Wild Moose Chase

You read that correctly. This post is not about a wild goose chase but a wild moose chase. My husband and I traveled to Maine to find a moose. We found geese but no meese! (LOL!)

My two most recent blog posts have dealt with unmet expectations and disappointments. Forget that. Today, I want to share God’s blessings. The Lord rewarded us with many wins before and after we looked for moose.

We spent a few days in Greenville and Moosehead Lake. Although we took a moose safari with no moose sightings, we visited a state park and ventured out into swamp areas. There we saw colorful mushrooms, pileated woodpeckers, red squirrels (they were too fast for a photo shoot), chipmunks, and what may have been a snowshoe hare. One morning we watched three otters play in a pond where we stopped to look for moose.

We stayed at an Airbnb with an amazing view a short distance from town. The maple trees were just beginning their vibrant change. After three nights in Greenville, we traveled east to Acadia National Park.

A lovely bed-and-breakfast near Lamoine Beach became our home base for three nights. We visited Bar Harbor and photographed the town from the top of Cadillac Mountain. We hiked a few trails and found a delightful spot where Monarch butterflies frolicked overhead. There had to be twenty or more! How can an insect bring me pleasure?

The Lord blessed us with breathtaking views of the surrounding bays, warm-hearted people, wonderful breakfasts at the bed-and-breakfast, and time to enjoy the great outdoors with my sweetheart.

We returned home late Saturday night and attended church the following morning. Our church presents a special three-part series once a year. This was week two of At the Movies. The featured movie was Remember the Titans. At the end of the service, they asked us to check the number on the tickets left on our chairs. The winner received two tickets to a Tennessee Titans football game. I held the winning ticket!

I’ve heard God has a sense of humor. If I do research on the Titans’ team, will I find a player with the nickname Moose? Funny? Not funny!

I hope you enjoy the pictures from our wild moose chase, even though there were no moose to photograph. Maine is the second largest state in the United States for moose population. The top state is Alaska. If you’ve seen a moose in the wild, please let me know where. We may add Alaska and your location to our bucket list. If I don’t find a moose here in the USA, do you think they’ll be in heaven? I really hope to see one.

Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;
sing, all you who are upright in heart!
Psalm 32:11, NIV

Banner Photo by Lesly Derksen - Unsplash

He's Holding on To You

My husband and I like to hike. We spend time in God’s creation to appreciate His beauty, get needed exercise, and to be together as a couple. On an outing last week, we traveled over sixty miles to visit South Cumberland State Park here in Tennessee. We have hikes much closer to home, but we drove to a park near the setting of my fictional series, Love in Pleasant Springs. Though we didn’t see what we’d hoped to find.

We visited Foster Falls, where Luke, the hero in Book Two, plans to propose to Lanie, the heroine. But his plan falls through because of an interruption. Don’t worry! It’s a romance! He’ll get another chance.

Despite a glitch in his plans, they enjoy a lovely view of the waterfall, a picnic, and a kiss or two. They’re together and happy after several misunderstandings and disappointments in their stormy relationship.

Kenn and I endured a hiccup, too, on our hike. We made a steep, rocky climb down to the waterfall and crossed a suspension bridge near the base of the falls. But what we saw differed from my two characters. Only a trickle of water fell into the gorge below.

Were we disappointed after what some might consider a strenuous trail for two senior citizens? A little. But I got what I wanted—to see and sense the location for a scene in my story. What might the characters experience while there? Could they enjoy a picnic at the falls, or would they need to hike back to the trailhead to eat their dinner? Was the suspension bridge wobbly? How could that play into my story?

Kenn and I shared special moments that day. We were alone to appreciate God’s goodness and peace. After several minutes and many photos, we made the trek back to our car. The upward climb out of the gorge was steep, but worth it. We even found another trail to hike. We weren’t ready to quit.

Life is like that, isn’t it? Our plans don’t always turn out as we envisioned. Disappointments come, and we may want to give up. But God gives us strength to keep going.

I love the Bible’s stories of faith and trust. Stories of people with problems and triumphs we can learn from. God hasn’t changed. His Word applies to us today. We find hope and determination to persevere. God walks alongside us through our disappointments and struggles. Hang onto Him and don’t let go! He’s holding on to you!

