Category Archives: God’s plans for us

An Itsy-bitsy Good Deed

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It isn’t every day I get to spend 8 hours in my car. (This time it was a turn-around trip to an important wedding.) Such a road trip offers some nice perks, though: uninterrupted time for praying, thinking, and listening to music.

Honda CivicForty miles into the trip, a silver Honda Civic pulled alongside me and began tooting its horn. Trying to keep my cool, I didn’t look. Surely this person wasn’t inviting a race.

But the tooting continued, so I glanced over, thinking it must be a friend. The driver was waving her arm, pointing to the rear of my car and shouting. Although nothing about my car seemed amiss, I wondered.

“What?” I mouthed, hoping she’d repeat herself, and she rolled down her window. By now a line of irritated cars was following both of us, like we were the lead vehicles in a Grand Prix, but I opened my window, too. Over the rush of wind, I understood her.

DanglingIt turned out my little fuel door was open with the gas cap blowing around on its wire, the cause for her heads-up. After nodding thanks, I worked my way to the shoulder and corrected the problem.

Back on the highway, I thought about this kind stranger and the scores of other drivers who’d passed me noticing the dangling gas cap but chalking it up to a middle-aged woman’s forgetfulness. “Thanks for nothin’,” I thought of all of them, until God’s heavy hand tapped me.

“Are you kidding, Margaret? How many times have you gone out of your way to help a stranger like Honda-woman just helped you?”

As always, he was right, and I was selfish. Over the next 40 miles I checked every gas cap I passed, hoping to repeat the good deed for someone else. But of course God has more in mind than mere duplication. His idea is that we lend a hand on a full time basis, not for credit from strangers but to please him. After all, this is the example Jesus set.

An hour later at a bathroom stop, I got my first little chance for a good deed. The restroom was sparkling except for one used paper towel on the floor. I picked it up and put it into the trash, an itsy-bitsy mini-good deed. After all, I have to start somewhere.

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.” (Matthew 5:16)

Praising and Praying with Mary

It’s all good news and thanks to God for a very refreshing week in Florida with Bervin.

Oh dear…

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IMG_5121This afternoon, as Emerald and I were playing in our basement, she asked to sit atop the dryer so she could reach 6 hooks, each with a toy hanging from it. She’s played with those since she was 8 months old, and at two years still loves the idea of hooking and unhooking them from their assigned spots.

When Hello-Kitty went tumbling behind the dryer by accident, she asked if I could get her. So as grandmas often do for their grands, I determined to succeed no matter what. Tugging at the dryer, I found it moved out of its parking spot easily, and in just a minute I was standing behind it in foot-deep lint that had quite a few mysterious objects embedded in it.

Thankfully Hello-Kitty was on top, which quickly satisfied Emerald. But as she sat watching me dig for other treasures, she heard me repeatedly say, “Please, no animals…. Please, no animals.”

IMG_5119Up came socks, rags, dish cloths, baby toys, a small towel, a 220 electrical cord, and a pillow case I’d been missing for 3 years. Then I confidently scooped up a big wad of lint but suddenly found myself staring into the face of a stiff, plump chipmunk! My immediate jumping and squealing caused poor Emerald to say, “Are we ok? Are we ok? Are we ok?”

But we weren’t. When I finally regained composure and bent down for another handful of lint, it had a second deceased chipmunk in it! At that point we aborted the project, grabbed Hello-Kitty, and headed upstairs.

Life is full of surprises. When the good ones come (a raise at work, a beautiful day, a gift from a friend), we get happy. When the bad ones come (a critical comment, a big bill, an unexpected diagnosis), we squeal with objections.

God wants us to live on an even keel rather than to be controlled by our emotions, but we often find ourselves succumbing to tears or glee based on what’s going on around us. Scripture says our flesh and God’s Spirit are often at odds within us, so it’s up to us to choose which voice we’re going to listen to. His advice is to walk by the directives of the Spirit, which will always help us win over our unpredictable flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

Lint!Many hours later, after Emerald had departed with her Mommy, I returned to the scene of my screams and dealt with clean-up. May the incident be a regular reminder that “in quietness and in trust shall be my strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise [person] quietly holds it back.” (Proverbs 29:11)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. Little Anders goes home tomorrow after 3 weeks in the NICU. Pray for a safe, peaceful transition.
  2. I’m so grateful to God that our time in Florida is being blessed and that I’m feeling so good!

 

Unique Viewpoints

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Snowfall.As I write, a heavy snow is falling outside my windows, reminding me of winters past.

As a little girl growing up in the country (now the Chicago suburbs), a fresh snowfall was an invitation to come out and play. We had snowball fights, built snow forts, rolled snowmen, and deposited snowballs in a nearby creek where we watched them melt in the icy water.

We made snow-nests in a nearby field, then lay back comfortably to catch snowflakes on our tongues. If we were very quiet, we could even hear them land. The cold was never a problem, and we didn’t mind boots with snow packed around our ankles, or hands wet from soggy mittens.

Snowy funI remember being so excited to play in the snow after school that I ran out with my dress still on, (in the ‘50’s, girls wore dresses), playing until the skirt became as soaked as Mom’s dish rag but not minding one bit. When she would ring the cowbell to call us home for dinner, we’d groan in disappointment that our snow-playtime had ended.

These days I don’t think about snow like that, because I’m in a different season: not a weather-season, but a life-season. Each weather-season has its purposes, and though I love to watch the snow fall, playing in it for hours has lost its appeal. I do appreciate today’s beautiful storm but only because I’m seeing it with different eyes.

The same can be said of life-seasons. God hopes we’ll see them with eyes appropriate to each one, never considering the spring of childhood or summer of young adulthood as better than the autumn and winter seasons of older ages. He has affixed positives to every season, and if we look with the right eyes, we’ll see them.

Snowflake sampleToday, if I lift heavy rolled balls of snow in an effort to build a big snowman, my back will complain about it the next day. But if I walk Jack the dog with the proper coat and boots on, we can both enjoy the winter snow.

Sometimes it’s difficult to accept the season we’re in. Children long to get older. Teens reach for adulthood. Older folks wish they were young again. But these off-center views are simply a function of looking with the wrong eyes.

As we age, physical limitations increase, but if we ask God to highlight the positives of whichever season we’re in, he will show us. And though winter snows can be hazardous, each individual snowflake remains one of God’s great marvels, unique in its created, symmetrical design.

Snowflake sample.And if we stop long enough to appreciate that, we might even hear them land.

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth….’ ” (Job 37:6-7)

 

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. Please pray for little Anders who is now over 5 pounds but has had a couple of set-backs. Pray for wisdom for the doctors as they make decisions.
  2. I’m thankful still to be feeling good, this week on a getaway to Florida with Bervin.