thankful

adjective

Definition of THANKFUL

experiencing pleasure, satisfaction, or delight <we were thankful that someone else was footing the bill for the lavish wedding banquet>

Synonyms:  blissful, chuffed [British], delighted, gratified, happy, joyful, joyous, pleased, satisfied, thankful, tickled

Related Words:  beaming, blithe, blithesome, buoyant, cheerful, cheery, gay, gladsome, lighthearted, sunny, upbeat; gleeful, jocund, jolly, jovial, laughing, merry, mirthful, smiling; beatific, ecstatic, elated, enraptured, entranced, euphoric, exhilarated, intoxicated, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical); exuberant, exultant, jubilant, rapt, rejoicing, thrilled; hopeful, optimistic, rosy, sanguine

 

When my daughters were young and in elementary school I often drove them to school in the morning.  Down the street from us lived several other little girls who often hitched a ride as they walked past our house and noticed I was pulling out of the drive.  I didn’t mind the extra passengers.  Many times they clambered into my van at the end of the school day for a ride home as well.  At the end of one school day, I was at the school standing and talking with the other mothers outside the school doors.  Lindsey, wild-haired and bright-eyed, ran up to me and the following conversation ensued:

 

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride?

Me:  Can I have a ride what?

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride in your van? (spoken with a grin and some puzzlement)

Me:  Can I have a ride in my van what?

Lindsay:  Can I have a ride in your van to my house?  (with mild confused frustration)

Me:  Can I have a ride in my van to your house what?  (as the crowd of curious little girls around us started to giggle softly)

Lindsay:  (with growing exasperation)  Can I have a ride … when you drive home … in your van … can you give me a ride home?

Another little girl nearby:  Lindsay!  Can I have a ride please?

Lindsay:  (the light bulb went on) Oh!  Can I have a ride home please?  (with a big smile added for punctuation)

 

All of us have so many things to be thankful for – and more than we even realize or acknowledge.  Whether it’s a ride to a destination, food, safe travels, healing, friendships, family, or even basic clothes and shelter – we all have plenty of reasons to say thank you.  Sometimes we ask others for something (Can I have a ride?  Or Can you please do me a favor?) And many times we pray for something (Dear God please heal my friend.  Or God please give me direction.)  There’s also all those things that we just take for granted and should be saying thank you for (like beautiful weather, money to pay the bills, a good night’s sleep).

For whatever reason Thanksgiving is celebrated – whether as a recognition of the pilgrims and their first big harvest of food in the new land or because a president declared it an official holiday – it is good to give thanks.  And although we should be saying thank you daily for all our blessings, I think it is nice to have one special day to gather together and say a very big thank you with family, friends, and food.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and

 

Please pass the gravy 🙂

 

Just laurel

 

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

 

Excuses, excuses.

You will surely agree with me when I say that life gets too busy sometimes … or a lot of the time.  Some days it feels like we are always running from one thing to the next:  Get gas in the car, take the kids to school, go to work, stop at the store, make dinner, get kids to practice, attend the meeting at church, etc.  In our hurried frenzy, I am afraid that we often times forget about, well, we forget about the forgotten ones.

At the surgical center where I work, we offer transportation to patients who don’t have anyone to drive them to have eye surgery.  That really makes me sad.  Many of the elderly patients have no friends or family to take them to have their eyes fixed.  I wonder if anyone ever visits them.

I also have a friend around my age that has succumbed to early Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home.  My friend Clara and I try to visit her when we can.  It’s not important to us if she knows who we are – we just feel it is important to visit her.  I wonder how many people actually visit her.

And this subject hits close to home for me personally.  It has been wonderful how Amanda has found some independence with living in her own apartment.  But, she is alone most afternoons.  I try to stop by almost every day when I can.  There are so many people who know Amanda, but hardly anyone takes the time to stop by and visit her.

