If you’ve stumbled across my Blog, welcome. If you have been here before, welcome
back.
Those of you who have visited often know “something’s
up”. I have gone from checking in
an average of 30 times a month, to 2.
Honestly, it is God-driven.
There’s no easier way to say it, other than God is doing
some pruning in my life, and that of my husband, Russ.
Almost 3 years ago, Russ and I said a special prayer
together, asking the Lord to lead us, as we follow Him. {To “…take up the Cross”…Luke 9:23} And he has led us. He has been faithful, and present for
us EVERY day.
In some ways, it hasn’t been easy to slip into “God’s
economy”, where you trust Him for your every need. But it has been good.
And He has never (and I mean NEVER) failed us.
Some of you know what I’m talking about. Blind trust. To walk by FAITH, not by sight (2
Cor 5:7). Sometimes it
takes BLIND TRUST to get you through a day…an hour…a minute. But it is amazing to see what He
chooses to do with you during that time.
I have my husband to thank for keeping me from worry. When things are so financially strapped
or we are facing a crisis, my husband asks “…do we have what we need for TODAY?”,
to which I reply…yes. “OK
then…give us THIS day, our daily bread.
No need to worry.” {Side
bar: Did you know that we are told
not to worry 365 times in the Bible? One for every day!}
Additionally, it meant the Enemy (aka the Devil) put us at
the top of his chalkboard, with our names underlined, in BOLD. The Enemy was relentless in trying to
oppress us. We had to call on
the name of Jesus to keep him at bay. And it has
worked, because the Lord doesn’t lie.
I remember stopping outside and huddling with my husband, our arms
around each other, calling on Jesus to protect us from the onslaught of the
Enemy.
So, how did these changes come about over the past couple years?
We started our pruning with no longer
having television, several years back.
(A very wise decision…we no longer allow SIN to come into our home, un-invited,
invited, or otherwise.) We will never view television again. No DVD's, nada. Simply, no TV.
Then, we removed the Internet from our farm.
We do not have a “fancy” phone. No Internet on there either.
Radio is our media, and it is honed on the Christian station
during the evening.
Next, my camera went.
This was difficult at first, as I “prided” myself as a photographer,
having won several contests in the past and been published in a dozen or so
media outlets. As the year rolled
around four seasons without hearing the sound of a shutter release, I knew it
was good to be without a camera.
For me, it was taking too high a priority in my life. {Idols come in many forms...}
In addition, we have reduced our goat herd to zero.
We have reduced our horses to one. Raz.
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Funny thing, we
spend more time with him (both of us) and he seems happier being by
himself. As you can see by his
hefty frame, he spends most of his time eating anyway, as horses should.
Another big change for us…we have “retired” from our dog
sledding business. This winter,
for the first time in over a decade, we will have the dogs to ourselves. I will not be booking appointments and
answering the phone and returning emails.
Our website has been taken down, several emails went POOF, LinkedIN, Paypal, tweets have stopped Twittering and more. (My life is getting simple.…er.) Upon telling people, they say “where are your dogs?”. They are here, and will be until they
pass from this earth, back into this earth. We have
19. That number includes two 15
year olds, and several 14 year olds.
We only have 5 under the age of 7.
In simple terms, our kennel is aging out. Kinda like us.
So what do we do all day? We still have pigs (sus domestica, for you DNR folks...).
We have chickens, with several broody
hens who, in their patience and sitting, blessed us with 9 more chicks this
summer. Along with the rooster...couldn't have done it without him.
And we have our
free-ranging rabbits, both adults and several white/black/and gray bunnies
skittering about.
Although we keep very busy each day, our main focus is on
our Lord, Jesus Christ. We rejoice that He is in
our life, leading us daily. We
rejoice that Jesus will return…perhaps soon. We rejoice that we welcome His return, and look forward to
being with Him. We hope others
around us will become lovers and followers of Christ, as we are, so they can
have an eternity with our triune God.
Until that time, we continue to have our weekly Bible study at our place
each Wednesday evening. We always
look forward to meeting in the presence of the Holy Spirit and talking about
the Bible, the Living Word, and giving the glory to Him.
One last thing - one thing I haven’t talked about in a while
- is my relationship with the Amish community. My interest in the Amish people spans nearly 30 years. It
has grown leaps and bounds in the last year, since I attended an Amish church
service last summer. Since
then, I have been meeting regularly with an Amish woman, circa my age, at her
home for Bible study. I met with
her yesterday, in fact. Driving
home last evening, clutching a container of freshly-popped warm popcorn she made for my road trip,
made me wish I could stay forever, in their world.
I glanced over at the loaf of fresh-made bread sitting on the front seat of my truck, straddling the animal feed bags I had picked up from another Amish friend. The bread had risen and was baked in her wood cook stove while we sat and visited that afternoon. But more importantly, I take home the
lessons learned during our day of delving into God’s word. I truly know this friendship, and that of her
family, is God-sent. I treasure it
like all my friendships with Plain People. What I love about being with them is seeing the Fruit of the
Spirit (love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…) played out
before my eyes. Perhaps some day,
I will immerse myself even deeper into their way of life, Lord willing. It will be the Lord’s doing, for both Russ and I. Right now, I am just following the path before me.
So, in a nutshell, I plan to take a break from yet another
medium in my life. My Blog. It’s been coming for some time. And now is the time to take a much-needed break.
I hesitate to remove it entirely, like I did my “older
Blog”, which showcased our early years on the farm. Truth is, I poured my heart and soul into those blog
posts. And I miss pulling them up
when I desire to check on something.
So this Blog remains.
(For now.)
Those of you who are also on Facebook have not seen me on
there, as I have deactivated my page for a couple months, perhaps forever. We’ll see where the Lord is leading
me…and what He is preparing me for…
So, taking up the cross daily, in addition to this pruning process has been interesting. {Read John 15}
How about you…have you made a decision to take up His cross
and follow? I would love to hear your testimony.
Blessings to all, and enjoy this beautiful summer.
Sherry
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