Trixie's Travels...

The Road

When we were in Montana a couple of months ago, we found this great Wildlife Refuge a little past Swan Lake.  We decided to drive down to check it out. There was only one road in and one road out - so you basically had to "wait your turn" if you were trying to enter and someone was trying to leave or vice versa.  

As I looked over the pictures that we took, I realized that I had taken 2 different shots of the one road.  

One coming in......

 

and one going out....

 

It was the same road, but just from 2 different perspectives.  

Coming in there were hundreds of tiny butterflies everywhere.  They were all over the road, all over the plants and trees and even our car.  I won't even tell you how many we ran over as we slowly crept our way down the road.  

Going out you saw bees all over these yellow flowers...

 

I started to think that my life is a lot like this road.  God has placed me on a path and at times, I don't know where it will leave - a lot like when we were coming down the road.  We didn't know how far the road would take us, if it would turn, where it would turn or if there was another exit.  But looking back up the road, I remember the pot holes, where the things were beside the road; more importantly, I remember where it started.

In my life right now, I have a choice as to how I will look at the road.  I can either briefly look behind and see where it all started or I can look ahead and see what may or may not lie ahead for me.  

I would rather look ahead to see what God has in store for me.  I can briefly look behind and see where it all started; but if I keep looking back, I may trip and fall on something that was right in front of me.  I can also miss the beauty of what lies ahead.  

It is better to keeps my eyes in front of me, then I won't miss anything that God has for me.

His Promise

Before I started this trip, there were crazy amounts of rainbows appearing in our area... more than I had seen before in quite some time.  They were strong rainbows, not the soft glimpses of rainbows when a storm subsides.  These rainbows tended to come out in a break of the rain, but you could see that more rain was definitely on the way.

I couldn't help but think of God's promise to never flood the earth again-the way He did in the days of Noah and that the rainbow was a testimony of the fulfillment of that promise every time it appears.  It is funny how the promise doesn't show itself through the whole storm...a rainbow isn't appearing the whole time a storm is taking place, but you look for it at the end of the storm or you are even surprised by it when the storm concludes. 

Sometimes I am blessed to see a rainbow in the middle of a storm, when things have calmed down a bit; but it is only for a short period that I see the fulfillment of that promise and then the storm continues on. 

The rainbow comes whether I am anticipating it or I am surprised by it, because God is faithful to what He said He will do.

I kept asking myself, am I always looking for proof of the promise at only the time I look for it or can I trust God that at the right time He will faithfully show me the fulfillment of His promise?

He reassured me with Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man that He should lie nor a son of man that He should change His mind, does He speak and not act, does He promise and not fulfill?"

Trust has been hard for me but I can trust Him, I want to, I desire to, I have set my heart to trust Him even when it hurts and the storms don't seem like they will end.  He is faithful even when I am faithless.

May God's promise to you be enough to stand on.

Your Love

"For great is Your Love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies."
Psalm 108:4

I'm so glad you called...

and told Pook to tell me to get up off my butt and go outside with my camera. 

I saw this

and I smiled.

It made me remember

God's promise (Genesis 9:12-17).

It made me think of

how faithful God is to keeping His promises.

It reminded me

of how faithful He is to me and those around me.

He reminded me today that He is my strength and He is faithful and all I needed to do was listen and look.  I'm so glad you reminded me to look!

Yippee!

1,000 Words

A thousand words of encouragement can be destroyed with one word of discouragement.

Where do you lie with that?  Me - ohh...ouch, zinger, little to close for comfort...

With that, words of encouragement that I received this morning -

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil 4:13

Don't look at what you can't do or don't have the strength to do - look at what He can do and take it one step at a time with HIM.

