Do you want Peace in Your Life?

“Do you want Peace in Your Life?” This is what the Lord seemed to be asking me, today, as I listened to a Daily Devotional I try to hear each morning when I get up.  I put it on the computer and then listen while doing the “early morning, getting ready for my day,” type of stuff.  HERE is the link to the one I listened to today.

It talked about the belligerence that seems to be getting more and more common… road rage, etc. and what God says I can do about it to have peace in MY heart as I walk through this life.  He uses and IF – THEN statement.  This is common terminology in the computer world…  IF such and such happens, THEN this will happen.

The verses that “Our Daily Bread” gave are found in Philippians 4:4-9. (Scripture below) First, it says to Rejoice in the Lord, ALWAYS.  I thought, that means for me to keep my eyes on Him so that I can see all that He has done, and IS doing in my life… the blessings I have.  Each time I focus on those blessings, I can rejoice.

The next verse says to be gentle (that’s the only way others will see that gentleness IN me), and I CAN do that if I KNOW that He is “at hand,” and right there with me.

Then God tells me to not worry, but to be talking to Him constantly about everything… asking, and thanking Him because I know He is faithful to answer in the ways that are BEST for me.  That CAN mean “wait for HIS perfect timing…” but trust that He knows what is best better than I know what is best for me.  I am His child and like a little child that wants candy and THINKS that is BEST for him/her, the parent really knows what is best and that might be candy as a treat, but generally, it is more like vegetables or fruit. (Pout!)

IF I am constantly in communication with Him, AND trusting Him to be working everything out for my BEST, THEN the Peace of God, in times of crisis will flow over me, so that others that are watching won’t understand it.   This Peace (from a consistent relationship) will guard my heart and mind because I know Christ Jesus is with me.  After all, He loved me enough to pay for MY sins with HIS blood!

Lastly, in verse 8, God tells me that there are things I need to do to help my mind to stay healthy.  Another computer thing is GIGO.  Garbage In, Garbage Out!  I NEED to make sure what goes into my mind is NOT garbage, but things that lead to gentleness and kindness.

I need to put things that are TRUE (what God says is TRUTH), things that are noble, and just and pure into my mind.  Think about lovely, beautiful things and things that are good and happy, and virtuous… things I can Praise God for… THESE are the things I should be filling my mind with most of my day. 

When I see sad and awful things, I need to take them in through my senses, but let them go OUT again through the flow of my mouth and mind and into GOD’S hands, through prayer, because HE can handle them.  He may use me to handle some of them, but He doesn’t want ME to take on the weight of the world, just whatever tasks He gives me, and He promises that those things will be light and not terribly burdensome because He shares the load (taking most of it.)

Yep… He keeps finding ways of reminding me of these things all the time, as I walk this road with Him.  I wish I weren’t so forgetful!  :)

Philippians 4:4-9

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
⁵ Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Meditate on These Things

  
⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. ⁹ The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

The Lighthouse…

Many of you already know that I took a blogging break because things were piling up around here that needed to get done and I just didn’t have time to get them done. Well, apparently God had different plans for the break that He told me to take, because I promptly got sick and have had some very difficult times with illness for several months now. I won’t go into all of it, but I know I wouldn’t have made it without the thoughts and prayers of my friends reaching out to God on my behalf, and without the touch of His mighty, healing, loving hands.

Looking out through the darkness and holding on to the light… just knowing that He was there for me… reaching up and touching your fingers and seeing the “Light” of your love… you angels (messengers of God) that have helped me through with your blogs, emails, and the laughter in and from them (which the Bible says is like a medicine to the soul) all have helped me get to this point.

I am breathing better, my cracked tailbone is achy, but tolerable, the tendinitis in my shoulder is being worked on. Let me tell you, being ABLE to breathe without a total struggle, is wonderful!!! The last tests came back and the signs of cancer that were in the last two are totally gone and so is the pneumonia! Praise God!!!

Meanwhile, NOTHING got done around here, but I hope to be able to drop a post in here now and then, because GOD IS GOOD… and I wouldn’t be walking AT ALL without him (Title of this blog). Sometimes, you’ve got to just put one foot in front of the other and keep your eyes on the light of God’s love… and if you can’t “see” it out there, look for it in the Psalms or gospel passages in the Bible. Let the words of Psalms cry out FOR you, and let the life of Christ, and His love for us all, “relight” the pilot light in your soul. LISTEN to Praise Songs for they will help lift your spirit up to heavenly places.

