Max, Laughter, and the Corona Virus

Max makes us laugh!
Heaven knows we need laughter
with this CoronaVirus thing!

Proverbs 17:22 says,
"A merry heart does good like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones."

"What are you doing in there?"
Max seems to say as he looks in the kitchen window
by putting his front feet on the picnic table!

"Uh-oh"
"I think I ruined the soccer ball."

"I sure like going for rides!"

"These lawn chairs aren't very comfortable without the cushions!"

"This just looks like a cigar...
It's really rawhide,
and it doesn't have much taste!"

Well, I hope this made you smile.

Stay well!

Wash your hands!

And join me in trying to look for something good every day.

"I would have lost heart,

unless I had believed

that I would see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the LORD!"

Psalm 27:13-14

My Fig Tree...

A couple of years ago

I bought a little fig tree.

I checked the label to be sure it was hardy enough to survive in our "zone",
and the tag verified that it should tolerate our weather.
[Our Ozarks experience a full measure of each season,
and often the temperatures are quite unpredictable.]

During its first test of Ozark winter,

I thought it had died.

However, I put it in the garage 

and occasionally watered it.

To my surprise when spring came,

 it started putting out green buds.

In my excitement I put it outside a bit too early,

and a late frost set it back quite a little.

As you can see,
it's recovering quite nicely.

It's comeback stirred my mind to look up what the Bible had to say about fig trees.

I was surprised how many times they were mentioned!

The first mention, of course, was of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 

when they tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves!

But fig trees were mentioned quite a few more times!

Their presence seemed to indicate a time of relaxation and security.

They not only provided a place of shade from the hot Middle Eastern summer sun,

but also supplied fruit to satisfy their taste buds and replenish their energy.

Jesus talked about fig trees several times.

Maybe it was because I had witnessed my fig tree suddenly putting out green sprouts

 that the verses below seemed to stand out to me.

Jesus told His disciples this parable:

"...Look at the fig tree and all the trees.

When they sprout leaves,

you can see for yourselves

and know that summer is near.

Even so, when you see these things happening,

You know that the kingdom of God is near."

Luke 21:29-31

The coming things that Jesus talked about happening

are mentioned in Matthew 24, in Mark 13, and Luke 21

as He warned us to be ready for "The Day of the Lord".

If you would like to read about the signs of His coming,

click on the highlighted references above.

If you're not sure if you are "ready" for His coming,

Billy Graham has led millions into

finding peace with God,

and you can find those 4 easy steps HERE.

Well, I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait

before I can sit in the shade of my little fig tree

or eat of its delicious fruit,

but I have learned a little about the mention of

fig trees in the Bible!

I'm pondering on a new Name of God to write on Rocks.

I'm not sure it qualifies for a Name...

It's a bit unusual,

but I bet you've heard of it.

Check back later on Rock4Today for a new posting,

and see what you think!

"Stubborn Courage"

You may remember last year when I mentioned this mule
in a post I did about a trip to Wyoming.
Mules are known to be a bit stubborn...
But have you ever thought about stubbornness as a good thing?

Earlier this spring I was asked to give a talk
to our Compassionate Friends group,
and the title of my talk was
"STUBBORN COURAGE".

At the time I gave the talk,
I was grieving the affects of cancer
that appeared to be consuming the life of my sister.
A friend of mine had given me a book entitled
"A Tearful Celebration:
Finding God in the Midst of Loss"
by James Means.

Toward the end of the book the author used the term
"STUBBORN COURAGE",
and the words just seemed to jump off the page at me.
I began to write down thoughts about the subject.
Here are a few of them that I shared with our
local Compassionate Friends group.

STUBBORN COURAGE can be a gift from God
to keep us going when we feel like giving up.
It's hanging in there when you don't know
how to handle your feelings,
don't know what to do,
and don't even know how to pray!

STUBBORN COURAGE is a determination
to keep on going even when you feel like God has failed you,
and He hasn't met your expectations.

STUBBORN COURAGE grows my ability to trust God again,
even if He doesn't answer my prayers the way I want.
In the process, He molds my character,
and makes me more understanding of others.

STUBBORN COURAGE helps me to determine to
take control of negative thoughts that would try to get me down.
A counselor friend of mine says,
"You may not be able to control your emotions,
but you CAN control your thoughts,
and your thoughts can change your emotions."
Philippians 4;6-9 tells us not to be anxious,
but to think on good and lovely things,
and then God restores our peace.

