THE NEW EWE

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'"

Luke 15:4-6

July 1, 2020

LIFE IN THE FOLD:

Last year in June, Jon and I went to a furniture store just to look around. We had no intentions of buying at that time, but it was just something to do.

We found a living room set that we both really liked and agreed on. We didn't buy it at that time, but took pictures and kept it in mind for the time when we would replace our older furniture. A few months later, in October, we took Jon's mom to that same store. She was looking for a new mattress, so while she was looking around with the salesman, we found that same set of living room furniture on display and sat on it while waiting on Diane to finish up. I took another picture of it, with the display tag, so we would be able to find it when it came time to buy.

When we got married, we decided at that time that for our anniversary each year we would buy something for our home or take a trip, or do something together, instead of buying individual gifts. That worked well for the first few years, but for the past several it seemed as if an appliance would need replaced or work done on the house or one of our big pecan trees removed (which is stinking expensive!) or something unexpected happen that we had to spend our money on around our anniversary. Yes, it was something for our home..... but not anything that either of us really wanted to spend money on!

Our 15^th anniversary was on June 18^th, and we really wanted to be able to do something special this year. We decided to go buy the love seat from that set of furniture we had found; then later get the matching couch and chair. Upon arrival at the store, we found that both the love seat and chair were on back-order, and they only had 2 couches in stock in their warehouse. We were told that the love seat and chair were on back-order until the end of August (due to COVID-19 and the factories where they were made only being partially staffed with workers).... there was already a waiting list for those pieces of furniture.... so if we thought we wanted them, then we needed to go ahead and get our name on the waiting list, pay a down-payment, or else we may not be able to get them. So we ended up buying the couch that day and pre-ordering the other two pieces of furniture, thinking it would be at least a couple months before we would be able to get them.

This past Sunday afternoon, we got a phone call telling us that our love seat and chair had arrived and were ready for pick-up!! What?!?! We had the money in savings, but thought we had a couple months to save up for them. I had sold a couple pieces of our older furniture to a sister to make room for our new couch, but hadn't made any other arrangements or put much thought into re-arranging my living room to make room for the new furniture. I thought I had lots of time to figure it all out!

It also happened that when we got the call, Jon was having a lot of back pain at the time, and the thought of unloading, unpacking, putting together, and moving furniture was not in the least bit appealing to him. So I contacted some of my nephews who live nearby to see if anyone would be willing to help us out. Almost immediately, three of them responded to just let them know when and they'd be here. The fourth has a broken foot, so I really didn't expect him to help!

Jon had to go to the panel shop to work for a few hours, then was going to run by and pick up our love seat and chair. After he left, I started thinking about everything that needed done and thought, "That's a whole lot of work that we are asking them to do!" So I inched one of our couches over to the other side of the room.... managed to get a heavy big recliner up on a furniture mover so I could roll it out of the way.... got a smaller recliner across the room out of the way. They will still have to move our new couch, because it's really heavy, to another wall; carry our new love seat and chair inside and put it together; and take the heavy recliner upstairs. But I felt better having done what I could to try and help them out.

The thing is, none of my nephews asked me to do that! None of them even expected me to have moved furniture before they arrived. In fact, it would have been much easier and faster had they worked together and lifted it up and carried it across the room. I was the one who "felt" like I needed to do something to help out! I created a hardship for myself by moving it alone.

Aren't we the same way with God many times? We need help, ask God to help us, then feel like we need to "help" Him out; when really, it would be much easier and faster if we'd just let Him do it for us! We create a hardship for ourself by thinking we can or should do something on our own, instead of waiting on God to come alongside us.

We often think, "It's my problem, so I need to take care of it by myself!" "I'm the one who sinned or disobeyed God, so it's my own fault that I'm in this mess." "God has bigger things to deal with than my piddly little problems." "Well, I prayed and asked God for help, but He hasn't answered yet, so I'll just do everything I can think of to take care of this on my own." "God didn't respond like I thought He would, so this isn't turning out like I wanted... I'll just do this so I can have things go my way." Perhaps we don't even consider taking our situation to God at all, thinking we can handle it by ourselves; or else, we're afraid that His answer won't be what we want to hear.

We make life a hardship on ourselves by trying to be self-sufficient, instead of relying on God. Sometimes the only time we go to Him about a situation is when we've exhausted all other avenues and can think of nothing else we can do; or when all else has failed. Our Father wants to be the first One whom we turn to.... every day.... for everything!

