"7" Minutes Alone with God

Spring is a baby duckling  as it waddles down the lane. Spring is green things growing over mountain, field and plane. Spring is water rushing down a mountainside, flowing to the sea below  to join the swelling tide. Spring is flowers and grass and trees,  decked out in colors new, beneath the rays of golden sun and skies of crystal blue. Spring is the buzzing of the bees, and singing of the birds. It’s love that’s young and beautiful, too deeply felt for words. Spring is the time when life is new, when winter’s storms have passed. Spring is the symbol of our youth which passes all too fast. Glenda Collins Inman (as published in EASTER IDEAL 1971)

He gives power to the weak, and to those  who have no might He increases strength                          (Isaiah 40:29) It’s not as I had planned it, Lord; so many things went wrong; I just feel weak and helpless when I planned to be so strong. I’ve had to count on others to help me through the day, when what I wanted most was strength to do things my own way. What a lesson You are teaching me; what in myself I see; how independent I’ve become, and how proud I’ve been to be. It isn’t necessary to be strong; to do it all myself. You’ve placed them here to fill the gap, left by my failing health. But most of all You’re teaching me that it’s Your heart’s desire, that I depend on You, my Strength, to lead me through each hour. (This is a poem I penned during a low time, health wise, in 2015. With all the sicknesses and weaknesses going around right now I think it bears reposting. Hopefully...

walk worthy of the calling with which you were called (1 Thessalonians 2:12) When my family and I moved from Oklahoma to the southeast corner of Montana in 1972, we were in for quite a culture shock.  Moving into a fish bowl existence in a settlement of 65 families was one thing, but it was located 42 miles from the nearest town, 120 miles from a city, and with only one road in and out.  Added to that was the fact that we were restricted from going on any of the land that surrounded the village because it was owned by the Crow Indian tribe. Coming from a dry state, we were surprised by the amount of alcoholism among our neighbors as well as residents of the reservation.  Most activities and gatherings centered around heavy drinking. Being teetotalers, our social interactions were limited to say the least. We did not consider ourselves to be “southerners” but others did.  It was one more thing that set us apart in our neighbors’ thinking.  But there was...

His banner over me was love (Song of Solomon 2:4) Ladies, do you remember telling your fortune with a flower?  Holding it in your hand, plucking off the petals one by one while counting off “he loves me”, “he loves me not”? The last petal and statement was supposed to tell how a certain boy felt about you. Sometimes, I’m afraid, in our thinking we apply something similar to that to how God feels about us.  On our good days,when we are kind and thoughtful and useful --”He loves me”, while on the days when we are unkind, thoughtless, and surly--”He loves me not”.  When we are energetic and productive--”He loves me”. But let a day go by when we feel listless and accomplish very little--”He loves me not”. According to the Bible, this is not an accurate description of God’s love.  There we find that God is love   (I John 4:8)   Not just that God loves, but that His very essence is love itself. In other words, it is His nature to love. It may be hard f...