Dear Praying Friends and Family,
I was planning to take my cat, Peach, and have her put to sleep this morning. She has been progressively getting worse, and i knew the time was drawing near to have her put down. Yesterday, it rained, and when she came out of the gutter, muddy and wet, weak, and wobbly, i knew that it was time. However, when i got ready to load her up in the car this morning, she was nowhere to be found. She was up under the truck earlier, but she must have been frightened when my son left, and headed for the gutter again. She can't protect herself by climbing high, so she is going low. It's been a slow and sad journey for me and for Peach. She had a large tumor removed a few months ago, and seemed to rally for a while after recovering. A week or so ago, i noticed her limping, and she vanished for a couple of days. When she returned, i could feel the lumps in her neck and throughout her skinny body. So, ya'll pray for me, and our family as we say goodbye to Peaches. We've had her around 8 years since she was a kitten and Hannah Beth picked her and her sister out at the Pound one day with her Daddy. Our cat Cuddles, had disappeared, and we were heartbroken. Hannah Beth asked her Daddy for a kitten...so they went to the pound to pick one out. He came home saying she wanted two kittens who were sisters...so Hannah Beth and i went back and brought the two little kittens home. The next day, Cuddles returned after being gone a month! We were thrilled that GOD had brought Cuddles home...we sure had prayed for her but sad for her because now there were two kittens to replace her and she had to get used to them...which she did. Peaches sister, Princess was the pretty one, fluffy and even tempered. Princess was hit by a car several years ago, after i let our Golden Retriever out and she chased Princess out in the road. She lived for several weeks afterwards, and we were hoping her nerves would regenerate in her back end, restoring her kidney function. Our sweet neighbor, Lori Perry White, who is a vet, would mash on Princess' bladder to help her go to the bathroom. Eventually Princess lost control of her bowels and we knew we had to put her down. That's the last time, we have had to put a pet to sleep and it was hard. We should have had Cuddles put to sleep when she kept having seizures, but she died a painful death at home and i didn't want to watch Peach suffer like Cuddles did. Peach, has always been on the skittish side, and affection came only at selected times...when she chose it. Her sickness has caused her to be more affectionate, since it's slowed her down. Peach and Princess both were always good with our dogs, opting to go on long walks with Dixie, our Golden Retriever, when we just had one dog. Once, i remember walking down to Lake Ida, when it had frozen around the edges. We were all walking on the frozen ice, including Peach and Princess. When Midnight, our Black Lab came along, it was a different story... Princess was no longer with us, but Peach usually opted to stay behind...she knew to keep her distance from rambuncious Midnight. I think about Peach following us down the road, at a safe distance on late summer nights. She had her way of showing affection...it was just usually at a distance. She never liked for you to hold her too long. If you picked her up, she was usually fighting to get down, but she would roll over, and let "Troy," our Maltipoo bite on her paws and tail, until he got carried away, and then she would run away to a safe distance. Not too long ago she was feeling like coming to the front door while we were outside, even this week. It makes me sad to think of Peaches so sick and even though she didn't like to be held, I will miss her. When i was growing up we lived on a busy highway and we were never able to keep pets as long as we have in our married life. As those of you know who have kept pets til they grew old, it's difficult to watch them be sick, and come to that time when you need to have them put to sleep.
Peach bathing in my drinking water last Sunday.
I am thankful for the years that GOD blessed our family with Peach. GOD sure does give them to us to love, and them to love us, even when we ignore them, and aren't the best to them. I can think of the countless times, i've walked past her through the years, not even acknowledging she was there, but she kept loving us. We learn a lot from our pets, and Peach sure had her way of showing us unconditional love. She was an outdoor cat, but she liked to come in the winter. I know there were a lot of days she would have like to have been inside...and sometimes we did let her in. When she had her large tumor removed back in the winter....she got to stay upstairs for several days. I'm glad she recovered to the point she was ready to go outside again, but i don't know if i had it to do the surgery over, that i would. I just have to trust that was the LORD's plan. The surgery was very difficult on her and we knew that it would probably only extend her life a short time...and the vet was right.
