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This has been a long and hard winter. The other day I trudged out to the barn to take care of the daily chores. I noticed that the goats were low on water, so I pulled on the pump handle to fill their bucket. Immediately I realized that the pump was frozen again. I sighed in frustration, grabbed a bucket and headed back to the house. I positioned the 5-gallon bucket under the bathtub spicket, waited for it to fill, and lugged it back out to the barn. As I have done many times this winter, I dreamed about the warm sun coming out and thawing the ground, the pipes, and my frozen feet.

I love living in an old farmhouse. The house was built in the mid 1800's and holds many quaint nuances. When in a pensive mood I imagine who may have lived here before me and wonder what kind of life they lived. I delight in the decorative oak staircase in the front hall and the uniqueness of the original fireplaces. There are other things about living in an old house that are not so great. Many times I have wanted to pull out my hair when dealing with lack of closet space, freezing pipes caused by insufficient insulation, and unsatisfactory heat in the upstairs bedrooms. The difficulties of living in this old house have taxed my perfectionist personality.

Have you ever experienced a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach after doing something wrong? The oppressive burden is sometimes so strong that it has physical repercussions. Like a weighty ball and chain shackled to your ankle, it chafes and makes it difficult to move forward in life. No one felt this feeling more strongly than King David.

I watched in awe as she spun around and around, her skirt flaring out over the ice. The Olympic ice skater had perfected a skillful twirl.  As she landed on the ice and continued her routine, I wondered how she could keep from becoming disoriented from her spin.  After asking the question of a former ice skater, I was told the answer. Skaters are taught to focus their eyes on a specific spot. As they rotate round and round they continually move their head to keep their eyes on that unmoving point.  In this way they can keep from becoming dizzy and maintain their balance.

Our minds are a battlefield. Our enemy, Satan, the Father of Lies,  desires to confuse our thoughts and    lead us from the truth. He uses many tactics to entrap us with wrong thinking. The only way to combat this is to know the truth and to know it well.

I have always been intrigued by this verse.  It is in the middle of the faith chapter in Hebrews. Jacob, one of the twin boys of Isaac, was on his death bed and, after blessing each of the sons of Joseph, he worshiped while leaning on his staff.