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isaiah 40:28-29, ESV

Seek the Third Solution

Please welcome guest author, Sherri Stewart, to my blog today as she shares about seeking the third solution and her new release, Deer Eyes!

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5, NIV 

Being a believer of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean life will be smooth and easy. Sometimes we face huge dilemmas at work and at home where there doesn’t seem to be a good solution. As an immigration attorney, I dealt with cases like the one with the twenty-four-year-old widow who was being deported to the Philippines because her American husband had died in a car accident while her application for a green card was being processed. But God often gives His children a third option, as He gave me with regard to my widowed client. God brought a happy ending to this case that seemed unsolvable. Often the characters in my books face practical problems with no apparent solution, but they pray and usually find their third option in the Bible.

Ask high school principal, Judd Trudeau, who deals with people problems at work every single day. But what he also has learned is God often gives a third solution when there seems to be no answer. In Deer Eyes, Judd’s most immediate problem is more personal. Newcomer to Bar Harbor, Selah Brighton, is as skittish as a deer in the headlights when he encounters her in Acadia National Park. Once she learns to trust him, together they seek God’s third solution to thwart the plans of the enemy who’s followed her to town. https://amzn.to/3oGaI0s

Author Bio & Links

There’s a lot of me in the book, Deer Eyes. Authors are advised to write what they know, and that’s what I do in all my books. In Deer Eyes, Judd deals with the same conflicts at school as I did as a principal of a Christian school. Selah’s disclosure about her father came straight from my own life as a fourteen-year-old. I’ve written twenty historical fiction/romance and romantic suspense novels. My hobby is traveling to the settings of my books. Next month, I’ll visit Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you have any suggestions about what I should see, let me know.

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gZ-mv9

https://www.amazon.com/author/sherristewart/ 

https://twitter.com/machere

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/758893.Sherri_Stewart

www.stewartwriting.com

https://www.instagram.com/stewart_sherri/

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherri-stewart

www.hhhistory.com

Title photo by Nathan and Kiran Edwards

Unmet Expectations

Have you made a purchase that didn’t meet your expectations? This happened to me last week with makeup I ordered online. I wanted a product that would hide the sun freckles on my face. That’s what my dermatologist called them. I call them age spots. But even with my new makeup, the spots remained. What a disappointment. And that wasn’t the only time last week I encountered unmet expectations.

In my work in progress, my hero and heroine once shared a fondness for blue forget-me-nots, but at the time of my story, these same flowers represent brokenness. Because I mention forget-me-nots a few times in the book, I wanted to experience them too. I purchased and planted seeds, but I didn’t get what I expected. I wanted the flowers in the photograph above, but I got these instead:

Those tiny little flowers are lovely, but the blooms don’t have the white or yellow star in the center as I supposed. And I thought forget-me-not flowers were a little larger than the blossoms on my plant. Mine look like weeds with tiny 1/4-inch blooms.

My disappointment was due to my lack of knowledge before my purchase. Upon further research, I realized these weren’t the forget-me-nots I envisioned. The package stated Cynoglossum when I wanted Myosotis, which has the center stars I desired and blossoms of 3/8 inch. And 1/8 inch makes a vast difference with a tiny flower. This problem was easier to fix than my sun freckles: buy and plant the correct seeds!

These unmet expectations I experienced last week are small in comparison with situations we often deal with in life. Circumstances that cause heartache, such as a job that doesn’t go as well as we anticipated, a relationship that ends, a major diagnosis, or losing a loved one. But if we are a child of God, we can meet each situation with hope. Hope that God is with us and will carry us through whatever we face. In our trials, we grow in patience and courage. 

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because
God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through
the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5, NIV 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in him, so that you may overflow
with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13, NIV 

Trust the Lord with those unmet expectations and rely upon Him and His great love for you. Ask for His help when you face difficulties in life. His hope is yours.

Notice I didn’t use my face for picture examples! If you have a product to recommend that works for me, I’ll be happy to post before and after photos in my newsletter!

Banner photo by Claude Laprise - Unsplash

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