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ORDINARY MIRACLES

Several years ago, when my brother was living in California, he would always come home for Christmas. I remember that one year, we actually had some alone time, just him and me. Very rare was it that we got to steal alone time. We did spur of the moment things. We went to a favorite bookstore of mine and did some other shopping in the same area. We went to a local restaurant and ate cheesecake. Then, we went and saw a movie. Not just any movie but “Charlottes Web.” I am sure it looked strange for a 40-year-old man and a 50 something year old woman, going to see what is characterized as a children’s movie! My brother had always liked that book as a child and had always wanted to see the movie. So, like a big sister should do, I took him to see it.

The main song of the movie is “Ordinary Miracles” by Sarah McLachlan. Some of the lyrics say “…it is not unusual when everything is beautiful…it seems so exceptional that things work out after all…life is like a gift, they say wrapped up for you every day open up and find a way to give some of your own…the sky knows when it is time to snow…don’t need to teach a seed to grow…sun comes up and shines so bright and disappears again at night.”  The song is telling us that everyday wonders of nature are given to us by God, for us to enjoy. These are the day to day ordinary miracles we see. There is no need for actual miracles like Jesus and his apostles used in Bible times because we have everyday happenings and everyday wonders of nature and life. We are told in the New Testament, that miracles ceased when their purpose here on earth ceased. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10) Miracles are supernatural happenings, beyond nature, signs that helped the early Christians to believe in Jesus. John 20:30-31 reads “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”  The Christians in New Testament times had always gone by the laws of the Old Testament and here they were to believe that they were to follow the new laws Jesus and the apostles was teaching them. These miracles or signs were used to help these Christians to believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God and they were to follow His teachings. There are so many miracles that were done in the Old and New Testament to illustrate this. In Joshua the 10^th chapter, we read about the sun standing still. In John the 2^nd chapter, we read of Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine. These happenings were beyond nature. These miracles were not a normal part of what nature or life hands us every day. There are many more examples of miracles throughout the Bible. Today, we have the Bible and the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand the words that are spoken in the Bible. Through the Spirit, we have faith or belief that Jesus was really here on this earth and that He will fulfill His promise of an eternal life in heaven for us one day.

Several years ago, my dryer quit and my neighbor let me use her clothes line to hang out my clothes. One morning early, I had a load I needed to hang on the line. The dew was still on the grass and the sun was shining so brilliantly. As I got to the line, I almost ran into a huge cobweb. Usually this would have “freaked” me out and I would have run screaming back into my house, but this time, there was no spider to be found. Whew! The sun and the dew were making the cobweb just shimmer! It amazed me at how intricate the cobweb was. In the movie my brother and I saw, there is a scene when the spider, Charlotte, is making a web. She weaves up and down and around in circles, hanging by a thread of the web. How in the world does a spider have that much “thread” in that little body? Is that a miracle? Well, the answer is no, it is an ordinary happening-just an ordinary miracle. A day to day reminder from God that He is who He says He is.

It is amazing the technology that we have today! We wonder at the 3D images of a baby in the womb. We can see their little noses, count how many fingers and toes they have, the sex of the child, sometimes they are even sucking their thumbs! How can people today say that this is not a living human being-an innocent child? Are the intricate details of a baby in the womb a miracle? No, it is one of those every day, ordinary miracles!

While visiting my daughter, whose husband is in the Navy, we went to the ocean. I remember the powerful waves coming into shore, but yet the sound of them is so calming. I could feel peace within the power. Is the fact that these waves come up onto the beach a miracle? No. God once again is showing His power and the peace we can find in every day happenings, ordinary miracles.

Have you ever thought about the seasons? How fall, winter, spring & summer are always in the same order? Is that a miracle? No, it is every year happening, an ordinary miracle. There are so many other examples I could give. But the point here is that God does not have to use miracles today like He did in Bible times to help the people believe in Him. We are blessed today to have the words in the Bible and all of the ordinary miracles of nature and life that we witness each and every day.

So, the next time you start taking the ordinary happenings of each day or the ordinary beauty of nature for granted, stop and remember who has given those things to you. Stop your hectic life for a moment, take a deep breath and remember who gave these ordinary miracles to you. Thank Him and remember He is always surrounding us with the proof of His existence.  Psalm 143:5 reads “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your doings; I ponder the work of Your hands.”  Believe, have faith, in His power to work in our lives by all of the ordinary miracles we experience in each moment of each day! And by the way, watch out for those cobwebs. But when you do see one, look at the intricate details of the web and marvel at the greatness of God! Thank you, God, for the ordinary “miracles” we see each day!

