Outlook

"Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day..."

We all have heard this English nursery rhyme countless times.

But really, I question, when will the rain go away?

Monday began. Sunny.  Then rain.

Tuesday. Threateningly cloudy but, thankfully, no rain.

Wednesday. Heavy, blinding rain.

Torrential Thursday, once again there is rain.

Friday, rain, rain, more rain. Is the rain here to stay?

Saturday, no rain.  Yes! Maybe it has gone away for another day.

I guess not.  Sunday, rain. 

Today, rain again.

Six out of eight days- rain.

I really enjoy sunshine. The rain can be dreary. But I decided that my outlook is most important, especially when circumstances are not as I would have them. 

I can see an inconvenience or I can see a blessing. 

Outlook.  A mental attitude or view. My outlook makes all the difference.

This reminds me of story...
 
{God assured Israel that He would give them victory in conquering Canaan.}

Twelve spies were sent from the Israel, scouting out the country of Canaan to see the land and how they would conquer it. Ten of the twelve spies returned to Israel with very negative, fearful reports. " The people are too big and the cities are too strong. We can never conquer the land." They were scared.  The spies discouraged the people from even attempting to conquer, and the people listened.

Two spies return with joyous news. They saw everything that the other spies had seen, but instead they brought positive reports . They were full of faith. Their outlook focused on the promise of God. They were ready to enter into battle and clobber.

It is clear that outlook affects influence.  So instead of moping around waiting for the deluge to end, I stayed busy. My time was spent blessing others with music and ministry with a good attitude. And on days I didn't get out, I wrote this, which I hope is a blessing to you!

White Daisies in a Colorful World

In a world full of multicolored daisies;

Few were white.

Every daisy wanted to be the most colorful,

The most distinguished,

The most famed;

But few wanted to be pure white.

The Gardener had once planted white daisies,

But most daisies thought it better to have color.

Many found a way to artificially color themselves

In all types of outstanding colors.

But - 

There still were a small, singular few,

Who kept the pure white

Which the Gardener once planted.

-------

One day an almost white daisy was talking to a dazzling purple daisy

Trying to convince her of the beauty of showing white, just as the Gardener planted her.

" You should be white. The Gardener did not make us to have all these colors. He wanted us to keep the purity of white." 

The purple daisy was not convinced. 

The white daisy was not fully white
She was tinted, or was it tainted on the edges with color.

She was beginning to look like the rest of the colored daisies.

The purple daisy could not see that the "white" daisy was a part of the white, small, singular few.

What kind of daisy are you?

No Mendelssohn?

"I'm really sorry, but I think that we will have to call this piece off ", my conductor stated. "I've done all I can, but I can't practice this for you."

I groaned inside. Really? All this time practicing this Mendelssohn piece and... this? 

It was the day before the orchestra concert. I spent many hours practicing the given music, trying to be ready for a great performance.

This was my first year participating in a youth orchestra, and I came with high hopes. I expected to play great musical works (which we did), meet youth musicians that were passionate and focused, and work together so we could have a fantastic performance. As I went through the rehearsal season, I learned some enlightening information on what makes an orchestra or any group really good.

You might imagine that I should have already known this.  I did, in principle. Then I learned in reality.

Teamwork. [teem- wurk]  You do your part. I do my part. We work together to reach a common goal.

Our director was excellent. Our performance was good. If only all the students had worked as a tenacious and committed team, then we would have been able to play this discarded piece and maybe even done better on the other pieces chosen.

Lesson learned.

If just one single person isn't committed to practice, then they lower the performance of their whole section. Now, the performance of the whole orchestra is lowered.  Everyone must give their absolute best!

The ultimate example of teamwork is depicted in Heaven. All heaven is doing their part to save us from Satan's trap- eternal death. A favorite author of mine once wrote:

"All heaven is actively engaged in working out the plans of God... The angels, thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand are commissioned... to guard us against evil and press back the powers of darkness that are seeking our destruction."

God's love for us is so great that not just He, but all the angels of heaven are doing their part to protect us from Satan and lead us to Jesus so that we can then experience life without sin, death or destruction. Each is giving his best effort so that we can know God's amazing love for us and His plans for us to live with Him forever.

Heaven is doing all it can.

What will you do?

~Joi

They drank up all my water!

I had just finished a time consuming job of weed- whacking when looking up and to my surprise, visitors were coming to see me! It was June, a new friend whom I had met a few months before and her brother, Gus. How delightful! 

I called to my sister to come and greet them. We visited with them for a few minutes and expected them soon to leave, being that they came at a later hour in the evening. June is not normally prone to long visits, but, strangely, today they were in no mood for leaving- or hint taking either.

After some time, my sister went inside and I was left to entertain them. Southern hospitality dictated that I could never be a rude hostess and make them leave, so we continued in one another's company. Eventually, they seemed to stop paying much attention to what I was saying. They became distracted and probing with their expressions as if looking for something... I quickly realized what it was. Dear, dear I had been a rude hostess and not offered them water! Seeing that, they decided to take matters into their own -eh ehm "hands". Catching a glimpse of a nearby container with water in it, they simultaneously darted to it, and very discourteously drank it all up! 

Realizing  their desperate need of water , I quickly ran to the hose and turned it on so they could drink freely  Gus drank, and drank, and drank. He was so absorbed in drinking that he bit me and the end of the hose!

I am sure you have never experienced any of these type guests, or at least I hope not! 

While writing about this, I remembered that on a previous visit from June, she received water. She must have gone home and told her brother about the free water source she had here. Maybe this was reason she brought her brother . She wanted him to come so he too could satisfy his parched snout on their regular explorations (you can probably guess what type of visitors I had).  