My sis in law's Daddy died this past Sunday on his birthday. He had been diagnosed with cancer a short time ago, and had recently finished up some treatments. He requested to be moved to the nursing home, after everything was set up for him to be cared for at home. His sweet daughters, wanting to please their Daddy, granted him his wish, and he only spent two nights there, where he died peacefully. The funeral was very CHRIST centered and honoring to Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller attended Tanner United Methodist Church where he had donated money for the choir to have robes. The choir was at the funeral in their robes that Mr. Miller had given the money for. They weren't a very big choir, but when they sang "In the Garden," you could feel the presence of the LORD JESUS in the room. They were a great blessing to me as they sang. They sang another song too, but i can't remember what it was. A lady sang and played "Amazing Grace," and then Mr. Miller's pastor, and his former pastor got up to share. His pastor shared about the victory we have in CHRIST JESUS, and this day of honoring his life is a great day for a CHRISTian. I am reminded in Ecclesiastes 7:1 where it says, " A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth." Mr. Miller had a good name, a good reputation, and he cared for the needs of those around him. Br. Eddy Gooch told about Mr. Miller having several rental properties, and it was common for his renters to be late with their payment. Mr. Miller was compassionate when they were late paying their rent money. Br. Eddy said that Mr. Miller probably at one time knew what it was like to get behind and not be able to pay on time. I know that Mr. Miller and his wife, who died a few years ago, raised a fine family of wonderful children. My sister in law is one of the sweetest people i have ever know and her brother, Jeremy is too. They are both wonderful dedicated CHRISTians...spreading the fragrance of CHRIST wherever they are. Please remember my sister in law, Wendy, and her family in your prayers...i know they are going to miss their Daddy very much.
Well, i hadn't meant to write about either of the things i wrote about above, and i'm always amazed when i sit down to write, what GOD brings forth out of this feeble brain. What i did want to tell you about was a bike ride i took earlier this week on the trail beside the creek. The LORD has blessed me with several late evening bike rides this week, which have been a healing balm to my soul. I have had the blessing of seeing deer on the trail this week, as i rode off the main path through the woods, a rabbit last night, and earlier in the week...i encountered a snake. I was riding along, and didn't notice it until i was right over it, and it was too late to stop. As soon as i passed by, i stopped at a safe distance, and watched it. It was curled up, and at first i wasn't sure if it was dead or alive.
But as i watched, it slowly began to uncurl and i realized it was still alive. It managed to slowly uncurl itself, and the tale vibrated spastically back and forth. A young man stopped and i pointed the snake out to him, and he rode on down the trail. I must have watched the snake for almost 10 minutes, for in a little while, the young man who had been to the end of the trail, came back on his bicycle, asking me, if I had dropped my keys. He had them in his hand, and he brought them to me. I was so thankful....i didn't even realize i had dropped the keys, and thankful, i was still there, looking at the snake, and thankful for the kind young man, who rode his bicycle back down the trail to ask whose keys those were.
As i was looking at the snake, i realized, it's head had been mashed, and that it had died. I took a large stick, and picked the snake up and put it off to the side, so no one would be frightened by a snake laying in the middle of the track. My husband and I had fun later on that night looking up snakes on the computer and in my reptile book trying to figure out what kind it is...any snake experts out there, please let us know. He thought maybe it's a copperhead or water moccasion (to Johnny any snake is poisonous and deserves to be killed:)...i thought maybe it's just a water snake. Let me know if you know...guess that's part of the homeschool Mom coming out of me, always wanting to learn!
Later on as i rode my bicycle along the creek in the cool of the evening, i thought about how good GOD was to allow me to be mesermerized by the snake so i wouldn't go on down the trail. HE knew I had dropped my keys, and HE wanted me to have them back. HE loves me, and HE loves you, and HE is intimately involved in all our ways. HE even uses "snakes," along our paths, to show us HIS love. Sometimes we don't recognize it as HIS love, but we have to trust HE truly knows what is best for us. HIS WORD promises us that everything "fits into a pattern for good, for those who love HIM and are called according to HIS purposes. " Romans 8:28
"Faith says not, "I see that it is good for me so GOD must have sent it, but GOD sent it so it must be good for me." Streams in the Desert
I don't always understand and like HIS delays, and ways, but i am learning to give thanks for the things i don't understand...like the "snake" across my path earlier this week, and like Peach vanishing this morning so i could take her to have her put to sleep. I finally made up my mind, for some reason there has been a delay. These are simple lessons to learn to give thanks to the LORD for. But if i learn to give thanks in the smaller areas, GOD will help me to learn to thank HIM for more difficult trials, like Karen Alexander Doyel, that i shared with you last week in my email, "GOD's Assignments, Reflections from our Women's Conference" http://mitzi-hisgraceissufficient.blogspot.com/2012/04/god-from-our-women-conference.html.
Please remember Karen and her son in your prayers, as she is undergoing treatments for cancer now, and her son will be returning to the doctor next Wednesday. He has previously had cancer, and his lymph nodes are swollen in the same area. Karen, is a real example to the rest of us, to thank GOD for HIS plans and purposes, and remind us over and over, HIS ways are best.
