Tag: love

Not Yet

All at once and very slowly. That’s how things seem to happen in my life. Suddenly it is March, and the sugar snaps seeds are in, and the trees begin to blossom. And yet, the trees stay bare. The seeds have not sprouted. My heat is still on. Lent is here, yet Easter feels far away.

Part of me struggles to grasp that this is 2025. When I was I child that sounded like some fantastical future date. Now the days just tick off like any other year. Full of tasks and to-dos and heart-rending conversations and mindless pursuits. Nick has been gone for almost six years, and yet the earth continues to spin. The trauma from last summer feels like old news but is not a year old.

My sugar snaps sit in the ground. I walk to the garden and stare at the dirt. I grab the hose and spray the soil with water. So much happens that I cannot see. So much is out of my control. So much is unknown.

I must trust that the Lord is working. He is at work in my garden, in my life, in the church, in the nation. I must plant the seeds, water them faithfully, and trust.

It’s hard to do when all I see are weeds and dirt and barren branches.

But the sun is shining. The sun shines for more minutes each day. The grass is slowly turning green, and buds have appeared on the tree branches.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1.

Of course, I have seen many springs, and many trees in bloom. I have watched sugar snap seeds transform into fruit-bearing vines. I know from experience that these things will happen eventually. And this time of waiting will be forgotten, erased by the swift passage of days. But today, I find it difficult to see what the future holds.

What will happen in my garden, my life, the church, the nation? The garden tells me that what it looks like now is not what it will look like in three months or six months. My garden teaches me that there is a lot happening I cannot see.

My garden teaches me that I do not have the ultimate say over what happens. The future is in God’s hands. Today is in God’s hands. I do my part. I pray, I water, I protect, I care for my garden and anyone God places in my path. But my sugar snaps may not grow. Or they may not grow in the manner I would like them to grow. There may be other factors at work which I cannot see and cannot control.

I have a choice. I can be angry and afraid, wringing my hands and expecting the worst, or I can continue to work and trust God with the outcome.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8.

I choose today to be grateful for the bright blue sky, the birds that fly past my window, and the gentle breeze. I’ll water my garden, love my friends and family, and pray for the church and the nation. I’ll support those who need my help and listen to their stories. I’ll open my heart and mind to what God considers just and kind. And I will trust Him with the outcome.

It feels as if things are moving very slowly. But I know that God can make things happen all at once. All at once, the sugar snap vines will grow, the trees will blossom, and Christ will rise from the grave. All at once, these days I spent unsure about the future will be erased by the passage of time and the glory of what God will bring about.

Now therefore take your stand and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. 1 Samuel 12:16.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Potential

I hold seeds in my hand. Within them there is the potential to be tall green plants covered in white blossoms and dangling pea pods.

Potential. Growing up, I hated that word. Embedded in the compliment, I heard the complaint. I could do something, but I wasn’t. If I just apply myself, work a little harder, invest a little more, I could become the person they thought I could and should be. But obviously I wasn’t doing that, and I wasn’t the person they wanted me to be. I was, instead, a slacker.

My sense was that they were looking at a sugar snap seed and wanting me to produce tomatoes. Perhaps that is unfair. Perhaps they were just looking at a seed and wanting it to grow.

Here’s the lesson of the seed, though. Me wanting the seed to grow, and it having the potential to grow, does not make it grow. I cannot make that happen. The seed cannot make that happen. Only God can.

We have roles to play. If the seed is not good, or not a sugar snap seed, it will not produce sugar snaps. If I do not put it in the ground and water it, it will not transform. If I do not support the vine’s growth or protect it from predators, the harvest will be damaged. The garden is a cooperative effort between God and me, between nature and the seed.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

The seed is not enough, even if it has potential. And my desire for the seed cannot transform it into what I want it to be. God, through the amazing architecture of nature, has embedded a nucleus of a fruit-bearing plant in this seed. He alone gives it the power to become all that it has the potential to be.

