Isn’t your dog good for a laugh, knows how to make you smile when you feel down?  Hamish just needs to sleep on his back with both his paws up, curled in to make me smile.  Even when things around you are hard it’s good to see things that make us smile.

The skit guys came out with a new video – “hurting helpline” and rather than viewing the subject in a sombre manner they did it in a light hearted way.  So if you have 16 min and want a laugh then watch it, for people who don’t know what ‘lucky charms’ is, it’s a breakfast cereal.

The verse they use at the end is
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Jeremiah 33:3  
I had to compress this to upload it but you can also view it here.

Sciencetology, new age, self indulging doesn't work. Make sure whoever else you go to for help, you always go to God whether it's a small or huge problem and remember to be honest!

As I mentioned in the last post this is a hard time for our family, and one of the sunsets is to do with that.  I have mentioned before that I am a naturally anxious person, sometimes I don't think I am worrying about something but it manifests in other practical ways.

To share how bad it can be, sometimes I used to worry about that verse so I was worrying about worrying! 

Sometimes if I prayed about something that at the time was worrying me and if it came back into my mind, I would pray about it again and the cycle continued. Do you know that Satan is the great accuser?  My spiritual attacks mostly seemed to focus on this: 'the bible says you have not to worry and pray and here you are worrying, you are a rubbish christian.'  So I would feel defeated and then feel worse.  (when the thoughts came as 'you' I knew 100% it was a spiritual attack)

Then I realised what was happening and any kind of attack like this I just say this prayer and look in the mirror* "I am saved by the grace of God, not by any works I can do or will do as it will never be enough to earn my way into heaven.  Thank you God for this!  I am a work in progress and will never be perfect this side of heaven but yet you love me and keep working in me.  My weakness actually shows God working through me as I give over something to God - others around me will witness what I find difficult but then see God working in me."  (or just quote Romans 8:1!)  Since I have started doing that, those thoughts have not been coming that much!

The past few days looking and mediating on this verse, I saw it a different way.  That it wasn't an admonishment about worrying but more of a 'you're not alone in all this, you can come to me and I will help you.'  I knew this in my head but not in my heart or practically as I always felt guilty if I was anxious as people usually quote that verse to you and then I felt worse as I had prayed about it.  

If you are anything like me maybe you will understand and my goal in sharing this is to help you. 

I think sometimes that God just wants us in continual prayer with Him and while in some things I have instant long lasting peace when I pray, other times I have peace but different aspects come to mind that I am anxious about so I come and pray about it again.  Those times God just knows better than me how much I need long continual prayer - alone time with Him and I think it's just one way of doing it, letting me know that I need that special closeness with Him at that difficult time.  Do you need to know this as well?

So you will understand why I say quite frequently that it is a great daily example to me, watching dogs living in the moment.  So that in those really tough times I actively am reminded to "Be still and know that I am God" and live in that moment giving it all over to God.

*Sometimes when you are having such negative thoughts I find it helpful to look in the mirror when reinforcing the truth as well as praying.  I look in the mirror rarely re this but it may help you at those really dark moments in your life.

Are you coming to a ‘sunset’ in your life – end of something or a task or time in your life is drawing to an end for you? Looking at the sunset at the end of our holiday I was sad that our days away had flown by and it was time to go home but there were other things in our lives that were finishing up and in some of them I don’t know what the next ‘sunrise’ of that aspect in our lives will look like.

Sunsets can be stunning, last a long time, but they can also be stormy – hard to even see the sun through the dark clouds, and be over very quickly.  They also are different for everyone, the person next to you, sees it differently as they aren’t in the exact same spot, the shadows of a tree or cloud will make it slightly different.

Just like in our lives some things come to a satisfying end, giving nice closure and we can look back fondly at the memories.  Other times we can’t wait for the sunset or the end is hidden from us, like illness or hard times and it’s not until it’s well behind us, that we even realise we are finished with it.

We may not know what shape or type or what our next sunrise will be in different aspects of our lives but we do know that God is with us.  So if you are facing a beautiful or stormy sunset in life, trust in God and He will be with you every step of the way showing you at the right time what your sunrise on a new chapter will look like.

We will never understand everything fully here on earth but one day we will and we will see Jesus and everything will be put into perspective and make sense to us.

"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely."  1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)

Until then I do try and look to Hamish as my daily example, as he reminds me with how quickly he slots into new situations, from holiday cabin back to home he just accepts it and lives in the now. 

