Keepers!



As I mentioned in Rock4Today,

 I know God is our Keeper,

but we are also "keepers" of each other!

Cain seems to have realized that when he asked the Lord,

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

When our youngest child was born,

the first words I remember my doctor saying were,

"She's a keeper!"

I can truly say that about each of my children.

They are keepers!

I can also say this for my husband.

He is definitely a keeper!

God gave me a gift when he gave me Gary.

Although our lives are so full,

he often takes time to make sure I feel "kept".

He seems to sense when I need a bit of peace,

like taking me out on the lake in the quiet of the evening,

or for an excursion into our beautiful Ozark country.

After saying this, I am embarrassed to admit that

sometimes I tend to think of "keeping" as negative.

For example,

I often don't see how much "keeping" my husband does for me,

and instead, I focus on how much "keeping" he takes!

It's at those times I have to remind myself

of my wise Aunt Mae's words:

"That's the price you pay for having a man!"

Yes, Aunt Mae, he's a good man,

and certainly worth keeping!

Maybe Aunt Mae's words aren't Scriptural advice,

but they are certainly worth paying attention to!

Check out my Rock4Today blog which gives verses

from the Holy Bible that show

God as "My Keeper."

I am so glad that He never gets tired of being "My Keeper!"

For more interesting blogs check out these links:

Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursdays

Charlotte and Ginger's Spiritual Sundays,

and

Laura's Brag on God Fridays!

The Path

"Your road led through the sea,

Your pathway throught the mighty waters -

a pathway no one knew was there."
Psalm 77:19 NLT

The part that grabbed me about this is that
God already had a path in place

for the Israelites before they ever got to the Red Sea.

(If you're not familiar with this story,
check it out in Exodus chapters14 and 15.)

He does the same for us.

He will not keep His path a secret from us.

He will show it to us at the right time.

The waters may be up to our neck,

But He already has a path in place!

Psalm 16:11 NKJV says,
"You will show me the path of life:
in Your presence is fullness of joy."

This week has been a challenging week to me emotionally.
I need the reassurance
that God already has a path in place
 for me and for my family,
...even if it doesn't feel like it,
or if I can't see it right away.

Psalm 23 reaffirms that thought,
especially verse 3 which states that
our Good Shepherd guides us in the right paths.

We may feel like Job who experienced
problems and challenges gallore;
but no matter what, we can know
that God "knows the way that I take."
He already has a path in place!


Thanks to Charlotte and Ginger for allowing me
to link with their inspirational posts
at Spiritual Sundays!

Who AM I?

I just posted an "I AM" for the name of God on my Rock4Today blog, with a little description of Who He is.  There is absolutely no way I could cover all His "I AM's" in one post, but it got me thinking about who I am.

I guess most importantly, "I am" a Christ follower.

"I am" also a wife and help-mate to my sweet man, a mom, a nana (grandparent), an aunt, a writer, a registered nurse, a Sunday School teacher, a friend, a good cookie baker, a sister, ...and a person who loves to take excursions on the Buffalo National River.

To me the Buffalo National River is one of God's very special places of beauty.  With each twist and turn of the river, there are new views with matchless and unparalleled beauty.  I am so thankful to live close to this majestic river.



My granddaughter and I visited this spot on the Buffalo yesterday.



My two younger sisters and I visited this spot on the Buffalo last fall.





I introduced my grandson to this Buffalo River spot last spring.
When I need to de-stress, I often close my eyes and visualize this view of serenity.
I can literally drop my blood pressure twenty points when I do this!


Down stream from the last area that I have pictured, the river bed seems to change with every season.  It reminds me of an encouraging Bible verse from Proverbs 21:1 that says,  "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD;  He guides it wherever He pleases." (The Living Bible)

The reason this verse is encouraging to me is because it reminds me of the sovereignty of God.  No problem and no person is too big or too powerful for Him to handle.  And no problem is too small for Him to care about.  In 1 Peter 5:7 He says, "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. (The Living Bible)

Getting away to the river seems to help remove my cares...  the warm sun, the sand, the beautiful blue green waters, the lush vegetation, the song of the birds, and the gentle current of the river all help to soothe and renew my soul.  It is one of God's gifts to make me a better person - no matter which hat of the "I am's" I am wearing!


For more on the letter "I" try Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday,
or try some Inspiration from Charlotte and Ginger at Spiritual Sundays!

To see the latest God Rock go to "I AM"

Thanks for your visit!  What's your favorite place to de-stress?

CanULive2Long,orCanUDie2Soon?

After my recent post in Rock4Today highlighting God as My Healer, my sister-in-law and I were having a conversation about the connection of faith with healing.  We both felt that faith is an action word that involves committment.  She commented that to her it involves attitude, fortitude, and endurance, quoting from James 2:26 that says "faith without works is dead."  Being a survivor of the accident that took three of my siblings, she said she had to apply this principle in order to bring about the healing of her broken bones which enabled her to walk again.

As we were discussing the sudden loss of lives from that accident, she told me about one of my brother's sermons entitled "Can you live too long, or can you die too soon?"  

My brother Bill who was killed in the accident, and my survivor sister-in-law

That question has been burning in my mind ever since she asked it.

I posted the question to my FaceBook friends,

and here are some of the responses:

"I believe I am here as long as the Lord wants me to be,

...not a day or second, more or less."

