When We Really Just Need to Rest in Him

Is there some reason why it's so hard to rest in the Lord?

It's a Bible command: "Rest in the Lord."

 It's also a comfort, is it not? "Rest in the Lord."

 But how do you do that when your days (and sometimes your nights) are full of work--

and worry that you're somehow not measuring up? 

Teaching or monitoring six grades plus helping a college student with the application process and getting started with online courses;

grading papers and filling out report cards?

 Cleaning out any old meat in the freezer to make room for the new meat coming in a few weeks;

cutting up the old meat scraps to grind into burger;

 overseeing everyone helping with the meat grinding or snipping of a box of fresh green beans gotten on sale from a grocery store.

 And it's not all about work. 

It's also about, well--trying to figure out the puzzles in your life.

Looking at them from every angle possible to figure out any possible solution.

 Maybe getting another person or two in on it to try to gain perspective.

 Poring over it;

puzzling over it;

unable to let it go till you've figured out that you had a piece on one side that should have been on the other side;

obsessing over it till you've gotten your p's and q's all together--

only to find out your p's were q's and your q's were--well, anything but q's. 

 Did it ever occur to us that it was possible to choose?

That maybe we didn't have to have all those p's and q's?

That it was okay to let the puzzle go and just let it rest--even if all the pieces weren't put together yet?

That it is okay to rest, ourselves, right in the middle of the puzzle?

 I've been reading snatches at a time from a book a sister-in-law gave me called So Long, Insecurity.

It's a New York Times best seller. 

The author, Beth Moore notes how so many of us "worry a detail half to death out of insecurity." We "gnaw on a relationship like a dog on a bone."

Or like a goat on a pant leg, I might add. 

 She wrote, "In our inordinate self-protection, we end up licking our wounds to the point that they can't heal."

 "It's good to learn to socialize without seeing others as a threat,
but if there is a particular person who gets to you over and over and makes you feel small or stupid, perhaps he or she needs a quick shift to the B-list...Learn what you can handle and what you can't. 

As you become more and more secure, you will discover with great satisfaction how much more you can handle and, at the same time, 

come to recognize what you should not have to handle at all (italics mine).

There's a volume of wisdom in knowing the difference."

You don't have to spend your life going around in circles, playing the insecurity game.

 "The mark of real security is the ability to be around anyone, regardless of how attractive or intelligent, and still maintain personal confidence and contentment."

 Grant us, Father, the author prays, not to be "such a perfectionist that I resist doing something good out of fear that it won't be great."

Grant that I may enjoy some happy moments in mid-afternoon with my children, after school is over for the day, 

having some tea and treats...

because life that is "all work and no play

makes Jack a dull boy!"

And life that is all puzzle and no rest

is living far from where the God of rest and peace wants us to live.

 We really can't control how little water our well produces,
or when we're going to wake up in the middle of the night with a raging UTI,
or how our hormones are going to drive us crazy in midlife,
or when or whether the doctor is going to be able to get us in for tests before two solid months are up,
or what other people think of us.
We aren't always going to be able to keep the neighbor's black cat from nibbling on our birdseed
that really belongs to the little brown sparrows.

But we can choose to take a moment to enjoy a mountain sunset.
And we can choose to rest when we can't perform anymore.

 We can choose to rest in the Lord.

Sledriding, Nutcracking and Nose-Tweaking

What excitement one night last week when Daddy brought home seven sleds for the seven children!

Plans were quickly made to have a ride behind Dad's truck the next morning. 

So everyone hurried around the next morning, taking pictures of the beautiful sunrise as we got around.

It was breathtakingly, frostingly beautiful!

In due time, the six younger children had tied four toboggans in a row behind Dad's truck to go for a ride around the circle and down another little prairie lane down the way. Hannah and Danny sat on laps of older children.

Here they have come home again.

Time to roll out, and get back to school and the work for the day.

The children get kisses from Dad before he leaves, and I blow him a kiss from the front door.