STUBBORN COURAGE is putting one foot in front of the other,
trusting God,
muddling through difficulties and challenges,
and then looking back and seeing that God was there all the time!
It was God who dried our tears.
It was God who gave us the strength to go on
when we felt like we could go no further.
It was God who put a friend in our path,
someone to put their arms around us
or give us an encouraging word or smile.
It was God who gave us the courage to HOPE again,
and to DARE TO BELIEVE in His goodness.

Meet my friend Jim Davis,
a cancer survivor,
who lives to encourage
other cancer victims.

In my opinion,
he is someone who exemplifies
STUBBORN COURAGE.

One of his quotes is:
"...Milk the life out of every breath
until the last one comes"!
You can find out more about his story HERE.


Thanks for stopping by!
I hope this post on STUBBORN COURAGE is an encouragement to you.
Many thanks to my husband's cousin,
(and also my friend)
who reminded me of a promise to do this post!
Here it is, Sharon!

Don't forget to check out my Names for God on Rocks
on Rock4Today!

Skewed Visual Perception!

As the mountains of the Glacier National Park came in sight,
my excitement mounted.

Getting nearer the Park,...
Gary laughed at me when I thought these might be wild horses...
Well, they could have been...
After all, this was Montana...

The views were beautiful...

...Until the clouds began rolling in.

From moment to moment the weather changed...

But that wasn't all...
I discovered something about myself.
At times I have skewed visual perception.
I was certain that we were going downhill instead of uphill!

When no one was behind us, my husband put the truck

 in neutral gear to show me

that we would roll backwards.

So odd!!!

It had happened to me before when we visited
Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills.
On a recent visit  there Gary did the same thing,
and immediately the truck began to roll backwards.
He reasoned with me,

showing me the streams of water

and lovingly pointed out the fact that the creeks don't run uphill!
This made me feel like I was really losing it!
(Click on the highlighted letters to see a post of our visit
to Spearfish Canyon two years ago)

Maybe it had something to do with the way
 the rock formations were beside the road,
whether they were slanted or straight up and down...
...because this looked uphill to me...

...And this was shortly verified by the sign
which denoted the elevation!

The temperature outside had dropped down to 41* F.
With the wind and rain, it felt REALLY CHILLY!

Coming back down the mountain,
we caught a little glimpse of the Jackson Glacier
between cloud bursts of rain.

This wrong perception on my part
of the uphill/downhill thing
made me think about how easy it is for us
to get a wrong perception of Scripture facts as well.
Fortunately, like my husband, God gently shows us
when we have wrong thinking!
He says in Isaiah 1:18:
"Come now, and let us reason together...
Though your sins are as scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."

And in Luke Chapter 15 He tells us over and over
how He not only reasons with us,
but looks for us and pursues us.
I'm glad He doesn't let us stay where we are
with our skewed up perceptions and messed up thinking!


And, in case you are worried about me,
please don't!
If I have continued weird symptoms,
I'll go see a doctor and get checked out!


Speaking of checking out something,
have you dropped by Rock4Today lately
to see what Name of God I have posted?

Weird Clouds and Freak Storms!

A very unique storm dumped over 2 inches of rain on us last week.

What made it unique?

No rain was in the forecast for that day.

Channel 7 KATV's News Personality Todd Yakoubian stated that it 

"... created its own area of low pressure aloft and is spinning.

 If this storm was over warm ocean water,

 it could develop further and become tropical...

You really don't see this often at all."

(Click on Todd's FaceBook page link HERE to see the radar image.)

I wasn't aware of the storm's uniqueness 

when I took the following photos of the cloud formations. 

To see them better, click on them to enlarge.

The clouds looked so heavy...
but I'm not sure if they fit the description of
Mammatus Clouds or not.
(Click on highlighted link above to view photos
and description of Mammatus Clouds.)

Some of the clouds looked rather sinister...

If I used my imagination I could conjure up all sorts of things!

But instead, I thought of a few Bible verses.
One was from Nahum 1:3 that says,
"The LORD has His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet."

Another is from Daniel 4:35, and says,
"He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back His hand or say to Him;
'What have You done?'"

Psalm 97 says of God, that
"Dark clouds surround Him...
His lightning flashes out across the world...
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD...
and Psalm 104:3 says,
"You lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds Your chariot;
You ride upon the wings of the wind."

But let's go back to the prophet Nahum.
In Nahum 1:7-8, he says,
"The LORD is good,
a strong refuge when trouble comes.
He is close to those who trust in Him.
But He will sweep away His enemies
in an overwhelming flood..."