Till next time!                                                     Keela

PATCHWORK LIVES

Sitting in that room with so many other sad faces, did not feel real. It was something that I had tried so hard to fix so we would not have to go to bankruptcy court. Because of medical bills, my husband, our attorney and I sat waiting to go into court. There were different ages present. Some had little children, others had canes. So many dreams dashed! Our son had taken us because it was downtown Kansas City and I have never been good about driving in that area with so many one-way streets. I remember sitting in his backseat and then in that room with all those people, feeling defeated-heart broken-embarrassed-so tired. What a sad dark memory!

On the other hand, I recently flew to meet my new granddaughter! What an amazing time her brothers, sister and I had. We played games, read books, played barbies, tickled and snuggled! On the plane trip there, I remember looking out the window and the landscape looked just like a patchwork quilt. The farmland was in squares and rectangles, showing the outline of their properties. Some of the squares and rectangles were dark, probably because of so many trees. Some of them were a lighter color and then there were some that just glistened in the sunlight. So many different shapes and colors, all beautifully intertwined to make an amazing picture from above.

My grandmother was an amazing seamstress making so many beautiful quilts! She created her quilts originally not for the beauty of them, but rather for warmth for her family to keep them protected from the cold. My mother had so many of those intricately designed quilts. Each one a different pattern, so colorful and so beautiful.  My grandmother created a special quilt for my one and only cousin, Keena, and I when we got married. (not the two of us, of course, but to our husbands ha!) She created bonnet girls holding an umbrella. She used old pieces of our mother’s dresses and used them to make the intricate details. Some of the material is made of dark colors, some are pinks and purples, and then some are bright red and beautifully patterned! When my mother passed away, my family got to have several of these quilts to cherish. I remember holding them close trying to cherish their warmth and love that she had sewn into them. One particular quilt was signed by all the women who were sitting at that quilt frame at that time. There are names of women I remember my grandmother talking about and of course, my grandmothers signature written in that patchwork thread. What amazing creations that will live forever thru the generations to hold close and feel the love my grandmother had put into them.

Our lives are like those fields and the patchwork quilts my grandmother made. We have dark days like I described above. Days that we remember with heartache. We would like to forget them, but they are engraved within our hearts and minds, threatening to bring us down and make us feel hopeless. Then, there are the days that are normal. Days that we go along with our normal routine. Days that nothing our of the ordinary happens. We are just living life the best we can. Then, there are overwhelmingly amazing days! I remember the day I got married with so much joy. The day my children and grandchildren were born. In 2018, I was blessed with a new granddaughter and a new great-granddaughter. (That can happen, when your oldest and youngest are ten years apart!) I always remember when I get to the airport and am walking down a long hallway, what joy to see my grandchildren running towards me calling Nana, Nana! What days of happiness and joy!

All these days create, our life story. We have dark days. We have normal days. We have bright happy days. These all create the patchwork of our lives. God helps us through the dark times to put one step in front of the other. He holds us up when we do not think we can take anything happening to us and it is all trying to knock us down. God is by our side when our normal days happen. Days like today when we are doing the laundry, changing another diaper, reading our daily devotion or driving to work. Then He is with us during those joyful days. Giving us sunshine for our journey on this earth!

God weaves all of these types of days into the “patchwork” of our lives. He uses us, through those days, to work for His purposes for us on this earth. Romans 8:28 reads “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to all those who are called according to His purpose.” Paul, the author of this New Testament book, was telling the Christians that all of the trials they were facing, God was using them for their final good and for the purposes that God had for each Christian. Our trials, our normal days, our happy days, work together to form our future, where we will spend eternity. Our dark days will help us to help someone who is going through the same trial. 2 Corinthians 1:4 reads, speaking of God, “who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.” We cannot truly comfort another unless we have experienced the same trial. Our normal daily routine, is also a part of this patchwork. Philippians 4:13 tells us “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  God is right by our side, no matter what is happing in our day. He gives us strength for our journey. God is with us, making those bright patterns in our patchwork, when we are happy. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything. Verse 4 says “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

There is a poem I have always liked. It is call “The Weaver.”

