Obtaining Mercy

Letting It Go

 

I am so glad that this verse:

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"

is followed by this verse:

"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

(I Peter 5:6-7)

I don't really like to humble myself;

However, I do like casting my cares on Him.

 

Humbling myself is difficult;

But carrying my own cares is even more difficult.

 

When I am willing to submit to His will, I can release those worries and needs to His control;

And then I rest in His care.

 

So, why would I choose to be stiff-necked and rebellious toward a loving Heavenly Father Who promises to take care of me?

(Yeah...I don't know either.) 

It's not a good choice, but it's one I sometimes make.

 

I always thought this was such a trite saying, but it seems full of meaning today:

"Let go...and let God."

Thank you, Lord, for the reminder.

May I not stubbornly hold on to my life. 

Rather, let me humble my will to Yours, Father, and give to You all the burdens weighing so heavily on my mind and heart today.

Blessings to you, my bloggy friend,

Alesha

Listening for the Shepherd

The little lamb was caught in the thicket. 

The roar of a nearby lion had sent him scurrying, and in his fear he ran away from the Shepherd. 

He ran blindly, not heeding the Shepherd's call, until the branches pressed close and blocked his path to safety.  The thorns jabbed, piercing his tender skin, drawing blood that stained his white wool an ugly reddish-brown.

He cried out, willing the Shepherd to hear his feeble "Baa!  Baa!"; but no help came. 

He floundered a bit, trying to gain ground to move through the hedge that surrounded him; but the brambles held him tight. 

He waited...too tired to continue struggling.  His panting eased, and he rested in the midst of the brier. 

He knew the Shepherd would come.  He had no doubt.  He trusted his Shepherd. 

Within a few short moments darkness fell.  At first the silence was frightening, but then the night creatures began to sing their nocturnal refrain, crickets and frogs in unison with the occasional melody of the whiporwill. 

He stilled then, as he thought of his Shepherd, remembering nights of snuggling at His side within the safety of the sheepfold.  He pushed his fears aside, for he knew his Shepherd would come.

The cold of the night began to penetrate his wooly coat, and he shivered in the gloom of the night. 

He soon noticed the sounds of other beasts in the night: the bellow of a bear sounded loud in his ear.  The howl of the wolves echoed eerily along the valley floor.

He trembled violently as he wondered what terrors this night held for him; but he calmed once again, as he thought of his Shepherd.  The One who had led him to this place.  The One who met his every need.  The One who had killed many wild beasts that had threatened his flock.

No, he would not fear the darkness of this night, because he knew, beyond a doubt, his Shepherd was near.  The Shepherd would come for him.  The Shepherd would rescue him out of the blackness of this night.  He trusted the Shepherd.

He squirmed a bit, seeking a small place of relief from the pain of the thorns, and settled himself into the heart of the hedge.  He quieted himself and listened, not for the sound of wild beasts, nor to the howling winds that blew through the valley.

Calmly, while the darkness pressed in around him, he listened for the Voice of the one he knew best. He listened for the Voice of his Shepherd.

 

 

 

Bloomin' Idiot?

 

I had this thought today:

If we want to bloom for Christ...we will.

It matters not the position in the garden,

the nutrients of the soil, 

the loveliness of the container,

the adoration of the crowd,

the heritage of the seeds,

the salubriousness of the climate.

If a plant decides to grow and blossom and thrive, it just does.

Are you blooming for Him today?

If not, why not?

"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground..." ~Isaiah 53:2

If you want to be a gorgeous, blossoming, thriving Christian, then just decide that you will be; and go to the Master Gardener for your every need.

"For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."~Isaiah 51:3

"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."~Phillipians 4:19

Bloom on, my friend!

Alesha

Managing My Monday

How did things go at your house today?  Did your week get off to a normal start?  Were things thrown off kilter by something out of the ordinary?  How did you manage the change?  Did you let anger fester because your plans were ruined?  Were you grumpy and unkind because things did not go according to your expectations?

