Peaceful Not Anxious

I’d like to start off today with an important answer to prayer. You’ve all been praying and the Lord has answered. You all know that I am not the best passenger. (I’m not all that crazy about driving either.) How anxious and apprehensive I am especially in larger cities and unfamiliar territory. Most of the time, it’s the other driver I’m worried about but with this big rig and my horrible depth perception, it’s been quite the challenge. Well, I said all that again, to say this. The Lord brought to my mind a verse and immediately helped me apply it to my anxious reactions on the road and in traffic. The verse is a familiar one…Matt 6:25-33. “Be not anxious…what to eat, what to wear,” or in my case, be not anxious in Bill’s driving or the driving of others, “for how will that add one hour to my life?” It’s simple enough but this time really impacted me as to the futility of my anxious reactions. I’m not “cured” yet but I’m certainly doing better.

Then in my devotion today another very familiar passage to me was quoted from the Amplified Bible. This particular verse in 1 Peter 3:4 refers to women’s adorning being on the inside not the outside, it says “…incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit which [is not anxious or wrought up but] is very precious in the sight of God.” I shouted out “hallelujah” when I read this. I take it very personally when God keeps using the same words over and over to speak to me. He wants me peaceful not anxious. Those two words are my battleground…Praise the Lord, Peace is the winner.

Wednesday (3/16) had the potential to be a great day. We were going to the Seabee Base where Bill was stationed while in the military (when not in Viet Nam). Bill was pretty pumped and I was excited to share this with him. However (you knew that was coming, didn’t you), in order to get on base we needed a driver’s license (check), vehicle insurance card (check), vehicle registration (whaaaaaaaaaaaat?). I didn’t know that the registration was supposed to be kept in the car. I kept it in my safe box in my file cabinet back in Oshkosh. Big Whoops! (Another,) However, a guy standing in line told us that he contacted his Department of Transportation and they faxed a copy of his registration directly. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a state that will do that. We’d have to go on-line and have it emailed us and then bring it in. When I asked the powers-that-be if that would be okay, the gentlemen very kindly said that he really felt it wouldn’t be worth all this effort. He explained to Bill that the two-story Seabee museum was now just a small conference room and most everything else that Bill would remember was washed away by Katrina. So disappointing! He convinced us that I had already put in more time trying to get a copy of our registration than it would take for us to see what we would see. L

The good news is, we were forced to look around to find something fun to do to take our minds off the disappointment. Earlier in the week from what we saw, it appeared that a lot of boat tours and things like that didn’t start up for another week or two. Praise God for Google, as I found one called Eco-Tours (I know some of my eco-friends are going to be so happy for us) that had a two hour trip up the Pascagoula River. We had just enough time to make a quick sandwich, hop in the car, and head about 30 miles east to Gautier MS. It was absolutely wonderful. (I got pictures, but if you’ve read any of my other blogs, I still don’t know how to get pictures on the blog. I just don’t have the time to figure it out.) We saw two bald eagles, lots of osprey, an owl that took over an osprey nest, cranes, herons, egrets, a wild pig, and a type of damaging muskrat (starts with an “n” but neither Bill or I can remember what it was called). We went through many bayous, marshes, and swamps. It was interesting to hear the differences and watch the waterscape change as we moved from one to another. The swamps we went through weren’t as I expected…all thick and heavy and yucky (I’m running out of the right descriptive words). They actually were quite pleasant. We were told that’s because of the volume of water that flows through on a regular basis keeps it “cleaner” than what I normally would think.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and had good stories to tell; some believable, some not-so-much. We thoroughly enjoyed him as well as the mother and daughter who were also on the tour. Did I say the tour started at 3 p.m.? And it was a two hour trip? We got back to shore around 5:45. He said he’s never done a two hour tour in two hours but refuses to change it to a three hour tour because we all know what happens on those three hour tours. Right?

Thursday (3/17) was our day to stay “home” and get some things done, like laundry. This was a fun thing to do. First time doing laundry at a campgrounds. First time Bill and I did laundry together. Doesn’t sound all that exciting but doing things for the first time in this season of our life, is just plain fun no matter what it is. I also had some bookkeeping work (business and personal) to get done so I sent Bill off to pick up some groceries and things. We don’t buy a lot at one time as we don’t plan to far in advance (so strange).  We also spent a fair bit of time planning for our trip to Florida and our time in Florida. We’ve made our weeks reservation at Wickham County Park in Melbourne, FL which is about a half hours drive from Matt, our son’s place. It has lots of fun things to do there which will be nice as we will have our darling granddaughter, Rhiannon, with us for much of the time. We also spent quite a bit of time prior to today looking in stores and on-line for a portable grill and chairs for Bill and I. Today we drove about ten miles to the nearest Target thinking they might have the grill we were looking for. Well, it wasn’t the exact one but it sure was close. After having the clerk tear the whole thing apart for Bill to be sure it met all his requirements, we said, “we’ll take it” and we did. But that is not the end of the story as there was a Dick’s Sporting Goods store right across the parking lot and we were still looking for the chairs (one with a footrest for Bill and a canopy for me).  Wouldn’t you know it, Dick’s had the grill we were looking for and it was less money. While I was inspecting a collapsible chair with a canopy, Bill went scouting around the store and found the grill. He also found a folding lounge chair that he preferred to the one we were originally looking for. So, back to Target we went, returned the grill; went back to Dick’s and bought that grill, some accessories (you have to have accessories, according to Bill) and the two chairs. We are set!!! I think our shopping is done. It better be. We still have a bunch of stuff back in Oshkosh to pack into this rig. All I can say, it was a good day, a really good day.

By the way, as I was writing this, a major storm moved through the area with some strong winds and rain and I had to quickly remember to “be not anxious” and although I had to remind myself of that several times and suppress the jitters that wanted to take over, I’m peaceful at the moment and pray I stay that way as I close my eyes for another good night.