Westwoods

What do you do when your life unravels? What brings you back to solid ground and God and trust?  What do you do when all of the things you used to do no longer seem to work? First of all...Be thankful.  This is the most important first thing to do.  The Bible says to give thanks in EVERYTHING.  That means the hard stuff too. That means especially the hard stuff.  Saying thank you to God for the hard stuff is letting go of self and walking in faith with God. Saying thank you brings you back to KNOWING that God has got the situation covered front and back.  Thanking God for the hard stuff helps you think beyond the problem to how God is going to solve it.  This never stops working even when it seems like it does. And the other thing that always works regardless of the feeling, is coming to God with all of it.  In Hebrews it says without faith it is impossible to please God...he that cometh to God must believe that He is God and that He i...

These two went on a sailing trip while the rest of us did the boat cruise around the bay provided by the city pass. Selfie with my two eldest...Precious memories... The whole gang... Inside the boat with a few nieces and Lora, my sister in law and my friend... Craig and Kari's daughter Nicole.  Craig's family visited our home prior to our trip to Seattle but do you think I took any pictures?  Of course not...and we went huckleberry picking too and they help me  acquire 2 buckets of the little purple gems. Since we were in the bay the same time Bruce was sailing; I was able to take pictures of his boat. He and Shaunti are standing at the front of the boat. How about that...not too bad for being zoomed in and in and in... Cityscape... We visited the aquarium as well... The city is crowded in summer...I was so glad to come back to a small town and breathe country air... How foxy! These two intrigued me...maybe it ...

Hello all, just back from a lovely weekend in Seattle with the Hartman family...(I'll post pictures later this week hopefully.)   In the meantime I wanted to share a little encouragement straight from the wells of mercy... There were a couple incidents in our travels that made me realize the power of prayer. Again.  Driving over it felt like we were hurling ourselves through space.  We weren't really, it was just my overwrought emotions. Cars were headed for us from both sides and I knew we were going to be smashed like so many bugs on a windshield. Every rumble strip and changing of lanes reminded me of the old arcade games we used to play in the strip mall when I was a teenager; always wrought with some obstacle to dodge and barely miss.     About halfway I had a little cry with God. I asked Him, "Why am I cursed with tense nerves?  What am I afraid of really? A little help please? Please help me to think rationally. You have given us ...

Our summer is rapidly speeding by.  We just came through an extremely busy ten days of preparing for and hosting girls camp.  Toria was one of the girls to attend this year so we were able to be very involved because of that and the fact that we are one of the three couples from church on the committee. So today, we took the family and went sailing. It is the first of us all being together pretty much from the beginning of summer.  Would ya look at those big kids...My my my...how they have grown... :) Sisters that missed each other yet are back at it in the fight and spat department...     The parents of the great big kids...I think we are happier than we have ever been together...although I still test his love weekly and sometimes daily with my clumsy boisterous ways.  This week I scratched the top of my SUV hauling kayaks around for my son and his buddy...that tested his love a bit...I may be 40 but I still have a few ignorant are...

I am reading The Case For Faith  by Lee Strobel.  I am not sure why I am reading this book now when it feels like I am going through a time of asking my own questions about life and maybe even my faith.  My walk with Christ this summer feels shaky.  I am wobbly like a newborn kitten.  I feel bewildered, alone, and little bit lost. If this disturbs you, I am sorry. Please go away. I have a point to this searching, but probably cannot explain it to you...I will let you know when I figure it out... I know that faith is believing and hoping against all those things I cannot see or feel. I know, having been raised in a conservative Christian home what all the pat answers are for the questions I have. I know how I should think and feel about life and people and God.  I know the Bible teaches what church is and means. I don't question a Creator and His creation. I believe with all of my heart that God cares about every single detail of my life. I also believe ...

As irritating as they can be, questions are important.  They are probes in the sometimes dark of Life and make you ask, "WHY?"  "Why", is a good place to be.  'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness'.  Matt 6:33 That is full of meaning about asking questions.  And Matt 7:7 the ask, seek, and find verse, also a lot of questions going on there.   Questions do not mean I have a lack of faith, rather asking the questions increase my level of faith.  Some questions go unanswered indefinitely; they are the kind that test my faith.  It's then I say as Job once said, "Thou You slay me, I will trust You"  and..." I know that my Redeemer lives"... Ask questions if you are floundering.  Seek His face if you are lonely. Knock until you get answers.  Even if the answer is, "Trust ME on this."

If you believe you stand tall and strong and know it...take heed lest you fall. When you tumble, confidence is lost.  Causing you to quake at the thought of doing the usual.  All ground is shaky under you. You are a blade of grass in the wind; bending over but not breaking. Stand still. Listen... and experience faith... know without the feel That You are loved. Falling has happened before. Before, you were caught and held Strength from the One who held you, returned and filled the dry deserts of your soul. OK.  Enough of the prose.  The truth is not "prosey".  And the truth is that I am smacked up side the head with this summer and its activities. And I am fearful, unreasonably so.  Circumstances do have an effect on ones feeling of equilibrium no matter how solid and stable and mature your are.  Not that I am any of those things,  but I was hoping.   Another truth is that I am shaky as a newborn kitten.  I feel...

Lord, a little help, please?  While I was teaching, my friends continued living their normal lives. I did too but normal was a little bit of newness all year, learning to hold together a classroom by day and a home by night...I am floundering with this space and time. You are the One, who got me through.  You shone just the right amount of wisdom at the right moment like salt and pepper to my bland fried egg.  You did that when I was staying at home and not teaching too, I remember the moments of quietness with my Bible and cup of coffee and the zap of life You gave when I most needed it, even if it was only laundry I was dealing with that day. Now though...I feel lost and alone; restless and exhausted in my mind.  I don't know how to hold a decent conversation with my people.  I don't know how to get involved with them again. I don't know how to care or be of some use to them.  Have I chased everyone away with my narrow focus of learning to teach? ...