Change your perspective.  Choose a different post.

On my morning walks across John Adam’s bridge on Manasota Key, I see these birds perched on their post. They amuse me and remind me of the many times I’ve been a single post sitter. 

These pillars are sunk deep in Lemon Bay and these individual birds claim them as their own. Their hidebound attitude allows no visitors or any change in the direction they are facing.  They have chosen a set perspective day after day.  Soon their pose becomes their attitude.  They define themselves by their rigid posture telling all that this is their territory and I am in control.

Sound familiar?  How many times I have looked at the same thing in the same way and it has given me an “ I can’t do this,” attitude or a closed mind.  Am I like the pelican on the post?  Have I become rigid and territorial because of my position and perspective? 

We know countless people who have looked at something from a different perspective and changed their world.  Think of Job in the Bible.  He thought he was doomed, dying, and disgraced.  Then, God changed Job’s perspective by reminding as he talked with him and about his Divine wisdom, magnificent creations, and asked him some difficult questions. Suddenly Job understood.  His epiphany guided him into gratefulness.  Job changed his position and was restored.  Abraham was willing to travel to another land, fly to a different post even though he knew not where he would land.  His life was changed and he became the father of nations.  Noah built an ark with no water in sight.  He followed Father God in obedience and saved his sons, who populated our world.  They each had to make a decision to have a different perspective.  Jesus chose death, and His perspective on the cross brought us life eternal. All these men had to release their “entitlement post” and move in obedience.  This is my challenge. 

I’m going to let go of my entitlement post, my limited view, and my fixed attitude on some issue this week.  I am not going to continue my rigidity on this issue but instead seek out new insights, broader understanding, and choose another perspective.  How will I be changed?  I must abandon my pillar, attitude, resentment, or stubbornness to discover my new understanding. How about you? Have you been post sitting lately?

Joy Shared Brings Faith To Others

One of the greatest joys of my life is talking about God with friends and family.  I yearn to hear their stories, their miracles, their memories of God.  The recounting of God’s works lifts my faith and helps me know the depth of God.

Yesterday, a former pastor and his wife dropped in for a visit.  They are 87 and 84  now and getting a little fragile.  They still have great God stories to share.  They shared how a pastor in town prayed and asked God to resurrect their son who was born dead and remained dead for twenty minutes.  They prayed.  They believed.  God answered.  They had used their faith to pray for a dead baby early in their ministry and knew God was big, really big.  The baby began to breathe again and both babies are grown men and in careers this day.  

Smith Wigglesworth was an evangelist in the early 1900s in England, United States, South Africa, and Australia.  He is one of my favorite Bible teachers.  He was an ordinary man used in an extraordinary way by God.  He spent many hours each day studying the word of God and praying and built up his faith , so he could expect miracles and know God would answer.  He had great faith in what God could do, and God did great healings and conversions through him.  There is documentation of him raising men from the dead at least twenty times.  He didn’t rest until he saw God move in the lives of those who needed Him.  He prayed fervently until a child was healed.  Yet, in his own life he and his wife had  a deaf child that remained deaf her entire life. Wigglesworth lost a young son and his evangelist wife to early deaths,yet he went on with his spiritual journey.   Regardless of these tragedies,he continued to trust God and be used by God to heal others.  As I read his  biography,  I realized a man who had complete trust and unwavering faith in God and lived by his favorite saying, “ Only believe.”

I desire to be unwavering. I want to be a yielding prayer warrior.  I hunger to know and understand God’s word.  I want to practice that word and encourage others. I fall short of all these goals, but I keep learning from others.  Life is short but grace is long.  I will continue my spiritual journey because of those who take the time to share God’s wonders, His miracles, and His love.

Do you have a God story you would like to share on my blog?  I would love to hear them and share them with others. You could add them to the comment section or be a guest blogger on Sandi's Impressions.  We all are faith builders because of what God has done in our lives.  I am looking forward to your stories.

Joy in the Morning

Joy in the Morning and Understanding For the Day

What generates hope and joy?  In my life, I visit with God early in the morning.  My meditations and readings of His word shape my day.   My thinking is enlarged with this time with Him.  My imagination is ignited, and His pure thoughts challenge my thinking.

