2:10 p.m. Today's project was to paint the living room wall, covering some old semi-gloss paint and readying it for Kriss and Marisela's portraits. I am happy to report that prayers for Steve were answered, and he did a really nice job! The only minor casualty was a bit of spotting on one section of my living room sheers, but I quickly went to ehow.com to find that a simple scrubbing with dish soap does the trick for water-based flat paint. Best of all, the paint is the exact shade that we had already!
An odd incident took place at 7:00 this morning, while I was finishing up my devotions. The doorbell blared, sending the dogs into a loud frenzy from their crates in the family room and causing me to run upstairs for Steve to come out on the front porch and check things out. I may have been closer to the door, but I wasn't going to confront some weirdo in my nightgown...or even fully dressed! That's a job for the man of the house, in my view!
There was no getting out of this investigation, because the doorbell had been punched at an angle and was stuck, buzzing madly the whole time, ugh. Several minutes went by with the dogs still barking before Steve dressed and opened the door. No one was there, of course. Apparently someone thought they were being funny: "Ding, dong, ditch!" or, as my girlfriends at Mimi's suggested later, a burglar was trying to see if anyone was home...a pretty daring trick with the RV and Heidi's car in the driveway, on the busiest corner in Riverside!
But it seems, however, that full daylight criminal boldness is becoming the norm lately, after the armed robbery of a Brinks truck last Monday in a busy, crowded shopping center nearby. Powers of darkness, such as drug addiction, are driving the desperate out of the shadows. Prayerfully, such perpetrators will be apprehended with no harm to property or loss of life!
When circumstances are as difficult as they are today, we see the difference in the response of those who walk in light, trusting the Father, and those who choose to remain in darkness, looking to themselves alone for answers, to their own and others' hurt.
Christians walk from darkness into light when we accept Christ as Savior! Ephesians 5:8-13, 15-16 says of the change we have undergone:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness, righteousness and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light... See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.
How do we expose darkness? Shine our light on it! How do we shine? Not with self-importance, judgmentalism, or condemnation, but by simply living in prayerful obedience to our Heavenly Father, searching His Word for answers, and listening to the "still, small voice" of the Holy Spirit first, not after we've decided to go our own way!
Pray for the lost and desperate, so deceived, headed to hell! Share Christ by small mentions as well as full witnessing conversations whenever opportune. The Lord will lead, provide opportunity, and you will indeed SHINE!
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Amen Dana. Well said.
ReplyDeleteGlad you guys stayed safe.