Dear Lord; Good morning Father.<\/p>\n
Today Lord, I was having difficulty deciding how to \u201cframe\u201d<\/em> our conversation.\u00a0 This morning brought along with the dawn a seemingly continuous stream of headaches, problems and complications which made it very difficult for me to focus on Your Voice through the \u201cnoise\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 I started writing several times, but always ended up clearing it from my screen because it just felt wrong<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0 Instead of forcing the issue, I decided to leave myself open to You as best I could, and work through the day\u2019s labors until we could connect up properly.<\/p>\n Well Father\u2026 I\u2019m here now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s terribly disconcerting to me when I get to the point where I can\u2019t focus enough to have our morning discussion.\u00a0 I\u2019m dependent on You Lord, and when earthly influences overwhelm me to the point of not being able to concentrate on You, it\u2019s upsetting to say the least.\u00a0 I felt lost, and embattled.\u00a0 For my human frailties Lord, I apologize and thank You for being ever faithful to me during my moments of weakness.<\/p>\n \u201cSo do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.\u201d \u2013 Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n Thank You for Your Comfort and Strength Father, and Your Unwavering Dedication to Your Children.\u00a0 We are truly Blessed.<\/p>\n Now Lord, if I may, I\u2019d like to shift the subject.<\/p>\n As I mentioned yesterday, over the weekend I got a chance to head out with Jonathan and Aidan to Blackbird State Forest for a photowalk in the woods. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t overly cold per-se, but the wind was in upwards of 40mph, providing a stark reminder that while the temperature was up a bit we were still in the grips of winter.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t been there during this time of year before, and it was a truly different place with the foliage stripped from the trees and bushes.\u00a0 The veil of green we were accustomed to seeing was cast aside, and had been replaced by a vast sea of towering gray trunks reaching into the sky.<\/p>\n Life seemed to have packed up and left for warmer climates.<\/p>\n And yet, as we walked through the silent, barren trails we were greeted with some signs of rebirth.\u00a0 Through the carpet of fallen leaves and pine needles poked streaks of color; tufts of early grasses and fungi protected by and feeding on the remains of the previous year\u2019s abundance.\u00a0 Like our spirits journeying to Your Light Lord, the forest was quietly feeding and nourishing the life it held hidden beneath the surface.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:\u00a0 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.\u201d \u2013 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n Heavenly Father, that walk opened my heart to the transitions You\u2019re making in my life.\u00a0 I pray that You continue to feed my hunger for Your Presence, and nourish my imperfect and yearning spirit so that my human failings are no further impediment to Your Plan for me.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Lord; Good morning Father. Today Lord, I was having difficulty deciding how to \u201cframe\u201d our conversation.\u00a0 This morning brought along with the dawn a seemingly continuous stream of headaches, problems and complications which made it very difficult for me to focus on Your Voice through the \u201cnoise\u201d.\u00a0 I started writing several times, but always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,181,359,465,168,256,286,132,27,985,556,915,610,546,508,487,987,90,15,173,6,42,110,966,782,731,140,593,916,47,804,580,979,295,51,466,980,116,109,78,104,880,389,133,141,203,984,506,845,846,509,495,793,25,16,217,41,695,344,69,46,727,591,983,265,117,493,95,512,982,986,86,362,114,981,553,71,831,481,49,499,819,685],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-abundance","tag-aidan","tag-bible","tag-birth","tag-bless","tag-blessed","tag-child","tag-children","tag-comfort","tag-continuous-stream","tag-conversation","tag-dear-lord","tag-different","tag-difficult","tag-discussion","tag-earth","tag-ecclesiastes","tag-embrace","tag-faith","tag-father","tag-fear","tag-focus","tag-fun","tag-god","tag-grip","tag-head","tag-heart","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-heavens","tag-help","tag-hidden","tag-human-frailties","tag-imperfect","tag-influence","tag-isaiah","tag-isaiah-41","tag-jonathan","tag-journey","tag-life","tag-light","tag-long","tag-lost","tag-love","tag-mind","tag-moments","tag-moments-of-weakness","tag-morning","tag-need","tag-noise","tag-nourish","tag-open","tag-opened","tag-peace","tag-plan","tag-pray","tag-presence","tag-problem","tag-protect","tag-quiet","tag-rain","tag-rest","tag-righteous","tag-righteous-right-hand","tag-season","tag-son","tag-speak","tag-spirit","tag-spirits","tag-stark-reminder","tag-state-forest","tag-strength","tag-temper","tag-thank-you","tag-unwavering-dedication","tag-upwards","tag-voice","tag-weakness","tag-week","tag-weekend","tag-wind","tag-yearn","tag-yearning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-9Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}