Neon tangerines and Moose Tracks

Ashten and I are redoing her bedroom. I put it off forever, because quite honestly I haven't been in the mood to do much of anything lately. But we went and looked at paint colors last night.

Oh my she has an affinity for extremely bold colors, which is funny since I painted her room pale yellow when we moved up to a big girl bed. And the more colors, the better. At one point she had picked out bright orange with some name like neon tangerine and a deep purple along with some sea-like color of blue and was headed for the green shades when I had to stifle her artistic talents and intervene.

But it got me to remembering when we had our house built, the guy who came in to paint our walls was just flabbergasted at my "wild" color choices (that was before it was okay to put purple on your walls). And then the time when my 5th grade teacher called my parents in because she was concerned about my flamboyantly outlandish style.

We are a lot alike.

So we have decided on blue and 2 shades of purple. Hmm... (my bedroom is about to have a red stripe across one wall, so I guess I can't say too much). Anyways we spent the day scraping borders and rearranging furniture. She turned up the tunes and it was such a good mother daughter thing. Lovin' it!

Anyways, a friend of mine was telling me about an encounter at the grocery store earlier today.

She was behind an elderly lady in line. My friend only had a few things, and the lady tried to let her go in front. She said she declined, but was honestly wishing she hadn't because this lady was in no hurry to get anywhere.

Then the thought occurred to her that she should find this elderly lady outside and help her unload everything into her car. My friend kept telling herself how silly that was, the lady was perfectly capable, and besides, one of the things this friend had come in for was ice cream. Which in 95 degree heat she would be lucky to get it home before it turned to milk all over the back of her car.

However, she found herself stalling as she put her groceries in the backseat, searching the older woman out-and of course it was all the way across the lot. Once again telling herself this lady probably would not appreciate being told she needed any help, her feet made their way over to the lady's car, and she put her groceries in the trunk and returned her cart for her.

My pal told me the lady was kind and appreciative, but she still couldn't help wondering what the whole thing was all about as she climbed into her own car.

But the first thing she heard on the radio as she pulled out was this:

You think any good deed is too small? Well it's not. Someone sees it and smiles.

Swimming Lessons

Here is the gist I got from some reading the other day on righteousness and Christian faith:



Imagine the entire human race is standing on the California coast preparing for a contest. The contest is a swimming race to Hawaii.



As the gun fires, everyone jumps in. About twenty five miles in front is a professor. She's a good person, trys to do what is right, has good morals, gives what she can to others, but would be the first to say she is far from perfect. About ten miles behind her is a man. He's an average sort of guy, blue collar. He gets in scrapes from time to time, cheats and lies occasionally, but all in all he's ok. And a few hundred feet off shore, struggling to stay afloat, is a derelict. There just isn't much good about this guy.



Now scattered throughout all these folks is the rest of the human race. We can see there is an obvious difference in the distances between the first person and the last. An enormous one. But really and truly, what's the difference in terms of getting to Hawaii from California? In the end all are going to drown.



A set of swimming instructions won't help at this point. We need someone who will take us to Hawaii, because even if we know exactly how to get there by way of instruction, there is no way we can actually manage it.



We cannot live perfect lives. We can try to always do the right thing, live the right kind of life, but there isn't a single one who isn't going to fail and drown in some way. Which means we aren't going to make it to heaven on our own. And all other religions are essentially those swimming instructions, suggested codes of ethics for living a good life.



But our main problem is not in not knowing what we are supposed to do, it is actually lacking the power to do so.



However, we have someone who because of His death and resurrection for us, does for us what we cannot possibly do ourselves.

Senior Moments

I met a stranger recently. Someone I will most likely never see again. He was a jovial, friendly, kind, lovely senior citizen, his manners wonderful. He's the kind of guy that makes people happy just being near, always upbeat.
Yet, as we talked in our short time together, he showed me a side I'm sure few who know him get to see. He told me he would rather be that way than bring people down. But as we talked he began to open up about his fears and feelings, all the things that were on his mind. I could tell they were things he didn't want to bother his family with, cause them to worry.
He had such a beautiful God-loving spirit, it still brings me to tears to think about him. Someone with such a love for those around him, he refused to be anything but positive.
I think about how he talked with me, a complete stranger, and wonder how many times I've been so completely self absorbed that I didn't take time to really notice those around me, give them a chance to be anything other than what I expect them to be.

Podcast Prayer Request

I listened to a Charles Stanley podcast during my morning walk. In it, he gave a challenge. A challenge to earnestly pray for our nation for 140 days. Pray for a change in the tide, pray for whatever God leads us to pray for concerning the state of this country.



As I listened to his message, a verse came to mind. (Andrea forgive me here:)). Hebrews 10:31 says "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." My Bible commentary goes on to state that the verse is directed towards those who have rejected His mercy.



Look at it from the Charles Stanley podcast perspective. Doesn't the Bible say that 2 or more standing together in prayer accomplish much? Doesn't the Bible say that satan has temporary free reign of the world? So would it not be a dreadful thing for satan to fall into the hands of the living God through many believers standing together in prayer for God to change the current condtion of this nation?



Hebrews 10-35 states that if we do not throw away our confidence, it will be richly rewarded.