He Is In Control

Well, it's Election Day and I'm sitting here trying to review the issues and each candidate's stance concerning them. Remember, I am a procrastinator, after all.

But, before that, I needed to do my daily devotional, so I got the new UpperRoom. Since it comes out every two months, I am a day behind, since I was in too big a hurry yesterday to locate the new one I brought home from church weeks ago. Well, I found it and was reminded how close Christmas actually is. The cover depicts Mary and baby Jesus. How wonderful to know it's time to prepare for the annual celebration of the earthly arrival of our Lord and Savior.

My morning ritual before while driving to my volunteer job is to listen to Brad Paisley's CD that includes a really moving and mesmerizing song that I first heard when it was introduced on youtube. A dear friend sent it to me as she was moved by seeing it. This particular video was taken from the movie, Passion of the Christ. Many outtakes are edited together to show Jesus and Mary on the day of the crucifixion. It is excruciatingly painful to see Him and His mother as they endure this awful day.

The music put to this video is a song, rather a kind of conversational song between Mary and Jesus about a mother's pain seeing this unfold, yet the necessity of these unchangeable events. This haunting melody and simple lyrics gives me the state of mind and heart to start my day as I drive to town. The title is "New Again" and I just feel better knowing that I'm about to do my part of loving and serving, the message that He left for us, as he made everything new again through his sacrifice.

Back to the UpperRoom. I love seeing the manger scene, especially when all the animals are included. But this is quite different, as it is simply Mary cuddling her new baby, as any new mom would. Almost unnoticeable is the shadow that falls upon the otherwise, brightly lit picture. Yes, it's the shadow of the cross falling across the embrace of mother and son. We can never forget the cross when we are celebrating the birth! I always set one of the nails given me by a former youth pastor next to one of my Christmas nativities. The impending sacrifice must never be forgotten during our celebrations of his birth.

As I prepare to vote to put politicians in power, I am reminded by this cover art interpretation, that it was those in power who killed Jesus on the cross. It was Jesus who gave us the awesome example of giving himself for others; feeding, healing and teaching us to love and serve one another. I hope I can find some candidates who I feel are trying to do just that through their platforms.

I will continue to ask God for the wisdom and guidance and the discernment to make these decisions. But, primarily, I will rest in the comfort and peace of knowing that ultimately, God is in control. I hope you have a great day, luv, Susan

Horsing Around

If I remember correctly, I mentioned something about blowing winds last time. Well, they sure did blow here at our house. The powerful winds took down many branches from a dead oak tree in the woods behind the house. This tree had previously been hit by lightening, witnessed by Mark. The branches were then blown into the back yard and also onto our roof, thus taking down our satellite dish. When I got home from Lexington on Tuesday, it was quite the mess out back.

Thankfully, our satellite guy was out the next day to get us back in touch with the world. Mark and I experienced being out of the loop, so to speak, as we had no Good Morning America, The View, or the evening news to let us know the latest news. I even had to call my sister to find out who got voted off of Dancing With The Stars, thankfully, Curt Warner did not.

I'm still in the dark as to where Sam Champion is or what is going on with his family. They asked for prayers yesterday on GMA, but I don't think they were specific as to why. He's one of my favorite TV personalities, so I'm concerned.

I did, however, finally finish my latest book, The Horse That God Built, by Lawrence Scanlan. I bought it with birthday money last year, along with several others including, The Glass House, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Anne Rice's first book about Jesus's life and another about Pete Maravich, one of my sports idols. I've always had an interest in Secretariat, being from Paris, Kentucky, where he was retired to stud at Claiborne Farm. My parents home is adjacent to the farm and I thought I'd eventually get to see him while he was there. I never did.

I think I started reading the Secretariat book last year, but then got distracted, and put it down. I picked it up again when I heard of the movie coming out, so that was my motivation to start reading it again. I finished it last night, so I'm now looking forward to going to see the movie. I hope I make it before it's too late. I previously put off going to see Avatar and was bailed out when they decided to rerelease it back to the theaters. And from looking at today's paper, I see I have missed the Horse Mania event as well. I really wanted to take a tour of Lexington and see all the horses, but, alas, they are being removed and relocated as I type. That's the downside of being a procrastinator.

Because of our temporary satellite blackout, I also avoided seeing the national evening news coverage of the assault prior to the Rand/Conway debates. Not only was this a Kentucky embarrassment, but I also understand the guy being charged is from my home town. I may have known a relative of his, not sure at this point.

