Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at our local MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers).  The topic I was given was “worry”.  I remember being a young mom and all the opportunities to worry that comes with it.  The word worry comes from an old English word which means to strangle or choke.  I began to picture someone walking around with their windpipe partially strangled (not a pretty picture!).  I thought about how worry robs us of our strength, clouds our thinking and is a waste of time.  But still it happens.  Spiritual energy, emotional energy and even physical energy is lost trying to figure out many times things that are beyond our control.

This years theme for MOPS is Freedom.  Something that worry certainly robs us from.  We can become a slave to fear and its accompanying thoughts.  I took the time to think about how my worry thoughts can sound, and I believe the Holy Spirit showed me they are like the cawing of a crow.  Not very pleasant are they?  CAW, CAW you can’t do that, CAW CAW you are a terrible mom, CAW CAW you are going to get a terrible disease–etc.  What came to my mind is that we need to learn to shoot crow!  We shoot crow by knowing what the Bible says about us, our family and our future.  When we know who we are in Christ those caw cawing tormenting thoughts diminish.  We can silence them with the Word of God.  So many times we put up with what we consider the “small worries”, but they take their toll as well.  They are some of the little foxes that spoil the vine that is spoken about in the Song of Solomon.

The beneficial blessing of shooting the crows in our lives it is allows the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself to us.  This peaceful dove coo coos us with His calm down, I’ve got this.  Or words of encouragement, faith and direction on how to deal with life’s problems.  Just this week my washing machine wouldn’t turn on.  Immediately the Lord showed me when the problem occurred, who to call and within about 1/2 hour it was fixed.  A portion of my fence blew down during our recent wind storm.  I felt the Lord tell me I needed to check for damage and I did look out all the windows, but there is one portion of my fence that I can’t see.  My neighbor called and said, “Did you know your fence is down?”  I knew the reason she cared is that her dog can’t go out and play with my fence down!  I called my son-in-law Tim and within a 1/2 hour he was here with the wisdom to do a quick repair.  I had the nails and boards.  This morning my little kindle keyboard just stopped working in the middle of writing a sentence.  Not the battery, not anything I can see to fix.  But thank you Lord, I have my trusty PC to finish this blog.

These are all small issues in the scheme of life.  Reading through Matthew 6: 25-34.

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

There is plenty to worry about if we give in to it.  How to shoot the crows in your life?  Ask the Lord to show you when you are worrying.  It can become such a habit that we are unaware of its work in our lives.  If you are struggling with a lack of peace, dealing with much fear or turmoil then you need to learn to shoot some crow.  Does your mind take you to the worse case scenario in every situation?  Do you stay there?  Then you need to learn to shoot some crow.

Stop yourself.  Take a deep breath.  Call on the Lord and ask for His help.  Like in any health issues, preventative care is preferable!  Build your home on the solid rock of His foundation and when the storms of life come, you will be able to stand in peace.  It is a learning process.  We can do it.  The reason my fence fell down is it rotted from the bottom.  That part we did not address yesterday, but it is inevitable.  Dig deep in His Word, dig deep with your trust in who our God is and get rid of all the crows that are trying to rob you of your joy, grace and peace.  Jesus paid the price for those things!

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Yesterday at Safeway the checker asked me “how are you doing today?”  I thought about mumbling “fine”–but instead I said, “I’m practicing not worrying”.  She looked at me like I was a bit off, so I said with a smile “Have you ever done that?”  She, did the mumbling, and sort of said “no. But I probably should”.  Next week I get the privilege of teaching on the topic of worry to a bunch of moms.  Wouldn’t you know it–God has me in the middle of some serious things I could really get my worry on about.

I both appreciate and have to laugh at the timing of this pre-scheduled teaching time.  I said yes a few months ago when my life was feeling pretty tame and at peace.  No problem.  I would love to share on this topic.  Then some of life`s unexpected challenges began to arise and I am faced with the challenge do I practice what I am going to preach or not?  Am I going to apply the lessons the Holy Spirit has been showing me, or simply  talk some decent sounding, but empty of life experience platitudes.

