~Noah

All I Really Need to Know, I Learned From Noah’s Ark

Written by Miscellaneous Contributers

• Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
• Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big.
• Don’t listen to critics - do what has to be done.
• Build on high ground.
• For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
• Two heads are better than one.
• Speed isn’t always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails.
• If you can’t fight or flee - float.
• Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth.
• Don’t forget that we’re all in the same boat.
• When the doo-doo gets really deep, don’t sit there and complain - shovel.
• Stay below deck during the storm.
• Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals.
• If you have to start over, have a friend by your side.
• Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside.
• Don’t miss the boat.

Found this on http://powertochange.com/life/learnfromnoah/

And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Genesis 7:5

This is a picture I took of the Mediterranean Sea 

when I visited Nerja, Spain in 2007.

Resting

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:1-3

Being brought up in Andalucia, a nap or siesta was part of our culture. When we moved back to the United States, my parents just changed our nap time but it was still a routine for our family. My parents were very active at home, work, ministry, education, athletics, music, etc. so they understood the importance of taking time to rest. 

As an adult I cannot tell you how many times I have heard someone guilt another person by saying things like "Oh must be nice to be able to nap." As if naps or quiet times are not available to everyone. I really never understood that mentality but it seemed to me that they were securing meaning and worth by all their pursuits and not having to have any rest.

Resting (a nap or quiet time) is good and necessary not only for our spiritual welfare but also for our physical and mental. God gave us an example in these verses to go by and we need to listen in order to receive the blessings of a good rest!

 My son's daughter Isabella posing on a statue at the zoo on our visit in 2009.

Inconvenienced

                                                      My soul melts from heaviness;

                                                   Strengthen me according to Your word. 

Psalm 119:28

Every day we have some type of interruption we don't plan or expect. Our life is filled with things that are out of our control. Sickness, accidents, death, emotions, rudeness, incompetence,  forgetfulness, misunderstandings, weather, etc. There are so many things that become life inconveniences! 

For anyone with a planning type of personality like my own, it can cause a bit of stress, okay let me be real ~ MAJOR STRESS. These are those moments that I know I should trust God but so hard for me to do. If God allows these inconveniences in my life then there must be something I cannot see in the big puzzle of life. I know I do not have the capacity of being able to protect myself from all the terrible things that God protects me from each day. Yes, I do see some of what life throws at me but I believe there is so much more that I do not see that God is guiding me through without my even being aware. Some days I get it dreadfully wrong and I have only myself to blame...some days I get it right and know I have God to thank....

Last year  there was a man killed by a passing truck on the exact location I walked 15 minutes prior and I was reminded again of God's protection for my own life. Next time I take a wrong turn I must remind myself of the possibility of danger had I taken the right turn. I need to trust God in everything including all the inconvenience life may bring each day! This lesson may be more for me than for you.....

This picture was taken when I took my grand~kids to see some beautiful butterfly gardens, March 2015.