Sharing the Cold

It looks like much of the nation has something in common with Montana.  The snow.

I wanted to share some of our beauty with you.

 

 

 

I love living in Montana.

 

Scenes like this make me think of the Psalms - especially Psalm 121

 

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

 

This Psalm has always been a blessing to me.  Just knowing that God is always there to watch over us and guard us from harm comforts me, and when I look at my mountains here, I remember that my help comes from the Lord - the Maker of heaven and earth.

 

I hope wherever you are - that you are warm and safe.  Mack suggests you find a warm place to rest in the sun.

 

 

But the cats suggest you just stay inside.

 

 

 

Great Comfort in the Lord

There is such a great comfort in belonging to the Lord. I honestly don't know how people without the Lord even get out of bed in the morning.  Sometimes the world just seems to be too much and I want to hide in a hole, but with the Lord I have the strength to crawl out and start again.

I was talking to a friend the other day and we learned that each of us had been victim of the rumor mill.  She told me how much it hurt to be accused and I agreed.  I'd been falsely judged--accused of words that never came out of my mouth.  Worse still, in both cases, it wasn't the world judging us, but rather Christians.  Christians who should have known better, because I thought they knew me.

A dear sister in the Lord listened to me ask for prayer at our Monday morning Bible study and she sent me a connection with these wonderful Scriptures.

I Corinthians 4

 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. ² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. ³ I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. ⁴ My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.


Aren't those awesome verses?  I found such comfort in them and I know my friend did too.  I'm so grateful to the woman who sent me this reminder.

I'm not without faults - just like the verse says, but God knows my conscience is clear and that I will let Him deal with the pain caused me by brothers and sisters. I will let Jesus hold me. 

Most of all, this set of verses reminded me to be very cautious about jumping to conclusions or listening to gossip and rumors.  It reminded me that often things are said, even in the church, that has no purpose but to degrade and wound.  The tongue is definitely a sword with which we can wound and I want to be very careful about the things I say and the accusations I throw around. I want to remember that even on the cross, Jesus forgave the things that others said falsely about Him.

I'm so very comforted in belonging to the Lord.  He is my stronghold and I hope He's yours as well.  I think Psalm 141:3 will be my prayer:

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

P.S.  Check out this website interview:
http://www.christianfictionsite.com/1/post/2013/02/featured-author-interview-with-tracie-peterson.html

Superpants and Redheads

This week I wanted to share another lovely writer's blog.

Kim Woodhouse wrote about an intriguing new fashion tradition she's started and I wanted to share it with you. I mentioned it briefly on facebook, but wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to see it.  There's some pretty goofy pictures posted in the article.

Here's the website: http://www.bookfunmagazine.com/i/107098

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

And here's one of my favorite quotes:

“You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair,” said Anne reproachfully. “People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is.” - Anne of Green Gables.



Speaking as one who has endured the years with red hair - I say, "Amen, Anne. Amen." Here's some highschool senior year photos as proof that I speak the truth. Oh the freckles!

God Bless You.