Daily graces

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

On this day of Thanksgiving, we set aside a day to remember God’s blessings, the bountiful gifts generously given from His hands. That is well and good – Having a day set aside specifically to focus on those things is a good reminder, much like we set aside a day each week for worship of God, while (hopefully) maintaining an attitude of worship throughout the week. Similarly, thanksgiving should be a state of our hearts, not just a day on our calendars. Cultivating an attitude of thanksgiving is a way of speaking God’s truths to ourselves daily, the truths of God’s blessings, the lavish love He pours out on His undeserving children.

In a culture that is increasingly self-focused and, consequently, focused on everything we don’t have, thankfulness and gratitude are graces every Christian should cultivate. How can I blame God for things that go wrong, if I am unshakably focused on thanking Him for the gifts that He gives? How can I be envious of others if I am determined to thank God for what He has given me? How can I not show grace towards others if I am living a life of gratitude for God’s grace towards me? How can I be resentful for my plans that have gone wrong, when I reflect in thanksgiving on the plans of God that are always right?

This attitude of thanksgiving isn’t easy to cultivate, and it is an attitude I fail at repeatedly. But might it not be because my vision of God’s blessings is incomplete? I, and likely all my brothers and sisters in the faith, tend to look for the big things, the big gifts, the miracles, the lightning bolts of God’s goodness, the indisputable signs of God’s providence. When my family gathers around the table for Thanksgiving dinner, we thank God for freedoms, faith, family, church community, the ability to homeschool, spiritual blessings, material blessings, the signs of God’s workings in our lives. Those things are indisputably God’s gifts and our response should be one of gratitude. But what if we have a day, or a year, or a decade, or a lifetime where we feel the weight of our own failure, or the wretchedness of the world, or experience loss, hardship, pain, tragedy? I would submit to you that God never ceases to work in our lives, and never ceases to shower blessings on us – We simply need the eyes to see those gifts. I would also submit to you that God works most often in our lives in small ways, through subtle means, a steady trickle of wonderful gifts, instead of the occasional deluge. Realizing that, there should never be a shortage of things to be thankful for, if we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the hearts to understand.

“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts,” said Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I hope and pray for signs and unmistakable blessings, but what about the tiny things, the almost-invisible things? What about the small ways God has grown my faith? What about the gift of having any faith at all? Maybe this is why I love to look for beauty, to seek it out, be it as small and mundane as flakes of snow on a dried flowertop, or a drip of snow melt, or the way geese flock overhead in the cold winter sky – those things are reminders of the goodness of God.

I believe in a sovereign God, who orders all things and through whom all things are sustained. I believe that God is sovereign over the big things, like my family moving to South Dakota, and I continue to thank Him for that miracle in my life. But it also means He is sovereign over that cap of snow on the flower top, and the ringing calls of the geese that made me search them out in the clear, cold sky. He is sovereign over me seeing them, and He is sovereign over the joy I felt when I saw them. Those are as much a work of God as the fact that I now live in the place I love best in the world.

While I may not experience another “big miracle” for awhile, God gives the gift of beauty every day: the delicate stem of golden grass, the silver of sage beneath the snow, footprints on the frozen pond, the spark and flame of flakes continuing to fall in the sunlight, a nail driven deep into a snow-capped fencepost, the sound of geese overhead, the trickling tune of snow melt off the roof. And the awareness of that beauty is something that can be cultivated.

Even in the midst of failure, tragedy, fear, even when my faith seems small, I can always look to the sky and see evidence of God’s goodness. I can look to the earth and see the tiny things He has fashioned with His hands. I can look around me and see beauty that God has poured into this world, in the midst of bleakness, sorrow, and pain.

God gives those gifts and the capacity to enjoy them: eyes to see that beauty, ears to hear it, a tongue to taste the sweetness of the winter air, fingers to reach up to catch the snowflakes, lungs to breathe deep of the burning, sparkling cold, cheeks to blush and glow in the chapping breeze.

Although I can and do reflect on the blessings God has given me, the “big miracles,” I never have to look past today to see the blessings He is giving me now, the constant reminders that there is a God in the Heavens who is worthy of my adoration and praise. What a wonderful God to lavish such wonderful blessings. What wonderful blessings to bear witness to such a God.

