FRIDAY FOCUS WITH TRUST!

Worry is the problem!  (Philippians 4:6)

What's the two-fold answer?
1)    Go to God through His Word!

2)    PRAY!

TRUST---HAVE IT---THRUST IT!*

*ODK had a birthday thrust of joy as all the patrons of Haywood 209 Cafe sang "Happy Birthday" to him and the stage sent him off with a slice of coconut cake "on the house" to honor his 19th!

APOSTROPHE LINGO?

Why are many words in my vocabulary "clipped"?

I'm 'bout to leave. You goin' with me?

Maybe that's why this smooth rock beckoned me on the Deep Creek path.

Actually, it looks a bit like a worry stone. Worry stones are created by polishing gems. This gem is from the Lord who created it. It has been polished by the water that has rushed over it for no-tellin' how long.

Today, it has been used by me to focus on its beauty and smoothness by  the One who created it. I started my walk worrying about my lingo. 

It seems as God has given me permission to "take that off my worry list"---as hubby reminds me many times daily.

Be anxious for nothing! (nutin') (Philippians 4:6)

Allow who you are, even your locale pronunciations, to be acceptable to yourself......and take it off your worry list. 

Even rub the thumb-sized indention of your apostrophe-shaped rock to relieve stress if that helps.....and thank God.

MORE LIGHT!

The LightFM---

A gospel ministry with far reaching effects, especially during Hurricane Helene, September 26, 2024.

Exit 55 off I-40 E take the first right. After we checked in at the Billy Graham Center, we took the first right and headed up the narrow, steep curvy road to Camp Cedar Creek Welcome Pavilion.

We felt welcome! 

Worth the drive1 

We were treated to a friendly reception, a delish Low Country Boil served with a beautiful mountain view! After a bit of a song fest, a devotional was shared by one of the team members. Powerful stories of hope and healing. 

Many "God Moments" were shared from the dark-out as Hurricane Helene hit to following up with feeding the communities and  providing shelter. One that stood out to me ------LightFM was only "off air" for 9 minutes! For many stranded in their listening area, it was the only news access they had to the outside world! 

Much more than meal.....it was a celebration of all that God had done through The LightFM ministry.

PRAYER POSITIONS!

"Prayer Positions" vary.

How? Where? Why?

Position?

• Eyes open with Bible open.
• Eyes closed with heart open.
• Hands clasped. Hands raised.
• Kneeling. Prostrate.Standing.

Where?

• Anywhere!
• At a ping-pong table or on a marathon route.
• inside or outside.
• Alone or with a friend or friends.

Position matters not.

Location matters not. 

What matters is a heart connected with God. (Psalm 46:10)

Be still and know that He is God----how ever you say it or however your pray it.

SIGN FROM THE LORD!

Sometimes when you're so down, disheartened, anxious and trust challenged... 

....one needs to look up.....to refocus.

Who would have thought that looking up from an exam table at the doc's office would give one an encouraging sign.....but it did!

What a sign....like a miracle to confirm one's continuance in faith.

For an avid reader and former librarian, even the wording was familiar. 

Just what I needed. A sign!

CHOOSE: AN ALTERNATIVE TO ANXIETY

If anxiety is often synonymous with stress, How does one rid herself from stress, the bad kind that is?

What is an effective, appropriate alternative to anxiety?

The answer is simple. The application is harder. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Friend Drenda, who knows me oh so-o-o well after working with me for years, has given me a tangible reminder. A pocket prayer shawl---how original and perfect.

Some choices are easier to make with encouragement from friends.

CHOOSE: WISE INVESTMENTS

For me to even type those words feels like a foreign language. To invest wisely is not usually in my vocabulary because financial investing is the first thing that comes to my mind---and I couldn't tell you anything about "the Market!" Bull? Bear?
But God...these last few weeks has reminded me to take stock of the worries that are pretty bullish in my life lately. Not Wall Street stocks as I don't have any of those, but I do have that level of panic that is often reflected on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It's time to cash in and divest myself of the fears that bring worry, which can become a growing sense of panic.
When our nation worries, the markets plunge. The Dow even fell today. (Whatever the DOW is.) When I worry, my spirit plummets.

As Chuck Swindoll  puts it,  (in my notes from, Christ at the Crossroads) I need to dump my useless panic and  worries and regain a solid share of God's peace. (Philippians 4:6)

Obviously I've been unsuccessful in disinvesting my self of worry & panic for many years now. My 2009 blog about patience listed ridiculous circumstances that would throw me into a panic. Sadly, the same things hold true today in my panic-driven life.  How slow am I?

