{"id":7660,"date":"2018-01-17T17:08:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T22:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=7660"},"modified":"2018-01-17T17:08:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T22:08:26","slug":"snowy-day-musings-those-ungrateful-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2018\/01\/17\/snowy-day-musings-those-ungrateful-ducks\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowy Day Musings – Those Ungrateful Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am enjoying our NC snow today\u2026from my window. \ud83d\ude09 Although I don\u2019t get out and \u201cplay\u201d in it, I really love watching it fall. I love seeing it begin to cover the ground and all its dead grass, the trees and all their leafless branches \u2013 as the snow continued today, all the winter signs of death turned into a beautiful winter-wonderland. I\u00a0LOVE that!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not long after the snow began to fall this morning, Anna and I went outside to rig up a makeshift shelter for the ducks. Their little house had been sufficient up until now but I felt they would need a bigger \u201csnow-free\u201d area. Now, you would think Rascal, Ruffles, Dixie and Daisy would show their appreciation for all the effort we put into carrying that big ol\u2019 piece of plywood from the barn into their coop. Right? On the contrary, our little feathered friends\u2019 reaction was one of ruffled feathers and loud quacking followed by an attempted escape! How could they be so unthankful?! <\/span><\/strong>After getting the shelter set up, we stood back and watched them waddle around and around and around\u2026in every direction but their new addition. Humph \u2013 some gratitude!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m being facetious concerning our ducks, but here\u2019s a little snowy day musing \u2013 how often do we, as Christians, show our ingratitude to God for the shelter He provides for us? How often, when faced with a \u201cwinter storm\u201d, do we let our \u201cfeathers\u201d get all ruffled while we run around complaining? How often do we try to escape the trial He has allowed in our lives? How often do we wander around and around and around \u2013 to the phone, social media, various addictions, etc. and all the while, the Lord desires for us to run to the shelter He has provided. I\u2019m afraid, if we were honest, we\u2019d all have to admit being guilty from time-to-time\u00a0of acting just like those ungrateful ducks.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord\u2019s our Rock, in Him we hide,
\nA Shelter in the time of storm;
\nSecure whatever ill betide,
\nA Shelter in the time of storm.<\/p>\n

Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
\nA weary land, a weary land;
\nOh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
\nA Shelter in the time of storm.<\/p>\n

(Vernon J. Charlesworth; Ira D. Sankey)<\/p>\n

“For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” Psalm 61:3\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am enjoying our NC snow today\u2026from my window. \ud83d\ude09 Although I don\u2019t get out and \u201cplay\u201d in it, I really love watching it fall. I love seeing it begin to cover the ground and all its dead grass, the trees and all their leafless branches \u2013 as the snow continued today, all the winter signs of death turned into a beautiful winter-wonderland. I\u00a0LOVE that! Not long after the snow began to fall this morning, Anna and I went outside to rig up a makeshift shelter for the ducks. Their little house had been sufficient up until now but I felt they would need a bigger \u201csnow-free\u201d area. Now, you would think Rascal, Ruffles, Dixie and Daisy would show their appreciation for all the effort we put into carrying that big ol\u2019 piece of plywood from the barn into their coop. Right? On the contrary, our little feathered friends\u2019 reaction was one of ruffled feathers and loud quacking followed by an attempted escape! How could they be so unthankful?! After getting the shelter set up, we stood back and watched them waddle around and around and around\u2026in every direction but their new addition. Humph \u2013 some gratitude! Of course, I\u2019m being facetious concerning our ducks, but here\u2019s a little snowy day musing \u2013 how often do we, as Christians, show our ingratitude to God for the shelter He provides for us? How often, when faced with a \u201cwinter storm\u201d, do we let our \u201cfeathers\u201d get all ruffled while we run around complaining? How often do we try to escape the trial He has allowed in our lives? How often do we wander around and around and around \u2013 to the phone, social media, various addictions, etc. and all the while, the Lord desires for us to run to the shelter He has provided. I\u2019m afraid, if we were honest, we\u2019d all have to admit being guilty from time-to-time\u00a0of acting just like those ungrateful ducks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Lord\u2019s our Rock, in Him we hide, A Shelter in the time of storm; Secure whatever ill betide, A Shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land; Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, A Shelter in the time of storm. (Vernon J. Charlesworth; Ira D. Sankey) “For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” Psalm 61:3\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47,53,59,4,49,42,58,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comfort","category-fear","category-gods-love","category-gods-promises","category-gratitude","category-hope","category-protection","category-song"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-1Zy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7661,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7660\/revisions\/7661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}