Sometimes I get SO distracted. As I began creating a Fall arrangement for my dining room table I decided that I must have one of those large acorns for the arrangement that would go on my kitchen counter. I traveled to the kitchen and began arranging that bowl and soon realized that I needed one of the white pumpkins I’d placed there for the small terrarium on my kitchen table.
It didn’t stop there. From those three arrangements I took some velvet pumpkins up to our guest rooms and, lo and behold, I noticed that the tray in the blue room had tarnished handles!
Downstairs again , I pulled out the silver polish.
Note: This is seriously the best silver polish ever. It literally melts tarnish away.
Realizing the bottle was running low I decided to use it up. Thus began the gathering and polishing of more silver pieces, and then some more, and then some more, until I had polished every piece of silver on the main floor of my house!
In the end, my three Fall arrangements were still a shambles.
Last week I shared a bit of my heart with you HERE and honestly, I can’t begin to express how blessed I am to have readers like you, who responded with such an abundance of encouragement.
I shouldn’t be amazed . . . but I am . . . by how much God cares about our feelings. He made us for each other, to love one another, as a way of showing His love for us.
With all of the encouragement I received I honestly began to feel so bad that I had made y’all feel bad (especially since some of you are struggling with much harder things than I am) that I started to write something funny today to make everyone feel better! Then I realized that the right thing to do is to just say THANK YOU!
Can I brag on God a little more? Do you remember my mentioning that I miss having friends who live near enough to message and say, “Do you want to meet for a cuppa’ Joe?” Within a few hours of my post appearing on Facebook I received a comment asking that very question. That message came from an acquaintance, a friend-of-a-friend, someone I’d met only once at a lunch where we’d sat at opposite ends of the table.
So though I felt a little bit embarrassed, and a little nervous, and a little bad that I made anyone feel sorry for me, because honestly I’m not an attention seeking type of person, I said, “Yes”.
Do any of you remember how easy it was to make friends when we were little girls, when all of the complications of being grown women didn’t get in the way of connecting quickly? This was like that! I believe that this is just the beginning of a great good friendship.
Another way God encouraged me this week was at the grocery store where I was greeted warmly by a woman from the church we’ve attended these past two Sundays. After feeling like a stranger in our new town for the past year you can imagine how good it felt to see a familiar face and to be recognized by someone.
Within the last few days I feel like God has been stripping away sadness like tarnish from silver and I have renewed hope for this new adventure we’re on.
The last thing I want to tell you about is the most important, and what I believe was the catalyst for change. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie War Room, but even before I penned my sad post, Mr. OTN spent time in his “war room” praying to God on my behalf. He prayed as hard as he’s ever prayed, even begging God for answers (begging God is not something he’s very comfortable with but he was desperate. You see, he has been feeling the sadness too and even wondering if he made the right decision in moving us here).
Shortly afterwards, while sitting on our screened porch, he received a very real (repeat VERY REAL) assurance from God that everything is going to be okay.
Hubby chose the church we would go to that very Sunday, saying that he had a good feeling about it. I must say that this is the friendliest church I’ve ever been to and after a couple of weeks there I’m feeling cautiously optimistic. I know, where’s my faith right? Lord???
As I sit on the screened porch this evening with the fragrance of Gardenias drifting across my yard, I’m aware of the many ways God works in our lives to encourage us. Sometimes it’s the little things, like the smell of flowers or hummingbirds at the feeder. Sometimes it’s through the people He sends our way.
Tweet ThisIn my sadness I think I may have missed some of His smiles lately. Like I said, sometimes I get SO distracted.
I HEART y’all VERY much!
P.S. You know life can’t be too bad when one has so much silver to polish. 😉
I have been know to link to the following Inspirational Parties:
Wednesdays A Wise Woman Builds Her Home Wednesday Prayer Girls Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays A Little R & R Whole Hearted Home So Much at Home Mom’s Morning Coffee Women with Intention Coffee for Your Heart Capture Your Journey
Thursdays Serving Joyfully/Thriving Thursdays The Deliberate Mom/Shine Blog Hop I Choose Joy Live Free Thursday Thought Provoking Thursday Imparting Grace
Fridays A Look at the Book Christian Mommy Blogger Fellowship Fridays Blessing Counters Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays Faith & Fellowship Bloghop Grace & Truth Linkup Grace&TruthSharingRedemption’sStories Dance With Jesus The Weekend Brew
Saturdays Still Saturday The Weekend Brew Saturday Soiree Recommendation Saturday Make My Saturday Sweet
Sundays Spiritual Sundays Sunday Stillness
Shelly says
September 24, 2015 at 11:44 amGreat article, Patti! I am so blessed to hear you’ve been led to a close and friendly church home. May God confirm quickly to your heart if this is it. . God is so good. And what a blessing for Kelly to see his prayers answered as well.
Did you ever find a large acorn?
Love, Shelly
Lynda Brandly says
September 24, 2015 at 4:58 pmPatti, I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been sad. We have moved across the country several times and it is so hard. You lose all your friends and everything that is familiar. I’m so glad to hear that God is bringing friends and restoring your joy! I will be praying for you!!
love and blessings~
Lynda @ Gates of Crystal
PS – your silver is beautiful!
