You never know how strong you are
until being strong is the only choice you have.
One can imagine ~
sitting on a deck out side in the brisk fall air listening to the quiet and enjoying the moment of doing nothing.
The voices of nature and the stillness of the water splashing against itself is the only sound entering over whelmed ears.
So often we have to have noise in the air.
It would be good for us to stop and just listen.
Listen to the quiet.
Look at the beauty.
Listen closer as the season speaks in words we don’t often recognize.
Soon the quiet begins to change as geese fly overhead encouraging each other to press forward and on to that last winter resting place.
It is a distant call.
A migratory call. Almost a haunting sound.
A miraculous sound echoing into the vast sky.
When I hear them often I will stop and look up.
If I am in a car sometimes I will pull off the road to just listen to them and watch.
It always amazes me how they tirelessly fly high into the air and onto a journey only they know.
It is a God designed mystery.
It is a beauty that is almost too hard to describe.
For me it is a reminder that we are not meant to live this life alone.
We need each other to encourage and come alongside as we
journey through our individual paths.
Just as the geese need each other to continue on to their destination.
Each one of them listen and press forward and often there will be more than one
joining into the haunting call.
For us I think
This season is a time of reflection of what really matters.
It is also a season of choices.
I choose to enjoy the season we are in.
I choose to stop and look and listen.
I choose to perhaps take a walk or a drive and enjoy the colors God has painted around us.
On this Veterans day November 11th ~ 2011~
May we remember those who served to give us freedom
give us hope
and help to restore our faith
in the United States of America.
Even though our country is struggling and sometimes not doing so well.
We still pray that God will Bless our America and keep us from harm.
To say we thank you might not be enough to those who sacrificed so much for the good of the country.
We remember ~ Our words are not enough ~
For everyone who has served and is still serving ~ We thank you ~ We pray that God will protect you and send you all home soon ~
The other day I met with a friend of mine and after talking for an hour or so she leaned into the table and said to me:
“Have you ever thought of speaking at a ladies gathering?
You have so much to share and you say it so eloquently in a way that others can feel and see the story you are telling.”
I paused and took a deep breath and replied,
“I would really have to know that is what God wanted me to do,
it is nothing that I would pursue on my own.”
Believing in oneself is the beginning of a new challenge
and at this point my own ‘belief’ is not that strong.
It was hard for me to grasp that (i) would have anything to share.
When the above quote was found
it was as if I heard a quiet gentle whisper saying to me.
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do”
Oh that my confidence would be as as strong as my friends sitting across the table from me.
She said she was encouraged by my words.
She wrote me a note later in the afternoon and shared that she told her husband she felt SO blessed to have taken time with me at lunch that day.
It is hard for me to take in.
Hard for me to imagine that (i) could share part of my life’s story and others listening to it
would be blessed through my process of sharing.
Perhaps it is time to look ‘fear’ and disbelief in myself in the face and learn to say:
With God’s help i can do it.
(the little i means the attention is not focused on me).
The challenge remains for me to follow through with what my friend asked me to think about.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by taking one step at a time.
Will (i) someday be able to take that small step of faith?
Can you?
Is there something challenging you these days?
Do you need the step of faith to do it?
Simplicity
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