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) says, Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you."

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT) says, "Don't worry about 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."

There is an old hymn that says, "Leave it there, leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there."

We don't have to carry our own burdens through life. We are to give them to our Father, trust that He loves us and will take care of them. We need to stop picking them back up, over and over again, and carrying them around. Leave them with God and have faith that He can handle them much better than we ever could.

We don't have to be self-sufficient and rely on ourselves to get through life. We don't have to figure out solutions on our own. We don't have to make it a hardship on ourselves when He has already promised to come to our aid and help us.

I want to encourage you today, if you are feeling burdened, overwhelmed, worried, frustrated, sick, have a situation where you need answers, etc.... surrender it to God, leave it with Him, and trust Him to take care of you and whatever it is that you are facing. He will always do a much better job of taking care of it than we could ever do ourselves! Even if the outcome is much different than what we had anticipated, we can still trust our Father! Even if we don't understand what is going on or it seems if things are getting worse instead of better, we can rest in the love of our Father. If He provides for the birds of the field, knows the number of hair on our heads, is the creator of the heavens and earth, keeps the universe in motion, knows every intimate detail of every human ever born...... then He is able to take care of our every need! Sometimes we just need to get out of the way and let Him take care of things for us!

JON'S PERSPECTIVE:

While we're waiting for God to act on a prayer, there is one thing we need to do. Actually, we need to do it all the time, not just so God will work on our behalf. And actually, it's two things, but they work together.

We have to listen to God and be obedient. We need to be open to what He tells us, and act on it without doubts, just like we rely on Him without doubts. When the Israelites had an enemy, they had to listen to God. When He said go into battle, they went into battle and won. But when He said stay back, and make a lot of noise instead, they stayed back, made a lot of noise, and won. And when He said to wait while He took care of it, they waited, and He won the battle for them.

But it isn't just about obeying Him in trade for something we need. We need to obey Him because it's the right thing to do. He is our friend, but He is also our Father, and our God. And we obey Him because it's right.

ON THE MENEWE:

Corn Dip

Mix all ingredients together. Serve with Frito Scoops. Refrigerate any leftovers.

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER:

Today is my birthday! I'm 55 years old and still love celebrating my birthday. In fact, I feel a bit like a kid who looks forward to their big day with excitement and anticipation! What's not to love about having a birthday?! So what if you're another year older! It's another year of life on earth that God has blessed you with. Another year of family activities; births, marriages, and even deaths. Another year of change; and boy, the past few months have brought about change that we never anticipated or experienced before. It's another year closer to seeing Jesus; whether by rapture or death. It's another year of making the most out of this life that God has given us. I have found something to enjoy about every decade that I've lived through so far. Each one has been very different, but very good.

My first 10 years were filled with learning new things, family times, salvation, and no responsibilities. My next 10, was when my mama passed away, high school graduation, my dad remarrying, and getting a job. My twenties is when I started my banking career, lived alone, worked at our church, ministered in other churches, and lived in an old ratty, little old mobile home before buying a brand new one when I was 29. My thirties, I worked in banking and continued ministering, moved to Oklahoma, met Jon and got married two weeks before my 40^th birthday. My forties, I was a married woman, Jon and I bought our home, I "retired" from a career and started babysitting for family, began writing this weekly newsletter, my dad passed away, my brother-in-law passed away, our immediate families started marrying and having families of their own (some actually did when I was in my 30's, before I got married!). In my 50's, I started blogging on FB, we've made changes/updates to our home and almost have it paid off, still babysitting, quit coloring my hair and let it go to its natural white/silver/gray, learned how to make quilts. Each decade have been filled with adventures, laughter, tears and death, births and marriages of family, changes, heartache, joy, and blessing.

I pray that I never lose my wonder and excitement for another birthday! I never want to miss out on what God has planned for each year that I live on earth. And regardless of what happens, I want to stay focused on Jesus and keep my eyes firmly on Him; knowing that when my life here ends, it's really just the beginning!

THOUGHT TO PONDER:

What's done is done. What's gone is gone.

One of life's lessons is always moving on.

It's okay to look back and think of fond memories,

but keep moving forward. - unknown

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU:

We love you!

Loretta & Jon

http://www.graysheep.org