It happens to all of us, doesn't it?  It's difficult sometimes to just "go with the flow" and manage the crisis without getting all out of sorts.

I know that the only way I can handle the normal interruptions of life is with the Holy Spirit as my "internal governor".  I need that "ballast" on the inside to stablize my ship when it's tossed about by a storm. 

I'm certainly not perfect at maintaining a peaceful spirit in times of turmoil, but I do try to handle each new wave of change with a belief that my God is in charge of every aspect of my life.  No matter what happens, it is never out of His control.

~~~~~

Today I "managed" my house all by my little lonesome...well, until after noon, anyway, when Doug came home.

Ike's caregiver could not be here today.  Her mom is very sick and in the hospital, so she went to spend some time with her this past weekend.

So, I did Ike's 9 a.m. feed, and his first clothing change, and many, many, many minor adjustments that he insisted were absolutely necessary. ;)

Needless to say, my day seemed a little out of sync due to that schedule change.  Add to that the fact that my laptop is acting up again, and you can see that my day was definitely not according to my normal routine for Mondays.

It is nice, thought, isn't it, to be completely out of your ordinary schedule - occasionally?  I think so, anyway.  I really enjoyed my morning - just me and my boy.

~~~~~

By the way, this weekend, I got a great start to one of my 2012 goals.  I've entered a "blog party" for jewelry makers.  Aaaaaaaaand...I am blogging again on my jewelry blog and you can read all about the party here.

I am very excited to be back at my desk, working on my jewelry again.

Here's hoping that Tuesday is a little more "normal" than today! :)

Alesha

 

 

 

FABulous Customer Service

I know that post title got your attention, didn't it?  It is a rare thing indeed to find a company that strives to meet the need of the customer, and leaves the customer happy and content.

So, I'm as pleased as punch to tell you about LupinePet.com

Remember the harness that Kepler chewed up?  I showed you the letter I sent to the company to return it just last week.  We mailed the chewed harness out on Saturday.  Today we received the following:

Not only did they send us back a harness, but they sent us a larger, wider harness. 

AND they sent me the collar I had asked about in the larger, wider size too!!!

Both for free!

I was amazed and very impressed.  How about you?

So, I recommend the Lupine Pet harnesses and collars whole-heartedly.  I am so tickled to be able to share with you a company that excels at customer service.

Oh, and right before Christmas, I found an excellent deal on dog beds.  They just arrived today, but they were worth the wait.  We're expecting a cold front tonight, so the timing could not be better.

I got a handsome tan/black for Newton and a pretty pink/orange for Keppler.

Yep, the dogs will be styling tonight!

Isaac is doing fine, by the way.  He has slept all night the last 2 nights, thank the Lord!  We were getting very, very tired again, trying to keep him happy all night, every night.  Hopefully, this trend will continue for a while.

I had a girls' day out with my mom today.  We both got haircuts then went to lunch, did a little shopping and had a wonderful time!

So...how was your Thursday???

Alesha

Whew!

 

No more "cone of shame"!!!

Kepler is a happy, happy girl!

A happy girl who's lost her mind, apparently...that bed was made when she went to lay on it!

Awww, but who could stay mad at this pretty face??? 

Happy Wednesday from Rainy Florida,

Alesha

 

 

New for Tuesday

 

This morning I was searching for an inspirational quote about women.  I came upon this one and thought it was quite nice:

They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or some such bagatelle; but to me a modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation. 

~Oliver Goldsmith

I wanted to know more about the author of the quote, Oliver Goldsmith, so I did a search on his name, and came across this:

Irish-born British essayist, poet, novelist, and dramatist. Goldsmith attended Trinity College in Dublin before studying medicine in Edinburgh.

Noted for his exceptionally graceful, lively style, Goldsmith was a friend of many literary lights of his day, who agreed that he was one of the oddest personalities of his time.

And this:

Goldsmith was described by contemporaries as prone to envy, a congenial but impetuous and disorganised personality who once planned to emigrate to America but failed because he missed his ship.

