Boojoyful

May 30-31 Glancing out our bedroom window, I thought I saw our beloved blue heron on the dock.  Grabbing my camera, I slithered down the hill, hiding behind trees as I went.  By the time I was halfway down I realized it was a goose, not my long legged friend.  This goose started honking at me, as if I was intruding on his territory, then he lifted his leg and pooped right on our dock.  Really? How often in our lives have we chased the wrong "thing" or person, to end up in a poopy scenario? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."  Psalm 111:10 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Psalm 105:4 

May 29 A week after she had humbled herself and asked for prayer, she began spotting.  The verse on one of my devotionals was Acts 17:28.     In Him we live and move and have our being.  We both remained hopeful that she would see this baby live and thrive, but a day later a miscarriage took place.  Early that morning I received an email devotional by author, Tracie Miles, written in relationship to Romans 8:28, and it gave examples of women who had endured painful experiences. "You see, each one had allowed God to transform her pain into purpose, and as a result, their lives now shine as a living testament to the power of a Holy God.  Each one had watched God turn something difficult into something that would glorify Him." Our daughter wrote to me and said,  " All these emails and scriptures helped this morning.  I feel like I cannot digest enough of Gods word.  I am eating it up like a starving woman."  She also explained...

May 28 The next two days I want to share a journey, which for some we have learned is a taboo topic.  Our daughter has struggled with infertility issues and recently had her third miscarriage. While the journey is incredibly painful God is faithful to walk with us in that pain. My hope is that the verses God supplied for us, will bless you or someone you know. Upon learning that once again our daughter was pregnant, these first two verses are what popped up on Biblegateway. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before they came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts God!  How vast...

May 27 God makes me laugh.  Being in the Word everyday affords us the opportunity to see Him at work in our lives; to realize how personally involved and totally aware of our activity He is.  Over Memorial Day weekend we hosted a "back of the cove" pot luck.  No one has done this for several years and there are several homes with new neighbors and "seasonal" people who have not met one another. Up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep the night before, I decided to go to Biblegateway and read for awhile.  Staring me in the face was the verse for the day. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, build them up.  Romans 15:2 I"m telling you, God is a know it all!

I shot these photos of this amazing sea creature at the Gatlinburg Aquarium. God was having a very creative day when he created this fellow. The color and shape changes, which occur in seconds, were beyond belief. God's got some  splaining to do for this one. May 26 Merriam Webster has a category on their website titled "Words We're Watching." Topping the list last weekend was  mansplaining.  "It's what occurs when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he's talking to does." I had to laugh. First of all, it mentioned that you can put most any prefix in front of  splaining,  which was coined as an appropriate word by Ricky Ricardo, on the   I Love Lucy  show years ago.  "Lucy, you got some  splaining  to do."   Secondly, God mu...

May 25 Mike Norten wrote the book,  Unlocking the Secrets of the Feast .  In this book was an excerpt on two of the jobs of the Holy Spirit.  Recently, I've been stuck in ruts and trying to get out of them in my own strength versus calling on the power of the Spirit.  I gobbled up the part that our Spirit filled lives are a continual process towards maturity!  In the second context of empowerment, I don't think we come near  to tapping into the power God intends for us to experience. Norten writes: "The concept of the filling of the Spirit has always evoked different opinions regarding its meaning.  One thing I observed about filling was that in the Greek there are two different words for the process. In Ephesians 5:18 the word for filling is  pleroo , which conveys the idea of  growth to maturity or being molded by the Word of God .  If we compare Ephesians 5:18 to Colossians 3:16, which discusses the same subject, we can see tha...

May 23-24 Was there a product that was advertised as the never ending candy bar?  Maybe Sugar Daddies?  Do you remember how those things stuck in your teeth?  The Bible is the never ending source of goodness, wisdom and truth for me.  I hear people say they don't have time to read it, but I have a hard time putting it down.  The very same passage comes to light in new ways again and again. Hebrews 12 put a sparkle in my day, as my eyes landed on where it described Jesus as the PIONEER and PERFECTER of faith.  For some reason that word pioneer  had never sunk in. The dictionary definition, which excited me, related to Jesus is: " A person who is the first to research or develop a new area of knowledge or activity." This second definition made me think of the disciples as the preparatory infantry group; and we are part of the main body of troops!  " A member of an infantry group preparing roads or terrain for the main body of troops." March f...