Last week my husband and I had an opportunity to finally use a gift card that our kids gave us over a year ago. The gift was for one nights stay at Big Cedar Lodge. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from our house and we love road trips, so it was perfect.

Our room was lovely, two queen size beds with feather bed mattress, a whirlpool tub, and french door opening on to a balcony with a spectacular view. It was the first time I ever slept in a room that had a deer head hovering over me, or little stuffed creatures sitting on the TV cabinet, but after a while, we didn't even notice them.

From Big Cedar we drove a couple hours east to Dora, MO to see a friend who runs a trout fishing resort called River of Life Farm. We stayed there for two nights, enjoying the scenery and the solitude. My husband built the website for ROLF and is always updating and adding new things to keep it interesting, so while we were there he was able to get some video of a fly fishing class that was being taught by the trout fishing guide who works at ROLF. It was interesting to watch and the guys taking the class had a great attitude about my husband filming them.

All in all it was a lovely weekend and we so appreciated this wonderful gift. Many thanks to our kids for their generosity. And many thanks to our daughter for staying in the "big house" with the our dog. We are blessed!!!

Trusting

My friend, who is a missionary in Cameroon, is here in the states for a short leave from her work and we just spent a couple of hours catching up while enjoying some coffee and fresh baked cinnamon scones. The time was rich in so many ways. Mostly we laughed as we shared about our lives and where God has taken each of us.
At one point she got a serious look on her face and asked me how I was doing, and she didn't mean how are my circumstances, because she knows they haven't changed. I really had to think, because how I feel is one subject I don't spend much time thinking about. I told her that I'm struggling to trust the Lord, that I my cup feels like it's more half empty than half full.
She got all excited and said she had to tell me a story about a friend of hers. So she proceeded to tell me about this friend who had been praying for a financial need and that God didn't provide for that need until just moments before the deadline. Frustrated, her friend asked the Lord why He, on many occasions, waited until the last moment to answer our prayers. He was surprised that the Lord actually answered that question, because all the other times he asked that question of the Lord, there was no answer, or at least none that he could hear.
This time God did answer, and His answer blessed me so much that I had to share it. He said that God waited until the last minute to answer his prayer because He wanted to prolong the pleasure of his child trusting Him. Wow! My trusting Him, gives Him pleasure. And what even more amazing is that He gives us the ability to trust Him. Wow!