Welcome to my "Open Window"...a place of hope, encouragement, and adventure as we journey down the road from "Closed Doors" to the new opportunities God places in our pathway. I hope you will take the time to go back and follow the trail of mixed blessings and fears, failures and triumphs from the past and side-trips in the present. Perhaps it will conjure up some of your own special memories, and be an invitation for you to share with others. I look forward to spending this time with you!
What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!
I hope you have been having a good week thus far...and now we are heading into a lovely weekend!
Believe it or not, we are experiencing some lovely fall-like weather even here in Florida! Our current temperature at 6:49 a.m. is 64 degrees! The high is expected to be 84, and it looks like a perfect sunny early fall day for us! I would love to spend the day outdoors, but we shall see what develops!
The Sand Hill Crane family came calling again the other evening. They seemed to be enjoying the late afternoon sunshine along the shores of Still Waters Pond, searching for grubs and whatever it is they love so much...
I am always amazed at how big these birds really are! I told my hubby I could almost get on his back and ride, but I'd have to figure out how to lasso him first. That might be quite a wild ride!
I don't know if this is mother and child, or father and mother, or father and child...but these two seem to stick together while the third member of the family is over on the other side of the yard pecking away at bird seed in the ground under the bird feeder...
These two are slowly working their way over to meet him, and if you look closely in the window of the birdhouse below, you will notice our resident lizard quietly watching the parade go by:
I don't think he wants them to know he is there, because it probably wouldn't be beneath a Sand Hill Crane to make a nosey lizard his dinner!
Hey! Which way did he go?
This is how lovely the pond looked in the glowing rays of the late afternoon sunshine:
Ah! The family has finally been reunited below...
I was trying to get a picture of the one bird scratching at his underbelly, and this young upstart decided to photo bomb the picture! Must be the youngster, don't you think?
After that they sauntered away out of sight. I did hear them making their usual loud raucous noises from somewhere on the other side of the house as they wandered around the rest of the neighborhood. I hope you enjoyed watching them as much as I did.
We did have a couple of really rainy days earlier this week...one afternoon I sat on the back porch and listened to the rain on the tin roof...and watched our lizard friend enjoying the rain as well.
It was quite a gully washer! I did make a video of the sounds and shared it on Facebook.You can listen to it HERE if you want. (but you may have to have a Facebook account to access it.)
In my meanderings around our yard this past week I discovered this interesting cocoon on the Rose of Sharon bush in the Memorial Garden:
It's quite large, and I had no idea what it was, but I looked it up on Google, and it might be a Cecropia Moth. Not sure yet. I am keeping an eye on it to see if I can see it emerge. Here is a video about these huge, beautiful moths. I hope it is one, and I really hope I get to see it!
"Complete Metamorphosis: A Cecropia Moth Life Cycle"
If you read my Tuesday 4 Post earlier this week HERE, you already know the story about the rose that blooms in the Secret Memorial Garden for special occasions...and that I picked this rose the other day and brought it inside to enjoy all week long for my special "heaven-sent birthday gift" from my son Matthew. I thought perhaps you'd like to see how it looks now:
This was yesterday,
And this is today. It's been blooming for 4 days now, and tomorrow is my actual birthday! It looks like it will still be beautiful for my special day! Oh, and it still smells just as sweet as it did on the first day! Thank you for the many kind comments of understanding and agreement that indeed, God does love to bless us with special little gifts that seem to be "heaven-sent", just to let us know we are loved and we haven't been forgotten, even by those dear ones who have gone on before us.
Yes, tomorrow is my actual birthday, but we will be celebrating with friends and family on Sunday afternoon after church at our local "Hog Wild Country Cafe'" restaurant. It is a fun place to go and we were able to reserve tables for a large group. It will be fun to see loved ones all together again. It's been a long time. We will also celebrate our son's 50th birthday with the extended family since we weren't able to on his birthday, as well as celebrate several others in the family who have had birthdays in the past few weeks. It should be a loud, happy and blessed celebration! I believe in celebrating life while we are alive to do so! Life is just too short to ignore these special occasions.