Kathy says
September 25, 2015 at 7:45 amPatti; your photography is beautiful, your message sincere and heart warming. My brother once told me that as believers we have to humbly allow people to bless us for the simple and powerful fact that when we refuse to receive we are quenching the movement of the Holy Spirit the very heart of our Father in other peoples lives. Giving and receiving works on both sides; our Father calling one to give and the receiver to be humble receiver. Your message here was humbly received…
Teddee Grace says
September 25, 2015 at 9:41 amWhat is the name of the silver polish you use? For some reason, there is no photo at that point.
Sharon H says
September 25, 2015 at 11:38 amPatti, you are such a jewel! I love how you think, and how you get so easily distracted by the most simple things….I love it because that is ME…hahaha. And I get frustrated with it, too.
And I don’t recall if I said anything or not, but I felt like you should look closer to home for a church family. I’m glad you’re following Mr OTN’s direction and that he is so attuned to your needs and well-being that he prays diligently for you. What a blessing it is to have a husband like that! But I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be “cautiously optimistic”, because it keeps you on your toes. It keeps you focused and listening to what God might be trying to whisper in your ear. Otherwise, you might miss an important tidbit; one that might be exactly what you are waiting to hear!
Look forward to hearing how your life will be filled with new, soon-to-be old friends. Great friendships are the silver linings in our cloudy days. Blessings to you, my friend!
Pat says
September 25, 2015 at 3:07 pmPatti,
Praise the Lord!!! Answered prayers and polished silver, Amen!!!
You need not “thank” me, but You’re Welcome, dear friend!!!
Ps~s~s’t. . .That’s what friends are for!!!
I so~o~o thankful that God allowed our paths to cross.
Grateful for Mr. OTN for making his concerns known unto the Lord!!!
I have an amazing feeling that “great things” are about to happen on your behalf!!!
Now, about that silver polishing. . .
I was ‘freshening’ the Master Bedroom and notice a silver tray had tarnished.
I brushed off the dust and smiled. . .it can wait until another day, after vacation!!!
You’ll understand the reason “why” soon enough. . .and that’s all I’m going to say about that!!!
Wishing you and Mr. OTN a wonderful First weekend of Autumn!!!
Fondly,
Pat
Robin says
September 25, 2015 at 9:58 pmYou ARE making great progress. 🙂
And I am sure YOU are helping MANY with your posts about what you have been going through.
The WAR ROOM…BEST MOVIE EVER! Have you seen HOW that movie and the others before it came to be made? How the Kendrick brothers got all this started? What the criteria was to be in the movie? You GOTTA see this…on Youtube if you have not. Type in Alex Kendrick Conference. It should be the 1st video. It really made the movie THAT MUCH BETTER knowing how God used them….and it started when they were kids. It has GREAT examples in it of how Alex’s faith was not as great as his brother’s faith, and how Alex tried to “help God”. WE ALL DO THAT!!! So there are GREAT lessons in that video of his conference.
When we saw the movie the aunt of the little girl was in the theater with us that night. And afterwords a young girl stood up and got us all to pray together. It was AWESOME!
If you liked that movie you will also like DO YOU BELIEVE? I saw it on Redbox. Lee Majors (6 million dollar man) and Cybill Shepherd are in it. It REALLY makes you wanna DO something. Well, it did me!!
Keep up the posts…whatever is on your mind. We are SUPPOSED to help each other. And when we reach out to one, we do ourselves good as well. 🙂
Cheryl Ann says
September 26, 2015 at 7:03 amThank you Patti…I needed that bit of hope. God is good!
KariAnne says
October 1, 2015 at 10:16 amI need to see that movie!!!!! I’ve been told by so many people that it is so good!
Thanks for the beautiful post today!
karianne
Janis Cox says
October 4, 2015 at 7:43 pmPatti,
A delightful post. I too get distracted. Laundry, oh I see something else, then something else. When we moved it took a good 2 years before any friendships were formed. Oh no being distracted – hubby looking for plunger – got to help.
Blessings
Janis
Long Ladies says
October 5, 2015 at 12:24 pmWhen I read the beginning of your post how one project kept leading to another the children’s book, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” crossed my mind and I had to laugh. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your heart on this. It sounds as though the Lord is teaching you contentment in this season of your life. Never an easy lesson to learn, but a necessary one nevertheless. I encourage you to continue looking for the little things that make you grateful and list them as a daily reminder that this is where the Lord wants you. 🙂
God bless you!
~Haley
P.S.
And War Room is an amazing and powerful movie!
JES says
October 6, 2015 at 5:19 amGood morning! What beautiful sentiments, what beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays. You have a lovely blog 🙂
Pam says
October 6, 2015 at 9:52 amVisiting here today from the Linkup as a neighbor and so delighted in this post and the photographs that illustrated the theme. Making new relationships is indeed more challenging than I wish they were.My husband and I are in the season of retirement and our closest friends have retired an eight hour drive away. We have spent a great deal of time together for 26 years, sharing our children growing up, getting married, and giving us grandchildren. We take turns making the trip 2 or 3 times a year, but that is a snippet given seeing each other so often when they still lived here.
Jen Ferguson says
October 7, 2015 at 5:07 pmCommunity can be so very good for the soul. It sounds like the distraction from your fall arrangement was actually just the thing you needed, as God spoke so clearly to you about tarnish and polish. Amen!
Lauren Gaskill | Making Life Sweet says
October 8, 2015 at 3:45 pmWOW! Your silver is lovely!