Goodbye, Toodles

I know the stated purpose of this blog is to share bits of insight God has shared with me thru His word, but I'm breaking that premise today to share some thoughts about our sweet family dog, Toodles, who left this earth today. Let me say that if you're one of those people who doesn't understand how losing a pet can hurt deeply, please stop reading because I need to write "sappy" and remember her thru my tears.

Toodles came into our family as puppy we "rescued" from the humane society in November 1994. The kids couldn't agree on a name. Stuart wanted Brutus and the girls voted for Holly, some other seasonal girly name or something like Fluffy because at the time she was a fluffy little ball, but when I suggested Toodles, they all agreed! We went there looking for a "lap dog" and at that age, Toddles was. However, it wasn't too long before she was thigh high and close to 50 lbs!

She was such a sweet girl and gave our family much pleasure over the years. We've loved her dearly and I believe she felt that love. As a "youngster" one of her favorite things was chasing rabbits. We have such fun memories of watching her out the windows of our home on Masters Way. She would try to sneak up on the as they came out from under the shed, but somehow they always alluded her. One of the things Toodles I shared - especially at the house on Masters was the love of laying out in the sun! Toodles would bask on the deck while I floated in the pool. Even tho she could have easily walked or jumped into the pool, she never ever did.

When Toodles was younger, she loved to jump up on the bed when I was still in it. David didn't like her doing that and she knew it, so she'd wait until he had left for work - or at least left the room, and then she'd jump up in bed with me and snuggle! Same thing for the couch - she loved to jump up on the couch and lay there with her head in my lap.

Most of her life Toodles was primarily an outside dog. She was only inside when we were home and even then she often wanted to be outside. When we moved to Lexington almost four years ago, that all changed. I know most of that was her age, but even tho we have a fenced in yard, she didn't like being outside here as much. And, she had to climb quite a few steps to get into and out of the yard. So, it seems like she started going downhill since we've been here and has been progressively worse recently. Letting her go was one of the hardest decisions we've had to make, but we know it was the right thing to do for her.

David took her to the vet this morning and then drove her over 2 hours to his brother Winston's house in Glasgow to bury her. It's going to be hard to get used to her not being with us.

Breakthrough?

"But Naaman went away angry and said, 'I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy'" (2 Kings 5:11-12).

One of the daily devotional emails I receive from crosswalk.com, Today God is First by Os Hillman was on this verse today. It was a great reminder to me that God doesn’t always give us the loud or neon sign answers we’d love to see - or even answers that seem directly related. He uses circumstances and natural things around us to guide and direct us. Just because His will isn’t “screaming” at us, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t obey.

Quoting from the Os :

Like many of us, Naaman expected God to perform his miracle through Elisha in a dramatic and "religious" way. Sometimes we fail to recognize that God can work through a simple act of obedience that seems unrelated to the problem. God told Joshua to walk around Jericho seven times to win the battle. He told a man to put mud on his eyes to be healed. He told Peter to catch a fish to get a coin to pay his taxes.

There are other times God calls us to use the natural to receive a breakthrough. Sometimes we simply need to change our diet or go see a doctor to see a breakthrough in our health. Sometimes we need to change the way we are doing our work to get a breakthrough in our careers.

Samuel the prophet told King Saul that obedience is better than sacrifice. Learning to listen to the Lord and following His instruction is the key to success in God. Sometimes God chooses the dramatic and sometimes He chooses the ordinary. In either case, both are miracles because God is the God over all creation.

Ask Him what steps you are to take for your breakthrough.

My prayer for today: Father God, please, do show me what steps I need to take for my breakthrough. I am so sorry for all the times I am sure I’ve ignored your direction and have not obeyed. I know me even better than I know myself, so you know that even tho I know in my head that you guide and direct me in all sorts of ways through your Holy Spirit, I don’t always listen as attentively or obey like I should. Please help me to recognize you in the ordinary and not just wait for the extraordinary. Thank you for your love, patience and mercy as well as your forgiveness when I stumble and don’t obey as You’d like me to. I ask all this in the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Thank you most of all for Your sacrifice of Him for my salvation.

