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I don’t like mice. I mean, I REALLY DON’T LIKE MICE. As I type this I can hear them scratching. I was so frazzled yesterday when I figured out I had some in the kitchen, that I didn’t know what to do. I called some neighbors but couldn’t get ahold of anyone. So I called Britton who was just about to do a wedding. He told me what kind of traps to get. Placing them around just creeped me out.

Last fall two of my friends and I went to Branson. We stayed in a condo that was on the ground level. One night after dinner we opened the door to go in and something scampered in the condo. I immediately jumped on top of a chair and screamed. Julie stood there saying, “I’m not going to touch it” and proceeded to take pictures. So Sherry, by default, was the one to deal with whatever varmint it was. The animal got stuck behind the open door in the corner. We could see its bushy tail and decided it was a chipmunk. Sherry bravely took her coat and grabbed its tail and slide it along the base of the door and put it outside. Julie was then concerned that we hurt it or killed it. I just wanted it out and didn’t care if we killed it! Sherry was, O brother you two! (Sorry, the pictures are no longer available :()

Gerbils are just as bad. We had a few of those over the years when the kids were growing up. I was okay with them as long as they were in the cage. One of the times, Collin had a gerbil named Sheen (from Jimmy Neutron). Its cage was in the kitchen. Yeah, I know how gross it was to have it there. What were we thinking? You guessed it, one day Sheen was not in his cage. He had chewed his way through and was missing. Britton and Grant had just gone off to college and I was doing some of their laundry that they left behind. I went down in the basement to put away some of Grant’s clothes and looked inside the tall upright hamper to find what I thought was a headless gerbil. I called Neal at work and had him come home as soon as he could get away. (I thought it was a big enough emergency to merit that.) He went down to the bedroom and found that the missing gerbil had fallen into the hamper and couldn’t get out. He scratched and scratched to try to get out, leaving a trail of blood all around the inside of the hamper. It wasnt’ headless but was just curled up into a ball. I made him get rid of the gerbil and the hamper.

I don’t want to check if i have trapped any mice. Proverbs 5:22 tells us that an evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. I am praying that my traps have caught and held the mice. I don’t want them doing any further damage. Sometimes sin so entangles us that we can’t be released. Jesus does tell us that we can be free. He said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jesus told them that everyone who sins is a slave of sin. He is the only one who can set us free (John 8:31). How do we know the truth? Jesus is that truth. How do we know him? By reading God’s Word, studying, pondering and obeing it, we will know the truth. Then we will be set free.

Freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever we feel like doing. Even a person who has been freed from the power and bondage of sin by Jesus’ blood can still be captive to sin. God created us with a free will. We won’t be totally free from sin until we see Jesus face to face. Does that mean we don’t even try to not sin? No, as followers of Jesus we are commanded to be holy in all we do. We obey God because we are his chiildren. Don’t step back into your old ways of doing evil. But now we must be holy in everything we do, just as God is holy. (I Peter 1:14-16)

I don’t believe mice deserve freedom. We don’t deserve our freedom in Christ either but he willingly and loving gives it to us. Sorry mice, you aren’t getting that from me! So I am praying for courage to check on these traps and dispose of the mice. Unless, anyone out there wants to come and do it for me???

On the journey,

Trish

My mother-in-law fell a few months ago by slipping on a rug as she was hurrying to answer the door. She ended up breaking her wrist and shoulder area. She spent a few days in the hospital and then was transfrered to a rehabilitation center for therapy. She was there three weeks working on how to dress herself with her left hand (her non-dominant hand), how to feed herself with her left hand, how to go to the bathroom by herself, how to walk with a walker until she regained her strength. She is home but still goes to therapy twice a week. She is making progress but it is slow going. You at least can recognize what she is writing and she can right her own checks now!

It will take a long time until Bobbie has full use of her wrist and shoulder. At our strongest we are still weak compared to God. God never faints, never grows weary and doesn’t get tired.

“Have you never heard or understand? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31

Therapy has been very painful and tiring for my mother-in-law. But the strength of her arm is being renewed day by day. She has looked to the professionals to help her in her journey to regain strength. A new friend today asked me how I move forward after all that has happened in my life. I told her a few things that have helped me, which maybe will be in another post, but the main thing is that I try to look to God for my strength. He gives power to the faint and increases my strength. I grow weary and tired especially when I have to handle situations by myself or do repairs around the house. God renews my strength and as the above verses say, then I can mount up with wings, as eagles. Eagles soar high up into the sky with little effort and can glide for hours high above the earth.

Those who run will not be weary and they that walk will not faint. God will strengthen us as we run and walk on our jorney. That doesn’t mean that we won’t ever grow weary. But as long as we are waiting and turning our eyes upon the Lord and as long as we have His strength, we will not grow weary and we will not faint. If we go forth on our own strength, we will grow faint and utterly fall; but having our hearts and hopes in God, we will be carried above all difficulties. We should seek our strength from God. With that strength we can face the battles that come up every day.

“Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.” The whole idea of waiting goes against what we naturally and culturally do. Waiting is often difficult because we equate it with inactivity and many times look at it as a negative thing. Waiting can mean to wait with expectation, like I’m doing right now on the birth of my 7th grandchild any day. It can mean to look for, to watch and wait with expectation to what God is going to do.

If the Apostle Paul went forth on his own strength, I don’t know if he would have survived being jailed, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked and adrift at sea. Not to mention being hungry and not having enough clothes to keep warm. Scriptures tell us that Paul was under house arrest in his own rented house for two years. Yet, he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming and teaching the things concerning Jesus Christ. We are told that he did it with full boldness and without hinderance. (Acts 28:30-31) Paul kept pressing forward, keeping his eyes on Jesus, and refused to let his hinderances get him down. He didn’t get furious with God over all that had happened to him or demand to know why. He just stayed at it, believed and persevered.

Sometimes we focus so much on our hurt or what we are going through that it paralyzes us and hinders us. What if instead of fixating on taking the hurt out of our hinderance, we pray for God to take the hinderance out of our hurt? Sometimes it is in the hurt where the most growth occurs. If I focus on all the negative things in my life, I can become bitter, angry and shallow. If I take the focus off my hinderances, I grow in my relationship with God, have a deeper love, faith and trust in Him. God has ordained my steps. Everything I go through is for His purposes.

Bobbie has to go through the hurt of therapy in order to become stronger. She has had to make some adjustments in her home: throw rugs up, handle bars placed, meals prepared and frozen for her when she couldn’t use her hand. Maybe our hnderances cause us to make adjustments in our lives.

If we seek our strength from God, he promises that we will not be weary and will not faint. The key is to keep our eyes on Jesus not our curcumstances.

There is an old hymn that says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Here is a version of that song:

So look up!

On the journey,

Trish

PS After I posted this guess what was flying high above the trees at my house? Yep, an eagle!! God is good

Nasty mice…trapped

Don’t Grow Faint or Weary