Winter Weather Memories

Anney is a native born and raised Arkansas Dog..and what good dogs Arkansas dogs are!! Most special! I on the other hand am a transplanted Yankee. I was raised mostly on the east coast and midwest.

I have all the stories of trudging to school in the 8 inch deep snows, schools only cancelling if we received an 8 inch snow in one dumping, snowmen making galore, being pounded by snowballs by the mean boys down the street (my brother included in the gang...stinkers!!), wearing turtlenecks and sweaters in the house, ice on the inside of the windows so thick you could not scrap it off with your fingernails, wind chill temperatures of minus 20 and we STILL had to go to school...the list goes on!!

So when the promise of snow comes here, I am thrilled to pieces, hoping with all my heart that we do get more than a dust or sleet/ice mix we've had this weekend.

Winter weather covered my back yard and it was beautiful to me. I was awake early yesterday morning (do I ever sleep past the sunrise anymore...sheesh...old lady now!!)...had my "cup" in my hand looking out the window to see how much snow we did receive. As daylight began to break I began thinking of living in Iowa and the snows.....

I thought when I saw the snow...oh this looks "normal again" to see the white ground cover, the trees sparkle with ice on them, to see Anney run and slip on the frozen grasses...I thought to myself...I feel at home again. And I longed for the life in the north once again.

Ooops...then the Lord reminded me of we are not to look back at our old lives nor live in the past longing for the days of old.....as I was reading the story of Sodom and Gomorrah a few weeks ago, the passage spoke of Lot trying to make his mind up to go or stay AFTER the angels of the Lord told them to leave......Now if a couple of angels of the Lord were to come to me and say we are going to nuke your town because sin abides...do you think I would be lingering and wondering if I should stay...uh, NO!!! I would be grabbing my bug out back and gone!!

But the scriptures talk of Lot "lingering".....Genesis 19: 16 (amplified version) and hesitating. Why would Lot want to stay where there is sin? Why would he want to stay in a place where he had to offer his own daughters to a mob of evil, perverse men to have their way with them? He lingered....before he made the move to get out......and Lot's wife looked back.

Never let me linger in a place of sin Lord, whether it's literally in my city, my home, my surroundings, or me.....let me flee to the mountains of refuge of Your arms.

Never look back.......lest I turn to a pillar of salt as Lot's wife did.

It's ok to remember days of our youth and good memories of family....but to look back wanting to stay in that place again is wrong....we must move forward in life, we must grow in the Lord, we must mature (uh we don't have a choice in the aging department anyway now do we..?).

Let us flee to the mountains looking forward to the next wonderful adventure our Lord has for us.

Anney runs and skips thru her yard always looking for something new to either fall out of the tree (squirrels) or cats hiding in the bushes..the next new adventure.....let us run looking for what God has us.....looking forward!!