Of Frogs and Provisions...

Missing our Saturday morning hikes already! This last week Bella and I hiked at Black Hills natural trails. Amanda, Bella, Shelby and I also did Red, White and Blue Sugar Loaf Mountain, being this the first time our Amanda did Sugar Loaf!
As we hiked, we talked about the time when Bella was in 5th grade. Her science fair experiment was on the life cycle of frogs. If all this frog stuff is getting on anyone's nerves, please speak up! This shall be a season and soon other nature related subjects should be coming up... Bella had done the writing part of her research and was using an old first grade poster for the presentation. Her desire was to have a real frog or toad to bring to the science fair. That week we looked everywhere for our "prince charming". Every morning and evening we went frog "hunting", in  and around our woods, with no success. On the day she was to present her project Bella went to school very disappointed. Though knowledgeable and well prepared, she lacked the real thing! So what else to do but pray, right? It seems this is a habit we all have, to wait till all other resources are exhausted before we pray...
At that time I was the assistant PE coach at her school. The PE teacher and I had the first grade children outside during the period preceding Bella's science fair. Right at the end of class a little first grader came running to me shouting: "Mrs. McHenry, look what I found!!"  Yea, you guessed it again: She was holding this sweet little toad in her hands. My immediate reaction was to ask her if I could borrow it. I ran inside and found Bella. I said: "Look Bella, God answered your prayers and sent you this frog!!" I wish you could have seen her face! It is just priceless when God uses such simple moments to remind us of His care and provision!
So, to sum it up I would say:  Card board poster:     $1.00
                                              Books for research:   $10.00
                                              Colored copies:         $2.00
                                              Frog                          $ PRICELESS

Always be thankful and take time to look around and recognize the many different, simple and loving ways in which our Heavenly Father provides for our every need.
Go outside and soak up His love for you today! When you are filled up and spilling over, share it with someone who needs it! Smile at the grumpy! Turn up the music! Wear your red dress (ladies only please!)
Use your good dishes! Make lots of wishes!

Thanks for sharing the journey!

God's Love Language

This last Saturday we hiked Billy Goat Trail, on the gorge of the Potomac River's Great Falls. One of our conversations was centered on the way God speaks to us. I shared how fantastic it is to belong to a church like Cedarbrook, where we are encouraged to serve God with our passions. We were speaking about the ways in which God speaks to us through nature. I shared my frog love story and the pictures above are of that season in my life (the real deal!). I was going through a dark valley, depression was robbing all joy, hopelessness was creeping in... I sought God's presence daily by going out in the early morning to journal, pray, read and just soak in the outdoors. Several personal reasons, including past willful sin, had brought me to this place of despair. As a believer, I knew God was the answer, but other than praying and confessing, I didn't know how to get myself out of this pit. That's when, while walking around peeking to see what was blooming, I noticed these lovely, tiny, little frogs inside my day-lilies.  I had always loved frogs but had never seen such tiny creatures here in the USA. Every morning that Summer, when I went outside to soak God and nature in, my little friends were there speaking God's love to me. Daily God reassured me of His love and forgiveness. Daily the presence of Jesus was felt when we spent time together. Those same tiny green frogs never came back to my garden. Other beautiful ones have graced our living throughout the last several years but none so vibrant as the ones God used to minister healing and forgiveness to me that season.
Well, soon after we had this conversation (less words used on the trail), Rossio calls out: "Come here Edi!! Look!! And there before our eyes, just out of one of the many nurseries along the river, were hundreds of these tiniest of tiniest little frogs!!! All hopping and causing the illusion that the ground was moving, these little frogs were the unspoken words of God saying: "Don't you people EVER doubt how much I love you. Marvelous is our God, the Almighty, El Shaddai who gave Jesus, His only SON, to die and bring healing and forgiveness. Mighty is our God, who does not hesitate to speak "frog" to us, if that is the way we hear "I love you"!!   I could go on and on sharing how His embrace comes in many different forms. What brings yet more fascination to this love story is the fact that our ONE and ONLY God took that private moment he and I had shared, wonderfully multiplied it, and made it a G2 moment!! Awe struck we all continued on and decided more moments like that can be shared with even more folks if we continue to hike and soak in God's beauty next G2 season!
BTW, I got home dehydrated, took a nap and woke up sick. My husband came in from the garden calling: "Come here Edi! Look!" And if you have not yet guessed it, In his hands he had a tiny, tiny little frog to share with me!!! Even my husband talks "frog" to me and says I love you in the simplest of ways...