I want to give you a gift… please take about three or four minutes and shut your eyes and just listen to the words (below) of this beautiful old song… It’s helped me so many times!

The Lighthouse

(Jesus is The Lighthouse)

Words and Music by Robbie Hinson

© 1971 - All rights reserved

There's a lighthouse on the hillside that overlooks life's sea.

When I'm tossed it sends out a light that I might see.

And the light that shines in darkness now will safely lead me home,

If it wasn't for the lighthouse, my ship would sail no more.

Chorus

And I thank God for The Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him.

Jesus is The Lighthouse and from the rocks of sin,

He has shown the light around me, so that I might clearly see.

If it wasn't for The Lighthouse, Where would this ship be?

Everyone that lives around us, says tear that old lighthouse down,

The big ships don't sail this way anymore, ain't no use in it standing round.

But then my mind goes back to that stormy night, when just in time I saw the light

With the light from that old lighthouse, that stands there on the hill.

Chorus

And I thank God for The Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him.

Jesus is The Lighthouse and from the rocks of sin,

He has shown the light around me, so that I might clearly see.

If it wasn't for The Lighthouse, Where would this ship be?

Late "Tuesday’s Show & Tail"

I’m behind in lots of areas lately, but I thought maybe better late than never, so I’m posting this today, Wednesday instead of yesterday. I’ve really missed doing Tuesday’s Show & Tail the past few weeks. I love sharing in this meme that Angela over at West Virginia Treasures hosts each week. I’ve made several new friends, and gotten to read about some interesting animal stories and pets they’ve seen or lived with!

Angela’s idea is to allow people to share about past or present pets or furry friends we’ve known or just pics of animals with stories to tell. If you’d like to join, here is the link to the Guidelines.

As many of you already know. we life on 5 acres of land that is surrounded on three sides by BLM (Federal Bureau of Land Management) land. Several of the large ranchers in the area lease a lot of this land each year to run cattle on. It’s a win-win situation because the ranchers get their cattle fattened up and the land doesn’t get to overgrown to badly which is a bad thing during fire season.  These pictures were taken from our side pasture toward the south.

There are many kinds of endangered animals out there, too, that the cattle don’t bother, while other clearing methods would cause problems for. We just have to be sure that our fences are secure so that we don’t end up having the cattle in our hay pastures.

These cattle are fairly wild and take off if anyone comes anywhere near them. They have old fashioned cattle round-ups on horseback each year to catch them. My old camera wasn’t powerful enough to zoom and let me be able to catch some pictures of them, though we’ve tried several times, but my new one FINALLY let us get some fairly good pics before they finally split off over the hill behind us.  

Thank you, God, for my new camera!!!!

Shroud of Ice

I was visiting over at Amusing Margaret, the Brown Recluse's blog, and saw the most beautiful pictures that she had taken of an "Ice Forest." It was one where all the trees and plants were covered in ice, and it had me thinking about it all day. I knew that the Lord had a poem for me to write and share, and it came to me a little while ago:

Shroud of Ice
By Linda Brock © 2-7-10


I saw a picture of plants shrouded with ice
And it made me think that’s often like life.
Hard and painful things close our hearts in…
Sometimes it’s hurt, and other times, sin,

But whatever has caused the ice to come,
It will melt if left to warm by the sun…
So if your heart is iced over today,
Just turn to the Son and start to pray.

As His love flows over your cold, frozen heart
The warmth of that love will cause a thaw to start.
And soon the buds of a new life will grow
In that place that was covered with hard packed snow

The life that the love the Son-shine can bring,
Will grow until your heart will be able to sing.

Puppies and Rainbows…

I have had so much fun watching Dott’s puppies as they play and learn over the past few weeks. Sure, they take a lot of work, too, but the joy they have brought into my life has made it well worth it.

Ok… so I take pleasure in some of the simple things in life, but letting God take care of my cares, and taking time to smell the roses or watch the Corgis play, makes life so much more satisfying than stressing about things that “may” happen, or things that I can’t do anything about anyway.