My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me,

I cannot choose the colors

He worketh steadily.

Oftimes He weaveth sorrow,

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper

And I, the underside.

Not till the loom is silent

And the shutters cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas

And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the Weaver’s skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

-Author Unknown_

Let’s pretend that when we go to heaven, God rolls out a beautiful quilt representing our lives here on earth. We look down on it, just like I was looking out the window of the airplane, and we see all the dark patches, all the regular looking patches and all the bright cheerful patches of that quilt. All of the patches are weaved together in such a way that we see an amazing work of art! That amazing work of art represents our lives, stitched together by God.

God used that dark day I talked about at the beginning, to humble me. To help me realize I cannot fix everything, but I can use it to help someone else. Help someone else know that they are not the only one having problems in their lives. That bankruptcy led to us loosing our home to foreclosure. There were thirteen stairs to get into the front door. As my husband’s illness progressed, there was no way he could have climbed those stairs. The yard was large and I would have to mow and keep the foliage from climbing and intertwining within the fence. The house was getting older and would need a lot of expensive upkeep. Looking back, I can see that God was in the middle of that dark time, knowing what our future held and what we needed in our future!

Just remember the next day that is full of trouble, the next day that is a normal day or when we have the happiest day; that God is working those days together for our good. No matter what type of day we have, God uses them for His purposes. God is weaving together the patchwork of our lives!

Till next time! May God be with you in your daily patchwork life!                          Keela

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Well, just kick me when I am down! That is how I felt, many years ago, standing in Walmart’s parking lot, tears streaming down my face. It was not how I had envisioned my day ending. My day had started at 4 am, rushing my husband to the hospital. He had a reoccurrence of congestive heart failure. Fluid would build up in his body causing him to not be able to breath. He would have to go into the hospital for them to try to “drain” that fluid that caused so much pressure on his organs and his ability to breath. At 7am I had to leave him so I could get to my two jobs. He was to go to a room shortly and I was assured that they were going to care for my husband. I went to my jobs, trying to focus on my work, calling him several times to make sure all was going well. At 7:30 pm, I left my second job to head home. I needed to check on our dog (who I ended up taking in the car with me), and I got my husband some clean clothes. I went to the hospital to check on him and spend a bit of time with him. After I left the hospital, I needed to pick up some necessary things from Walmart. When I came out of the store, I remember that I could just barely put one foot in front of the other! I was so exhausted! I could see my dog watching me from my car and that encouraged & helped me to make it. I sat in the driver’s seat and breathed a big sigh of relief. I was finally going to get home and get some much-needed rest!

I pulled out of the parking space and headed for the exit. That is when I heard it. Thump, thump, thump. You guessed it-I had a flat tire. I had been babying that tire for a long time because I did not have the money to get it replaced. So, I turned around and got into a parking space that I knew my son would have room to change the tire. I reached for my phone. I did not have it. I had left it plugged in at home so many hours ago. My feet were hurting and I was “bone tired.” I thought how am I ever going to get back to the store to make the call to my son. I got out of the car and started to walk back to the store. I saw a young couple putting their groceries in their car and putting their baby in its car seat. I asked them if I could use their phone to call my son to come and change my flat tire. My son answered and said he would be right there. I turned around to hand the young woman her phone and I burst into tears. She said I could use a hug and she would pray for me. I turned around and got my dog out of the car on her leash and leaned against my car bawling and praying.

I remember praying and crying with my eyes shut with my head raised to the sky. I opened my eyes and gasped. There before me, in that night sky, was the most beautiful array of stars I had ever seen! Those bright stars touched my heart. They helped me remember that God was right there by my side helping me throughout that day. Were those stars already there? Of course, they were! God did not all of a sudden say, well Keela needs some bright stars right now and poof, they were there shining for me. I prayed to God and He helped me to find peace within my heart through His magnificent beauty in nature. When I looked at those stars, my tears became tears of thankfulness. I had been on the road several times over the last few days. My daughter, who was away at college, had flown in for a friend’s wedding shower. I had gone to the airport, about an hour away from my home, to pick her up. Then, she, my two granddaughters and I had driven ninety miles to see my parents and back home. Then, just the night before I had taken my daughter back to the airport to get back to college. That tire had needed to be aired up several times through the years, which made my car shake if I got over sixty mph. Those stars had become stars of thankfulness! What if that tire had blown on the highway? What if it had gone flat that morning trying to get my husband to the hospital? What if it had blown while I was trying to get to my two jobs? There were so many “what ifs” that could have easily happened. But they did not! It went flat in a stores parking lot. God had been looking after me!

