Lyme Disease and Christ...Raindrops on Roses

I sometimes make personalized greeting cards with my (amateur) photography of beautiful things in Nature and personal messages and Bible Verses that have touched me or inspired me in some way.  The photo of the rose with the raindrops is on the front of one of my creations with the following text and Bible verse inside: "When we have weathered the storms in life, we emerge stronger and more beautiful than we were beforehand.  You must have endured a few trials in your past to be able to recognize the blessings God desires to bestow on your future.  *'And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.'  Galatians 6:9"

I know I have recently shared this with my Facebook friends, but it is such a powerful and pivotal point in my life and walk with Christ, that I felt I should share again.

During the height of my desperation of Lyme Disease, an inspirational man of God and medical doctor once asked me had I praised God, when I was discussing my poor state of health. I responded with, "Of course, I praise God all the time." He said, "No. I mean have you praised Him for the Lyme? He chose YOU to go through this. He chose you, His child, to endure this, and He has now given you a diagnosis and will HEAL YOU, according to His Will. One day, He'll choose YOU to help others overcome Lyme and other mysterious diseases through your testimony." He continued with, "Don't you see that He saw enough strength in you to be able to handle this, conquer this in His Name, and then change others' lives for Him?"

At his words, chills came over me, as I sat in the doctor's office, and I began to cry in shame for my inconsideration of God's WILL for my life. No, I had never thought to praise God for my sickness. I had praised Him at each improvement, I had praised Him for many other things, but when I began to praise Him in my VALLEY, that's when God's voice in my life became much more personal. And I saw that His reason for creating ME was much greater and too complex to be able to fully grasp with my inferior human mind. It took that VALLEY of desperation and poor health and other valleys in life for me to be able to fully experience the joy that comes when God allows us the blessing of making it to the "Top of the Mountain" in our lives.

In this life, we will ALWAYS have trials and struggles, but Our Heavenly Father wants us to look to Him, trust Him, and lean on Him for guidance, comfort, and love in the times of sadness, sorrow, anger, and despair! He doesn't promise an easy road, and when we try to live for God, we can be sure the Enemy will do everything in his power to bring us down, hurt our testimony, and try to blow out our light for Christ. He will put those people in our pathways and lives that will try to destroy us, our reputations, and portray us in a negative light, in order to discredit us and our testimony in the eyes of fellow man. I believe the more potential and desire we have to serve Christ and do His Will, the more trials and hardships will be cast upon us. But here is the thing, we have to KEEP ON keeping on for CHRIST and for those who NEED Him in their lives. Keep on through the pain, keep on through the sorrow, keep on through the gossip, and keep on through the financial, physical, emotional and spiritual setbacks. Our Jesus Christ WILL conquer the evil that plagues us here on this Earth...He WILL Prevail, and He will deliver His Children from the trials and tribulations we go through, in HIS time. His timing is not always what we would like it to be, but it IS always perfect. He is ALWAYS with us, HE knows ALL, and has a divine plan for us ALL that we cannot comprehend with our small minds.

Praise the Lord in ALL things, even when it's not easy! Today, I especially praise Him for the health I feel and for the family he has blessed me with. Ultimately, I praise Him for my salvation that came only because the of the unimaginable trial that Jesus endured for me and for you, so that we may all choose an eternal life of perfection and deliverance through Him, in Heaven!

Veteran's Day, November 11, 2013

Praise the Lord in ALL Things

What are you thankful for? Today, I am grateful for all the Men and Women who have served our country and sacrificed their safety for our Freedom. I am thankful for my Dad, Robert Wright, who served in 1st Recon Battalion in Vietnam, and for all the stories he has been able to share about his service over the years. I am thankful for my cousin, David, who served in the US Army in Korea and Iraq/Afghanistan, and I am thankful to my cousin, Matthew, who has dedicated himself and devoted his entire adult career to serve in the US Navy. I am thankful to so many others I have known and those I will never know that have given of themselves to make our lives better and ensure our continued freedom here in the USA. Let's be thankful to ALL of our service men and women, and praise God that he created individuals so brave that they are and were willing to risk their lives for the purpose of improving ours. That is true sacrifice of self that is greater than all other sacrifices imaginable, except for one, and that is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who gave his life so that you and I may choose salvation and freedom for life eternal. We do not deserve either, but we must be humbled and grateful that we can receive both Freedom and Eternal life through these amazing sacrifices given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the American Soldier!

