Tag: #Godisgood

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I’ll pray for you.

Social media has made it possible for us to connect with so many more people than was once possible. One aspect of that connection is learning about the struggles and trails that people often share. I think the most common one I’ve seen is someone going into surgery, asking for prayers and good vibes, or the loss of a loved one. How many times have you typed a response to one of these posts with the words “I’ll pray for you” or “sending prayers” or used the little prayer hands emoji? How many times have you actually followed through?

I’m guilty of it myself at times. Seeing someone going through something, I say I’ll pray for them, but then I get distracted and life is busy and I forget, or I make a distracted attempt and then move on. I never actually, meaningfully offer a prayer to God for that person.

How many times as a parent have I told my kids that actions speak louder than words? and yet in my own relationship with God I’ve offered so many empty promises of prayer. I can’t tell you what changed for me, or why, but something in my heart did. I found myself making a commitment to God, to actually take a moment, to sit and meaningfully pray. To spend time with God, praying, for any person who asks for prayer on my social media or in my life. If I say I’m going to pray for you. I’m actually doing it. You lost a cat and ask for prayers? I’m praying for you. Surgery? I’m praying for you. Lost someone? I’m reaching out in prayer for you and your family.

What has surprised me in all of this has been an unexpected consequence. I’ve grown closer to God myself. I feel him reaching out to me, touching my heart in those times when I’m reaching out to him for someone else.

Maybe you’re better at follow through than I was, but if you aren’t, then I encourage you to try it. The next time you write that you are praying for someone, or post a prayer hand emoji, STOP, take a moment, bow your head and meaningfully, heartfully offer up your petition for that person. You might be surprised at what you get back in return.

God bless,

Meredith

Sometimes you need a Karen.

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Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. Psalm 118:5-6

God always answers prayers, sometimes it just takes a bit for us to recognize that.

It’s been busy times here on the farm. For the most part, I’ve been incredibly grateful for the subzero temperatures; frozen ground means no mud. The snow on the ground looks beautiful too. And then the thaw came…

We’ve got water management problems on our property after all of the building and landscape changes we’ve done this year. Solving that, and putting in some drainage tile is absolutely on our list for 2022. But that doesn’t help right now. Last week we had a major warm up (loved it) and then some rain (oh no!). All of that on frozen ground meant a lot of water, like I mean A LOT of water, on our property. Unfortunately a lot of that water was in our horse paddocks.

You know what doesn’t go well together? Horses and ice. And when we got another quick and hard freeze, our paddocks became mini frozen lakes. ACK!!! No turn-out for horses means sad horses, and sad horses means sad Meredith. I’m very blessed to have the indoor riding arena so each group of two got two runs per day, but it didn’t help me to feel better, because I knew that they really needed the movement of being outside during the day.

I don’t know why it takes me longer at times to bring my problems to God, but I think it’s because I allow myself to be convinced that this isn’t really a problem worthy of God’s time and attention. But who am I to tell God what’s important? So finally Saturday night I told God how I was feeling.

How many times has God used the people in my life to solve my problems? I ended up chatting with a horse friend later that day (named Karen) who suggested we salt the paddocks – great idea! Why didn’t I think of that? We salted, and the next day I was able to get the boys all out in the afternoon for some fresh air.

That night we got a deep freeze and snow – like the kind of weather even salt won’t help with. So now I had snow on top of ice!!! Treacherous for humans, I can’t even describe how dangerous that is for spindly legged, creatures with an innate desire to kill/injure themselves. Back to my friend who suggested plowing my paddock.

Thank you Jesus! I plowed my paddock and by then it had warmed up enough for the salt to work again, so the boys had a nice, clean, wet, but non-icy place to spend their afternoon.

The crazy part about this is that it wasn’t until this morning that I was finally able to recognize God’s hand in all of this. His answer to my prayer was my friend. How many times has God answered prayers through the people in your life and you missed seeing it?

Thanks be to God for reminding me that if it’s important enough for me to worry about, then it’s important enough to bring it to him in prayer.

Have a fabulous day and God bless!

Meredith

Know who your friends are.

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The fact that I haven’t written on this blog in six months is a testament to just how busy our lives have been. The summer saw us building fences and barns; finally planting our hay fields and pastures and running…always running.

