If you live in Augusta, Georgia, home of the most famous of all golf tournaments, then you know that our community gets in a happy tizzy preparing for the world to come and visit early each April.  The road crews pack up any repair efforts to make room for the coming traffic, businesses spit shine their faces, grass that may go untended the rest of the year gets manicured, and the azaleas and dogwoods even cooperate by adding to the decorations of our town. 

So many homeowners prepare their houses to be occupied by guests from around the country and the world, because there could never be enough hotel rooms to accommodate the patrons of the Masters Golf Tournament.  Locals get a little crazy in their preparations…houses are pressure washed, multiple guest linens are purchased, drawers are emptied, and each home is perfected to be the very best we can offer for the folks who will call us ‘home’ during our seven days of fame. I even know of families, having completed preparations in various bedrooms, sleeping on the floors of their own homes so the preparations are not disturbed before guests arrive. That one cracked me up!

True confessions, I have never made the effort to make my home meet the high standards required to be rented.  Call me lazy (I prefer to think of myself as ‘otherwise occupied’) but I don’t gut my closets and touch up my paint and have my carpets cleaned for Masters Week.  I do, though, organize more, purchase food to prepare, and get ready for family and friends who may come and stay during the week.  We have even sheltered another family who was renting their home.   So though I may not go off the deep end, I, too, make Masters Week preparations.

As I look around my ‘ready for Masters’ home, serenaded by the dishwasher that will need emptying yet again, I think about all the activity to get us ready, and all the activity around us in other homes to get ready for the week.

And it strikes me that, I want to offer much more effort to keep my heart prepared to accommodate my Savior, my Master, every evening when I lie down and every morning when I get up, and all the hours between. Please make me Master Ready in all of my ways!

Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts! Psalm 139:23

She loves Disney World!   She prides herself on finally being tall enough to go on the more daring rides, just like her big sister.  If you take a look at this snapshot, you see her riding this coaster for the first time…something she did of her own accord.  However, she chose her seat mate very carefully, knowing she could trust her Dad to keep her safe.  Her face paints a pretty accurate picture of what’s going on inside.  When she got off this rollercoaster, she laughed with exhilaration and was ready to get right back on.

I picture life to be a lot like this.  Sometimes the ride can be scary but I can trust the Father to keep me safe. Whatever your ride is like today, be it the gentle but dizzying merry go round or the wildest up and down and over and around rollercoaster, hang on to the One Who will keep you safe all the way through it.

Isaiah 41:13 gives us a clear picture…I am the Lord your God. I take hold of your right hand. I say to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’

The great common denominator to our existence on this earth…life not going according to the plan, handing out the unexpected and often the unwanted like someone sharing a bad cold.  Didn’t ask for it.  Didn’t want it. Didn’t even feel like it was deserved, but life has a way of ushering in these moments when we least expect them.  

The car won’t start, or if it does, there’s a flat tire.  The water heater decides its time to turn loose an epic Noah style flood that causes a mess.  Someone takes a fall off a bike and injures a foot, as in surgery and cast and ‘don’t walk on it’ injures.  A child disappoints.  A home burns down. A friend copes with a debilitating illness.  Another is blindsided by the sudden loss of a mate.  From the inconvenient to the unimaginable…the unplanned will happen in our lives.  

There has been, is, or will be a day in each of our lives that feels totally out of our control. Have I totally depressed you?  Not my intention.  I have always said that those terrible days are in our lives to make the other days look so much better!  

Like this kite, launched with laughter and made for a smooth flight, ends up stuck in a tree, sometimes our carefully plotted days do not go according to plan, but end up stuck in an unreachable spot where the solution isn’t clear. 

What feels unplanned from our vantage point, is still not out of God’s line of sight.  And a simple/complicated instruction comes from Joshua 1:9,  Defaulting to the NIV Reader’s version, maybe from years of childlike thinking on my part, it says Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you everywhere you go.

Notice this doesn’t say ‘get over it’, or ‘it’s not that bad’.   Sometimes it is!  Realize there is something beyond where we find ourselves at that moment.  Because this unwanted place we find ourselves isn’t the end of the story.

Every time I sort my husband’s socks and put them away, I ‘LOL’….yep! Laugh out loud!

Okay, so there’s not much that is inherently funny about sorting socks.   But here’s the picture.

In an effort to help my hard working husband stay organized and look spiffy, I have always sorted his paired socks by color into those little drawer divider thingies…. done it for years, even before Marie Kondo became my guru; black, brown, navy, and a section I call his ‘fun’ socks, because they have some kind of print going on. So one day he is looking in his drawer and says, “I can’t find a pair of navy socks.” I stand beside him at his dresser and show him the section that holds his navy colored socks and say, ‘See, they are right here in the ‘navy’ section, between your blacks and your browns.”  He looks at me with surprise and says, ‘What?” You sort my socks by color?” An important note here….he is not color blind.   “Yes, Sweetheart! I have always sorted your socks by color into their different little sock bins.”   More surprise registered!  

