By Linda Wegner
For me, everything changed over the course of the past several weeks: various Fall activities have begun; school has started and volunteer organizations are gearing up for autumn and winter activities; board meetings are chugging back into action; tomatoes and cucumber crops (as incredibly abundant as they鈥檝e been) are showing signs of their impending death; and, days and nights are inching closer to each other by the hour. To make it more dramatic, weeks of blistering heat and the resultant tinder-dry conditions and forest fires are thankfully being moderated by rain and substantially lower temperatures (at least in this part of the country). It鈥檚 almost as if we鈥檙e getting back to normal.
Back to the usual or 鈥渘ormal鈥� isn鈥檛 always easy, partly because things aren鈥檛 always what they appear to be on the surface. I鈥檝e been thinking a lot about the challenges we face throughout our lives. While it鈥檚 easy to see the external pressures brought about by busyness and weather conditions, we humans have been conditioned to try to hide our internal pain. Things such as diminished physical or emotional strength, loneliness, questioning our sense of value or fear over facing new challenges are just some of them.
This week a number of Scripture verses have leapt out at me and I鈥檝e been mulling them over them. I鈥檓 privileged to share them with you and I trust they will encourage you.
鈥淭he Lord directs the steps of the godly, He delights in every detail of their lives.鈥� (Psalm 37:23)
鈥淗e Himself has said, 鈥業 will never leave you nor forsake you.鈥欌�� (Hebrews 13:5)
鈥淕ive your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you.鈥� (Psalm 55:22)
And what more could we ask than this: 鈥淜eep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings.鈥� (Psalms 17:8)