Now that things have opened back up again Dave started going back to church. I’ve been a few times, but honestly, I keep saying that I’ll go back to church when the the barn is done. I just don’t have time. The exterior was done months ago, but we’ve been focused on building stalls, hay lofts, running water lines and electrical lines and getting concrete.

Throughout this entire process I’ve felt so blessed, so good in my relationship with God. But, we forget how easy it is to just let it slip away. It’s death by a thousand tiny cuts of the string that ties your heart to Him.

Our barn is almost finished, but doing construction at the beginning of winter is not ideal. We had a to dig a trench down the middle of our driveway to run the electrical lines because it was the only spot dry enough. It completely destroyed our driveway. I cried for a day after that. We’ve had so much rain and wet snow it’s been almost impossible to get the floors firm enough to do the concrete, and then I found out the concrete needed to be higher up my stall walls than I had planned for. More tears and possibly time in bed was the result of that news.

Coming to the end of more than a year of constant building has taken it’s toll on me, mentally. I just want to be done. Finding out our concrete pour was now delayed because of the coming cold front…where was God in all of this?

But that’s the thing. God is constant. He is, was and always will be. It wasn’t that God had stopped being a part of my building process, it was that I had stopped including him. I had stopped trusting him.

Not once, like NEVER EVER during the building process did God let me down. We had one of the wettest summers on record here in Ontario. And yet, when I needed things to be dry so that they could pull the cover on my barn, dust was blowing. Thank you, Jesus. There are too many other moments just like that over the summer for me to document. People would show up at just precisely the right time, I got deals I didn’t expect or look for. God has had his hand in every aspect of our farm. So then why did I stop trusting him now?

It is so easy to get so caught up in the trees of your life, the things that you are doing, that you miss the forest. This past month I’ve been so busy “doing” things that I forgot the one who helped me do it all. You tell yourself I’ll read my Bible tomorrow, or I’ll go to church next week. But in the end, what you are really doing, is allowing the world, your “things” to come between your relationship with God.

God wants to be your best friend, the one you turn to in good times and bad. Yesterday I was miserable; wallowing in my misery, miserable. Sometimes, I listen to music when I’m doing my stalls. As I was choosing my music, a name came into my head; Jason Gray…

When I lose my way
And I forget my name
Remind me who I am
In the mirror all I see
Is who I don’t wanna be
Remind me who I am
In the loneliest places
When I can’t remember what grace is

Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You

Just reading those lyrics again today brings tears to my eyes. God loves us SO MUCH!!! Losing my way, putting my relationship with God on the back-burner…for me that is my loneliest place.

Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me who I am to you and who you are to me…my best friend.

God bless,

Meredith

I was truly terrified!

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Fear is a word I have become intimately knowledgeable of this year. I’m talking, overwhelming, stomach churning, can’t breath, real fear. We’re talking a rocked me to my core, and made me question life decisions kind of fear, I would even say I was terrified. But guess what?! It was the type of fear that isn’t based on actual reality, but on a series of “what ifs”; a fear of the unknown, and I was caught completely off guard when it happened.

There is still so much going on in our world to cause us to be fearful, anxious, stressed. My personal strategy has been just to focus on my small little niche of the world and shut out everything else: I can’t change it anyway. But, sometimes the world breaks through and forces itself upon you; the threat of more lockdowns, tracking apps, arguments to vaccinate or not, doctors threatening to deny care to people. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined how divisive our world would feel. That’s the point of fear – to makes you like the world is against you, to make you feel isolated and alone.

There is a song by Zach Williams called “Fear is a Liar”. How much do we need that song now? How much do we need to be told that our fears are lies?

This summer, in the midst of a chaotic world, God has shone his light into my life on a daily basis; reminding me that He is with me, walking beside me, holding my hand. Let me give you an example. Last week, after almost a year of waiting, our hay field and horse pastures were finally planted. We have had gorgeous sunny days since then and three nights of rain. I can only call this a miracle and a blessing from God. I literally couldn’t have asked for better weather to germinate our seed. Again and again this summer God has made a way for us and our dream.

Over and over again the Bible tells us not to worry. Philippians 4:5-7 “The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.” This verse isn’t saying God will give you what you ask for, but it does say that reaching out to Him in your anxiety will bring you peace; a peace that transcends all understanding.

