​Every morning my husband and I walk several laps around a pond on our property.  We dug the pond last fall, so this spring and summer are the first seasons we’ve had a full pond.

We’ve loved watching the bullfrogs camp out on the embankment, and leap into the water as we pass by.  We have even named some of them—Mr. Big (because even though he’s not that big, he’s the biggest at our pond), and Sharapova (because, like the tennis player, the frog grunts every time she hops).

We stocked the pond with some perch and minnows in early spring, and we love throwing them fish food from time to time, and watching them hit the top of the water to eat.

One afternoon we even loved watching a little water snake (non-poisonous!)  playfully writhe on the top of the water in the middle of the pond.  I would never have imagined thinking of a snake as ‘frolicking’—but I did, and it made me happy.

Today, a particularly sultry morning, we loved watching our 15-year-old dog, Stiver, wade out into the water to take a refreshing swim.

How much of our joy and pleasure is dependent on water?  We ENJOY being around water—it’s beauty, the way it feels running over our skin, the sounds it can make during gentle rains.

HOWEVER. . .Early this spring, I have to confess, I complained: “When is it going to stop raining?  The pond is full already!  Our horse-barn is a mud pit!”

I thought our quick-sand would NEVER dry out.

Then we experienced many weeks without any rain at all. 

I began to complain . . . AGAIN. 

“Our grass is turning brown.”

“Our horses won’t have any pasture to get them through summer.”

“I’ll have to actually water our tomatoes by hand.”

“Everything will get so dusty if we don’t get some rain!”

How do you define “peace”?  What does it mean to you to be “at peace”? 

Some would say peace is “absence of conflict.”  A world and a life where everyone gets along, everyone treats others fairly and humanely, relationships that work effortlessly.

Some might define it as “inner calm.”  The ongoing spiritual exercise to rise above personal stress and struggles and maintain a positive outlook without anxiety, fear, and worry.

Others might define it as an acceptance of “things we cannot change” as the Overcomer’s Prayer puts it.

Certainly all of these reflect a facet of peace. But they fall short of describing True Peace—the Peace of God that passes all understanding.  Most of the time we speak of ‘absence of conflict,’ ‘inner calm,’ and ‘acceptance of things we cannot change’ in worldly, limited ideals. 

However, I can’t fathom a moment of earthly life completely void of conflict. It is only 10:00a.m. as I write.  I have already encountered a difference of opinion with my husband and some stressed friendships.

For my birthday, God gave me snow. My mother would always tell me how it was snowing in Dallas the day I was born. Most of Mtn. View did not get snow—so I am receiving that as God’s “Happy Birthday.” (Thank you, Father).

This morning I have been thinking deep thoughts and feeling God’s presence and listening more intently for things that He wants me to hear and live. The One-Year-Bible passage on my birthday included the Leviticus passage on bodily secretions (Big Jimmy Fallon EWWW!). The couple of days before that it was about sores and leprosy, so when I read this chapter, I was like “EWWW! What a nasty passage for my birthday Bible reading.”

When reading these chapters in Leviticus, the natural question is, “Why did God think this ‘EWW!’ stuff was important to include in His Word?” And the thought/answer that came to my mind/heart was, “Because there is nothing so disgusting in our lives that He will not look on it Himself, then help us see it in ourselves, and then show us how to deal with it—how to clean it up, how to heal, how to be free.”

(Word.)

But that’s not all. My birthday passage also included Mark 7. Jesus teaches how our hearts reveal our true identity/substance. Following a set of external, religious rules and regulations to be ‘good’ is a pretense. Letting Christ do a heart transplant—taking the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh—that is the reality of ‘a new life in Christ.’ This was the sermon text at NLC last Sunday. And one of the sermon points, “Give your heart away,” is the one God wanted me to hear, because I struggle with guarding my heart in the wrong way—keeping it safe, and holding relationships at a distance.