After school and work is over, the little ones get out their blocks.

One Saturday night, Kenn and Iva had a double date with us. We went to a cafe where my sisters-in-law, Ruth and Julie and I had gone a few weeks ago. I'd loved it.

I ordered hot camomile and peppermint tea.

And corn chowder along with my entree.

The guys both ordered salmon.

Kenn and Iva declared that this was not a fork but a threek.

This picture is a bit blurry, but I loved the warm fireplaces here, and the country decor.

However, I like home best!

Homemade is just the best.

The girls made five homemade pizzas on a Friday night when we had a friend for supper 

whom Jonathan had asked to come and do a little welding repair for us.

He brought along a long nutcracker gismo and a bucket of pecans from his folks' tree back in Kansas. 

He says there are many pecan trees there, next in number to Georgia, I believe.

We all sat around cracking nuts and digging the meat out of the shells, thinking we might make a pecan pie.

Instead the girls decided on homemade butter pecan icecream a few days later.   

 Danny looks very excited about having homemade icecream between two chocolate chip cookies.

 We were having a bit of a crazy evening with wet coats and leggings hanging around the woodstove, and Hannah and me eating ice cold icecream while hovering near the woodstove, too!

And we decided to just have family worship around the kitchen table.

 As I said, it being a bit of a crazy evening anyway, I got my camera and sneaked pictures of what goes on in the Lucas household during prayer time which I showed the children afterward, much to our amusement.

After all, the only rule during prayer time is that you are supposed to keep your eyes closed.

 

However, "as far as everybody else knows, we are a nice normal family!"

 Anyway, we will remember family worships like this one for years to come!

It's sure a heap better than fussing at everyone!

Are There Feathers for Me?

We've been so blessed to have so many sparrows, juncos, and finches fluttering about our little fir tree, and our austree during these snowy days.

 

 It reminded me of another poem I wrote years ago before I got married.

Feathers

I looked out from my window

  One rainy day and dreary,

Feeling that way, dreary as the day,

  And woebegone and weary.

 My eyes caught sight of an evening bird,

   A mourning dove just sitting

Upon a line, feathery and fine,

   With raindrops around it hitting.

"Poor wet bird!" thought I, but she

   Seemed not to mind the weather.

All fluffed and fat,  content she sat,

   All sheltered by her feathers!

"See, child," God said, "I gave this bird

   Feathers to keep her warm.

And if I so care for birds, do I dare

   Leave you alone in life's storm?"

"No, Lord," said I, "I know You care,

   But in life's stormy weather

I've nowhere to fly, and cannot stay dry

    Because I do not have feathers!"

"Then come unto Me, My child," said He,

  "My wings shall be your cover.

My feathers will keep you safe until

Life's rain and storm is over." 

 

Have Faith in God!

Recently I found this poem that I had written years ago, and it ministered to me once again.

So I thought I'd share it on my blog.

Have Faith in God!

 

Someone said to me one day,

"When you start out this Christian way

The devil always will be there,

The prince, the power of the air.

He'll never leave your soul alone

Til you are cold and dead and gone.

That wily fox will tempt you here.

Watch out! The devil you must fear!"

 So for the devil I watched out

And found him everywhere about--

At the corners, on the street,

In my home, the devil I'd meet.

Ready with his wiles and craft,

He'd plan his snares and stood and laughed.

Yes, when I'd fall, he laughed at me.

He said, "I'm everywhere, you see!"

 Then all distressed I came one day

Unto the Lord and heard Him say,

"My child, when you begin this Christian way,

I the Lord will always be

Close and near and dear to thee.

I shall never leave you lone.

Have faith in God! You are My own!"

I listened and I lost my fear,

For now I knew that God was near.

And for my Lord I looked and found

Him always everywhere around.

At the corner, on the street,

In my home, the Lord I'd meet.

And when the devil came in sight,

My valiant Lord put him to flight!

This the lesson, God's own Word:

Fear not the devil; trust the Lord!