God is so specific

This picture shows EXACTLY how I recently came to see God. We are in the middle of this little safe tunnel and outside of us is the world- stormy, crashing, could wipe us out, except that God has put us the in little tunnel of quiet in the middle. He tells us- Just stay on the board, I'll do the rest. How do I make a long story short? Well, here it is. Went to get diagnosed for bipolar two, and my roomate at the women's center looked familiar. Real familiar. Her husband had left her for a younger woman and she was truly suicidal. That night as we lay in the darkness on our beds, I asked her if she was a Christian. She said that she was and asked where I went to church. I told her Christian Family Chapel. She gasped and said, " So do I." But I didn't know her from church. On we talked and she asked what I did before kids and I asked her, and she said, " I worked labor and delivery at Baptist Hospital." I gasped and said, " Do you spell your name in this certain way ( I am protecting her identity) because your name is short for so and so? She GASPED, and I started to cry. I said, " You were my labor and deliver nurse for 12 hours when I gave birth to my oldest daughter Emily." Her picture is in Emmy's baby book, literally. I never forgot her name, the spellling of her name or why it was spelled that way because she was SUCH AN AMAZING NURSE. I told her, " You may think that being here is awful (and it was, for most of us) but here is the reason I am here." The next day I coaxed her to eat and drink and take her meds and she got out of bed. I stroked her arms and hugged her and told her that I cared and that 10 years ago she told me I would make it while I was in such pain giving birth to Emily and now it was my turn to tell her the same thing- she would live and that God was showing her that he had NOT forgotten her, at all, but rather he was very specific and wanted to help her and encourage her by sending me. (I felt some urgent need to get diagnosed THAT NIGHT) and would not wait. Call me impulsive or call it the Holy Spirit.) I am so amazed still. We are both out now and are keeping in touch and both of us are doing much better, but we will never forget that night. In the meantime, I sent her the picture of her, Jon and me in the labor and delivery room to remind her of God's faithfulness. I am humbled that God would choose me, a broken and mixed up gal to bring this friend a message of hope, but I have also learned that because of all of my trials, I am always willling to do anything, and to never stop asking for help. So my crying out for help turned out to be not so much to help ME, but to help someone else- what an amazing God we have.

No guile in their mouths

Why God has chosen animals to teach me some of my most important spiritual lessons, I have no idea. Perhaps it's because they don't talk. There are no words to interfere with what they SHOW ME. I was petting my cats tonight and thinking about the dogs and a scripture came to mind. Not the EXACT wording, but the thought, and then I looked it up on Bible Gateway. "There is no guile in their mouths." (This was the thought that came to my mind, which is not the actual scripture, mind you.) Guile, is defined as duplicity- contradictory doubleness of thought, speech or action. John 1:47 says, " When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false (guile). In Isaiah, Jesus is described in Chapter 53, verse 9 as " He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit (guile) in his mouth." Jesus did not say one thing when he meant another. What an amazing quality- how many of us can say that of ourselves? Not me, that's for sure. But one of the things I respect and love MOST about my animals is that they have no guile in their mouths. They might eat poop or roll in dead things, but they will NEVER "say" one thing when they mean another. If they are happy, they exude HAPPY. If they are scared, they exude FEAR. If they are angry with another dog, they show it, take care of the problem, and get on to other things. If they don't want to be pet because they are hurt (sometimes the first clue that someone is not feeling well), they walk away or shy away from your hand. They always tell the truth. They are not duplicitous. How many of us see someone that we despise, and yet we smile and say hello anyway? How many times do we not feel like speaking but we pick up the phone and "fake" a conversation? Now, I am not condoning being RUDE, but just saying that too often we say things we really really don't mean. We are doing one thing and saying another, or thinking one thing and doing another. If Jesus wanted to tell someone they were wrong, like the woman at the well, he didn't coat his real words with lies. He told them what the problem was, and then lovingly told them how to solve the problem. He didn't walk into the temple and say, " Well I'm not sure, but I don't think this is how you should use my Father's house. " Jesus was a man of few words unless he was preaching to the masses, so I find it interesting that he commented on Nathaniel's lack of guile. He must have found it a rare quality or an important one, to comment on Nathaniel's quality of truthfulness. When we get a new dog, they are often terrified or sad, and there is no question about that. The picture above is of Rocco, our newest surrender. He was very afraid and sad for the first week he was here and it was VERY EVIDENT. He followed me from room to room and shook violently when left alone. He was so sad and didn't know who his new owner was and he SHOWED confusion, fear, and sadness. Now, he is totally in love with our family and me in particular, and his happiness is VERY EVIDENT- he wags his tail, lays his head on your shoulder, and licks your face with such enthusiasm. God used him to remind me today that I should do what I say, say what I mean, keep my mouth shut if I am mad, (until I have prayed about the right thing to say) and let no guile be in my mouth. I think Jesus would approve of the lesson that I was reminded of today. I hope I will practice it as diligently as my animals do.

How we must pester God.........

My daughter's Senegal parrot, Kito is an early riser. Like 5:30 am early. Which isn't normally a problem, because Julianna and I get up early too. The problem is this- he is a BRAT in the morning. He doesn't want to eat, drink, or walk around and destroy things (his favorite pastime). He screams and screams for someone to hold him. But when you hold him, if you don't do exactly what HE wants, he bites. He bites gently and he would NEVER bite Emily- he saves that particular endearing trait for ME- the one who is trying to console him. This morning as he was pestering me to insanity, I thought, " Well, Anne, that's what we do to God, isn't it?"

We can be brats with our constant screaming and demands, just like that little bird. We scream and God comes over and tries to comfort us with His word. But that isn't enough- we want MORE, so we busy ourselves with the word for a while and then start screaming again, and God once again comes down and gives us comfort- perhaps in the form of another believer who encourages us. That satiates us for a while and then we become restless again. If God were not who God is, how impatient He would grow of our griping. As I tried the 7th thing to calm Kito down this morning, I thought, "Ok, buddy, one more peep and you are going in your outside cage on the porch in the DARK!" Thank God noone throws US in the outside cage in the dark- how scary and lonely that would be.