Taking Hebron

On June 2nd I went hiking at my new favorite spot. Little did I know, I would not be back there for 28 days. The High Park Fire started up on June 9th and all hiking was closed. All I could do was watch and wait, and wonder if this beautiful place would look the same when I could finally return.  On June 26th the park was finally reopened!  I made my first return trip on the 29th. I was so excited to be going back, but it was too hot to hike that day. So I simply checked the smoke levels and planned my hike for the next morning. I started hiking this morning at 6:30 am and I had a great time! There was a haze but it didn't really smell of smoke. The fire never made it to the park and so all the foliage was still beautiful. I made a deer friend on the way.  The whole way up I kept thinking of this verse: I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14 I saw a he...

Remove from me the way of lying, And grant me Your law graciously. Psalm 119:29 When I read my Bible I’m not generally compelled or moved by verses like this. Lying was never a practice I held. When I was little there were two automatic spanking offenses, lying and talking back (Sassing). Thus the amount of times I have deliberately lied could probably be counted out on one hand. It just wasn’t an option in my mind. As I listened to my audio Bible the other day this verse jumped out at me. It’s already been stated that I have rarely ever told a lie, but how many times have I believed a lie? How many times have I left my mind wide open for the enemy to plant false thoughts? How often have I allowed those thoughts to take root and have found myself living by them as if they were truth? Remove from me the way of lying, I don’t want to believe a lie, just as much as I don’t want to tell one. But after living by them so long you find their condemning sway strong and ...

Yesterday Betsy was babysitting two little ones for a friend of hers. The younger one is a little over a year old. Yet she can’t walk, she can’t crawl, she can’t roll over, or sit up. She’s very stiff and ridged, unable to even bring a toy up to her mouth so that she can chew it. It is assumed that she has Cerebral Palsy. Usually things like, Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome, etc. scare me away. I don’t understand it, or why it happens. But this little girl’s big brown eyes and open mouth grin draw you over. I don’t see her as weird or frightening, for I can’t see anything but her glowing beauty. Yesterday as I held her, while my sister helped the other child with something, a thought came to my mind. What if she never changes? What if she is always this way? And in my mind I could see her, ten years old sitting in her wheelchair at the zoo. Her big brown eyes still looking curiously around her at all the animals and she would still be smiling with her mouth open wide, even t...