Wow!  What a legacy to leave behind, eh?  He was prone to envy and extremely disorganized!

So, although he had some lovely thoughts about women, his life is not one I intend to emulate!  There are a few of his writings online, and I'm planning to take a look at them in the near future.

I learned something new today about a previously unknown author, Oliver Goldsmith.

Oh, and apparently, there's an entire line of eyeglasses named "Oliver Goldsmith" that date back to the 1950's, and have been worn by famous movie stars.  Who knew!

What new thing did you learn today???

Managing My Monday

Managing my Monday this week means phone calls...

LOTS and LOTS of phone calls!!!

Some for me...some for Isaac...

It is not one of my favorite things to do, but it is one of those necessary evils.

How are you managing your household today???

2012 Goal Planning - A Beginning

Sigh...

I'm pretty sure that this blog will reveal waaaaay more information about my weird psyche that any of you ever wanted to know...so I begin this post with some trepidation. 

I'm not really worried that you won't like me after reading it; but I'm pretty sure you will be thinking, "Yep...I knew she was a bit strange!"

Heh heh heh...

Today, I was finally able to find some quiet time to work on my list of goals for the year 2012.

I have 4 typed pages, in outline form.  I know!  It's a lot.  That's one of the reasons I dragged my feet about beginning this project; but I am very glad I persevered with it. 

I'm not going to show you a picture of those pages, because I feel like it's just too personal.  I will, however, share with you the categories that I came up with.  I read 3 other blogs, to see what categories they started with.  In every case, they were not exactly what I needed for my goals.

Setting yearly goals is a very personal thing, isn't it? 

Case in point, my husband made his goals for 2012 quite clear when he hung this cartoon on the refrigerator:

You can be SURE that I included his resolution in my list of goals, as well!!!

These were my categories:

1. Personal
2. Residential

I found that everything else fit into those two headings.  I have many subheadings under these two categories.

Under "Personal", I included the following:

1. Spiritual
2. Physical
3. Emotional
4. Marital
5. Parental
6. Familial
7. Relational
8. Ministerial
9. Recreational
10. Vocational

Under the "Residential" group, I included these subheadings:

1. Financial
2. Nutritional
3. Ornamental
4. Agricultural

I think most of those are self-explanatory, except for "ornamental".  I was really stretching there, trying to find a word that ended in "-al" that meant all the improvements I'd like to make around the house this year.  I used my thesaurus, even, to come up with that one, but I was pretty pleased when I found "ornamental"!

By the way, don't let "agricultural" conjure up visions of acres of land, tractors and grazing cattle.  My goals under that were as follows:

1. Plant two vegetable/herb plants in the spring
2. Water plants every day
3. Find organic fertilizer for plants

It's ok to start small, yes?

This is actually the first time that I have ever done such extensive goal-setting.  I will be very interested towards year's end to see how I have done.  I am really looking forward to making progress on all of them, though!

I also picked a theme for this year, and a Bible verse to go along with it.  I had to have a starting place before my ideas would start to flow.  Once the Lord gave me those, I was ready to begin.

My theme for this year is "Fear Not!", and my theme verse is the following:

Isaiah 43:1 -

"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not:  for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine."

Well, I think I've got a pretty good foundation laid for this coming year.  I pray that I will pursue these things faithfully, as I feel the Lord has laid them out before me.  I hope, too, that I can let go of anything that might hinder me from following them. 

As always, I will keep in mind to hold my plans loosely, should the Lord decide they need rearranging at some point during the year.  In fact, I'm almost certain this list will evolve as the months pass.  Maybe I'll accomplish so many things that I have to add on others to carry me through to December of 2012!

I'd love to hear how you go about planning for the new year.  Please leave a comment and share your ideas with me.

Fear not in 2012,

Alesha

 

They who are God's without reserve, are in every state content; for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored a hundredfold. (Streams in the Desert)