When I hold God close, when I turn to Him in my fears and anxiety, when I don’t have enough strength, I feel that peace. God’s got this.

That fear I spoke about earlier…it came over me while I was riding my horse. That fear wanted to deny me something that brings me incredible joy, peace and love. I only know of one way to deal with fear like that; give it up to God. I’ve spent the last two weeks doing that scary thing over and over again. Lots of times I pray as we go galloping off into the wild with no fences or arena walls to “keep me safe” and you know what…”I’m actually having fun!” What fears in your life can you give up to God? What fears can you abandon to find joy?

Even when it feels like the world is out of control, Psalm 46:10 says “Be still, and know that I am God;” Make the choices you have to make, embrace the things that scare you, and trust that God will, can, and is working all things for your good. And here’s that Zach Williams song. I’m totally going to cry my way through it.

May God bless you and keep you!

Meredith

Me and My Big Mouth

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Let me start by saying that life in the country; life on our farm; is amazing. There is not one person in my family who hasn’t blossomed in this environment; in the freedom of the space. But building a farm from scratch does not come without its share of worries and stressors; the biggest of which for me has been financial. There have been many times over the past few months when I have felt my share of anxiety over how quickly our bank account can diminish. I know we’ve planned for this, but it’s still a scary thing to see it happen.

But, as a person of faith, I can’t tell you the number of signs and ways that God continually reminds me that He loves me and is watching over us. From the ease of Everett getting his new job five minutes from our house, to the recent purchase of a harrow for my riding arena. Time and time again God is there, watching out for us, protecting us, reminding us that He is near.

For all that, I have still felt anxious and overwhelmed. I don’t know how you deal with your anxiety, but mine tends to result in me lashing out at the people closest to me – my sweet and caring family. I know I’m doing it, I hate that I’m doing it, but I can’t seem to help myself and so it’s something I continue to bring before God.

Yesterday this was one of my verses – “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it only leads to evil.” Psalm 37:8. DING, DING, DING! My fretting has absolutely resulted in anger and wrath and harmful behaviour. Okay Lord, point taken. And today this was my verse – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your heats and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

That verse doesn’t mean God is going to give me whatever I pray for, but it does mean that if I give him my worries and my fears and my anxiety he will give me peace. A peace that will guard my heart and my mind and by extension – my mouth. God will give me peace that I can share with my family instead of my fretful wrath.

How many times in your own life have you carried a burden of stress needlessly? I know the truth of these verses because I have lived them in my own life many times over. But still, my patient and loving Father, reminds me when I need to hear it, reminds me to give Him my cares. Today my prayers are about giving up my worries, and embracing the journey that I am taking, knowing that I am watched over, and loved, and protected every single step of the way.

God bless,

Meredith

Count your blessings, not your problems.

A Sense of Humour

How many of you have stopped to think that God must have a fantastic sense of humour? I mean look at some of the animals we share the earth with…the platypus?…adorable and hilarious. I just wanted to share a quick story about how God made me laugh yesterday.

As many of you are aware, we moved into a newly built home at the end of February. The site where we built was originally a soy bean field, and so to have a septic system that actually functioned, they ended up trucking in a lot (I mean A LOT) of dirt to get the house elevated. The downside of that is that we still need more fill. About 15 meters off the back of the house is a huge low spot that needs to be filled in. We joke that it’s our pond, because when it rains, you can have upwards of 4 inches of water sitting in it – and in fact, there was that much when we moved in.

Fast forward to yesterday. We have had the front lawn leveled and sprayed with grass seed. Dave was commenting about how the rain was good for the seed, but bad for the hole which had finally stared to dry out. He then stared to complain about priorities and how I should have taken care of the hole first or I needed to just fill in the hole with the remaining top soil we have. We had a bit of a discussion about how all of the experts have said to get actual fill (not to waste our good topsoil) and then I went outside to do a few chores.

About 10 minutes later I noticed a red truck pulling into our driveway. I finished up what I was doing and then headed back to the house. Turns out, that red truck was owned by a gentleman who digs pools in our area and he wondered if we could use some fill? I could not stop laughing. Even Dave just shook his head. God heard Dave’s complaints that morning and then BAM! I’m sure He must have gotten a good chuckle making that happen.

