The time I thought God was missing

February 2, 2017February 2, 2017 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

January is just a fleeting thought. And Lord have mercy the weather has been crazy. 70 degrees one day then, not too many days later in the 30s. No wonder we’ve had tornadoes all around us. January is also one of the most depressing months of the year. It’s no wonder we get to questioning all kinds of things in our lives. Which brings me to this:

Do you sometime wonder where God is? I’m not talking about where His spiritual being is. I’m talking about why am I going through such a hard time? Why is God letting this happen to me? Me, of all people? Dog gone it, haven’t I sat in the same spot, at church, for years, visited my elderly neighbors, gave my grandkids money to put in the plate every Sunday, and sung more Sunday school songs with the 1^st and 2^nd graders until they roll their eyes & say,

“Can we do something else?”

No. You can sing “Jesus Loves Me” until it’s so deep down in your heart nobody could snatch it out. Because that’s what a God fearing person does. So, where is God, when I need Him? Did He take a break? Did He say He needed a day off from my issues? Should I put out the word that “God is missing”? I bet the apostle Peter had some of the same exact feelings in Acts 12.

Peter certainly was in a predicament. One of his very best friends had just been killed (v. 2) And now the king was coming after him. He was thrown in prison & things looked pretty hopeless. The Bible doesn’t say what Peter was thinking, but I betcha he was wondering where God was. But you know what the good news is? God was right there. Working behind the scenes to help Peter and deliver him out of death. Things weren’t looking too great for Peter, since not only did Herod put one set of soldiers to guard him. He put 4. Peter was basically just sitting in jail, waiting to die. However, that’s not where Peter stayed. The Lord sent an angel to rescue him.

If you search the scriptures, no where will you find the Lord promising an easy passage. He does not offer a life free of problems or pain. We live in the world, y’all. As long as we are in the world, we are not exempt from sufferings & heartache. The good news is that we have an awesome God to turn to. He is the great comforter. He is the One that is going to take care of us. And just like He did for Peter, He delivers us in our times of trouble.

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (NKJV)

Matthew 5: 4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. (NKJV)

Thank heavens the Lord will not give us more than we can handle. Many times we get more than we WANT to handle. But the Lord is faithful to his promises.

I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (NKJV)

So just know & remember how great our God is & how much He really does care for you. No matter the situation, He will provide all we need. God’s never missing. He’s just not always where I think He should be. I have to remember to just pray. Relentlessly, sometimes. And be still & know He is God & will take care of everything, In. His.Time. These are the times I have to go back to my one word for the year, “Trust”. God is always there. Always working for our good.

I’m so happy you came by to visit with me today. I have been enjoying the cooler weather. I’ve also been trying to eat a little better. Which I am using “trying” loosely, because LORD HAVE MERCY I do love to eat. I hope you have are having a wonderful week. Until next time I will be going because I should be washing clothes.

When you want service station fried chicken & jojo potatoes, but your jeans say, “For the love of Pete, lady, have a salad.” I hate those jeans.

When you want to bring juice boxes and cookies for snack after the 6 year olds get finished playing ball. But then realize you can't because SHE'S IN JUNIOR HIGH ALREADY.

When you want to bring juice boxes and cookies for snack after the 2nd graders get finished playing basketball. But then realize you can’t because SHE’S IN JUNIOR HIGH ALREADY.

photo creds: http://www.crosscards.com, Calvin & Hobbes

Hey- remember me? True love, grandkids, & what have you

March 15, 2016March 15, 2016 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

Y’all. If I said the past couple of weeks had not been a true test of my faith, I would be lying & my pants would be on fire. With me, I may go awhile without anything earth shattering happening. Then, BOOM! Everything happens all at once.

It’s like nuts falling from the sky.

(Which is an expression, my then 4 year old Miss Neenee would say, when things were awful or terrible. It’s the worst thing her little mind could image to explain something really crazy.)

I told my hairstylist if anyone feels bad about what’s going on in their lives, just have them come talk to me. I can make them feel a lot better about their own personal tragedies.

