Following a GPS

I can't stay silent forever. I know it has been since April 7th for a new post. But here I am.

My daughter Jennifer has been wanting a GPS for a while. She has really thought it would be good since she has moved to California and getting around in areas new to her. I had heard stories of people having one having it lead them out into the desert someplace or things like that. I thought it would be good to try one out since she thought they were so helpful. So I bought one and decided to try it out going to a ladies retreat about 4 hours from home. I've been at this retreat often but take different ways to get there and was not sure what way was best. I often picked up Heather and took her along so I needed to go through Lafayette, but this time she wasn't going, thanks to Randy deciding he needed to have a birthday that day. So I was not sure what way I wanted to go to get there. We had tried the GPS out just going to and from church one night and it took us a different way coming home then going. It also had us go past the highway that comes into our town to a county road a quarter mile farther out of the way. So when I was going to leave for the retreat I decided I'm going to do what the GPS told me no matter how much I disagreed with it. I am a rebel down deep and this can be hard.

To start with I had to pick up a prescription on the way in Warsaw, so I waited until I was leaving the drug store to set it. I put the address in for the hotel I was staying at. First thing off it wanted me to make a left turn out of the drug store and it was over the noon hour on a Friday and there is no way you are going to make a left turn out of there at that time of the day, so right off I'm going against what it is telling me to do. I went to the next corner and turned left again to go around the block. It says it is recalibrating so I thought we'll do what it says. It took me a block farther then needed and then had me come back again. So I was already wondering how many times it was going to take me out of the way that I did not know about. But I was now on my way. It took me south down SR 15, not what I expected but, ok. As I was driving and obeying this little box on my windshield, I thought I am really putting a lot of confidence in this thing to get me where I needed to go. I didn't know how it was going to get me there. I only knew how many miles I was supposed to drive before I made another turn. It told me what way I was going to need to turn and gave me the name of the road. But after that I didn't know how it was going to lead me. Then it didn't always use the name you would think it should use. It had me turn onto SR115 but it said to turn on CR 400. But when I got to 400, it was the county road that went east at the corner that 115 went SW. It gave street names instead of the HWY numbers through cities. It took me through Lafayette even though I didn't need to stop there this time. It didn't take the way through that Heather and Randy who live there would have said was best to go, but it got me through. There was a detour on 25 that once I turned off of how it wanted me to go it recalculated and took me down some little narrow county roads but then back on the highway again. Silly thing!

I was thinking along the way that following this GPS was sort of like following where God leads us. Only God doesn't make mistakes and I think this GPS does. But I had to be willing to give up what I thought was best and do what the GPS told me to do. Through life when we give up what we want and go where God leads us we will make it to the goal. Just like with the GPS we don't always know how God will lead us. It is not how we always think. Unlike the GPS though God knows where the detours will be. With the GPS it recalculated when I went off of the route it chose for me. God already knows when I'm going to do that and has a plan for that. He doesn't need to recalculate. It grieves him when I go off of his route for me. The GPS can get pretty demanding and I feel that I am being nagged at.

I'm not sure if I am a GPS kind of person. I like to have my route all planned ahead of time when I have somewhere I need to be in a certain amount of time. It takes some faith to trust that this little box is going to get me there. I don't think it will work well on little trips where we are being more spontaneous either. I enjoyed a trip that Jenn and I made this summer when she was home for a month. We went to the Creation Museum and on the way home we took a side trip to Metamora and then she took over the map and found there was another Milford. Maybe a GPS would have helped us find it as it wasn't on any highways. And getting back to the highway would have been less of a challenge, but I enjoyed the adventure. She was worried I think. She thought we needed the GPS then.

It was interesting as I had been writing this and had to leave it part way done to go have lunch with a dear friend that I went past a church with a message board out front that said:

GPS, stands for Gods Plan of Salvation. The best route. What timing.

The good, bad and the ugly

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged. A lot has gone on since Jan. We went on a cruise in Jan and I learned more yet about how much I just need to live on a cruise ship. I am so relaxed that I actually lose weight, my blood sugars are real good and I eat all I want to eat. Even with a waiter that brings us extra food because we do not order what he suggests. He brings us what we order plus what he wants us to try. And I still come home with a 5 lb loss. It just goes to show what stress does to me. Or I guess what the lack of would do for me. But I guess I can't stay on a ship. Maybe I could get insurance to pay for it as it is benifitial to my health. Wouldn't that be fantastic. I guess I am only dreaming though. Ok that is the good.

For the bad, my mom had a heart attack over the weekend and ended up staying in the hospital until Monday and they did a cathertization with the idea that if they could open up the blockages when they were in there they would. Well they couldn't so she had by-pass surgery today. They did 3 by-passes. She is doing very well but is very uncomfortable. I hate seeing my mom like this. Plus some where in all of this I am feeling sort of responsible for some strange reason, like I should have seen if there was another treatment for this. I know there wasn't, but I feel like I was taking my small child in for some kind of painful medical procedure. I don't know where these feelings are coming from. I know they are a sort of off the wall. But it is tough to see this precious almost 80 year old lady that is so strong and spunky down like this. I know she will get better and be back to her old self soon, I just am very impatient. She has so many people praying for her and that helps so much. She is doing so well for all that she has been through, they couldn't hope for her to do any better. God is so good. We know that he makes no mistakes and that he uses all things together for good. Mom has a tough time ahead of her in the coming days, but God is with her and will give her strength.

So for the ugly, I guess there really isn't any. God is so good.

Brrrrrr!!!!!! It's cold

It was -20 at 9am this morning. I don't know if that was the low or if it was even colder. But I think that is cold enough. That was even before you considered any windchill. At 3 pm it is still -3. The only hope is that they say it should be up in the teens tomorrow. Even with a well insulated house I still feel the cold coming off of the walls. I would hate to think what it would be like in here if we had never insulated and put in new windows and furnace and stuff over the years. I sit around with my long underwear on and covered up in a nice heavy blanket, feeling pretty good and then I have a hot flash. Throw off the blanket take off my husbands heavy socks that I have been wearing around the house this winter, then when it passes I'm cold again. I usually only wear a sweatshirt when I go out and carry a heavy coat in my trunk for just in case I get stuck out somewhere. For the last 3 days I have been using the heavy coat. Hopefully tomorrow or probably more like the next day I can go back to my sweatshirt. So much for Global warming. I have always thought that was a bunch of bull anyway. Even if someone got an award for his efforts to stop it.