"To me it makes a tremendous difference to know that nothing is for nothing. GOD always has a purpose for us." Elisabeth Elliot
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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all." Psalm 34:19
I read a devotion over and over this week in my old Springs in the Valley devotion book and it talks about how GOD takes our "Snakes," disappointments, sufferings, monotonies, and loneliness, and HE can transform them through HIS love for us, and our love for CHRIST. HE is the one WHO compels us to learn of HIM day by day, to lean upon HIM in constant fellowship, and look to HIM as the all sufficient SAVIOR.
"In the isle that is called Patmos, for the WORD of GOD." The Revelation 1:9
Can we not imagine how eagerly John would lay himself out for a life of incessant service for HIS divine Master and LORD? No task would seem too great, no toil too arduous, if only HIS LORD might be glorified; and we can well imagine how all HIS plans, ambitions, desires would center round the extension of the kingdom of JESUS CHRIST. Then suddenly-Patmos! What now became of all his hopes and longings, his plans and projects? Surely he buried them all as he set foot on Patmos. They died when he first heard his sentence; they were interred with no prospect of a resurrection. Patmos was, for the beloved disciple
The Island of Buried Hopes!
But John soon discovered that Patmos had its compensations. True, he could no longer entertain the hope of carrying out all his plans, yet he learned in Patmos that truer and nobler service would yet be his than any he had ever contemplated. To him came the assurance that not only has the LORD loved us, and washed us from our sins in HIS own blood, but HE hath set us apart as both kings and priests, and nothing can ever terminate that royal priesthood. John had caught sight of a far greater honor and holier service awaiting him in the land that lies beyond.
It might have been thought that JOHN in his dreary exile was terribly isolated. Some one has said not isolated, but insulated, and there is a world of difference between the two. True, the island was small and his confines narrow, but that was only the outer circumstance of his life, his daily environment.
Nothing to see! Alone! Ah, but John found it not so! The overwhelming glory of the sight of his risen LORD robbed him of his strength until he felt the graicous gentle pressure of the pierced HAND resting upon him. Whilst these things were so he could never feel that there was nothing to see! He could never feel alone! And the SPIRIT so insulate John that GOD's messages might pass through him to the entire world!
Most of us are well acquainted with this experience. We may not have had to suffer at the hands of any earthly potentate, but there must be comparatively few who have not, as some time, had to bury their fondest hopes, their most eager deisres. Oh, weary troubled heart, if GOD has led you to the Island of Buried Hopes, it is that HE may show you yet more wonderful things. He has not failed you, nor forgotten you, but has led you into the darkened room because, in HIS own time and way, HE would reveal to you the unsuspected glory of HIS grace and power.
Is our life lonely? Monotonous? We need opened eyes. Standing neaur us all the time is the same wonderful LORD Who stood by John in Patmos. Oh, the joy, even of Patmos, when it is filled with the presence of JESUS!
Patmos HAS its compensations!
But if we would share in them, and Patmos is to be a blessing to us, we must fulfil certain conditions. Here is the secret that transforms all disappointments, suffering, monotony, loneliness-love to CHRIST, that impels us to learn of HIM day by day, to lean upon HIM in constant communion, to look upon HIM as the all sufficient SAVIOR.
To those who fulfil these condition there is no Patmos that is not irradiated by a glory that is not of earth.-Selected.
Our FATHER makes no mistakes!
I have to confess to you, i have been feeling lonely this week and discontent. I even prayed last night the LORD would bring me someone to do things with. I wanted to go to the Green Street Market over in Huntsville but didn't want to go by myself and i couldn't think of anyone to invite. I don't usually have trouble with loneliness, but i have this week. I know the LORD is working in me, and on me to get me closer to HIM as HE has created the lonely place in my heart for HIM. I want to fill it up with someone here, but HE wants to fill me with HIMself, and longs for that communion with me. Last night, i went for a bike ride along the trail at the creek because i really didn't feel like going to Huntsville, and that was GOD's plan for me. The trail was very peaceful after the gentle rain we had yesterday. Afterwards, i rode my bicycle up to see my new friend Becky who was working at Lowe's in the Garden department. It was fun getting to talk to her while i was still on my bicycle and she wasn't very busy that late in the evening. She was worried about me riding my bicycle that late, and i assured her i would call her as soon as i got back in my car. Becky is the one whose son was killed in Iraq that i asked you to pray for. She and Louise Todd came over last Friday and we "jammed," some playing the dulcimer and manodolin. It's good for me because i am forgetting my chords on the mandolin as i haven't played very much the last two years and i need to use this talent the LORD has given me or i will lose it. But it was good for all of us to sing the songs of the LORD and fellowship with each other....GOD was in the midst of our time together.
