2011 Pocket Calendar

A pocket calendar tells so much.

As I was cleaning out my purse today I took the time to update my calendar book.However, I still want to keep the old one. Why? It's really quite useless now; the calendar doesn't apply anymore and the address book needs updating.

But it tells so much! I could spend an hour looking back on the pages that tell of kids birthdays, 4-H meetings, and vacations!

So thank you, old calendar book, for helping me look back on the year that has come and gone. To reminisce on the boring meetings, the tedious doctor's appointments and the mundane days. However, you have also reminded me of our two daughters graduating from college, Carly's qualifying for state fair, our vacation to the sand dunes in Florence, Oregon, and our summer with our foreign exchange student from China.

Farewell, 2011. I look forward to filling my new pocket calendar with 2012 events and commitments

A Lesson from Abraham

Genesis 22: 1&2

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."



I struggle with this story everytime I read it. How can a parent even consider hauling their child to a place where they must sacrifice him? I try to understand Isaac's heart and imagine what it must have been going through his head. But I still don't understand. Until today.

It's not that I suddenly feel that this is o.k. I still cannot imagine planning the long journey that would end in my son's death, and the determination to execute it. I struggle with the question of "How could God ask such a thing from Isaac?" Now days CPS would be called and Abraham and Sarah's faces would be plastered all over the national news.


But Abraham believed God in a way that I don't. His faith was such that he trusted in God's perfect plan, and KNEW that his way is perfect, no matter how convoluted the plan seemed to him. You see, God had a ram walking up the other side of the mountain that Abraham couldn't see.God had a sacrifice coming up the other side. Abraham didn't know it, but God was providing.

In the tapestry of my life that has woven into it trials, heartache, broken relationships and sorrow, I don't always see God's hand. I question where He is and why He doesn't intervene. I want Him to fix it.Now.



I need to remember that God has a plan that I don't see.He is working in that person's heart. He is weaving a provision for my situation. He is causing a ram to climb up the other side of the mountain.While I am taking this journey through life, maybe I can stop and consider Isaac's journey up to the mountain. He had a long time to question what he had to do, but he didn't turn back. He didn't know what the outcome would be, but he still moved forward. He simply believed that God's plan was perfect and trusted in Him in a way that I cannot imagine.





I will always struggle with understanding God's plan, and I will always ask the question, "Why is this happening?" But maybe I can stop and consider Isaac and what he went through. His story gives me a bigger picture of God. Because while Abraham was making that long journey up the mountain to sacrifice his son, God had a ram climbing up the other side.