Well, my son got there to change my tire. I am sure he could tell I had been crying but did not say anything. After he got it changed, he said to try to be careful driving on that spare tire. Get the tire fixed or get a new one.  I told him I would have to wait until Friday when I got paid. (Ended up that I did not have to drive on it for very long. A dear friend came by one of my jobs and asked for my keys. She said several members at church had gotten some money together to buy me a new tire. Another, thank you God moment!)

 I gave my son a big hug and thanked him for coming to my aid. Of course, I started bawling again. Then, he said something profound. He said “it is what it is.” On my way home, I thought about what he said. Some days can hit us so hard! Some days can be so tiring! Some days we can loose loved ones or have a loved one in the hospital! Some days the weight of the world seems to be pushing us down. Some days we feel that we just cannot take one more bad thing happening to us, one more thing that the devil can throw at us. When Jesus was talking to his disciples in John 16:33, He said “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” God tells us that we will have trials. That is life. It is what it is. This world will give us trials each and every day, but God promises that He is right by our side helping us each second of the day. God through Jesus, has overcome the world through Jesus death on the cross. “Be of good cheer” in the verse above, means to be confident and courageous. We have to put our trust and faith in God. This world can give us wealth and seemingly happiness, but this world can also turn on us and give us no hope for future. God is the only hope we can rest on. Earlier in John 16:20, Jesus said “…your sorrow will be turned into joy.” We can have joy in the middle of trials because we, as believers, have the hope of an eternal home when we depart this life; free of all these trials here on earth. We do not know what the future holds, but we know WHO holds the future!

Some days, life can hit us so hard, just like my long day. But life on this earth is just that-here on the earth. What happens to us-happens! It is what it is. There is just nothing we can do sometimes. The devil likes to work his way into our days, happily making as much trouble for us as he can. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “…your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” We are here on this earth with its troubles. Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices and with my song I will praise Him.”

This life on earth will not be free from days like I just shared with you.  We need to remember that God is right by my side; maybe even reminding us through nature that He is there. We just have to reach out to Him. God is right there with us when we are bawling and feel so helpless.

When the weights of this world once again threaten to knock us down, remember to thank God for being there with us throughout the normal day. Thank God of His promise of an eternal home one day. That is where the joy is! That is our hope, our future, our faith!

It is what it is! Thank you, God!

                                     Keela

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

At the end of the year, we tend to look back at what we have accomplished. We also look back at the negative things that have happened and think about what we have not accomplished. We evaluate ourselves to see if we have lived up to the last years, new year resolutions. We look at our present circumstances and wonder how we got to this point in our lives and wish we had done things differently. We also look towards next year and the goals we want to achieve.

There are many things that have happened that I wish I could go back and redo. Things that came out of my mouth that shouldn’t or things I could have said that I did not. My husband went through a deep two-year depression. Because of his health issues, he had to retire early from the post office and from being a preacher and elder of the church. He felt worthless, he felt like a failure. He became stuck in the past, not seeing the present opportunities and not seeing any productive future! There was one day that he said to me that there was just nothing he could do with his current health issues. Right then and there, I wrote down 100 things that he could do by sitting in his chair in front of his computer. When we become stuck in the misadventures of our past, we miss out on what is right there in front of us for today. We cannot see any good road ahead and wallow in the mire of the past failures. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13-14, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.” It is hard to forget those things of the past that have pulled us down. But we can learn from the past. We can realize what we could have done differently, even if the circumstances were out of our control. We can live today and be the very best we possibly can. We can learn from those mistakes. In the verse above, Paul tells us to press towards the goal. What is that goal? What is it that helps us heal from the past? The realization that we can live with God in heaven, forever if we have lived our lives for Him. When we have that hope in the future ahead of us, it helps us to move forward and not get stuck in that muddy mire of past failures and miss out on present opportunities!