You know we can be surrounded by people, and still be lonely. GOD created us to have that GOD shaped vaccum in our hearts, that nothing and no one can fulfill or satisfy but HIM. HE knows how to create the circumstances to cause us to reach out to HIM, and thirst for fellowship with HIM.
Wednesday night at choir we sang a song that i woke up with on my heart this morning...."Give Me JESUS." I pray the LORD will use these words to draw you closer to HIM, and have the fellowship with HIM that HE longs to have with you and me. GOD must be lonely for us too, or else why would HE loves us so much that HE gave HIS perfect SON to die for our sins and reestablish that fellowship with that was lost in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned? Because HE loves us and wants us to be with HIM, here on earth, and for all eternity. It is not HIS will that any should perish. Confess your sins to HIM today, and surrender your life to HIM...HE wants to "Give US JESUS." I've included this beautiful version sang by Fernado Ortega as a tribute to Ruth Bell Graham. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2E2FUcIiE
I want to learn to be content with my FATHER's fellowship when HE allows those times of "loneliness" in my life and when HE doesn't. We are born, and then we die...and in between, we have the wonderful opportunity to learn of the sweet love that JESUS has for us day by day, as John did on the Island of Patmos, and as we do on "the Isle of Buried Hopes" of our lives that often look like "Snakes," at first. "Just Give Me JESUS," ...may that be my heart's desire, realizing that the "Island of Buried Hopes," are my "Gateway to Joy," ....sickness, loneliness, loosing pets, loosing loved ones..."Just Give Me JESUS," and the joy that living in communion with HIM brings.
Thank you for all your kind comments about last weeks email about Karen Alexander Doyel and our Women's Conference. The LORD sure has a special annointing on her life and it's amazing how many people are drawn to the LORD and touched by her testimony....I know that she would say, "Just Give Me JESUS," through all the trials she's been through and continues to go through.
We're looking forward to having Hannah Beth home next week...for a week, and then she returns back to Mobile for classes and to work this summer. We sure will miss her, but GOD has a plan for her down there. I hope that i can make the trip back with her and help her move her stuff in. I love you all and thank you so much for remembering these loved ones above, and our family in your prayers...I guess it's time to go out and see if I can find Peach. My husband just got home...and when i opened the door, he said "There is Peach, she can hardly move. " Please pray for us as we go...thanks so much.
With all HIS love,
mitzi
"It is the desire of my heart to love GOD. And there is no other place where I can learn to do this except in my ordinary, everyday life."
Elisabeth Elliot, www.elisabeth elliot.org
Peaches Grave
"For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only SON that whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"JESUS SAVES" Prestonwood Baptist Church
OW happy are tried Christians, afterwards. No calm more deep than that which succeeds a storm. Who has not rejoiced in clear shinings after rain? Victorious banquets are for well-exercised soldiers. After killing the lion we eat the honey; after climbing the Hill Difficulty, we sit down in the arbour to rest; after traversing the Valley of Humiliation, after fighting with Apollyon, the shining one appears, with the healing branch from the tree of life. Our sorrows, like the passing keels of the vessels upon the sea, leave a silver line of holy light behind them "afterwards." It is peace, sweet, deep peace, which follows the horrible turmoil which once reigned in our tormented, guilty souls. See, then, the happy estate of a Christian! He has his best things last, and he therefore in this world receives his worst things first. But even his worst things are "afterward" good things, harsh ploughings yielding joyful harvests. Even now he grows rich by his losses, he rises by his falls, he lives by dying, and becomes full by being emptied; if, then, his grievous afflictions yield him so much peaceable fruit in this life, what shall be the full vintage of joy "afterwards" in heaven? If his dark nights are as bright as the world's days, what shall his days be? If even his starlight is more splendid than the sun, what must his sunlight be? If he can sing in a dungeon, how sweetly will he sing in heaven! If he can praise the Lord in the fires, how will he extol Him before the eternal throne! If evil be good to him now, what will the overflowing goodness of God be to him then? Oh, blessed "afterward!" Who would not be a Christian? Who would not bear the present cross for the crown which cometh afterwards? But herein is work for patience, for the rest is not for to-day, nor the triumph for the present, but "afterward." Wait, O soul, and let patience have her perfect work.
