On Frustration, Joy, and Waiting

I am beginning to understand that all things really do come together for the good. Sometimes, it really does not seem that way, but it is true. The Bible is full of these promises. Many times I find that I am letting myself become consumed with frustration, anger, resentment, and disappointment, just to name a few. I will feel resentment when someone else seems to be happier than me. "Why can they be blessed with the things I want and not me?" I become angry when someone points out a way I can help. "Why are they telling me what to do, don't they see that I am busy with other things?" I resent others for their good fortune. "I have suffered, when do I get my share of good fortunes?" I am disappointed that I have not accomplished many admirable things. "What I do is meaningless. I go to work, come home, go to church and taxi my Amish friends around. Who cares?"

Psalm 103

1 Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him:
12 as for as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But form everlasting to everlasting
the Lord's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember his precepts.
19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, a;; his heavenly hosts.
you servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.

This is a powerful Psalm. I am reminded of my fragility. I am reminded that the Lord heals, redeems and restores. I am reminded that instead of suffering and dying for my wickedness, I am blessed beyond comprehension. I am learning to see the blessings. I am learning the true meaning of changing the heart.

I am sure you are wondering ('you' being any readers I still have, if any, after my prolonged blogging silence!)how this all relates, well... Recently I was pondering ways I could purge distasteful thoughts and actions from my life. Unfortunately, as stated above, I can tend to have a bad attitude about some things, and even more unfortunate is the fact that I often wear my bad attitude for all to see and feel. I want to be salt and life, and smearing those bad feelings around is anything but. So I prayed, I asked how I could change my attitude, my thoughts, and my actions to better represent my Savior other that just feeling bad, saying I am sorry, and repenting when I mess up. I found my answer in a few familiar Scriptures I had learned as a child. I had learned the words, but I am just now grasping their meaning and trying to apply them.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I do not believe these verses are only referring to keeping the flesh pure, the mind of a temple of the Holy Spirit should also be kept pure.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Diligently striving to obtain these attributes in our every day moments will help maintain our defenses against the attacks and temptations of the enemy. Plus, there is no law prohibiting the frequent, even continual practice of these qualities!

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, -if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things. Philippians 4:8

By mindfully dwelling on the correct things, I am finding that I am feeling a real and significant change. I can look upon my frustrations and realize that I was distorting the situation. I can be truly joyful for someone who is celebrating a blessing in their life, knowing that I am truly blessed as well and that God has more in store for me than I could ever imagine. I can thank someone for their concern for others when they point out ways I could help, and I can be thankful for the opportunity to serve another. And what I do does matter. I am a friend and an assistant to the elders, and my coworkers in my workplace. I make a difference in their lives, and through that I am very blessed!

I am waiting for the next chapter God has for me, but in this season of waiting I must not be idle. Although I may not be doing great things outwardly, great things are being cultivated within. Praise God, O my soul!

Thoughts on Christmas

"Christmas in America is more about getting what we want than giving what people need. Is this the tradition we want to pass down to our children? When we worship Jesus at Christmas, we're reminded that God came for all humanity. No matter our momentary circumstances, every human needs to be rescued from sin by the Son. "And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2Corintians 9:8. God gives to us so we can give to others in order to expand His kingdom, not ours. If we can resist the trap of giving easy gifts, and if we can reject the assumption that giving expensive gifts or many gifts is the best way to express love, something else might begin to happen. We might experience moments of relational giving that our friends and family will care about and remember. Relational giving means the way we pay attention to another person. We think about who they are and what they care about. When we refuse to equate money with love, we become free. Spending less doesn't always mean giving less. When we give relationally during the Advent season, this is what we remember: it's an opportunity to worship as we remind each other of the gift that was given for our sake. The conscious giving of our time and presence to another is not a new concept, but it is a neglected one."

I have been thinking a lot about Christmas and family. I have been talking to God and trying to understand why I was unable to spend the holiday with my family, why I am alone for Christmas. Usually I look forward to Christmas very much. I love seeing my family and spending time with them. Christmas holds many wonderful family memories for me, so what good memories will I get from being alone? I was pondering this very thing tonight while I was driving home from work and listening to Christmas music on the radio. I realized that I was repeatedly changing the channel on the radio because the song they were playing was not ‘happy’. Then it hit me, Christmas is not about being ‘happy’. Remembering Christ and the reason He came to dwell among us is amazing, humbling, and joyful, but not happy. We were and continue to be sinful people. God, the one and only true God, who created us to be His companions and stewards of all His amazing creation, the only god who is responsive and caring, sent His only Son to live a perfect and blameless life so we could learn how we are to live by His example so that He could then pay the ultimate price for our sins by dying on the cross. We have been given more than we could ever possible comprehend.

