Sunday, August 26, 2007

I missed church, but I still got a sermon!

   Well, so this morning I had been drinking coffee and checking emails while I waited until time to get dressed for church.  Our church probably isn't more than half a mile away, if even that much.  So I always wait until the last minute.
 
Right when it's time for me to go put my clothes on, hubby comes through frantically searching for his drill.  I jumped up and joined him in the search while trying to find out why it was so all fire important.  Come to find out, he had gone out to put Emmy the mare and her colt out of their pen and into some grass to graze, only to find the mare trapped in the fence!  Fortunately it's barbless wire.  And he need the drill to loosen the screws and drop the wire to get her out. 
 
We found the drill and a charged battery pack and I followed him out thinking he might need me to hold her head by the halter.  But she trusted him implicitly and I merely watched.  By the time I got inside, church was already started and I said "oh, well." 
 
The cabinets needed to be restocked and I began to make a grocery list.  Threw on some shorts and headed to the grocery store.  As I wove my way down the isles, I saw a dad or two with children shopping.  I wondered if they were blessed to have a mama at home or not.  If they did, she definitely was blessed! 
 
There was the usual assortment of elderly folks using the motorized buggies and canes or even their shopping cart as a cane so they could make their way down the isles.  All too often an eventuality of getting older. But they were blessed, for at least they're still getting out and taking care of themselves. 
 
I picked the shortest checkout line and watched as the woman ahead of me lay a case of ramen noodles, a bag of sugar and a box of tea on the counter.  She was on spindly, thin legs.  When the clerk gave her the total she fished out a crumpled and worn $5 to hand to her in payment.  As she grabbed the plastic bags to go out I wondered were that all she had to eat?  I felt a little nauseated as I watched my piled up buggy's items fly by me and into the bags.  I wished I hadn't so many; that I could hurry and get out and try to share some apples or hamburger makings with her.
 
The clerk gave me my total and as I watched the boy put the last bag or two in my buggy, I watched as a woman who couldn't been more than 5 years older than me took one slow, deliberate, apparently painful step after another as she walked out the door beside her buggy and with no aide.  I wondered what caused her affliction.
 
And then, it hit me.  I am BLESSED!!  Unbelievably, undeniably, abundantly blessed!!!!   But you know what else settled over me, as I was making my way out into the hot,Texas sunshine?  These two women were blessed as well!!!  The one who DID have enough money to buy her substance for another week.  The one who WAS strong enough to walk despite her pain.  Different measures for different lives at different times, yet all are blessed!  God does not withhold his blessing even from the unsaved!  He maketh the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. 
 
Thank you Lord for your reminders!
 
                             

26 comments:

  1. Very nice entry. Thank you for reminding us. Paula

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  2. Good point, Barbara, well made

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  3. Well now this entry was sure a ray of sunshine for me to read. God can take something as simple as going to the store and remind us how blessed we are just to do it! Just yesterday I was complaining about carrng heavy bags from the car but this reminds me of what a blessing it is that I 1. had money to buy it with and 2. Was able to carry it. Thank you for reminding me.

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  4. great entry... thanks for the reminder.  
    hugs
    d

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  5. Very good entry Barbara, it gave me a blessing to read it.  I am glad that your horse wasn't hurt. You did really get a blessing from your grocery shopping. I have used my shopping cart many times as a sort of walker to lean on to give me the strength to walk around and do some shopping. Even though I have a lot of pain with this back I can still look around me and see others in a much worse shape. At least I can still walk and get around although sometimes it is painful. You know that may have been all that woman had money to buy food with. That could have very well have been the reason for her thin legs. It makes me hurt sometimes to see what shape some people get in and we never know what shape we will get in ourselves. I do realize that someday I might not be able to walk. But you know what, someday I will be in a place where everyone will be pain free and can get around good.  Hugs, Helen

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  6. At one time I was a buggy clinger, but after my fall I've been riding around, and I know what you mean about blessings, it is so heart warming all the help I get, especially in the frozen food dept. it's extremely hard for me to get up and down, but before I can even make the move a family with children are there to help, the kids seem like I rewarded them just by saying thank you, that was so nice of you, they really seem to enjoy helping and smile from ear to ear, I could just hug them but don't I just smile and try to make the smile bigger by telling them what a big help they are and they must have wonderful parents. God Bless, we do have a great generation coming up. Thanks for sharing Barb. gg/Jackie

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  7. Oh that was a good sermon!  
    Traci

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  8. wonderful words of wisdom Barb...and thanks for sharing...always nice to be reminded of how blessed we are....and how wonderful to keep our focus on those around us...instead of upon ourselves....God Bless...hugs...Ora of KY

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  9. You are so right...and when we think we have it bad...we do not have to look far to find someone who has it worse but is still loving and  living life!
    love ya,
    carlene

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  10. It's funny how we go through the days so often without realizing how blessed we are.  And wonderful that you took notice of what was right in front of you.  So many don't.  So many walk by and keep their heads down and their ears on their cell phones and never notice the rest of the world that is right in front of them.