That is what is so wonderful about Corgi Country. It is a haven away from traffic, noise, and other sources of stress. I can always turn off the TV and listen to music or even just listen to the birds sing, or the horses munch on their hay. Doing what the Bible says in Matthew 6:34 has become my main philosophy of life I think… At least since I’ve tried to follow it this past year, and it has worked well for me! Essentially, it says to take one day at a time and don’t worry about tomorrow.

After all, I don’t even know if I will be here tomorrow (freak car accident, stray bullet, meteor coming through the ceiling, etc.), and if I’ve taken care of the important things between myself and God, then THAT isn’t a problem, so I need to just do what I need to do each day to keep things in running order.

I need to be careful not to add the world’s problems to my shoulders by feeding my brain depressing stuff I can’t do a thing about anyway… that doesn’t mean not to do my part, like voting intelligently according to my principles, but so many times I sit there and watch T.V. shows that just put junk into my head. Computer people say, “Garbage In, Garbage Out,” when talking about programming a computer, and some of those principles apply to what I allow to go into my brain.


Each day, I try to make an effort to feed my brain good things… things that bring joy and peace, and cut back on things that bring me down. This has been shown, by numerous studies, to lengthen a person’s life, by lowering blood pressure, and the levels of stress hormones in the body that tears it down over time… I try to take a walk with a loved one, or a dog (same thing actually) and really LOOK around. I look at the paintings God has created for me in the sky... I try to look at the rainbows in the diamonds of dew on the leaves, grass or a spider’s web. I watch a comedy or read a funny or uplifting book. I try to feed my brain good things!

I’m taking steps toward a more peaceful way of living each day, and trying to make it my way of life…

Father, Forgive them...

“Father, Forgive them for they know not what they do…” I have heard these words that Christ spoke, taught on many times before. I’ve always heard it said that Jesus was speaking of the people that crucified him when he spoke those words. My son and I were talking about this today, and he said that he wonders if maybe Christ, who the Bible says died for ALL men’s sins, wasn’t thinking about ALL men at that moment. (You may have heard or thought of this before but I hadn't)

As I thought about that, I occurred to me that it would make sense. When He said those words, THEN, He was thinking about each of US… those He knew that would be born and accept Him and what He was doing for us. God says that “while we were still sinners, Christ loved us enough to die for us.”

Before we REALIZED that we were sinning, and before we repented and asked for His forgiveness and accepted His free gift of life, He prayed to the Father… “Forgive them… For THEY know NOT what they do.” There will never be a GREATER love for each of us! Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice, and Thank You, God, for your love for me, and for those I love.

Depression and Praise…

I used to have a problem with depression, and sometimes, it still tries to sneak up and grab me, especially around this time of year, but I have learned a few ways to fight it that work very well for me. They work fastest if I activate them before I get down to far because then I don’t have to climb very far to get back out of the hole.

I try, whenever I feel it coming on, to find funny things to watch or listen too, preferably Christian comedians like Ken Davis or Chonda Pierce. If you haven’t heard of either of these, you are really missing out on some GREAT stuff. They are really funny, but they also help you to see how God can work in any situation… they build your faith and give you hope. Laughter truly IS medicine for me. (Proverbs. 17:22)

I also listen to Praise Music and let it just wash over my soul. Sometimes, I NEED to be able to cry to let out my emotions, and just knowing (being reminded by the music) that God loves me even in the hardest times, gives me that “rope of hope” that helps me to be able to start climbing up. (Ps. 45:8)

God, in the Bible, speaks of the “sacrifice of praise…” and sometimes, when I’m really down, it IS hard to force myself to turn to God and search for things that I can praise Him for. Even if it doesn’t seem to be much at the moment, I can praise Him for things in the past that He has done for me, and I can praise Him that He paid the price of sin for me and THAT will eventually get me into heaven.

The music will often lead me to a place where my soul comes to an oasis of peace, and I can grow stronger in faith, which also helps me to climb further out of the pit. (Heb. 13:15 & 20-21 AND James 5: 13-16)

Sometimes, I read in Psalms and His Word seeps into my soul and brings peace. I also speak scripture verses and stand on God’s promises for I’m told that if I resist Satan, he has to flee from Christ who is in me… (Examples: “Greater is He that is in me, than he who is in the world…” I John 4:4 AND “God has NOT given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind…” 2 Tim. 1:7)