February 24, 2014 - "The Mighty Warrior Dog"

Good morning and can you believe we are already concluding February this week and a week later changing to Day Light Savings Time? Can someone shout, "slow down?" Remember, this is LIfe Group Sunday and I am making pizza. YUM! Let me know if you're coming and, if possible, what you will be contributing so I can plan enough pizza. I acquired some YUMMY recipes last month from our group and have already started making some of them. We start at 6pm. Come and have a meal with a group of healthy eaters who are just crazy enough to believe healthy food can actually taste good! PS - the pizza is made with almond flour and actually very good. Bring a friend. This weekend I had my first three day, over-night sleepover with the grand puppy. Yes, I said grand puppy. Teree and the girls headed to Florida for the last few days of winter break and guess who was on grandma duty with their dog? Me. Macy is a small cocker spaniel who is two and very smart. VERY SMART. On Saturday while I was walking her, now remember she's small, she happened to jump upon a large stick and it "kicked up" at her. She jumped about 6 inches and started baking hysterically and growling as she crouched and "sized-up" the enemy. She slowly began to bark with authority as she crawled ready to defend herself and her Nina (that's me) from the enemy. She never realized that the enemy (the stick) had no power to attack her, as she had caused it to kick up, but with every passing second she became more the warrior. She progressed from being the crouched down, shy "I might be scared of you" dog to this champion with a bowed chest and piercing bark. She turned her head and dared that stick to move. All I could do was laugh. Then the wind blew and a sound came from the leaves around the stick...and the mighty warrior dog jumped back and cowered again still pawing the ground and trying to gain her, "I'm not scared of you bark." Eventually, she inched closer again and confidently reminded the enemy who was boss. Tears filled my eyes from laughing so hard. But aren't we a lot like that sometimes? An issue in our life jumps up at us - sometimes without provocation and sometimes because we made a mistake - and it can appear to be the monster of all issues and fear grips our heart and torments our mind. I have been there. How about you? However, we must always remind ourselves that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:7) There is no issue in our life that God cannot handle and the Holy Spirit help us through. But sometimes when the issue rises up multiple times, we can begin to lose hope that God sees and God will never leave us. Courage can run out the window. What really happens is that our faith in God can begin to dwindle and if He is removed from the defensive strategy, our mind seems to default to fear again. Can I share with you my definition of courage: "Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is trusting God in the presence of fear." God shared that with me several years ago and it really kept me to the truth. No matter what our feelings say - God's Word says He will never leave us nor forsake us. FOREVER. Our issues are simply places to gain maturity in God's eyes. He's always present in our present issues. While I might not see the stick (back to Macy) the way God does, I can rest assured that as long as I am connected to God (as Macy was on my leash and I was right there with her) I have nothing to fear. Had the stick been a real threat to Macy, I would have rescued her. Remind yourself today: Power, love, and a sound mind all come from my being connected to God and the issues of my life are but inanimate objects to the Creator of the universe. That's a great way to start a week! PK