I ran across these verses today about how Jesus was being questioned by the Pharisees about healing and taking care of people’s needs on the Sabbath.  Old Jewish law said that you had to rest on the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:9-12 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? “He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

I’ll bet those old Pharisees just wanted one day off each week and so they insisted on not serving needy people on the Sabbath.  It was too much work for them.  Excuses, excuses.

So how much are we all like those lazy Pharisees who are so busy with our own royal business to not take time to help the forgotten ones?  Isn’t lonely old Grandpa Jones, widow Bertha, or handicapped Liza more valuable than another trip to the store or fifteen minutes of a video game?  Oh –wait – we are also tired, too.  Right?  There are so many forgotten ones out there who are also tired – tired of being alone.   Tired of feeling like nobody cares.

With the holiday season upon us, I ask for all of you to not forget the forgotten.  Do you know how welcome a visit is to those alone?  Do you know how just fifteen minutes of time can show a person that someone cares?  Is there an aged relative or neighbor who would welcome a visit from you?  Do you know of a lonely somebody who is aching for someone to care?

How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!

just Laurel

Many many years ago when I was working in Detroit (and before we had kids) I had a co-worker who once asked me for a ride to work.  She lived in the same city as I did on the south side of Detroit and her car had broken down.  She gave me her address and I assured her that I would get her the next morning.  As dawn peeked over the horizon, I pulled up in front of the address she had given me and went to the front door.  I knocked softly.  As the door opened, I was suddenly afraid I had knocked on the wrong door.  This young lady at the door was still in her pajamas and not at all ready to go to work.  She had different hair and a different face than my co-worker.  Dang it – I must have got her address wrong.  “Hi,” the girl said in a familiar voice, “I must have over slept.  I will get someone else to take me to work – thanks anyways, Laurel.”  She said.  Oh my.  It WAS her.  I just didn’t recognize her without her hair done and make-up on.

I recalled that story this morning as I was on my way out the door to the gym.  It would be silly to shower before working up a sweat – but I hesitated before going out the door without some make-up on!  What if I saw someone I knew and didn’t have my make-up on?  Oh come on girls – we’ve all been there.  We have all made that dash to the grocery store with our bare faces on – hoping not to run into anyone we know.

It made me think 🙂

There are certainly times when we have to put on a different “face.”  We put on a brave face for our children during scary circumstances, we put on a happy face when we have to try and enjoy an unfavorable situation, and there’s also the poker face and the straight face.  But when we wear those different faces we are still recognized as our selves.  Now a major make-up paint job that totally changes your looks is one thing – but has your behavior ever made you unrecognizable?  How about that time you lost your temper and went into a screaming rage?  Or the time you drank too much and were obnoxiously drunk and belligerent?  Or that time you were hanging with the wrong people and you were trying to show off?

Many times when Ted and I are getting ready to go someplace I will tell him to wait just a minute while I finish drying my hair and putting on my make-up.  He will reply, “You don’t need make­-up, you have natural beauty.”  Thanks honey!  But he really needs to just put on his glasses!  There’s nothing wrong with enhancing what you have and looking your best.  But I want people to always see ME and I hope ‘me’ is someone that pleases God.  Quote Shakespeare:  “To thine own self be true”.  Go William Shakespeare!  I couldn’t play a different role all the time and be a different person based on the company I keep.  Some people live like that all the time – there’s Joe at work, Joe with his friends, and then Joe on Sundays at church.  Although I must admit, there are times I am more Christ-like than others which means there are times I am NOT very Christ-like.  I better work on that.  🙂

I don’t want God to be looking for me some day and not recognizing me.

just Laurel

Matthew 10:32-33  Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Do you like a sauna?  I find it is like cilantro – people either like to eat cilantro or they don’t.  Or dark chocolate – you either love it or you are strictly a milk chocolate person.  People who I have asked about a sauna either love sitting in that wooden sweat box or they absolutely don’t.

Well, I like a sauna.