God has embedded the nucleus of a fruit-bearing soul in me and you. We can help or hinder the transformation of that seed into a healthy, loving, spirit-filled life, but we can’t make it happen. Not by the will of man.

We need to put that seed of ourselves into the hands of God. He alone knows what we have the potential to be.

And this seed is one of hundreds. I will plant all of them. Hopefully, all of them will be transformed into fruit-bearing vines. Often, when we talk about God’s will for our lives, our purpose, we think we have a unique role. We don’t want to be like everyone else. We want to be special. That is pride, my friend. While every snowflake is unique, it takes thousands of snowflakes to carpet the ground in white.

A garden succeeds when multiple plants bring forth the same fruit.

What would our world look like if hundreds or thousands of us stood together and were loving and kind and peaceful? What if wide swaths of us were patient and gentle and joyful?

The Holy Spirit can produce that fruit in us. That is our true potential. We have been given the power to be children of God. God wants us to be a beautiful garden of healthy trees planted beside the river, bearing fruit continuously, and healing the nations (Revelations 22).

I think that is what God sees when he holds the seed of us in His hands. He sees our potential.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Preparation

I took advantage of our brief window of warm weather Saturday to prepare the garden for sugar snaps. These lovely plants grow too tall for the tomato cages. Laden with fruit, they bend and fall to the ground instead of reaching for the sun.

Once the peas are planted and the cages set over them, I can attach the strings to the cages and let the vines climb them. Of course, I may need the ladder to pick the fruit! Right now it looks like some weird decoration gone wrong.

I may need more strings when the plants are growing. It’s difficult to anticipate, even after having grown sugar snaps for years. There’s always an insecurity that I have done too little or wasted my time doing something not needed at all.

The pictures in the catalogue seduced me again and I ordered lavender plants for the front of my house. When Nick was alive to tend to the vegetables, I tended to the flowers in front of the house. Now that I am tending the vegetables, the flower garden has become rather drab. I may have overcommitted myself (again!), but I needed to order the sugar snap seeds and once I was on the site…  If you give a gardener a seed packet, they’re going to want a root ball.

There are steps that need to happen now in preparation for a garden that will be planted later. There is a garden that needs to be planted in order to have home grown vegetables and blooming flowers later.

A garden, like life, is not instantaneous. To be successful, you need to plan, and you need to prepare. This is a simple truth most of us understand. We learned it by taking tests in elementary school. We learned it on costume day and picture day.

Do we know this about our spiritual journey?

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom, Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with the lamps. Matthew 25:1-4.

The wise ones were prepared. They had brought flasks of oil with them. They had strung a trellis for the vines to climb. They had bought the seeds and plants. They had memorized the scriptures. They had learned to hear the still small voice of God.

Are you prepared to meet your maker? The question may make us smirk and roll our eyes, but the question is a real one. Are you? Are you prepared?

What does that even mean to you?

For me, it means that I am letting His Spirit review how I am spending my time. Am I reading the Word? Memorizing scripture? Learning His voice? If I sense the Spirit leading me to do something, am I doing it? Have I apologized to the people I know I have offended?

I can’t do this once. I must do it every day. Every day, I must spend time in prayer and let the Spirit guide me. Everyday I need to top off my oil reserves with some scripture. Everyday, I must visualize my garden growing and prepare for what it needs to thrive.

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Matthew 24:42-44.

Join me in taking advantage of today to prepare.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Melted Snow

The snow has melted and sent its stored water into the ground, into the creeks, and along its way. From the ground, the water will encourage seeds to transform into plants. It will provide moisture to the microbes and worms and creatures that live in the soil. The water that seeps into roots will travel into stems, up stalks, out branches, and into leaves and flowers and berries.

The melted snow that flows into creeks will gather into rivers from which animals can drink. Fish will thrive in these waters and animals will feast on them. As the waters gather, some will be diverted to supply our thirst, power our homes and machinery, and irrigate distant crops. Abundant water flows into the oceans that cover the earth.

