Saturday morning I have found myself in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  It is about 8 AM and I am standing at the bank of this beautiful creek watching the snow fall.  For someone who does not witness a lot of snow, this was a great treat to stand here and watch the millions of one of a kind flakes slowly make their way into my world.  As I watch the snowflakes leisurely become earthbound they continue to share their splendor with me as they join forces and work in harmony to create a unity quilt for me to enjoy.

        I turn my attention to sounds of this majestic body of water that is flowing and showing its own brand of magnificent splendor a few feet below my snowy perch.  I hear the sounds of thousands of liquid drums tapping out the rhythm of a power that can not be contained as it flows ever onward toward its warm home.  I watch as the ice and snow collect and stick to everything that is not moving; I observe as it slowly expands and soon covers everything that is inanimate and unresponsive.

        Where the waters are moving the most there is no ice; but where large obstacles near the bank have created a place of smooth waters and gentle currents the water was frozen.  The place of ease and comfort has gradually become a prison as the conditions have slowly worsened.  Isn’t life like that too?  The moment we begin to coast and to go with the flow, we are either losing speed or going downhill.  When we stop exercising we become weaker; what we stop using we begin losing.  Easy street is usually a blind alley leading to a dead end.

        Why is it that we grumble and complain when we are met with an obstacle?  Why will we go to such great lengths to avoid the difficult?  Do we not realize what we call obstacles our Master calls opportunities?  It is when we choose to rise and meet the challenges that face us today and continue on in spite of difficulties that we become stronger, wiser and find our liberty.  We live in a cold world but growing cold is a choice.  Choose to keep on moving in the right direction; don’t allow anything or anyone to squeeze you and freeze you into its mold; do not be content to remain where you are in life and remember that the hardest thing to climb out of is a rut.

Something to think about:

• The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping-stone is what you make of it.

  Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so inaction saps the vigor of the mind.

• Some people think the opposite of love is hate, but it really is indifference.

• We speak of the average American but maybe what’s wrong with our nation is that we have too many who are average.

• There are hazards in anything one does, but there are greater hazards in doing nothing.

• Our nature lies in movement; absolute rest is death.

• I do not ask to walk smooth paths
• Nor bear an easy load,
  I pray for strength and fortitude
  To climb the rock-strewn road.
  Give me such courage I can scale
  The hardest peaks alone,
  And transform every stumbling block
  Into a stepping-stone.

• Activity is a blessing, laziness wears you out.

Trying to stay warm
Rickey Moore