Thank you Lord for Your immeasurable love and unending grace, which is constantly offered to all humanity. Please give us eyes to see the opportunities You have laid before us to graciously give of ourselves in remembrance of your great sacrifice on our behalf. You are with me always, I am never alone.

May you all have a very blessed Christmas!!

Drive Time

Mom, Kent and I are moving on in our travels and are logging a fair bit of drive time. Kent is our expert in navigation and controls.


Mom is the pro at documentation of progress made.


And we have been passing the hours with games of Battleship and, most popular, Scrabble.


Good times and memories.

Beach Bums

After a great week with my Dad and step mom, Kim, I met up with my Mom and step dad, Kent. We will be road tripping our way up to PA, visiting family along the way. Our first stop was my step brother Josh's house to visit him and his wife, Jessie, and their daughters, Hannah and Mikayla. We had a wonderful visit. I had not seen then in a very long time, and I enjoyed seeing my beautiful, delightful nieces. Hannah wanted us to go to the beach, so Josh and Jessie took us to the beach at Ft. Fisher.


The water was a little cold for us to go swimming, but the weather was beautiful for wading and gathering seashells. We even found a jellyfish that had washed up!


The girls had a good time. Hannah and her mom played around climbing on the rocks and jumping from pylon to pylon. Hannah is an excellent jumper!


Mikayla is a doll! She is a very good-natured little girl, and enjoyed playing with a bag full of shells her sister had collected.


This trip also marks the first time my Mom and I had been on the beach together. We have each been to the beach, but never at the same time.


I had a fabulous time at the beach with my family, and hope to go again in the future.

Within the Realm

Well, my week in SC with my Dad and Kim came to a close quickly. We had a wonderful time, and are awaiting our next opportunity to spend time together. We went on many adventures while I was there, one of them being MagiQuest.


MagiQuest is a lot of fun. It is kind of like a scavenger hunt meets a video game. You start by getting a wand. The wand is your playing piece. You wave it at different things in the "realm" (playing area) to make things happen within the game such as to "enchant" animals and creatures to talk and give you clues or tasks, open treasure chests to find lost items ands gold, duel with goblins and dragons and the like. You take your wand back with you each time you play, and it remembers where you are within the game and allows you to pick up where you left off. My Dad and Kim found out about MagiQuest before I went to visit. They thought it sounded fun, and so did I. We went three times while I was there, and we made it through to the "Master Magi" level. The inside of the 'realm' is all decorated and the people who work there dress up, so if you have a good imagination you really can get into it and pretend you are in a magical land. Here you can see the castle where the princess lives. Inside the castle there is also the library and access to the dungeons.


Here is the tree house where the fairies live.

And the duel masters hut was decorated very nicely. I had fun looking at everything they had in there.

After all those magical adventures, we were hungry, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was very good, as was the company!


It was a great trip. Thank you for the good times Dad and Kim!

Midnight Matinee

Tonight I went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 with my dad. He had never been to a midnight movie release before! (I have been to a fair share...) We had a good time, and are awaiting the last installment due in July.

Down on the Plantation

I am currently visiting my dad and step-mom Kim in South Carolina. Yesterday we drove to Mt Pleasant and toured the Boone Hall Plantation. It was a lot of fun. We got to go on a driving coach tour around the whole plantation, then there was a live demonstration about the Gullah culture that emerged from the slaves. After that we listened to a talk about the slaves and their life on the plantation. We were able to tour the remaining cabins, which contained an audio and/or visual clip, plaques and relics to educate you on the lives of the slaves from their enslavement through emancipation.

This is a photo of "Slave Row". Nine of the original shacks are still standing. The plantation produced bricks at one time and these are built from the rejected bricks. Each hut housed approximately 16 people. Inside I estimate they are about the the size of two queen beds pushed end to end. Boards would have been laid on the rafters of the roof for the children to sleep.

We also went on the tour of the first floor of the main house. The second floor is occupied by the owners of the plantation. The house is very beautiful colonial style furnished with antiques from the period the house was originally built in.


The whole plantation was very beautiful and the experience was educational and fun, but I think the image that I will remember the most was the Avenue of Oaks. The avenue leading up to the house is lined on each side with centuries old Live Oaks draped with Spanish Moss. It was gorgeous. My favorite parts of the house were the library/ball room and the breeze way which both featured floor to ceiling windows, lovely floors (hardwood in the library and original bricks made on the plantation laid in herringbone in the breezeway) and both rooms opened up into a garden courtyard. Unfortunately no photography was permitted inside the house, so you will just have to use your imagination, think Jane Austin.


Avenue of Oaks as seen from the house.