Warmer temperatures will heat the collected water into the air forming clouds that winds will carry to parched areas, sharing this stored water with others.

Water is rarely stagnant, rarely stays in one form for long. Remembers those drawings from grade school about rain and evaporation? One of the wonders of water is that it is continually giving itself to the next need. Whether it is moisture for dry ground, sap for a tree, water for a deer, habitat for fish, or rain for distant plains, water is always giving.

Perhaps all of God’s gifts are like that. Perhaps everything is supposed to flow.

I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. Genesis 12:3.

What if we saw every gift sent our way as a gift meant to be shared with the next one in line? Our time, our resources, our abilities, the family and nation into which we were born, our experiences, the lessons we learn, all of everything – given to us not just for our benefit or learning, but to be shared with others; to flow from us into the larger world.

And let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ John 7:38.

I spent the last week in San Antonio, Texas. The largest mission there, Mission San Jose, was started by a monk who had spent the previous forty-three years of his life walking throughout Central America, Louisiana, and Texas sharing the gospel with whomever he found. Can you imagine? That seems an undoable task now. Imagine what is was like in the late sixteen hundreds. He referred to himself as “la misma nada,” nothing itself. Signed his letters that way.

The purpose of the missions has fallen out of favor in the anti-imperialistic, multi-cultural world of today, but this man, and many others like him, gave everything, every part of their life, to water the world with God’s love.

Sometimes, I hesitate to bring up God around people I don’t know well. Perhaps I am hoarding my blessing instead of sharing it.

God’s love, God’s passion for people, His willingness to join with us and care for us and forgive us and embrace us – this is Good News, my friend. This is an unimaginable gift. This is bigger than the most important person you can imagine calling you on the phone and inviting you to dinner. This is GOD, the creator of the universe, Lord of heaven’s armies, giver of all life, meeting with you in your den. And bringing the wine.

People need to know how much God loves them. We can let them know by passing on God’s love for us to them. We can share every gift we have with them. We can love others as God has loved us – with everything we have. We don’t have to walk for forty-three years to do it.

Perhaps the first step is to admit that we are nothing without God. God gave us everything we have, made us in our mother’s womb, and gave us breath. We are loved so that we will love others.

Let the water flow.

Love in Christ, Betsy

The New Year

January arrives wet and cold. The ground sinks under my weight as I go out to the garden for the first time in weeks. Intrepid winter weeds dapple my brown yard with green.

Nothing is happening in my garden. It looks very much like it did after I planted the garlic in December. Only wetter. I should say that there is nothing happening that I can see. Because there is a lot happening where I can’t see it.

Underneath the cardboard, garlic cloves are fattening themselves on nutrients from the dirt and an abundance of water. Below the leafless branches of the fig and raspberry, their roots are growing thicker and stronger. They too are collecting and storing nutrients for the coming year.

Under my yard, hidden aquifers are replenishing their stores of water. Unfelt vibrations of the earth are pushing rocks and minerals to the surface. The ground is using this time of rest. The earth needs to lie fallow for periods of time, just as we do.

But I wonder if I do that, lie fallow and rest, well enough. Is just the winter enough of a sabbath for my garden? Is just an occasional “down day” enough for my spiritual life? I observe Sabbath during lent; should I do it year-round?

2 Chronicles 36:21 makes refence to the holy land making up for its lost sabbaths while the jews were in exile in Babylonia. As if God was imposing a stop in activity because his people would not take it willingly. A stop in agricultural activity and a stop in normal life. It echoes God’s promise in Leviticus.

Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. Leviticus 26:34-35.

I am not going to make the leap that if we do not rest, God will make us rest, but there is some scientific support for the concept. Stress kills people. Inadequate sleep leads to poor decision making, unhealthy habits, and a weakened immune system. We need our rest.

The land needs its rest. Some say the pandemic was a forced sabbath for people and for the land. Almost five years later, I hope we taking regular small sabbaths, self- imposed rests for our mental and physical wellbeing. God made us and all creation to need rest.

