Laced With Grace

Indulge me today.

Let me introduce the cast:

One- small furry, cute (deceptive) cat
One- small dog named Peanut
One – teenaged girl 16 going on 27.
One – believing mom and keeper of the home.

It started several months back. The rainy season. It’s cold, wet, and dark. One early evening during a light downpour as we sat in the family room watching TV. From the hallway we hear a tiny, “Meow.”

The neighborhood cat, Cleo, found her way through our dog door and peered around the corner of the kitchen at us. She was wet, pathetic looking and only wanted to jump up in my teenagers lap for a quick dry nap. She slowly made her way to the couch. Crept up on her lap and laid down.

“Isn’t she cute mom? She just wants to be warm and dry.”

Little did we know….. This was only the beginning.

Over the next several weeks, the cat began to “sneak” in regularly. We would find her curled on my daughter’s bed. She would come in at times and meow and entertain us with her sweet nature. Slowly and unnoticed by us, Cleo’s visits became more and more frequent. And slowly and imperceptibly, she began staking her ownership of our home.

A few months ago, she slipped into our house early in the morning. I was reading my Bible. She jumped up gently and the next thing I knew she was smack in the middle of my lap purring loudly as I read and prayed.

Within weeks, Cleo slipped into the house in great regularity and no longer was she quiet. She arrived with loud meows that would wake the dead. She threatened the dog into servitude with one quick swipe across the nose. She picked at the trash and pawed at the fish tank. Jumped on counters and tried to drink my coffee.

Her charm had morphed into dread.

Cleo in the sink

Meow.. Meow..MEEEEEOOOOOOW.

One morning not long ago, I was too tired to do battle, I sat reading my Bible she came in and jumped up on the couch then wormed her way onto my lap. As I started to rise to put her out, she turned and bit me. With sharp teeth might I add.

Finally one evening I went into the family room to sit on the couch and watch the news. Sniff sniff. My nose curled at the most revolting odor.

“WHAT IS THAT SMELL?” I screeched.

There was a putrid stench of epic proportions rising from the couch. The animal had been sleeping there most of the day. The rot rising from the cushions put my barf reflex into action.

Ahem, need I say more???

I wonder if you can see the analogy in this retelling of our cat story?

How cute the little varmint first appeared. How sweet and needy. How loving and pretty. How slowly, every slowly, seemingly without notice the invader takes ground. Tiny changes occur and tempers flare, teeth are bared. Right in the middle of my Bible reading.

The next thing you know the marauder is a constant companion, a pebble in the shoe, and then before you know it, it’s rolled in the most horrendous and vile of grossness and it’s smell is all over the house.

Oh how like the enemy to work this way. Oh, how like our nature to see that little irksome thing as cute and harmless.

So, learn from me. Don’t give one entrance to the devil or his schemes. Don’t even allow a tiny dog door to crack open and allow entrance into your house or heart. Throw him out if he comes in and BAR the door.

……

Now for the end of the story and as for the cat……. She sleeps at the neighbors.

Woo Hoo! Let’s all hug a dog. Love you, Lynn

Deuteronomy 23:14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp (home) to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Find me daily at:

Do you have a rug?

You know. The big woven monstrosity that sits in the living room under the coffee table? This rug displays it’s finely designed workmanship to the world. Everyone who steps into the entryway notices its extraordinary color and luxurious fabric. It’s put together with exquisite patience. It’s well worn. It is….. ….well it’s perfect.

It’s perfect.

But, underneath this beautifully displayed rug lies a secret. It’s where the dirt is swept. Where year upon year the crud, unsightly and ugly is quietly tucked away. Sweep, sweep, sweep.

The rug of shame.

It has a place in almost every home.

It really begins as an innocent child’s mat. A sweet and beautiful child of God is hit or abused or unloved or scoffed at. Sweep, sweep. Middle school hits and insecurity is heaped up then shoved under the rug. High School further drives the rug to remain protected and tightly guarded. The secrets held under that rug are for no one to know. More “stuff” is shoved under the rug. Shame, hurt, abandonment, betrayal, insecurity.

Sweep, sweep.

Year after year. Marriage and disrespect and fighting and struggle. Bosses, finances, bad choices, harsh and hurtful words, shame.