She said, “You do seem to have a lot of crazy things happen to you.”

Umm, yeah. So, not to go all negative Nancy on everyone. I just wanted you to know, even though my blog life has been a little ho-hum & sporatic, here of late. I am alive & as well as a person like me can be.

I did have an interesting conversation with a lady the other day. I was at the dentist office, waiting my turn in the chair of torture, when a nice older lady & I struck up a conversation. She started telling me how she had just lost her husband in January. I could tell it was still a fresh wound, because she had tears in her eyes as she talked about his passing. She talked so fondly of him I had to ask her how they met. She said they met at Fraley’s Drive In. He was home from the service & she was 17 years old. She said when she first laid eyes on him, she thought he was so handsome. She said some of her friends & his friends commence to playing cupid & before long, y’all, they were married. She said they were married almost 60 years. They had raised a family together & went through some hard times.

“But you know,” she said, “there’s not a single person in the world I would have wanted to have gone through hard times with. He was so good to me.”

Now. Don’t you guess those two did have some hard times? 60 years is a long time to go without an argument, any illnesses, heartaches, or anything of the like. And to still be able to have such a love for a person through all of that. That’s the remarkable love Paul talks about in

Ephesians 4:2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, (NKJV)

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,(NKJV)

Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.(NKJV)

Peter writes about love we should have for one another in

I Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”(NKJV)

It goes without saying, this sweet couple took their marriage vows seriously & loved each other the way the Lord commanded. What a true blessing! It is so heartwarming to hear the love, we are told to have, still exists. Having that talk with that lady just made my day, y’all. I guess I’m just a bit sappy over stuff like that. And since we are talking about love, let me talk about these grandkids!

We had such a good time this weekend. Our new baby grandboy is growing & so sweet. I could just eat him with a spoon. My granddaughter is so cute & sassy. She is so funny. Here are some things the older kids did over the weekend:

We made bubble snakes. It was pretty fun.

I gave a little tutorial on how to use the bubble makers before we started. “Blow into the bottle. Make sure you are blowing like you are blowing bubbles with a wand. Don’t suck in, because you will get a mouth full of bubbles.” And wouldn’t you know it, somebody got their mouth full of bubbles. There was a fair amount of spitting & wiping their mouth on their shirt. But thank the Lord, no permanent damage!

Miss Neenee entertained with the trumpet.

And they could play pretty good. Ever tried to play a trumpet? Not. Easy.

a trumpet Even though, the trumpet was fun, you know what the biggest hit was?

You guessed it. Something that wasn’t even a toy. A plastic tote was a boat, a hide out, a car, & anything else they could think of.

At the end of the day, all of them are still sweet & precious.

And this is when they are most precious of all!

I am so glad you came by to visit me today. For those of you keeping up with my Daddy, he came home from rehab & is being visited by home health. He’s doing well & opinionated as ever. With that, we know he’s doing alright. Thank you for all your prayers for him. They really have been working. Keep’em coming! Until next time, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

**On a side note- I can’t leave without showing my discontent for Daylight Savings Time.

Thank you, Mr. Indian, for your wonderful interpretation of insanity.

Seriously though.

photo credits: Pinterest

Why we have pain & suffering & yes, I’m a band wagoner

November 12, 2014November 11, 2014 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

Do you ever ponder the question why? Why do we have pain & suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are there starving people? If God is all He says He is, then why do all these terrible things exist? I think I found out.

This morning, I was listening to Matthew 26 & 27, on the way to work. The scripture was at the point where Jesus was prepping his disciples of what is fixing to happen to Him. Jesus was getting ready to suffer beyond belief. Not only was He going to be crucified on a cross for our sins, His very best friends in the world, were one by one turning their backs on Him. Judas betrayed Him. (Matt. 26:25) Peter denied Him. (Matt. 26:74)

The other disciples ran off & left Him.

Matthew 26:56 ….. Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

And now, He was being hung on a cross. Jesus begged God to rethink His plan. But, ended up praying

Matthew 26:42 ….“O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”(NKJV)

I think I’ve got problems. My problems will never match up to what Jesus had going on. I haven’t ever been treated the way Christ was. So, I start to ask myself

“Where was God?”