It is in the Hands We Hold that We Find the Ties that Bind!

February 12, 2014 Follow-up below (It is in the Hands We Hold that We Find the Ties that Bind)

(Original Post: Wednesday, November 6, 2013)

Whole-Life" Relationships: Placing One Foot in Front of the Other
by Bobbie Wright Grogan

Sometimes in life, all we can do to get through our emotionally-charged lives and hectic schedules is to simply focus on the here and now. We all go through hard times. Heck, we all go through terrible times. Just think back over your life when something just floored you, took away your world as you had known it at the time, such as a death in your family or a prolonged, debilitating illness that made you realize how fortunate you have been during those months and years of health beforehand. Maybe you lost a job as the primary breadwinner of your family, or you were slapped in the face by the betrayal of a friend or loved one. Some things cut us deeply and shake us to the core of our beings. Some things leave us numb and unresponsive to the minor, more routine components of our daily lives. Still, other occurrences can just sap our energy to the point we are sure we will not be able to function or even get ourselves out of the bed the next day.

It is because of the hectic and chaotic nature of the grind of our daily lives, that we suffer so much when something terrible happens. Life is too busy for most people to enjoy anymore, and this is especially true for new parents or parents, grandparents, and guardians of school-aged children. We have so much going on at work, school, extracurricular activities, and other fluff and chaos that we have gotten ourselves involved in, that our mundane chores become easy to ignore. This is especially true in times of crisis. We HAVE to go to work. We HAVE to go to school. We HAVE to be a mother, father, or guardian of our children, although our busy schedules often prevent us from being the kind of parents that the kids NEED us to be. What should be placed on the back burner in times of crisis should be the things we feel we HAVE to do outside the home. What I am saying is that we need to be able to slow down enough in life to grieve when we need to grieve, love when we have someone to love, and uplift others who need uplifting in their current circumstances, and hold the hands of those who matter to us most. We need to be able to build stock in the relationships in life that actually will enhance your life not stress your life by sucking your precious time away from what should be our primary relationships.

It is way too easy with Social Media nowadays to focus on those menial cyber relationships when our "primary" and vital relationships are suffering, because of it. We get sucked in to "reading" up on others' gossip and grapevines so much, that we feel we MUST make it a daily part of our functional lives, but most of the connections are void of the primary relationships we need to maintain meaning and balance within us and our households. Our spouses need us, our kids need us, our aging relatives need us, and WE need ourselves back. We need to put stock in those things truly valuable in life, not someone who can and will eventually click the 'defriend" button when they disagree with the stance you take on politics, religion, or other controversial topics. Think about how many times we have disagreed with those people in our primary relationships. Most of the time, you have to agree to disagree, if you want to keep nurturing the relationship. You have to sit down and work things out. You have to TALK, specifically, talk with your mouth and not with your typing or texting fingers. You must connect in a much deeper way when it's done in person.

