sudoku

my husband has gotton hooked on the japanese puzzle sudoku. he bought himself a book full of the puzzles and started with the easy ones, went on to the medium ones and is now figuring out the hard puzzles.

sudoku is a puzzle of logic. there is only one correct answer for each square and if you get it wrong it starts a domino effect that is hard to reverse.

life is like a giant sudoku puzzle. when we come to a square we try to fill it in, maybe its a crossroads we've come to or a decision we need to make, but if we have built our life on a faulty foundation then it can result in alot of pain. sometimes we try to erase the mistakes we've made but often we don't even know which square has the wrong number in it.

but in life, as in sudoku, there is a right answer. and we can find those answers in the Word of God. the Lord has laid out directions showing us how to live our lives. proverbs is replete with wisdom about how to live life, as are many other books both new and old testement.

i find in my life its not so much the wisdom isn't there, but rather i haven't searched the scriptures to find the wisdom or if i know what is right i don't do it. wisdom without obedience is not wisdom. so like sudoku, instead of guessing i will search until i find the right answer and the put it in the box. how about you?

the lawnmower

our son joe loves lawnmowers. when the family comes over to mow our lawn on mondays he bounces for joy at seeing them take out the lawnmower and start to get to work. if we're around and we feel like giving him a little fun, we let him go outside and he will chase the person mowing the lawn, up and down the yard, laughing boisterously at the fun of it all. when we go to the local hardware store he points to where the lawnmowers are sitting and if our attention wanders we can always find him there.

a couple weeks ago my husband and i started talking about looking for an old lawnmower at a garage sale to pick up for joe. something he could push around the lawn for fun and exercise. a few days later joe got out of the house, before we could blink we were looking all over for him. we found him coming down the sidewalk pushing a red lawnmower. we assumed it was our neighbors so we put in his back yard. the next day our n'bor told us it wasn't his. so joe and michael pushed the lawnmower to the next n'bors house. it wasn't theirs either so they left it on the front sidewalk hoping that the owner would see it and grab it. after 3 or 4 days no one had claimed it.

during those 3 days joe insistantly told us in his non-verbal way that he wanted to push that lawnmower. since no one had claimed it we decided it was a gift from God for Joe and let him play with it. we leave it on our front lawn in case the rightful owner should turn up to claim it, after 2 weeks no one has.

i am in awe of God's goodness and compassion in my son's life. if he could i'm sure joe would have prayed and asked God for a lawnmower, in his own way he was always asking us for one! and even tho joe couldn't pray the way we tend to think of prayer, God granted his fervent request and brought a lawnmower to him. tho i dont' know if joe understands that this is a gift from heaven, he is happy and shows his thankfulness every day by the joy he exhibits as he pushes that old lawnmower around the yard.

i am inspired by my son's example of thankfulness. i too, want to react with joy when the Lord brings a gift into my life, whether i have been praying for it or not. i want to acknowledge that He is the giver of all good things and that those good things that come into my life are not driven by luck or chance, but by a Heavenly Father who loves me. i want to enjoy those gifts that the Lord brings, but also remember that they are on loan. i am not the rightful owner. i must hold loosely what God has given me in case He takes it away.

"Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." James 1:17

sept 19th, postscript:

sunday afternoon after i wrote this, daisy ran away. after walking around the n'borhood looking for her and talking with a couple n'bors we had to conclude that she was gone. hoping that she would make her way home, by nighttime those hopes were dashed.

i woke up that night feeling sad and fretful about losing daisy. but i have to conclude that it was not a coincidence in timing. the Lord was testing me, to see if i was really living what i was sharing. so i had to give daisy over to the Lord. the verse from Job came to mind "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord" and so i gave her over to the Lord, thankful for the time we had had with her.

monday michael suggested i call the pound just in case. i wasn't enthused about doing so as i had truly thot she was gone for good, but i called. they didn't have her, but they took my name just in case. 3 hours later the pound called and said they thot they might have her. we went to check it out. the walls reverbrated with the sounds of barking dogs. i went down the aisle scanning to see if there was a black and white terrier. i saw one that was similiar and my heart sank, it wasn't her, but i kept walking. at the end of the room in the last kennel was daisy, trembling with fear. once she saw me she stood up and a huge smile replaced her earlier woeful look. i couldn't believe it was our daisy. the Lord had restored her to us. after taking care of the paperwork we took her home and she and i snuggled on the couch.