So my dear friends, I hope that you have a blessed and wonderful weekend! Get outside and don't forget to smell the roses!
Here's some good "food for thought" from the little "Choose Grace" devotional book that was actually a gift to "Lily Grace", but I like it too!
Let us "overflow with love" for others each day!
Amen!
On another more somber note, please remember our dear blogging friend Mildred, from her blog Laurel Wood. She has been battling cancer and has now been placed in hospice care at her home. I know she would appreciate your prayers for her and her husband John and their loved ones. Thank you dear friends.
Good Morning Friends in Blogland! Today is Tuesday, and time again for Tuesday 4! You may think it a bit early to be thinking about Thanksgiving already, but it's never too early to be thankful!
So, in memory of our friend Toni Taddeo, and in the spirit of thankfulness, let us answer these questions today! Perhaps they will stir up some memories for you as well!
Here is an old one from Toni's blog from 2019 about Thanksgiving time:
About Thanksgiving
1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving show/animated show?:
My favorite Thanksgiving show is kind of a mixture of Thanksgiving and Christmas: "Miracle on 34th Street" with Natalie Wood. I love that movie and even have a story about our own "miracle on "34th street" house...not really on 34th Street, but a miracle story. Sometime I will have to tell it. But not today. Our other favorite movie for Thanksgiving is "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" with Steve Martin and John Candy. I love that movie, but I'm not sure if I want to watch it again this year. We'll see...
2. What is there about Thanksgiving you like the best:
Well, of course it is the gathering of family and friends and sharing that time together, with much thankfulness and love. So many happy memories of Thanksgivings past when our whole family could be together, before our parents left this world for heaven. But we still try to keep the traditions going and our home has been the gathering place for our Florida families to gather over the past quite a few years now.
This was last year:
3. Favorite Thanksgiving/holiday song?:
As a child I remember singing "Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother's house we go..." But my favorite hymns would be:
"We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing..." and "Come Ye Thankful People, Come". If we don't sing those hymns on Thanksgiving either in church that Sunday before or together at our home, then I don't feel like Thanksgiving is complete!
4. If you have an all holiday music radio station when do you start listening to it?:
Please, no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving! And no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I prefer to keep the holidays separate and enjoy each one for its intended purpose. Besides, our house would be too crowded to have Christmas decorations crowding out the Thanksgiving decorations. There is a time and a place for everything, and a season for each...
Now for some other news of the day... did you see the full moon last night? I didn't actually see it until this morning. I knew it had to be full during the night, because the moonlight was so bright in our bedroom I could not get back to sleep! But I was too sleepy to go out and look at it until this morning, and this is the best I could do for pictures:
I am assuming this would be called the "Harvest Moon"?
I remember my parents singing this song together. Sweet Memories. They met during the "Harvest Moon". You can read more about that at the link just added...
And then one more thing that was VERY special happened yesterday. I looked out the back door toward the Secret Memorial Garden and noticed there was something red blooming...and off I flew to see if it was what I thought it was:
Most of you who have known me for a while know that we have a Memorial Garden area in memory of our sweet #2 son, Matthew, who died in 2014 from cancer. When we moved to this house two years ago, I brought with us the rose bush that was planted in the original memorial garden, along with a Rose of Sharon bush. We re-planted them here...and the tradition seems to be that this rose bush blooms primarily on or around special events in our lives...birthdays, Mother's Day, Anniversaries, etc. That seems to be about the only time it blooms. Well, this weekend will be my birthday, and when I saw that rose blooming yesterday I knew that it was my special birthday rose gift from Matthew, sent from heaven with love. You may think what you want, but I can only tell you that it happens this way every special day...so whether or not you believe it...I choose to accept this as a sweet blessing and gift from God and from our son in heaven.
You can see, it's not a very big bush, but it keeps growing and producing these special roses on special days.
Thank you. Matthew!
And Thank You, Jesus, for allowing this blessing to happen.
Here is how it looks this morning. It will last all week and still be beautiful on my birthday, which is Saturday. Just one of God's special mysteries and blessings.
Yes, I am very thankful, and Thanksgiving will again be a time of great thankfulness in our family.