Rest may look like nothing is happening, but we know that is not true. Rest allows us to absorb nutrients and strengthen our root system. Rest fattens the Spirit’s presence within us and prepares us for the coming year. Rest allows the rain that falls to fill our hidden reservoirs.

The rain has made my yard spongy and filled my creek. I love to see the water ripple over the rocks and swirl in the eddies. I love to think of how much life is carried in that water. Life for the dormant fish eggs lying among the rocks. Life for the resting trees lining the creek banks. Life for the growing plants who will benefit from the aquifers this creek fills.

On the last day of the festival, on the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’” John 7:37-38.

January arrives wet and cold. What a great time to rest and refill the river of living water in our hearts.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Merry Christmas

Thank you for taking a moment amid all the celebration to join me in the Victory Garden.

Years ago, a favorite pastor reminded us that the Lord who lived for nine months in Mary’s womb, lives eternally in those of us who call him Lord.

Take a moment and let that sink in.

***

The Spirit of God lives in us.

And I wilk ask the Father, and he will give to you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. John 14:16-17.

And just as any mother must take care of the life growing within her, we need to take care of the holy life abiding within us. Feed, nurture, listen to that being’s needs, desires, urgings.

The baby Jesus left Mary’s body, but His Holy Spirit leads ours into an ever-closer relationship with God and Jesus, into an eternal life with our God.

If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the holy Spirit that dwells in you. Romans 8:11.

And just as Mary brought Jesus into the world, we are privileged to bring His love into the world around us. The Holy Spirit has come upon us (Luke 1:35), and we are bearing the fruit of His presence, extending His kingdom with our obedience to his calling.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit from God, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19.

The Spirit of God lives in us who profess Jesus as Lord. Hallelujah. Christ the Lord is born today. Where meek souls will receive him, the dear Christ enters in.

Merry Christmas!

Love in Christ, Betsy

The Unknown and the Constant

I took advantage of the warm sunny afternoon to prepare more of my garden for the coming months. The recent freeze had killed the weeds which still grew along the edges of the tomato garden, and I wanted to extend the cardboard under the fence before the weeds grew back.

The weather was perfect. Bright sun elevated my spirit, cool weather kept me from overheating, birds twittered from the hedgerow, commenting on my progress. A wonderful way to spend an hour before the big game started.

How different gardening has become in the years since my husband passed. Nick never touched the garden once hunting season started. Now, tomatoes grow into October, and I spread the winterizing of the garden over months. Nick tilled every spring, an arduous task that I am learning how to avoid. If I can improve my weed prevention techniques, perhaps I can maintain a no-till garden.

I wonder, though, if perhaps the old ways were better. My creeks will flood again. They do so every ten years or so. I depend on it to refresh the garden soil. If the garden is covered, how will the soil be replenished? Perhaps I will need to vary the methods, pull up the cardboard around the plants and use weed cloth, let the garden go to grass every few years and till it. Maybe I will need to have a fallow year. (What would I write about!!)

It seems the future of my garden is full of unknowns. Even if I did all the research for best practices, the weather is different every year, the soil is different, my availability is different. My garlic was to be planted in November after the first freeze, but we didn’t freeze until December, green grass still covers my yard, and the garlic bulbs sit by the door. They need cold earth to propagate. I may have already waited too late, but I will bury the bulbs soon no matter the weather.

Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:14-15.

I have lost two friends suddenly in the past month, as well as the mother of another friend. Life is one way, and then that way changes. The patterns I have established for my life change, not because I want them to, but because the world around me has changed. Just like my garden is different now. I adapt. We all do. The option to not adapt is there, but the results aren’t pretty.

Maybe that is the beauty of our faith in an Eternal God. He is our constant while the world around us changes. He is our north star when we are lost, our point of focus when we are spinning. He is with us, not only here and now, but also as we change from this life to the next. What a gift! What a blessing to have an eternal God beside us, before us, behind us, and through the gift of His Spirit, within us.

For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:5.