Laura Elizabeth

Dusk

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

I love the dusk. And I love my Dad. The two make a great combination. Dad has a couple of game trail cameras and over the last few weeks he has been monitoring places on our property – He’s pretty excited for this hunting season. So this evening, we went on a little hike to pick up the trail cameras.

The sun had already sunk behind the hills and we were walking in deepening shade. We heard a low snort and saw a flash of of white – evidence that God has a sense of humor, I think. A white-tailed deer’s white tail doesn’t serve any purpose, but it sure makes me smile!

The moon was just a sliver of silver in the pale amber sky, and Harney Peak darkly brooded in the west, slate-blue at the end of the horizon. The world out here seems so large, yet so small. When I’m sheltered in the woods in the bottom of a ravine, with trees reaching to the sky, and rocks rising high above my head, I feel so small – Distance seems to grow. What is around the next corner, or over the next hill? Delight. Sheer delight. And when I’m standing on top of a hill looking away at the skyline, distance seems to compress and the horizon seems near enough to touch. Bliss. Sheer bliss.

As the dusk settled further, the air grew heavier with chill – I was toasty warm except for my ears, which were giving me a headache, but I didn’t care. How could I? With the smell of fresh-cut pine from the logging we’ve been having done, and the gentle crush of pine needles beneath my feet, the slide and scramble down a steep hillside, the rattle and clatter of rocks sliding with me, the opalescent sky turning darker and dimmer, and my Dad right there with me – How could I be anything but thankful?

We turned towards home, following a short draw, steep wall on one side and gentle slope on the other. The first stars appeared in the east. The blanket of dusk was pulled from east to west. And the moon flickered coldly in the western sky, tangled in the branches of the pines.

Laura Elizabeth

Welcome home

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

This was my welcome home this evening. Frosty got smart and waltzed through the not-so-electric fence. In her case, the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence…in our front yard.

I love coming home.

Laura Elizabeth

FREEDOM 2015

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

Kevin Swanson, Generations with Vision

When my family decided to move out to South Dakota, moving from the most liberal state in the Union to one of the most conservative, from one of the largest in population to one of the smallest, from an urban state to a rural state, our decision was based hugely on matters of freedom. We are a conservative Christian homeschooling entrepreneurial family. We depend, in a manner of speaking, on freedoms – the freedom to worship as we please throughout the week, to run a business as we see fit, to school at home with the content we feel belongs in the curriculum. Would those freedoms still exist when my sisters and I got married and started families? Given that Illinois is Illinois…there was reason to doubt.

But even here in South Dakota, by far more conservative, more God-fearing, more self-reliant and community-oriented, friendlier to individual rights, prouder of our freedoms and more committed to preserve them, we see those freedoms being eroded and chiseled and defaced.

Governor Bobby Jindal, 2016 Presidential Candidate

So here we were today at the Freedom 2015 Conference, sponsored by Generations with Vision, gathering together with hundreds and hundreds of other likeminded individuals, who believe that our greatest heritage is our Christian heritage, and our most important rights are our religious rights, and the most important foundation of our country the foundation of God’s Word. Praise God for bringing about this conference!

Today we heard from persecuted men and women, who were intentionally targeted by the left for their God-fearing beliefs. We heard from candidates for president, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, and Ted Cruz.

Senator Ted Cruz, 2016 Presidential Candidate

I thought the first two were exciting and well-received. But the standing ovation Ted Cruz received before he had even reached the top step to the stage was almost overwhelming. What a testament to his courage, his faith, his willingness to speak the truth in the face of stern opposition. This is a man to rally behind. He can lead a country. When asked how important it was for the president of the United States to fear God, he didn’t flinch, he didn’t hedge around the answer. He stated his conviction plainly – How can a man rule rightly if he himself isn’t governed by God in Heaven?

Even as we mourned for the state of our country, this once-great nation, we rejoiced in the knowledge that God can spark a revival, if he wants, and that throughout history the church of God has only ever strengthened through persecution and opposition. If God allows persecution, I firmly believe he will strengthen beyond measure those of his flock who remain steadfast.