   Now, my husband is, hands down, the smartest man I have every known.  And here’s the shocking part….we do not think alike. (Again, I make myself laugh!)  So what I failed to communicate to him was my system and how it could enhance his daily life.  How to fix this?  Being a problem solver, I got out my trusty label maker and labeled the front of each sock section, and now, when he opens his drawer, it is abundantly clear that he has socks; black, brown, navy, and fun.  

   Each time I sort his socks, I remember that ‘eureka’ moment when I realized the value of communicating with him.  Yes, he’s smart, but he isn’t psychic!

   I am so grateful that our Great God has very clearly communicated His love, His provision, and His order for my life.   I just need to look at the labels, or the signs, that He provides for me in scripture, the wonderful people He places in my path, and His works all around me.  Watch for it.  The God of the universe has direction for you and me!

Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 12:28

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  Because of a conference my husband and I attend most years, we often find ourselves flying to Chicago in February.  I should earn your total respect without another word, because this southern girl finds Chicago in February something akin to visiting Mars. On this particular day, ourcaptain on the morning’s flight from Atlanta to Chicago did something a little unusual. He came out of the cockpit and actually used the flight attendants’ speaker to talk to us. That’s ‘us’, the gaggle of humans putting our lives and our wellbeing into this man’s hands, to fly us north on a February morning.  

  He greeted us with a warm welcome and offered to make our flight as safe as possible. He mentioned the storms in Chicago and how that would probably slow us a bit on the other end, but he promised to fly like he had ‘stolen the airplane’.   Then he said something to the effect that his wife says he is a better communicator face to face, so that is why he comes out of the cockpit to greet us before getting all locked up to fly.  Though I am not a nervous traveler, somehow, I felt reassured having seen his smiling face and knowing there is a wife somewhere (Atlanta, I am guessing, by his accent) waiting for him to get home that night.  Then we were off!

  Rest easy! The One Who created you and loves you is there for face-to-face assurance that you will journey to your destination with His care, His strength, His provision and grace.  Your part in the trip is to be on the journey with Him, by knowing His Son, Jesus.  

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

Psalm 46:10

Doing some editing of my possessions, (Marie Kondo, you are working me to death! #tidyingup) I came across a small pile of necklaces that were tangled…somewhat hopelessly tangled!  

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 I made a cup of tea and sat down to patiently separate them from each other, so I could pass them on to someone who might enjoy them.  I knew that if I sent them as they were, likely they would just be considered useless and get chunked.  

I have found that life can sometimes get tangled in much the same way.  Busyness and distractions can cause me to get all wrapped up and not so useful to anyone!  It’s helpful to stop, make a cup of tea (insert your favorite calming trick here) and just remember that according to Proverbs 3:6, there is a solution to my tangle; “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”  A great way to avoid getting one’s knickers in a knot!

Crazy bird lady? Not quite yet, but possibly on my way!  I have always been fascinated with Aves (Fancy genus name for birds).   I have a pretty hefty bird feeding system that stands just in front of the woods behind our home.  After many tries at keeping the crafty squirrels and adorable raccoons off the feeder, I can now enjoy these winged wonders as they stop by for the cracked sunflower seeds and dried worms I provide.   (Shout out here to Wild Birds Unlimited in Martinez, and a husband more persistent than the varmints, who resolved our dilemma!). And in a nod to my little bushy tailed buddies, I hang dried corn out.   They eat it, or hide it, faster than I can resupply! 

Cardinals are my most frequent visitors, along with blue jays, chickadees, mocking birds, Carolina wrens, and pine warblers.  Occasionally someone more exotic drops by.  Once there was a Indigo Bunting…. fancy bird and so beautiful!   

Why am I so fascinated by them, I ask myself?  They don’t need my birdseed.   They are well provided for by the Creator and an endless supply of seeds and bugs and berries.  But watching them come and go, I am reminded that, just as the Father cares for and provides for the birds and their needs, He has me and you covered, too! 

Matthew 6:26 paints a great picture! “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

And according to Genesis 1:26, looks like I’ve got a legitimate claim to watch over them, not for their benefit, as much as for mine!  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens…

So, that’s my picture on a winter day.  I can appreciate my birds, and understand that we are both created, cared for, and loved.   Guess you could say I am ‘for the birds’!

When any of my five grandchildren come around, the look of this place changes. Gone is the quasi organized empty nest and instead…. a little lovely mayhem!  Snacks on the kitchen counter, puzzles upstairs spread out in partial completion, and a Lego construction underway on the coffee table. The art table in the kitchen always has some project going on involving scissors, little bits of paper, crayons, and tape…lots of tape!  Yes, I would say that this place changes.  And I change as well.  I tend to put down whatever I had planned just to stop and play.  And watch play.   

After my littles leave, I enjoy looking around at what represents our time spent together. Everywhere you look it seems that we just walked away from a dozen different fun times.   As I start to straighten up and organize the toys for next time, I sometimes leave one project, one activity, one game out for a while. I’m not in a rush to clean that handprint off the door.   But why? I often leave a game or project out just to remind me that I played.  I also leave it out to remind myself to play again before too long.  

There are many times and many places where ‘adulting’ is all that is permissible.   Remember to take time to play as well.  Even if you don’t have kids or grandkids handy. Remember to abandon the cares and concerns that weigh you down and just play.

Turn all your worries over to Him. He cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7 (NIRV)