Perfect Sunday

Writing today is somewhat challenging.  Determined to be in the sun after two weeks of extreme cloudiness, I brought my laptop to the back porch in search of sunshine and vitamin D.  Quickly, the “tickle bees” found me.  They are swarming around me like I am a piece of unwrapped Halloween candy leftover in a plastic, orange Jack-o-lantern.  My husband is talented though.  He utilizes his cap and swats them every time I scream for help. 

However, he will soon head off to fill up a deer feeder, and I will be left alone without any protection.  I call him B; therefore, when I scream “bee” no one else listens.  I refuse to offer up my setting though.  I love fall, and it is finally here!

Today has been one of those perfect days.  Nothing about life is really flawless or perfect at all, but today was really nice.  My teenage sons went to church with me.  I climbed up on a chair, without injury, and hung the last few pieces of paper that I needed to hang before the book fair begins at my school tomorrow. I grocery shopped alone and stocked up on all of the essentials.  My husband cooked a massive pot of chili.  To top it all off, I took the dogs for a ride around here, and I am nearly caught up on laundry. 

Really though…church today was amazing.  I laughed out loud, took notes, and somehow everything came together and really encouraged me.  My Pastor talked about how we come to church with our happy faces on, answer everyone we come into contact with saying that life is great, knowing that we are truthfully falling apart.  His advice about this façade we all wear so well was to “be a part of a group where I can know others and be known by them.”

I thankfully can say that I have those people!  I do timelessly wear a smile and give the obvious “I am great nod,” but God has given me a small group of women to bear my soul to and to admit often that all is not well.  We all need that! 

I jotted down numerous questions during the sermon:   Do I take up my cross and live daily showing it, knowing that Jesus paid it all on the cross?  Do others see God in me?  Does my life point others to Jesus?  If I really follow Jesus and join Him, what will it cost me?  What needs to go from my life?  What needs to stay?  Many challenges in life came to mind. 

Maybe we need to avoid the distractions, like how my daughter just started screaming because she caught her newly highlighted hair on fire with a candle. 

Maybe we need to not give up so easily, like how I had to bring the laptop inside because the bees were attacking me. 

Maybe we need to spend more time in the Word and less with technology, like how today blessed me being in church and hearing the truth.

One of my favorite songs as a child was “Leaning On the Everlasting Arms.”  We sang it today. 

It says “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms, What a blessedness, what a peace of mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms” 

Today made me think…perhaps I have been trying to stand up alone, do too much with