Forest Gump's Life Lessons

Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes our lives are difficult and sometimes our lives are easy. We never know what each day holds, but as Christians we do know that God is with us. God doesn't promise us an easy life when we accept Him into our hearts, but He does promise to stay with us. There are times when He's walking in front of us, times when He's beside us, and other times when He's behind us. He leads, supports and encourages us every step of the way.

It's up to us whether we keep our eyes and ears on Him. So often we tend to look at and listen to the world around us. We put our focus on ourselves, problems, and solutions, and only turn to God when it gets to be too much for us. God knows exactly what we need, when we need it, but He wants us to ask for His help. He wants us to recognize in our hearts that He is Lord and God over ALL creation and that He loves us and desires to guide us.

His ways are not our ways because we can't see the big picture like He can. He is able to see both sides of the tapestry, knowing exactly where each string goes and where it connects with other strings, as well as what the completed tapestry will look like. We only see the back side. We see the thousands of strings weaving in and out and under and over, but can't follow their paths with our naked eyes. We must sit back and trust that God knows what He's doing and that He's making something beautiful. Faith is allowing God to weave us into His tapestry even when we can't see the other side.

It's not easy, though. I struggle every day wanting to take control of the weaving process, begging God to show me the other side. That's not faith, however.

Helpful Websites

I recently discovered www.quizlet.com. It's a really neat site that allows you to make flashcards for anything you can think of. I've made several sets so far for our 1st year Latin course and have been pleased with how easy they are to make and how quickly I learned the Latin words once I started studying them.

I also really like the Glencoe Literature Library for their wonderful study guides. I've used several of their study guides for school purposes and also for my ladies' book club. Another good site for literature study guides is Penguin Classics.

House...SOLD!

We sold the house here in South Carolina. We closed on Tuesday and will be renting it back from the buyer for a short period of time. Whew! What a relief. We are now awaiting orders that will hopefully take us back to Virginia and our other house.

We never truly appreciated our house when we were living there, but now we can't wait to go back to it. We have so many plans, like tearing up the yard and replanting grass (with no weeds), refinishing some hardwood floors, tearing out some wood paneling and replacing it with drywall, updating the downstairs bathroom, etc. So many things on our wishlist, and hopefully enough time and money to do them.