I know this post seems a bit random, but the point I am trying to make is this: When life gets tough or when life is going well, you are not going to base the value in your life on the relationships that aren't made of "lasting" material. You are generally not going to make much progress by just trying to exist the way we have been conditioned to exist in our modern society. You will not lie on your death-bed and wish you had spent more time at work rubbing elbows with your boss or co-workers, or writing the perfect mass-memo to your company employees. You will not lie there and think how meaningful your life was, based on the number of "likes" you received on your Facebook posts or based upon how many people "followed" you on Twitter. No, you will look to those significant, meaningful PRIMARY relationships to glean the value of life. What legacy will you leave with them? What will they do because of what you did for them during your time together? Will your children get married and ignore their spouses and children in lieu of getting that perfectly funny status posted? Will they seek a career that drains them to the point they have no energy left over for their loved ones who need them? Will money be their focus or will they focus on what they can do for others with that money? Will they spend the majority of their waking hours with people that are not concerned about their well-being, as we do in our careers and numerous extracurriculars we require ourselves to participate in? What will they believe in? More importantly, WHO will they believe in, because of you? What lessons have they learned from you that are worth passing down to the generations that follow them?

You see, when those hard times hit, and they WILL hit again and again, we should turn to those who need us and those we need, not to the people that must be updated online or in the office. We trudge forward in bad times, trying so hard not to let our sadness and pain shine through to those who really don't care about us either way. We shouldn't take the time that loved ones, especially children and spouses, need of us. We really should be laughing with loved ones, crying with loved ones, and "sharing" our lives with loved ones, instead of the ones we call "friends" or "followers." We ALL have days that it's all we can do to put one foot in front of the other, just as we HAVE to do while at work or outside activities we choose to do. Our energy should go into something more lasting, something amazingly special, something called "whole-life" relationships. Those are the ones that matter. Those are the ones we should be saving our energy for. Those are the ones that LAST!

Follow-up, February 12, 2014:

“It is in the hands we hold that we find the ties that bind.”  

~ Bobbie Wright Grogan

I took the above photo on a trip a few years back when my family went to visit with my sister, Stephanie, in Islamorada, Florida.  Shown left to right are the following family members: sister, daughter, husband, son, and father.   I love the way the photo embodies to me what true "FAMILY" should be...connected together and united in love.

Life is too short to dwell on the negative; focus on the positive. God wants us all as His Children to be happy in Him and His Will for our lives. When you walk hand in hand with Jesus, He will show us very clearly the things we ought to do and not to do with his leading hand. He also speaks to those who ‘listen,’ but it takes a true servant of God to take His words and put them into action in our own individual lives.  I aim to accomplish this wise objective in my own walk with Jesus Christ.      ~ Bobbie 

Wright House News: 2013 Wright Family Christmas

My other blogspot below :)

2013 Wright Family Christmas: 2013 Wright Family Christmas @ The Historic Bedneg...: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wright-Inn-at-Antioch/116193438470200                  *See above link for more...

Itty Bitty Beauty

 Isn't God amazing?  He creates the most miraculous images all around us for our enjoyment.  The problem is that we rarely take the time to marvel at the tiniest canvases that God obviously put a lot of time into.  I know that each flower and insect, no matter how small, generally provides a specific need in the food chain or in other roles in nature, but I firmly believe Our Heavenly Father CHOSE to paint these with such intricate and artistic design, just to brighten our lives with simple enjoyment and to remind us just how great He is!  For, it is when I ponder the tiniest of beauties, such as this Viola bloom, that it strikes me the most to consider just how mighty our God is.  This bloom actually measures less than one inch in diameter, but the love, effort, and devotion to paint it so magnificently is clearly unmeasurable, infinite, and surpasses all human understanding.  That is the most divine design there is, and it's this timeless beauty that serves as a significant reminder to me that our God is worthy of my praises day in and day out.  He is worthy in our good times.  He is worthy in our bad times.  He is The Artist; He is The Creator; and He alone has breathed all life into existence.  Human life was not a mere accident or result of a big bang.  God actually designed us, as he has designed ALL living things.  He intentionally created us in His image, and gave us free will.  How can we find any value within ourselves if He is not present in our hearts and in every aspect of our lives?  Wherein lies value in a human who firmly believes they evolved from a lima bean or furry ape in the jungle?  My value comes from what God placed within me...the desire to love, the free will to choose Him, and the blessings that follow that choice.  Our God is mighty.  Our God is supreme.  And our God is visible in the tiniest of things!

