Walking in God's Woods

  When I think back on my childhood, I cannot remember a time when I wasn't taken to church. As long as we were able, Mom made sure that Chris and I went to Sunday school and church. As a matter of fact, Mom was our first Sunday school teacher. The one thing that Mom wanted me (and every other child she has ever known) to know is that Jesus loves me. As a kid, going to church was something that I just took for granted--if it was Sunday, we were going to church. Today, I could not be more thankful for the solid foundation that Mom assured us. She truly and deeply believes in Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go: And when he is old, he will not depart from it." I hope I am a living testament that Mom was right. Like anyone else, I have not lived a perfect life. I have strayed from the "straight and narrow" way more often than I would like to admit, but thanks to my upbringing in church, Mom's prayers, and God's grace, I have always retu...

I started this blog a year ago, and I haven't added any new posts in eight months. In that time, my family has faced several challenges. First, Rayne moved off to college a little before my last post, and the change in this house has taken some getting used to. In particular, it feels so quiet without the usual sound of drumming coming from Rayne's bedroom. Also, I absolutely miss the extra one-on-one time we got to spend as I drove him back and forth to band practices and rehearsals. On the bright side, he has had a very successful first year of college, and he will be home for the summer in a week! On September 27, we were in the path as Hurricane Helene tore through the NC mountains. Seeing the devastation that occurred all around us makes me even more thankful that God spared our family the majority of the damage that we could have faced. We had a few trees down around us, but none of our property experienced any major damage. The worst thing we dealt with was two weeks wit...

  My favorite poem includes the phrase "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep." This year, I have experienced much of the darkness of God's woods, along with its loveliness and depth, but one thing has remained true: Jesus is my light shining in the darkness. I may not be able to see what might be around the next turn, but the darkness will not overcome my guiding light. For the past few weeks, I have not written as much as when I started recording this journey, and part of the reason is that I have wandered a little too much in the darkness. Once again, things have not gone the way I would have planned, and I have allowed the twisting path through the woods to cause me to become scared and anxious, instead of looking where the light shines. Today, I feel like the woods are a little less dense, and it is easier to see where I am supposed to be heading. I am not out of the darkness of the woods yet, but it feels like the trees are spread a little further apart. All I have t...

  I first encountered this verse on one of my walks in early May, and even though I knew it held meaning for me, I was not quite sure what it was yet. I started this blog post and let it sit for a couple months. This morning, I have finally come to a realization of why this verse is so important in my life. I have always been in the habit of ending a phone call to my family with "I love you" before hanging up the phone. It occurred to me a while back that if I make sure to tell my family that I love them after talking to them, then why wouldn't I tell God the same? Since then, I have made a point of ending my conversations with God by thanking Him for loving me and my family and responding with "I love you, too." (As a side note, a long time ago, I had this idea of the most important/powerful things you can say to another person. The second most important is "I love you," but the most important is "I love you, too," because the word "too...

Over the past several days, this verse has truly disturbed me. As I have said in previous posts, when I read the Word on my walks in God's woods, I try to listen for what that verse is telling me about myself. The book of Ezekiel is another one of those prophets near the end of the Old Testament that I usually have a hard time reading, and the main theme of this particular chapter is God condemning the false prophets who have led the people of Israel astray. God speaks through Ezekiel and calls these false prophets jackals and says they will not enter the land of Israel, but he also says that he will release his wrath on them so the people will know that he is God. What disturbs me about this passage is the question of when have I been a false prophet. When have I declared that I am doing God's work when I am really doing what I choose? When have I followed my own spirit and seen nothing? Over the past several months, it feels like I have seen no progress in my life, and this v...

Yesterday was the first day of classes at both Appalachian State University and NC State University, and I spent a large portion of my day thinking about and praying for both Rayne and Abe, our two sons. Both of these young men have overcome some major obstacles to make it to college, and I am beyond proud of the work, both academic and personal, that each of them has done to make it this far. I feel truly blessed to know that both boys are starting on the path to adulthood, and even if they don't need me by their side at all times, I pray that they know that I am right behind them, cheering them on. Truthfully, yesterday was a very hard day for me because it reminded me of the contrast between the two boys' situations. I sent a text to both boys to remind them that we love them, we are proud of them, and we are praying for them. According to my phone, Rayne read his text a little before he went to his first college class. Unfortunately, it appears that Abe has blocked my text ...