A lesson from my two crazy dogs today!

First off I am one of those pet owners that occasionally  let's food Drop on the floor. okay okay I give food to them.

The end result is that they are often under foot or under the table begging.   Today was interesting...I came in with two rotisserie cooked chickens.   They both sat near by looking hopeful, but there wasn't the usual underfoot stuff.  When the piece of chicken skin came their way they accepted with a slow graceful reverence.

I laughed to myself as I washed my hands how they were so patient because they knew this treat was indeed worth the wait. The treat was so good they didn't snatch it they allowed it to slip from my fingers into their mouths.


Can I think of something so worth the wait, that i might receive it with that same grateful reverence. Certainly nothing of this earth, (sorry pups). I think of how Mary said yes to the angel and at that moment received fullness  of grace for her life journey.   I know that in my own life I am in saying yes to God receiving grace sufficient for my challenges to handle what ever comes my way. Do I wait as patiently and receive so graciously? Did I just get a lesson from my dogs?

I used to catch myself being impatient with people who always lost their phones or forgot to change it back after they had silenced it.  I am now catching myself in these small social crimes. The poem says,  "Oh to see ourselves as others see us" but I wonder if it isn't more to the point to catch ourselves as others have been. Is that to see a speck while looking past a log? Or to find the log on the way back from cataloging the speck...

Many years ago there was an Ad for Drug Free America or some such group that said "This is your brain, This is your brain on drugs" Many funny memes and posters were made after that like your brain in school, your brain on the ski slopes...

My house is the same today as yesterday; but everything I look at looks different to me. My husband left to go to Oregon, and back to the boat. That is all.

In some ways I will be terribly lonely, but I will also have more flexibility and maybe in other ways less....He had fun with his grandchildren and they really enjoyed him.

I don't know why someone can make a place feel so different just by coming in or by leaving.

The sun wasn't here very long, but lately, as I am holding up indoors, I have been directed to look more at the windows. I have to admit it is a challenge to find anything interesting there, I just have to work at it.

Maybe this year will be just as challenging to see the value beyond the obvious.

I wonder?

This morning we were challenged to remember what Moses taught Aaron and the priests and their children to Bless the people of Israel, in the name of the Lord.

Aaron’s Benediction
      Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

The LORD bless you, and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine on you,
         And be gracious to you;

The LORD lift up His countenance on you,
         And give you peace.’

“So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

I ask that this New Year be blessed in the name of the Lord.

Having a doctrine pass before the mind is not what the Bible means by knowing the truth. It's only when it reaches down deep into the heart that the truth begins to set us free, just as a key must penetrate a lock to turn it, or as rainfall must saturate the earth down to the roots in order for your garden to grow.

"Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being" (Ps. 51:6 NASB). Getting it there is the work of the stream we'll call Counseling.

Glad I read this today, something to ponder. I have come to believe that anyone who truly wants truth wil not be left out. But we just can't know everything it is too much.

Renew

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:12-13)

I awoke Sunday to thunder and lightening, and slept lightly while  much needed rain fell.

On my way to church I observed how the rain even as small amount as it was was renewing the ground the grass, the trees and I thought of how gloomy it had to be for that to take place. So I decided to embrace the gloom knowing the promise it would bring.

The readings were among my my favorites, reminding us to think of the promise, then came the homily which awoke my all too early morning reverie. The children at Sandy Hook School in Newton Ct.

This reflection was started yesterday and accidentally erased, I almost let it go but now I cannot. I am going to struggle to put this together and may never feel successful. I still struggle.

feel certain

It is a soft and delicate moment, that first light!

Erasing the dark of night into daylight. that promise fulfilled

Whether bright and blinding or

only a tiny brightness peeking out of the scene.

The sooner in the day it is seem

The more certain you can be of what it truly is

No confederates to spoil the effect.

But no matter when you verify it,

It is true joy, the light of a new day.