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These snowmen where collected through years of “I gotta get that snowman” and couldn’t resist it.

https://rusticmeetselegance.blogspot.com/

“To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.” (Barbara Bush)

The kitchen is where we gather the most in our home. A place to gather with your family: your children, grandchildren and sometimes visiting family or friends. It is the place where the first course of your day begins. The scent of coffee brewing, breakfast cooking and the clanging of dishes and the pots and pans hitting the stove.  The magic begins at the table. 

We hold back nothing. When our bellies are full and our mouths full of food that we can’t wait to share of the day, or when the grandchildren visit they are filled with exciting news to tell of their week, and it is also when our future plans are made. 

It is at the table that all the secrets of our world is revealed.  It is at the table when all our guards are down and all our grieves are laid before everyone to hear.  It is at the table that we can solve our problems when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

AND it is at the table where we lift our hearts in prayer to our Almighty God and look for his handfuls of blessing to fall on us. For we believe as His child that he will bless as His word says He will.

This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see. (The Hiding Place)

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.

The Israelite’s were commanded in Joshua 3:3 to move when the Ark of God moved.  Because there were places they had never been before and had to wait for God to move them. 

As it is in our life. We experience trials that we have never gone through. Then out of the blue, we suddenly hit a roadblock, and we are stopped dead in our tracks.  It could be a death in the family, maybe a loss of job and even a divorce. 

At the first it seems confusing and scary.  All thoughts of doubt and fear enter our minds.  We try to solve it on our own.  Even try consulting someone who we  think can help us.  For a short time the trial seems impossible to handle.  Our lives become disrupted, our outlook on life seems dimmed.  Our rising and sleeping is filled with questions of how and why did this happen.  The answer doesn’t come immediately.  

My son got his walking papers from his wife. She refuses to continue in the marriage that was ordained by God.  We thought she was the perfect one, the godly one, the good one, we were wrong, it left us gobsmacked.  She was always trying to make her case and always playing the victim along the way.   I couldn’t believe people she knew actually believed it.  Her deception was so perfect  you would not even think to doubt her.  It’s a classic wolf in a sheeps skin. 

But through his trial, we continue to encourage our son to keep on keeping on.  Search God’s word for the answers to all he is going through.  Trusting God to lead and provide all his needs.  God has been so faithful in answering all his prayers and continues to give him victory.  It’s not to say he will not endure pain, it is all part of the nature of man and we too will endure the pain with him.   When he finally comes out in the other end,  it will be from a purifying fire and it will be God who will be glorified in all this. 

Change is something no one likes to see or even know that it is happening.  Change is like a thorn in the flesh, a bump in the road or an humbling time.  Our lives may be going smoothly and just happy go lucky then change steps in and says, “it’s time to leave this church  or it’s time to move to a different state, or it’s time to sell our home and go somewhere, or it’s time to quite my job.  Whatever change is asking, we have no choice but to make it happen.  Especially when God is involved in it.  We can refuse, deny or ignore it, but it will happen and you or I cannot stop it.  Change means leaving everything you use to do in  that special place.  It means leaving all your friends, relatives and anyone else you may have  come to know.  Change is dragging the whole family, if any is involved, to a new and unknown territory.  Opposition will arise and harden hearts will not understand the reason for change.  Sometimes the change we make means we will be marked as the bad guy. 

So where do we go from here.  Well we first talk about it, we cry over it. We agonize  and stay up thinking about it.  We fret over it.  But in the end after the cloud clears we accept it and get ready to change our lives.  Even upon acceptance of the thought of change it still frightens us and we step lightly and cautiously.  But with God we step out in faith. 

Why is it important that change be made in our lives.  Change is critical because it means that our lives will be better, other peoples lives will be better.  Situations will be better for everyone.  It may be that one lose on one end,  means a gain on the other end. 

Do we know when change is happening.  Most certainly.  It’s the ruffling of  the nest, just like a momma bird teaching her chicks how to fly.  She makes it uncomfortable for her chicks.  Then when it’s time to fly she pushes them out.  They try to return, but momma isn’t feeding them anymore.   One day I witness a chick fallen out of her nest and could not get back in.   All night she chirped at momma, momma was close by bringing her food but momma herself couldn’t help her baby chick get back into the nest, and unless that chick spread her wings to fly she wasn’t going anywhere.   We have to be able to spread our wings and fly when  the time comes. 

My younger son at 29 still lived at home and it was hard for me to even think of him leaving and although I made jokes of when he was leaving, I knew it was going to be hard.

But the Lord was so merciful and gracious to me and my husband.  It so happen that my son in the last few months before he left, had been house-sitting for some friends.  Sometimes his house-sitting would be anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.  And on this one particular month, he had house-sat for almost a month and then he gave me heads up that he would be moving out soon.  His absence became normal for us that when it was time to leave home, it didn’t impact me as much as when he first left home at 21.  So his transition was quick and left no scar on my heart.  Praise the Lord for that.   

Change has to happen and will happen in anyone’s life at any point in their lifetime.  But how we accept change will determine the direction of our future.