FROM THE KITCHEN WINDOW

Oh, the things you can learn when you slow down.

When you stop and notice your surroundings.

When the TV and music are turned off, the windows open and the breeze gently ruffling the curtains.

When you stand at the kitchen counter, hands and forearms submerged in soapy dishwater, looking out the kitchen window.

You notice the neighbor's new puppy.

You see it playing on the porch stoop with it's assortment of puppy toys, small balls, stuffed animals, tug-ropes.

You go back to washing dishes. Noticing the rainbow of colors each soap bubble holds.

Then you hear they puppy bark. And bark again.

You glance up in time to see said puppy tearing across the yard, barking his little head off, attempting not to stumble over his long, floppy ears--towards a tree branch the wind has set to moving.

He grabs the branch. He twists his head, turns his little body, he attaches himself tightly to the little branch that's just his height.

That's when I see him and that's when I hear God...

Puppy begins to run back towards the safety of his front stoop--with the branch still clamped with his puppy teeth.

He gets about 3 feet from the tree and the branch flips him over backwards because that branch is still attached to the tree, which is still firmly rooted in the ground.

God says to me, 'You do that, little one. You do it more often that either of care to realize.'

Instead of staying and playing with what He's provided me, enjoying it, acknowledging my blessings and gifts, I run off after things that catch my eye or divert my attention.

I grab hold.

I determine in my heart and mind that I'm going to take it as my own.

And I take off.

Then I go a little ways and get my world up-ended trying to handle things not meant for me to handle, trying to do things not meant for me to do, trying to figure out tomorrow when my figuring out leads me to ignore today, trying to maintain sanity while my hands and mind are full of worries I've chosen to pick up and attempt to carry.

I laughed out loud at the little puppy, but I didn't laugh at what God showed me through him.

HUMILITY
Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 11-15

"The king and the leaders of Israel humbled themselves and said, The Lord is right in doing this to us!" 2 Chronicles 12:6 NLT

On our knees looking up allows us a different vantage point to problems, situations and heartache.

It changes our focus.

It reminds us of exactly who we are in relationship to who God is--and wants to be in our lives.

It places the power and responsibility of our past, present and future squarely in His capable hands.

It allows us to look into His eyes and know, with out a shadow of a doubt, He is for us and whatever has come our way has been filtered through His heart before it ever reaches us.