It is enough

I want to grow in gratefulness. The comfort of my family near to me, I surely take for granted. I am cocooned in their love, though I have done nothing to deserve it. They just do. I hear a rustle in the far corner of the house, maybe the garage. It is full of assurance that they are there with me. But one day the rustle may be silent, alone. I want to remember the rustle of today, and be grateful. I am loved.

...behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Mt. 28:20

The Artist

Days seem to slip into sunset so quickly now. The scene causes me to pause, breath deeply. I savor the final breaths of air that is alive. It reminds me that I'm alive, it reminds me of His Greatness. I worship in the painted shadows, the artist. The hands rolled back,and suddenly the chill is pushing, pushing to whisper of what is sure to come. The bleak, the cold will come, but I will worship Him in that place too, find it's beauty in the artist.

Election Day, horse day, recovery day

Yesterday, Sara and I camped out at our local polling place, which is definitely one that our D Congressman (who recently got in trouble for saying such) would call "red-neck." To start, we are not in a community center, school or some such building. Rather, we enter through a large machinery garage (which may be a plot to kill you with fumes, upon entering, by one or more of the parties.) Across the road is an old one-room school house, once- upon- a- time brimming with lively students. The bell still hangs in it's place, though the red paint peels now instead of the bell. To our left, woods, to our right, farm land and century old barn. We were on meet and greet duty for our party and met and greeted those from both sides (though most of the opposing voters wouldn't make eye contact, and where we live, there weren't many of them.) We live in gun toting (hunters), well-drilling (gas company employees), pick-up driving PA and that's all right with me. I'm one of them. I doubt that many of the polling locations you may be familiar with have a farmer in his Carhartt over-alls, drive into the parking lot and park his farm tractor. Yep, we saw that. It was a nice opportunity to thank voters for voting, even the ones looking at the ground.
Today, was horse day. Horses were fed and wondered why they weren't allowed to exit the barn after breakfast, as usual on a nice day. It was farrier day. So one by one each horse comes out to get his/her individualized horsie manicure. It was a good day because all horses behaved and all hooves were healthy. It's the last visit before the "deep-freeze visits" begin, in 10 weeks, ugh. Sara did her school work while I attended to the 20 horse feet. Afterward... lunch, then Sara's riding lesson. What a blessing to have such a beautiful day to ride at this time of year, it was hot enough to bring out horse sweat and some flies too. I worked the little pony who has gotten a bit chubby since Sara got Zoe, the new horse. They both got hosed. Then I rode my horse, Redi, he is a beautiful animal and he is my buddy. He was perfectly behaved although he's received little attention since school began. We jumped some little jumps and he really likes it, so maybe in spring we'll go bigger (a little, I'm a chicken.) Feed the horses their dinner, and then head over to make ours...day is done.
Tomorrow, is a new day, and I really need God's favor as my house now looks like I've been running for days, and the dishes, well, there are none. So, tomorrow that's the first order of business (then lesson plan for class on friday). Sara has to quickly cram a full day of school into the a.m., so she can roller-skate in the afternoon. Then I become the cleaning dervish, whirling through my home with amazing super-human cleaning ability. I do need to trust God for such things as they can easily weigh me down and cause me to fear (what if the dishes pile up and up and up forever? and I can never get them done?). God is concerned with the small things, because the small things can teach me to trust Him and that's not so small.

Psalm 37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and HE will act.

Life, Precious in His Sight

My Precious Nephew

If you wander upon my blog today, I'm hoping you'll consider that it is not by chance. I haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm compelled to say just one thing today. Tomorrow is election day, and I will vote. For those who have become apathetic, believing the lie that their vote matters little please vote. But that's not the one thing, the one thing is "the why" behind my vote. Many issues are important to voters with the sorry state of the economy, the rising costs of medical care and drugs, fuel costs, the environment and the cost of daily living. These things concern me as well, however nothing concerns me more than the fact that our country still calls legal the murder of the smallest, most helpless of our population...little pre-born souls that perhaps may have been our future friends, leaders, entrepreneurs, parents, scientists etc. But we will never know them, no one will, because they were murdered as they slept where God had placed them. Over 48 MILLION babies have been slaughtered in the United States since 1973. This heartbreak motivates my vote because I believe that these children are more important than any of the above mentioned issues.There is enough scientific evidence available at this time, that we all now know that we're talking about human beings, and not the legendary "blob of tissue." The problem is that we have condoned their killing because "it's not our place to impose morality on others...who are we to judge?" Murder of adults is wrong and that is why we legislate that you may not commit murder in this country, in other words, we impose morality on murderers because it is wrong to murder. How much more so, our law should protect those who are helpless. But no, it's "not our place." Hogwash, law imposes morality and inconvenience on others, others who do wrong, every day in this land, and thankfully so. I don't stand in judgement of a woman with an unplanned pregnancy, but I do stand in judgement of a decision to murder because a child is not wanted, is inconvenient, even painfully so. Nothing a mother would experience...loss of job, loss of family, pain and agony, none of these things justify the murder of a baby. And please remember the overwhelming majority of abortions are of convenience NOT because the mothers life is in peril. Of course an unexpected baby will turn a woman's world upside down, but that is the consequence of choices made, and does not justify the snuffing out of another's life. So, yes, I am one of those "shallow-minded" conservatives who will vote based primarily on one issue and overlook the others. It is not because of lack of concern for the other issues, or ignorance of their importance. However I believe that LIFE is the most important issue. I believe that God cares about each LIFE, He is the giver and taker of every LIFE. Even if you're not sure whether God exists, do you you agree that the murder of 48 million babies is wrong? How many 911s, how many world wars would it take to amass such great loss of life? If I don't stand against murder, am I not complicit? I am compelled to vote my conscience.

Psalm 139:13+

For YOU formed my inward parts;
YOU knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.