Let The Battle Begin...a journal entry

11/10/05
I'm in warfare. A battle for the lives of my young children.

Joshua 14:12

Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You, yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large & fortified, but the Lord is helping me, I will drive them out just as He said.

14:13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb, son of Jepbunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance....because he followed the Lord with his whole heart.

14:15 Then the land had rest from war.

Caleb made decisions based on what he believed about God. His faith in who God was and what God had promised far out weighted what the circumstances looked like. His decision to trust God at His word and act accordingly pleased the Lord and the Lord gave Caleb and his inheritance rest from war.

How difficult it is sometimes to keep circumstances at bay and set our heart and eyes on things above. There was very little support system for Caleb- one or two out of what, 24,000?!! Yet he kept his "heart" focused on God's promise.

I don't have people around me like Caleb did, throwing seeds of doubt my way--only my own thoughts. They must be arrows of doubt from Satan. I will combat them with my sheild of faith-believing what I can't see. Trusting in the promises God has given me. Trusting in my God who has provided for and taken care of me before. The God who gave Caleb rest from war is the very same, exact God who cares to know my name. Rest for me will come. This particular battle in this big war will be won. Then I will have another memorial, another marker of God's outstanding care for me and my descendants.

Oh to be 10!..a journal entry

11/5/05
I find myself, yet again, captivated by the colors of fall. And even though, generally speaking, colors haven't been widespread, God, in His attention to the details of my life, has poured buckets of reds, yellows and oranges in my own front yard. Two days ago I dragged Steve outside to see the street side of the tree on the left. Even though they are both October Glory Maples, the one on the left has the most stunning array of colors. The one on the right waits about a week longer to change and it doesn't have all the yellows in it; tons of red and green still, so I'm sure if the left one wasn't there I would think the right one was beautiful, but as it is, the left one captivates me. It draws my eye and makes me tilt my head to take in the entire picture. One day I went into the yard to stand under it and look up through it! Oh to have been 10 years old! I would have climbed up into it and sat for hours!