STRUGGLING WITH THE ENEMY

As I typed the post title, I realized how broad that is.  Struggle.  We all do it.  Often.  We struggle with decisions.  We struggle with fear.  We struggle with insecurities.  The list of struggles is endless, isn't it?  Or is it just me?

If I really get to the nitty-gritty of it all, the struggles are enhanced by the enemy.  That saying "the devil made me do it" has a lot of truth in it, but only if we let him.

I read some devotion scripture this morning that I honestly had never read enough to really be encouraged.  And believe it or not, it's from 2 Chronicles no less--one of those Old Testament books that I rarely even look at with names of people I can't spell much less pronounce.  In this case, it's Jehoshaphat.  I learned that King Jehoshaphat was a leader who feared the Lord and sought his guidance in his leadership.  It seems that his country's enemy somehow entered the country and caused a threat.

Did Jehoshaphat start gathering up his army and weapons?  Nah.  The first thing he did was to pray to his God for help and encouraged his people to do likewise.  You know what God replied to him immediately?  "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not your's, but God's. (v.15)  "Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them; for the Lord will be with you." (v.17)

Jehoshaphat and his people worshipped and praised God loudly.  The got up early the next morning and headed into the wilderness.  The Bible doesn't say they were armed, just said they went praising God.  Long story short, the Lord sent ambushes against the enemy and the enemies beat themselves.

This account spoke to me this morning.  I need the stance of Jehoshaphat.  I need more prayer.  I need more praise.  I need more trust.  Yes, I learned a huge lesson in trust and praise and prayer.  I encourage you to read this account in 2 Chronicles 20.

And remember....the battle is not ours, but God's.  Don't be afraid of the devil or insecurities and such that he tries to bring to you.  Resist the devil.  Praise the heavenly Father who has it all in HIS hands.

Consider.......

SCORECARD

My faithful blog readers might remember my post from July 24, 2019 about "Sights of Summer".  In the post, I mentioned my pea "patch".  I also voiced my hope that I would be able to get a "mess or two" of peas before the deer did.  The Husband was confident the deer would get them all.

I just wanted to report to you, my interested blog readers, that I have gotten four pickings of these peas which will, for two people, equal many "messes of peas".  I happily have bags of peas in my freezer and the pickings will continue if all goes well.  Here's my harvest of my mixed peas from the last 12 hours.

Score of pea pickings:

ME:        4

DEER:   0

Maybe my deer herd likes protein more than vegetables?  Just sayin'.......

ORDINARY

Our friend, Mr. Webster, defines "ordinary" as "the regular or customary condition or course of things".

For a couple of weeks now I have again been dealing with the dreaded intestinal adhesion flare.  Maybe it's resolving on it's own, maybe not.  One day is better, one day is not.  It's been almost a year since what has become the annual surgery of summer and I remain hopeful that I will make it through this summer without that same thing.  It's becoming quite ordinary for me so I deal.

I was thinking the other day how that as I have aged, I just like things ordinary and normal.  I am liking the process of downsizing.  I am finding the emotion to part with some things that I have not been willing to part with before.  I've never been one to grow upset over a dirty house.  I didn't say filthy, I said dirty.  A little dirt doesn't bother me.  So I'm acquiring a liking for "ordinary".

The other thing as I was doing my devotion time this morning is the thought of how often I miss blessings of the Lord in the "ordinary".  I want to allow HIM to speak to me through these things.  Admittedly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings to sleep a bit later in the mornings.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings to be able to stay awake in the recliner to make it through my favorite TV shows such as Masterchef last night.  I fell asleep  ten minutes before it was over.  I do find myself thankful for the not-so-ordinary-for-my-house DVR.  Technology at it's finest.

I just pray to find joy in the ordinary things of life.  We all have different "ordinary" things of life but I want to encourage you, my blog readers, to find your own joy in YOUR ordinary.  Look around and see.  In my world, of course, The Grandbaby is a huge joy and just having her is a blessing but I find myself chuckling when she has begun to come out with words like "ACTUALLY, Neema...." .  Really?  At three years old?  Actually?   But yes, it's just those little things.  I found myself loving a simple selfie The Girl had taken of The Grandbaby, The Girl, and me recently.  It just makes me happy.  Yes, I know you want to see it so I will share.   When I look at the picture, I see the dress I'm wearing...the same dress I've had for about ten years now but I feel it's comfort.  It's one of my favorites, especially when my intestinal adhesions are amiss.  What I see when I look at this picture is happiness, smiles, and love.   The second picture is one I took a while back of The Husband in our yard.  I love it, it's a sweet normal picture of The Husband whom I can classify as one of the best. If you look closely, you can see his big smile even though the picture is far away and as I look at that big smile, I can almost hear his laughter that is so much like his own mama's was.   Then there is The Son-In-Law who loves his girls and his unique t-shirts.  I gave him a matching one for The Grandbaby for Father's Day.  Ordinary family making extraordinary blessings of love.