Psalm 19

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;

   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice^[b] goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.
Always be Thankful!!!

Summing it up...

These are Jasmine's words....
Well said!
We have been hiking among the local trails and state parks for the past several weeks. It was amazing to be in the parks, it felt like God is surrounding us, speaking to us in nature tune or engulf us with the nature smell . The whispering of leaves, chipping of the birds, the sound of waterfall, the smell of wild roses, the smell of skunks or foxes (As Ann mentioned, we could not tell the difference), who would imagine that we have all these trails and parks as Barb put it right in our own backyard.

I was asked to comment on the blog on the recent chapters that we have been reading for our G2 group. I selected the chapter on "Seeking Balance" because it spoke volume to me. The author has the idea that a good christian could and should live a perfectly balance life. He realized that he never did get the hang of it.  For some of us, we tend to spend more time with work, personal goals and achievements, or church or charitable activities, sport activities for the children, etc than with God and our family. I am one of those people who would pack a 24 hours day into a 36 hours day, from morning till sun down, seeking balance in my daily life is difficult. I am glad to note that the author offered some hope by pointing out that a number prophets Noah, Joseph, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Paul, Peter, Stephen and most of the rest have wildly out of balance lives. Mr. Osborne further pointed out that "when we're juggling competing priorities, our ultimate goal is not to be perfectly balanced. The goal is to fulfill God's calling without falling over." The author also wrote that "The search for a well-balanced life tends to overlook the fact that we each have a unique calling and role to play. Playing our role well sometimes demands being out of balance somewhere else." I liked the fact that each of us has the unique and important role to play in God's kingdom even with our shortcomings, supporting each other in various ways.

The author learned to ask three questions when juggling life competing demands (the following are excepts from the book):

1. What season is this? Each season of life has its own responsibilities and assignments. Mr. Osborne gave an example of a mother with preschoolers. Her God-given assignment would be different when her children are young than empty nest years.
2. What does God want me to do today? Each day has its own calling, a series of specific tasks carried out in the framework of a larger calling. The author gave an example of concentrating on his studies on his finals and intentionally let everything else go, family, devotional life, accountability group.
3. Is anything so out of balance that it's beginning to harm my health, relationships, or walk with God? The author gave an example of a friend that changed careers in midlife so that he could have a rigid and well balanced schedule of work, bible study, and family time.

We are all so different. As Mr. Osborne wrote, we have to find our own standard of balance that faithfully fulfill God's calling for us. Let's begin this journey, to faithfully fulfilling God's calling for each one of us. For some of us, we already have, for others, it is not too late....

Religion or Relationship?

As much as we like to brag about Christianity being  relationship and not religion, is it really? How do you, who call yourself a Christian, experience this relationship? Do you have one sided conversations with God or is it a dialogue? What are your feelings in this relationship? Is your knowledge of God reconciled with Him as a person who is a component in this relationship?
Take time to think of religion and about religious practices. Is what you are practicing just "doing religion in hopes of producing relationship?" (page 27)
If so, what is it going to take for you to fall head over heel in love with your savior?
Remember:  " The goal of spirituality is NOT to lead - it's to know and please God. We need to work hard NOT to project our personality and calling on everyone else!"
We connect as a G2 group on the grounds that God gave each of us this passion and love for His creation, nature and the need to be on the move. Does that make you and me better than the people in our lives who do not take pleasure in hiking and being outdoors? Is the book worm Christian developing a closer relationship with Christ because he spends more time reading?

Think about these things....

Sugarloaf Mountain, summit

Words given to us by God through the prophet Micah:
Chap.4:  “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
   to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
   so that we may walk in his paths.”
Chap 5:  With what shall I come before the LORD
   and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
   with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
   with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
   And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
   and to walk humbly^[a] with your God. 
Thanks for sharing the journey!

What is a Contrarian?

As we do some of our summer reading on the topic of a "contrarian's guide to knowing God", perhaps one must explore the meaning of the word contrarian... In agreement with Larry Osborne, the author we presently read, "contrarian thinking for the sake of being contrarian is an arrogant waste of time". Ours is the pursue of a deeper, closer, real relationship with God. A hunger to experience a God pleasing spirituality and a quest for HIS truth which drive us to question, to speak, to challenge ourselves and others.
Being a contrarian is not being an anarchist. It is merely asking: "Is that really true?"
As we dive deep into comparing what we read against the absolute truth of God's Word, we shall grow closer to Him. The closer we get to Him, the more we will hunger and thirst for Him. We shall find Him when we search for Him with all our hearts!

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17

What is your quest? How do  you experience God?