Why did He let this awful thing happen to His own Son? It was God’s plan to save mankind. He knew what He was doing. Why does God allow bad things happen in the world? It’s in His plan. Job said in

Job 2:10 Shall we indeed accept good from God & shall we not accept adversity?(NKJV)

We are so willing to take all the goodness God gives. However, just can’t understand when bad things come our way. God gave His only Son for our sins. He let Jesus go through some awful things. Remember that then next time you ask God, “Why me?” Why not you? He crucified His own Son for our own good. He may let some less than pleasing things happen to us, for our greater good. It’s all in His plan. He has promised He will never allow satan to tempt us over & beyond what we are able to handle. The apostle Paul wrote in

I Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

We have to trust in God to take care of us. Even in the worst times, we have to have enough faith to say, “I have some big problems, but I have a really big God that’s going to see me through it.” Always remember, God promised us a safe landing, not an easy passage. He allowed His own Son to die on a cross. I am fairly certain that turned out pretty good for me & you, huh? That was God’s plan. We just have to trust Him. He’s got this.

I hope you have had a good week. We had a wonderful time with my family in Oxford, Mississippi, this past weekend. We may or may not have had the biggest tailgating tent at the entire Ole Miss campus. Just sayin’, it was pretty fabulous. Normally, I could care less who is playing ball. But this year, yep, I’m on the band wagon! :)I love being with my family. I got home just in time to be with more of my family. This grandparent gig we have going on is the cat’s pajamas. We play all day & it’s a good thing. I always get a wonderful night’s sleep on Sunday. (Not that it has to do with all the running around those kids have me doing.) Until next time, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

Not that ya’ll care, but this is where the tailgating fun is.

Inside the Hotty Toddy Hangout…

If I were a bettin’ woman, I bet this guy was pretty tired when he got home. He did this every time Ole Miss made a touchdown.

Lovely cousins

These sweet girls had such a good time together.

Me & my Miss Livy

My sweet helper & Someone who needs no help

June 12, 2014June 12, 2014 / kstrick7 / 3 Comments

My little girl loves to help. She especially loves to help me & her Daddy cook. She has become quite the baker. She got cupcake pans, cake pans, and a lot of bakery paraphernalia for Christmas last year. I have to say she has put it to good use. She loves to help her Daddy in food prep for the grilling he does. She has her hands in the muffin mix & can peel boiled eggs like nobody’s business. I love having her around to help me out.

Miss Neenee’s cupcakes before going in the oven.

Do you know there is Somebody who does not need my help? That would be the Lord. You see, He is quite capable of doing whatever He deems necessary, without my input. Sometimes it’s easy to try to compare ourselves to others.

I think, “What should I be doing about this or that?”

You know what? Jesus has it all handled. There are times, I just need to have faith & sit back & let Him have his way. Isn’t that hard, though? When you pray & want a situation, a person, or a relationship, to be like you want it all to be- it may not always come out exactly like you had it envisioned.

So, I get to thinking, “How can I make this better?”

Next, I may do or say something that doesn’t help the situation at all.

Or I may think, “I’m doing all I can do to be a Christian. Why, then, are things going so great for this one over here, that’s well, not?”

Again, I need to remember, the Lord doesn’t need my help. Just because I don’t see Him working behind the scenes, does not mean He is not.

The apostle Peter found out Jesus does not need our help either. He questioned the Lord about the person He had predicted would betray Him. It’s not said why Peter wanted to know who it was. Maybe curiosity was getting the best of him. Or maybe he wanted to help or protect his friend from someone. Jesus let him know right quick that He had it handled.

John 21

²⁰Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” ²¹Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”

²²Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

²³Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”

Peter’s attention needed to be focused on following Jesus. The Lord had a much bigger agenda for Peter than worrying about who was going to wrong Him. Jesus was pretty much trying to tell him,

“What business is it of yours?”

