Traffic in Lancaster County PA

A retired teacher friend of mine posted this on her facebook page. This is where I found God today. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did!

We decided to take a ride to AC Moore today so that I could get some yarn to finish a crochet project that has been taking me longer than it should to complete. It is my first crochet 'project', so I am slower than slow. We take the back roads as much as possible, and consequently, we encounter more buggies. Today we got behind a buggy that obviously had a loose wheel. As we came upon the buggy on a very curvy road (most are around these parts), we noticed that the driver's side front wheel was coming lose, and tilting more and more as it went round and round. I was hesitant to pass the buggy in case the wheel gave way (it figures, I was driving). Paul wanted me to pull around and let the driver know he had a lose wheel, but I was afraid to freak out the horse.The driver stopped, and Paul jumped out to help. Our new friend, Daniel, the buggy driver, asked Paul to hold the horse while he tried to fix the wheel. It was tougher than it looked, the poor horse wanted to go! The wheel needed parts so Daniel, the buggy driver, hitched his horse up to the fence by the house where we stopped and hopped into my Mitsubishi Spyder and we went to four places, finally landing at a buggy repair shop for the correct parts. We drove once past where Daniel hitched his horse so he could check on it. I remarked that maybe the horse was wondering what happened to him. Daniel replied that he didn't think a horse wonders. Then we laughed! He is probably right, but his horse did miss him, I saw it in his eyes! While riding around Lancaster County, we had a delightful time conversing with Daniel. He has 6 children and 8 grandchildren at the age of 50. He has 50 cows and grows tobacco. We talked about the economic state of our country and how hard he is finding it to be a small farmer. We helped him fix the wheel...I kind of held the buggy still and Paul held the horse. Daniel wanted to give us money! We told him we were glad to help. Paul even told him it was fun...well he explained further...it was a pleasure to help someone in need and that he could repay us by helping someone else (yes, I am married to someone who speaks like that, I am so blessed!). We followed Daniel for awhile until we were sure that the wheel would hold. He wasn't far from home. I do believe that God puts you where He wants you, and we should hold each day and each encounter with others as an opportunity to connect and give of ourselves. I sure hope I remember to do that when I am driving in traffic!!

Unpacking and Repacking

I have come to a profound realization! And I have my dearest friend to thank for the light bulb moment! This past weekend me and my girls had a sleepover!  My dear, wonderful friend who I have known since we were prepubescent, has twin daughters just a little older than my girls and, thankfully they like each other very much. So while our daughters had a sleepover my dear, wonderful friend and I got to spend some calming and relaxing time. (Thankfully our girls are a little older and we don't have to worry too much about them destroying anything or running amuck!)

After the girls went to sleep she and I were able to talk with some depth. Anyone with children knows that having an in depth conversation while they are around is like talking with a stutter and Alzheimer's all at the same time. My dear, wonderful friend was the reason I became a believer. She has been in my life for all my major questions and decisions in my life and, thankfully she is it here for me this time too.


While sharing with her my faith questions, I realized that while I am struggling with finding God in the world around me, my main struggle is that my beliefs are changing. My faith bag has been packed for a long time without periotically evaluating what is in there. And I realized the beliefs I have been carrying around I don't have faith in any longer and holy cow are they heavy!

I need to unpack my bag, evaluate each piece and see if it still is something I believe. I know there are a few things I will throw out right away. Others I will have to do some serious investigations to decide if they stay or not. So let the sorting begin!!

The Blue Vine Collective = Grateful Me

In my daily God search I have come across this blog.  In thebluevinecollective.org blog Ned Steele's explanations of the quips Christians say and why they are foolish is very enlightening.  Although, I am not sure I agree with everything written, I am excited to know that there are others searching for authenticity in our faith.  So, thank you Ned Steele for allowing me to see God in your writing today.

http://www.thebluevinecollective.org/2013/01/22/really-stupid-religious-stuff-we-say-to-each-other-all-too-often/


http://www.thebluevinecollective.org/2013/01/30/really-stupid-religious-stuff-we-say-to-each-other-all-too-often-part-ii/

http://www.thebluevinecollective.org/2013/02/06/really-stupid-religious-stuff-we-say-to-each-other-all-too-often-last-entry/

Ooo! It's a fight!!!

I am feeling pessimistic about my usually optimistic outlook on life! My concern, am I too optimistic? Is that possible? Or, should I be more of a realist? Or, maybe it is my usually optimistic attitude that is getting me into trouble. The phrases that my husband loves to throw back in my face when I am down are the same phrases I say to him all the time, "this could be worst" or "you chose to be happy".  If I don't have positive expectations about things then they can't let me down right?

 Maybe that has been my problem all along. I felt too happy about faith and religion and it has let me down. Just like my expectations for a society that wants the best for ALL people, it has let me down too. Because we all know that we don't live in a happy world where people care about others. We live in a society where, more often then not, people are looking out for their own best interest, not the betterment of their fellow man or woman. And lots of churches are doing the same thing. They don't want to help families where husbands are dying because they aren't sure the family has been "wise" with their money and they don't want to enable a family to continue to make poor choices especially if it is under the guise of charity. They might give the impression to the community they "serve" that they are just handing out money to anyone with a sob story and wouldn't that be horrible. (Can you hear the sarcasim in my typing?) 

No, I think my optimistic attitude must go. It just can't survive in this word.


Or... is it the other way around? Shouldn't we all allow our optimistic attitudes to get the better of us? Wouldn't we be happier, more satisfied individuals if we were looking for the silver lining in the situations we face? Wouldn't our happiness and joy rub off on the others with which we interact thereby, making our small world better? Part of me would like to think that the whole "Pay it forward" concept would work. So if I do a nice thing for ten people and they all do a nice thing for ten people and it exponentially grows until everyone on the planet has had their life changed for the positive. But wait! Isn't that how spreading the gospel is suppose to work? And last I checked, Christ hasn't returned yet right?


And so my pessimistic/optimistic battle continues. Wish me luck in solving this.