Some Monday Meanderings

 Good Evening! Somehow this day (and weekend) got away from me and I never got around to posting anything since Friday!

Not that I've been so busy...but I was just..well, yeah, busy! The picture above can be explained here:
I finally finished reading that book that was so good that someone sent me anonymously!

This book was about life the way it was back in old Florida, back in the days of the "Florida Crackers"...cowboys who drove wild cows to market, cracking bull whips to keep them moving, and thus came the name "Florida Crackers".  In the picture above, at age nine, I was pretending that I was a pioneer and I was shooting away any intruders to my woodpile fort.  And here below, is my hubby as a child also growing up in Florida...perhaps he could have been a "Florida Cracker" too. By the looks of the two of us, it appears we were destined to end up together!

The book followed the lives of one family of Florida Crackers through three generations, starting in the mid 1800's.  They had a very hard life...and I will tell you this much...keep a kleenex box handy when you really get into this book. It was definitely a tear-jerker! But so good! If you like realistic historical fiction, you will enjoy this book.

I've also mentioned to you that I like to sit outside in my little garden area overlooking "Still Waters Pond" , while I read or pray or just enjoy watching the birds.

If you've been with me for awhile, you will remember when I first got this lovely bench below that my son restored for me for Christmas (Click HERE for that story)

 And thus began a season of spending time in my "Secret Garden" and writing as the Lord spoke to me in what became the Secret Garden Chronicles.  Well, then we moved from that house and although the bench came with me to our new home, the "secret garden" was left behind.  However, I've been working toward setting up a new "secret garden"  here in our new location.  Little by little we are cleaning up the brush and foliage surrounding that area where I love to sit, and it is beginning to take a little more shape.

 Well, this morning something interesting happened.  As I was reading our morning devotions from a little devotional book that my hubby and I enjoy reading together each day, the writer of the devotional reading for today was talking about how "prayer has its place".  The scripture reading came from Acts 16:13, where Paul had heard the famed "Macedonian Call" and was entering Philippi to begin his ministry in that area.  In verse 13 it says,

"And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there."

After reading that scripture reference, the devotional writer asked, "Where is your prayer place, your sanctuary, your hidden room?.  She went on to say that Paul and his companions had found their place to pray along the river. Then the writer said something astounding to me when she wrote that perhaps your place is "the bench your son made you for your garden..."  I stopped reading and looked at my husband and said, "Did you hear what I just read?"  He said yes. I said..."That is so amazing! How did this writer know that my son made a bench for me for my garden?"  Well, the answer is, that writer knows nothing about me or my son or my bench, but God does...and I took this as God's cue to get back to using the special bench that my son made for me for the purpose for which it was intended...Prayer, Meditation on God's Word, Writing as the Holy Spirit leads!  What was interesting was that today we actually had a friend coming over to help clean up the brush and trim the limbs under the trees that surround the bench so that it will be a little cleaner and safer for me to sit out there. (always have to be on guard for snakes in the brush in Florida...so need to keep it cleaned up). 

And as if that wasn't confirmation enough about the special purpose of this bench, I got up and went into the kitchen to start preparing breakfast, and I looked at the refrigerator door. And this is what I saw:

Yes, that is a picture of my son who built the bench. It's an older picture of him, but one that I love so I keep it on my refrigerator. But I want you to notice something else that I had never paid any attention to until today:

 Did you notice that magnet that was holding the picture in place?  Yes, that's the one...the one that is a picture of a garden bench...  Funny how I never noticed that before today. I mean, I've had that magnet a long time, and I love it, but I never noticed that that was the one I was using to hold up my son's picture before!  I just noticed something else...of course the birdhouse and the bird and hat...all things that I love, and the flowers...but look at the flowers on the tree. Those are magnolia blossoms!
Well, when I first got this bench and put it in my "secret garden" at our other house, guess what kind of tree was right over it?  You guessed it...a Magnolia Tree!!!!  Wow...I don't believe in coincidences...but I do believe in God sharing special little whispers of love and nudges to get me moving in the right direction again...and this was definitely one of them. 

Of course now, the bench sits under an oak tree, looking at a lovely holly tree, overlooking the pond.

It is a beautiful setting...a perfect place to sit and pray and listen for God's voice.

A wonderful place to

  "Be Still, and Know that I Am God..." 

Psalm 46:10

So, how has God spoken to you today? Isn't it exciting to see the ways He uses to reach out to us?  The problem is that so often we are just too busy and not really paying attention. But He sure got my attention today! Perhaps this will be a reminder to you as well to pay attention to those little signs along the pathway that could be special messages to you from the Lord.  Certainly something to consider.

Have a blessed and wonderful day and week my friends!