Today, in keeping with my commitment to visit the gym at least three days a week, I went there to work out for the third time this week.  Like anything, the hard part is just getting there.  Once I got started, however, it felt good.  My reward today was a visit to the sauna when I was done.  Wrapped in a towel, I stepped in and sat on the top shelf with my legs stretched out on the wooden bench in front of me while leaning against the wall.  Ahhhhh.  Ohhhhh.  It was hot.  Duh.  Of course it was hot!  But I heard that a proper sauna sit should be about fifteen minutes.  So I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.  It took a few minutes of adjusting and relaxing, but pretty soon my body felt like it was melting and the sweat started.  Oh yeah.  I felt like I was in a crock pot – but I liked it.  It felt like every pore in my body was opening up and all the dirty sweat was pouring out.  I have read that sweating like that does indeed purge your body of some toxins.  But the extreme heat also increases your circulation and gives you a rosy glow.

I made it the full fifteen minutes.  As I got up to leave I took a close look at the thermometer on the wall and it said about 180 degrees Fahrenheit.   Holy cow!  … or beef!  That’s more than the internal temperature that I cook my meatloaf to!  Now I know what a meatloaf feels like!  As I went to the shower to rinse off, I found that the parts of my body that I kept wrapped in the towel were actually more pale and protected from the heat than the flushed parts of my exposed skin.  It was like my towel acted like the foil and protected parts of me from browning in the oven.

It made me think  🙂

If extreme sweating in a sauna acts to cleanse and purge a body from dirt and toxins, it would be awesome if we could get rid of all the spiritual dirt and sin that way too!  Have God put us in the hot box and force us to come clean.  But I guess that would be too much like running the car through the car wash and we really need to feel sorry for our sins and misdeeds.  Sometimes, just ‘fessing up and admitting our wrongs is the hardest part.  A genuine and true heart that asks for forgiveness is all God wants to offer us forgiveness – and we are washed white as snow.  No sweat necessary.

So I also read that a session in the sauna where you have your whole body sweating can actually have you producing up to four cups of sweated sweat.  Of course one must be diligent about rehydrating.  But, doggone it, if I was in there slow cooking like a meatloaf or pork roast, why can’t that puddle of sweat be part rendered FAT?

Just Laurel

Psalm 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

How embarrassing.  I have not blogged since October and here it is the second full week of November already.  Life has been so awfully busy and with the Holiday season upon us, I shudder to think of how much busier it can get.

Besides my job, taking care of things at home, and taking a certain daughter to doctor’s appointments, I have taken on a gym membership.  I am trying to get there at least three days a week.  This aging body is craving attention and I am doing it for me.  Most of the other stuff I do is for someone or something else.  So gym time is my time.

The gym I go to is brand new so everyone is a new member.  And boy oh boy do members come in all shapes, sizes, and ages!  As I gaze at the menagerie of different people working out on various machines, I can only smile and think “Way to go!”  There are so many out of shape, overweight, and not so fit people who are brave enough to work out the best they can to try and attain a better physique and health.

It made me think 🙂

Nobody is perfect.  Most of us are hoping and trying to be smarter, thinner, more creative, more thoughtful , more organized, happier, maybe more sober, or more faithful.  You can fill in your own blank – I wish I was more ___________.  And we are never going to reach perfection – that will only happen in heaven and I don’t plan on going there any too soon.  Life is really all about becoming the best we can be.  We go to school to learn more.  We may take classes or practice to be better artists, cooks, parents, or Christians.  I think once we give up on becoming better at anything, well then we’ve pretty much given up on living.  Oh sometimes, we have to keep starting over.  If I fail to get to the gym a few times, I probably will stop for a couple of weeks before I boot my butt back there.  Alcoholics can fall off the wagon.  But as long as we keep reaching higher – for something better – as long as we can get back in the saddle again and keep reaching for that higher standard.

I was reading from Matthew, chapter 5 today about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Talk about higher standards and becoming more Christ-like!  None of us will ever become the perfect Christian.  But that’s okay as long as we keep trying.  We are to be “the salt of the earth” and to “let our light shine.”  I can do that.  It didn’t say we had to pour out and cover everything with our saltiness – people aren’t going to like that!  But if we can sprinkle humanity with a bit of the flavor of Jesus’ love and grace … give them a taste.  And we are to shine – not blind people with the good news of Jesus.

