"...for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." ... Matthew 6:8
*****
Sunday night I sat on the floor of my new closet room while reading an old Nancy Drew book, thinking, "I'm glad I have these vintage books. They're fun to reread."
Then with a smile I recalled how, when I was 14, my mother stood behind me at my bedroom desk while I read yet one more Nancy Drew and she said, "Shouldn't you be reading books more for girls your age?"
I replied, "But I love Nancy Drew! I want to read all the ones at the school's library." She sighed and walked away. (Poor Mom.)
Heh. I probably won't tell my mother that, even at 55, I'm still reading Nancy Drew.
And why do I read lots of kids' novels every year? Partly because of this: everyday, my head stays awfully busy.
Hourly my mind is thinking about my next blog post (keeping my brain open in case new ideas pop in there) or who might need encouraging or am I obeying God as I should? Or where can I place my stocking-up groceries and how should I fix all the tiny inconveniences around here? Or when's the best time to mow the lawn, take my walk or do the laundry while I still have the strength to lug it upstairs to dry? Do I have a plan for dinner, for decorating, for my future?
Yada, yada, yada...
And just when things begin spinning inside my head, that's when I pull out a kids' lit. book. And oh--the calm. The serenity, the balance, the being whisked away to a whole other time and place.
It's the same for whatever current tv series Tom and I are watching via Netflix (now it's Heroes again) when he arrives home in the late afternoon. With our dinner plates we watch the show, pausing it when we remember an interesting item to share, but just watching while our heads cease their whirring. And we bask in the peace of it all and the harmony we feel.
Grace. I have learned to follow Grace even when nobody else understands why the heck I'm doing what I'm doing. But Grace knows what I need and exactly when I need it while other people think I need what they need and fail to 'get' me.
But what I need most? To keep believing that God and Grace know me better than I know myself and--if I live by their directions--I'll end up where I should, with my sanity intact, maybe with a few less friends but with ever so much more contentment.
And I'll have so enjoyed the journey along the way.
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Remember how, on Sunday night, I felt grateful for Nancy Drew? Well, on Monday morning Tom and I visited two yard sales and I found that orange book, above. It's called Teen-Age Mystery Stories and was compiled in 1948 by Frank Owen. I felt a little shiver down my back as I held that book in my hand for, totally, it felt like God placed it in that old box just for me.
Oh, and we (well, I) also dropped into Jo Ann's Fabrics where I found this adorable tiny birdbath (I'd needed an off-the-ground birdbath for ages) :
(I spray-painted it yesterday.) Oh, and also, these cute metal flowers:
All these were 70 percent off. Gotta love that.
*****
A state of mind that sees God in everything is evidence of growth in grace and a thankful heart.
Author: Charles Finney
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Free kindle books as of today, May 28:
Down Home Cooking
Natural Green Cleaning
30-Minute Meals
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Free kindle books as of today, May 28:
Down Home Cooking
Natural Green Cleaning
30-Minute Meals
Debra, I used to work at Babies R Us and I remember one of my managers saying to me, "You sure do march to your own drummer don't you." I consider that one of the best compliments I have ever received. You keep reading your kids books and doing what God and Grace lead you to do. P.S. I have never read a Nancy Drew book but I am going to start looking for them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in 4th-6th grades I read every single Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys mysteries that were in our school library. My folks allowed me to read them, though they did not like the idea of a mystery. Many times when I was called to the dinner table, I got into trouble because I never heard them call. I was in the world I was reading in at the time. A wonderful escape. It helped me stay sane during some of the worst years of my growing up years. I have not read them since. I have been told the only ones worth reading are the old ones because the new ones published have been changed. Too bad. So enjoy THAT world. I still read but mostly for research purposes of one kind or another. Mostly biographies otherwise. Whatever makes one happy. You are right...in marching to the beat of not only our drum, but hopefully the beat of GOD's drum...we surely do upset the kin...oh do we. Even if we hardly speak of it. Well, we did not CHOOSE them...twas where we were put. At least that! ;-)
ReplyDeleteElizabeth in WA
Think of them as comfort food with no calories!
ReplyDeleteI read them too :)
ReplyDeleteJust back from a vacation in the mountains of North Georgia. Lovely place but I was not a lovely person. I finally realized it had a great deal to do with my book. I brought along the last Maeve Binchy book. I love Maeve Binchy...but not so much this book. I was sick to death by mid-book of reading of shattered marriages, lost dreams, hopeless situations. Depressing! Oh that I'd taken along Anne of Green Gables instead!
ReplyDeleteI so understand why you read the books you do. I could stand a few books that didn't deal with day to day worries and heartbreaks and instead just sort of let me be unaware of them for a good long bit. BTW I love Donna Parker books too, just like I do the Nancy Drew books.