A Night to Appreciate

Last night we had our weekly Friday meal and it was great. 25 people showed up which was our second highest number. There were 3 new people and everyone of them are planning on coming back next week for homemade ice cream. It was wonderful. Everyone seemed to have so much fun. And the number of kids there was high. Of that 25, 10 were kids. It was so much fun to see them all running around.

Sold three more books!! It is great. The second book, The Nightingale in the Garden, is with the illustrator now. The third book is in first draft mode. I'm hoping in a week or so review that one again before sending it to the editor. I have such a new found respect for writers as we go through so many versions and corrections.

Today's Devotional:

Matthew 5:3

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

This verse always bothered me. In reading it, I took it to mean that you had to have less faith or less of the Holy Spirit, if you could quantify it. But upon deeper study, I found that my use of the words were not the way the original message was intended. The Message interprets it in a way I get as “You’re blessed when you are at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” The Amplified says that blessed are the humbled. That makes sense now! At the end of my rope…… I’ve been there many times. Kind of hang there sometimes, too. Never knowing where to go from here. Only seeing the abyss beneath me. That’s when I’m blessed? At the end of your rope, do you have any friends left to help you? Is there an escape plan waiting for you? By then, do you have the strength to swing to the edge of the cliff? What else is there left for you to figure out on your own? What else can you do? Notice what is emphasized in those last two questions. What can “YOU” do? It is only when we are at the end of our rope, or poor (humbled) spirit, do we stop looking inside at “ME” and begin looking up at HIM. That is when we can realize and confess that we cannot do anymore and that only He can. It is only then when we surrender unto Him and release into His capable hands. You are blessed when you get there because you know total helplessness and total crying out to your Father. It is not a matter of how much of the Holy Spirit you have, it is how humble you are to realize that YOU are not in control. That is when you become poor in spirit.