Today, I choose wise investments. Ironically, one an appointment with a financial advisor, but the wise investments were ones I made with my time and other people. I chose to spend time in prayer, send some texts and emails to hopefully encourage family and friends and most importantly to visit with a widow friend face to face.

CHOOSE: TO HEED

Pray and Obey. Pithy with a punch. It even rhymes!  A great reminder to heed.

The Lord has been revealing much to me in His word this week as I have chosen to "pray" scripture.

Now....it's up to me. Will I obey the truth I have been shown? 

Some obedience is much easier than others. But God.....wants it all.

Taking every thought captive seems to me a besetting sin. (2 Corinthians 10:5,) i.e. worry. (Philippians 4:6)

Marginalia to the rescue. Chuck Swindoll notes, from the anxiety chapter 3 of Christ at the Crossroads, reminded me:

I worry when...

ADD--- something else to my already FULL agenda

          ---my reputation/pride to a situation

          ---someone else's expectation of  me ..........& then I become angry.

I worry when I calculate without God....considering consequences of "addition without him" seems a good beginning point for lots of needed heeding.

Now, I need to choose to heed, but I think I'll just focus on inappropriate addition---that seems doable today. I certainly don't need to add frustration or anger to my life, which Swindoll sees as a result of too much addition.

CHOOSE: STRESS RELIEF

Ah-h-h-h, wouldn't it be nice just to open a bar of stress relief soap and be able to use it to "scrub" out all the anxious thoughts in your head? It can be a real war in there. Lye soap type cleaning needed----though eucalyptus spearmint sounds more soothing for this much needed palliative care.

I know, in my head, that those thoughts need to be brought captive. (2 Corinthians 10:15)

I try---I really do. 

I know that God's word says, be anxious for nothing....(Philippians 4:6)

I continually focus on filling my mind with gratitude.

Maybe that's my problem. Focus. An "incorrect focus.
Don't focus on "doing." Focus on "being"---His, no less.

Just maybe, the problem is a "heart one," for out of the heart flows the issues of the heart. (Proverbs 4:23)

CHOOSE: PERTINENT PITHY GRABBERS

Have you ever heard a phrase that so "names you" that it can remain with you all day! It's like one of those ear worms, but without the music. It just gets stuck in one's brain.

"Stress strangles." Yep, it does. I already have trouble swallowing. I think it's an Adams trait but it makes the word "STRANGLE" reverberate in all caps!
A catch in my throat that resonates in my mind!

I sipped a cuppa per-tea-nent this morning because I knew "stress strangles" was a pithy grabber  that was pertinent in my life and I needed to heed it! (Philippians 4:6)

CHOOSE: TO RELINQUISH

Choosing to relinquish, for me, is choosing NOT to choose.
Today, it's choosing not to choose 4F.
4F can be a reference to the basics of evolution, which I would not choose to extrapolate here. 

But....in the spiritual realm, there are "4 Fs" I "try" not to choose.

• Fretting I tend to "stew" about way to much in my life---my family might use the indefinite pronoun "everything" to encapsulate all my fretting. But God....lists several "FRET NOTs" (or fret synonyms) in His word, at least 3 in Psalm 37 alone. "Fret not yourself;" (Psalm 37:8) God says in Proverbs 24:19, "Do NOT fret because of evildoers." (emphasis, mine) The nightly news tends to have me fretting daily at 5:30 pm.
• Fussing (My "F" word for anxiety) Anxious thoughts build. Worry grips. So hard for a world class worrier . There I said it---I exposed my besetting sin. But God....says, "Be anxious for nothing..." (Philippians 4:6, NASB)
• Fruitless I desire to be fruitful, not fruitless. To bear the fruit of the Spirit in my own life (Galatians 5:22-23) being fruitful even through suffering, (Genesis 48:15-21) as well as to bear fruit for His kingdom as I abide in Him. (John 15:4-5)
• Fear "FEAR NOT, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God: I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10) (emphasis, mine) Enough said.

Therefore, today I choose to relinquish the 4 Fs in my life---or as my little Lucy sings, "Let it go; let it go!"

After all, that's what relinquishing is.....a "letting go and letting God."

MEMORY LEAKS!

