Author: E.Y. Redal

It’s October, Let’s Praise The Lord!

It’s October and my three favorite months are here! October, November and December are favorite months, not only for me but for many of you.  I am not a fan of Halloween, but I do love October for the colors of the leaves, the pumpkins, squash and just the crisp, cold air. And I love the time when we curl up with a good book in front of the fireplace too. And, of course Football starts in October!

November offers more of the same things as October, but we have Thanksgiving Day in November. I love the day more than the turkey and pumpkin pie. It’s the day we should thank God for all his blessings and it is the day when family members get together, even if they spend most of the day watching their favorite football team.

December starts with making sure everything is ready to give the family, and planning the decorations you will use inside and outside the house. I hope all of you give special time to that baby who was born in a manger. To often we get so busy we forget that Jesus birthday is in December too.

In all these things we should praise God. Let me list some of the reasons we should praise him: We praise him for his glory displayed in all the creatures of the earth. Praise him for  the snow, in the rain or in the wind. Praise him for the love he has for each of us.

Praise him even with the hand to the broom, the back bent in laying the fire, the head bent in grief or any work you have to do. Even praise him for the voices of the season,the crunching snow while walking, the song of the birds in springtime, the freedom of summer and the months of October, November and December. We also should praise him for all the beauty we see around us. But mostly we should offer him praise for who he is, that he cares for each of us and gave us his Son so that we could live eternally with him.

Let’s just praise him for everything, especially now, the months of October, November and December. Happy months to all of you!

 

Our Home In The Woods

TAG NatureI have lived in my home in the woods for 50 years! People told me I shouldn’t buy that house  because it was a scary place to live with all those big trees, but I loved it and love it still. I prayed that God would protect me and my children and he has. I was a single mother when I bought it and after I remarried we raised four children here. Most of them have returned to live here during their troubled times. My husband has died and I still live on in my home in the woods. I don’t live here alone though, my son lives with me.

About 20 years ago our world, at least in my mind, changed. No longer did we just have abortion, we now used it as a form of birth control and even used the little baby’s torn body in our face cream! Men began to lust more and more after men and woman lusted after woman. Our schools changed too. There was no more Christmas and our history books took out a lot of our history. I still lived in my home in the woods.

When our city decided to extend 87th avenue, I was in favor because even though they had to take out a bunch of trees, it would give people living north of our city greater access to our hospital, but I wasn’t prepared for street number 15. I guess the city thought that the new 87th avenue gave them the right to take out more trees and build a completely new housing area in the woods, only they took out the woods. They put in more streets and over a hundred homes! It didn’t effect us much because the trees were still there to the east of us. It wasn’t as quiet as before and we could see a little bit of one house.

We felt comforted as they couldn’t go any further into the woods. There was a deep ravine running north and south which they couldn’t penetrate. Well, two weeks ago they penetrated! They built a bridge over the ravine and yesterday our woods disappeared! We felt the earth shake as one by one the big, over 150 feet tall,fir trees fell to  the ground. It was a sad day. They told my son that they will still cut eight trees and the builders will first build one house. Oh we still have woods to the west of us. but it isn’t the same. It won’t be long until our area north of us will have hundreds of homes and no trees!

My son says, “Won’t it be great when we will have a view of Mt. St. Helens?” but our home in the woods is on a hill. I”m sure that all we will see is rooftops. I thought we were to keep all these old trees. They have disappeared along with the deer, raccoons and coyotes as these have disappeared more and more as the city has infringed on their property.

I suppose I too will disappear but I hope I can still live here in my home in the woods while the remaining woods remains. I pray that no more trees will be cut while I live. God is good!