Sweep, sweep.

That rug has grown and covers the main room. It appears as a beautiful and perfectly woven treasure.

But, that rug hides the truth. It hides the trash and lies of the enemy. It has become the center of our life.

It’s time to start to peel back the corner of that rug and let the light shine on the dirt. It’s time to rip it from the floor of our life and deal with the trash swept there.

That rug is the sum of all the bad experiences in your life. That rug IS your life. That rug is….

It’s me. It’s you. And it’s in need of a thorough supernatural cleansing.

Let Jesus rip that rug up. No longer does it hold power over you. Expose the lies of the enemy. Speak them to someone you can trust and watch as all that dirt and shame loses its power over you.
—–
I watched in absolute wonder as a friend of mine pulled her rug of 25 years up from the floor. Everything buried in there was exposed, talked about, sifted through the cleansing lens of the Bible. She is free. She is free at last.

She is now more beautiful to me with her frayed edges and faded coloring and imperfect stitching than when she pretended to be perfect.

I love her with a full heart and thank Jesus for her freedom and thank Him for allowing me to witness the power of light shined onto the lies of darkness.

If you are living with a giant and dark rug, there is hope. If my friend can part with her rug of a life-time of years, so can you. Write me and I will set you on a path of freedom through Jesus Christ.

Be embraced this day in the power, truth, and light of the King of Kings. Lynn

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn.

Find me daily at:

Several years ago, the term “to save a life” took on a new meaning for me.

 It was a cool, crisp November evening, I remember it so vividly because we were returning home from celebrating my birthday. As we crossed over the Mississippi River to come into our town, we came up on a stopped car on the bridge.  It was really strange, because there in the middle of a busy highway, a car being stopped in the middle of it all just didn’t seem right.

My husband had the same intuition that I had and he immediately pulled our car over to the side of the road and sprinted from our car to that parked car in the middle of the road. Call it intuition or the leading of the Spirit – whatever it was – it was the difference in a persons life.

Right before we came up on the scene, apparently there was a parked semi truck on the far right side of the road, stalled. The car that was now in the middle of the road, apparently came up behind the truck, not seeing it in time, and slammed into the back of the semi truck, causing the car to come to a stop in the middle of the road.

As my husband came upon the scene, he noticed the driver of the car was slumped over in the seat. The front of the car was so smashed in that the driver was pinned inside. But it wasn’t so much what my husband saw that alarmed him as it was what he heard!

The driver was gurgling and it sounded like he was choking. My husband realized that because this injured man was pinned and slumped over, he was choking on his blood. My husband, without thinking, reached in and pulled the man up and held him in an upright position until help came.

What was really disturbing about this accident scene was that my husband was the only person willing to save a life! The truck driver whose truck was stalled on the highway just stood at the side of the road looking on and hollering at my husband, ” I wouldn’t touch him, you don’t have gloves on!”

We did not have a cell phone with us, so we could not call 911. Cars steadily just sped by. Nobody would stop to help, even though my husband was standing in the middle of the road, slumped down in the drivers side, holding this dying man upward so he would not die on that dark, dreary November night! Nobody seemed interested in slowing down long enough to save a life!

Finally, help arrived.

 The jaws of life was used to get the man out of his vehicle and later we visited his family in the hospital and we were told that if it had not been for my husbands quick action, that the man would have choked on his blood. A life was saved on that dark, dreary November night!

I share this story not to bring glory to my husband. Even though in my mind he is a hero, he does not like to bring attention to himself for his part in this miracle. God placed us on that bridge, at that time, on that night for a purpose. God receives ALL of the glory for the miracle that took place that night. But this week as I celebrated my birthday, I was remembering about the birthday I had all those years ago that was life changing! A life was saved that night.

I was also thinking about all the times since that night that I have walked past circumstances that God may have been asking me to STOP and help someone who needs to be saved! But like the passerbys that dark, dreary November night -I wonder,  have I just kept going and ignored the signs that someone was in trouble?

Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.”

In order for a life to be saved that dark, dreary November night, grace had to be applied! When we share His grace and love to others, lives WILL be saved!

Whose life can you save today?

Find me over at http://womentakingastand.blogspot.com/ for daily devotions!