I Just Love That About God!

Three things happened last weekend:

1.     Someone I admire was arrested for DUI.

2.     Our dog killed a cat in our backyard.

3.     I heard an amazing story of how God pursued a lady.

I am going with #2 first (they all are tied together).  At 3am Sunday morning our non-barking Siberian Husky, Taco, starting barking incessantly. Hubby got up at 5am and took a flashlight outside to see what it was. Taco had his paws up on a tree and was barking up at it. There was a large cat up in the tree. At 7am I got up to the boys excitement about the cat. Our whole family loves cats and would have another one if it weren’t for the allergies.

Twin A quickly climbed the tree trying to help the cat. Twin B stood at the base of the tree trying to offer up advise on how to get the cat down. Tacoma continued to bark loudly up at the cat. Still in my pajamas, I walked outside and tried to call, and then bribe with a treat, Taco to come inside, so the poor cat can get away.

Everything happened so quickly. The cat hissed and swiped his claw at Twin A in the tree. Then, the cat either fell or finally jumped down to flee. Taco darted to chase the cat and dirt flew up in the air, with the cat hissing and meowing and the dog fully focused on the pursuit.

Somehow, the cat managed to make it to the top of the chain link fence. I am not sure how because clearly Taco had wounded him with either his teeth or his paws or both. Twin B ran to the fence to try to help the cat. Taco continued to frantically bark, run, and jump up against the fence. The poor cat was half stuck, half dangling from the top of the fence. His back legs were on the neighbor’s side of the fence. His head, body and front legs were hanging down the fence on our side. I wondered if he were dead already.

I started screaming for Taco to come in and calling for Twin B to get away from the fence. Taco jumped up against the fence and caused the cat to fall down in our yard. Taco pounced on him and that was the end for the cat. It was not a pretty sight to watch.

Later, I started thinking about it and although I was still mad at Taco, really, the cat should not have been in our yard. He should have been safe at his own house. Then, none of this would have happened.

It reminded me of how we are with sin. We wander away from the Lord and wander into sin’s backyard. Soon, we find ourselves stuck up a tree with no way out of our mess. The world, like Twin A, tries to offer help, worldly advise, Oprah, self- help books. Even though the world may mean well, it can’t help us. The enemy of our souls ( in this case Taco) can not wait to steal, kill and destroy us. Sometimes, even when we make a mad dash to flee the backyard of sin, we linger too long on the fence. We are not sure we want to leave all the excitement. We straddle the fence, one leg wanting to follow God and one leg still in the sin. Although, in our case the enemy did kill the cat, I am so grateful that in real life God always provides a way out.

I was so grateful to finally get to church that morning. In the new member’s class I get to hear people’s stories of how God saved them. The most amazing one this week was a lady who said she went skiing every weekend when she was a teenager. When she was 17, and was riding up on a ski lift, a couple shared with her how much God loved her. She prayed to receive Him right there ON THE SKI LIFT CHAIR! I love that! She was not going to church, so God went where she was and rescued her on the ski mountain.

I love that about God! He loves us so much that He comes to us and saves us. Like our friend with the DUI, God rescued him too. God brought our friend, although very broken and embarrassed, out of the backyard of sin, in his case alcohol, and rescued and redeemed him too.

I just love that about God!

Mother and daughter on her wedding day.

