Dear woman friend reading this, Precious is still missing. The shepherd asked Arnold to go look for her. I hope that with his eagle eyes, he can find her quickly. If you are new here and don’t know, Arnold is an eagle. He assists the shepherd in caring for the flock, especially because he can fly and has those eagle eyes.

I need to go back out and help search but first, I need to ask you a question: do you remember what bookends are? In this day of e-readers, we don’t see bookends very often. They are a pair of identical objects placed one at each end of a row of books to keep the books from falling over. Libraries sometimes still use them.

Today’s post is a bookend of sorts. The last post provided a starting point for the next several posts. Today’s post gives an idea of where we will end this group of posts. Click on the link below and take a listen.

https://youtu.be/uCYF5jUs6aw

I need to go back and join the search for Precious…What was that scream?! ‘Bye, friend, I need to see what’s going on.

Dear woman friend reading this, I am not going to do a full post today. Precious, the rabbit, is missing. The shepherd is out searching for her now.

Meanwhile, I want to give you a sneak peek of upcoming posts, Lord willing.

Click on the link below for a hint.

I must go join the shepherd in searching.

‘Bye!

Hi, Little One. Come sit beside me. Hi, Precious. That’s right. Snuggle up and be comfy. We need to have a pasture pow-wow. Where’s Cassie? There she is. Cassie! C’mon over! We need a pasture pow-wow. I could call it a staff meeting but I think pasture pow-wow sounds better. Oh, Cassie, you have so much energy. I wish some of it would rub off on me.

What, what are you doing, Cassie? Oh, you’re rubbing your face against mine trying to rub some of your energy off on me. You’re so sweet!

Has anyone seen Arnold? Whooosh! There he is! Everyone is here now. Let’s begin.

First of all, how do you like the new pasture? What new pasture, you ask? You didn’t notice we’re in a new pasture? I think that’s a compliment to the platform. Migration of our blog went so smoothly. Thanks, WordPress!

Now I know we haven’t published a lot. But we have a new address to make it easier for our friends to find us and a new year, a fresh start.

Let’s dream a little. What adventures do you think your shepherd might have planned for this new year?

Yes, Cassie, bungee jumping off Arnold’s back while he’s flying would be an adventure but I don’t think that it’s a good idea.

Yes, Little One, your shepherd could be planning to take you white water rafting on the Colorado River. That would be an adventure. But I’m thinking of something different.

Maybe calling it an adventure is the wrong word. Anyway, let’s dream about the future. How do you think your shepherd might want us to help our friends this year? What do you think your shepherd might want to help our friends learn this year?

Whoops! Precious! What are you doing? Why are you trying to crawl down my neck? Let’s just sit here on my lap for a while, ok?

As I was saying, let’s dream about the future for a bit. What can we do to help our…Aaack! Precious! What is wrong, little bunny? Why do you keep trying to hide when I mention the future?

Ohhh. I get it. You’re trying to crawl down my neck because you’re afraid of what the future might hold, aren’t you?

Precious, our precious little bunny, you are precious to all of us and especially to your shepherd. He won’t do anything to harm you. You can trust him with the future.

Whooosh! Arnold! Where are you going? Ok, Cassie. You’re an energetic baby goat and just can’t sit still any longer. Little One! Come back!

Well, Precious, looks like it’s just you and me. Let’s enjoy this beautiful day and dream of how we can help our friends this year.

Dear woman friend reading this, I was scared of the future, too, when I moved this blog to a different host, sort of.

I had read and been advised that getting a blog with an easy-to-remember address was crucial to growing the number of visitors to the site.

But what about the cost? And the maintenance? I’m not tech savvy enough to reprogram the page if the code gets messed up.

When I moved the blog to a free WordPress account, I thought that it would be an easy migration in the future when I needed to move it to a paid account. I wanted to use WordPress because I am familiar with it and migrating from a free account to a paid account within the same company sounded like the easiest way to go.

Christmas gifts covered nearly all of the cost of the new blog, it was so easy I did it on my cellphone sitting in the car in a grocery store parking lot, and the whole thing took only about fifteen minutes.

I just wasn’t expecting the future to arrive as quickly as it did!

It’s always been hard to think of what to write. Some bloggers plan out their topics weeks in advance. I’ve tried and never succeeded.

I’ve had the idea that I had to feel a certain way before I started writing and as I began or I wasn’t writing what God wanted me to write.

I’m used to teaching kids. I don’t want to sound like I think you are seven years old. You’re a grown woman, not a child.

And I definitely don’t want to sound preachy!

So…I rarely put up posts.

So, dear woman friend, I can understand your fear as you face your future. Oh I know. Writer’s block on a blog doesn’t begin to compare to what you are facing.

But, as Corrie ten Boom said, we don’t have to be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

The big question is, do you know Him? Do you know God? I refer to Him as the Shepherd in this blog. Shepherd with a capital “s” as opposed to the lowercase “s” I use when referring to Little One’s shepherd.

When I say, “know God “, I’m not asking if you know about God. I’m asking if you know Him. As in having a relationship with Him.

It’s possible, you know. And God wants this relationship with you so much that He gave His Son to make it possible.

But a one-sided relationship doesn’t work too well. You have to want it, too.

How about it? Would you like to have this relationship?

Let’s hang out together here in the pasture and I’ll tell you more about this relationship.

See you next time!