Come on by and check it out! :)
--Jaime
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Strands of Pearls has moved! Any post from this date forward can be found at strandsofpearlsblog.wordpress.com. Be sure to subscribe to receive emails for new posts! If you have already subscribed here, you will need to do it again, sorry for any inconvenience! Old blog posts can still be viewed on this website, although I will be re-posting some of my favorites on my new site!
Come on by and check it out! :) --Jaime
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It is the month of Thanksgiving! You have probably noticed that around this time of year thousands share all of the things they are thankful for. Thankfulness is something that needs to be taught, expressed, shared, and most of all felt.
There are many people that I am thankful for: Family, friends, people that I’ve never met that have spoken into my life through books or teachings. I am so thankful for them and thankful for the gifts that they have and share, for laughter, wisdom, help, assurance, encouragement, assistance, giving of time or finances, the list goes on and on. I am thankful for them. But my thanks is ultimately TO God. These people, when they act and give and serve according to what they have been given, it is because of God. He is the one who inspires the giver to give. He is the one who gave the gifts of wisdom and encouragement and all other things. I am thankful that the person is using and expressing these gifts, but they are gifts from God. Share it on your news feed along with your posts of Thanks. Gifts are great, but let’s set our eyes on the Giver! [To go directly to the Strands of Pearls Facebook page, click on the Facebook logo at the header section of this webpage (on a computer) or located in the menu (on a moble device).] For several birthdays, my oldest daughter received Precious Moments figurines showcasing her new age. She had a small and growing collection that was very special to her. After all, I myself have my own collection that I had received from my great grandmother over several birthdays and Christmases. In addition to that, I also have in my collection some of my great grandmother’s own Precious Moments collection (some of which are signed by Sam Butcher himself) to keep and display. My daughter could recognize how special her gifts were and she cherished them and displayed them on a shelf in her room. She was so happy of her growing collection that when we had some friends over she took them into her room to show them. Being a good little hostess herself, she climbed up on her dresser so she could point them out better. We were visiting in the living room a few minutes later when we heard the crash. Little brother wanted to have a better look at the figurines himself, so he climbed up onto the dresser after his sister left the room. He must have tried pulling up on the shelf to stand up, making it tip and causing all of the Precious Moments figurines to crash down on top of the dresser. This happened years ago, and we still have all of the little pieces in a ziploc bag, not sure if it would be worth the trouble to piece them back together, yet not willing to throw the pieces away, and tentative about spending the money it would take to replenish what was lost. My children have never been allowed to climb on the furniture, and I wasn’t aware that they had been until this happened. What an unfortunate way to learn that lesson! We don’t always know why something is against the rules, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be followed. My daughter didn’t cause any harm by climbing on her dresser. She didn’t fall, she didn’t break anything, she was just up and down with no consequence. She probably figured the rule must not apply because nothing was harmed. Unfortunately, it was not the case with her little brother who followed her example. Is there some flexibility in rules? Not in my house. If it’s not okay for one, it’s not okay for all. Period. What about God’s rules? Are there some things that are okay for some people but not for others? "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet, and a light for my path...I have obeyed Your laws, for I love them greatly." Psalm 119:105, 167 NLT We get so upset with God while we read and hear about all of the “Do’s and Don’ts.” We neglect to look at the bigger picture. We don’t consider the “Why’s.” A lot of the why’s are explained in the Bible, here’s one I read just this morning: Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time. (Deuteronomy 4:40) Over the past week I got to go on an adventure. Most people would call it Hunting. That’s what I used to call it when my husband would go. But this year we got to experience it together and Hunting doesn’t quite seem right. I knew it was going to mean early mornings and long hikes in the rugged high desert of Eastern Oregon. I knew I was going to be cold. I knew I was going to be tired. But I knew it was going to be an adventure. I do not like waking up two hours before sunrise. I do not like hiking, even on the easiest of paths. I do not like being cold or tired. But I do love adventure.
Although I knew it would be really awesome to fill my buck tag on the opening day of season, I knew that would mean not really getting the full experience of the hunting season my husband looks forward to every year. I hoped to get a buck within the first couple of days, and was very relieved when my prayers were answered on the morning of the third day. Although my body was exhausted by that point (I am in horrible shape!) it was a very good hunt and I’m glad I got to experience it alongside my sweet husband. It has taken me a few days now to try and sort out my thoughts on my Adventure, and compile some things that I’ve learned in the last week. I learned that quiet times don’t always need to be productive thinking times. I had a lot of time to be quiet with my thoughts during our hunts. What surprised me was the type of thoughts I was having (I should say not having). I expected this would be a time of getting deep. I mean, philosophical and lightbulb moments deep. A time where I could sort out my life and decisions, figure out who I really am and all that. Instead I found myself with a very interesting collection of songs going through my mind. Everything from Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music to the Yoga Pants song by Tim Hawkins. In between songs I was feeling in the zone and appreciating my surroundings and getting to be places I’ve never been and the next second wondering how much longer I could keep up the pace. At the beginning of each hunt I’d have a new zeal to go cover some ground and see what wildlife I could come across. About halfway through the hunt I would lose focus and only be able to pay attention to the next place my foot was going to land. Other than that, and the constant prayer of “God help me find something soon, I don’t know how long I can do this!” there was not much going on in my brain. Once my hunt was successful, there was a bit of plan arrangement that left me in the woods by myself for over an hour. Another time I could be alone with my thoughts and with nature, yet strangely uneventful. I had no stimuli whatsoever. No phone, no music, nothing to read, nothing to do. I didn’t have the energy nor the desire to explore my surroundings. All I had to do was sit and wait. I thanked God for the hunt, for the opportunity, for everything going so well. Then, I was just still and quiet. I sat in the shade till it became too chilly. Then I laid in the sun till I got hot. I just sat there in the woods all alone without a care in the world. And I really enjoyed it. I learned how it feels to give my all. On my last evening hunt we had been hiking for a little while before we spotted some deer bedded down. We were hoping to go further up the mountain but couldn’t go past this group of does without spooking them. I welcomed the chance to kneel down behind a fallen log and watch them as they started waking up after the heat of the day. We watched them for about 20 minutes before the wind changed and they realized we were there and hopped off. As we rose we made a plan to head uphill to the left that would shortly lead to a kind of bowl shaped narrow valley. Only this bowl didn’t really have a bottom, just sides. Nice, steep, tall sides. Jim said that if we hiked up to the top of this that would show us a huge open view of the other side. I had visions of pastures full of huge, grazing bucks. I actually had visions of that every time we came close to peeking into new territory. That’s what kept me going. So we are hiking along the side of this bowl and Jim is way ahead of me. He is headed around the bowl instead of up to the top. I whistled to him and motioned up the hill. He looked at me like “are you sure you’re up to this?” and started heading up. I headed up too. Every time Jim was trying to figure out where we should go, he gave me options. His options were basically Do you want to go easy or Do you want me to take you where the big bucks are? My answer was always “Lead on!” Out of breath, heart pounding, feet aching, I wanted it to be worth it. So lead on, Jim! So I started heading up the steep slope. It looked like we were so close and I didn’t want to not look over the other side! I headed up and up until I was breathless and my heart pounding wildly. I stopped to catch my breath, and kept on going. The problem is, I eventually couldn’t go very many steps without having to stop. I looked up to where Jim was. It looked like I was reaching the top of the slope, but I could tell as Jim kept getting smaller and smaller as he continued to climb that this slope definitely had no top! He was still going up and I was struggling so much. “God, help me do this!” Climb, stop, catch breath. Climb, stop, catch breath. My heart seemed out of control. I began to take a step up and needed to put my hands on top of my knee to pull the other leg up and stand again. I was fading fast. But I so wanted to go up there! What would Jim say after going up there after my assertion I wanted to do it, and then backing out? “God….I can’t!” Step, breathe, step, breathe. “I can’t!” I stopped. I could not go any farther. I turned around and sat, defeated. Now I see that I was, in fact, victorious. I didn’t give up because it got too hard. I didn’t give up because I wanted to. I pushed through every boundary I had put up for myself, stopped taking orders from my own will, and made my body go. And I went as far as I possibly could. Maybe I couldn’t climb to the top of that slope, but I knew that I gave it my all. I didn’t quit. My body was just done for the day. Looking back on those hunts, I am surprised at how I was willing to rise to the challenge and at the endurance that I was able to have. I didn’t expect to be as gung-ho as I was about following my athletic husband all over the countryside. I learned that I like having plans and don’t like so much when they change. I am fairly flexible, but I expect that when someone says “let’s do such and rather” that that is what we will do. It took me a little while to catch on, but plans change very fast when you are hunting. During our second morning hunt, Jim took me up a hill and we came very close to the top and were just a few yards from cresting over when he said “let’s just peek into this drainage.” Drainages are wide crevices that run down the hill and are excellent places for the deer to hide. Jim loves hunting from drainage to drainage all along the sides of hills. He’s been very successful hunting that way. He also can’t resist being so close to looking over the edge of one. So here, he just wanted to peek over. Three hundred yards of side-hilling later, he spotted some does. So we kept going. Eventually, I said “I thought you were just going to take a peek?” Based on The Plan, I figured we were going to peek and then go back and check out the other side of the hill. I learned that when you see deer, plans change. That may seem obvious to the average person, but to the plan-lover such as myself, it was a little jarring. I guess what this taught me about myself is how I should remain flexible, even if it seems like a plan is established. I think that it is during the Adventures of Life that we get a chance to see what we are made of. To see where our limits are and then move the boundary lines. To make plans to reach the ultimate goal and then press on to achieve them. And sometimes, if life offers us an opportunity to shut off all the outside voices and be still, we can let our mind unwind. Sometimes that stillness welcomes inspiration, sometimes it ushers in a peace of mind, and sometimes... just a silly song. |