The Favor of the Lord

"For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield." Psalm 5:12

I felt like this verse was appropriate for the kind of day I had today. It just seemed the favor of the Lord surrounded me in many very noticeable ways today. It was one of those days when everything seemed to go right.

My mother had a rather rough winter, health-wise this year. Yesterday her doctor prescribed a new medicine for her. It was very pricey stuff--unbelievably expensive in fact. But we found out today that she was able to get the medicine covered, Praise the Lord! That felt like God's favor right there.

I tried something new today that will just astound you! I drove in a city--yes, a city! For any of you that know me very well, you know I do not drive in larger cities. I did learn and had much practice driving in all kinds of places, cities included, during driver's ed years ago, but then did not ever go much of anywhere when Clint and I were not together. He was always driving and so I gradually got out of the habit of driving in places larger than the towns in St. Joe County. I know it sounds weird in this day and age, but it's true. It kind of scared me to take off alone to a larger city. Today I drove in a city, all by myself and had absolutely no trouble and to top it all off, I wasn't even sure where I was going. The place was a bit unfamiliar to me. That felt like God's favor to me! I'd try it again now--gaining confidence!

I went to yet another greenhouse today while I was with mom. She was having to do a long wait at the doctor's and so I decided to redeem the time with a trip to a market that has an extensive greenhouse and store. I found the plant I'd been looking for an hadn't been able to locate. It is a "santolina" or lavender cotton. I had seen it in the many garden books I'd been reading lately and thought it sounded like a plant that would do well in the conditions we have here. I had searched quite a few places and finally found about 8 little pots of it today. I bought only one because I think it spreads. I hope I will not be sorry I didn't buy more.

Mom and I got home early in the afternoon. I noticed that Rhiannon had made food for supper and had it in the refrigerator. That's always a blessing! I was able to get a little power nap in before Rhiannon and Clint arrived home. When Rhiannon came in she said she had a present for me. I followed her out to the barn where the present was waiting. I suspected she had purchased another perennial for me, but much to my delight and surprise, there were 8 bags of mulch for the garden! What a wonderful gift. We loaded it in the tractor and she helped me--actually she did the work!--put it in place out in the English garden. It covered about half of the pathways. What an instant miracle difference mulch makes for the looks of a garden! Suddenly the garden was transformed and much of the black plastic that was exposed after the hard winter was covered and the pathways now look so neat and orderly. I quickly weeded the paths as she placed and raked the mulch. That meant that alot of garden work got done in a short time. This was work I had not expected to do today. I did alot of weeding, replaced a few disorderly perennials and then she and I decided to try to haul more large rocks out of the fencerow. We got some beauties and put them in the tractor bucket. We placed them around the flower beds. What another big difference that made! That garden is getting the transformation that I never thought was possible a few weeks ago when I assessed the post-winter needs out there. I am actually well on the way to fixing all the problems that I was wanting to correct to make my dream garden! Thanks, Rhiannon!

I also got to do a little sewing on the 70's dress and it went together so nicely again. Working on the sleeves currently. While I was shopping today I noticed an interesting little book. It had lots of pictures. Lo and behold there was a picture of someone wearing the very style of dress I have under construction. It was a different color, but same basic pattern and from the same era. How interesting!

This afternoon I called the vet and found out that Daisy got through her surgery amazingly well. The doctor was able to fix her torn ligament and she woke up nicely and went back to sleep comfortably. I was glad for that blessing too!

Tomorrow we plan to get the lawn mowed and do alot of planting. I am so encouraged by the unexpected work we got done today, that everything seems do-able now instead of a big, never-ending project. My second favorite flowers are poking up through the black plastic in the pathways in places. I tried to pull them to transplant and they just snapped off--oops. They spread because they are a ground cover! Hint, hint.

Back to the verse of the day, God's favor surround the righteous as a shield. Wonderful thought to keep in your mind as your go through your day. But you may say, Lori, are you suggesting that you are righteous? Isn't that a bit proud and arrogant? Well, no, actually Christians are righteous--made right--by the sacrifice of Christ. Righteousness is a state of being for the Christian. It's our new identity. Check 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Ponder that today if you feel defeated. Now that's real favor! Consider God's favor around you. Consider Christ's righteousness transferred to you as an act of His grace. As many of our parents used to say to us, "remember who you are."

Blessings, LORI