So, as I drove in to work this morning, I was reflecting on the yearly “themes” God has spoken into my life recently. For 2013-2014 it was “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9)—it kept coming up over and over and over again from different sources, to the point that I finally realized He really, really, really wanted ME to hear this and get it.

For 2015 (I was a little quicker on the up-take) it was “Sow to the Spirit.” Gal. 6:8 “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” This ‘theme’ made a real difference in choices that I made. Sowing to the Spirit—making more choices that said ‘no’ to the flesh, and ‘yes’ to the Spirit- an ongoing moment by moment project.

For 2016, I am thinking that “Give your heart away” is His theme for me. And interestingly, it is kind of a sub-theme of the other 2: “Sow to the Spirit—Give your heart away” AND “Be strong and courageous—Give your heart away.” This directive will be the most challenging.
“God, please help me be brave every day. Remove the callouses of my overly protected heart. Help me, in the little and big things to sow to the Spirit. Grow your heart in me more and more, so I can give it away. . . And thank you for helping me with the EWW! in my life. ”

 Kay Simmons Adkins·Friday, March 25, 2016

I hate greenbrier. We have it everywhere on our property and it makes me angry. So last weekend I spent a couple of hours rescuing a tree from a major wad of greenbrier (see banner image). Numerous thorny greenbrier vines were established within an inch or 2 from the base of the tree, and had obviously been growing up with the tree all of its life--a gnarly mess from the ground into the tippy top branches of the tree.

 The process was trying. I severed vines at the ground, lopped the mid-sections to lessen the entanglements, yanked and tugged some free, discovered more vines previously hidden that had to be cut at the base of the tree (“Another one??? How did I not see that?”), and repeated the process over and over and over.

The more vines I removed, the more it seemed there was to tackle. But each wad I pulled out was like a little victory in my mind. I hoped the tree, if it felt anything, felt victorious as well! I hoped it was not silently screaming—“No! Not that one—it will hurt when you pull that one!”
Gloves protected my hands, but I still suffered several minor piercings and scrapes that made me appear to have been in a cat fight. Blood, albeit a tiny amount, was shed to free that tree from its captivity.

The tree did not choose to dwell with the greenbrier, and the tree did not choose to be entangled. It happened slowly, over years—that bound up life was probably all the tree ever knew. If the tree wanted to be free, it could never have freed itself.

That tree and I have a sort of relationship now. I know I’ll keep protecting it. And it helped me too. . .

Today I am mindful of, and grateful for, someone who shed a lot of blood for me, and who rescued (and is still rescuing) me from harmful, worldly entanglements. Where would I be now without a compassionate Savior who saw a world held captive and initiated the decisive rescue at the expense of his life, who revealed to me my own plight and my ultimate inability to save myself, who offered me his salvation gift and gave me enough faith to accept the offer, and who promises to complete the work He started in me?

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Things I want to strive for in prayer
Kay Simmons Adkins·Saturday, February 4, 2017
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with CONFIDENCE draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Colossians 4:2 “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

This morning I completed a devotional book called Prayer: A Holy Occupation, a compilation of Oswald Chambers’ observations on the ‘work’ of prayer. Here are some things I learned, and want to keep learning:

Pray. . .
            first.
            always.
            about everything.
            with reckless belief that redemption is complete.
            in the relationship of absolute reliance on the Lord Jesus.
            for all the saints.
      under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (rather than my own earnestness or understanding).

THEN, watch and wait on the Father. See how HE mends. In watching how HE mends, I will understand Him better.

Pray. . .
           to lay hold of God first and foremost.
           thinking about God and not myself.
           completely identified in God’s interest in others’ lives.
          with GRATITUDE that the EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER is NOT the cause of God’s life in me,
          but rather the EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER is the EFFECT of God’s life in me.
          not to become prepared for the ‘greater work,’ because PRAYER IS the GREATER WORK!

(credits to compiled writings of Oswald Chambers for this ‘meditation’ on the occupation of prayer--Prayer: A Holy Occupation, Discovery House 1992)