Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Saturday! What a weekend!  Frogs Win! Rangers Win! Allen Wins! It was a reasonably quiet day here at 811 except when the Frogs were playing and then it got loud!!

 

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all you ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”

Proverbs 3: 5-6 (I need to commit this one to memory in my head and on my heart.)

My meditation tonight states this little epiphany, “I (God) am providing training through your life experiences, and that many of the difficulties you encounter are designed to help in this endeavor.”  First let me clarify something, I do not now or have ever believed or thought that God brought about the tragic situations I have experienced in my life.  What I do believe and live through each day is the assurance that God has been present in all of these tough situations and helped me to work through them.  In the most difficult times I did not lean on my own understanding even when I tried to make sense of the situation. I leaned and still lean on the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and try very hard to cooperate through listening, studying God’s Word and talking things through with godly friends to help me understand. But it does not always start out that way! When Bruce had the stroke all I could think about was what if I lost him and had to live the remainder of my life without him. I thought about how would I financially make it. I thought about that I would not only have to live my life, but I would have to take over Bruce’s part for a while and could I do that.  So in short, I thought about how could I successfully control my life if I had to had Bruce died or become permanently disabled. I, I, I…control…control…control! 

 

Then I took a breath and in that breath I found the face of Jesus and while praying for Bruce’s healing and deliverance I remembered that God was present with Bruce during the stroke, and God was with me as I sorted things out helping me to concentrate on one day at a time.  It is almost a Scarlet O’Hara attitude in that “I don’t have to think about that today. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”  While not as flippant as Scarlet, she makes a good point. The presence of the Holy Spirit has caused me to think trusting thoughts and asks for my cooperation in my retraining. Bruce’s brain is being retrained and he thinks differently now. The Holy Spirit is retraining me and I think differently now. How interesting that even though we are walking different paths, we are walking in parallel. Just as I daily wait for Bruce speak and try to understand, I wait each day for the Holy Spirit to speak to me and for me to understand. The path will be made straight and I will take joy in the journey.  Get some sleep. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene