Lessons From Flash

I finished the book I had been reading last month, "Flash: The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me About Life, Faith and Second Chances", by Rachel Anne Ridge, and I knew I wanted to share with you the lessons that we can learn from Flash.
                    (bear with me this is a long post)
I had heard of this book when reading the Illustrated Faith blog where the author of the blog, Shanna Noel, had recommended the book. I took one look at that cute donkey on the cover and knew I wanted to read all about Flash.

Rachel, the author, breaks down each chapter with lessons that she learned from this unexpected guest who showed up in their driveway late one night. 

Lesson 1 - Remember your name: Know whose you are.

Lesson 2 - Know where to find refuge: True sanctuary is found in God alone.

Lesson 3 - Run with horses: The pursuit of excellence conquers fear.

I think I enjoyed this chapter the best because I know that I sometimes tend to focus on what I don't have instead of what God has given me.

Lesson 4 - Find your passion: Passion leads to purpose.

Lesson 5 - Be a trailblazer: Persistence makes pathways for grace to follow.

Lesson 6 - Wear your donkey heart on your sleeve: A well-lived life is an authentic life.

Lesson 7 - Stand where fruit is falling: The secret of abundance is in choosing gratitude.

Lesson 8 - Be a service animal: You are made to serve in love.

Lesson 9 - Embrace change: Don't let fear of the unknown keep you from moving forward.

Lesson 10 - Make things right with others: Don't miss your chance to forgive, accept, and love.

Lesson 11 - Your journey isn't about fixing donkey problems: It's about transformation.

I think we can learn the life lessons that God may be trying to teach us through taking the time to observe a dog, a cat, or even a donkey. I think one of the lessons that Rachel learned was that if they had just drove on past the donkey in their lane, they would have missed so much of the love that Flash brought to their family.

Sometimes you need to be open to things that may seem to be obstacles at the time, but in reality they have been put there by God so that He can bless you in ways you would never imagine.

I highly recommend the book. It is available through Amazon and Kindle. If you do choose to read it, please let me know what life lessons you learned from Flash.

Frozen

Here I sit at my computer on a cold, windy December night. It's the first day of December and it's 29 degrees out with frozen ice and snow on the ground and the roads. But today isn't the first day that I've felt a chill. Let me explain, if I can...

I have not written anything on my blog since September 11. Even then it was tough to sit down to write but it was such an important day in our lives that I knew I just had to. But it has been so hard for me to get anything down on the computer. I sit and stare at this screen and I get nothing! Nothing! I'm frozen!
I started reading (again) the book "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott, hoping that she would have some insight for me. Something that would help this 'writer's block'.

But is it really just writer's block? Inside I know that I have not been right. I think it all started back in July, when we were working practically every day to clean and fix up our house in order to put it on the market. We sold our house at the end of July and closed on a new house at the end of August. The entire month of September was full of moving, unpacking, painting, and on and on. Then a family member moved here which I was not expecting. And then during all of this craziness, our Soldier son calls and tells us he wants to get married while on his next leave, and would his Preacher dad do the wedding. Yes! of course his Preacher dad will do the wedding, but wait a minute, my baby is getting married! I've got all of this planning to do! Aghhhhh! 

Through all of this I have felt my creativity being sucked out of me. In the new house I have a ready made little office that I turned into my craft room. Everything is unpacked and put away and there it stays, put away. I want to do a daily December album but can't seem to get myself to go in there and pull out the December/Christmas stash. I thought I would get it done before Thanksgiving but here I sit and nothing is done. I do have to say I did do one thing. I made tags for my 2016 calendar in my Filofax.

But as you can see here, they sit on my desk and that's as far as I've got. I can't even get myself to glue them in.

Wow, don't I sound like a whiny baby! I know! But it's so hard when you have so much stuff running through your head, stuff you want to do, to write, to create and yet that is where it stays, in your head.

The one thing that bothers me the most is that I haven't been able to get back into my Journaling Bible. It too sits on my desk gathering dust. 

So I guess the reason why I'm writing this post tonight is to ask for prayers. Prayers of spiritual healing. Prayers of forgiveness. Prayers of being someone who is kind and loving. Prayers of creativity. Prayers of being able to crack open that Bible.

So there you have it. This Preacher's wife is dry. I thank you for any and all prayers that you may lift up for me tonight.