Sometimes a character in a book will resonate with a reader on a personal level. Such was the case for me with Aunt Love in The Scent of Lilacs.  Though Aunt Love could spout scripture with chapter and verse reference from days of old, she had trouble coming up with names. (Even more with 2022 Escape room /Locked Mind--almost 6 years after posting this entry!)
"I don't know what's the matter with me," she says. (p. 204)
Her niece Jocie attributed it to "memory leaks" ---though you wouldn't notice her condition by just looking at her. According to her, Aunt Lucy had been "misplacing more and more of her mind lately, but that didn't stop her from pulling out appropriate Bible verses to attempt to keep 13 year old Jocie in line." (p. 8)
Oh, how I can relate to Aunt Love's "mental malady." 

I kept "forgetting" to take a picture of the book....
....until  I was headed to the book drop---oh my!

But God....reminds me to "be anxious for nothing" (Philippians 4:6) and just like Aunt Love, I might be able cite chapter and verse, I just need to "remember" to use it in my own life,

FATIGUE

3/20/11FATIGUE……..in ALL CAPS. I think that must be the label above the wall I just “hit.” Actually I seem to be surrounded by tired, sagging walls. Walls too exhausted and too WEAK to hold me up. There is no apparent way out. No doors labeled ENERGY are appearing.

Fret not, Dots. (Psalm 37:23-24)

Be anxious for nothing....(Philippians 4:6)

Maybe I need to pray Colossians 1:11 for myself as well as others.

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, (ESV)

RULES!

4/5/10 I grew up in a house full of rules. Manners first---always! No patent leather shoes before Easter and never after Labor Day. No caps at the table---ever! No listening in on the party line. Even in landscaping, Mother only allowed white and green planted “out front.” All colored flowers were in the back in her cutting garden.

My cherry tree that is in our front yard met Mother’s criteria (Josh, the giver, must have known her rule.) It blooms bright white every spring. Yet, when we came home this weekend to the driveway littered with its petals, it was magnificent---the dried petals had turned into mounds of pinkish petal dunes scattered by the wind. So much for that rule---I loved the pink!

During the little Texans Spring Break visit, I laid out rules for them as well. Street play not allowed. No standing in their golf cart. Turn around for all vehicles was the Kaplan’s driveway, etc. I must have overdone it a bit because when I asked Noah to put his socks on he responded , “Is there a sock rule too?”

I tend to follow rules. I find security in rules and laws, often getting really miffed at those who break them, especially litterers. However, when I’m honest with myself, I know that I (and others) can rationalize when “real” laws are broken, or even one of our own self-imposed rules.

How ‘bout the golden rule? Or those other laws and rules laid out in God’s word? They lead to righteous living but can often be hard to follow. Just look at 3 of my “biggie” struggles.
• Do everything without complaining or arguing. (Philippians 2:14)
• Let your gentleness be evident to all. (Philippians 4:5)
• Do not be anxious about anything, (Philippians 4:6)

Even the apostle Paul had trouble keeping the rules. Romans 7:19 shares his inner conflict. “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”
How grateful I am for grace---grace as seen in the next chapter verse 1 which says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Now that’s something to think about for those of us who are still struggling with some of the rules. This isn’t license to break the rules but a reminder that His grace will guide us in our struggle.

Piece to Peace

9/22/09
When I received the cancer diagnosis last January, I had some choices to make. Some of them were logistical---actually a lot of them were logistical and seemed to be ever changing. However, the choice to give this piece of my life to God was not difficult at all. Some folks might marvel at that, but before you put me on some “faithfulness” pedestal, I have a confession. That choice was not difficult for me because I didn’t really have control over what had happened. It “was what it was”---mycrocystic adnexal carcinoma. Life happens---“it is what it is” and much of it is out of our hands.

The swap--giving my piece of a “cancer victim life” to God--was replaced by His incredible Peace. So what’s the problem, you wonder? The problem is me. Other “swaps” in my life still don’t come as easily. When I think (wrongly, of course) that I have some control over a situation, then it is harder to turn it over to Him. Children’s choices, economic “stretches,” work obligations, to name a few.

What does God’s Word say about all this sinful fretting? For one thing, submission is necessary. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you. (I Peter 5:6-7) Then, when we’re anxious for nothing, He gives that Peace that we can’t even comprehend. (Philippians 4:6)

Six months ago I gave God a big piece of my life---a rare cancer. In return, He gave me an even bigger PEACE---His Peace that passes understanding. As stated in Jesus Calling’s 9/12 entry, His Peace is a continual gift to me, I just have to receive it.

Today I sought peace, I pursued peace and I found peace---or it found me as I turned pieces of me and my struggles over to Him-- moment by moment. May I continue to receive His gift of Peace. Remembering that He cares for me, may I lay at His feet all those shattered pieces of my life, those cares and concerns that rob me of joy, and receive His Peace. What an exchange!