Have a blessed day today. Be sure to keep a watch for special blessings that God sends your way. They are there, if you just watch and pay attention!
Here it is Saturday evening, and I really don't have much to say. Thought I'd go through some random pictures from the week and see if we can put it together into some kind of post!
This was the morning sunrise one fine morning this week! I love how the contrails criss-crossing across the sky glow in the morning sunlight. It was a beautiful way to start the day...
And then on another morning this past week the skies looked like this... a foggy mist above the pond in the early morning before the sun began to rise. The lights are from cars passing on the road on the other side of those trees, driving through the fog to get to work on time. We've had several foggy mornings this week. It's that in between season time when it can't make up its mind if it's going to be cool and cloudy or warm and humid. Usually once the sun comes up it's still pretty hot and humid.
Now this is a picture of progress. We've had road construction going on in our little town for as long as we've lived here. They are four-laning the main highway through town, and on this particular day they were putting up some new traffic lights to change lanes from one side to the new completed side so they can finish working on the other side. Confused? You should live here. At least it's progress.
A week or so ago I showed you some little signs of autumn here, and today I check them out again and the little cut down maple trees are doing their best to keep growing.
I hope they will get big and tall again and let their colors glow!!
Speaking of glowing...a week or so ago I told my daughter in love that we had some good rib eye steaks in the freezer but our gas grill no longer worked so I wasn't sure when or how we were going to cook them. Well, the very next day she and our son showed up in our driveway with this in the back of their truck.
No, it wasn't brand new, but it was as good as new, except it needed a few new parts. My sweet DIL ordered the parts and they brought them over one day this past week too.
Today our son the grill chef put all the new parts in it and got it fired up...and it worked like a charm!
So we decided to test it with some hamburgers tonight.
I said I didn't want to ruin those good steaks on it until we were sure it was going to work good enough for steaks! LOL.
Oh, BTW, did you notice his t-shirt? LOL. Anyway...
The burgers turned out perfect, and so as soon as we can get together with our other kids again, (and also have enough steaks to go around for the whole family), we will be having them over for a steak dinner!
I love how resourceful our family is. We are very blessed indeed.
Here's some food for thought regarding our children, no matter what their age:
Good Night My Friends.
May you sleep in peace.
(This is our sunset right now. Nothing spectacular, but still beautiful in its own way.
2. How to you keep your house neat , tidy and clean? Do you find it difficult?
The older we get, it seems to be getting more difficult to keep our house as tidy and neat as I would like it to be. I don't have the strength and stamina I used to have, which comes with the territory of issues with the neck, back, and arms. Plus, the past year or so, since "Covid" came into our lives to separate us from kith and kin, I have not had the opportunity to do as much entertaining in our home as we used to do. So therefore I have gotten somewhat lazy and not as particular about housekeeping as before when I knew people would be coming. I know I have let some things go, and the longer I let them go, the harder it is to get back to them. I am hoping to have more energy in the fall months when the weather is not so hot and humid. That usually helps me to get back into a better routine. We do try to take care of the routine jobs of cleaning bathrooms, sweeping up the dust and sand that gets tracked in, and dusting the most obvious places on a regular basis. But I must admit that "out of sight, out of mind" on major dusting jobs. Until I know company's comin'...and then I power dust! LOL. And I am thankful that my hubby does help with the vacuuming and some other jobs as needed.
3.Are plants important in your home.. or collections.. or wall art? Is there a theme you like to create?
"Cherish your family for they are your treasure; A storehouse of riches...wealth beyond measure."
I guess the theme is family and family memories and treasures. We have inherited a lot of family "heirlooms" over the years, and they are all very special to us because of the memory of those loved ones who once enjoyed and cherished those items in their homes. Our home is filled with love and happy memories of times spent together with our loved ones and friends. What more can I say?
Plants? No...they do not survive in our house for long. I did have some lovely African Violets at our last house because I had a perfect window for them. But I gave them to my sweet daughter in love when we moved, and she is now enjoying them in her home, where she has the perfect window for them!
(This picture below was from my former home, when the African Violets lived with me! LOL
I think they are healthier looking at my DIL's house, but no picture to share)
4.What is a typical day/evening like in your home?
