Musings from My Sun Porch

  Abraham was a sojourner in a foreign land.   As such, he and his family had no legal rights.   The only people that they could depend on were each other.   Their family became of utmost importance to them.   They were “community”.             That makes me question Judah’s decision in Genesis 38:1 to leave his brothers and go off alone.   Perhaps he was feeling guilty as he had just convinced his brothers to sell their younger brother, Joseph, into slavery.   Perhaps he could no longer watch his father mourn and weep for the son that was lost.   Perhaps he could no longer look his father in the eye.             Whatever, the reason, Judah chose to leave his community which provided support, encouragement, and love.   He and his family had been through difficult times together and persevered, but still, he chose to abandon thos...

              “Take me out, Coach.   I’m no good!”   My heart went out to the 13-year-old pitcher who stepped off the mound and begged the Coach to replace him.   There’s no question that he was having a bad day.   He had walked several and even hit a few batters.   He couldn’t seem to get the other team out no matter how hard he tried.             The game was close and if he kept walking batters, or hitting them, there was little doubt that his team would lose.   Fortunately, for him that day, he had a coach (who just happened to be my nephew) who knew that there were more important things than winning and losing.   Sometimes you just have to persevere!             If we gave up every time life got hard, we would never accomplish much.   We would never know what could have...

  Recently, in preparation for a women’s Bible study that I lead, I looked at the life of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob and Leah.   Dinah’s story is confined to one verse announcing her birth in Genesis 30 and then the entire chapter of Genesis 34.   It’s not a happy, feel-good story.   Dinah, who was probably just a teenager at the time, went out to visit some of the women in her new city.   Instead of making friends, she was raped by the son of the town’s leader.   Then, in a strange turn of events, he professed his undying love for her and bargained with her family for the right to marry her.   Ultimately, two of her brothers avenged her by not only killing the perpetrator but also all the men in the town.   That’s the last we have heard of Dinah. If you dig a little deeper into the back story, you find some interesting details that lead up to this horrible event.   Back in Genesis 29, her father, Jacob, meets God at a place call...

  A couple stared at the waves close to the beach.   Intrigued, I stopped to watch, wondering what had attracted their attention.   It was a small fish only about six inches long.   It had swum too close to shore and was too weak to overcome the waves that were pushing him closer and closer to the beach.               The man scooped down and attempted to rescue the fish, only to have the frightened fish escape the rescuer’s hands.   Two more attempts and the man finally had a firm grip on the slippery creature.   With a strong fling, he tossed the fish beyond the waves to what appeared to be safety.               Unfortunately, for the fish, the entire episode was not lost on two eager Sea Gulls.   Within less than thirty seconds, they dove into the water where the fish had landed, and the rescued fish met with the ultimate dis...

              Recently, my 12-year-old great-nephew scored six runs, but he only got on base once.   That’s the making of a great riddle since it’s usually impossible to score without first getting on base.   However, his league has a rule that if the pitcher or catcher gets on base, the coach can send in the player who made the last out to run for him.   Unfortunately for Dawson, on that day, he was that person.   Five times during one game, often twice in one inning, he was called to run.             While scoring a run is always exciting, generally failing to get on base when you bat is disappointing, to put it mildly.   I’ve seen batters hit their bat on the ground in frustration, throw their helmet in anger, blame the umpire for the “bad” call, and even cry in shame.   Ultimately, all those emotions often compound an already bad day! ...

  One morning while eating breakfast on my sun porch a small bird caught my eye. He was the only bird in the whole yard, and he sat quietly at the foot of a tree, just looking around.   After a few seconds, he hopped a few feet and then stopped and looked around.   He did that several times before flying up into one of the trees.   As I watched him, I wondered “is he looking for breakfast or is he looking for his friends who are nowhere to be found?”   He looked lost and lonely just sitting there all alone. When I retired several months ago, I felt very much like that bird, lost and lonely.   Even though I am an introvert, I was still used to having people around me and interacting with them throughout the day. There were times in my role as the church business administrator when I had people outside my door waiting to ask questions or give me information or let me know about issues that concerned my department.   Surprisingly, I missed all that, a...

  We live in a very need-it-now society. We don't like to wait in line. We don't like to wait in traffic. We don't like to wait for our family to be ready. We simply do not like to wait! To make matters worse, patience is not promoted in our culture.   We have express lines in groceries, and fast-food lines in restaurants, and we can even call ahead to ensure we can be seated as soon as we arrive at the restaurant.   Waiting is just foreign to our nature. However, the scripture tells us time and again to wait on the Lord.   Psalm 27: 14 says “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”   Patience is even one of the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, so obviously, patience is a virtue that we should be striving to attain.   Although I must admit that patience is not one of my virtues. Recently I read a book titled Shadow of the Almighty, a story of the missionary, Jim Elliot, as told by his wife from his diary, his lett...

I plan to post twice a week on Tuesday and Friday mornings.  I hope you will check out my next post on Friday, October 7th.  May my musings encourage and inspire you and give glory to God!  See you on the "porch"!  

  Hi, I’m the Sun Porch Lady. I recently retired and while most of the world thinks that is a wonderful thing, I've found it to be anything but wonderful. I've been going to school and/or working since I was six years old so finding myself with nothing, but free time is a whole new experience.   I have no structure, no daily schedule, and seemingly no purpose in my life.   While that may sound like heaven, I believe that Christians never retire.   God just repurposes them. As I struggled to find new purpose and bring some structure back to my life, I turned to writing.   Over the years, I have often written devotional thoughts or put various ideas to paper.   I can’t say that I’ve ever been very good at journaling but from time to time, I have written about events in my life that taught me values or made me more aware of God working in my life.   So, to keep busy and hopefully spark an interest in others I've decided to create this blog. I’m callin...