THE ANCHOR

The definition of "anchor" is "a heavy weight to hold a ship in place.  Granted I have not been on a big ship for any length of time except to tour.  Ever.  Nor do I expect or want to be.  But if I was on a big ship, I would want to be certain there was an anchor heavy enough to hold it should an anchor be needed.  I do remember many years ago on a vacation to the west coast, we toured The Queen Mary, a huge ship.  It's anchor had to be heavy.

I have a dear friend who for many weeks now has been by the side of her husband who has been very seriously ill.  She has shown me what it means to be there for a spouse in sickness and the love she has shown for him should be a lesson in love to us all.  Her text about an hour ago said his home going around 5 a.m. today was so very peaceful.  My heart hurts for her loss but I know that she is a strong girl with a deep faith and a heavenly Father who will be her anchor.  Her anchor in the time of her storm.

All this came to mind as I pondered after her text to me.  A song from way back began to play over and over in my mind.  Yes, this is the same mind that can't remember why I went into a certain room but can remember a song from mega years ago.  Go figure.  Must be meant to share with you blog readers is all I can say.

The song is titled, "In Times Like These" and was sang often by George Beverly Shea who was seen a lot at the Billy Graham crusades.  Sadly, youth today won't know much about George Beverly Shea or Bill Graham but hopefully they know about the anchor in this song.  Here are the lyrics:

In times like these you need a Savior
In times like these you need an anchor
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

This Rock is Jesus, Yes He's the One
This Rock is Jesus, the only One
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these you need the Bible
In times like these, O be not idle
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these I have a Savior
In times like these I have an anchor
I'm very sure, I'm very sure
My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

I am very sure that MY anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!  I hope you are sure, too.

"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..."  Hebrews 6:19

Consider....

A DIY FIX

Most of my faithful blog readers know how much I love birds.  I love watching them, learning from them, and photographing them.  One of the popular places for birds to build nests is my front porch.  I have watched them diligently bring in all these twigs to make a safe haven for their eggs and young.  I gain encouragement and confidence from watching these mamas.  They are a sermon in themselves.

Last year we got our trees cut from our front yard  They were becoming problems and The Husband and I try to avoid problems as we age.  The yard is wide open, nice and pretty.  However, in the summer, the sun has no blockage with no trees to shade.  My front porch is too painfully hot as is the front of my house which houses the kitchen where I cook.  Ovens make a kitchen hot and add the heat of the sun coming in through a porch and it's REALLY hot.

The Husband and I decided to get some rollup/rolldown exterior shades for the porch.  They are perfect and keep things cooler as we had hoped.  The shades were not up even one day before one of those wise mama birds found the top of one.  Oh woe.  For the first time ever, I had to sadly clean that up and come up with a plan.  After researching online, I took one of the suggestions that was a simple painless fix.....

It works.  A good quick fix for this issue if you have a need.

"LELLOW' FLOWERS

When springtime comes to our world, our grass will green up pretty fast.  We do laugh a bit, though, as what's really turning green is the weeds.  We have tons of pretty weeds.  Amongst these weeds are a world of those little yellow flowers.

A month or two back, The Grandbaby and I were outside.  She wanted to pick those yellow flowers.  She said they were for her mommy because her mommy likes them.  Duh.  We went inside and got a large Solo plastic cup and she began picking while I held the cup.  We smushed "lellow" flowers into that plastic cup until it was overflowing.  The Grandbaby picked every flower in the huge front yard and in the fairly large back yard.  Every.  Single.  One.  I promise.  And she gave them to her mommy just as she said.

I was reminded of this experience as I headed out fairly early for errands the other day.  As I stopped at the end of my driveway to pull out, my attention was caught by my across the road neighbor's little field behind the fence.  The sun was shining on those yellow flowers and it was a beautiful sight.  I longed to have the time to get my camera and shoot pictures but instead  I went on to my errands.  Before I headed home, I texted my neighbor and asked if they would mind if I took some pictures of the flowers.  They didn't mind so as soon as I got home, I went in for my camera.  By then, the morning sun had disappeared and the photos were a bit more challenging but I had a wonderful time! Here are a few of the pictures I took....as I see them.

HAPPY HEARTS

Usually, I prepare supper for The Girl, The Son-In-Law, and The Grandbaby on Wednesday nights.  I have done this for seven or so years....began as a way to help get to Wednesday night choir easier but seemed to evolve into a regular weekly event that all looked forward to.  And yes, we are still in the mode of eating breakfast, lunch, and supper....just can't make it breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Just sayin'.

This week I changed it up as my today's schedule leaves little time for cooking and preparing.  We ate here together last night instead.    When there is Wednesday night choir, I insist on doing the cleaning up and send The Girl on to the early kids practice as she plays piano for that choir and the practice after it for the adults.  Now that choir practice is on summer hiatus, The Girl helped with the clean up last night.  As we worked together in the kitchen as we had done in the past, I began to pay attention to the sounds.  In the "wivving woom", I could hear The Grandbaby singing one of her many songs.  She is quite the song learner and is becoming a song composer.   Then I realized that both The Girl and I were humming different songs as we worked.  Somehow, those sounds just made me happy.  I love it when there are happy hearts that come out in the form of sounds of joy and praise.  It just makes a happy heart happier somehow.

This morning I just finished reading my scripture.  As I sometimes do, I just opened my Bible and read what I opened to.  Today it was Psalm 96, not a typical Psalm I can remember and quote so I read it.  Here are the verses that stood out to me:

1-O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.

2-Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.

4-For the lord is great, and greatly to be praised...

6-Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

I just love that!

Hearts are happy when you have a "song" whether you can carry a tune or not.  Consider.....

NO BABY JESUS?

I have done some changing around today by moving in the vintage handmade doll house for Barbies (yes, The Husband made it for The Girl many, many years ago and it's a jewel).  That merited that I reorganize the other toys as well.

The Grandbaby came to visit while The Girl went grocery shopping.  Yes, she was thrilled with the doll house but she was just as thrilled with the older toys that had been at the "bottom of the barrel" so to speak.  I was gifted before The Grandbaby was born with one of these wonderful Fisher Price nativity sets for the kids.  The Grandbaby has loved it since she began playing with it and can name e'erbody in the box.

Today she wanted she and I to play that.  We took to the newly located kids table and began taking e'erbody out of the box.  All were unloaded, angel placed on top, Away in a Manager playing from the angel, and wise men and animals were in place.

The Grandbaby says loudly, "WHERE IS BABY JESUS?????"  Well, ain't that the truth?  What's a nativity without the star of the show?

My Neema mind began to do a little fearing.  What if Baby Jesus was lost?  What if he'd accidentally been thrown in the trash?  So I began to search.  Finally I found him in a bag with the palm trees (which we did not use in the nativity).  I breathed a huge sign of relief.  He was in the bag with the palm trees and a sheep.  I headed back to the living room and held out the sheep and The Grandbaby smiled.  When I held out the Baby Jesus, The Grandbaby smiled and yelled happily, "Yay!!!"

The Lord immediately spoke to me with the message of my day.  Anytime we "lose" Jesus (and we do--all of us have), we can find him right where we left him.  And, he's always ready to return to being our Jesus, our guide, our protector, our all.  There's a lot more in that sermon but I'm gonna leave you to ponder it.....

Consider.....