Enduring the Training!

   There are furry little masked animals in the woods behind my house. These animals are rarely seen during the daytime. I didn’t even know that they inhabited the woods behind my house until I set up a game camera that detects motion and take pictures in the dark. After retrieving the pictures from the camera a couple of times, I was surprised to see several raccoons eating the corn that I put out for the deer. I was even more surprised to see the deer and raccoons eating at the same time! The raccoons are smart animals. When the corn on the ground was all gone they would climb up a tree and lean over and touch the deer feeder mechanism to get it to drop a few more kernels of corn on the ground (see picture below). After discovering how my deer feeder was going empty so quickly, I moved the feeder to a more open area, away from any trees.

   Raccoons typically weigh from 15 to 20 pounds. They are most well known for their habit of washing their food before eating it. Scientists still disagree on why they do this. Raccoons eat a variety of foods including: fish, insects, worms, plants, fruits, and nuts. They are nocturnal, eating mostly at night, and rarely venture out during daylight hours.

   I was out in the woods early one morning, just after daylight, and saw a mother raccoon with a very young raccoon stumbling along trying to keep up with her. I’m sure that they were just ending a long night of hunting and foraging for food, and were really tired and ready to go to sleep. It may have even been the youngster’s first time to go out foraging with its mom! The mom then must have decided that it was time for a climbing lesson. The mom scampered up a slender tree and gave out some grunting sounds; evidently telling its youngster to follow her. The young raccoon was giving out some twittering, bird like, sounds, probably telling its mother that it was ready for bed and didn’t want to go through a climbing lesson. It took a couple of minutes for the young raccoon to laboriously climb up to where it mother was, only to see its mom scamper over to another tree. The youngster wouldn’t move for a few minutes, but finally heeded its mom’s calls and again followed her path, at times slipping and almost falling several times before catching up with her. After ten minutes of this activity they finally ended up high in an oak tree where they curled up together on a limb and went to sleep.

   As I was walking through the woods this morning, I passed by the area where I observed the raccoon climbing lesson. I started thinking about the lesson. The mother could have taken a very easy ground path and then climbed straight up the oak tree to their sleeping place, however she chose to take a very difficult and challenging path for the young raccoon. She was persistent, and patient, in getting her young one through the challenging path, knowing that the training it was receiving was beneficial. In our spiritual life we often go through situations that are uncomfortable and sometimes painful, but Paul tells us in Hebrews 12 that: “you must submit to and endure correction for discipline, God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not train and correct and discipline… for the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful, but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”.

So the next time God takes you through one of life’s difficult training exercises, just remember, keep following God and you will end up resting securely in his arms!

Note: Scripture reference is from the Amplified Bible

Change in Central Texas

     Well, our Texas weather is certainly living up to its reputation! In Texas we say: “if you don’t like the weather just wait a few hours and it will change”! On Monday of this week it was a nice winter day with partly cloudy skies and a high in the mid 50’s. I spent the day at a friend’s house, building on a tree house for his son’s birthday. On Tuesday a new cold front blew in and our high was about 30 degrees and it snowed all day long. I think everybody in town was calling each other talking about the snow! This was the heaviest and longest period of snow that I have ever experience in Texas. The snow flakes were enormous. I was in my office trying to focus on a conference call. I had already warned the others that I may get distracted by watching the falling snow outside my window. My office is on the second floor of our house and I have a bird feeder just outside the window.

There were no birds or wildlife stirring, except for my faithful squirrel that I talked about on my February 9 blog, “Enduring the Rain”. Just as he was eating berries in the rain, he jumped up and started eating the sunflower seeds in my bird feeder. Undeterred by the snow flakes falling on and around him, he fed for some time. He didn’t appeared to be bothered by me snapping a few pictures of him, I guess it was because he had gotten accustomed to my cat jumping up to watch him on numerous occasions. Well, on Wednesday our Texas weather reputation continued. I woke up to clear skies and sun streaming over the horizon and quickly melting the snow from yesterday.

     Changes in our lives are just about as consistent as our changing Texas weather. Sometimes these changes are for good and sometimes they are bad. At times we wonder why the bad things are happening to us, when we are living for God. Matthew 5 tells us that God: “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”. God allows certain event in our lives to correct us and make us better. In Hebrews 12, Paul tells us that “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth”. Proverbs 3 tells us to: “despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his corrections”. Just as good parents correct and discipline their children, so God also does to those who follow him. So be ready for change and consider yourself fortunate to have a God, who knows your future, and who corrects and prepares you for a successful tomorrow!