The only tidbit of advice I have this morning is to read, if you get the chance, the story of Secretariat by Lawrence Scanlan. It focuses on the relationship between the horse and his groom, Eddie Sweat. I hope the movie brings out the importance of this relationship, but I hardly think it does. I was enlightened by so much of what goes on in the racing industry. The writer did his research in Ocala, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Belmont Race Track, New, York; and Secretariat's birthplace in Virginia. It was really a well documented and well told story. I hope to visit Claiborne Farm sometime in the future to see where Secretariat was buried. Hopefully, sooner than later.

I've got a lot going on these next several days, so I better get going. I've had the dogs out a lot this past week, but not for any walks. Even though today is supposed to be some twenty degrees cooler than yesterday's perfect weather, I hope to get out and walk all five. I hope you get out today as well, have a great one, luv, Susan

Blowing Winds

After experiencing day after day of dry, sunny, unseasonably warm days, something is blowing our way. We hope it's rain. Hopefully, it won't be anything violent. Unfortunately, we can't say the same about Kentucky politics. After blowing through the Commonwealth for weeks now, last night the most hotly contested race turned just that, violent. I'm embarrassed to see that Kentucky political supporters of an unnamed candidate physically assaulted an opposing candidate's backer. Regrettably, this all made the national news this morning. The majority of Kentuckians are sick and tired of all these negative ads and are having a hard time making sound, political decisions because of all this negativity by campaigns on both sides. We know that college behavior should be ignored as irrelevant to today's races. I just pray that God will give us the wisdom to make the best decisions when election day comes.

I've been having continued health issues of a periodontal nature. Simply speaking, I've had gum surgery this past week. It hasn't been pleasant and I'm hoping and praying for positive results ahead. This, however, did not prevent me from attending the last UK game, which was really painful to witness. Many UK fans simply headed for the exits when things went from bad to worse in the third quarter. We remaining fans kept the faith as there were real attempts at coming back. We will hope for a more competitive game in Starkville this Saturday. Go Big Blue!!!

This mornings UpperRoom was a favorite, familiar devotional, the story of the prodigal son. This son takes his inheritance early and goes off and foolishly squanders it. When he realizes that he is at rock bottom, wanting to eat even the pigs' meal for sustenance, he makes the decision to return home. He is willing to become a hired servant to his father, knowing that he has become unworthy of his former position of a devoted and loved son. He approaches his father with a fully repentant heart, asking for forgiveness and mercy. Remarkably, the father welcomes him home with open arms and restores him, with celebration, to his "rightful" place.

This is a wonderful story and parallels how God will welcome us back into his loving arms after we have gone astray and ignored his loving guidance in our lives. The best part is that it is so true. As long as we are repentant and ask for forgiveness for our sins, it doesn't matter how long we have strayed from Him, He is just so thrilled to have us back, He celebrates our return!

If you haven't read this story in a while, it is found in Luke, chapter fifteen. Many of us can relate to the older brother in the story. He, who has always done everything exactly right, is not feeling very much like partying over his little brother's return. I hope we will see the return of the "lost sheep" as God does and party on.

I'm not sure what to expect in today's weather, but I do know that God is in control of it and everything else. So, I know it will be a great day. I hope you have a great day and stay safe no matter which way the wind is blowing. luv, Susan

God's Blessings

I realize that I haven't blogged in quite some time. So, I'm gonna try to do a quick update and try to follow through with a couple of blogs each week. I think there's over a hundred previous blogs still on this site, if you're interested in my views or stories from the past couple of years. I especially recommend the story about Mark's Thorn.

First and foremost, I am a Christian. I live a really blessed life. I seek God's will for my life everyday. He is awesome how he uses so many different venues to get my attention and show me the way He has for my life and how I'm to follow through.

Currently, my husband, Mark and I are emptynesters, with two adult children, who are both game fully employed and living not too far from us. So, we are able to see them regularly. We love that.

After living in Henderson, Kentucky for 21 years, we have resided in Georgetown, Kentucky now for almost three years. We are so blessed to have a wonderful church and church family close by. We've nurtured relationships with them and other neighbors. Country living has always been our preference.

Also, thankfully, my sisters and parents live close by as well. After over thirty years, having family close is a true blessing. God is good!!

I keep busy with church activities, family, volunteering at a super place called the Amen House, and caring for five dogs. Yes, five!! I started simply with one, Taffy, who I was given by my Aunt Linda in Illinois, after our little cocker spaniel, Twinkles passed away. Taffy was always a wonderful little pet, but as she got older, I thought it would be best to breed her so there would be the possibility of having one of her future puppies available if and when I lost her. We bred her with another malti-poo named Duncan. I was able to give the two puppies to Duncan's owners and also to my cousin, who needed a little dog. After we learned that Duncan was fixed.....I thought we'd try again with another dog. Hence, we ended up getting Pepper, a little Maltese, six years Taffy's junior.