I need to remember that. I need to make sure my focus is on Jesus. Not on who is wronging me, who has a nicer house than me, or who makes more money than me. Jesus was trying to tell Peter & He is trying to tell me to have faith in Him & I won’t have anything to worry about. When the worries & stresses of this ol’ world try to beat us down, we have got to remember Who we have on our side. Even when we don’t realize it, He is working in our lives for good.

I am so glad you came by to visit with me today. We have had rain, rain, and then some more rain. But you know what? I have seen some of the most beautiful rainbows…there’s a blog post for another time! I hope you have a great week. I have to be going for now, because I should be washing clothes.

How to make it in a hard time

November 25, 2013November 25, 2013 / kstrick7 / Leave a comment

Sometimes when I have a problem, I let it take me over. It’s all I think about. I just can’t get it off my mind. I want to talk about it, whine about it, be a bit dramatic about it, contemplate “why me”, & so forth & so on. I walk around with a cloud over my head, tensed up, perhaps not very friendly, & then inside the pit of my stomach, it starts to burn. I begin to feel bad all over. I get to thinking nobody has had this bad of a situation EVER! Then, I hear a voice in the back of my head, (which is my mama, God rest her soul). She always would tell me,

“Get ahold of yourself.”

Now, what does that mean, you may ask? Well, my sweet southern mama had her fair share of problems. At what most of us call mid-life, she found out she had Multiple Sclerosis. For years, she fought this disease with such grace. She never relented or let on that she had given in to what life had set before her. She “got ahold” of herself & the life changing event & did not let it overtake her, as a person. It’s so funny. We respected her & loved her so much, that even being bedfast, she still told us all what to do. And we did it, because even though her body was weak, the fire the Lord put down in her was not. She showed us that even though you are right in the middle of a bad situation, it does not have to take ahold of you. Morals & character surface when troubles make themselves present. Let me tell you, my mama had strong Christian convictions & proved to us that living it was the only way to survive. She never held a pity party for long. She encouraged us to follow suit. No matter how out of sorts things got, with the MS, she showed us the Lord had a plan. She strongly believed He was the healer. She did what the doctors said, but in the end, she showed us God has the last say. The message was when you live for the Lord, no problem you have is too big for Him. There is nothing that you & Him can’t handle. No matter what happens it’s for the greater good. We may not see it right then. However, it’s God’s time, not ours.

There were some people in the Bible that thought they had problems. One that comes right to mind is Peter.

Peter denied Christ.

Jesus told him by the time the rooster crowed, he would deny Him three times. (Matthew 26:34) Peter thought that was crazy talk. Until it happened. Historically, it is said, the 3^rd time Peter denied Jesus, Peter looked across the way & locked eyes with the Lord. If that is true, can you imagine what a rush of shame must have come over him? After that he went out & wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75) Not just a silent, tearful, moment, but bawlin’ his eyes out. Don’t you reckon Peter thought he had created himself a big problem? Poor Peter, I’m glad the story did not end there. Peter got through that awful experience & went on to serve the Lord with great eagerness. He did not let a tragedy paralyze him in the work Jesus needed him to do. He repented, “got ahold of himself” & went on. Thank goodness there is life after problems.

When Mama was sick, we thought we had problems. Big, huge, frightening problems that we did not know how to handle. But you know what happened? Every time we turned around, there was someone there willing to help. Sometimes it was someone sharing their story to let us know they had also been through a similar trial, so we would not feel like we were in this by ourselves. Sometimes it was a homemade cake or meal cooked. Sometimes it was a wonderful helper to relieve us & sit with Mama while we tended to other things. Sometimes it was a friend with a listening ear. In the whole ordeal with her, I never remember feeling like we were alone. It gave us a greater thankfulness & faith in humanity & how God works through people. It strengthened our faith in the Lord, as well. Would we have learned & appreciated all of this, had we not been through this experience? I’m going to say probably not. Was it a wonderful & beautiful thing? Well, if you would have asked me that back in the middle of all of it, I would have absolutely said no. Now, though, I see so many blessings that came out of it, I just can’t keep it to myself! In this storm of life that came our way, I want everyone to know how good God was to us.

