Comforts of Grace

April showers bring May flowers ...  well, they actually brought them in April this year and they lasted through early May.   The squirrels have long-ago dug up the pretty, red tulips that I planted over ten years ago, but they tend to leave the daffs alone.  Next month, we'll enjoy the peony and rose displays. I delight in all signs of spring.  As Chris and I enjoy conversations and observe nature from one of our favorite rooms in the house ...  the screen room ... I made my yearly confession of how spring is my favorite season (with fall following closely in second place).  Spring just radiates fresh, new life.  Brilliant colors of green, yellow, red and pink repaint the dark, gray, slumbering landscape of our LONG Indiana winters. The first week of May, Chris mowed the yard for the first time and tilled the two vegetable gardens.  Our undesirable zoya grass always stays brown far longer than the neighbors without zoya.   We can ...

This month, the Ram Fam finally celebrated Christmas 2021 and combined it with Easter 2022.  I hope it is the first and only such holiday combination in the future because the reasons behind the delayed/combination were, well, quite frightening at the start and varied as the months continued. The week of Christmas, one of our adult chicks, Taylor, announced he tested positive for Covid.  So we put our Christmas gathering on pause until we knew it could be safely rescheduled for a time when all six families of our flock could be together.   Unfortunately, our strong, healthy chick didn't catch a mild case of Covid.  As the days wore on, he progressively got worse.  While he wasn't hospitalized, thank the Lord, it was a day-by-day uncertainty during his three weeks off work.  His full-strength recovery took an additional several weeks, but he was back to his ornery self again by late January, after many days of prayer and healing blessings from God. Resc...

 A familiar, uneasy feeling of fear began taunting my thoughts as I sat in my chair listening to the first guest speaker at a local women's conference.   "Oh no," I thought, "not you again, fear.  What have I gotten myself into with my attendance here?"   The conference advertisement had piqued my interest with a schedule of testimonies from ordinary women who found healing in their deepest trials.  I could relate with the generic marketing statement and when a good friend suggested we attend together, I did not hesitate and signed up immediately.  I really hadn't thought about what I expected to gain from the conference held at a local church.  I mainly wanted to show support to a first-time conference presenter with my attendance.  She has a wonderful, growing women's ministry and I was so happy for her courageous new conference steps.  I awaited a day filled with His guidance, His comfort, His protection, His provisions, His heal...

Finally, brothers and sisters... whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable... think about such things... and the God of peace will be with you.  ~Philippians 4:8-9 Morning sunrise April 21, 2021.   Peace.   Joy.   Gentleness. Izzy says, "By my measurements, I'd say about 3 inches." Yep! Noon sunshine ushering in 50 degrees outside. 24 hours later... it's a typical Indiana spring. For Him,

Is anyone else having intense dreams during these pandemic times?  I certainly am and so is my husband.  Many are disjointed and make no sense at all.  We often can't remember all the details to share, but know it was intense, crazy or weird.  However, on rare occasions, a dream is so vivid with remembered details that we can't wait to analyze its meaning and purpose.  I had such a dream last week. In my dream, I was traveling alone in an airport.  I remember immediately questioning why I was alone and without my husband who has always been my traveling companion - at least the last twenty years of our forty years together.  Oh, I get it, (or so I thought in my dream's beginning) this dream was going to take me back to a time when I often traveled alone for a corporate management position I held during my twenties and thirties.  But nope.  I was made to realize right away (and with great importance) I was my current age in the dream.  A ...

God's candy.  That's how our youngest son, Austin, deliciously described sun-warmed, fresh picked strawberries as sweet juice trickled down his little chin.   I savor that precious mama memory every year during picking season. As we patiently waited to pick the ruby red "candy" this year, we were reminded of God's faithfulness, goodness, and delicious joy for such a time as this. "Look for the fruit," the Lord always whispers as I seek His guidance throughout my days.  It's all around us ... if we pause and look.   Let the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control be your trusted guide, especially during this difficult season of 2020. For Him,

God-Time this morning included the following devotional message for January 7th.  In this new year season of reflection and response, I pray and strive for my life to display the beauty and unwavering trust in Him as written below by L. B. Cowman. "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." ~ Philippians 4:11 Paul, while being denied every comfort, wrote the above words from a dark prison cell. A story is told of a king who went to his garden one morning, only to find everything withered and dying.  He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was.  The oak said it was tired of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine tree.  The pine was troubled because it could not bear grapes like the grapevine.  The grapevine was determined to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and produce fruit as large as peaches.  The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragra...