Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Matthew 6:34

Good morning, Dear Friends and Prayer Partners! This is another cool day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it! Once again the early morning sky is brilliant with the myriads of stars, but the moon is hidden now. The clear sky is lovely, but we really need the clouds and rain. We trust in God to provide in His time.

I walked yesterday afternoon, due to a morning appointment with the dentist, :o(, and enjoyed the still cool air and the warm sun. I watched for a few minutes at the first shelter, because I didn't see the baby gators nor Mama, and soon, I saw the super-sized lizard crawl out of the puddle where he had been disguised and there was another one just below him. Since they are black and white striped, God has cleverly disguised them from some of the predators which are around. I saw another branch lying where the babies are, so another someone had torn it off and thrown it at them. What joy can that bring? Sigh.

Francia, the teacher, does her best to educate people about gator habits and all the other creatures, including spiders. Her tag is 6-spider. :o)

Matthew 6:34
"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

From the book Quiet Moments with God:

There was a man, who at the end of each workday, would visit an old tree in his front yard before entering his home. As he passed the tree, he would reach out to gently touch the trunk and branches.

He did this so he could mentally "hang is troubles" on the branches so that he would not take them inside to his wife and children. He left his troubles with the assumption that if the problems were important, they would still be hanging there when he came out the next morning. But many mornings, he found they had disappeared.

Of course, hanging your troubles on the worry tree is not always easy.

In his book, "Still Married, Still Sober," David Mackenzie describes another practical method for remembering to cast one's cares on God.:

To act out the principle of turning prayers over to God, we took a paper bag, wrote "God" on it, and taped it up high on the back of our kitchen door. As I prayed about matters such as my career, my role as a father, my abilities to be a good husband, I would write down each concern on a piece of paper. Then those pieces of paper would go in the bag. The rule was that if you start worrying about a matter of prayer that you've turned over to God, you have to climb up on a chair and fish it out of the bag, I don't want to admit how much time I spent sifting through those scraps of paper.

Using God as your "Worry Tree" takes practice, but it's a skill worth developing. And your effort will be rewarded with the peace of knowing God is with you, ready to handle your heavy load-if you will only let Him.

Worry is like a rocking chair.
It gives you something to do
but doesn't get you anywhere.
Bernard Meltzer

I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers with thanksgiving, joy and love!

Love and hugs,
Amaryllis