Making Lemonade out of Lemons

The mountains of New Mexico, the snow atop the peaks of Arizona and New Mexico, the White Sands National Monument are God's beauty before us as we journey home without the fifth wheel RV we had hoped to be pulling home behind us.  We had high hopes.  Dreams, desires, human hopes!  Yet, how easily they can be dashed if we depend upon those human wishes.  God, obviously, has other plans for us.  Travel, maybe!  A fifth wheel RV, maybe!  Ken and I are doing well with disappointment at this time.  Yes, we have had our days of sadness after finding major fault with the trailer.  The owner was a man a character. The independent person who inspected it for us did not see it.  We blame no one.  We had to go and find this out.  We were able to spend one night in it which was a blessing as we actually discovered that the trailer was too cramped for us.  My husband is a tall man.  We needed to know these things before we actually bought, yet we might not have been able to do that.  So, as God leads, we shall do our very best to follow in His steps.

Rather than continue to travel the interstates home and change motels every night, we are in Alamogordo, NM, enjoying the grandeur of God's mountains, His white sands of gypsum, His snow-capping, His bright blue skies.  We will try to cross the mountains and stay in scenic beauty for a while more before we get home.  We needed the mountains, the streams, the sound of water rushing over rocks, the talk from other journeyers along the way.  We just needed change and to get away together.  We needed to find out that we could get away and that my mother was and is in good hands.  We needed to see the LORD's hand and His work.

   

LORD, watch over us as we journey home.  Keep us in Your watchcare.  Guide our steps.  Nestle us in the palms of Your mighty hands and show us Your Way ... Your Way alone.  Thank You for teaching us and guiding our decisions this past week.  May we always be in Your Way, LORD.  Amen. 


©: L. Gill and BeingWoven.blogspot.com

Yee Ha!! ~ With Hopefulness and a Smile

May God guide our path and protect us as we take a long, long needed getaway.

We are actually going to Arizona to, hopefully, purchase a fifth wheel trailer for those vacations we have dreamed about for so very long.  Ken and I have not had a vacation longer than 2 or 3 nights for about 7 or 8 years.  We will drive out from Texas to Arizona, moteling it there, checking out this trailer that we have looked at for a couple of months online, talking with the owner many times.  Then we had a friend's brother go last weekend to inspect it.  Now we are going in hopes that all is as expected to purchase it.  Then we must learn how to operate and use it for the trip home.  We hope to meander some on the way home and actually have a vacation in our new little cabin on wheels.  We hope the weather will allow us to even just drive the truck to the Grand Canyon just to look as Ken has never been to this majestic creation of the LORD's.  If not this time, another journey west once we are able to head out again.

Please pray for us.  I may be able to blog from the road but will holler when I get home.  We may be gone about two weeks.  Mom is well taken care of and this is the first time I have left for more than a few days without one of my sisters here.  So pray for me in that regard too!  

And they said to him, “Inquire of God, please, that we may know whether the journey on which we are setting out will succeed.”  And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord.”  Judges 18:5-6


As we step out in faith, 
  

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Steps of Faith!

(Lisa, are you ok with my extension of this to two weeks? : ) 

©: L. Gill and BeingWoven.blogspot.com

In the Eyes of my Beloved

Visit Ann @ The Holy Experience

Every Wednesday, we Walk with Him, posting a spiritual practice that draws us nearer to His heart.

This week we are sharing in community: Experiencing God: How have you recently Experienced God in Your Life... 

I see You, LORD, I experience You, LORD, in the eyes and heart of my beloved husband.    

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8a


Due to a fall this past week where I was hurt around my mouth and teeth enough to leave purple bruising and two small-fractured teeth, the eyes of my precious husband have shone the love of God right into my heart.  To me, he looks like he hurts for me so deeply and sincerely.  Possibly, my hurt feels worse to him from the look in his eyes.   


However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.  Ephesians 5:33


His tenderness overwhelms me.
          His kind eyes speaks so loudly.
                    His touch feels gentle.
                              His protection secures me.
                                        His care soothes me.
                                                  His hugs warm me.


Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-11


I see my Father's love pouring through my husband.  I feel the love of God with each look, with each hug, with each touch, with every word.  


We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19


God's love seeps through the very pores of Kenneth right to my heart and soul, embedding itself upon my mind, my emotions, my heart, and my soul.  


And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 5:2


Sweet Father, thank You for Your love.  Thank You for making Yourself so very evident in Kenneth.  He walks with You.  He loves because You love Him.  I know Your love because of my Kenneth.  I know Your tenderness, Your touch, Your lovingkindness, Your gentleness because of Kenneth.  I am so grateful to You for loving us and giving us the blessing of Your love even in these circumstances.  We both desire to walk with You and shine Your light and love through ourselves to others.  May we be Your window unto this world.  Amen.  


Next Week: Consider sharing in community: During the month of February, might we consider How To Love Like Jesus ... We look forward to your creative voice, ideas, thoughts!

©: L. Gill and BeingWoven.blogspot.com

Oh How Thankful I Am!

Visit Ann @ A Holy Experience 

"Giving thanks for a thousand graces has changed my life -- to glorify Him in all things!"  

To You, LORD, I give You thanks and all of the glory for each and every gift...

• able to have dinner with friends recently
• Mom felt like going to the circus with a small group from the nursing home this week; she had fun, lots of laughing and joy
• a resident was so delighted that I stopped by her table to say 'hello' and spend a few minutes with her
• a staff member at the nursing home asked for my phone number so she could call to share her burdens; she said it was just too heavy for her to carry alone anymore; I am grateful that she trusts me so that she would want to open up to me
• my blood pressure is under control; I see the doctor this week
• I took a terrible fall this past Tuesday in a store: I am so thankful that I broke nothing but some tissue in my upper lip area and have bruising to show for it; a few other bruises as well
• my husband's sweet tenderness and the love in his eyes with concern for me this week
• the store's genuine care and compassion even though the fall occurred because of a poorly placed empty wire rack (that I did not see); I know they are concerned for a lawsuit but that is not God's way nor ours
• the EMTs kindness in checking with me as he saw me (he was leaving the store after buying something) so he checked to make sure I did not need to go to the hospital
• follow-up from the store; kindness was there in her voice too
• for the willingness of A... to talk with Ken so very often in regards to the possibility of buying his fifth wheel; for his willingness to have a third party to look at it (that he is a brother of a friend here in TX while they are in AZ); for A's willingness to wait for us to get there if all goes well with this inspection.
• a sunny crisp day

LORD, this has been a trying week and one with some physical pain involved.  I am so thankful that You protected me from being hurt worse than I am.  And You are healing me quickly and well.  Thank You.  I am so taken by the love and sweet tenderness I find in my Kenneth.  He has always been this way, yet a time like this brings out even more from him and I am softened to his love.  Thank You for giving Mom a fun day at the circus, her remembering the baby elephants, just how 'cute' they were!  Oh, LORD, Mom needs moments like that.  Thank You.  LORD, the way things are falling into place for the RV seem to be of You.  We have asked for Your will, Your guidance, Your ways in this long search.  May it be so.  Thank You for this possibility!  All the possibilities in this life, whether they turn out or not.  We want Your ways.  Always.  In this as well, LORD.  I am loving You for Your very Presence in my life.  How blessed I am. Amen. 

(132-143)

©: L. Gill and BeingWoven.blogspot.com