I believe God.  I believe God’s Word and I believe His promises. A very close relative of mine has been diagnosed with a very difficult diagnosis. The temptation to worry, at times looms large.  However, because of my prepping for this teaching, I am having more victories that not, thank you Jesus.  Is it easy?  No.  Is it a struggle yes it is.

Our choice during these type of things is to look up or look down.  My devotion for this morning led me to Psalm 121:1-2  I look up to the mountains–does my help come from there?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.  We live in an amazing place.  When the skies are clear we can see mountains all around us.  They stand strong and majestic–many snow-covered all year around.  On the way for some lab work yesterday we looked up at the mountains.  The comfort came in the fact we are both trusting the God who made those mountains to help navigate her through this difficult season.  The Lord reminded me a couple of days ago that we need to just take one day at a time.  Her treatment schedule keeps changing so one days plans are swapped for another.  But we are trusting Him to be the God of these changes.

When I am tempted to worry, I put on some worship music and His peace and calm shifts my thoughts to His grace.  We talked yesterday about things we are thankful for.  It was such a blessing we did not have to search our thoughts for a long time–but immediately we came up with several specifics for which we were grateful.  I am saddened that she has to go through this, but it makes me so much more aware of how many others are fighting similar battles.  We choose to trust Him for this day, knowing His grace is sufficient for what we all need for today.  It is my choice to release my faith for her and her family.

I want to remind us today:  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  I Peter 5:7

The magnificent gift of grace–that wonderful gift that joins our humanity with the power and wonder of our powerful God.  Grace that has been defined as God’s unmerited favor.  My working definition is God meeting us at the point of need.  I am so glad for God’s grace and mercy.  Showing up when I feel my faith is small.  Helping me through dark and difficult times.  Oh how I depend on His grace.

At times it is undefinable.  It seemed elusive to me as a young Christian.  Pick up a concordance and simply read some of the descriptive words surrounding grace.

Undeserved  Acts 15:11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.

Wonderful Romans 5:21  So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Overflowing 2 Corinthians 9:14 And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given to you.  Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words.

Marvelous  Galatians 1:15  But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.

It is often coupled together with Kindness.  Ephesians 1:7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

I think you get the picture.  We need his grace.  This morning I wrote another blog called Faith and Waiting.  I lost it somewhere in cyberspace.  However I also found out some news that is difficult for our family, but I cannot be more specific right now.  Please pray for us.  Philippians 4:6-7 is very applicable right now.  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness, all I need is to follow.

Have you ever ridden a bike?  It took my sisters and I awhile to learn how.  I think we were eleven or twelve when our parents finally succumbed to our oft calling requests to buy us bikes.  (You know those, please, please please children requests!) I know it was in the summer and we tried and tried to learn to balance and become true bike riders.  We finally figured out if we went to the top of the hill outside our drive way the momentum of hill helped us and we finally succeeded.  For some reason they bought two bikes for the three of us (remember we are triplets) so there was a lot of squabbling on who got to ride when.  But we did finally learn and it felt glorious to feel the wind in our hair as we rode along under pedal power.  However, no one bothered to tell us that where your eyes look is where you end up!  Until we learned that piece of information, we also had some crashes.  I think it is the same in walking this faith walk.

Distractions pop up all the time.  I saw a car commercial the other day that actually showed a track with built-in distractions that measured the car and the driver’s ability to react to unexpected  situations.  Giant balls, balloons and other things seemingly random would pop up around the track.  They are developing a “smart” car that can help the driver avoid accidents.

fortunately we have some smart help, if we choose to use it for our faith walk.  It is the foundation of the Word and our choice to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).  The word focus means to concentrate attention or effort on something.  When we focus on the Lord through His Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit our perspective changes and faith arises.  Having the right focus helps eliminate the distractions that would take you off course, because you are concentrating on Him.  When we truly remember who Jesus us is: our Savior, the lover of our soul, our provider, our healer, our intercessor, our hope then our faith arises and discouragement flees.  We may not know how it will turn out, our how we will get down the road, but we know that we will not have to do it alone.  Learning to ride those bikes with my sisters was challenging, but it was fun because we were doing it together.  We shared stubbed toes and skinned knees, it wasn’t easy but we all did it!

