AHHH Skunk!!

So the shepherd and I went for a walk tonight...almost dark actually but wanted to get it in (thanks Shonda for the encouragement!)  But decided to head down the field road...I can tell the shepherd is much better because he is back to "walking" which is almost a run for some!    It was still a little warm but we made the trek after supper.   As we were heading up the road, Bo went on point and then tore off running for the feed...to which a deer came bounding up and tore off running.   As we kept walking, across our path was a couple deer and then the one that had just popped up.   We kept walking just to the end of the road...when coming back to some feed were three more deer...these had some antlers...pretty big ones...they must be eating well off of Dick's feed!    I was thinking how cool to have such a view on our walk.   As the shepherd and I are laughing when he says we will have to tell Izzy..."Ahma got run over by a reindeer"...I am trying to think of the story to tell her because it is one she will like for sure!!

For those unfamiliar with the road...it lines up by some old cottonwoods with fields on both sides...it is just that a field road and sometimes one gets distracted by the trees and gets caught up in it all and not paying attention to what is around them...okay the one would be me as all of a sudden Bo is over off the road and Tim says Bo and tells me skunk...Well my instinct is SKUNK!   Let's get the heck out of here and start to run and tell Tim come on...as I am having visions of Bo, Tim, and I all getting sprayed!   But Tim says you are not supposed to run and it hits me that he probably couldn't run yet anyway...What a chicken I am!!  

However, this skunk theme keeps coming back...as a week or so ago Tim and I had been on a walk and I wrote in my journal:

"I think of Tim and I's walk enjoying the freshness of the morning.  Soaking up the coolness perhaps the only coolness we might see and as we are walking along talking Tim says, "Do you see that skunk?"  To which I am almost startled and say where...we stop and his eyes which are much better than mine even when both of us have on glasses--shows me the skunk.  Something I had been oblivious to before but now the head of fear has raised up and says what if he comes this way?  I just had a dream of a skunk...one that onsets fear.  I have seen the guy I work with who had to deal with a skunk...one with rabies...he had to have shots...quarantine his dogs...(a very costly and painful experience for sure.) 

So I know it is just a skunk!  But then I look back and I hear Tim say it's not even coming this way...and he with me I feel like its okay because probably by myself I would have taken up running!

But as I see this picture and thinking on it now that skunk was such a minute thing in the distance that wasn't even in my path.  Yet...he put fear in me.  That is what I sometimes think that evil does...places fear in us for something that is not even in our path...Hardly even in our view...But like the shepherd walking with me, the Lord says don't worry about it--it's not even coming this way."

Sometimes though the skunk can be disguised...last weekend Izzy and I watched Bambi...I'm not sure if she had seen it but as with me...we both liked the skunk...or should I say as I listen to Izzy repeat it, "You can call me flower if you want to."   She takes on such a sweet voice copying those as she does repeating after Thumper..."If you can't say nothing nice...don't say nothing at all."  Perhaps my favorite parts of Bambi...was kind of "funny" as the part of Bambi looking for his mom, Izzy said where is his mom and at that very moment, I get a text from Izzy's mama saying, "Izzy it's mama I love you!"   I think back on my disguise theory...how something that is something we should stay away from that the stench lingers long...is something we should stay away from yet sometimes we cannot help ourselves.....because either we are not paying attention OR do not recognize what it is and think it is something harmless.

I wondered the other day...is there a certain kinds of animals that I wonder did God really make those?   Did the devil get certain ones...because I am not sure what there purpose is other than to make us uncomfortable!   Why do we have flies, mosquito's, snakes?  And yes SKUNKS!!  Maybe they have some sort of purpose...I am not certain what...but maybe...if I were an animal what would I be?   Would I be one that really has no purpose...just here to make others lives miserable?   I did see many of them in the road...no competition for a vehicle...but they do tend to get back at others long after they are gone...I choose to not be a skunk!   What would I be...would I sacrifice to be one such as a cow that my main purpose is to "feed" others...I do not think I am the deer...just something to look at...(I guess it is eaten as well)   So many animals could have traits compared to that of us humans!  Would they be good ones?

I start to almost doze off as I write...it might be time for bed.   So I say watch out for skunks...they really aren't flowers...also a warning to make sure your dog has rabie shots...So many things one can get from a walk...on the day that I had seen the skunk...but the day before this and then I had read again in Jesus Calling at this time...

"As you LISTEN to birds calling to one another, hear also My Love call to you.  I speak to you continually: through sights, sounds, thoughts, impressions, scriptures.  There is no limit to the variety of ways I can communicate with you.  Your part is to be attentive to my messages, in whatever form they come.  When you set out to find Me in a day, you discover that the world is vibrantly alive with My Presence.  You can find Me not only in beauty and bird calls, but also in tragedy and faces filled with grief.  I can take the deepest sorrow and weave it into a pattern for good.

Search for Me and My messages, as you go through this day.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with your whole being."

And yes one of the scriptures is Jeremiah 29:13 "You will see Me and find Me when you seek Me with all of your heart."   This is my moon verse...I think of this one whenever I see the moon as actually the moon tends to hide from us in the day...in the night...We are to have a blue moon this month (that is two full moon's in one month).    The shepherd caught a picture of the first one the other night for me...

 And so I think of all that is around me...and the lessons that the good Lord is teaching me if I choose to not be a "stinker" about it...sweet dreams!

lyp