Christmas is in two weeks. It won’t look like what it used to look like for me. Maybe it won’t for you either. It’s okay to miss the way things used to be. It’s okay to adopt new patterns. It’s okay to change them around every year based on the situation at hand. The point is to keep our focus on God, on His incarnation as Jesus, on His presence as the Holy Spirit.

What a beautiful Christmas gift!

Love in Christ, Betsy

A Moment of Calm

Silence. My home has been buzzing with family and friends and cooking and cleaning and taking down and putting up. And amid all this chaos, I have been given a moment of calm.

I drink my coffee and marvel at how the frost sparkles in the sunlight. How big the birds seem all fluffed up against the sudden chill. When was the last time my grass was still green in December? Does this mean we will have big snows in March? What freedom to let my mind wander and wonder and leave it all in God’s hands.

The melody drifts through my thoughts. He has the whole world in His hands. He has you and me, brother, in His hands. There is plenty to do; there always will be plenty to do; but we can be calm and rest in the confidence that God has this.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 26:33.

I find it so easy to be caught up in the drama of the world. Little personal dramas of those I love. Political dramas which may or may not affect my life in the coming years. International dramas in which I have no role at all. If all that fails, there’s football.

At some level, I think I like the stress, the drama, even the chaos of family and friends and coming and going and taking down and putting up. Relationships are important. Purpose is important. I have a role – mother, grandmother, hostess, friend. I want to do my best in those roles.

But this moment of calm, what a gift!

In this moment of calm, I remember that my first relationship is to God the Father, Son, and Spirit. My primary purpose is to share His love with others.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33.

Advent has begun. For many of us that signals an increase in activity. Church services, performances, luncheons, parties, family gatherings, decorating, shopping, cooking. Advent can be an emotional time as well as we long for Christmases past with people who have left us or remember situations we’d rather forget.

The Church tells us that advent is a time of quiet preparation, a time when we contemplate Christ’s incarnation. Imagine what it must have been like to move from creator of the universe, able to speak worlds into existence, to helpless infant, unable to speak at all. He considered a relationship with me, with you, with that annoying person down the street, important enough that He would give up everything to tell us He loves us. Amazing.

I am taking this moment of calm to let that thought soak in. Do I love anyone enough to give up all my abilities, all my possessions, all my identity to tell them I love them? How sad that even after doing all that, some refuse to believe Him.

What an amazing gift – His birth, His life as a human, His presence. How can I begin to thank Him for that? What could I ever give Him in return?

By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35.

As advent begins, dear friends, take a moment to sit calmly with God. All those other things can wait for a while. Let you mind wander and wonder. Think on the beauty of the world and the incredible gift of God’s incarnation. Let go of the chaos for a minute or two. God is good. God has overcome the world. God loves you. God loves every one of us.

God is with us. Christ be with you.

Betsy

Flawed

A letter arrived the other day, from one of you. It moved me profoundly. God is using these words that tumble from my brain and that is very exciting.

I went to a writer’s conference full of confidence from the letter, only to lose my credit card in the hustle and bustle. I cancelled the card, and ordered a new one, making a list of companies who would need the new information. Then I found the card. I had looked for it; I had looked for it where I found it, but in my panic, I hadn’t seen it. Then suddenly, there it was. Now I have made unnecessary work for myself. There’s a lesson here, but it is hard to learn.

Stop, Betsy. Stop trying to do everything yourself. Stop pushing so hard. Slow down, ease up, fail a little.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness,” so I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

But I confess – I don’t like weakness. I still want to send out the perfect family Christmas card. I haven’t been able to send one out since Nick died. I show the cute pictures of the grandkids. I don’t even take pictures of them when they are screaming. I brag about my kids, my trips, and my friends.

Sometimes I even brag about what God is doing in my life as if I had something to do with it.