Laura Elizabeth

Quiet Day

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

A good day is a quiet day. The savor of life, for me, is the quiet and enlivening action of being. In our society, we have all but forgotten how to simply be. We have an agenda for the whole day, meals mapped out, road routes planned ahead of time, work schedules set practically in stone, social lives that keep us away from home, all in an attempt to be full, to live life to its fullest, to be efficient, to be productive, to be visibly successful – That is the mark of our society – Meshing cogs, perfectly timed machinery, society run like efficient computers, filling our minds and our lives so full that what we’ve retained is irretrievable, lost in the stimulus.

But what about a full life that is full in its quietness? What about a life that is brimming with possibility, instead of a scheduled, itemized list? What in the meshing cogs of our society really leaves room for creativity, spontaneity, and breathing deep of life? What about forsaking some of the world’s marks of success to pursue a kind of success that is soul-deep, built on relationships with God and people? My heart hungered for a slower life, even when I didn’t realize it, but out here where there are miles upon miles of hills and trees and craggy peaks and rugged ravines, I find it easier, so much easier to simply be.

I want to live a life that is full of purpose and hard work, that is productive and industrious and useful, but I want that productivity and industriousness and usefulness to be plaited together with quietness, solitude, and relationships, and detached from the matrix of society. A four-day-per-week work schedule is ideal! I am so thankful.

On my days off, I feel as if I flee into God’s creation, hungering to see nothing of what people have made, and simply to revel in the wonders of the natural world. For a couple of months, I’ve tried to make it down to Hole-in-the-Wall, one of my family’s favorite haunts. Finally! Sarah and I had an hour and a half or so yesterday and we made a quick jaunt down our old jeep trail to that wonderful place.

The hardwood trees have all lost their leaves by now, or mostly, and the air was crisp and ripe with autumn. We hiked along the creek bed for most of the way, scrambling over rocks, jumping from one to the other, getting tangled in young trees which are growing bravely up through the rocky creek bottom. Battle Creek was flowing high this summer. Sarah is a tall girl, and the clumps of tangled grass and leaves above her head show the waterline to have been at least 7 feet deep in this bend of the canyon!

Hole-in-the-Wall is whittled away a little more each year, but there it has been for about 100 years. I wonder how much longer it will be there, and big enough for us to climb through and hike over? I hope I never have to see it collapsed, the whole ridge crumbled to a pile of rock, but one never knows – A little more of it tumbles down with every rain. It still enchants me.

The canyon leading to Hole-in-the-Wall was glowing brightly – Blue sky, a little breeze, and warm sunlight. What more could we ask for? I guess the one thing we could have asked for was a little more time. Salsa preparations and housework in the early afternoon and small group in the evening didn’t leave a lot of time, but we still had the leisure to enjoy our scramble to and from, to stop and marvel at fallen leaves, garnet sand, and orange berries. We had time to be.

It was a good day. A quiet sort of day.

Game night

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Laura Lindblom under Uncategorized

I have to admit, my family is not much of a board-game-playing family, or a game playing family, period. Not sure why – Maybe we’re not competitive enough and it bores us to death, or perhaps we’re too competitive and it stresses us out. However, we do have tendencies to be a two-person game-playing family. Rarely will all six of us sit down for a game, but pairs or threes of us do enjoy games, such as Speed, Double Solitaire (some of us prefer Solitaire – alone), Rummy, Monopoly (if it is the horse edition), Herd Your Horses (yes, there’s a trend), Taboo (all of us get in on that one)…

Dad and I had the house to ourselves this evening – It was quiet. Almost too quiet. Mom, Sarah, and Anna are all in Custer, for overnight church-related activities. We had dinner, got dishes done, read our chapter in Hebrews, and decided to…play a few games. Given that it is Dad and me and not, say, Anna or Sarah and me, I expected us to make tea or decaf, make ourselves comfortable in the living room and read for a few hours. Maybe listen to Kevin Swanson’s podcast, or even watch a movie. But no, we decided to play a game or two.

Dad taught me King’s Corners, a card game that he learned a few months ago from his now-92-year-old former gradeschool teacher. We played four rounds. He trounced me. Oh, well. Next time.

Then I wheedled and cajoled just a little bit, and Dad agreed to play Risk with me. We have an ancient Risk board that has been in our cabin for decades, but the rules are a bit different from the ones I’m used to – We muddled through the setup (the part I always forget how to do anyway), and took off.

Not sure exactly what it is that appeals to me about Risk – Perhaps it feeds some inner desire to actually take over the world, hearkening back to my adolescent days where my dear cousin and I plotted world domination.