This last year, a big accomplishment I achieved, was to sign a contract with a publishing company to publish a lady’s bible study titled “God’s Beauty Plan.” This has been in the works for several years. I am so thankful for the gentle nudges by God to get it in the works. I have dedicated the study to my mother, who will be gone 3 yrs. the end of January. She was my editor, my researcher and my best friend. She was a huge part of this project. I think back to the past years that I could call her on the phone and get her advice. There have been many times during these three years, that I have actually reached for the phone and then realized that she is no longer here on this earth. I could become stagnant in my present life, because of those feelings of sadness. But I realize, every lesson of the study has memories of her and how she helped me and the many phone conversations we had about a particular subject. I thank God for her love and dedication to the Lord and the amazing example she set for everyone she came in contact with. She encouraged me to get it published. But I always found an excuse why not to do it. I feel so sad that she never will know that I finally did it, but I cannot live today in those feelings of sadness. All I can do, is to do the best I can today-with what I have today-in whatever situation I find myself in today.

My dad, brother and I, in the last month, went to my mother’s grave to put fresh flowers on it. My dad and brother are not as quick as they use to be and we ended up at the graveyard in the dark. My brother turned on the car lights and shown them on her tombstone so my dad could get the wire cutters and place the flowers on top of the stone. As you probably already guessed, his car lights went out. I went back, in the dark, to my brother’s car to get a flashlight. Here my brother, me and our 85-year-old dad were in the graveyard, with a flashlight trying to attach some pretty flowers on my mother’s grave! I am surprised that someone did not call the police! We had several tears remembering what this time of year meant to my mother and her traditions that we all loved so much. It would be easy to get stuck in that past and not live in the present, thereby not having a future. At our family celebration each year since she has been gone, my brother and I try to keep some of her traditions alive. But we also have started new ones. Our family has been blessed, by my granddaughter and her husband having a baby in May and also, my new grandbaby, that was born in November. I want our family gatherings for these little one and the ones to come, to be filled with memories of those who have gone before us, but also with new traditions that lead towards the future! Getting stuck in the past and that sadness, will not take the traditions that have been started today, into the future!

I have been blessed with a great-granddaughter and also a granddaughter this year. (That can happen when your oldest is ten years older than your youngest.) These new little ones, will never know, my husband, my mother, my grandparents. That is very sad to me. I know there are many hurting this time of year because of the loss of a loved one. All of those first special happenings in that first year, after they have passed, are so very hard! But our loved one’s memories can be kept alive in the present to the younger generations and will help to shape these little one’s future. Forgetting the past in the verse in Philippians, means not living and wallowing in the things of the past that we have done; thus, making us not able to see the joys and opportunities of the present. Remembering what happened in the past, can help us look forward to how we want to forge into our future!

  My mother’s favorite bible verse was Ephesians 3:20-21. It reads “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” When we have the power of God within us, giving us fuel for our future, we can do so much more than we can ever imagine! Our electricity in our homes, can go out at times. But when we have the “electricity” from God, which we plug into as our source of energy, we can do things that we never knew were possible! God helps us heal from our past regrets and the sadness of those we have lost. God can help us-we just have to reach out to Him for strength! One of my favorite verses in the bible are in Jeremiah 29:11-13. “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God wants us to step into our future with hope. Our hope is based on Jesus dying on the cross for us; taking all that sin and sadness upon Himself. We must lead our lives in service to Him today, because we have a future glorious home in heaven, He has promised us and has gone to prepare for us.

We can make the good things from the past come alive through what we do today. We can learn from the things of the past that are holding us back from enjoying and living for the Lord today. Learn from the past mistakes and release them to God and don’t dwell on them. Learn from the memories from your past. Take the little things from today to enrich your future. We have hope through the knowledge that if we reach out to Him, He will lead us to heaven one day. Use your memories of the past to enrich today, which lead into your future!

On our tombstones there is a dash in between the day we were born and the day we die. That dash represents our lives. It represents our past, our today and determines our future! We don’t know what our future holds, but we do know who holds the future!

May God bless you as you look forward and not behind! Till next time.

(I am trying to post a new article every two weeks. I am leaving January 5^th to go to Norfolk, Virginia to meet my newest granddaughter. I will be there a week, so I may not get another post out for three weeks.)

                                                                                           Keela

READ MY LIPS

“Read my lips!” Have you ever heard a parent, spouse or anyone else say to you those words? Usually when a person tells you that, they want your attention. They want you to focus on what they are about to say. In Webster’s dictionary, focus means “a center of activity, attraction, attention, clear perception or understanding.”