So I am going to try and keep going to the gym at least three days a week.  I am just going to keep trying – just like I will keep trying to be a better Christian.    I know that some days my progress is miniscule, but at least I have some higher standards to reach for.  Can’t blame a girl for trying.

I hope I can blog for you more often, too.

From the very wise German Reformer, Martin Luther:  “How soon not now, becomes never.”

Just Laurel

We have a resident in our home that loves to cuddle.  It’s either that or he is attacking my feet.  We’re talking sharp teeth and claws here that draw blood.   Oliver the kitten.  I suppose it’s just the way kittens are – they play and pounce and scramble and explore as if they have springs in their legs and a never ending supply of energy.  Suddenly the energy supply is completely run down to zero and the kitten collapses in to a sweet ball of sleeping fur.  I like to say that when Oliver is doing that he is simply recharging his batteries.  He’s a quick recharger, too.

Oliver’s curiosity is boundless.  I am amazed how he goes a little farther every day.  When he first got here and was less than a pound in weight, he only explored as far as about two of the rooms of the house and stayed on the floor.  Each day he goes a little farther and ends up a little higher – from the coffee table to the couch to the kitchen chair to the kitchen counter.  <sigh> There’s no stopping him.

There are times we have to discipline his wild curious energy by a spray of a water bottle or kitty prison – we put him under an over-turned laundry basket.  (He hasn’t learned to get out …. Yet.)

The funniest thing he has learned to do is he gets to the kitchen counter and parks himself on top of the coffee maker.  It’s like his perch.  He fits now but a full grown cat will not squeeze into that spot.  He hovers on the top of the coffee maker when Kristen or I am getting dinner ready as if he is over-seeing our production.  Have you seen the movie “Ratatouille”?  It’s a computer-animated Disney movie about a determined young rat who dreams of becoming a renowned French chef.  I think Oliver has become our ‘CATatouille’!

Anyways … it has been interesting with a kitten in the house.  Cats have certainly earned a special reputation over the years.  Here’s what others say about cats:

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.
Edgar Allan Poe

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’
Lewis Carroll

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier ‘n puttin’ it back in.
Will Rogers

When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.
Rodney Dangerfield

I am really a dog person.  I am learning to appreciate cats, though.  I would love to be as light and flexible on my feet as they are.  But more so, I love their curiosity.  I think it is great to always wake up and want to go a little farther … a little higher … and to always be discovering something new.

But I’m not going to scratch and claw people along the way.

Stupid cat.

Purrrrrrrrrrr

Just Laurel

Ecclesiastes 7:23-25 “I am determined to be wise” but this was beyond me.  Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

Don’t you just hate those days when nothing seems to go right?  Maybe you aren’t feeling your best, or you paid a bill late, or the kids are driving you nuts, or you get out of work late, or you are stuck by a train for twenty minutes, or you forget to pack your kids’ lunch, or you have nothing for dinner, or the washing machine breaks and sends a flood of soapy water everywhere, or the house is a mess and you’ve been trying to clean it since last week, or everyone and everything needs your attention and you just want to throw in the towel and run away from it all?

You can’t fool me – I can see all of you nodding your heads!  Of course we’ve ALL had one of those days.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could always have a clean house, always have the laundry and dishes done, always have enough money for what we wanted to buy, always have everything we needed to make everyone happy?

Life just doesn’t work that way, does it?

It made me think 🙂

The world was perfect for Adam and Eve before the whole apple episode.  In the stage production of the show, “Children of Eden” by Stephen Schwartz, Adam and Eve are living the perfect life as the chorus sings:  “And their love was perfect … And the day was perfect … And the next was perfect … And the next … was perfect … And the day after that … And the day after that … Each one perfect as could be.”  It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  And maybe that’s how we’d all like our days to be.  Perfect.  But when things are going well for us, don’t we all tend to start whining, “I’m bored!”  So we start looking for more.  We start looking beyond the norm of our melancholy lifestyles.  In “Children of Eden” Eve looks beyond the boring perfect normal and believes that God left a tiny spark of fire in her from His creation of her that is making her fingertips itch to find out what other things exist.  Like serpents.  And apple trees.

