Wisdom & Understanding

"...to him who knows what is good (right) to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:17  I admire how the Graham family displayed the coffin of Reverend Billy Graham at the North Carolina property. It was a beautiful,simple wood coffin that had been made by a prisoner, there were very little flowers surrounding it. It is said that he called himself a "simple country preacher" and this is how his family believed that he would like to be memorialized, without the adornment of a fancy coffin and an over abundance of flowers. This display was quite a contrast to some that I have seen. Some with gold inlaid coffins, the remains dressed in "kingly" attire, even changing the attire for the numerous "celebration" services held for these individuals...but sadly some of these left this world in the wake of unresolved scandal and division among it's followers. Along with all the outward, even glamorous memorializing of these individuals,

A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones." Proverbs 17:22  Can I be honest? For years I have dreaded the winter months of January and February; because in the past during those times there have been a lot of heartache and sadness. Combine those feelings with the predominately dreary weather and I really did not look forward to this time of the year. But last November I prayed and told God that I no longer want to live in that dread. He has made a season for everything and I was choosing that if He allowed me to live during that season then He and I was going to make it different from the past years, that it would be different this time... When I began to intentionally stand against those feelings of depression and heaviness, even sometimes saying out loud "No, I will NOT go there.", I began to actually feel as if I was lighter...as if Someone had come along beside me and lifted the load that was trying to overtake me. For real...

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalms 91:1-2   I have posted this picture of me at Laguna Beach looking out over the Pacific Ocean so many times and I know that my FB friends are sick of it and rightfully so, but it really was a milestone in my life. A pivotal time. So what do we do with milestones and pivotal times? We remember them in times when we need encouragement. Encouragement to carry on.  I remember looking out over that vast ocean and thinking that all the things that I had experienced in the previous years, though they may have been heart breaking, devastating, eye opening and even thrown for a loop...STILL all of that could not stand against the beauty and awesomeness of God almighty! There were times back then that I felt like I was being peeled like an onion and every layer that was being revealed though i