Everyday Nuggets

I've been wanting to sit down for over a week to post but just haven't had the time to collect my thoughts. It seems so much has been going on and yet not much of anything - at least not anything I deemed news worthy. So often I read stories and blogs from ladies (like some of you who have posted messages here) who share wonderful and wise nuggets from the seemingly everyday things in life and I so admire that ability because it's a rare thing when I'm able to recognize it in my own life.

For instance, in the study I'm doing, No Other Gods, the author, Kelly Minter, talks of how, while on a run, she noticed a lizard in the street who had apparently gotten it's head stuck in a Dr. Pepper soda can and sadly died that way in the hot Tennessee sun. Here's what she pulled from that: "The lizard and the Dr. Pepper can spoke to me of something universal that none of us can escape: a desire for refuge, a need for relief, water for our hearts and souls. The tricky part is where we find this sanctuary and how we choose to satisfy our needs. His (the lizards')was a deathtrap. A deceptive offer. A lie. From everything I understand Scripture to reveal, I believe only one source of satisfaction and refuge exists." And of course she's talking of the Lord.

Now I did have an interesting little nugget earlier today and a great example of a principle I learned last week in my study. My son pulled out some of the shells he had collected in Myrtle Beach a few weeks ago and one of the things he mixed into his collection was a bone of some sort. None of us know what it's from but he found it in the ocean and considers it a treasure. Well, the kids were outside and all of sudden he started having a fit, screaming that his sister took the bone and threw it in the grass and now he can't find it. So, of course, I fussed at her for throwing it and made her get out of the pool to go help him find it only to learn a short time later that he had thrown it in the pool and that's why she threw it - to get it out of where she knew it didn't belong. And sweet girl that she is, she was gracious enough to forgive me for fussing at her without having had the whole story. Sigh...

True vs. Truth. There is definitely a difference. What my son said was true but it wasn't the whole truth of the situation. In my life, it may be true that I'm occassionally lonely but the truth is that I'm never alone. God has said He will never leave me nor forsake me. I'm certainly not the first to become ensnared by a lack of discernment and I'll likely not be the last and I'll probably be ensnared by it again though I hope not as easily or quickly should there happen to be a next time. Did you know the serpent never actually lied to Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3? I never realized that before last week. He was certainly deceptive, no question. I loved what Kelly Minter wrote. She said "If Eve had just stuck with Genesis 2:16-17 she would have never needed to go through chapter 3. I pray the same for us. In order to stick with the truth, we have to know it."

Now that's a nugget I think I'll chew on for a while.

Be blessed.
Melanie