I discovered something today, I really am scared of water and don’t have faith in canoes.  As soon as I was in it and it kept going sideways, sometimes an inch away from the ocean, any faith I had that I wouldn’t fall out, vanished.  As I said in the video, forget about having enough faith to step out of the boat I was finding it hard to have enough faith to get in the boat, then I had none left over!

It makes all the difference in who or what you place your faith in, doesn’t it?  If it was a large boat I wouldn’t think twice but even that can sink.  Only God is infallible.  If you place your faith in your husband or friend they will eventually let you down.  Sometimes we seem to place enormous faith in ourselves as we think we know best in a situation or how to handle something.  It’s like Hamish in the 2nd video (once I got out of the boat!) he was OK in the beginning, then Hamish tried to control the oars when he was unsure of the situation he was in, but imagine the disaster if he did!  It sounds stupid but isn’t that what we do sometimes, trying to control the oars and take them away from God?

Put your faith in God, He won’t let you down and you will find that when you look to Him you can walk on the waters in your life – rise above the circumstances and not let them drown you.


Anthony came immediately back and let Hamish out.

Above is Hamish on a beach near where we are staying with dead or rotten tree trunks.
Below is a short video on the beach beside our cabin.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7

Yesterday we spent the day exploring, the theme of the day seemed to be dead or decaying trees on the two different beaches we went to.  Hamish thought they were interesting even though they were dead or dying.  Roots going nowhere, no nourishment and the result - one dying tree, one fallen tree and loads of dead branches that have fallen onto the beach to be with the washed up branches from the tide.  What a picture that is of people’s lives and even some Christians who have lost their way or are in danger of it.

It’s a good example to be constantly reminded of, as if our soil isn’t Jesus, who gives us water and the nourishment we need to thrive healthily to be able to produce fruit ( Psalm 1:1-4  Mark 4:1-20  John 15:1-9 ) we are in danger of becoming like that tree.  It can be a slow thing which is why we always have to be on guard against temptation and schemes, and keep in the word – reading the bible, meditating on it and praying to God asking for His help and wisdom.   The result of walking in him (sounds deeper than walking with him, like steeping a teabag in hot water – the teabag permeates all the water there is no separate teabag and water.  The water now tastes of tea, but if you choose to root yourself or steep yourself in anything else like more water then the tea gets slowly diluted away.) is that we are then built up in him but we have to be walking in him first!

That tree had roots but it was empty and was drawing no nourishment – what’s in your roots? 
                               

Or is it covered with unhealthy, nourishment sapping, hard to get rid of yuck?

Examine and see if it’s empty or yucky and if it is in well nourished and watered soil – Jesus the Lord. 

If your roots aren’t drawing nourishment from God, turn to Him and walk in Him not just today but everyday, only He can take away the yuck and turn your dead roots into living ones, unlike that tree.

This is the deck of our cabin, complete with pew. We arrived last night.

Hamish is on his holidays and we joined him.  He doesn’t have a voice but still everything on his wish list for holiday destinations is met, so his non voice is the loudest of us all. 

We had to find a dog friendly self-catering house as hotels were out.  I looked for a remote location, so there was space to play ball around the property without neighbours being on top of us.  He likes the water and this year it wasn’t sand but pebbles so less clean up (OK that was for us!)  Sometimes you have to listen to your dog because he picked a lovely place.  It’s truly a ‘get away from it all’ place as the nearest supermarket is 40 mins away, and no local place to buy milk!  Sitting having a meal outside when we arrived, listening to the gentle lapping of the water is the most relaxing sound there is and caused immediate relaxation. 

We are on the Puget sound so the ocean is tempered by the time it reaches the cabin so it’s not as noisy as last year being at the ocean and also it doesn’t have the mist that comes with it.

Early morning on the beach beside the cabin, it's quiet!  I haven’t seen one person on the beach, so far it’s wonderful and Hamish is loving it. 

Sometimes in our lives it’s hard to make time ‘to be still and know I am God’ but even when we can’t, we can still do that in a very busy environment – just close your eyes.  When we do get the opportunity to do so, it’s good to be alone even in a locked bedroom or if like me on holiday – make the most of it.

God’s voice is the quietest as it often is the voice that is drowned out by our own wishes or what is going on around us.  May we concentrate on God’s voice so His will always be the loudest of us all, as we seek to hear Him and look to Him and what He wants us to do.

Hopefully I will post tomorrow or the next day, there is a canoe so we'll see how brave I can be - mmm.