When Sleep Escapes.... Just Blog

Hey Friends!  I hope everyone is doing well during our stay at home time.  Man, it's hard!  If you know me, you know I absolutely HATE the grocery store.  These days it's basically my only outing and I love it.  Listen-- I have all the things to cook all the meals right now.  Because we are at home, there are many things NOT happening.   Many milestones cannot be celebrated in the traditional sense.  However a wise man once told me that God works in the differences too.  We have to be willing to look and listen.  Trying to find the silver lining can be challenging.  I'm not going to lie.  It's good to talk to people who you know will encourage you and lift you up not allowing you to stay in the pits for long.  I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I love Annie Downs' books.  Seriously, I think we would be great friends.  She plainly states where her favorite coffee place is in Nashville, so I feel that is an open invitation to go have coffee with her. :)  I'm reading her book Speak Love right now.   She talks about how in school people said unkind things.  I mean do we not all have a story?  I'm sure there were other things said about me but really the only thing I remember is in elementary school some boys called me "red-headed woodpecker".  (In case you didn't know - Woody Woodpecker cartoon was really popular at that time--- and I'm aging myself!)  It hurt my heart mostly because I couldn't help that I had red hair.  As a result, I hated having red hair for a while.  It made me different being the only (or at least one of very few) one not having blonde or brunette hair.  At some point the tide shifted and I embraced being different and loved having a feature that set me apart from others.

Being a Christian makes me different too.  When the world around me is chaotic, I know that my comfort and peace comes from something not in this world.  2 Corinthians 4:18 says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  That was so easy to type, but sometimes hard to live day in and day out.  There are situations that are "temporary" that, man, seem to have no end.   In the still of the night, doubts creep in and thoughts of what if... (yes, I'm speaking from experience as I'm blogging at 1 a.m.) That is when I cannot allow my emotions to be my truth.  I have to recount how God has blessed and provided for me through these trying times.  Yes, they still may not be over, but his love never fails.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will delight in you, HE WILL QUIET YOU WITH HIS LOVE, he will rejoice over you with singing."  That was exactly what I needed tonight - his love to quiet all the what ifs and doubts.  Whatever you may be facing now, I hope you allow our good, good Father to quiet you with his love.  He sees you, he knows you and he loves you like no one else.

This is definitely a different time in our lives.  Let's use this time for good.  Take time to encourage someone.  What I know with my whole being is that God doesn't waste a thing.  I've always believed that delays can be divine intervention.  There are a lot of delays right now.  How can we allow God to use these delays to serve and speak love to those around us?   Our words are powerful.  Use them wisely.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog.  It means a lot to me.

Be Brave...  Be Blessed... and KNOW YOU ARE EQUIPPED!