CHOOSE: NOSTALGIA, A REPRISE

A reprisal is usually musical but last Thursday....it became a resumption of an activity.
Waxing nostalgic.

Elnora and I ended ended up wandering around the square in Collierville and decided to peep in the log cabin on the green. That's what resumed my nostalgic recall and ramblings.
Nora is the perfect person to accompany on the memory journey because she's known us for years and is well acquainted with my mother. She didn't mind standing by the furniture that stoked my memory. A pie safe. 
The hinged doors on the front had those tin plates with punched holes just like on Mother's pie safe!

A few differences----most pie safes were located in kitchens and used to store pies or bread and other perishables. Ours was in the "backroom." It didn't hold pies or any kind of food items. 
Instead, our pie safe at 2211 held the crispest linens in town---tightly folded and ironed. Sheets and pillow slips, (as Mother called them) dried on a clothes line. 

Precious memories to share with a precious person---recalling God's goodness from days gone by and "all of His doings and musing on the works of His hand" in our shared lives. (Psalm 143:5)

CHOOSE: STILLNESS

This snapshot says it all.

My plan for today's quiet time. To sit before the Lord and allow Him to guide my thoughts.

In stillness. With an open Bible and an open heart. 

Speak (LORD) for your servant is listening. (1 Samuel 3:10)

If I can't be still and listen with my heart, how else will I know Him?

CHOOSE: TO ANSWER TRUTHFULLY

Answering truthfully to people doesn't seem hard at all unless I'm trying to "spare" their feelings. But answering myself truthfully is not always so easy. Too often rationalization gets factored in to the equation. 

Tidying the pantry (not alphabetizing, tho that is often very helpful) had me questioning myself today. As I stacked the "NICE" products from a Walgreens sale with the Kroger "Home Sense" cheapies, I thought about being nice to others. 

Then, questions followed. Who are you nice to in your daily walk? 

My first thought was, "I "try" to be nice to everyone who crosses my path---from clerks and sales people to "late" repair men and sanitation workers." Friends are easy to be nice to as are church folks. 

Even people whom I don't know, can elicit a "nice" smile, especially if I see them showing patience & kindness to others. Sometimes, if I don't feel like being nice, I choose to "stuff" my negative emotions and smile anyway.

But.....what happens when I get home? Do I allow earlier negative emotions to roll out and steam roll over loved ones? I think the Dr. Nutcrackers of this world call it displaced anger or displaced aggression.

Do I choose to be nice to hubby when he's grumpy or he's been nice and emptied the dishwasher and I can't find where he's put things? Do I take that "minor" frustration out on him just because earlier in the day an unknown male behind the wheel cut me off and then raised his "not so nice finger "at me?. 

Why is it that family often get the brunt of our stress-induced emotions or our suppressed negative ones just waiting to vent?

Like my pantry shelving I need to choose to "mix" my "nice" in with "home" folks as a matter of course. It just makes sense to be NICE at home.

Love one another. (1 Peter 4:8) I think love includes being nice and "another" includes those folks both outside and inside the home----especially those who have been "patient and bearing with you" (Ephesians 4:2) for almost 48 years!

CHOOSE: TO WALK FAITHFULLY

Henry Blackaby says, "To walk faithfully with God will always bring a person to experience God's laying His heart over his." (hers)

Not my way, but His way, as my Jehovah-Jirah provides the path way through dashed hopes.
A FAITHWALK!

For we walk by faith not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Whether in tennis shoes or heels-----thank you, Lord for continung to guide my walk when my eyes are blinded with tears.

CHOOSE: HODGE PODGE

Some choices are  more of a defeat or...on a more positive note, an acceptance.

Such is the way with my "garden" and I do use the term loosely.

Living between "master gardeners" could be intimidating. In fact, it is only my thinking that drags me down that lane. They never do.

They're always encouraging but I'm sure it's difficult for them to imagine my interest in a printed page, even about gardening, greater than my desire to put gardening into practice.

Possibly because that's when my ineptness is front and center.
Think random placement. Harem-scarem. Hodge-podge. Jumble. I would put eclectic but I think that only pertains to furniture/ decor! Certainly not a pastiche of neighboring gardens. 

Just patio pots with my small garden of phlox, praying hands, lenten roses and Solomon seal as a backdrop.

Comparison is the "Thief of joy." (T. Roosevelt) ...or as Lo says, "If you compare, our despair."

Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each should carry their own load. (Galatians 6:4-5)

CHOOSE: ACTION

CHOOSE: Action Verbs might have been a better title choice.

Trust is a noun. Trust is also an action verb when one chooses to "trust" God.

Trust God whether you "feel" like it or not. It's an action of the will.

Like choosing to be faithful, choosing to trust, especially in the hard places of suffering is an internal action. It's a first step. A step that starts in the mind.

When one is hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing, not feeling abandoned in the midst of persecution, or  struck down, but still upright and functioning, those folks have chosen to take action and choose to trust. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

That first step can lead to courage in action. A heart strengthening. Hope. (Psalm 31:24) As The Message states, "Expect God to get there soon."

Courage, strength, hope---all results of one action verb----trust. 

Choose to trust Him, knowing "soon" is the adverb of His timing.

CHOOSE: promp-TEA-tude

Promptitude is truly a word. An important word!
My childhood family valued promptitude. "Promptness is just good manners!" (Mother)

Thus, promptness has been important to me all my life. I wasn't always tolerant of others' timeliness, rather their lack there of!

As a real stickler for being "on time," it has always seemed polite to honor an appointment or engagement in a timely manner---which for me was usually a little early to said destination.  Even if I did not "go in" until the appointed time, I was prompt. Maybe to a fault. I even set kitchen clocks early so we would go out the door with a little "wiggle" room as other family members did not seem to share my obsession with promptitude! (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 1Corinthians 14:40)

But God....recently had me spill my cuppa promp-TEA-tude. And....my daughter was there to point that out! I had an excuse for my 1 minute tardiness, but as in the past, I have not "allowed" for excuses, I was pretty sure I shouldn't even open my mouth to share it.

It appears I needed to add a spoonful of grace to my cuppa promp-TEA-tude,  as well as to remember to serve it to others.

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."

CHOOSE: 4 FOR 4th FRIDAY

More marginalia quotes---four for this 4th Friday entry:

• Lament is faith seeking understanding. (C. Huffman)
• Lament happens when grief finds its voice--as one begins to move through the pain and not wallow in it. (C. Huffman)
• Lamenting can be difficult for "stoic southerners" who often seek to deny emotions and endure grief and suffering. (C. Huffman)
• If we need to lament our sin, how much more to rejoice at our pardon! (C. H. Spurgeon)

Trying not to lament or embrace fatalism while revisiting these laments, I chose to begin my day with a Magnum Almond bar for breakfast.

 At least it was a "mini!" That's to make sure I don't "lament" this choice later in the day. 

CHOOSE: TO LOOK UP

Morning scripture had me meditating on "looking up."

My voice shalt Thy hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. (Psalm 5:3, KJV)

Then, that verse had me literally looking up all day!

At the kitchen table I looked up as two hummingbirds suddenly swooped in to the feeders. 

Outside I looked up to the top of the magnolia as an newly opened bloom caught  my eye. 

Others in my path were looking up as well---I noticed a toddler looking up to his mom for help in getting up after a fall. What a picture of us looking up for help getting upright when we "fall."

Leaving the Silver Caboose with Elnora, we both looked up at blue skies.  Look what we found!

A "great find" discovered----just by looking up!
A reminder that "looking up" is a good choice!