Today, I hope you know if you are struggling with a problem, you are not alone. I am here to tell you everybody on the face of this Earth has a struggle. If someone says they don’t, don’t you believe them! We are here to help each other. If you stretch out your hand to help someone, you will be blessed for it, as well. Sometimes it can be hard to admit we have things in our lives that are not so great. However, when we open up, we find a whole lot of support from people, that we never would have imagined. As Christians, we are not told we won’t have problems. We are just given the tools to know how to handle them. What can you do to help someone? Start by smiling at someone today. That may just be all it takes to melt their heart & make their day more bearable.

I have so enjoyed you stopping by today. I hope you are getting that menu ready for your Thanksgiving dinner. We will be hosting another breakfast & dinner at our house, for our family & friends. There are 13 of us now (that just includes my husband, kids & their families) I just can’t put that off on somebody else to try & feed us! My brother & his family will be coming from a faraway land, 200 miles south of us, as well. Miss Neenee has only asked 241 times when her cousins will be getting here. I hope each & every one of you have a happy & healthy Thanksgiving holiday. As for me, I have to be going now, because I should be washing clothes.

When you get tired of it all, God’s there

July 29, 2013September 12, 2016 / kstrick7 / 25 Comments

(The Living Bible translation)

Sometimes I get tired. I am tired of my problems, tired of my circumstances, tired of things not going my way, tired of people not listening, tired of feeling upset, angry, disappointed, irritated, unappreciated, anxious, irritated, sad, & by the way, irritated! (Isn’t there a pill you can take for some of that? Sheesh!) I normally try to be an upbeat person, but you know, it can be tiring. That’s when I start to realize,

“What am I doing?”

I am trying to “do” all this life stuff by myself.

Well, that’s just nonsense. There is Someone who promised me They would help, if I would let Them.
Matthew 11:28-30 says this, about that:

v. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
v. 29 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.
v. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Our preacher spoke about this on Sunday. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Jesus invites us to Him. We have a tendency to want to do things our way. Jesus will not snap His fingers & take away all the problems we have created for ourselves, by bad choices. He will give us comfort, if we seek Him. Often time we struggle with messes we make. Our struggles could be from forgiveness to or from others. It could be from our finances, our family, addictions, to a lustful heart, envying, jealousy, or hatred. But, Jesus forgives. The apostle Peter had one of the biggest mouths of anyone. He was notorious for speaking before he thought. However, Jesus saw him fit to preach the first gospel sermon.(Acts 2) In the end, Peter was humbled. In I Peter 5: 6-7 he said, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

2. Take my yoke. Lay down your old ways & pick up a different set of priorities. In a yoke, it takes 2. You are connected to the Lord & His care, when you are yoked to Him. We should do what Jesus wants us to do instead of what we may want to do.

3. Learn of Me. If you continually do the things of the Lord, you will learn to love those things. We must make it a priority to follow Jesus in our lives. Only then, will you find rest.

My husband has always been taken back with how well I sleep at night. He says it does not matter what kinds of situations we are in, or what kind of storms of life are brewing, that I can sleep no matter what. Well, I guess I have conditioned myself to let a lot of things go, when it gets time for bed & be at peace with whatever it is going on. My only reasoning for this is the peace that passes all understanding that’s talked about in Philippians 4:7. (and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.) I just say my prayers & leave it with God. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. But it’s not impossible!
I hope if you are feeling tired of it all, you will know, there’s an answer to it all. Jesus! He will care for you & keep you as close to Him, as you will let Him. I can’t tell you how the love of God feels. It’s something you have to experience for yourself. I can tell you it is the best feeling in the world to know you are loved by Him. Just remember God is ABLE to do anything we ask. Ask for peace. I am so glad you stopped by to visit with me today. It was wonderful to spend some time with you. I hope to see you again, soon. However, I have to be going for now, because I should be washing clothes.

I was inspired, yet again, by Bro. Brad, to write this post. If he is reading this, he knows I was listening…. Thank you, Bro. Brad for preaching the Word in it’s simplicity.