Let’s think about some times that we can be focused. My granddaughter, and some girls from my work, are taking college finals this week. Their focus for several days has been on what those tests might have on them and the grade they will get. If, during the test, they are focused elsewhere, they are not going to do well.        At church, we are taught that we must focus on Christ’s death, his body and blood, when we are taking communion. We are to be thinking about Jesus and his sacrifice for us and praising God for that. At church, many years ago, when my granddaughter was little, she was sitting by me. During communion, she was rolling around on the floor and being quiet, so I just left her alone. As the communion was being passed to my pew, she stood up, right in the middle of the isle, and her hair was standing straight up on her head! Do you think that I and the people sitting around us, still had that focus? No, we were looking at my precious granddaughter and looking at her little smiling face! I remember as a young mother, that during that time of the church service, there were many times that my focus was drawn to one of my kids, especially when they were little.       When a surgeon is in the middle of a surgery, does he try to focus on what he is doing? If I am the patient, I absolutely want him to focus!      When I have to be at work in the early morning, I eat toast with peanut butter & banana when I am driving into work. One day, on my first bite, I started to drop the entire thing on the floor. For a moment, my focus was not on driving but on loosing my breakfast. If I had not brought my focus back to the road and the deer that darted out in front of my car, my lack of focus would have caused an accident. Being focused is important!

There is a really good example of being focused in the Bible. Matthew 14:22-33 tells us of a time when some of Christ’s disciples were in a boat, in the middle of the sea and there came a huge storm. The boat was being “tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.” Jesus was not in the boat with them because He had stayed behind to send the multitudes of people away and then he went up to a mountain to pray. When this storm came it was dark. All of a sudden, the disciples saw something or someone walking on the water towards them. They became afraid, thinking it was a ghost and “cried out in fear.” The text tells us that immediately, Jesus spoke to them and told them “be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid!” (These words have helped me through many tough times. It shows me that Jesus is there by my side, immediately, when a trial comes into my life. Actually, He has never left our side! He is always there. He was by my side helping me through all the many days that I worked 12 hr. days, then went home to a depressed husband who had been in bed all day or going to the hospital where I had taken him at 4 in the morning before I even went to work. Jesus was there when we had to go through foreclosure on our home and when we had to take bankruptcy because of the huge pile of medical bills.) Jesus has told us that we will have trials but He also tells us that He is right there helping us take one step at a time, one moment at a time, one second at a time!

Then, in our text, we are told that one of the disciples, Peter, said “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus told him to “come.” I have always thought that Peter had a lot of faith to just step out of that boat and head towards Jesus in the middle of this storm. But then we see that Peter took his focus off Jesus, looking away from Jesus at the churning sea. He became afraid and started to sink. He called out to Jesus for help “and immediately, Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him.” This made me think of, after I found out my husband had died of the surgery, that we had hoped would help him live a much better life. I was sitting just staring at the hospital wall, in so much shock and heartache. All of a sudden, I felt someone hugging and wrapping around my shoulders, what felt like a shawl. I turned to see who it was and no one was there! The truth was Jesus was right there, holding me!

The reason I told this story about Peter was to remind us that God is always there for us. He is always ready to “stretch out His hand and catch us” no matter what is going on in our lives! Even when all we can do is stare at the wall in disbelief. Even when our world comes crashing down around us. Even when we feel we are all alone, He is always there. We just need to bring our focus back to Jesus! He should be on our mind and heart throughout the day. Even if there is no one else who will listen to our hearts, He is always listening. We just need to turn our focus back to Him and make Him the center of every decision, every choice, every marriage, every rough time this cruel world sends our way.

Jesus told Peter to “come.” Matthew 11:28-29 tells us to come to Him. “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” We just need to turn our focus back onto our Savior and He has promised us that He will take care of us.

The next time someone says “read my lips” and they are trying to pull us away from God, put your focus back on who we should always have our focus on and who we are to always turn to when the world starts tossing us around in the sea of this life. When you feel that you are being pulled down and drowned by the struggles of this life, turn your focus back to the only one who can save us! God will help adjust our “vision” of what is swirling around us. He will help our attitude to change towards those contrary “winds” of our lives!

Stay focused on who and what really matters! The world puts focus on so many things other that Jesus. But when we put Jesus in the center of our focus, life becomes so much clearer!  He helps us to have an attitude adjustment! Thank you, God, for always being there!

May God bless your life with clearer focus! Till next time!

                                                                                                         Keela