My Time at the Inn

                  Recently, some friends of mine have been going through a time of tremendous trials.  One of them asked me in tears, "Is God listening?  I've called out to Him so many times for answers and I am waiting for clarity, but nothing is clear. "  I had no ready answers.  When my friend called me, I just returned  to another friend's home after the funeral of her mother.  I had  come from a service where the message was about victory and hope, and yet I was at a loss for words for the tears coming forth from this person.  I simply said, "God knows what you and I do not.  We have to trust."  I had my own doubts, but how could I share that?  What comfort can be found in the words, "I don't know?"  Yet God does know.  How could I tell my friend that I too had called out for help, and didn't feel I had clarity?            This morning the Lo...

           The title of the blog has changed to "My Time at the Inn."  Luther once said, "The world is a den of murderers, subject to the devil.  If we desire to live on earth, we must be content  to be guests in it, and to lie in an inn where the host is a rascal, whose house over the door this sign or shield, "For Murder and Lies."  While visiting our  son in Texas last summer, his pastor's  Sunday school lesson was on that quote.  The pastor said  that we are merely strangers in this world, and we should view it as though we are on a pilgrimage, and we are staying at Inn filled murderers and liars.  That message resonated with me these last few days, and I thought that I had  a wrong title for my blog. I get too comfortable with the world, and along comes God and gives a trial whereby I must face my sin.  Has that ever happened to you?  It's too easy for me to get comfortable here.  Perha...

 Do you ever read blogs and think, well, I wish my life were that perfect.  I  homeschooled all my children from Kindergarten through  twelfth grade.  I am rather glad there were no blog early on when  I started, or I would have felt like a failure.  It's the same on Facebook, we  all tend to  post what's  good that's going on in our lives, and exclude our failures. If you read yesterday's blog post, you might have thought the rest of my day went on  like a breeze, but oh contraire, it did not.  I had so much frustration. Things that could go wrong did  go wrong, and of course my first impulse was to  gripe.  I nearly lost it when my violin bow wouldn't wind. I have a rehearsal Sunday in church, now what???  I really felt the  words that Paul wrote  when  he said, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not  do what I  want, but  I do the very thing I hate." (Romans ...

 It sounds simple, doesn't it?  Be still and know that I am God, but so often we want to take control, because, if  we don't do  something, how will it get done?  Is that you?  It's me more often  than I care to count.  The children  of Israel had seen so many wonders in Egypt.  They  saw the plagues on the Egyptian people; they  complained and God rained manna from heaven  for them.  They cried because there was no water, and God gave them water from  a rock, and yet when they saw Pharaoh and this army pursuing behind them and the sea in front of them, they cried out to Moses, and Moses simply says, you only need to be still, stop complaining, the Lord will fight for you. We can read Exodus and count the number of complaints and think, how did the Lord put up with such a complaining people, didn't they understand that the Lord would fight for them?  Yet how often are we in situations where we think we hav...

       Perhaps we don't associate  the desert with restfulness. I never used to. I longed to be in a farmhouse will green trees and flowers all around me.  Yet that is not where God planted me.  I  must tell you the truth, I did a lot of  grumbling to God  about that.  I did much pleading for Him to move us to another state where greenery  would abound, but God said no that prayer many times, but still I persisted until one Sunday morning when  I was visiting a state with lots of green the pastor preached from  Acts 17:26 "And he (the Lord) made from one man every nation  of mankind to live in all the face of the earth, having determined  allotted periods  and the boundaries of  their dwelling places,..." The pastor went on to explain that God plants us where he wants us for our good and the good, because God  can only do  what is good, true, and  right.  He  knows the numb...

          Memories are like photographs that we leave behind. The other day I woke  up thinking that each day we are given is a memory we leave behind for those around us. What kind of memory do  I want to  leave?  Will it be one of a someone always complaining  that this  or that isn't done?  Will it be one of someone who  always worries that we won't have enough money, enough food, enough time?  Will it be one of  someone who took time for someone else, even in the midst of a  hectic day?   Will it  be one of  someone who would rather have stayed at home, but went to town with a friend  or spouse  simply  because the other person wanted company?   My prayer is to leave behind a sweet memory that's like a treasured heirloom. What  kind of  memory do you want to leave behind?