Quick Takes - Take 4

1. Sam, my newly acquired cat has been missing for nearly 24 hours now. Is it too soon an Ampurrrrr alert? I'm afraid he will not come back. Although he was obviously from someone home judging how tame he is, I want him to stay with us. I should feel bad I want to steal him for keeps.

2. I'm proud of my daughter. She really, really, I mean REALLY wanted to hang out with her favorite friends and eat her favorite food-Chinese (homemade no less), at one of her favorite places-Pastor Sam's house, but she did the right thing and went to her 4-H meeting instead. Way to go! I know that was a hard decision.

3. Do you ever wonder how God speaks? I do. I've been trying do decipher the meaning of a particular passage and how it relates to events in my life. Can it apply? God is talking about something completely different with people thousands of years ago and yet he is talking about the same things we face today. His truth ABSOLUTELY applies today! But I don't want to put my Linda spin on it. I want to get His message and I'm praying for understanding because I really don't want to get it wrong.

4. Shopping Caution!!!! Never, and I do mean NEVER, lean down to pick up something from the changing room floor and glance back into the mirror! My shock waves could have set off the security alarms. I may have had cottage cheese on the shopping list, but I didn't expect to find it on my backside in the ladies department!

5. The weather has been weird. Which is actually normal for our neck of the woods. We were terribly dry and missing every rain that came along, then had major storms, heavy rain and horrible hail four times in one week. Now it is staying cooler and wet when farmers want to get back out and replant crops destroyed by hail. Life on the plains isn't so plain after all. Reminds me of how big and awesomely powerful God is and how little I am.

6. My good friend is doing a great series of posts on connecting. You can read them at The Next Step. I've been thinking about how I can be better at making connections with people and I realize one stumbling block is that I'm not very good at small talk. I watch ladies around me happily chatting away about their favorite recipe, the goofy thing the kids did last night, any little thing and laughing and having fun together. Connecting. Not on a deep level, but it all starts there. The light, daily stuff that lets people get a glimpse of you and you get an idea of how they tick. I'm working on strategies to help me get better at this. Suggestions are welcome.

7. Back to #3. This situation is a biggy. The verse I'm going to apply today is: Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7. Go ahead and borrow that verse for yourself if you are facing something big and scary. So many of us are. But God does care. He is there. He will see us through.

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