Taffy and Pepper really hit it off and had four litters of puppies. With God's guidance I found wonderful homes for most of the puppies. However, through the years, I have received three of them back. I figured, they were ultimately my responsibility, so, in addition to Taffy and Pepper, I also have Riff, Roy and Pudge. I've got my hands full, but I really enjoy this little family of fuzzy white companions.

I will continue to ask God to give me guidance each day so I can serve Him by serving others and loving everyone on my path. I am constantly reminded each day that He is always with us. We can seek his guidance through prayer, Bible reading and study, church attendance, fellowship with other Christians and always being open to His showing us our way.

I hope you have a beautiful fall day, as it looks like we're having here in Central Kentucky. I'll try my best to continue my messages on a regular basis. God Bless and take care. luv, Susan

Morning Mercies

It's been a while since I've blogged. Mostly I just don't make the time to sit down at the computer, but I do have another excuse. Lightning hit a tree just into the woods and off the corner of our deck. Mark was under the deck at the time and actually saw it hit. I was upstairs in the kitchen and saw the extremely bright flash and heard the tremendous crack as it hit. I thought that the power would go out, but it didn't. I did, however, lose the internet connection to my desktop computer and have not been able to reestablish it. So, I am now working on my laptop, something I'm a little less familiar with when blogging.

I hope you are enjoying this perfect weather of the past two days. After, what seemed, weeks of heat and humidity, it has now become cooler, dryer, yet still sunny and warm. Our morning walk was wonderful. The first thing I noticed was an indigo bunting that flew past us and perched on the side of the road. I always enjoy seeing them, not only because they're a beautiful shade of turquoise, but also because they remind me of my friend, Lynn, who passed away five years ago of cancer. She was enjoying hummingbirds so much, I told her she needed a finch feeder as well, to see the colorful array of finches. She didn't remember ever seeing the indigo buntings, so I told her to always watch closely when a bird crossed her path on the road during her walks. The very next day, my phone rang and Lynn was ecstatic because she had just seen her first Indigo Bunting on her walk. It was fun sharing that with her.

Also on our walk, I was enjoying the fragrance of the Mimosa trees along the way. It takes me right back to Fort Worth, Texas, where I spent three years of my early years. Our Mimosa tree in the front yard made the perfect climbing tree. My first real friend, Richard, and I had more games of airplanes taking off from the branches of that tree. I also enjoyed my first encounters with hummingbirds there.

If you know much about me, you also know I enjoy bluebirds and currently have a pair nesting in a box on our property that are working on their second brood. We are so blessed to be able to watch them as they go about their business, tending to their young and not so young. Mark and I have also spotted some orioles in the yard and hope to see more of them in the coming weeks.

I've had a familiar hymn going through my head of late. It's called Great Is Thy Faithfulness and comes from Lamentations 3:22,23. This is one of my favorite passages for many reasons. In fact, I enjoy starting at 3:22 and continuing through verse 26. It reads: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, " The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

There's so many reasons to love these words. Some of my reasons include the mention of morning mercies. God promises us new mercies every morning. I always remind myself when I get down late in the day that morning will bring new blessings and grace from God, so just get to sleep and look forward to what God will bring in the morning.

I'm also a procrastinator and twice in this passage it mentions waiting for God. I can really enjoy waiting for God to open a door or close a door, letting me know what direction I am to go. That's so much better than trying to figure it out on my own. I'm also comforted by knowing that God is good to me because my hope is in Him and I am daily seeking Him in my life. Today I saw him in the birds and trees on my walk.

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. Remember all the servicemen and their families around the world who are responsible for our independence. Have a great day, luv, Susan

LISTEN UP

Wow, has it ever been beautiful out of late. I've been feeling especially blessed because, not only do I have juvenile bluebirds from the first brood earlier in the Spring, but mama and papa bluebird are now working on brood #2. That's real excitement for me. I'm especially looking forward to when they finally discover the birdbath in the back and teach the juveniles how to bathe. Yesterday, a daddy cardinal was feeding his juveniles and they were geting baths for their first time.

Walking was nice this morning. Barry, who bares his teeth at us, the beagle was again a problem, but I don't let it ruin our walk. We just have to get by him and take a few minutes to catch our breath before continuing on our way. We have one less horse in the field across the street. Mark mentioned that he saw the horse trailor go by, so I'm not surprised to only have two to enjoy across the road.

