Scripture, simple blessings, answered prayer, worry

“Psalms 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” This is one of the verses I have been memorizing. Mama and I have little plastic container that is made to resemble a loaf of bread. Inside the trough molded into the loaf are little Scripture placards with verses printed on both sides of each placard/card. The printed cards are small only three quarters of an inch wide and three inches long. I believe there are fifty placards/cards in the loaf. 

Recently Mama put it on our kitchen table again, and I have been pulling out a placard almost every day, but Ps 68:19 really caught my eye one morning, so it has been lying at my spot at the table for a couple weeks now. It thought, why not chose one or two verses per month and try to commit them to memory. As I have done so, it is fascinating the see the Lord bring the verses to light. To find ways to make them real in our daily walk. We acknowledge that we are blesses in a sort of “yah, I know I’m blessed” way but rarely take to time the thank the Lord for just how blessed we are. Mama and I are trying to do just that. Constant, continual, timely, simple blessing fill or days when we choose to give God credit for them. 

I prayed last night that the Lord would give me wisdom in trimming out the windows in the container, both inside and outside the container. I was not sure how that would need to be done. I had a vague idea but was not certain. However, as I started to lay out the pattern I would need to miter and cut the trim pieces to meet the insertion of the window into the corrugated container wall, it all suddenly came to me. Praise the Lord! I was also able to use lumber pieces already on hand to make all the trim pieces for the sides and tops of the windows. I will need a few pieces of lumber to cut the trim pieces for the bottom of the windows, but I was able to do about 2/3s of the work with what was already here. I made a lot more progress than I had expected, and it looks very nice. I will include images when the trim out is complete, but I am pleased with what the Lord helped me do today. 

Tomorrow, Norman is going a couple hours north of us to look at some hay he found advertised. He was able to borrow a heavy-duty dump bed trailer to haul the 1200-pound square bales for us. Mama and I are buying four bales and Grandpa is buying four bales. That is our plan if the hay turns out to be good quality hay. Unfortunately, we cannot know until we get there and inspect it. We are praying it will not be a wasted trip. God has been good, so we are trusting Him with the outcome. There is no quality hay near us for the bargain price we could get on this hay, but we will have to make the drive to see if it is what we want. 

I do not plan on going with Norman if Grandpa feels up to going. Grandpa did not feel well today, but he has had a few very good days this week. He tells me that most of his issues are bowel issues, not being able to go for days at a time. Today he did not eat much at all. A cinnamon swirl with his morning coffee and a cherry turnover late this evening. No fiber to help his bowels but not much volume either. Not the diet of champions, but that is all he wanted. Maybe giving his bowels a rest by taking in less food and more liquids will work well for him. We will see. Please continue to pray for him.

We have a lot of sickness around us at the moment and Mama is a tiny bit apprehensive about our upcoming trip to Honduras. I allow her to spend all the emotional energy given to thinking about not getting sick. If she did not mention it to me, I would never think about it. Not that it is not a potential issue, I just don’t give it much thought. If I did, it would paralyze me in all my efforts to keep moving forward with the projects I am just now making great headway on. When it's cold, I dress warmer. When it a rainy, I stay out of the rain as much as possible. When I get too cold, or too tired, or too wet, I come inside and take a break. I can do that now. I’m retired.

Right now, we are getting flooded with packages from a variety of vendors, mostly shipped by Amazon, that Cori and the kids are ordering. The packages are being sent to me and Mama and we will pack them into our luggage and carry them to Honduras. It may be a very inefficient method of making purchases, but it works if you are in no particular hurry. 

One of the fun parts of every trip to Honduras is the initial unpacking when we get to Cori and Nate’s house. The suitcases are rolled into Cori and Nate’s bedroom and excitedly sorted through behind closed doors. Mama and I have to take our clothing in the suitcases as well as all the other items, so Cori is careful not to muss thing up too much. Then as all the purchased goods are laid out, the kids are allowed in to claim their purchases and be given the gifts Grammy and I bring. Each category is like getting a Christmas present. Even if the item was ordered by one of the kids. Just the fact that it arrived, that they have it in hand, is super exciting to them. It is truly fun to watch.

It makes all the struggle of getting those overweight bags through the airports.