In one of my favorite movies, “While You Were Sleeping” Sandra Bullock is talking to Jack, the brother of a guy who is in a coma and who Sandra is supposedly engaged to.  But the coma guy doesn’t know about the engagement while meanwhile Jack and Sandra are falling in love – confusing I know – but a good movie.  Any ways – Jack is trying to find happiness in his life while making everyone around him happy and he tells Sandra what she needs to do. Sandra says to him, “And what are you, Jack, the happiness guru?”  Ha!  Raise your hand if you’ve ever taken a day to try and please everyone.  Hello Happiness Guru!

Now let me share with you another movie – “Bruce Almighty” where Jim Carrey takes over the job of being God, played by Morgan Freeman.  In one scene he is dealing with hearing all the voices of prayers from people as they pray and ask God for requests.  It made me think 🙂 of how God must go crazy with us asking him for stuff all the time.  Jim Carrey is overwhelmed with the needs of all the praying souls and tries desperately to answer all the incoming prayers.  He tries filing them, using sticky notes, getting a website to organize them and … well … if you want you can view the clip yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0cG11lTS1E

Jim Carrey finally defaults all the prayers to the same answer – “Yes.”  So guess what happens?  Everyone gets what they ask for – and they still aren’t happy.

So what is our lesson here?

I think we need to sit back and thank God for those crazy imperfect days.  Why?  Because there is no such thing as a perfect day – both because of the bite of an apple, and because you just can’t make everyone happy all the time.  You can never have things perfect.  And those bad days?  Well, they test us, they teach us things, they help us discover what’s beyond, they help us grow and they help us appreciate the days that may get close to perfect.  In “Children of Eden” Adam sings about how they once had a garden full of all they could eat, but Eve responds, “But it seems the fruit our own hands grow, somehow tastes twice as sweet.”

It can’t all be good and it can’t all be perfect.  If it was, we’d all get bored and itchy in our seats as we looked for something new and different.  So let’s thank God for when things are going well – too often we forget to say that when times are good.  And when the day (or week or month) starts going awful, remember that God said He would never leave us.  He’ll help us through.  The path may just lead to a wonderful destination.  In the meantime, we can trust that God has us just where we belong and however rough the road, we will arrive stronger, more faithful, more appreciative, and more blessed.

I think it’s snack time now – I’m hungry!

I’m thinking … an apple!

Yum.

Here’s to … beyond!

Just Laurel

James 1: 2-8, 12   Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.  Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Patients who come for cataract surgery at my place of work are often from different ethnic backgrounds.  Many of them don’t speak English.  Oh we do fairly well with pointing and explaining some things with hand gestures.  But there is a lot of information that needs to be communicated where hand gestures just don’t work and that is why they are told ahead of time to bring someone to interpret for them.    So what do you think is going on when I ask a patient’s attending friend or family member who is also the designated interpreter this question with the following answer:  “Would (s)he like orange juice, apple juice, or some water to drink?”  And they answer, “Yes, okay okay.”  Uhhh … no.  Or I might ask, “Is your mother diabetic?”  And the response is, “ … “  followed by a blank stare and then, “Yes, okay.”  Really??

If you don’t speak English and you need an interpreter … Why do you bring someone who doesn’t speak English?????

If you were going to go fight in a battle, wouldn’t you take someone with you who you knew could fight?  If you were going to climb to the roof of your house, wouldn’t you take someone with you who knew about roofing a house?  If you were going camping in the woods, wouldn’t you take someone who knew about pitching a tent and building campfires?  If you were going dress shopping for a big event, wouldn’t you take someone with some fashion sense?  If you were having a surgical procedure, wouldn’t you take someone to get medical directions in case you didn’t speak the language?

Ugh.

