As I look back, I have been so very blessed in my life. Not monetarily, but with LIFE! As a kid, we were very poor, but most of the people around us were too, so we didn’t even really know it. Mom and dad were two of the hardest working people I will ever know and they gave us abundant love! We went fishing a lot, as a family, and we grew everything that dad could make grow. All of my sisters and brothers, along with myself, could milk a cow and churn butter. I remember mom hanging a cheesecloth bag of clabbered milk?? out on the clothes line and making cottage cheese! We had chickens and sometimes ducks, turkeys and guineas. It kind of depended what dad could trade for. The 4-H tried to vote mom in as cooking leader once because they said she made the best brown beans in Oregon county. She declined that opportunity because she didn’t think that was a good enough qualification. My sisters and I used to try to sneak away to grandpa’s house, right down the hill. Grandpa always knew we would be in trouble for it and would feed us corn meal mush and put us to bed before mom or dad showed up to get us.
Dad had a 4th grade education and after that worked to help support their family. Mom had an 8th grade education, then worked to help take care of their home and family. Even so, they raised eight kids who grew up with accountability (there were many switches involved) and a tremendous love for them, our brothers and sisters and God. Were we poor Not in anything that really counted! Abundance comes in many forms. What have you truly gained if it is only materialistic? We grew up with the ideal diet, organic produce that we grew ourselves, meat that grew up in the fields, not feed lots, fresh wild game and cooked with a lot of love! We got one pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year and went barefoot in the summer when we were playing. If something broke, we fixed it, because we valued anything that we had. We didn’t miss church unless we were very sick. We prayed. We prayed a lot. We knew that, in the end, our abundance came from God. We were very rich.
Pray Unceasingly!
In His light,
Lois
Abundant Life
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
The life God wants to give you is not small and restrictive. Jesus says the abundant life that comes from being intimately connected to him will be better than all your dreams rolled into one. It will happen more and more as you spend daily time with him. Create daily alerts in your phone or computer to remind you to check in with God. This will help you create a habit of spending time with him throughout the day. Just say, “Jesus, I’m here. I’m back. I trust in you.”
Ask him to open your eyes to see his abundance through your work, in your health, and in your relationships. He wants to fill you with the abundance of his own life so that your life is rich and satisfying. He wants a real relationship with you, where you come to know him more deeply as time goes on. You’ll find there’s always more to learn. And you’ll be amazed at how he surpasses your wildest dreams with the richness of his love and nearness of his presence.
Food for Thought: Go ahead and dream of abundant life. God freely provides as we draw near to him.