Another Confession

I love books; I always have. When I was a little girl I had a girlfriend whom I adored because she had lots of wonderful books. One day she lost her skate key, so I let her borrow mine... and then she lost mine as well. Then the ugly truth about my shallow friendship came out. I struggled with my anger with her because I knew that if I told her the truth, I would lose her as a friend, and would lose my relationship with her books. Yeah, pretty selfish, there it is, the real me in the flesh. I'm not giving up anything pretty by surrendering such gross selfishness to Jesus, let me tell you.

Anyways, fast forward several years to where the Lord has me today...

My darling husband recently made renovations to our lovely (and very old) house. One of the things he did was make a library/sitting room in a front room just off the main livingroom and diningroom area.

He (and my brother-in-law) did a beautiful job. It is so nice to sit here, the light of a beautiful bay window lending gentle light into the room. I often sit here with my laptop and get inspired by all these wonderful thinkers surrounding me. :)

However....my landing and moving to Canada also involved the transporting of boxes and boxes of books that still remained (and some still do) in the U.S.... sigh.

 

A few of my books made it onto the shelves, and the rest....well, not sure what to do with them just yet...and there are more of them than just these few little piles... three more boxes in the basement, and about ten more boxes (!!!) of books in storage in the states! Yikes! I hope my husband's ingenuity (truly a blessing of the Lord which I do not yet possess) will get me out of this predicament! 

A New Chapter

 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: 

we spend our years as a tale that is told.  

 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; 

and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, 

yet is their strength labour and sorrow; 

for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  

Who knoweth the power of thine anger?

 even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.   

So teach us to number our days, 

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 

  Psalm 90:9-12 (KJV)

Last month was an ending of one chapter and the beginning of a new one for me. The difficulties I had to endure during the previous chapter prepared me for the life I now live, and at the time I was going through the greatest trials of that previous chapter, I was unable to see anything other than the trials. Now, in hindsight, I understand how the Lord used these things to strengthen me and shape me into the character that I am today.

A new beginning...a new year has just begun, winter is almost over and spring is just around the corner...it all feels so fresh and new and alive.

This situation has me pondering how our life today prepares us for the life after this life, a new beginning in a new land, and this life that I am living now will be "the previous chapter" in that new land and all that is right now will have disappeared from my consciousness, just as my previous 50+ years are just  memories which have laid a groundwork for where I am today.

In my Bible reading I am at the point in the book of Numbers where Joshua and Caleb were the 2 out of the 12 which gave a good report of the promised land which lay before them. The other 10 spoke of giants that would eat them alive. These 10 were successful in striking fear and doubts into the hearts of the rest of the Israelites, which then caused them to be stuck in their "chapter" of wandering in the wilderness for another 40 years before they could finally reach that land flowing with milk and honey, their next chapter.

Before coming to this point of where I am, I had doubts and fears about what will be expected of me, and how it all will turn out. I'm thankful that the Lord provides me with the strength to overcome the challenges which seem to threaten me and stand in my way. He helps me today, into this new chapter which will give me new challenges to overcome.

Changes

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The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
 2Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

I'm moving!

The last few months have brought changes, some enjoyable, some not so much. I must confess that I don't handle change well, I guess that is the main reason that as far as politics goes I lean to conservative much more than to the liberal side, because from what I've experienced liberal changes are usually bad.

HOWEVER...

I am learning to let go (I'm somewhat of a slow learner in this department). It is in God's hands after all, and it isn't up to me to try to keep things (or people) from growing worse and worse. I cannot change people. I cannot even change myself, or keep myself from changing (aging, for instance).

So reluctantly I let go of those things that are behind me, and look forward to a fresh tomorrow, with my wonderful husband beside me. Sure there will be difficult days...and sometimes I might even wish for "the good old days"...but God promises much better things which He has in store, so the difficult challenges are there to prepare me and stretch me so that I will be better able to serve the Lord, and give back a portion of what He has blessed me with.