TEACHINGS FROM A TUBE.....

No inner tube.....tho it was looking at my most inner places.

No test tube----tho it could be considered one.

No packing tube----tho I felt packed in.

Not just any tube.....

....a closed MRI tube for a 20 - 50 minute journey that lasted 80 minutes and the sojourner was claustrophobic.  

Teachings from the tube are the lessons I learned while inside said tube.

• Solitude can be companionable----if God is in the tube with you. (Isaiah 43:1-7)
• He who is "the lifter up of my head" (Psalm 3:3) can keep it flat and immobile for 80 minutes.
• Fear is not from God....."fear not for I am with you." (Joshua 1:9)
• Valium helps.
• God is in control even in the midst of the JACKHAMMERING, WHIRRING, CLANKING and POP. POP. POPPING sounds.
• When the selected MoTown music cannot be clearly heard in the tube, it helps to call to memory hymns that allow an old church choir tp ring in you head and sing in your soul. 
• When praying alphabetically thru the attributes of God, my "n" section is lacking.
• Prayers of others can "temper" any medical procedure and fill one's heart with hope and joy.

Regardless of the results, God is still good.

SPRINGTIME!

To everything there is a season......

......and a time for every matter under the sun.

....a time to pluck up what is planted.....

.....a time to heal....

....a time to weep....

....a time to build up....

...and a time for peace! (Ecclesiastes 3:1- 8)

He has made every beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Let them know that this is your hand; you O Lord have done it! (Psalm 109:27)

PANDEMIC FOG

???????

What does one do with a heavy heart????

I know.......but I'm still struggling. 

Yesterday, I couldn't even write. Praying God will use this sadness and dark night of my soul---not for me as much as for others in transition.

But God.....in His love and mercy, has me hear my hubby's voice reading Paul David Tripp's words, "Facing disappointment and failure?" (New Morning Mercies, March 18) The entire entry captured the brokenness I was feeling, and the unrealistic expectations I live with. From Romans 8 he uses Paul's descriptor's to add weight to said brokenness; subjected to futility (v. 20), bondage to decay (v. 22) greater grace reminds one of an eternity yet to come. 

......but God's grace is greater than you could ever have imagined it would be. Biblical faith lives at the intersection of shocking honesty and glorious hope. (NMM, 3/18)

???? diminish because the answer of grace is once again closing in on my wounded heart!

PATHS OF LIFE

5 PATHWAYS PITHY GRABBERS---Each 25 words or less 

Pain and joy are pathways to the heart. Pain and joy are not mutually exclusive. (Journal Jotting)

Allow God to hush the storms that sweep the lake of the inner life, and ruffle its calm surface. (Robert Morgan)

Carefully consider the path for your feet...(Proverbs 4:26)

A quiet mind anchored with God-led thoughts is a pathway to health, both physical and spiritual. 

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them; (Isaiah 42:16a)

 I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. (Isaiah 42:16b)

Heidi Walter's mixed media sculpture, "Lean" which resides in my home, reminds me of my friend Terry Parlow. Terry was paralyzed and became blind from a work related accident in 2004. He spent the last 11 years of his life in a wheelchair. But....he chose to lean in to the Lord and closely follow Him. Terry often shared with me the many ways the Lord had used his blindness to lead him down a path of more spiritual light than he had ever seen when sighted. 

A path of light without sight. WOW!

25 Words of Rambling.....

I Sought Solitude.....

• In search of my slowly ebbing heart
• To unearth gentleness
• To find my inner spring
• To satisfy my longing soul
• To appreciate the sacred ordinary

.......Only to find it in His word. (Psalm 107:9)

READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY 2021

Will post as soon as I finish reading my historical fiction book set during Christmas---that's how far behind I am!

.........................Book finished. 

This day emphasizes the need for reading....for yourself, for others and especially for children. Reading aloud to children can provide a shared adventure that can continue for a lifetime.

In our home each child knows of Captain Underpants because their dad read this to each of them---amidst much laughter, Now it's a "shared joke."

Not exactly high brow literature, but it has become a shared family experience,. Another book brought out words that rolled off all our tongues, "Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo has fallen into the well." Winning awards in 1968, 1997, 2007 & 2009,  the book now receives a red light from socialjusticebooks.org.  It certainly addresses in-sensitivity in our culture, we never considered.

I realize how easily I am drawn to a book by an award, a title or book jacket or even an author's previous book. I even feel responsible keeping current on books for grandchildren. I was drawn to this book by all of the above criteria. A main focus of the book was character Louie's mission "to save a pitiful motherless donkey" as friend college friend, Doris is doing on her farm with a dancing "house" goat--even potty-training her. (I can hear Joyce Ann laughing at those goat antics now) Plus, the donkey" was named Winslow, my G.O.A.T. child hood friend has that very name. Winslow is also the "she" in my childhood shenanigans. 

Sensitivity as I read has taken on new significance. As Solomon reminds in Ecclesiastes 12:12b, "Of making many books there is no end...."

On Read Across America Day may we all realize the importance of reading aloud to children and our responsibility for selecting the best out of many.

"There's no such thing as a good book written just for children---if it's well-written, it can appeal to any age audience! That's my opinion and I.m sticking to it." (Dotsy Liles)