 "Don't want to be here if my mind or my body goes...

'To live is Christ, and to die is gain,' and

'My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.'"

 "Does God ever take a person sooner than he planned,

or does he leave someone longer than he planned...

....maybe because of his/her or others desires???"

"The Bible says our days are numbered,

so I am going to let God answer this question for me!"

"I like Psalm 139 verse 16

'And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,when as yet there were none of them' 

- though it doesn't settle that question

of whether we're fitting into God's plan for us."

And finally, one from my niece:

"Okay, I think that everyone leaves this earth before they're ready. We should live forever. But then this "world" is so fraught with problems; who would want to. I think when all your friends and family are dead and you are lonely and crippled and suffering, its time to go. Did my dad go too early???? Did he have more to do here??? Of Course. My dad's job seemed far from done. There were people who still needed him (not just me). He was such a good minister! He truly knew how to "bind up the broken hearted". His love for people was doing great things in the prison and on the outside.. But a genetic and biological mishap took him from us. God still had work for him to do. Sometimes I think if dad had gone to the doc earlier or eaten different or listened to my constant nagging he would still be here. I don't have that guarantee...  After I lost my spiritual anchor I lost my way and felt I didn't want to be in "this world" anymore and came very close to leaving it. I was in constant pain, constant fever, constant grief. The only thing that kept me going was wanting to see my son graduate. So I held on and despite grim diagnosis from doc just kept hanging on.     So I tried a second opinion. In five minutes my pain had a solution. I fired my old doc, stopped all medication and had a bit of surgery on my shoulder. I got my life back. I'm better than ever. I still have work to do. I was convinced in the pain of my illness that I was done. Now I have so much to do "in the work of the Lord" that I may never have time to die!   ...I will just keep working through to "the end of the world" and beyond.  ...So while I think we were meant to live forever as God's original purpose, I do think that people who are suffering need relief. If that relief comes in the form of physical death from illness, then its okay..."

 

 

What do you think? 

      Can you live too long? 

           ...Or can you die too soon?

 

 

For inspiring posts or to leave a prayer request, try Charlotte and Ginger's Spiritual Sundays.

From Lyme's to Lemonade!!!

In my Rock4Today that I posted yesterday, I mentioned that I was struggling with some health issues.  In case you were curious, today's blog will be a bit of an explanation.

Almost three weeks ago, my husband removed a tick from my right side that was out of my peripheral vision and my reach.  We were getting ready for a trip to Georgia to visit my baby sis for her birthday.  Along the way I also wanted to see first hand the devastation from the Mississippi flooding and the Alabama tornadoes.

We were somewhat overwhelmed with all the damage we saw, but had a good visit with my sis.  Thoughts of the tick bite did not enter my mind.

On the way home, I started getting headaches and a stiff neck.  My side felt a bit sore, like I had overdone exercising or pulled a muscle.  I didn't think anything of it - just thought I was stiff and sore from travelling and being in the truck so much.

When we got home almost a week later, the soreness on my side seemed worse.  I still had the headaches with the pain beginning to progress into my ear and the left side of my face.  Still, I did not associate it with the tick bite.  A few days later when the pain was getting to be a bit unbearable, I looked at my right side and was shocked to find a red ring of rash (petechiae) around the tick bite area. 

The tick had been small and did not look like the one in the picture at this slide show link, but I did have a rashy looking ring about 3 inches in diameter that encircled the bite, and compared to the one in  slide 6 of this same link.  It had  a hard lump under it, was painful, and was very warm to the touch.  Being a registered nurse, I went straight to my text books as well as the Web, and found the tale-tale evidence that appeared to point to Lyme's Disease, then called my doctor's office.

Since my regular doctor was unavailable, I went to see my nurse practitioner friend.  She concurred with me that it did look like Lyme's.  She placed me on the proper med treatment for Lyme's, and had blood tests drawn to confirm it.

I ASKED PEOPLE TO PRAY to the God of Heaven for me!  I had seen the results of Lyme's Disease first hand, and I wanted no part of it!

The anti-infective medicine began to clear the tick bite symptoms gradually, but the facial pain worsened with each day causing excrutiating pain.  Room temperature food was all I could handle, and even that seemed to set off worsening bursts of extreme discomfort.  I began to wonder if I had something else going on as well.

Then the test came back NEGATIVE for Lyme's Disease!  I was very perplexed.  After praying to The God of Heaven for wisdom, I called my dentist for an appointment.  An abscessed tooth,  now ruptured and draining, appeared to be the cause of the extreme facial pain and headaches. 

An added strong antibiotic to the medication regimen is already making a difference, and I am beginning to feel like my old self.  Tomorrow I have a follow up appointment for my dentist to try to fix and preserve my tooth.

Many thanks to The God of Heaven for revealing the mystery and the secret for relief!  I thank and praise Him that I didn't go into septic shock from the releasing of the poison from the abscess into my system.  I also praise Him that the pressure on my trigeminal facial nerve did not cause the paralysis of Bells Palsy.  So much to be thankful for!!!

Very soon I hope to be able to enjoy a glass of cold lemonade without grimacing in pain!  Not too sure I want to try any limeade for awhile...

For prevention of Lyme's Disease or other tick related illnesses, visit this site.


To blog hop, check out the interesting sites of Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday, and Charlotte and Ginger's Spiritual Sundays!