and of all things, watermelon. It’s all the way at the back, near the tree line. I told him it was far to early for them, but you know how the camel can be when he gets on one of his kicks.
Honestly, I think he’s growing enough for the entire valley.
We’re gonna need a fruit and veggie stand down by the road, unless he thinks he can eat all that stuff, once harvest time gets here. Bless his heart, though.
I think he’s finally found his passion, and seems much happier than working in an office… and, I’m reaping all the benefits, muhahahahhhh.
Good events, bad events, and events that are happy or sad, all have one thing in common. They’re all significant!
What we choose to glean from those events, whether we like it or not, will form the perspectives we have later in life.
The things we encounter become our defining hour, not by what we overcame, but how we overcame.
Age, and the passage of time, have taught me that my perspective can be intentional, rather than being brought about from life’s influences.
The only perspective I desire to attain is one shaped by God. If he deems it so, then I allow things of the past to influence my perspective. For example, putting myself in someone else’s shoes, or something like that.
I’m certainly not saying that I don’t think I’ve been influenced by things from the past, because none are immune to it.
I will say this… the experiences I’ve lived through, and those that I put myself through, have all left an indelible mark upon my heart, but from there it’s been my choice whether to be a statistic or a survivor.
The mind is a powerful and complicated thing. We need to take captive every thought, every word, and every perspective. Humans are wishy washy with our attitudes, motives, and yes, our perspectives.
From the beginning of time, God gave mankind the free will to choose their physical, emotional, and spiritual choices. For the most part, we’re terrible choosers! We allow things of this world to control our perspective, but those things are just that… of this world.
When I let go of my own opinions and perspectives, laying them before God, he provides the perspective that should be within my spirit. F.Y.I., I said when I let go, not I always let go.
I tend to build mountains out of mole hills, while God leads me right up over em! Being carried is always a humbling experience, but such a blessing.
God does the heavy lifting, so I’m left to watch him work, and in turn, form a Christ like perspective. When God’s the one in control, there’s life in the learning. That’s what I call influence!
Sometimes, the winds and rain of life’s storms can become so loud and overpowering, all one can do is hold fast to something solid.
All strength has been spent in search of answers, directions and/or solutions to escape the storm’s fury.
But, what if one is meant to endure a storm, rather than escape it? What then?
I find that when things are beyond my control, my understanding, and my own strength… I seek God!
Here’s the place where my thoughts, my opinions, my plans of escape, and the sound of my own voice, need to take a time-out!
God most often will speak softer and quieter, the more agitated and anxious I become. You would think that he would simply raise his voice over my own babbling, just as I would do to my children when they were small.
But I’m not a small child any more. Those days are far behind me, so I’ve no excuse for not listening when my heavenly father counsels his daughter.
Here’s why I am eternally compelled to seek this God that I speak of so often… He whispers!
I’ve had ups, downs, successes, failures, and really big Uh Oh’s!
God has walked with me through each and every storm of my life, whether it was of my own design or something completely undeserved. He stayed, comforted, encouraged, and counseled… but always in the quiet, after I’d settled down into his lap, as it were. I learned a long time ago that when I felt the most anxious, it was because I wasn’t listening for God’s quiet voice.
There were times that I became angry with God for not speaking louder, telling myself that I could have avoided a thing all together, had He spoken up!
The funny thing is, I doubt I would have listened to His counsel anyway… it’s what I often did over the years. You know I like to keep things honest.
I would be less than truthful if I didn’t admit that I still do this on occasion. It gives me hope to know that I live in grace.
I doubt I’ll get all this stuff right in just one little ole earthly lifetime… I’m pretty sure that’s what eternity’s all about.
Now that I’m getting older, it’s even more important that I listen more carefully for His whispers. My hearing isn’t what it used to be. Fortunately, in my case, God often speaks clearly to my heart through scripture.
Journey With Me! 