... And then I ran inside...

The lightning was flashing...

The thunder was booming...

And giant rain drops began pelting me!

Cow Birds in the Bible? Yes...

 I've been enjoying watching juvenile birds this spring!

Some mockingbird babies have been frequent visitors.

Looking out my kitchen window,
I thought at first I only had one,
but then saw two together,
...and then surprisingly enough, a third one!

They were very curious...

...seemed to enjoy climbing on my lawn furniture...

...And came close enough that they seemed to watch me
when I was by the kitchen window.

But imagine what a surprise it would have been
if their mother had found this bird in that batch of babies.

I found it interesting what God had to say about "Cowbirds"
in the Book of Jeremiah 17:11 via The Message Translation:
"Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggs
in another bird's nest
Is the person who gets rich by cheating.
When the eggs hatch,
the deceit is exposed..."

The verses just above this are featured in today's Rock4Today,
Are you curious what they say?
Just click on "Names of God on Rocks" to take you there!

Thanks for your visit!

Drop back by any time to see if I've done a new post.

Your comments are welcome!

Eagle Watchers!

Yesterday as my husband and I were coming back from church,

I asked him if we had time to swing by the eagle's nest on Lake Norfork.

Last year each time I had visited their nest I had failed to see them,

and therefore presumed the pair of eagles must have deserted this nest.

A fellow "Eagle Watcher" was there,
and we visited with her for awhile.
She assured me the nest was occupied,
and invited me to come back and watch the eagles
with her on the following day.
She stated she had been watching them and photographing them
for the past seven years!

An instant bond was formed
as we shared our love of these magnificent birds,
and also found we had a mutual relationship with their Creator.
We hoped to catch some photos of the parent eagles
bringing in food to the juveniles who were still in the nest.

While we waited for their arrival,
my new friend showed me some of her photo albums.
I was so impressed with her beautiful photography.

Not only did she have some superb photos of eagles,
but many other subjects as well.

I enjoyed perusing through her beautiful photographs
and visiting with her as she continued shooting with
her "Fine Pix S" camera and 50x lens
that she had purchased for less than $400 from Walmart!

As we talked, a flock of large birds flew overhead,
and she quickly positioned her camera to focus on them.

She shared with me that she had health problems,
but this hobby was something that seemed to bring
the presence of God nearer to her,
and give her enjoyment and peace.

I had been so busy looking at her photos
and visiting with her,
that I hadn't focused my own camera on the nest.
Two juveniles seemed like they themselves were
having a conversation.
Unfortunately, the parents didn't show up during this visit.

One of the young ones stretched his wings as
he perched on the edge of the nest.
He looked as if he was testing them,
...checking them out
to see if they were ready for that first daring flight!

I returned home to check the flight status
 of the little juvenile Mockingbird
that had taken up residence in my back yard.
He, too, was making progress,
but still not getting too far from home!

The Book of Job in the Bible

has some interesting comments about birds:

"...Ask the animals what they think ---

Let them teach you;

Let the birds tell you what's going on.

Put your ear to the earth ---

Learn the basics.

Listen --- The fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.

Isn't it clear that they all know and agree that

GOD IS SOVEREIGN,

That He holds all things in His hand ---

Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature?"

Job 12:7-12 from The Message

"When times get bad, people cry out for help.

They cry for relief...

But never give God a thought when things go well,

when God puts spontaneous songs in their hearts,

When God sets out the entire creation as a science classroom,

USING BIRDS AND BEASTS TO TEACH WISDOM."

Job 35:9-15 from The Message

Thank you for your visit!

(My Rock4Today blog featuring the Names of God on Rocks,

should have a new post before too long.)

Cancer Fights and Flights!

It was a lovely day for a flight...

My husband was privileged to have a flight in this plane.
His pilot was Blogger Jim Davis, Cancer Survivor,
and new author of a book in the making.

Jim has used this plane for a unique mission.

You can find photos and his newsworthy story by clicking HERE,

 and then click HERE for the report when his objective was completed.

And, NO! ...In case you were wondering,

although we have had to face the cancer-fight 

with several family members,

very thankfully,

neither my husband nor I have had to face that challenge!
However, my sis Alice, is presently staring that giant in the face.
She has done some blogging in the past.
You can find one of her poems  HERE.
Prayers for her and her family are solicited and appreciated!

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

"May the God of HOPE
fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in Him,
so that you may overflow with HOPE
by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:18


Thanks for your visit!
Rock4Today should have a new Name for God posted soon,
so check back later, okay?