Month: December 2016

What Does Your 2017 Look Like?

My husband challenges me daily to press into all that the Lord has created me to be.  The following, by Sir Francis Drake, written in the year 1580, was in my email box from Bill this morning as he asked me this question, “What does your 2017 look like?”  I pass this along to spur your thinking as well so that we all hit our mark with intention and without fear in the upcoming new year.

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

 

Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

 

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

 

We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

 

 

 

Parfum de’ Peppy

Fighting to open my eyes in order to escape the odor that was surely coming from a terrible dream, I sat up in bed gasping for fresh air. Upon gaining my complete senses, I realized the pungent odor was not a dream at all.

My husband Bill and I live in a very cozy, small, frame house that was built in 1950. The house sits on cement blocks with a galvanized skirt below the floor that encompasses the entire parameter of the house.   From time to time, small critters squeeze their way around the skirt to use the space in between the floor and the ground for refuge. I have seen cats come and go in order to escape the weather elements and an occasional litter of kittens has been born beneath our little yellow cottage with red doors. We have never been bothered by the fury squatters and have not deemed it necessary to completely seal the breaches around the house.

On this particular morning however, I knew we had an unwelcomed guest beneath the floor of our bedroom. We moved swiftly to get dressed and out of the house as the air spaces between the old pine floors seemed to emit the scent of a very agitated skunk which, more than likely, met up with one of the neighborhood cats as one caught the other by complete surprise. Before we could get out, the entire house was engulfed with Parfum de’ Peppy.

The scent gland of a skunk, located under the tail, is used to protect the animal when it is in defense mode. The small mammal sprays its musk at the perceived enemy without regard to the rest of its surroundings. Skunk musk has a lingering odor and is extremely offensive which innocent bystanders do not easily escape.

Lately, I have given thought to my own stinky skunk behavior. When I am agitated, give in to fear, cannot get my way and choose to spew my negativity at someone; I am no different than the pesky skunk beneath our house. My unwholesome words and attitude, like the skunk musk, affect the hearts of others in my environment causing them to repel rather than draw close.

Ephesians 4:29 – Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.