Since we are retired, a typical day could be most anything, but it is normally something like this:
We get up around 6 a.m., have our morning cup of coffee (hubby), and tea (me) while we check our emails, facebook, and blogs. Then we sit down together and have our morning devotions and Bible reading. Next comes breakfast. After breakfast we get dressed and usually head over to the place where we like to walk, weather permitting. Or, we may head to town and do some shopping. Or we may take a ride someplace different and walk there. Or we may do some yard work, when it isn't too hot. We are normally home before lunchtime, unless for some strange reason we decide to go out to lunch, but we don't do that very often during the week because we usually go out to lunch on Sunday after church with our church friends. When you are retired and on a very fixed income you have to balance things out and stick to the budget or you get into trouble. So we tend to be pretty disciplined about what we do and where we go.
After lunch you will most likely wake us up if you call between 12:30 and 1:30 or thereabouts, as we do like to lay down and take a nap. However, if you called, I would be so delighted to talk to you and never mind the nap. People are more important. But the nap is very beneficial and I actually look forward to it. Then when I wake up I feel refreshed and ready to tackle whatever...folding laundry, a little housekeeping here and there, or watching something good on TV with hubby. Or reading a book or checking in on our bloggy friends/facebook, etc.
Around 3:30 or 4:00 I start working on supper. Our son who lives here at home usually gets home from work around 4:30 or 5:00. He has had a long, hot day, working at a golf course in the hot sun all day, so he is ready for a shower and supper and often times heads to bed pretty early as he gets up about 4 a.m. But he is always willing to wash the supper dishes and help with anything else we need help with (things we can't lift or reach in the shed, like my bins of holiday decorations, etc....) We enjoy visiting with him while we sit at the table together for supper, hearing about his day at work or other interesting topics he likes to talk about. I enjoy drying the dishes while he washes, as he is most talkative at that time and usually full of funny stuff he thinks about on his long drive home. He can be very entertaining and would make a good stand up comedian. LOL.
After supper hubby and I usually go take another walk before it gets dark. Then we settle in for the evening to read, watch TV, or do whatever else we can think of to do. Bedtime is normally by 9:30 p.m. We are "early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise" kind of people...but we are still waiting for that "wealthy" part of the equation. LOL. But we are wealthy in love and happiness...and that is what really matters.
Of course, these are just our normal days. Other days we may have Dr. appointments, church activities, or something out of the ordinary pop up. And Sunday is always reserved for Sunday School and Church and out to lunch and home to nap. LOL.
Most of all, God is the Head of our home.
I love this Bible verse:
And I've always loved this saying:
"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
UPDATE: September 11, 2021...20 years ago today... The "war in Afghanistan" that began 20 years ago as a result of the attack on 9-11 is supposedly over...at least that is what the government would like us to think. We've pulled out our troops and brought them home, but we've left the country in a terrible, terrible mess, perhaps worse than it was 20 years ago. The enemy is in charge there...the terrorists that were behind the plot to destroy our country on 9-11, 2001, are now the ones in "leadership" in Afghanistan, and not only have we left the country, but we left all of our weapons and military bases there for them to use against us in the future. We've left many innocent people behind as well, who now must cower in fear under the tyranny of this evil government. It is not a good thing. Our own nation is severely divided about this and many other things. The current leaders in our government are sadly incompetent and even dangerous to the well being of this nation. If ever our nation needed prayer, it is now. When I first began this post on September 11, 2011, I ended it with this verse:
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
We need to pray for our nation, our government, our world even more than ever. We need to examine our own hearts, and see if there is any wicked way in us, and repent and pray for forgiveness, before God can heal our land. Healing begins with each one of us, when we truly seek God's face and turn away from the sins that so easily beset us.
Dear friends, let us pray!
