today

What do you do when you're in need of some encouragement?
Where do you turn?

I mean, I know the proper answer: prayer and bible reading - I do both of those too - but I'm actually asking....

is there a website or blog that you find uplifting?

is there a type of music that you find inspiring?

is there a book that always lifts your spirits?

Today was supposed to be a quiet morning in a warm house baking mini muffins until after lunch when the race would be on once again.  Instead, I had a sudden request to drive my husband to work - blast this one car business - which meant getting out of my pj's and slippers and onto the roads with their newly acquired 10+ cm of snow.  Upon returning home, I settled down with my now lukewarm cup of coffee to finish reading my youngest her stack of Arthur books when the phone rang.

"Please come and retrieve your sick child from school."

Now, there is no doubt in my mind that most of the mothers reading here are likely more gracious than I, because I felt like telling the school secretary, "excuse me, but I don't have a sick child."

And can I just say, indeed I don't!  The teacher explained that the child seemed a little "peaked" and was bothered by her new retainer.  Peaked?  Yes, certainly she is tired, but as she all but skipped down the front steps of the school, this mama knew her instincts were accurate.  Back on the snow packed roads, only to have to drive the youngest to school in an hour...

so where do you turn?

I love books and I have a few.   With my now cold cup of coffee sitting bedside me, I picked a book off the shelf that I remember being meaningful to me years ago called Intimacy with the Almighty by Charles Swindoll.  As I flipped through it, I came across a chapter called "Four Decisions, Four Disciplines."  The first Decision is "reordering one's private world: the discipline of simplicity."  Now that's appealing!  (Does it involve not going to pick up a not-sick child??)  ok, it doesn't say that at all.  But there is a verse:

"God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated."

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (TEV)

Now there's some truth to chew on!

grace, patience, love and acceptance:  these are truths that are plain and simple.

suspicion, grudges, frustration and rejection:  these make my life very complicated.

grant me Your grace Lord, teach me your patience.

help me to love the way You love.

for Your glory.

Are you in need of encouragement today?

Where will you turn?