This experience reminds me a lot of a story about Jesus and a woman at a well in her town in Samaria. Jesus realized that she was very thirsty too. Not thirsty for water that she could find at the town well, but a type water that satisfies thirst for life. What is this type of water? Jesus says that He is that water. He is the only one that can satisfy the drought and emptiness of our lives that we try to fill with stuff that seems to make us happy but in the end we still feel thirsty.  He will give us all the water that we need. How do we drink this water? Once again, we must spend time with Jesus. When talking to Jesus, reading about Him and asking Him to be in our hearts, He fills us with His wonderful water- water that never runs outs!

That woman did the same thing as June. Once she found out where to get this wonderful water, she ran home and told her friends and family about it!

Let's be like June and share Jesus, the true source of water.

~Joi

Press Forward and Look Up!

It was an exciting time in my neighborhood. At the tiny regional airport, not more than seven minutes from my house, our town welcomed many G5s and other size jets.  Not many planes come and go from this airport. If there are any, they are normally small training planes. So this was a rare occurrence.
Last week, in a larger city near my home, there was an event that brought many of these jets to our small airport.

 I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I absolutely LOVE flying and would like to be a pilot. With jets landing and taking off so close, I was ecstatic! The sound of them flying low over the house is quite thrilling. The excitement, surprisingly, even made someone (like my mom), who hates flying want to get in a jet and fly (that's an achievement)!

Last week, my eyes were constantly in the air scanning for the next jet overhead. I was continually running outdoors to see the next jet. I went to the airport many times to watch the jets land, get fueled and take off again. I was determined to see as many as I could. It was a spine-tingling, eye- popping, and literally an ear -popping experience.

 I was up-close and personal.

While keeping my eye on the sky, I knew there are things I must to do here on the ground before I can fly with a license. It is important to know the basics of flying. Without these basics, there would be a huge problem! I am currently taking online ground school flight lessons. The process is a bit tiresome and sometimes hard to understand. I just want to get in the air!

After a week-long of seeing many jets I realized that if I ever want to fly, I have to really buckle down, and get to work. All the watching encourages me, but I need to complete the training or else...
So I keep pressing forward with my studies so I can be up there too. The end goal is not that far off.

I am reminded that I am looking to the sky for something else- something a gazillion times as exciting...  I am looking forward to Jesus' coming and am expecting Him to come very soon. God has given us our ground school training book, the Bible, so that we can be ready to fly when He comes. If I don't study His book I can't still expect to fly with Him to His home in Heaven! I must daily study and learn what is in His book so that I can fly.  He said that His book tells us who He is.  Not only must I study His book but I must have interaction with the trainer.  More on that when I'm airborne.:)

Let's  press forward with our ground school training and keep looking to the sky!

~Joi

Watching the jets at the regional airport

Photo Courtesy of Jade 

Photo Courtesy of Sarah A.

Freedom

One golden fall day, my mom and my dog, Joey went out to take a nice walk. Before I go any further to tell you about their walk,  I must first  tell you about my dog. Joey is a cute, energetic dog who is filled with much dog, and sometimes I think, with people personality. Though he is a great dog, unfortunately, just like people, he too has some faults. One of the greatest being that he chases chipmunks and squirrels.  Joey just hates to see them in our yard, or in anyone else's yard for that matter. And though he hates these menacing creatures and chases them with utmost furor, in his seven years of life, he has never succeeded in catching one.

Now back to the story. On this beautiful day Joey was on his leash, held by my mom when he saw... a squirrel! When he saw it, with anticipation in his eyes, he set himself to pull away from my mother who reminded Joey walk nicely. In response, his next expression seemed to say,

 " Why should I go and chase this squirrel? I know I'll get in trouble and it really doesn't matter. It's not even in my yard. I'm perfectly content and happy in "mom's care and nothing else compares to this happiness".

 So Joey continued to walk happily and obediently with my mom.

A few minutes later, while still enjoying his walk, Joey saw another hateful little creature! Once again, the same battle seemed to go on in his head. " I must go and get rid of that squirrel! I just must! " Then again, he was reminded of the safe, contented walk he was having with "mom". Why should he want to do or be anywhere else?  Why should he chase something he was never going to catch, cause himself disappointment, and ultimately be punished? With great dog wisdom he decided to continue walking obediently with "mom".  

What a lovely walk! And now he was home in his own yard. When they neared the yard my mom took him off of his leash. What doggie delight! Run, run ! Sniff, sniff! Jump, jump! Through the forest and in the holes! Simple and happy freedom was his reward in the safety of our yard.

There is an amazing lesson in this story that can apply to each of our lives. We, like Joey are walking through life with a loving Father as our guide, who reminds us to be obedient to Him so we may have eternal freedom from temptation and sin. As long we are obedient to Him, we will be rewarded with joy, freedom and safety.

reflections

Situated on a quiet lake, hedged by rolling pasture land and woods, is where I like to call home. 


Since my family and I recently moved to this area, I  take keen interest in what is around me. I've noticed that the lake looks different every day. Some days it looks clear and other days dark and murky. I began to think about what makes it look different. It dawned on me that the lake was just a reflection of the sky.

When the sky is cloudy and dull, so is the lake.

 And when the sky is clear and sunny, then the lake is clear and beautiful.

 This reminds me of a Scripture that  talks about reflecting Christ's character. It says:

But we all...beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image ...

If by looking at Jesus, we are changed to reflect His image, then isn't it the same with anything else? If I am constantly looking at things of the world that show greed, selfishness, sexual inappropriateness, impatience and unkindness , I will be changed to act in these ways. But if I want to be a reflection of Christ than I must keep myself focused on Christ, who is pure, caring, patient, unselfish and loving. 

Photo Courtesy of Sarah A.