The Lord's Prayer
"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)
Read on for what was written originally and in each subsequent year on this date:
September 11, 2020...19 years ago...and today more than ever we need to remember what happens when terror is allowed to attack our nation, our spirit and our personal lives. We've been living in a different kind of terror this year, an "invisible enemy" known as Covid 19, which many believe was in reality a terrorist attack on our country and around the world. Our people have suffered, many have died, our economy has taken a direct hit, and it may take years for people's lives to get back to some kind of normal, if ever. The attack on 9-11 in 2001 was sinister and evil, and it destroyed our sense of security and innocence forever. The attack of Covid 19 is also sinister and evil, and our lives will never be the same. But we are resilient people. We will not allow the enemies of our great nation continue to destroy us from without or within. The home-grown terrorists who continue to riot and pillage our great cities, destroying people's livelihoods and making people afraid to come out of their homes while they burn and bully and tear down businesses and statues and try to remove our history must be stopped, and they will be. We The People must not give up hope. We must stand up and fight against tyranny in all forms. And we must remember what happened on 9-11, 2001, and realize once again that we are "One nation, under God, indivisible, the liberty and justice for all."
September 11, 2018...17 years later and we will remember this day forever in our hearts. Our world was sadly changed that day...and it has affected every American in one way or another. I love this quote by our then President George W. Bush...it speaks to the heart of every American: "We will not tire, We will not falter, We will not fail. United We Stand". I pray that every American reading this today will realize that we must stand united if we are going to be able to fend off the enemies of our nation, who are still out there, chipping away at our freedoms, our way of life, and our resolve to stand strong together. I implore you today, remember 9-11, and let us stand strong and united once again.
September 11, 2016, The Fifteen Year Anniversary of 9-11. I just saw this scroll by on our TV:
This is the name of my husband's 1st cousin, who was killed in the twin towers on 9/11/2001. There is more information further down in my previous post about this. Seeing his name scrolling across our television causes us to pause and pray again for his family and the families of all those affected by this horrible tragedy. Let us never forget.
September 11, 2014
I guess I'll just keep re-sending this each year...still can't believe this ever happened. Please continue to pray for our nation, and the families that are still today hurting because of the great loss they suffered on this day. Praying for peace...and wisdom for our leaders. Things appear to be getting worse in the world...not better. Looking upward and waiting for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...very soon.
I listened to the above "9-11 Timeline" on my way to work this morning on my favorite radio station, the JoyFm, and I was not prepared for the flood of emotions that overwhelmed my soul as I listened. You would think after 12 years that it would not have that kind of effect on me, but it did. I guess it always will. And maybe that's a good thing. We need to never forget what happened to our nation on that fateful day. We need to remember those who died that day, and continue our fight against tyranny and terrorism in our nation and our world...but also be prepared to meet our God and Savior at any moment...in a twinkling of an eye...at the last trumpet (I Corinthians 15:50-58)...and also as foretold in I Thessalonians 4:16-18 ~
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words."
"I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin
9/11/2012--- I wrote this post last year to commemorate 9/11/2001 on it's 10th Anniversary.
I still feel the same way today...I still don't want to think about this day, but at our
office Staff Meeting this morning our Pastor asked us each to share where we were on that morning 11 years ago today. I was at work at my job at a technical college. When the news came to us via phone calls and radio broadcast after the first crash (we didn't have a TV in our office), I knew something very bad was happening and started to pray. Then a few minutes later when we heard the 2nd crash, my co-workers and I gathered together in a circle (in a public school!) and joined hands and prayed. No one stopped us. No one told us that we weren't supposed to be praying in a public school. As a matter of fact, people kept praying all day long. I believe that was the closest to God our country had been in many years, and we probably haven't been that close since. But every year on this anniversary, we tend to get very patriotic and in our own way, draw very close to God.
I pray for our country today. I pray for our leaders, both current and those to come.
I pray that we will turn our eyes back to Jesus and refocus our hearts and lives on Him.
I pray that we will never forget that we are
"One Nation, Under God, Indivisible,
with Liberty and Justice for All."
Amen!
"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14
I did not want to remember 9-11 today, 9/11/11, the 10th anniversaryof the horrific tragedy that struck our nation and has forever changed the way we live in America. You may ask why I didn't want to remember...