Sometimes just a word or phrase penetrate my soul.  For example, this morning I was studying the Psalms.  They teach me to worship and have awe for my Creator.  “Know that the Lord is God, and it is He who made us, and we are His; we are his people, the sheep of His pasture.”  (Ps.100)  

There is comfort and peace knowing He made us.  Last week so many of my loved ones had medical exams, testing, or test results returned from previous MRI readings.  Because of His word, I know that they are His.  He has their back and mine.  We are His people and His faithfulness endures forever. Today I am trusting in His faithfulness to these people He has put in my life.  

I pray.  I hope.  I trust.  God is with them because they are the sheep of His pasture. He protects them like the good shepherd He is. The rhythm of His words bring harmony to my soul.  His teaching enriches my understanding.  I can recall his promises while I wait in a hospital for my husband, my friend,  or my grandchild.  They are held in His hand and are protected by His love. 

My soul is enriched by gathering His words in my heart.  My focus is centered on Him, not on medical findings.  I trust in His love and His justice and His mercy.  Because I tarry in the mornings with Him, I am at peace and able to intercede for those I love.  Jesus hears and intercedes for them and me.  I will sing of His love throughout my day.

Studying the Sunsets

Studying the Sunset 

I have been studying each sunset and noticing the various colors, changing cloud formations, and the “awe” factor.  As I sit on the beach, I marvel at  how the reflection on the water changes moment by moment.  The once gray ocean slides into teal colored waters with spectacular red and gold highlights.  My mind grasps this vision and meditates on it long after the sun has slipped into the dark waters.

I realize that the sunset mirrors my search for the character of God.  Through the years, I have learned that Joshua Harris’ words are profound.  He says in his book Dug Down Deep, “What we know about God shapes the way we think and live.”  Studying God has affected every aspect of my life.  Like the sunset, His reflections have changed within me.  As a child, I talked to him under the psalm trees and knew Him as my friend, my playmate.  In my teens, I began to understand more fully that He had loved me so much that He had sent Jesus on this earth to save and nurture me.  As a young mom, I learned to trust him with my children’s lives and support me through their sicknesses and hardships.  When finances were scarce, He showed me He was my provider.  Each new wave of life and learning brought more understanding of the big picture.  I knew He was in each sunset and sunrise.  

Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian and philosopher said, “ Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads unto God.” In other words, our theology teaches us to care about the true things of God.  It teaches us to embrace our Heavenly Father through various colors of clouds.  It brings to light celebration of His Majesty upon our constantly changing seasons.  His word teaches us how to apply His reflection to our lives.  We reflect the Son’s light.  

I realize it is He who leads me beside still waters.  He rides on the clouds.  He provides for the poor.  He is my refuge.  He clothes the hills with gladness and creates sunsets for pondering and understanding His awe.  Each sunset creates in me a greater need to crave more of God.  

Spiritual Skies and Lows

Spiritual Skies and Lows

I am learning to paint a sky.  I imagined it to be much easier than it is.  Bill Inman teaches me to glaze color on top of color to create the movement of the wind in the clouds.  He spends much of his time instructing me how to make light shine through these clouds.  I must insert tiny bits of light yellow into the tips of the clouds.  If my brush is too full of paint, I make a blob of yellow instead of a highlight.  I am immediately disappointed and wish I had not made the mistaken stroke.  I realize my error but often do not know how to fix it.  I am so distraught that I just want to quit, take my paints and go home.

For this reason, Bill is my instructor.  He immediately understands what I have done.  He explains that the wayward blob is a result of not using my brush correctly.  Again, for the umpteen time, he demonstrates how to use my brush.  Then, he tells me what color of paint is needed to obliterate my blob.

Painting is a spiritual endeavor.  My sky painting has taught me so much about my heavenly Father who created our sky.  I am reminded of the story of Abraham’s experience when he trusted God.  God instructed Abraham and he obeyed. His faith was tested when he was told to sacrifice his only son , Isaac.
(Genesis 22:1-19)  Abraham had the understanding that God would work things out. God would provide the sacrifice.  He had his confidence in God, not his ability to climb this mountain.  His faith was in God’s provisions, not in how awkward it was to ready his son for sacrifice.  His whole experience was a God thing, not an Abraham thing. 

I too must enter into a trust with each painting.  My strokes feel awkward and my blobs are disappointing.  However, by the hand of a master painter, I have renewed confidence.  He can instruct me how to turn away from using my brush incorrectly and how to make light highlight dark values. 

The  Word of God  instructs me on  how to live my life to create a painting that is pleasing to Him.  I have made some blobs and awkward strokes on my journey.  However, my God patiently instructs me again and again until my painting is complete and a beautiful representation of Him.