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  11. This is my favorite entry of all that I have ever read in journal land!
    Lisa

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  12. BEAUTIFUL sermon that I received thru you....AMEN....

    Michele
    http://journals.aol.com/glensfork4/these-are-my-thoughts/

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  13. I have tears streaming down my face, you most definately got a sermon today and how blessed are you that God showed you that although you didn't make it to church, you could still speak to your heart with a mundane chore aka grocery store!!

    God bless and Thank you FOR blessing us with your blessing!

    Christy

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  14. Illustrates one of the reasons I thank Him for what I DON'T as well as do have, perhaps God put these ladies in your path to remind you we all belong to Him in one way or another, I'd say.  Very nice!  CATHY
    http://journaols.aol.com/luddie343/DARETOTHINK/

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  15. A reminder we all need once in a while!
    Lori

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  16. I am happy the mare was uninjured and the story was one with a happy ending!    It seems your Sunday turned out to be just as it should have been with your having come in contact with those people.     I have not been on the computer much at all this summer and have been able to do some light work since June 28 when I had a spinal steroid lumbar epidural.    I now need another one as I have been down this last week and staying indoors resting.     I am looking forward to being physically active again soon.     mark

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  17. Nice Message Barbara-  It's amazing the simple things that God lets us see just by doing regular things.  Have a Blessed week~  Carolyn :)

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  18. Thank you for that reminder!  Linda

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  19.    THOSE GROCERY CARTS DO SERVE AS A FINE CRUTCH.
     WHEN ARRIVING AT THE WAL-MART PARKING LOT I TRY TO PARK WAY OUT THERE NEXT TO AN ABANDONED GROCERY CART AND USE IT AS A CRUTCH TO GO TO THE STORE. IT SAVES THE WEAR AND TEAR ON MY CANE.
          BARBARA,  I COMMEND YOU FOR HAVING A 'GIVING HEART' AND A WATCHFUL EYE TO BE READY TO HELP PEOPLE THAT OBVIOUSLY COULD USE SOME HELP.
           WHEN I AM IN 'GOODWILL', AND SEE A CHILD TRYING ON SHOES, WHAT A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO HAND THE MAMA A FEW DOLLARS. I FEEL IN THAT WAY THERE IS NO QUESTION IF THE DONATION IS GOING TO THE RIGHT PERSON AND NO HANDLING FEE SUCH AS IS SOMETIMES REPORTED BY INVESTIGATORS INTO DRIVES FOR DONATIONS FOR 'THE POOR'.
     SOME FUND RAISERS HAVE BEEN REPORTED TO HAVE KEPT 95 PERCENT FOR ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES.        sam

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  20. Reminders are all around us, aren't they? It's just that too often we are blind to them. I'm glad you weren't, and pray I never am. God is faithful, his word GOLD. We can depend upon Him to our last breath.
    Love and prayers, dear one,
    Barb- http://journals.aol.com/barbpinion/FROMBARBSSPIRITUALJOURNALS
            http://journals.aol.com/barbpinion/LETTERSTOHEAVEN

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  21. It was a fine lesson you got that day... keeping one's eyes open for miracles enrichens our own lives. Thanks for reminding us to keep our eyes open, and to be ready to help someone in need. bea

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  22. Than's a good lesson.  Thanks!
    Remember when they sacked your groceries for you and carried the sacks out to the car (no buggy)?  When I was little the sack boy at Pinkerton's grocery would always tease me.  Standing line with my mother was the most dreaded part of my week.  They wrote our groceries down on a card and she settled up once a month.

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  23. Great entry. I'm new to your journal. :)

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  24. It's funny the ways that the Lord finds to put things back into prospective for us.  I appreciated your entry here because all too often, I see people around me who appear to have less than I do and are struggling.  Still, some of those people have much more than I do in ways that I can not see.
    I have always known that everything I have comes from the Lord but sometimes, I too am reminded that even when the most obvious things that we take for granted everyday may be taken from us, the layers of blessings go very deep.  Sometimes, we just have to see things from a different perspective.  I remind myself that a lot when I see women with their daughters, families that get to do things together because they have each other.
    It has been my experience that even when I have my heart completely set on something that seems it would be God's will for me, my sorrow comes in when I realize that I am hoping for things that just aren't meant for me right now.
    I pray that I can be happy in all things and be grateful, no matter what it is I feel I don't have or can't have.  God bless.

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  25.     BARBARA, WE HOPE YOU ARE WELL-     sam

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  26. That was a really beautiful entry.  A wonderful reminder for all of us.
    Thank you for sharing.
    I hope your doing well.

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So glad you stopped by! Come 'round any time. ~ Barbara

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