Bobbie

Lost Sugar

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Well, my focus today has turned from relishing wonderful family Christmas moments to trying to find our missing dog, Sugar.  We have had a rough year with pets.  We live way out in the "sticks," and our home is located about a quarter mile off the road.  We have 39 acres for our dogs to romp and play in, but somehow property lines don't mean much to dogs.  We are not immune to animal tragedies.  As a matter of fact, 2013 has been the most devastating year in that regard, but that's another story.

We fight with ourselves constantly about putting the dogs in the pen.  They absolutely H-A-T-E it!  I mean they hate it to the point that they are barking and yelping and whining and howling (in apparent agony) constantly, until we finally give in and feel sorry enough for them to give them a break.  And when we do open that gate, they run like the wind, as if they never want to return to that God-forsaken place that they consider "Doggie-hell," by what I can decipher.  They get the heck-outta-dodge until they are sure the coast is clear that we have abandoned the mission to inhumanely re-cage them.

We have tried a few times to lock them in the garage to keep them safe and happier at night or when we are going to be gone a while.  They do seem to like it better than the pen for a bit, but, if we are home and attempting to sleep, we will soon hear woeful-sounding lullabies that sound eerily similar to the song that "Doggie-hell" inspires.  Or, if we've been away a few hours, re-entering the garage gives a sense of deja vu
 reminiscent to the set of a "Marley and Me" disaster.

So, therein lies the distressing issue we face today:  Sugar is missing.  This was the second day we haven't seen her.  No one panicked yesterday, but we just assumed she was still out hunting rabbits, after her best Beagle-buddy, Ann, had long-since returned.  It's happened before...although not often.  However, for a country dog, that is as free as the wind and feels the need for speed the way Sugar does, there's no call for panic when she's away for a few extra hours.  But Sugar always stays on guard on the front porch full-time at night.  She sleeps right in front of our front door, and has for the last five years, to protect us from any stray goblins that may be lurking about in the darkness.

Sugar is the protectress of our fort and is proud of that role.  She is the epitome of what a dog should be.  She's perfect.  When my 10-year-old daughter first laid eyes on Sugar as an eight-week old puppy, she knew she had to have her.  Kylie was about to celebrate her sixth birthday, and we had taken a family outing to browse around at Trade Day in Collinsville, Alabama, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite places in the world.  There was a single black and gold puppy that caught her eye, and she wanted to get a closer look.  My husband and I began to spout off reasons why we shouldn't hold her, or pet her, or even get close enough to talk to her.  Besides, the puppy already had two kids to play with.  However, it was those two kids that ultimately sealed the deal for Kylie.  When she boldly asked them what were they doing with that puppy, they immediately stated that they had to find it a home.  Their parents had brought them and this little puppy with eight or ten puppy siblings to find good homes at Trade Day, and other shoppers had quickly picked out each of the other ones for their own.  Kylie proceeded with, "Why didn't anyone pick that one?"  The answer was plainly that the others were cuter.  This offended our little girl greatly (our daughter, not the dog.)  She was devastated that they could say such a thing about her, and she proudly proclaimed, "She's perfect!"  The kids continued that no one wanted her, but their parents had made it clear they absolutely WERE NOT taking it back home, especially not this one...

We weren't in the market for a dog.  The two of us adults were distinctly aware of what suckers we become when it comes to animals.  If we allow ourselves to hold them or pet them or talk to them, we are hooked. We are especially hopeless, if a cute little black and gold puppy needs us, and a cute and curly-headed little girl needs her, too (and yes, she said that!)  Their sweet little animal world quickly captivates us with its endless supply of furry love, licks, and "puppy-dog eyes."  I consider each day a blessing, especially when we get to spend it in the company of our four-legged family members we call pets!

I hope I can report tomorrow with a post entitled, "Found Sugar."  See flier below for more info and photos of Sugar.

God Bless!