Just like Abraham, I have spiritual highs and lows.  I know each spiritual step is directed and corrected by my heavenly Father. Now, back to learning how to paint a sky.

Learning to paint

Blue Lady
When I painted this lady, I used all ultramarine blue to lay her on the canvas. I just started painting and watched her appear. My sister was visiting and giving me painting lessons. I loved how sister would guide me carefully through each layer of painting. She would watch me design and paint. She sat on the porch with me and watched me, and then she would go in the house to watch TV. Then, she would return and peek at what I was doing.

Betty Ann has painted over sixty years and produces magnificent art works. Perhaps this is why I never tried to paint. I knew I could not paint like her. She had always been the artist in our family. I was the writer and the teacher. Now, in my sixties, I am trying to be a painter. She had encouraged me for years. I just was too busy rearing children and teaching school. Retirement gave me time for the plunge into oil paint.

I was trying a new technique I had studied on this blue lady. I painted her in an impressionistic style but decided to give her eyes detail and focus. When I would get stuck, I would call to my sister. “Sister, come look. Are her eyes too far apart? Are the shadows right?" I thought she would have blue eyes and suddenly I had painted them brown. I tried to make her have long straight hair, and it turned out curly. My sister just laughed and told me that someone was guiding my hand and my artist eye.

It was reassuring to have my sister available for questions and critique. I had lost my fear of not being able to paint as well as her. I replaced it with a hunger for her knowledge. She had training and skill that I needed. She was willing to offer it and help me learn my way around a canvas. This day was such a warm memory. I love my sister dearly. She is six years my elder, but no one knows that. We are still two girls playing, laughing, and creating.

When I was five, Betty Ann would have art lessons on our front porch in Florida. I loved watching her draw the things her teacher suggested. Mrs. Hoight, her art teacher, would gently suggest and show Betty where shadows should be. She explained that painting was just using light and dark to form the desired images. Now, sixty years later, Betty was giving me a porch lesson in painting. What she had learned, she was sharing with a new artist. My sister’s instruction was filled with wisdom and laughter.

The day of the blue lady painting taught me to love my sister even more. The day brought forth a painting that seemed to pop out of the canvas with such ease. This opportunity was provided by God. I just trusted God to move in me. I know my own skills and talents are limited. I must rely on Him when I paint because I get stuck and don’t have my sister on the porch to help me. I learned that porch day that my sister wasn’t my competitor but instead my advocate. My paintings were not going to look like hers because I had one year of experience and she had sixty. I relied on God and asked for His help. Each time I approach a new canvas, I remember my porch teachings at five and sixty-five. Both brought me pleasure and learning. However, best of all, the lesson taught me art expression is a gift from God. We are made in His image. He finds pleasure when we learn to create.

God of All Things

You are my God of early mornings, late nights, snow covered mountains, and the roaring sea.

As I watch the glowing red ball dance upon the glistening teal waters, I am amazed at the expanse of the ocean before me. I am always in awe as I listen to the sea and watch the waves coming onto the shore. Since I was a tiny babe, the sifting sand and swishing waves have entertained me. When I stand on the beach, I am home in the heart. My eyes fill with warm tears as I remember the special seaside moments.

As a child the sea meant family time together, beach picnics, and good times with Daddy in the ocean. As a teenager, the sea brought me an understanding of the wonders under the glistening tabletop of water. I discovered pastel reefs, blue and green schools of fish, and my wonderful friends, the dolphins. I became akin to each of these beautiful creatures, and I would leave school and eagerly go out to sea with my cousin. The sea was our playground, and we never tired of the adventure of discovery.

As an adult the sea meant solace. I would walk the wet sand beach and talk to God. I would tell Him of my problems, my dreams, my hurts, and my expectations. He would always listen. The sea represented a mighty Counselor to me. By the shores of the aqua waters, I wrote many prayers, poems, and praises.

Now, the sea brings serenity to my mind and soul. As I watched my first Florida sunset of this year, I saw many others grabbing the calming waters. We sighted the sunset as if it were a spectacular event that we had never viewed previously. We watched with expectation, yet surprise. We noted the sun’s tripping lightly over the silky sea. The light reflections were meaningful and resurrected so many memories from my past. The vastness reminded me of my minute existence in this massive world. The sea embraced the fiery ball with such dignity, expertise, and knowing. They were long time companions and knew each other’s power and position. They respected each other’s elements and season. Once again, the sea had become my teacher, my counselor, my being.