I want to encourage myself to look for the ordinary blessings all around me and let those give me joy. I often take "ordinary" for granted.  Maybe you do too?

Consider.....

SIGHTS OF SUMMER

How do I describe summer in the south?  Hot and humid are the first two descriptions that come to mind.  I don't know that any part of the country has experienced humidity like the south does.  Some days there's just no need to fix your hair.  Humidity wrecks it.  Now I will interject here that bad hair is not something that will ruin my day.  Life is too short in my world.  I will admit that I tired of dealing with sweaty hair so a couple of weeks ago, I told my hairdresser that something had to change.  Now I have layers that have just made my natural curly hair curl all over the place.  That would be a thanks to the humidity.  I had to say that I kind of like it.  It's very carefree and if a hair is out of place, it looks like it's supposed to be out of place.  Not a bad deal.

Summer sights in the south and other places are certainly blooming flowers.  I had the opportunity to spend a little time in my friend's zinnia patch.  I was so carried away with taking the pictures, I forgot to bring home a bouquet.  Here's a few I took...I do love zinnias.  Get ready.  I'm sharing a lot of pictures.  The butterflies are an added bonus.

Taking photos of such beauties is very therapeutic for my mind and soul.

Today I have a rare quiet day at home.  I have, as my father-in-law used to say, "lollygagged" around my house all morning.   A few months ago, The Husband started and ended a project of rerouting our driveway.  I might or might not have mentioned that.  Well, now part of it is gravel and when fall comes, he will landscape around it.  In the meantime, he decided to plant peas on the side to help erosion until then.  It's hopeful if the deer don't discover first, that we might get, as we say in the south, a mess or two of peas out of it.    Here's our newly rerouted driveway.

Since the south's strong humidity has lessened for a day or two, I took a walk to my now farther away mailbox to collect today's mail and noticed more about the peas.  It was interesting enough that I came in the house, got my camera, and documented the "life of a pea".  I have no sermon about these as I sometimes do.  I just decided to share the photos that taught me with you, my blog readers....just in case you ever wondered about the life of a pea.  

So there I was with my camera focused getting the perfect picture of this beautiful multi-colored bloom when in my lens, I see a butterfly land.  The Lord certainly delighted me big time with that flight.

This picture seemed to have all the phases of the life of a pea.

I think if my father-in-law were still with us, he would appreciate the efforts of my lollygagging this day.  :)

LET'S TALK ABOUT REVIVAL

Growing up as a PK (preacher's kid), I've had my share of going to church.  I've probably had your share, too.  Growing up, we went to church more than we went to the grocery store.

All the churches we went to up until we went to the church where I go now would have revival twice a year, nightly for a week in the summer and spring, except for a few who had a three nighter for spring.  It was one Wednesday night at one of those three nighters 54 years ago that I answered the call of Jesus for salvation.  Yes, a little-preacher's-kid-go-to-church-more-than-to-the-grocery-store-girl had to heed the call to come to Jesus just like the meanest kid on the block had to.  All the Jesus rules are the same for everybody.  In HIS eyes, we are all the same.  That revival that year was the most important decision making revivals in my life.  But not the last one, not by a long shot.

At the church where I go now, the church where I married The Husband, and the church where I have raised The Girl has weekly spring revival, weekly VBS, and weekly summer revival.  Summer revival is services held twice daily, morning and night.  For all of you familiar with camp meeting, maybe they are the only ones who have a revival service more often with three services.  I'm not that familiar with camp meeting, just revival.  The revival week that my family holds dear begins this Sunday.

I find many definitions of "revival".  One says "an improvement in the condition or strength of something" and another "a renewed attention to or interest in something".  The ultimate goal of a revival is to lead souls to Jesus, as I was led.  Since I have aged and experienced many revivals since that day, I have learned that it's so much more.  To a child, it's a time that you might get to have friends over from church to spend the night and go back to church the next morning.  Or it could be a time adults look forward to "feeding the preachers lunch".

I've learned that now revival is a time for me to lay aside all I can and just concentrate on praising Jesus.  I've learned that following HIM and doing HIS bidding along with my praise holds blessings more than my heart can comprehend.  I've also learned that although revival time is set aside for one week in the summer, it's a way of life and a way of heart that we all need to practice every day.  Yes.  Every. Single. Day.