Taffy looks rather ridiculous these days. She refused to quit licking her incisions as they healed. I only kept her wrapped for a week or so, and now she is on antibiotics to take care of infections. She also has a lovely E-collar as they call it, referring to an Elizabethean type collar. Others refer to it as a cone. So for the next week or so, Taffy will be my little conehead.

I'm still watching over my gardens and flower pots. Thankfully, not a lot of weeds, but I do need to get down around the zuchini, yellow squash and cucumbers and start some pulling. I discussed Jesus' parable of the weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-43 with my Bible study group at church. It's actually harder to understand than I first realized. Whereas, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus is sowing the word of God, which is represented by the wheat. He explains what happens when we receive it. It is up to us to manage our heart and attitude upon recieving His word and allowing it to flourish, thereby eventually producing fruit and a harvest.

The Parable of the Sower also has Jesus sowing the good seed, but there is also an enemy sowing a bad seed, which grows up as weeds among the wheat. Rather than pull up the weeds, it is recommended that the weeds and wheat are allowed to grow side by side until the harvest. At that time, the weeds are picked, bundled and thrown into the fire and the wheat is then harvested and placed in the barn.

I was troubled in the explanation that the devil was planting seeds that became evil people, not to be redeemed. However, after discussions at church, I believe that the devil plants the seeds of sin in our hearts, as Jesus plants the seed of God's word. We can allow both to grow, but it is up to how we choose to live our lives as to which will flourish and be ready to be picked at the time of the harvest. I hope we all try to refuse to be tempted to nurture those seeds of sin in our lives. Allow yourself to simply care for the wonderful word of God that teaches us to love God, love one another and treat everyone as you'd want to be treated.

My hope is that you have the ears to hear what God is telling us. Verses 41-43 of Matthew says: "The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

I'm going outside to enjoy this beautiful time of year. The days are still getting longer and will continue that trend until the first day of summer actually arrives. You have a great day, stay safe and enjoy every minute of these nice long days. luv, Susan

GOOD DIRT

I just looked at the calendar and a song popped into my head. "It was the third of June another hot and humid summer day......I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay...." is running through my head. Not sure if the words are correct or not, but I think it's Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe". The last time I remember hearing it on the radio, the announcer actually noted her birthday by wishing him a happy birthday. Guess that means I'm getting old when things like that happens. Let me know the right words, if you know I've got it wrong, cause I know it doesn't sound quite right.

Anyway, it is hot and humid out there on this third of June. We got our walks in early enough to enjoy them and I have my clothesline filled with wet towels. Thank goodness for cool mornings and air conditioning. We again had our friend, the beagle at the top of the hill, but Riff and Roy are starting to figure out that all the barking and pulling only makes them exhausted, and I think the beagle is beginning to think the same. I sure hope so. I prefer nice quiet uneventful walks where I can enjoy the occasional deer wandering out into view.

This week I've been enjoying discussions Mark has had with some of our friends and neighbors. The big topic of discussion this time of year has been dirt. It actually sounds funny hearing them compare their dirt, how much they got, how they like it and how much they've paid for it. But, then as we've brought home several bags of
"good dirt" from the store for our vegetable garden and some of the potted plants, even I realize how important "good dirt" is for growing the flowers, trees, shrubs and vegetables we all enjoy so much.

It's not surprising that Jesus used the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23 to teach his disciples about the word of God. Rather than discussing buying good dirt, Jesus chose to compare God's word to the seeds sown by the farmer and the outcome when the seeds failed to land in good soil. The seeds inadvertently landed on the garden path, where they were snatched by birds; on rocky soil, where they withered and died; and among weeds where they were choked out and died. Jesus further explains that man's attitude upon receiving the word of God can compare to each of these scenarios. When one hears the message and fails to understand it, Satan can simply snatch it away; when one hears the message and receives it, yet doesn't let it root, it withers and dies; and when one hears it, receives it, but lets the worries of everyday life and distractions of wealth prevent the further growth of the seed, it too, is choked out and dies.

Jesus makes it clear to his disciples that the seed that falls on good soil is the one that receives the nurturing and nourishment needed to see it to full growth and future fruition. When we make our attitude and heart welcoming to the word of God, we can be sure to grow spiritually and eventually bear the fruit that God intended of us.

I've been enjoying the purple petunia's and the blue hydrangea's that are, so far, surviving my limited gardening skills. Hopefully, the "good dirt" will help overcome my lack of a green thumb.

I hope your gardens and flowers are blooming and producing all that you have in mind for your summer season. I'll continue with the gardening tips next time when I share Jesus' story of the weeds. Take care, stay safe and have a great day, luv, Susan