Well, I just couldn't deal with the emotional toll of reliving all the pain, terror, sadness, anger, fear, and agony as it was shown over and over again throughout this past week. No matter where you turned, it was there. People talking about where they were when the World Trade Centers were hit by terrorists. How they felt when the reality hit that this was indeed an act of war and aggression against our nation, and that so many innocent lives were taken, leaving a gaping wound not only in the skyline of our great city, but in the hearts of all the American people.
A Cross in the rubble at Ground Zero
made from the steel beams...a poignant reminder
that God was there in the midst.
Even though I was hundreds of miles away, safe in my own little world when this took place, somehow I felt violated, raped of my innocence and feelings of protection from the horror of these things that only happened in other parts of the world. I mean, look at our history...not since the Civil War had our land been literally and physically injured in a great war. Yes, I know our grandfathers and fathers and even perhaps our brothers and close friends had fought and died in war zones throughout history (and still going on today). But those battles were fought on other soil...we didn't have to see the battlefields and hear the bombs going off and see the destruction all around us. This was America the Beautiful!!! We were isolated and protected from those acts of aggression. Those things just aren't supposed to happen here.
Like the proverbial ostrich I wanted to put my head in the sand and pretend all was well in our world. I wanted to go back to life as usual...where the birdies sing and the butterflies flutter about from flower to flower drinking in the sweet nectar of life. I wanted to forget 9-11 and the war on terrorism and get back to "normal" living again.
But 9-11 has forever changed that...especially in the lives of thousands of families across our land who lost loved ones so tragically that day. Even our own family was not untouched by this grief as my husband's first cousin was killed in the World Trade Center. (Click on this for a blog written in memory of William R. Steiner) Although our families were not real close and my husband had not seen this cousin since their childhood, it still struck home. It hurt deeply. This man left behind a wife and children and his parents. His father literally died of a broken heart not too long after. The sorrow was just too much for him to bear.
So this morning my first thought was I really didn't want to watch any more programs on TV about this, and I didn't even want to go to church because I thought it would be too emotionally draining. But then I had a change of heart. I thought that instead of being so self-centered I needed to stand united with my country and my church and show my support. As we sang patriotic hymns and the Star Spangled Banner, pledged our Allegiance to the Flag and bowed our heads in prayer for our country my spirits were lifted. I was proud of our nation and its strength of character in the aftermath of this tragedy. I was thankful to be a part of this great nation.
But with these good feelings is also the sober warning...our country is living on borrowed time. It is only a matter of time before some other evil force will take vengeance on our land and try again to strike us down. We need to remember that there is a much bigger battle going on here...a fight between the forces of good and evil...God and Satan. I don't care what church you may attend or what religion you may adhere to. I really don't care what political party you belong to or who you voted for. The war that is going on here is much larger and in a different plane than we can see with our human eyes. The real battle that matters here is the battle for our own hearts and souls. When that issue is settled, the world conflagrations will still rage on, but we will have peace within.
I'd like to close this with an old hymn that comes to mind that asks the question :
"Is Thy Heart Right with God?"
"Have thine affections been nailed to the cross?
Is thy heart right with God?
Does thou count all things for Jesus but loss
Is thy heart right with God?
Chorus:
Is thy heart right with God?
Washed in the crimson flood,
cleansed and made holy,
humble and lowly,
right in the sight of God?
Hast thou dominion o'er self and o'er sin?
Is thy heart right with God?
Over all evil without and within"
Is thy heart right with God?
(Chorus)
Are all thy powers under Jesus' control?
Is thy heart right with God?
Does He each moment abide in thy soul?
Is thy heart right with God?
Chorus:
Is thy heart right with God?
Washed in the crimson flood,
Cleansed and made holy,
humble and lowly,
Right in the sight of God?
(Elisha A. Hoffman 1839-1929)
No matter what Satan or the world terrorists throw at us or do to us, what really matters is where we stand in our personal relationship with Christ. When Christ abides in our souls, we need not fear what man can do to us.
I like what 2 Chronicles 20:12 and 15 says when Jehoshaphat was faced with a great enemy and did not know what to do:
"O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (verse 12)
And the Lord answered and said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's." (verse 15)
The key to peace within our hearts and our nation is to have peace with God...and to put our trust in Him.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says:
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
