Good morning! Welcome to my blog! Last weekend (end of March), we traveled a few hours to visit my family for Easter. My parents live in rural Elk County, PA. This is the area where I was raised and I still love it there. We currently live in Erie, PA and are coming up on 10 years in Erie! For the 10 years between high school and moving to Erie, I traveled around and lived in nearby states, working different horses jobs, college in NY and then back to horse world. I met my husband in June 2004 while I was living in CT. We were engaged, married and were expecting our firstborn when we moved from CT to Erie back in June 2006.
Back to our Easter weekend visit to Elk County. I was out for a Sunday morning walk with our little dog. So different from our usual walks around our suburban neighborhood here at home! Anyways, I had taken my phone along to get a few photos of the creek and woods. I did not expect the way that God reached out to my weary heart and spoke to me through Psalm 23. Once we got back home to Erie, I shared reflections on this time over the next five days - one each morning on my FB page. I had several requests to include all of these posts into one single blog entry. SO - here we are!
And what prompted this walk was kind of ironic... a friend commented on enjoying these posts on Psalm 23 and THIS is actually what sent me out the door and kept me out for a while! "It
was such a good Sunday morning walk. I just love the opportunity to
really be out in nature. And to be honest – I was making sure to stay
away from the house for a little while! My Dad was making the
traditional family stuffing for a turkey which was to accompany the ham
on the Easter table. That stuffing and the ingredients are creepy to me!" Whatever works! God can use events to get our attention, pulling us away to the quiet to hear from Him. :)
Monday
Yesterday
I was walking along this lovely stream while visiting my parents. Parts
of Psalm 23 kept coming to mind. Being alone out there in the quiet of
the morning made for a good time of prayer. Sometimes things happen and
life is thrown all off-kilter. Balance is not just found within myself.
He is my compass.
Tuesday
Coming out of the woods on Sunday morning, I found this sunbeam shining. My parents' place is just around the bend, on the right.
I had been thinking of Psalm 23 and this part came to mind -
"He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake."
Wednesday
"Big Hole" - story time!
When I was a teen, sometimes we would take our horses and ponies and spend 5-6 hours out riding. A favorite destination was a beautiful swimming hole. I loved the depth of this spot. It was a bonus that the water was so clear and the bottom was clean and there was no tricky undertow in this area. And two big rocks to jump off of? Right into the deepest part? When I did swim without my pony, that was my favorite part.
Fast forward 20 years. My parents recently sold their farm of 27 years. It has been a time of change for our family. As life goes – there is always a measure of uncertainty and things up in the air.
Early Easter morning, I was out for a walk with our dog. I happened upon this spot and it looked so familiar to me. All that I knew about the location of our old swimming hole was that it was somewhere "on the far side of Gardner Hill".
I came back to the house and was talking with my Dad. It turns out that this was indeed the same spot! The locals have always referred to it as "Big Hole". I remember 25 years ago and riding with a friend who was a few years older than me. Her friends would drive out and meet us here to swim. Big Hole was the term used and I had long forgotten that until my Dad mentioned it.
Walking on Sunday morning, I kept thinking about Psalm 23. This is an area of lovely quiet, still waters. We have a Good Shepherd who will lead us in this life. It is a question of whether or not we will trust and follow?
When I was a kid growing up on the farm in Scattertown, it was quite a long haul on our ponies, up and down hills and through all sorts of terrain to reach this spot. Now that my parents have moved to their new place – this is literally just a five minute walk their door. I am really looking forward to sharing this place with my own children.
Thursday
Do you know what this is? On the right? The thing that scares me so much?
As I was walking in the woods Sunday morning, this is the spot that first caught my eye. This is what had me standing on the bridge with tears.
To me, the right reminds me of "not enough". The stream that you see on the left is coming in with plenty of water and flow. The branch trickling in from the right? Quite the opposite. Even in springtime.
When Sean's Grandmother was dying, I sat down next to her bed there in her lavender bedroom in CT and I opened up Psalm 23 to read aloud to her. I could not make it through the first verse without the words catching in my throat - "The Lord is my Shepherd. I have all that I need." In that moment, I was brought to the very center of our lives -- no matter the who/what/where/when/why/
I worry about "enough". About having enough. About being enough. And so that translates into making sure that I am "doing enough" - and sometimes that becomes off balance! I looked at this trickle on the right and it caused me anxiety as a clear representation of what I fear. Yet we are given the example later in Psalm 23 that we will NOT FEAR because He is with us. He is our Shepherd. We have all that we need.
These two merge together and just on the other side they become "Big Hole" - the spot that I was writing about yesterday.
Bring what you have. Bring it with open hands. HE IS ENOUGH. I remind myself of this often and I will choose to not fear. When the kids were little, we would sing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and man did that song ever bring me conviction and a reminder of where to place my trust!
Friday
Good morning! This post concludes my week of reflections on the 23rd Psalm. These photos had been taken during an Easter morning walk while visiting my parents in Elk County, PA.
Yesterday's photo about not fearing and the "enough" is what you would see on the upstream side of standing on this little logging bridge. This right here is the view on the downstream side. "Big Hole" from my childhood memories!
"I will dwell" is within the final lines of Psalm 23. We can choose where we will settle ourselves. Will this include staying close to our Shepherd?
Isaiah says that we are like a bunch of sheep who wandered off. The message of Easter is that God sent Jesus to bring us back. He took our stubborn wrongs on Himself. He was wounded in our place.
God wants us close to Him. To have us dwell near Him. Sometimes we wander to where we can't hear His voice. Yet He is our Shepherd. He searches for us and gently leads us. He knows our needs.
It is up to us to decide "where we will live". We go through seasons of feeling adrift. But we can come back back home.
"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."
The above is a prayer from my favorite old hymn. I sing it often.