Listening for the whisper

"While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer." Jeremiah 7:13

We have a sign on the wall in our breakfast nook that says "Make time for quiet moments because God whispers and the world is loud.". How true that is!

I don't know about you, but I not only let the loudness of the world distract me, I don't always get quiet long enough to listen, much less hear what God is saying to me. I know he continually speaks to me again and again, because I get glimmers that sometimes seem like they are just barely out of my reach. Does that make sense to you? It's like I am just about to have an epiphany (and have the solution to all my problems, the answers to all my questions, and so on!) but before I can quite grasp it, it slips away. I LOVE the times He is able to break through. I just wish let Him more often.

It's not God's problem. As Beth Moore says, "He is who He says He is. He can do what He says He can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ." She closes with two more statements, "God's Word is alive and active in me. I'm believing God."

One of the things God has been reinforcing to me over and over lately is that my personal relationship with Him trumps EVERYTHING! He & I both deserve the time and the quiet it will take to continually grow deeper and deeper and deeper. I yearn for that deeper relationship so greatly. I wish I could tell you that I take the time each and every day to focus on it. I take time, but it's not the quality or quantity I desire or think is necessary to get where I believe He wants me to be.

God What about you? What has God been saying to you lately? Or, have you, like I too often do, let the world and your mind drown Him out?

My prayer for today: Father God, I love you so much! Please forgive me for not giving you the time and devoted attention you desire and deserve from me. I need your help to get my priorities and my mind where they need to be. Please help me rid my life of unnecessary distractions and fill it with your desires for my life on earth. Thank you so much for your grace and forgiveness and for the sacrifice you made for me. I love you! In Jesus' name.

Memories & blessings

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

I was inspired by my daughter-in-law, Jenny, writing about her first date with our son, Stuart, and the fact that the anniversary of my engagement to David is next week to share some thoughts and memories about how God brought David and me together.

The summer of 1978 I visited my friend, Heidi, in Denver and thought it would be fun to move out there. I also decided to just forget men. I wasn't having much luck meeting anyone decent in the tiny town I was living and working in so I thought I'd just concentrate on finding a job in Denver, forget about men and move on.

God had other plans. I had asked a local guy I worked with many times if he knew anyone decent he could fix me up with and he never came thru. However, one day in August, he said he had run into a high school buddy and wondered if I'd want to go out with him. He said something to the effect of, "He's a really nice guy, but I don't know if you'll like him. He just likes to go to movies and stuff." I replied that I liked movies too, so let's give it a try! So, God used the most unlikely person to set David and me up on a blind date.

In the intervening days, some other co-workers who went to high school with him kept teasing me about him being bald. They were always teasing me, so when they said he started going bald in high school, I thought they were teasing this time too. But, lo and behold when he showed up at my door, the first thought that entered my mind was "they weren't kidding!" Of course back then, David was a fan of the infamous comb-over. It took me almost the first year of marriage to convince him to get rid of that! But, I'm getting ahead of myself!

We drove to Bowling Green and did, in fact, go to a movie - "Heaven Can Wait". A great first date movie! He was pretty quiet, but very nice, so when he asked me if I'd go out with him again, I said OK. The next weekend we went to another movie in BG - one of the Pink Panther movies. I had been working a lot of overtime that week and was beat so altho it was a good movie & good company, I fell asleep - right in the movie theater! He still asked me out for a third time! (what was he thinking?!) The next weekend we went to the drive-in to see Jaws 2. I managed to stay awake this time! Do you sense a trend here? Freddy was right - David does like movies, but fortunately so do I! If you've ever been to our home and seen his DVD collection, you know how much he enjoys movies!

By our fourth date, we broke the movie routine and went skiing at the lake with some of his friends. Afterwards he told me he loved me! On our fourth date! I replied, "Are you KIDDING?! You don't even know me!" You have to understand, David is pretty mild mannered and can be shy & unassertive in some situations. But that night he convincingly told me that he would be patient - he loved me and he knew I'd love him too! He would just wait until I realized it. I don't remember what I said out loud, but in my mind, let's just say I was skeptical! (sorry, honey!)

