I am thinking about free will and freedom today. Choosing how we live is an incredible gift.
Yesterday, I read a blog by a woman who was not free for most of her life and in light of Memorial Day weekend, it made me so grateful for my own freedom. I will tell you about her later in this post, but first I want to thank my husband for his service to our country. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force and I am so proud of him. It was not easy moving so many times or watching him go off to war, but he did it for over two decades.
Rest assured, because of people like him, you and I are free to choose how we live our lives.
The United States is still a free country where immigrants clamor to get in and make their own American dream come true.
Weeding earlier this morning:
I have to admit I cannot stand weeding. It is a hot weekend and it is miserable, but it has to be done. It is one of those adulting things, but I do it of my own free will.
I don’t like any yardwork really. Allergies, the heat, the squatting on the ground and bending over for hours is not my idea of a good time. So why do I do it? I do it because it needs to be done. We could hire someone, but I would rather spend that money on savings or the new air conditioning that just went in. The way I see it, cool inside means work outside.
Working outside or doing positive things we don’t want to do is really good for us. My husband is a daily example of that. This morning when we were sweating away pulling weeds and digging up tiny trees that had popped up on the hill around the pool, I was physically miserable. At the same time, I was mentally and emotionally happy. I was working alongside my husband making the pool area nice.
My husband says yard work is good for the soul. It is.
We poured big ice waters, turned our hose into a mister, and sweated our way through a difficult job. Honestly, it was only difficult because I couldn’t take the heat. (Fibromyalgia causes temperature control problems.) I turned red all over and had to sit down every ten minutes, but we still managed to have a good time, because we decided to.
We were exercising our free will weeding and preparing the yard for entertaining.
Now for the woman I told you about.
Yesterday I read a horrible story about how as a child, a girl was forced into sexual slavery from the age of six. Held captive for years, she endured what no child should ever even have to think about. Not too much any of us deal with can compare to that horror. I couldn’t sleep after reading several of her posts. She is so honest about trying to live with the baggage of the trauma, but the sickness of sexual slavery needs to be destroyed. Children should never have to deal with the perversions of adults.
In my home, we live with our free will intact. I am so thankful.
We are so blessed just to live free, to be able to work outside. I have legs, I have arms, and a voice. I choose who I live with and who I allow in my home. What a blessing my life is. There are so many things to be thankful for. I feel grateful that I can weed my own yard, because I can do it with my husband of my own free will.
Free will is a beautiful gift.
Please join me in prayers for the woman.
Lord, I pray right now for that girl I read about. God, you know the one. Her name is Hope. I ask you to bless her beyond anything she could even think of and to give her help and protection from angels unawares. Send her provision and incredible strength, guidance, and fill her up with your peace and love. Surround her with heavenly grace and keep her safe from harm. Help her see her worth and show her how much you love her. Open doors for her and make her life better day by day. Give her gifts of joy in the small and great. Provide for her financially and fill her with wisdom.
God bless her. In the name of Jesus I pray for her restored life and happiness.
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