I share this story to encourage you. Invite God in, make Him a part of every aspect in your life. Give thanks for the amazing gifts He’s given you and you’ll be surprised how many little miracles He works in your life every day. Sometimes He’ll even make you laugh – and you know He’ll be laughing right along with you.

Have a blessed day!

Meredith

Sometimes it feels as if there is so much to be afraid of these days; catching Covid or one of the rapidly spreading variants, the increasing price of basic goods while people are losing their businesses and jobs. There are days I’m afraid, days I worrying about my kids, my family, our world. But daily I am reminded that I am not alone; that God holds me in his “right hand of righteousness”.

So many people view the Bible as a dry book filled with people who lived thousands of years ago and whose lives and experiences have no relation to today. At one time I thought that. Reading the Bible was a chore, something I “should” do and not something I looked forward to or needed. But the Bible is not like any other book. It wasn’t designed to be read cover to cover.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 That was part of my reading today. This isn’t a just story, this is a promise – that’s what the Bible is. A story of God’s love for us and his promise to care for us, to strengthen and uphold us, in good times…and in bad.

Maybe you read my blog post about our move and how I prayed for strength to make it through that final day. If you did, then you read about how God answered that prayer. Anytime I feel worried or afraid, I turn to God and he hasn’t let me down yet. While the answers may not always be what I expected, they always end up working out. I also turn to God when things are going well in my life, I give thanks for my beautiful family, my health, the realization of hopes and dreams, or even just a green light when I am in a hurry. It is possible to know God, to have a close and intimate relationship with him. It’s an overwhelming joy, to experience his perfect love.

So do not be afraid, not of anything. Give God ALL of your hopes and fears (even the silly, little ones, that you wouldn’t share with any one else). If it’s important to you, then it’s important to your heavenly Father. You might be surprised how quickly he will either change your heart, or answer your prayer. Then trust. Once you give something to God, you need to let it go and let Him handle the rest.

I wish you all a joy-filled day, free of worry because you gave it to the one who wants to hold you in his righteous right hand.

God bless,

Meredith

Who is it for?

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Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day; the sun was shining, there was warmth in the air and the kids were ripping around the fields on the gator. Seeing our kids embracing the outdoors, getting a thrill from something other than a video game was a major factor in our decision to move out of the suburbs. Through out the process of our move I have truly felt God’s hand over us. But, even before we started building I worried if we were making the right decision, if this was simply something I wanted, or if the need to move I was feeling came from God. I did a lot of praying about it and ultimately, there was such a strong feeling in my heart that this was going to be a blessing for us, that we kept moving forward.

Moving to the country has not been without its share of challenges. We are currently living in the middle of a dirt island. When the ground is dry, which thankfully it has been for the past few weeks, the dogs track in a constant steam of dirt and dust. When the ground is wet…let’s just say that washing the floors has become a way of life. The beauty of that is that I’m not alone. One of the many blessings of this new house is that our teenager is now much more a part of the life of the family. In our old home his room was above the garage and he was very isolated. Now he’s a few steps from the living room. I love that I can just pop my head in and chat without having to walk a mile. I also love that it’s made him more connected. He’s surprised me a few time by taking the onus to wash or vacuum the floors.

The new house has been a huge blessing for our youngest too, especially now that we have the gator. He’s excited for his chickens and there is so much out here for him to explore and do. Whether it’s in the mornings when I watch the sun rise, or the evenings when I watch it set; walking in the fields with the dogs, or sitting on the back porch with my family enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon; through it all I am reminded of how great God is and how very, very grateful I am for his blessings. It’s hard sometimes to know if the desires of your heart are from this world or from God. But my experience has been that if you keep praying about it, God will show you what he wants for you in your life – and he isn’t always subtle.

Have a wonderful day and God bless you.

Meredith

The Strength of Men.

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A week ago today we began the final, and most grueling day of what would turn out to be a three-day process to move from our beautiful house in the suburbs to our dream house in the country. I have NEVER experienced anything on the scale of what we attempted to do. We had a four bedroom, two story home with a fully finished, and fully furnished basement. I hired movers for two days and we used up every inch of their truck and every second of their time, but by the end of day two we still had our backyard shed, garage and Dave’s weights and office. I rented a 15′ truck from U-haul. We loaded and unloaded that truck, and our pickup, and our friends minivan three times that day.

