Excuses, Loss and a Nugget of Truth

EXCUSES!!   Everyone makes excuses. It's our human nature to make excuses (think Adam & Eve). But I am going to state this as fact.  I have not made this blog important enough to work on it regularly. I make time to read my Scriptures and study them, do laundry, cook, eat, spend time with my grandson, take a shower, go on dates with my hubby, attend my monthly Fibromyalgia Support Group meeting, text my kids and my friends and lots of other things. So,if I had been truly serious and this blog was a priority then there wouldn't be months between posts.  THAT is changing!  I have learned and experienced so much in  life that I simply HAVE to let some of it spill out to all of you readers.  Some posts may be short, some  horribly long.  On the average they will be...well, average length, whatever that means.  One last thought on excuses before I move on.  We DO find time for the things that are important to us, from the mundane to the noble.  I resolve to stop making excuses and start making things happen!  Or at least be honest enough to confess that I just didn't place a high priority on (fill in the blank).

LOSS.  A month ago yesterday we had to let our sweet rescue Beagle girl, Jayne, leave us.  Breast cancer that metastasized to her lungs.  She was healing beautifully from her surgery to remove the huge tumor.  The vet hoped he had given us months to years more time with her.  She passed 7 weeks post surgery.  Once it took hold in her lungs she went from first symptom to last breath in less than a week.  A week in which I put most of my life on hold and spent my time cuddling her, petting her, taking her outside to enjoy the sun and wind, simply telling her what a special gift she was to our family.  She quit eating on Wednesday. The last trip to the vet's office came late Saturday morning. John and I were both crying and loving on her as she got the first sedative so that we could say our good-byes, then the final shot that brought stillness to her exhausted body.  Home to a too quiet house.  Missing her snoring.  Missing her welcome home howling.  Missing our walks.  Missing watching her roam our large yard, so proud of "her" territory.  Missing her rolling in the soft grass just for the joy of doing so.  Telling Josiah that Jayne was gone and not coming back.  A 2 1/2 year old doesn't understand "died" nor did we want to use phrases or words that might frighten him about any of us.  So I talked with him.  Jayne is gone and not coming back to Grammas and Pa's house.  She went to live with God in His house in Heaven.  He said "OK" and accepted it.  Then he comes over, looks at her belongings that I haven't put up yet and will tell me he misses Jayne.  I tear up, hold him close and tell him that I miss Jayne too.  Remind him of what a sweet girl she was and how much she loved him.  Some future day another rescued Beagle will come to live with us.  Not now.  Too soon.  She was a wonderful, sweet dog. I miss her.

NUGGET OF TRUTH.*(see disclaimer)  YeHovah, Creator of the universe, gives me promises to cling to in all situations.  This one has been proven out through my loss.  "You (YeHovah) will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"  Isaiah 26:3  Even as the tears have flowed this past month I have been able to state truthfully that is has been well with my soul.

* I know that my "nuggets" won't always agree with everyone's personal beliefs.  I can only share the truth as I know it and for me that is totally a part of my faith in YeHovah and in His Word, the Holy Scriptures (Bible).  Not all nuggets will be faith based but a LOT of them will.

The Missing Piece

Finally!  I have procrastinated for far too long writing in this blog.  Part of the delay was pure nervousness, part waffling on topic and direction for my writing, part having a major fibro flare up that lasted about 8 weeks, part just simple avoidance.  I find that it is much harder to actually write my thoughts down than to talk about them.  Well, enough is enough and it is time to face this blog and put it to work sharing what is happening in my life.

I changed the title of my blog to reflect a better picture of where I am spiritually and what my blog will explore.  You get to join me as I recall past lessons and experiences, current thoughts and peeks into my daily life.  You are all aflutter aren't you?! :-)  

What does living the Sabbath rest mean?  Well, first off it reflects a major change that started a little over 2 years ago in my spiritual journey.  '

I was raised in a Christian home, meaning my parents had accepted Jesus as their Savior and as a family we worshiped at church, attended Sunday School, VBS, youth group and other activities.  We prayed at home, we were taught values and morals based on the teachings of the Bible and we honored God and country. I accepted Jesus as my Savior as a young child and grew in my love for God and loved studying the Bible and how it applied to my life on a daily basis.  I married the love of my life, John, and we started our marriage and home with God at the center and His Word the foundation for our home.  Sounds good so far right?  Well, as most of us know, life throws curves, bumps, ditches and heavy rains along the way.  Those adventures will be posts in and of themselves.  Let's fast forward to 2010........

2010 held MANY changes for our family! I want to start with the theme of this blog, Sabbath rest.  After over 50 years in a traditional or contemporary mainstream Christian church John and I were both hungry for something more, a restlessness had settled over our hearts.  Have you ever felt it?  You feel like you are missing something big or important or that a piece of the puzzle is lost.  One evening at Carraba's we bumped into a couple that we had known for many years but had lost contact with when we lived in GA for 6 years.  We did the quick, "So good to see you.  We should get together soon." thing and got busy and no calls were made.  Several months later we ran into them again at Longhorns and repeated the previous lines.   Ahhh...but THIS time my friend called me and she and I set up a dinner date4 of us to actually talk and get reacquainted!  When the subject got to "What church do you attend?" we told them where we were going but that it didn't really feel like a good fit anymore.  And then....DRUM ROLL....they shared that they too had felt that "missing something" and in their search they discovered a Hebrew Roots church.  Our ears perked up and we asked them to share more, beginning with explaining what Hebrew Roots meant.  We visited the church, we read some books that were shared with us, we asked LOTS of questions and we rejoiced because that missing puzzle piece just got dropped into our eager hands.  That piece was discovering Sabbath and Sabbath rest! Discovering our faith's Jewish roots and beginning to learn and understand all that encompassed and how to live it out was the new path on our journey.


I'll leave you with this snippet of our life at that point. We decided to take God's word literally.  We attended the Friday night service at our friend's church and then RESTED on Saturday.  Real rest.  No shopping, no chores, no housework, no "normal" Saturday activities at all.  We spent the day reading our Bibles, praying for family and friends,reading the books given to us by our friends, talking to each other, and even napped before the Saturday evening Torah study at church.  And as we rested we discovered what we had been missing; a sacred appointment on the 7th day to commune with God, to rest and enjoy His works, rest from our work and to be refreshed.  Spiritually and physically RESTED and REFRESHED!

Shalom,
bev

Words Have Failed Me?!

This is an odd feeling.  I usually have no trouble talking to people, but as I sit down here to write, I go blank on what to say!  I have no shortage of topics that I would like to discuss in this blog.  I guess I don't want to scare all my potential readers off by stepping on toes right off the bat!  Of course, it is inevitable that I will step on toes, make some people angry, offend people/groups/stereotypes and maybe, hopefully, get a few people to think in a different way or challenge them to dig deeper into a topic to see what the truth is or what it means to them personally.  Of course I would like everyone to love me and agree with  me but that would be a ridiculously unrealistic goal. 

Today I am thankful for sunshine after an entire week of rain which caused my fibromyalgia pain to flare up.  Last week I could barely move, this morning I had crossed almost all my errands off my list before 11a.m.!  It is a good feeling!  I give God praise for the work He is doing in my life and how my eyes and ears are being opened to learn deeper, more difficult, spiritual lessons.   Some of them are painful.  Most are challenging.  When I give up my ideas and let my Loving Father guide me I am energized and renewed!  That's it for now but don't worry, much more to come.  This is mostly an introductory blurb.  I pray that everyone who reads this will come back to learn and grow along with me.