God was definitely at work in this relationship. David was not at all the type guy I had a history of dating - he was MUCH nicer! In fact, I thought he was too nice for me. For the next several weeks, in my effort to really get to know him and understand how he could think he loved me, I hounded him with rhetorical situational questions, most of which we still haven't had to face in our 32 year (thank you, Jesus!). I know now he HATES stuff like that, but he persevered and obviously gave all the right answers! :-)

Neither David nor I were living exemplary lives for Christ at the time, I'm sorry to say. And even sorrier to say that my way of life in 1978 is not one I'd recommend and one I am so thankful my children have not had to experience - I really was in a downward spiral and my own worst enemy. Even though I had been close to the Lord throughout my childhood and teen years, I got off track in college and veered even farther away in my early twenties. But, God has proven to me time and time again that even when I am not living my life for Him, He doesn't me. In fact, in August 1978, he sent David to me on a blind date.

By October 5th He (& David) had convinced me that David was the husband God handpicked for me. I have told him time and time again over the years that God sent him to save me from myself. I don't think he believes me, but it's true. God knew exactly who I needed here on earth to pull me back to Him. I am so very thankful God knows me so much better than I know myself. He fulfills needs I don't even know I have. He continues to bless me with a husband, children and now grandchildren who are so amazing and who encourage and inspire me to be the best I can be for God, for them and for myself.

Thank you once again, Lord God, for sending David to me and for making the Godly man he is and giving him the love, patience, mercy and perseverance he has needed to survive these 32 years with me! Please continue to bless our marriage, our family and friends and to allow us to live our lives in such a way that we glorify you in all that we say and do. I pray all this in your son's precious name. Amen.

I love you, David Wesley Borders more today than I did when we married (& foresure LOTS more than 32 years ago today when I was still wondering if you had lost your mind! :-)

"Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told."

Habakkuk 1:5

Adoption, love, hope & faith

"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1: 11-12

I am so excited to share that my son and daughter-in-law, are in the process of adopting very possibly two babies from Ethiopia! What a blessing for our family to grow in this way - through giving babies a healthy home who would otherwise not have parents, much less loving parents and a brother & sister! Even though it may be a year before we meet them, God has already chosen them to join our family! I am praying for them just as I do for Spencer and Kate.

I think that grandbabies are just about the best things on earth and can't wait to have more! But what is even more exciting to me than the anticipation of more babies to snuggle, is watching Stuart and Jenny follow the desire God put on each of their hearts even before they met each other. He knew before they did that their hearts were open to following scripture and loving orphans as much as they do the twins they gave physical birth to. In their hearts and minds, all their children are and will be their children, just as God accepts each of us as His.

In worldly terms, they can't afford to expand their family at this time. They are a one income family by choice so that Jenny can stay home with Spencer and Kate who are currently 20-months old. They don't have the largest home on the block, much less the city, but their home is filled with love for each other, their family and most of all, love for Christ. Can you imagine having four children ages 3 and under running around in your home - no matter what the size?! What I truly admire about the decision God laid on their hearts is Stuart and Jenny's determination to be obedient - no matter what. They have not let all this worldly "stuff" stand in their way of following their heart.

They know it's not going to be easy. God never said following His lead would be, but He does promise He'll be there for us. He is already showing His faithfulness to them though the prayer and financial support and encouragement they are receiving. He is preparing them for their expanding family even now and He will see them through the challenging times just as He'll share their joy through each milestone of each child. Spencer and Kate are a hoot already! I can't wait to hear the giggles of four little munchkins on the other end of the phone or see the dance parties they'll have!

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Ja

mes 1:27

Thank you, Lord God for adopting each of us into your family. Thank you for putting the desire on the hearts of Jenny and Stuart to expand their family through adopting from Ethiopia. Please continue to make the path yours and keep the babies healthy until and after they bring them home. I ask all this in the name of your son, Jesus . . .

To read Jenny & Stuart's blog, visit: www.borderspatrol.blogspot

Still Martha striving to be Mary

"Martha, Martha, " the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42

The story and scripture surrounding the story of Martha and Mary is among my favorites. The other morning I read a devotional online that reminded me again of what God has been teaching me lately. He really started when we moved to Lexington 3 years ago, but I don't always listen too well! I get distracted so easily, get caught up in being productive and task/accomplishment-oriented and can be stubborn or set in my way of thinking.