Driving back to our old house for the second time that day, I could just feel how physically and mentally exhausted I was. I certainly would have cried if I could have found the energy; instead I reached out in prayer. “Dear Lord, I don’t think I have the strength for this. Please Lord, I really need your strength. I need you to give me your strength to get through this.” In complete and total faith, I asked God for His strength because I knew that what I had left in the tank was not going to be enough. I expected to feel less tired, that somehow He would get me through this. I didn’t expect the answer I received.

Fast forward a hour later and Dave’s best friend showed up with some tools we needed to disconnect our BBQ. He immediately saw our need and jumped in, helping us, and his two teenage boys (whom we had hired for the day) load up the trucks. Three hours later we were back at the house for the final load. By this time is was 4:00 and we had been going steady for eight hours. You can’t imagine my surprise when my friend (the best-friend’s wife) and my sister and my dad arrived. I didn’t think I had the energy to cry, but at that moment, the certainty that God had heard my prayer and answered with the people with our lives. He gave us his people; people to give us the strength to push through and finish the move, exactly when we needed them.

Never for a single moment have I doubted that this house, this path is the one God wants me to walk. As exhausting as our move was, it was filled with so many amazing blessings. When you are on the right path the confirmation from God is like a neon sign. For me, God isn’t a deity I visit in church on Sundays, or pray to when I go to bed. I carry God with me every day, in everything I do; I simply can’t live my life without Him, and I see His love and caring for me every single day including when I needed strength and He provided.

I have been feeling a song in my heart often this week and I really feel as if it was the anthem for our move. Even the smallest battle belongs to God. Give him your fears, your weaknesses and yes, even your fatigue, and He will give you exactly what you need.

God bless,

Meredith

Who’s Got Your Back?

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Last week I was experiencing a significant amount of anxiety. I could blame it on the stress of packing and getting ready to move, or the state of the world, or the rising number of Covid infections in our neck of the woods, but none of those things would be true. The simple fact of the matter is that I was afraid. God has been incredibly good to my family and He has poured blessings upon us and between you and me…I just didn’t feel worthy. I was in a place where I just kept waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me. I was convincing myself that all the good things we have received were really just a prelude to a disaster. I worked myself into a state of terror that we could lose everything. Have you ever been there?

It was on Friday afternoon, driving alone in my car that I realized my fear, my terror was actually a lack of faith manifesting itself. I give God so much credit and glory for the amazing gifts he has given my family, and the farm is a huge one for me. But problems arise when we place those gifts above the one who gave them to us. Getting out of sync with your faith and trust in God is what allows doubt and fear to invade your heart. Yes, the farm is a blessing, but appreciating it needs to be a balance and not an obsession. In the words of the Anglican prayer “All thing come from thee and of thine own have we given thee.”

All week I kept reaching out to God, asking him for peace, but it wasn’t until Friday that I realized I hadn’t given him my problems. I’d asked him for help but I clutched my fear to my breast and held on tightly. I will never understand why God has chosen to bless me, I will never feel as if I deserve it, because I will never feel as if I’m good enough, but I think that’s the essence of the faith journey. We live in a world where we are constantly required to prove our worth, that we are good enough. It’s a world that functions in complete opposition to a God for whom you never need to prove your worth, who loves you unconditionally, ALL THE TIME! Not when you donate to charity, not just because you go to church, not because you read your Bible today, but just because you are YOU. We are all God’s children and He wants to get to know each one of us intimately, just as He wants us to get to know Him.

I’m not going to pretend that my fear and stress are gone forever, although they certainly were in that moment of ephiphany. Much like a compass, I need to make sure I am always pointing myself in the right direction, toward God. I am a less than perfect parent, but I will always love my children unconditionally and I will always try to do what is best for them. God is the perfect Father. I just have to keep reminding myself to trust Him, just as I want my children to trust me…I’ve always got their back.

There are times in our lives when we can’t see the beautiful painting that God is making of our lives, times when we experience great loss and pain and suffering that we don’t deserve. Life as a child of God, the blessings and the pain, are never about deserving, they are about bringing us closer to Him. Accepting His love. That’s my goal for this week, that and trusting in His plan for my life. No matter what happens, I can get through it when God has my back.

God bless and have a safe and healthy week.

Meredith