God’s Good Grace and meeting Goals

First, I need to apologize for this post being late today. I’ve tried very hard to make a concerted effort to have my thoughts and ideas posted by 8:00 AM, Central Daylight Time, every Wednesday. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen today.

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This past weekend Tim and I had the opportunity to visit our Son and Daughter-in-law at their home in northwest Iowa. They live nearly a six hour car drive away from us, so we don’t get to see them as often as we would like.

Every time we visit, I’m always overwhelmed with pride at the life they’ve created for themselves way up in the “Arctic of Iowa.” (While it’s beautiful there in the summer, the winters are long and hard – much more so than our southeast Iowa location.)

They have a lovely home, furnished and decorated with things they’ve created themselves. Nate is a woodworker (remember, he made my office desk), and Kiley is the queen of creative home décor. She used to write for a magazine and actually published articles about some of their frugal, yet creative projects. I think she could have a whole blog on just that topic - creative, frugal living.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to a pet shop in the Des Moines area. (We were all in the area for a wedding on Saturday.) Kiley was in need of a rat. Yep. A rat. She works at a nature center and one of the pet rats died and since she was in a city that actually had pet stores, she bought one for work. She buys rats as part of her job responsibilities…

 Any who, she got the wrong color of rat- it needed to match the picture by the cage at the nature center- because she said she had to rescue it from the pet store. The little rat actually hid in her purse while she paid for it. The pet store man asked if they needed a box for the rat, Kiley said no, that she had a cage ready, and put the rat on her shoulder as we walked out of the store. The rat happily slid into its pretty little pink and purple jungle gym type cage for the two hour ride home.

We went to Nate’s church on Monday morning because he had some obligations to take care of. He and Kiley are both active in their church. As a Mom, I can’t be more thankful that my children and their families trust in God to guide their lives. I’ve seen good people lead their lives in an apathetic way, and it’s just not. Not bright. Not beautiful. Not appreciative. Not thankful.

I learned that my son, Nate, is an excellent instructor. He has exceptional skills – due to massive training and a gift from God- in his profession. He shared his knowledge with me and Tim. We were impressed by his abilities. As a teacher myself, I was impressed with his ability to teach. Many people have great skills in life, but not just anyone can teach what they know.

I loved this past weekend. Nate and Kiley have reached some of their goals, but they are nowhere near finished.  Hard work and trusting in God’s grace have lead them this far. It’s going to be exciting to see what He brings to them next.


Until next time,
Be Good to Yourself,
~Nadine