Walking around in the quiet mornings with no sound but the dripping of the dew from the towering trees and the crunching gravel under my feet, allows for me to dance through my memories of childhood.
The dew quietly slides off each fall colored and evergreen leaf onto the forest floor and ditches below, as the sun slowly climbs up the tree tops to shine warmly down on the red dirt road.
I pause and see a village of spiders in the dith. It is like looking at a magical village of sparkling diamonds as the sun hits the dew covered webs. Mornings are my favorite time to connect with God. This time of the day allows for me to pause and walk around in nature and be thankful of the world around me.
It does not matter where I spend my mornings; going back in time to my childhood home or when I am home on my Island. I am thankful each day to wake up to learn and think how can I serve, lead and help others, this includes myself, in health, strength, mentally, physically and spiritually.
This peaceful morning on the red dirt road I go back to the past reflections of growing up. Looking back at choices and mistakes I made throughout my life, from the first time lying to Granny about smoking under the house, uh in elementary school (you will have to read this chapter: Brooms and Cigarettes, in my upcoming book- Growing up on Prayer, Love and the Red Dirt Road, to the path I took as a teen ager and young adult.
These mistakes and choices I made were not God’s plan but totally my choice and not for the whole world to reflect and judge. You know the choices and all the B.S. you did growing up that you would not tell your momma? These choices and my mistakes created who I am today and I am forever thankful that God forgave me and never stopped loving me. Jesus died for my sins.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 MLT But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9
I am thankful I serve a forgiving and loving God.
As I looked up to give a prayer and thanks for loving me, for giving me the opportunity to use my creative brain, I prayed for the words to flow from me that He has put upon my heart, so that others may learn of His love and find salvation. I prayed I would have the confidence to let it all out and let go of the fear, I saw the swing.
The swing was no longer there, but the wire and memory was still intact. I could see us flying to the tops of the trees on those hot summer days, as red dust blew into our faces on the red dirt road. Soaring high into the air without fear and having the feeling of joy of a child came flooding back to me. The wire cable on the oak tree had endured a lifetime of clinging to this oak tree. 50 plus years later it was embedded into the tree where the limb used to be. The oak had grown around it.
God’s love is embedded in you and He will never leave you. You must seek him and choose to follow. Do not let your past mistakes and choices keep you from living a life free of guilt and regret.
The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Lamentations 3:22 NLT
Be bold, brave and forgiving of yourself, just as God has forgiven you.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.Psalms 107:1 NLT