Courage and Blessing

Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb. I Samuel 25:2-3

Abigail was intelligent and beautiful but her husband Nabal was a fool and cruel according to these verses. How many times have we seen two people married where one is delightful and the other grates our nerves? 

David was still on the run at this time from King Saul and was in the area where Nabal had his sheep so they protected them from any harm. It was customary at that time to be compensated for the protection of your flock but instead Nabal was rude, critical and refused to do anything for David and his men.

David was upset and set out to go up against Nabal for his foolishness. Abigail met him on the road with her servants and compensation for David and his men's protection of their flock without her husband knowing. When she told her husband the next day about what she had done he was so upset he had a heart attack and died. David found out what happened to Abigails husband and asked her to be his wife and they were married.

This is a great love story but more than that it is about a woman who had the courage to do right and God blessed!

This picture was taken while visiting Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, October 2014.

Who Is In Control?

This is “mixed media” art that I did with shreds of paper left over from another project where I added my devotional on being a control freak!

Overwhelmed?

We all have moments when we are overwhelmed or we don't think too much of life or ourselves at that particular moment. That is when this verse gives so much comfort: “ Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.” Psalm 138:6

Even though the feeling of being lowly may not always be where we want to be it is usually where we need to be. God meets us there and what better place to be than where we find God. 

Oh, I love being on top of the world and all is good in my days but I have learned not to dread the days that are less than perfect. I find that life is sometimes the opposite of what we believe. A perfect day feels great but I have also felt that my less than perfect days can sometimes be better. When the bottom has fallen out and I have found myself in the land of the abyss where God's mercy and grace that pulled me out. I can look back in pictures remembering the blessings that came from the difficulty of that moment in time. A good example is when my husband and I look back at the 9 years when he suffered most with kidney disease. We are amazed at all the activities, trips and special moments with our kids and grandkids. It seems to us we shared more together than any other time in both our lives. That was a gift from God because there is no other way to explain how it was even possible.

This picture was taken as we were driving through the state of New York, October 2014.