i am in awe of how the Lord works in our lives and how He is faithful to teach us what we need to know. its easy to share things that the Lord brings to mind but harder to actually live them out. yet the Lord knows that if its just words, it has no power. it must be in my heart and my life to make a difference. i pray that this lesson will stay in my heart forever. may all of us be able to say "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord"

sting rays

having an 8 yr old son in the family, we have been avid fans of "The Crocodile Hunter" for the past few years. steve irwin made a name for himself catching and relocating crocs down under where he lived. josiah loved his show, esp when steve was feeding the crocodiles fresh meat and the snapping jaws of a croc would just miss steve's leg or arm.

so it was with much sadness that we learned of steve's untimely death last weekend, having been stung by a stingray in the chest as he and his camera man were shooting another special. as the tale unfolded, it seemed that steve had been swimming above the stingray which had then flipped over and whipped its stinger into steve's chest. steve instinctively pulled the stinger out of his chest thus creating a gaping hole and losing massive amounts of blood before losing consciousness. he died before help could fly him to a hospital.

i overheard two women talking about the incident and one mentioned that if steve had not have pulled the stinger out he may have lived. one never knows, but doctors advise that if you have something lodged in your chest area, your head or around your mouth that you get a doctor to take care of it instead of trying to take it out yourself.

i thot of the many times i have been wounded, not physically, but emotionally and spiritually. my first instinct is to pull the stinger out and throw it back at the person who has hurt me. but i only end up a bloody mess when i do that. it seems to hurt twice as much, and then i have to watch out for more falling stingers aimed at me from the one i just threw one at. i'm slowly learning that it is better to take my wound to the Lord and allow Him to pull out the stinger and heal the wound. it seems to hurt less that way .... and the stinging arrows stop flying towards me. going to the Lord and having Him pull out the stinger allows forgiveness and restoration to be given and received between me and the other party....

either way the barb hurts, but if i take it to the Lord He has wonderful ointment that soothes the pain and heals the open wound. He comforts and consoles me as i give Him all my pain. He is after all, the Great Physician.

the car wash

we have been saying we need to get the car washed ever since we got home from vacation. finally, this morning we had a moment to do so. daisy, our jack russell was with us. she is still a puppy and we have only had her a little over a month. this was her first trip thru the car wash with us.

daisy is a needy dog. she was found wandering around home depot by my girlfriend and tho we love her dearly, she is a bit high strung. even when we are not going thru a car wash she wants to be right next to us or even on our laps. she doesn't seem to understand that a dog her size on a driver's lap just isn't going to happen.

the workers started to soap up the windshield and soon they were spraying all the windows. daisy wasn't sure what to make of all the water and noise. she crowded close to me and tried to get on my lap. instead, michael scooped her up into his arms and held her tight. she nestled into his arms, trembling as the big machines started to swish the cloth strips around and over our van.

"though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me."

there is great comfort knowing that the Lord is with us thru the valleys we go thru. whether they are scary car washes, stays in the hospital for some unknown illness, or some other unsettling situation, we can draw close to the Father, knowing that He will pick us up and comfort us, walk with us through the valley and that we don't have to fear any evil. sounds good to me!

the stars

i didn't want to leave the tent that night, but nature was calling. we didn't have a flashlight so i was going to have to make my way somehow thru the dark up the campsite road to the restrooms. at first i took very tentative steps until my eyes adjusted to the faint light of the stars. as my eyes adjusted to the dark, i looked up. with trees on either side of the road i could only see a sliver of the sky but that small sliver was loaded with stars. dozens, hundreds, too many for me to count in just a small speck of sky that i could see.

i remembered one of my fav verses from isaiah 40. "Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created the stars; the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one of them is missing."

i think i gloss over the majesty of God creating the stars cuz i have heard that since i was a young girl, but then it hits me, He also named them. how many million or billion are out there? and He has named each and every one of them! and He remembers all those names!! the thought boggles my finite mind. i can't even remember all the names of all the people i have met in the past year, let alone a gazillion stars. and then if that is not enough, after creating them, and after naming them, He makes sure that none of them get lost or go missing. He oversees them all.

this is a good reminder for me when life seems to overwhelm me with trials and complications. i concentrate on God and His might, His power and my world suddenly comes into perspective.