We need to remember we are not alone in our faith journey, no matter how it feels.  Will we do it all “right”, nope, not a chance.  Even those “smart” cars get into accidents, but we will probably make fewer mistakes and know that when we do, we can learn from them.  Each morning choose to fix your eyes on Jesus. Thank Him for directing your day and invite Him walk through the day with you.  Begin to look for Him in your routine tasks.  This way when trouble (like unexpected news) or difficulties arise, you will already be prepared for their encounter because you know you are not alone.  The peace of God begins to guard your heart and life becomes less stressful.  I have tried it both ways, this is much better!

Two weeks ago I shared about unexpected surprises where my whole family got to go on vacation together.  It was such a blessing to focus on being together I chose not to write my blog!

I think everyone who went would say they had a good time.  However, I am sure that each of us had to adjust our expectations of what that would look like along the way.  Issues with pre-purchased tickets, sick children and children who did not think riding rides were as fun as the adults believed all challenged our thoughts about how this time together would go.

Life keeps happening even when we are on vacation..or trying to be!  My daughter in law spent way more time working on an upcoming project than she ever expected too.  She was a trooper and answered emails, texts and phone calls as necessary.  She said she learned not to go on vacation when you are starting a new ministry unless you are prepared to take the planning along.

One day on our vacation I was sitting with my two youngest grandchildren.  Their parents were riding a ride together.  The baby was asleep in the stroller and the three-year old seemed to be bordering on the happy/grumpy line.  I found a quiet place where she could get out of the stroller and play while her brother slept on.  It was so peaceful in the midst of California Adventures!  She found a potato bug and played with it.  She was having fun!  In the midst of all hustle and bustle she chose to be herself and just enjoy where she was.  It was refreshing to spend some time reflecting quietly by myself as well.  I wish I would have taken a picture of her with her new “friend” because it was fun to watch her play so gently with him or was it a her?  Because I went on the vacation to spend time with my family members this was not a “waste” of my time or money.  If I had not had that perspective I could have been frustrated with her because she really did not want to ride the rides or enjoy most of the things available.  She loved going to the Redwood challenge and climbing on the rocks, walking the net bridges–basically enjoying nature!  In case you think I wear a halo-these are things God has been teaching me over the years. Like Paul, I am learning to be content in my life situation.

My first visit to Disneyland as an adult was with my husband.  We made some wonderful memories.  Sounds, sights and situations triggered some of those memories on this trip and grief showed up, I must admit.  Walking with my family made me long for him to enjoy those moments together.  Watching cousins holding hands celebrating their friendship and the simple joy of being together was so heart swelling that I yearned to share it with him.  I had to adjust my perspective and be thankful for the grand-parenting time we did have together. As I shared my pain with the Lord,   He helped me adjust my perspective  from who I was  sharing these new experiences with rather than who wasn’t.   It helped bring me back to the present instead of dwelling in the past.

Life forces us to make adjustments in our perspective many times.  Releasing our faith to trust the Lord during these times sets us on the course for peace much faster.  Last night in our Life Group we discussed James 1:2-3.  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  As we encounter life’s trials and tribulations it is up to us how we view them.  Taking responsibility for our attitude shows a sign of maturity and it is not always easy to “grow up”.  When we meet heavy-duty trials: difficult diagnosis. loss job, relationship issues it is sometimes easier to turn to the Lord and His wisdom than in the smaller issues.  Grumbling, mumbling in frustration, irritation or exasperation robs us of our joy, which is our strength.  I have been learning this–but I admit I have been a slow learner.  I have done life both ways.  It is easier to trust the working of His grace, strength and purpose in our lives that it is to live under our own small perspective of life.  I find myself walking more in the joy than in the frustrations of life now.  Maybe it is my age, but I like to think it has been our generous God helping me to become more mature and complete in Him, for that is what He promises these struggles of life would bring to us.