If you are reading this and go to my church, I hope I see you at services even every single day.  I hope that revival can be to your heart what I know it is to mine.  I know, too, it's not that many years away when Jesus will speak to a little heart inside The Grandbaby and her time will come to come to Jesus.  I hope when that time comes, she wants to RUN to Jesus!  It's up to me and all those that love her to let her know every single day that Jesus loves her more.  May I never fail at that task.

Back in the winter, The Grandbaby began singing a Christian song.  I was amazed that no one actually taught it to her as it was not a child's song and very wordy.  It was even on the radio as I picked her up at her house the other day and she recognized it immediately and said, "That's a night night song."  She said, "My mommy sings it to me."  As I recalled, I thought then that her mommy sang it to her when she was a baby regularly, maybe even daily, and that same song gave her mommy strength in a time when she needed it most.  That song is a reminder of the power of the Lord, HIS provisions, and HIS promises.  So as I thought of that particular song AND revival, I realized it says how I want to be spiritually during revival time and every day.  It's probably familiar to you.  The part The Grandbaby sings in her little childlike voice goes like this and makes my eyes tear up every time...

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name

The sun comes up
It's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing
When the evening comes

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name

And the part The Grandbaby doesn't know the words to and gets me also go like this:

You're rich in love
And You're slow to anger
Your name is great
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness
I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons
For my heart to find

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name
Bless You Lord

And on that day
When my strength is failing
The end draws near
And my time has come
Still my soul will
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years
And then forevermore
Forevermore

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name
Yes I'll worship Your Holy name
I'll worship Your Holy name

Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I'll worship Your Holy name
Jesus I will worship Your Holy name
Worship Your Holy name

Ain't that all good?  

So wherever you are and whatever you are doing, let's have a revival in our hearts.  Every. Single.  Day.

Consider.........

THE RUBY ANNIVERSARY

The jewel, the ruby, is traditionally known as the jewel for a 40th wedding anniversary.  Well, this past June 29, there were no rubies exchanged or given but the memories and gratitudes were just as treasured as a ruby would have been.  Yes, The Husband and I were married for 40 years this past Saturday.  40 years.  That's quite a long time by some standards, by other standards, not so much.

Forty years in our world contained and continues to contain joys and sorrows, gains and losses, and faith, mercy, and love.  I say that The Husband and I haven't argued much in the past forty years.  We have disagreed on occasion but have met in the middle in a thing called "compromise".

As I pondered that day forty years ago, I couldn't remember exactly what I did in preparation.  I though of the long sleeved, high necked lace bodice wedding gown with the lace veil.  I thought of those mint green dresses and dark green tuxedos with the groom in that solid white.  I remember my mema and my granny being there and I remember that my daddy stood straight then as we walked down that aisle of our old church.  Odd what we remember.  (For pictures, see "34 YEARS" post from June, 2013 on this blog.)

I think of all the times The Husband waited through my many surgeries, some serious enough to be uncertain of the outcome.  It seems like he's had to do a world of waiting and caregiving for me--hence that sickness and health vow, I guess.  We've enjoyed many vacations together.  We have worshipped together in our church almost every Sunday unless there was one of those sicknesses mentioned above in this paragraph or one of those many vacations.  The Husband is a good man, not a perfect man, but perfect for me.  My heart seems to grow with gratitude more and more with each passing day.

The Husband suggested a couple of weeks ago that we go on a weekend trip.  We could celebrate our anniversary but more than that he thought I needed some serious rest.  I thought he needed some serious seafood so I chose St. Simons Island.  Man it was hot.  I got some serious rest in the air conditioning and we got some serious seafood at every meal...with the exception of a breakfast meal. He actually had crab at the other breakfast meal.  A first for him for breakfast.  As we sat in the Cafe Frederica on the morning of our anniversary breakfast, we looked around at the other diners, all of them looking older than us.  Not by much but older anyways.  The Husband said, "Who would have thought forty years ago we would be sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast and surrounded by senior citizens?  And that we would fit right in?"  We both got a laugh at the truth of that statement.

I figure you would enjoy seeing just a few of the few pictures I took on the trip.  And if you wouldn't enjoy seeing a few pictures, just scroll on through the rest of this post.  :)

Anniversary morning we took a walk on the beach, visiting the beach at Jekyll Island and the Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island.  Beach hair, don't care.

This looks like a sea monster or something...

And then there were birds, of course......

Would you look at these models?  They weren't perspiring, they were SWEATING....but looking "cool as cucumbers".  Isn't that what models do?

Most likely, our marriage has seen more anniversaries behind than it will see ahead.  I am assured in my faith that my Lord has been in all those passed and will be in all those in the future.  When death parts us, I am assured even more that we will both someday be in heaven face to face with Jesus.

Yes, much to be grateful for....surpasses the worth of rubies by a landslide!

Consider.....