Folks, I am sorry to unleash my frustration, but when considering EYE surgery and keeping your VISION, don’t you think you would need to know some details?  I know – I know – perhaps these individuals did not have any friends who were fluent in English.  And on the positive side, I must say that most of the non-English speaking patients at least know how to say “Thank you.”  I have had my share of sincerely spoken “Thank-you’s” that even included a gentle hand squeeze, sweet hug, or peck on the cheek.

It made me think 🙂

When faced with a critical decision or circumstance in your life, do you go alone?  Why would you do that?  If health issues are creating havoc in your life or the life of your friend or loved one – or if you have a rough day of work ahead of you that follows a short night of sleep – or if you have studied day and night for an upcoming difficult academic test – or if you have more tasks to do than you have time for – or if you are called upon in any of so many areas of life where the going seems scary or extra-challenging – why aren’t you bringing your interpreter with you?  God can strengthen and go along with you and help you through.   With Him, all things are possible!  He is your very best advocate!

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to try to take God with me wherever I go.  I’ll let him ride shotgun and I know he’ll take the wheel when I can’t interpret which way to go.

Why would I go alone?
Why wouldn’t I want an interpreter?

Just Laurel

John 15:5 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 

This past Friday night I had the opportunity to attend the 51^st Annual Enshrinement Ceremony of the National Aviation Hall of Fame where four men were honored as legends of flight.  I was impressed both on the grand scale and for one individual.  On the grand scale, it was humbling to be in a room with six hundred people who radiated such intense patriotism.  Many of the attendees were military – either retired or in active duty – and you could tell they loved their country.  The National Anthem was played and a blessing was said before our meal.  Our country needs more of that:  Patriotism and faith.  And folks – they go hand in hand, don’t they.  Just read the first words of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. From the beginning, America’s founders accepted the reality that basic rights were inseparable from human beings and they recognized that those inalienable rights were not given by government nor acquired by force, but that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the gifts of the Creator.

The one enshrined individual who made the greatest impression on me was Patrick Henry Brady.  This man was once dropped from the ROTC program, expelled from Army Intelligence School, and almost failed Army helicopter school.  In January 1964 Brady volunteered for Vietnam and was assigned to the 57^th Medical Detachment – Helicopter Ambulance.  He ended up flying in two tours of Vietnam where he flew over 2,500 combat missions and rescued over 5,000 wounded.  Brady flew during the night, and in weather and terrain that was as deadly as the communists.  He often extracted patients from areas where other aircraft had failed.  But what really moved my heart was when Brady was given the chance to speak on Friday night, and this is what he said (paraphrased as best I can recall):  “So many of our rescues were into places that were thick with smoke, full of brush and trees, and seemingly impossible to get to … and I would pray to God for Him to find a path and to guide me in there so we could bring the wounded out.”  Wow.  In the midst of the horrors of the Vietnam War and with mines exploding and bullets flying, this man totally put all his trust in his Lord and Savior.  Totally.  That is faith pure and true.

Patrick Henry Brady set a huge example for me.  Besides being a hero for all the wounded he rescued from the bloody jungles of Vietnam, he is my hero for his example of faith and trust.  How often do we pray for God’s hand to lead and guide us through a difficult day or situation?  But do we totally give up all of our control to let God take over and guide us?  Brady had to relinquish all control to let God fly his helicopter safely in and out of battle zones.  Do we surrender all to Him?  Or do we hold on to the part we want and wrestle for control?  You can’t have two sets of hands on the steering wheel – or on the stick of the airplane!  Few of the conflicts most of us face could ever come close to the life or death battles Brady faced.  Why are we so stubborn to trust God to pave the safest path for our lives?  He sees what we cannot.  He knows what we do not.  He can do what we cannot.

Thank you, Patrick Henry Brady, for your service to your country and for the example you set with your faith.

And (willingly) may we learn to let God be our guide.

Just Laurel

Psalm 23:3 He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Psalm 31:3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
Psalm 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
Psalm 67:4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
Psalm 78:14 He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night.
Psalm 78:53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies.
Isaiah 58:11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.