An Old Poem

Love

Love is often talked about
And often is defined
But clarity of meaning
Is sometimes hard to find

Some say it is a feeling
With a warm and friendly glow
But feelings are changeable
They come and then they go

But the highest form of love
The kind that God does share
Is a love that knows no limit
And the kind that's full of care

It's not a means to selfish end
It's given because there is a need
For better and for worse
It's a kindly and caring deed

It's shown by reaching out
With understanding for another
It's overlooking faults
Of a sister or a brother

It does not stop to measure
Just who is the most deserving
Its concern is not for power
But instead for kindly serving

It does not seek to dominate
And cause one endless strife
It does not say "I want my way"
Overwhelming someone's life

Godly love is a treasure
And sharing is the key
God shared such love in Christ,
His Son
And through Him we are truly free.

By Pastor Herb Knutson of Bethany Lutheran Church
printed in the Bigfork Eagle April 26, 1989

Funny the things I have saved for over 20 years.

Mixed Emotions

It was bittersweet on Sunday morning, I was able to go to church with the kids and the teaching was fantastic and....it was horrible all at the same time.  It wasn't who was delivering it that made it awful or even what was said - it was what God was speaking to me through it - a splash of reality about what was living, breathing, killing my heart and it was just down right ugly.  

He started talking about loving other people and believe me I am all for loving other people.  I love to love other people, to come along side others and just encourage them, make their load lighter...let them know someone cares because Jesus cares about them....BUT...yes, there is a but...the past few years have been difficult and people have hurt me.  The kind of hurt that brings a tear to your eye whenever you think of them and you wonder "Why??" and I have pulled back.

The Pastor gave an example of when you are driving down a road and you have a cup of hot tea and you hit a bump and the hot tea spills all over you - how do you react?  It isn't the tea's fault - you hit a bump.  The bump was there already too, but what does that bump reveal?  How do you react to what just happened?  I listened and wrote down what he said.... because I knew it was hitting a nerve.

I started driving home and started thinking about what had been said.  This had hit a BIG nerve because all of a sudden as I am driving I start to tear up.  The kids are in the back seat singing and talking away and my mind was completely engulfed in hot tea.  The hot tea had BURNED me - it HURT!! and I wanted to take the cup and chuck it.  Chuck it out the window - chuck it at a couple of people.  All I could think of is my 30 or so Starbucks mugs and just throwing them as hard as I could as fast as I could.  I was mad - I was angry - I have been for some time, but in reality, I was mad at God for letting all this happen.  Mad at Him for letting me hurt so badly...so very deeply.  

The sincerity of Christ's love has always drawn me to Him - before I even knew Him personally. To know that I was created to be loved is just dumb-founding to me.  So where is His love in all this? It is still where it has always been - in Jesus, in His Word.  I needed to talk to Him about it.  He already knew what I wanted to do with the cup.

The Pastor also brought up a quote from Tozer - I like that guy - Tozer said "Before a person can be used greatly by God, he must be hurt deeply."

I know the path that God has laid out before our family and because of what has been going on in my heart; that path has not been a high priority for me - if even in sight. 

As of today, my Starbuck mugs are still in tact and by just me opening up to the Lord and letting Him know that I was angry...that I wanted to chuck my cups...that I saw what was going on in my heart and I didn't want to live like this anymore...that I wanted to love again, love without reservation, love without restrictions, love like Him....the load has gotten lighter.  There is still a lot of crap to go through  - a lot to sort out, a lot to let go, but I am not alone going through it and I can look to the One who sees it all in the end anyways. 

"Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.  And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."  1 Thes. 3:11-13

Bickering

I have to share this because I don't know why I am always amazed at a little something I missed in God's Word that is so pertinent.  At church we were finishing up the book of Philippians (Chapter 4); you know that fabulous chapter that tells you not to worry about anything but take it to God in prayer and His peace will just blow your socks off - that is Trixie's Translation there. 

It is the first 3 verses before those amazing scriptures: 

v1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.

3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow,help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

I don't know about you but when I read, I don't always pay attention to other things that are going on.  It is like I just go for the scriptures that are in BOLD print, the real meaty ones that I can count on God about.  These scriptures though, have some serious meat in them. 