The bottom line truth He has been trying to knock into my head all these years is something I've known but not taken as seriously as I should have - t the most important thing in my life & my most critical purpose, is growing my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we have that right, everything else truly does fall into place, including all the other stuff we tend to focus on and which sometimes interferes with our personal relationship with our Lord.

Even focusing on things as important as putting others first, loving others unconditionally, serving God using the gifts He gave us, telling others about Him, and so on can distract us from the most important thing - our focus on Him and Him alone. It's easy to get hung up on the "how can I best be used by God" and "I need to do this to give God the glory" type of thinking and doing and lose sight of the true reason we're here. God doesn't need us to accomplish anything. He can handle it all without us - bringing that person to know him, feeding those hungry people, teaching that group, etc, etc.

What He does want from us is our love, attention and devotion. He wants to lead us to be the very best we can be. In keeping our focus on Him and all He has to teach us, through scripture, prayer and fellowship with other believers, we have the opportunity to glorify Him through all we do. Sharing Him and serving Him through others is a natural outpouring of our relationship with Him. When our love for Him is our focus, we share and serve out of love, not out of duty. What a difference that makes!

It's one of those "don't put the cart before the horse" things or "which came first, the chicken or the egg". Sometimes we get our focus out of order.

My prayer for today: Father God, thank you for always sending me reminders when I need them and being patient with me actually listening to what you're trying to tell me. Thank you for not giving up! I do love you beyond measure, but you know even better than I do how my focus gets out of place way too often. Please help me to keep it squarely on You and my ears and heart tuned to what you have planned for me. Please help me be more like Mary, who took the time to focus and listen to your teaching and truly soak it in instead of getting aggravated in the kitchen with getting everything "just right" in serving you. You know I love to serve you but if it comes down to the choice Martha & Mary had, please guide me to follow in Mary's footsteps. In your son's precious name I pray . . .

Where is your focus today? What can you do to get it where it needs to be?

What's your motivation?

¹³"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. John 13:13-17

What's your motivation for serving our Lord? Do you serve out of love, obligation, obedience or maybe a combination of them all?

Several years ago God gave me a passionate desire to help others find an area of service that takes advantage of the gifts and abilities God gave them. Having experienced times of serving my church family strictly out of what I felt was obligation, I know first hand how defeating it can be to serve "just to serve" and end up in an area outside where God equips me to be. It's true, He equips you for whatever situation He puts you in, but the key is where HE puts you - not where you're serving just because you couldn't say no!

Serving outside your area of giftedness can have all sorts of negative repercussions. At least it did for me - feelings of inadequacy, discouragement, doubt not only in my abilities, but sometimes in God's. Ever been there and done that?!

On the flip side, if you have experienced serving where God leads you and where He equips you, you know how much He blesses you though that. God created each of us exactly how He wants us. He'll lead us exactly where He wants us. Ok, the first part, accepting how He made us, is easier for some than others. Knowing and following exactly where He wants us can be another level of difficulty!

So, how do we figure all this out?

Today's "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers (view at http://utmost.org/ ) really hit home with me (as he often does!). "But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity . . . The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ."

Jesus Christ wants a personal, intimate relationship with each of us. When we focus on Him and Him alone, following His example, teachings and the leading of the Holy Spirit, serving and glorifying Him becomes a natural outpouring of our love for Him, and in turn humanity.

What has God said to you today?

My prayer for today:

Lord Jesus, I love you with all my heart, soul and mind. I want to be a vessel for you to use each and every day. I want to know you as well as I know the back of my hand. Please help me to keep my focus on you and you alone and quiet the roar of the world. Lord, thank you for opportunities to help others find ways to serve you using the gifts and abilities You gave them. You have shown me so many times that sometimes an opportunity will initially make me feel out of my element, but if You want me there, you'll let me know and show me how. I pray that anyone reading finds a tidbit of knowledge, encouragement and love from You and that this writing glorifies You and You alone. It's in your precious name I pray. Amen.