Words, words, words.

My Father loved to say I was vaccinated with a phonograph needle( boy does that date me!) He meant that I talked so much.
I left that same way about my Deborah, and her Gabriel talks even more, if that is possible. Ruth was pretty quiet as a child but her husband would not agree now. She has become chatty Ruth.
I read recently that the average person speaks enough to fill 20 single- spaced typewritten pages each day! That means that the 'average mouth' cranks out enough words to fill 2 books of 300 pages each each month, 24 books a year and 1200 books in 50 years of speaking!
Those statistics astound me considering that Deborah and Gabriel and I would not be considered 'average' speakers. I wonder how those apply to us!
So the questions is not how many words, but what kind? Is my mouth filled with laughter and joy or gripping and complaining. Do I give God glory for all he does each day( like giving me each breath)or do I forget the great things he has done?
Today list might contain, in part:
the crisp air on my walk
the brilliant colors of the leaves
the amazing hawk in the pine tree and the crow who kept dive bombing him.
sweet friendship
new sox for free!( that is another story)
new thoughts from Jonah
What words did you speak today.?
Aren't you glad tomorrow is another day? May your 20 pages tomorrow be uplifting and grateful.

Time

Somehow I read the time wrong. The sad thing is, it is not the first time.
Years ago, I got up ,showered and went to get the girls up for school. It was winter and very dark, but I though nothing of it.
Ruth was indignant.
" It is 2:30 in the morning. What were you thinking?"
I could not believe that I had read the clock wrong. I was not 6:30 but 2:30!
Needless to say, I went back to bed.
That lesson must have slipped my mind for I had a repeat this weekend.
I carefully reset the clocks before we went to bed on Saturday night. I woke at 6:00 on Sunday morning and got up to walk Buddy, fix his breakfast and have my time alone with the Lord. I can't tell you now what alerted me to the fact, the time was not right. I stared at the kitchen clock and felt things were wrong- I read 5:00. By now, I was so unsure I thought I was going crazy. Had I set the clocks wrong or what?
I settled it by getting out my cell phone which agreed that it was 5:00AM not 6:00AM. How that happened I can't say. The numbers on my clock are very large and yet I misread it. This time I did not go back to bed, fearing I would not wake in time for church. Boy was I tired before the day was over.
I know that God says, a day is as a thousand years to him and vice versa, but believe me, an hour can make a big difference. On the night I should have had an extra hour of sleep, I missed out!

Falling

My how times flies when you are busy. It has been remodeling tasks, vacation and then the rest after the vacation.
Anyway, I just had to write about this, so here goes.
This week I have found myself falling more than usual. Now, I normally am not very graceful and Jon can attest to that. He claims that I can trip over nothing and he is right. The new laminated floors do not help any.
Case in point:
The phone was ringing in the bedroom and I was cooking in the kitchen. I ran, rounded the corner and went down hard. The phone continued to ring so I dragged myself up and hurried to answer it. It was an important call and I never mentioned to the person on the other end that I had just fallen or how painful the fall had been. My knee began to swell immediately and is still very painful UGH!
Jon quoted me a line from one of my favorite movies( a trip to bountiful)
" Don't run when you can walk". He was right this time.
Then today I had another falling episode. I drove the library to return books. I got out of the car, locked the driver door and came around to get the books on the passenger seat. After closing that door I stepped back and tripped( over what I am not sure) and it took everything I had to not fall flat on my face. I was so embarrassed. As I crossed the street, I thought to myself" they probably all think that I am drunk"
In the spiritual realm, I find that I fall too. An impulsive action, an unkind word, a negative thought.
I love what Solomon said:
" The righteous man( or woman) may fall seven times but he will rise again"
The prophet Micah weighs in with" Do not rejoice over me my enemy; though I fall, I will rise again.
Now if I can just stop falling altogether.

Peace

Well, I knew that God would show up. First off, I felt such a sense of His presence since he is Jehovah Shalom- the God of peace. I was glad to hug my sister in law and spend the day with her. We walked and walked - probably 4 miles in all, with a nice lunch in the middle. Then back to the house for tea and treats before Jon worked on some of her honey do list.
But the neat thing was the way I got to share the book I had just read called Finding Anna. It is the story behind the song It is well with my soul. If you are not familiar with it, it was written after the writer, Horatio Spafford had just lost his three girls at sea. He wrestled with God about why he would let such a thing happen and God seemed silent. Mr. Spafford then took a ship to France to be with his wife in this time of grief. At the exact spot where the previous ship had gone down, he had the Captain alert him. There ,in the height of grief, God spoke words that both challenged and comforted- I am on the throne.
The song says:
When peace like a river attendth my way
When sorrow like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.
What a message for my dear Sister in law and for me too.
I love it when you show up so clearly God.