This week brings another road trip to Nebraska. Mom has been steadily improving and has her 6 week post op appointment this week. She has not been released to drive, so I will be her driver to the appointment. Since my dad has long-term insurance to help with the cost of the facility that he is in, he needs to be evaluated to make sure that he qualifies for the long-term care! This should also take place this week. It will be a full week with both appointments and then making sure that mom’s freezer is stocked with food for the next month or so.
With all that has been going on in my life since mid April, it would be very easy to let my emotions dictate my actions and attitudes. I know that if I do such a thing, the outcome would be totally unbecoming to one who calls herself a follower of Christ and not glorifying to my Lord. So as I have pondered this trip, I have been trying to soak my self in the word through music and reading. Lately I have been listening to Fernando Ortega’s album, The Shadow of your Wings; Hymns and Sacred Songs. It has been refreshing to my soul as most of the songs are directly out of Scripture. The song, Let the words of my Mouth has been very encouraging to me and I have been praying that God will help me to put these words into practice this week in Nebraska. The words to this song are;
Let the words of my mouth
Be pleasing to You, pleasing to You
The meditation of my heart
Be pleasing to you, pleasing to You
Oh Lord, my strength
And my Redeemer
Whatever is true
Whatever is pure
Whatever is lovely
Whatever is worthy
Think on these things
Think on these things
Let the words of my mouth
Be pleasing to You
Pleasing to You
This video has also been feeding my soul and I am not sure why the pictures are so captivating to me except that there are several depicting storms with people clinging to the cross – which is right where I am at these days.
My prayers for this week in Nebraska are that I will see Christ as beautiful in all that I do and all the events of the week; that my soul will continue to sing as a result; that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to the Lord and as they please the Lord will minister to those I am around. I want to remember the words that Pastor Kenny spoke on Sunday – “Believing in Christ is the result of having been born again and we who have been born again love our Father who has given us birth and therefore we love the fellow children of the father. As those who love God and having been born again, we obey his commandments.” I am trying to see my time down in Nebraska as worship to God rather than focus on the hard times that could come my way.
Please pray with me that I will look for the beauty that God provides around me and relate to my parents and others in a way that will draw them to the Father.
To run and not grow weary 
Our small group read the fantastic book Humility by CJ Mahoney this year. The last chapter talked about hero’s and how our society has such misguided hero worship: athletes, singers, musicians, celebrities, actors, etc .For whatever reason, we – in this country – have lifted them up and placed them up on a pedestal because…what? They can hit a baseball or dunk a basketball? They can sing or play the guitar? They can act? And then to top it off, they get paid tens of millions of dollars for this. C’mon. Really? This is turning into a rant so I’ll stop here. I just wanted to say that all of my own hero’s are right here in my own ‘back yard’…that is, my church. Corrie, whenever I drop your name in a conversation I always add that ‘she’s another one of my hero’s”. Bet you didn’t know that! I always hope that some of that Godly character will ‘leak’ off onto me whenever I’m around my hero church friends. Jesus Christ is the greatest hero of all, we all know that. But you all are great exampes of His servanthood and I for one am grateful and privileged to be able to glean from you..iron sharpens iron. Thanks for magnifying Christ so beautifully in your life!