But the truth is, my friends. I am a mess. I lose my credit card in my suitcase. I forget to look at my calendar and miss things. Dishes pile up in the sink, old mail covers my table, and light bulbs go unreplaced. I am too physically soft to garden by myself. I am slow to forgive, especially if it’s not me you have hurt. I insert myself into situations that are not my responsibility. I talk too much. Sometimes I covet worldly wealth and acclaim. And, spoiler alert if you don’t know me, I overeat.

I can pretend that none of these things are true, but it wouldn’t make them less true. I share them because I bet there are some imperfections in you as well. What if we could see these imperfections as places where the Holy Spirit could work through us? What if I could stop pretending that I am a put-together person?

What if God is using me, not because I am so wonderful, but because I am such a mess?

Perhaps my weaknesses help me remember my need for others. I can’t do this, whatever this may be, by myself. I am physically soft, slow to forgive, and careless with belongings; I need others to help me achieve whatever God has put on my heart to do.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12.

I don’t have to be perfect, and I don’t have to pretend that I am perfect. I don’t even have to pretend that I have perfected letting others help me. In fact, I may be here to help someone else, not have them help me. One body, working together. The body of Christ in the world. All of us flawed, all of us imperfect, all of us welcomed in grace.

For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly… But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:6,8.

It’s okay if you are a mess; we all are. And God loves us anyway.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Connecting

A soft rain and a chilly breeze alert me that the weather has caught up to the calendar. I can turn off my A/C and get out my sweaters. My plans to putter in the yard are put on hold. This will be an inside day. I look forward to snuggling under a blanket with a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate. I might not see anyone today.

Connecting with others is vital to mental health. We learned that during the pandemic. Today, connecting can happen in a myriad of ways, the splashy methods often overshadowing the quieter ones. I’ve seen the quips – four million likes, sixty thousand followers, two hundred thousand subscribers. I have friends who follow thousands of people on twitter. I also have friends who don’t do social media at all. I have friends who don’t text. I would still prefer to have a conversation using my vocal chords.

My writing associates talk a lot about connecting with readers. Not so much because they think you, the reader, need to hear about what they, the writers, have to say; but because connection is vital. It’s the underlying emotion behind those “tell how we met” posts.

It’s got me thinking about how Jesus connected with people. He had every possible means of communication at His disposal. If it didn’t exist, He could create it with a word. He could have come in this age of international, instantaneous communication. But He didn’t.

Jesus walked the earth when walking was the predominate means of travel. Jesus met with people one on one. Jesus spoke to whomever gathered around him, one woman or five thousand men. To our knowledge, He never wrote a letter. His words come to us filtered through the ears and pens of others.

It almost seems like Jesus was more concerned with the connections He was making than with the words He was speaking. And yet, such words!

Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28.

It’s easy to be concerned about what we say, to whom, and who hears it, reads it, comments on it. I worry about the words spoken in error, in haste, in anger, in ignorance. But words, as poignant as they can be, are secondary to connection.

When I am connected with someone, when I have a relationship with them, I can forgive those words spoken in haste, in anger. Hopefully, they can too. I worry about the words I send out each week. We are not speaking one-on-one, using our vocal chords, but I do feel connected to you, and I pray you feel connected to me.

Take a moment today to connect with God. Sit in silence. Stand with your feet in the grass and take deep breaths. Turn your face to the sky and feel the raindrops or the sunshine. Read a chapter of the Bible with your mind open to what the Holy Spirit wants to say.

God loves you. He wants to take you in His arms and comfort you. He wants you to let go of the tight grip you have on your life and let the tears flow. He has this, whatever this is. Your fears? He is greater. Your anger? He has soothing balm. Your guilt? He will wash it away.

God won’t make your life easy. No one’s life is easy; the problems are just different for each of us. God connects with us. God sent His Spirit to walk with us twenty-four, seven. God created the deepest connection ever imagined – He sent His Spirit to live in us. That is connected, my friend.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16.

We are not alone. We never were and we never will be. God is with us. I pray you take a moment to reach out to God today. And after that, reach out to whomever he puts in your mind. Use your vocal chords and connect.

Love in Christ, Betsy