It Only Takes A Spark

Our words are so powerful. We can use them to lift someone up or tear someone down. We can use them to make a situation worse or make it better. Our words affect people and can change situations. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:21 ‘the tongue has the power of life and death”.
Once I was reading James 3:5-6, “ Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, set the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” The thought struck me, ‘I only get in trouble for the things I say, not the things I don’t say. Don’t say everything.’
It occurred to me that we do not need to say everything that pops into our heads, no matter how funny, sarcastic, witty or even truthful it is. There are times when we do not need to say anything. There are also times when what we are thinking is the exact wrong thing to say.
Recently, some of those words escaped from my mouth. I knew it as soon as they flew out, but I chose to pretend it had not happened. Maybe the person had not heard me or would forget what I had said. No such luck. A month later, she told someone else what I had said and my words came back sounding much worse now that they were out in public and being repeated.
That same day my mouth starting feeling like it was burning. My lips had been dry and cracking the day before. Now my lips, tongue and mouth all felt itchy and like they were on fire, just like the verse in James. I immediately went to my dentist, who sent me to the doctor, who said I had a mouth infection. Even though there was a physical explanation for it, I knew in my heart it was a spiritual reminder of what I had said. The medication he gave me involved sucking on lozenges all day long, which of course forced me to keep my mouth shut all day.
I apologized to two people who had heard my words, but I was not able to apologize to everyone who had heard. It reminded me a wildfire spreading from a spark. For three weeks my mouth infection was a physical reminder of how our words can be like fire.
Like the verse in Proverbs 10:19 “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” Let’s help each other to be careful with what we say and to remember that we don’t have to say everything.

Spiritual Detox


I'm not sure why I did it. It was one of those "out-of-the-box" experiences, for sure. I spent a week at a health center in California, for an "extreme detox". It was supposed to be a mind, body, spirit cleansing. The spiritual part was not what I considered spiritual. There was no mention of Jesus or God the Father.
As I was eating only raw vegetables and fruit, and flushing all the bad toxins out of my body, it made me wonder what a true spiritual detox would look like. At the health center we focused on filling our body and mind with things that were healthy and beneficial. At the same time, letting go or releasing things that were bad for our body and mind, or no longer served a good purpose.
For a spiritual detox I can imagine letting go of things that do not serve to bring us closer to the Lord. There are magazines, music, TV shows, movies and web sites that certainly do not honor God and don't serve a beneficial purpose for us spiritually. On the other hand, there are healthy things we can add to enhance our relationship with the Lord. We can spend more time in prayer, reading the Bible, joining a Bible study group and listening to praise music.
But is that it? Bad stuff out and good stuff in? No, the health center detox was more than that. With a good detox there was a peace that was experienced. There were five P's to the health program: purpose, positive mental attitude, persistence, patience and prayer.
To spiritually detox the purpose would be to grow closer to the Lord. To keep a positive mental attitude, we need to ask God's forgiveness when we mess up instead of carrying our guilt around. We also need to view ourselves as God views us, as a child of the King, a princess, not whatever negative label we have chosen. We need to be persistant with our Bible study and ask the Lord to help us understand the parts that are difficult.
We need to be patient with others and ourselves. We are all at different places on our spiritual journey. Usually, we need to just take the next step on our path. Of course, spiritual detox would not be complete without prayer, talking to the Father. Ask Him to fill us with His love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness.
I feel better already. How about you?

Hi. My name is Robyn and I have been off chocolate for 3 days.

My friends think it is funny that I put my goal weight on my drivers license. I think it only makes sense to do it that way. The first time I had the option of getting my drivers license for eight years was the first time it hit me. I definitely do not want to weigh what I weigh now in eight years. Surely, someone will come up with a miracle weight loss pill by then. I did not want to have my license show that I was over weight, so I optimistically started putting my goal weight. Some friends say I should put my goal height as well. That's just silly. There is no way someone is going to invent a miracle vertical enhancement pill in the next eight years. Although, if they did, I would be the first in line to get one.
It's not that I am really short and fat. It's just that I used to be tall and skinny. I spent my image forming years - middle school - living in Hawaii. Somehow I had a growth spurt before anybody else my age. Thus the tall. And isn't everybody skinny in middle school? I was one of the tallest 3 kids in my class for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. In fact, I was taller than almost all the boys. I was good at sports, strong and well, tall. Maybe 5'1'' or 5'2". We moved to Illinois at the start of high school and an amazing thing had happened. All the kids in Illinois were giants! I peaked out at 5'3 1/4", and all of sudden I was a short kid. So, now I am only tall in my dreams. The center on my basketball team again . . .the hitter on my volleyball team. Those were the days.
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