Verse 2 has a couple of women that are having some issues.  In the New Living Translation, it says they are bickering; whatever it is they are NOT agreeing.  Each of the ladies are Christians and there is something that is going on that is wrong and it is causing a disagreement. For me, bickering is usually the prelude to bitterness. 

Here Paul is basically saying, "I beg you, it doesn't matter who is right or wrong, but be of the same mind in Christ.  You have shared the cause of the Gospel with me, you are my beloved, you are my joy, my crown.  Don't let your bickering, your disagreement, your hurt feelings stand in the way of what God wants to do and that is for people to know the love of God"

I don't know about you but when I have issues with people, loving others is not a top priority. As a matter of fact, it is the last thing that I want to do. 

The other thing was that Paul was asking others in the church to go and help these women.  They didn't have to deal with it by themselves because let's be honest, when a couple of women are bickering everyone is effected in some form or another and Paul wanted there to be peace and perspective.  Peace with each other and eternal perspective that they were getting robbed of.  Isn't that just amazing?!!  I thought so!

I was so thankful for that tidbit today, it hit the spot! Have a fabulous day and I'll chat with ya real soon!

 

 

Perfect Timing

I know it probably doesn't matter to anyone else, but it enormously matters to me - that is, the kindness and thoughtfulness of others.  It is very easy for me to give, even give when I know that it really doesn't matter to someone else - I do it because God asks me to because He created me to bless others, so for me that makes the receiving end very hard to well....receive.  I know/have known people that they receive often and it is easy for then to take - and there have been times when I had wished that I could be like that.  I tend to be the suck it up, stick it out kind of person BUT this week God turned things upside down for me.

First, I needed something so I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked.  It was something I felt God was challenging me to do.  I asked for just a little companionship, the kind that wasn't something I had to prepare for, but I could just enjoy and God gave it to me.  He had ladies  place thoughtful e-mails in my box, a couple cards in the mail, a dinner shared with a WHOLE family, lunch dates and visitors at my door lingering with coffee and conversation and God has used that to just fill my heart.

I have been blessed because I could take a little time to just ENJOY others, without preparation, pretense or weirdness.  I love that God always takes care of me more than what I thought I needed.  I thought just one night with company would be sufficient - He saw that a whole week would be better. 

I love being His daughter. 

He has become my salvation

I awoke to that floating my head.  It is the later part of Exodus 15:2...."The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation"  Why did Moses put "He has become"?  It didn't irritate me, but it made me think on it for a while.   Moses was chosen by God,  God spoke to him and through him to Pharaoh but why would Moses say "He has become". 

My mind started to race around...what is the Hebrew for that phrase...well, it is just what it says "salvation, deliverer, welfare, prosperity" but the KJV says "He is become my salvation".  I thought my writing was bad, but as I looked at that to me he was saying "He is my salvation" and "He has become my salvation"  - kind of like,  is becomes that verb that is always there - a constant presence as in "The chair is there." - it "is", it exists.  God is my salvation - He "is" - His salvation exists; but then it is switched up and God "becomes" my salvation.  His act of redemption for me, is in Jesus for Moses it was Pharaoh and his army being utterly destroyed in the Red Sea. 

Moses was part of Pharaoh's house at one time, raised there and this may be stretching, but I find it interesting that Moses sings of how God becomes his salvation after all of Moses' past is destroyed.  There were little parts that remained back in Egypt, the woman who raised him, but all that had authority over him prior to God revealing Himself to Moses, was utterly destroyed in the Red Sea and not by the hand of Moses but by the hand of God.

God has become my strength, my song and He is and has become my salvation.  I cannot save myself, how could I possibly?  How can I do something spiritual, I am human. Yet why do I spend my human strength on spiritual things instead of spiritual strength on spiritual things?   My goodness, I feel like a brick hit me - I need His strength and it is so easy to say..... so easy to say - I want to sing of His salvation.   He has saved me, He keeps saving me because I need Him to pick me up, to make my path firm before me, to direct me and guide me but most of all, I just need to be His.