Staying in Sync . . . How are you rowing?

That's me.

Light blue shirt, fifth from the back . . . Or fifth from the front. Either way, I'm smack dab in the middle.

For months I had rowed on an erg at Greenville Indoor Rowing, but I had never been on the water.

It's one thing to sit on your own rowing machine going at your own pace, but it's another thing entirely to sit with 7 others trying to row and stay in sync. All I had to do was hold on to my one oar and row with it--that is without it dragging in the water, turning it upside down, going in the water when it should be out of the water, or splashing everyone around me.

I knew all about the technique of rowing including the catch, the drive and the finish. I understood the 11:00 and 1:00 positions, stroke rates, and breathing. I just wasn't used to the one long oar that I was responsible for getting in and out of the water instead of the handle on my rowing machine.

It took us awhile, but we four rowing newbies caught on to what the four Clemson University Rowing club members were doing and we finally got that 8-man scull going in the right direction.

And it was amazing.

What speed we were able to reach when we all worked together.

I think of this experience when I'm working with others, be it my family, co-workers, friends, or church family. When we are in sync, we can not only move in right direction, but we can move with speed and efficiency -- but I have to do my part and do it correctly. I can't do their part and be efficient any more than I could take another rower's oar and row with it at the same time.

It just doesn't work.

So when working with others or with my family, I concentrations on my part, rowing my "oar."  And when we all do the same, staying in sync . . . wow, it's amazing!

Next time you are trying to accomplish a goal with your family or a group, remember, just concentrate on your own oar.


It's no fun getting splashed in the face with a gallon of water!



Pictures, not including rowers, are courtesy of www.pixaby.com

Are You Waiting?

Are you waiting on something?

Someone?

An opportunity? An answer?

A way out? A way in?

Hang in there, God is in the wait. 

And besides, He may be positioning you for something great!

In a book in the Bible that bears her name, Esther was orphaned and being raised by her uncle. She was not married, nor living in the country in which she was born. At that time, the King had dismissed the Queen for not submitting to him and had called for all the beautiful young women to be brought to the women's quarters of his home. There they prepared for a year before being brought before the King. The woman that would please him would become Queen.

Oh how Esther must have waited. But God was preparing her, for she received favor from the King and not only became Queen, but later was able to save the entire Jewish nation from being killed.

So, are you tried of waiting?

God may not be planning to use you to save an entire nation, but He may be positioning you to do something mighty in His name.

Don't despise the wait, but place in your heart the truth that God loves you and is wanting to use you in His time and His way.

For who knows . . . "Whether you have come to (this place) for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:12).

Has this been an encouargment to you? 

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 Let's walk this road of life together!

~ Beth

photo courtesy of pixabay.com

Basket of Contentment

I didn't see either coming, the bike with a wicker basket filled with fresh flowers and two loaves of bread or the feeling of discontentment.

I didn't wake up discontented.

I wasn't trying to find something to bring on the feeling of "this isn't what I want to be doing."


No, it rode across my heart as steady as the bike being pedaled by the young woman on the sidewalk before me.

How could I not notice her carefree posture with the wind blowing through her hair as she made her way home from shopping as I wrestled with my purse, lunch bag, and brief case getting into my car to go to my office. Nothing carefree about what I was doing.

Oh, to be her.

Oh, to have a cute white vintage bike and wicker basket.

Oh, to be riding on a bike outside instead of getting in my car to go to work.

Oh, to have those flowers in a pretty vase on my kitchen table as I slice the fresh bread and cover it with butter and jam.

Oh, to have a cute kitchen table.

Oh, oh, oh . . . my thoughts were spinning out of control like my tires were spinning out of my neighborhood.

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your  adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (I Peter 5:8 NASB).

Reality check.

I couldn't let the enemy take a beautiful morning in which I was going to my appointed place for the day devour me and suck me into discontentment. I may have been slow to catch on, but before I got to work I had realized what he was doing.

We must be sober, be alert, always walking close to the Lord so we can see the enemy and his schemes.

I may not have a bike with a basket full of fresh flowers and bread, but I have THE bread of life to give me peace, no matter what comes my way.

Discontentment . . . you can have no place in my heart today!!!


photos courtesy of pixabay.com

Granddaddy's Bible

It was passed on to me, my Granddaddy's Bible, but with it so much more.


For you see, I found a page in which my grandmother had taken the time to write something that has become as much a treasure to me as the worn burgundy KJV Bible itself.


On page 1734 where the book "Philippians 4" was printed on the left side of the page and the heading "Stand Fast" was printed on the right side, I found two verses where she had drawn a block with a blue ink pen. Above the block she scribbled with her 90 year old hand the words,

"Words that pastor felt Bro. Ralph would have said to the family."

If that wasn't enough to start my heart pumping I read the words that Paul wrote thousands of years ago, the words my granddaddy felt were so important.

"Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity," (Phil. 4:9, 10 KJV).

My granddaddy was a man of few words but he lived a godly life in front of us all. The things that I learned, received, heard and saw in him, I should do also. Yes, God's peace was with with Ralph Ligon King Sr., and he is right. If I will do as he did, God's peace will be with me too.

I have taken these words to heart, not just because they were highlighted, but because I know they worked in his life.

Though a man of few words, his testimony lives on in an old burgundy Bible and in his granddaughter's heart.

What are you facing today that seems bigger than you can handle?

Remember, you are not along. God wants you to be still and know that He is God. For with Him, "nothing is impossible" and He wants to do a miracle in your life.

Take a moment to be still before the creator of the universe, your "Abba" Father, and let Him comfort you and give you His peace.

When we are still before Him, not only can we hear His voice, but we can feel His heartbeat as we sit in His lap.