SOMETIMES….

Posted on by michellethurman2344

Sometimes I just want to stick my head in the sand and pretend that the world is all sunshine and roses! I just don’t want to deal with things. I don’t watch the news and haven’t for years because of the propaganda, and the prejudice against Christians; but now it has crept over onto the internet so that even when I check my email it’s there staring out at me. It’s on Facebook, my weather app and on the Google search page. All the political nonsense….especially so for an election year; family dynamics full of drama and discord…., all tear down your peace, pull at your confidence in facing life’s challenges, tug at your heart in ways that make you sad.

It would be so easy to run away and hide, but all those troubles wouldn’t go away. They would just be tucked out of sight until they all fell in on you. Hiding away isn’t the answer to life’s problems, but it sure seems nice when you retreat into your own little corner and everything just fades for a time, and I guess it’s okay to take a break and go rest away from all the ugliness that tries to knock you off track, push you off balance and get you to stop taking a stand or fighting for anything. But we can’t really do that. We fight the good fight in prayer, standing firm on our “most holy faith” and face down the enemy for our children, our grandchildren, and all our loved ones. We fight in prayer for our country and all the generations that came before us who also fought in many ways for this nation whether it was to go to war, vote when it was necessary, or build and create the world around us.

I think about my forefathers, how they crossed this great land and left behind their mark in ways that don’t identify them individually, but helped to establish all that we love most about our country. My forefathers were hunters, and ranchers, miners, circus performers, trappers, blacksmiths, farmers, mechanics, construction workers, sharecroppers, field workers, community leaders, deacons in their churches, midwives, nurses; photographers, artists, musicians, writers, poets. They faced life and whatever came their way with courage and determination and they passed these down to their children and their children’s children. They built strong families and stood firm and unshakeable in the things that they believed in and valued most. We did not always agree on what those things might be, but we stood strong as a family in spite of our differences in opinion and supported each other in our right to hold different opinions.

Eph. 6:16 “…in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles {fiery darts} of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view; be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,…..”>>>>>>>>and loved ones<<<<<<

And for ourselves as well…. It’s also easy to forget that we need to be in prayer over ourselves that we don’t lose heart, or give up or just run away and hide. We need to pray for ourselves that we will stand strong on His Word, stay firm in prayer and be all that He has called us to be….whatever that may be. When the sometimes come and I want to back off and hide in my own little corner of the world then I know it is time to step out and break that off; to fight harder, to give more and keeping in mind that there are times when I also need to rest.

Sometimes my fight is a just a word or two….a simple “no” to something I need to speak out against; or going out of my way to encourage someone. Most times it’s prayer…to “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12

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Published by michellethurman2344

I was born in California, but both my parents were born in different areas of rural Oklahoma. My father grew up on a small cattle ranch and my mother grew up in the hills of eastern Oklahoma near the Ozark Mts. Both were born in the 1920's when Oklahoma was still more a part of the 1800's than the twentieth century so I like to say I was born of parents who were the last generation born during the old west. Their old west roots had a huge impact on my childhood. I spent the first three years of my life on my Granny's chicken farm. She was my father's grandmother and she owned 60 acres of alfalfa which she rented out and lived on three acres of barnyard where she raised chickens. There was some electricity, but no indoor plumbing outside of a faucet in the kitchen. The toilet was down the boardwalk in a small shed...in other words...an outhouse. The shower was a room under the water tank in the pumphouse. Granny's little three room house was the only painted building on the property. Everything else was raw, unpainted wood including the two room house my parents lived in. And I loved living on that little farm where I pretty much had free run of the barnyard and sometimes even wandered into the fields surrounding it. The town where I was born is along the Colorado River in the middle of the California desert and across the river from the Arizona desert and while we did live there for the first 12 years of my life, we moved a lot due to my father's employment. He was a big equipment operator and we moved to where the work took him, but usually only six months of the year then we moved back to our hometown. We moved to Northern California in 1958 and I have lived here ever since. I am a mother, a grandmother, have one great-grandchild and recently retired. I am divorced and now live with my youngest sister. My sisters and I like to cruise and take road trips. I am enjoying my life.

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