TREES

Patch and I went to my Dad and Cathy's last weekend and on the way we were able some of the tornado and wind damage from this past spring's storms. I was more into than Patch was:) It was mind blowing to me to see one tree, in the midst of a whole bunch of others, blown over and the rest of them fine. And other areas totally destroyed and few yards later nothing was touched. The trees that were hurt or destroyed reminded me of  John 15 and Isaiah 61:3. Mainly John 15:5-6, which says, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." The trees died within 2 days of being blown over. 2 DAYS!  The symbolism for me is that if we are not grounded (we're talking roots going down really, really deep) in Christ and we are "blown over" by life, stress, family, kids, work, school, relationships, pick your stress, then we will suffer spiritually or even die spiritually. This may be a no-brainer for some of you but it has really laid heavy on my heart since I saw that. It was good for me to have a visual for these verses. I love when the Lord shows me things like this so I had to share.

Bittersweet

As most of you know, I have been volunteering at the Central Arkansas Crisis Pregnancy Center. I counsel girls that come in for pregnancy tests, but I also mentor those that want it, by taking them through an 8 week Bible study (HUGS, Helping You Grow Strong) or parenting classes. I started volunteering there thinking that counseling would "my thing", but it has actually been the mentoring that I've enjoyed more and have been challenged more. Today, my  first girl finished her HUGS program! As I was driving to the center this morning, I found myself a little teary as I was thinking about "Sherry" and how far she has come in 8 weeks (actually 5, we crammed the last 3 lessons in today) in her thought process and her relationship with God, even more so, I was feeling a little sad thinking that I wouldn't see her next Wednesday. Soooo, it felt a little bit like the momma bird letting her baby bird fly (cheesy, i know, but that was hard today). She is going to be a good momma. I am honored and privileged to have been able to walk a little bit of this road with her.