Author: E.Y. Redal

The Rainy Weather is Good

Last Friday, my son, Jim, arrived for a short visit,from Rio Rancho, New Mexico. It was raining of course. He was ecstatic about the rain. He told me that they hadn’t had any rain for six months! Every day he comments on how wonderful the rain is.

Another thing he likes and never gets enough of is the greenery around our Pacific Northwest. I appreciated the greenery too, seeing it from his eyes. He also talked about the dawn. “You don’t see dawn very much around here,” he offered. “Our New Mexican dawn is even more beautiful than our sunsets. The rosy, orange and yellow blend so beautifully with our turquoise blue of the sky.” I could almost see his dawn as I looked out at our grey skies with water coming down from Heaven.

Isn’t it wonderful how God has made everything good? Even at the beginning he said, “It is good,” whenever he completed a task in creation. The problem comes when we begin complaining about our weather. We really should be extremely thankful for each day that comes, whether it brings rain or sunshine.

We should be happy with the place God has given you too. If you live on the beach, I think you are lucky to have that ocean scene before your eyes every day, but I have heard complaints from people who live there such as all the wind and rain they get. If you live in the plain states and can enjoy the sky and the thousands of stars besides the wonderful farming country, I’ve heard complaints there too. And I have heard complaints from folks who live in the southern states. The folks who live in our large cities in the east complain too, but we shouldn’t, should we?

God has put us wherever we live and we shouldn’t be downcast at all if it rains in the springtime or snows in winter or is too hot in the summer. America is a land that has everything and to take a vacation in one of the other climates is fun to do. Even if you can’t travel, you can always find a picture in a magazine or a tape showing one or more of these other places right here in America. We are all so lucky, aren’t we?

We Are Americans

The news and our thoughts were on the killing of our ambassador and the 3 Navy Seals,The IRS scandal.and the AP problem when suddenly parts of Oklahoma was turned upside down when tornados arrived. We American left our thoughts to those who can solve them. We had more important things to do. Some of us left our cozy homes and went to help those who found themselves without anything at all. Their homes were gone and so were all their possessions and even one or two members of their families were gone.

Some of us got clothing and food together and brought them to the shelters. Some of us dug deep in our billfolds to send money to help those in need. Most of us got on our knees in prayer for our fellow Americans in Oklahoma. After all, who can give them the peace they need more than God?

We are Americans. We will be thinking of our fallen heroes this weekend and we will continue to pray for and think of the people in Oklahoma. We will do those things we can do because we are Americans. And Americans are different from people in other countries and we should keep ourselves wide awake and not let ourselves change. We want to stay the same. We want our freedom in things American to continue.

Some want us to change and become more like people in other countries, but why? We send our money to help whenever there is a disaster like an earthquake or hurricane in any foreign country. We help those who come into our country legally get started so that they can enjoy our freedom as much as we do. We are, after all, Americans and we don’t want anyone to change us.

But we have not been watching as schools have outlawed prayer and their curricular is changing too. We have not talked or played with our kids as much as we should. Instead, we have left the TV or the video game to do the talking for them. If we want America to stay the way our forefathers arranged it, we have to stay wide awake, change the things we can and stand against those things that will change us. That way,our kids will help those in need too. They will say, “Of course we will help, we’re Americans aren’t we?”