​By Joyce Pelletier
Acts 2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.
            If we stop to consider all the pathways God has placed us in, we need not be overwhelmed. Think about one pathway that you were on and you gasped, “I can’t do this!” This picture depicts a path that is straight and somewhat narrow.
            We visited the Waterbury Dam last Fall. I’d never been there so when our son suggested we go, I was all for it. We packed up a lunch, my walker and whatever else we thought we’d need.
            When we arrived, we parked the truck and took out my walker, because I knew I would not get far with my cane. I stood at the beginning of the path and took a deep breath and started to walk. We didn’t measure this walkway, it looked short, but it was long. What kept me going was the beautiful colored leaves. We stopped once in a while to take it all in.  We walked slowly but it was such a gorgeous day we just weren’t in any hurry. I kept my focus on the white building at the end of the path. In my mind I could see God’s hand beckoning me on. Then I knew that I could do it.
            Now, you might wonder if I was being overly dramatic, but it turned out to be one of those lessons from God that always starts simplistically. I took one step at a time. I kept my focus on God, whose hand reached out to me. I took many stops and deep breaths along the way, then I realized that I was not alone. God was with me. I wasn’t going to fail, I kept on going because I wanted to know how this walk ends.
            Each new day is a new pathway. Sometimes it’s pretty much the same as the day before, but the challenges are different. When God gives me something new to follow, then that new journey starts. I may be on a new path, but I was not alone. This made it easier to just follow where He wanted to take me.
            I keep on learning that even in my old age, I’ve still lessons to learn. All I have to do is stay on the path that God has in mind. When I try to resist, the lessons come with some reluctant pain. At some points I wanted Joe to go get the truck, so I could have a ride. But,  Knew that I had to finish what I started. He would see me through. Where would we be if Jesus gave up on His journey? He knew He had to be nailed on that cross. He didn’t turn back. He kept His eyes on the Father. There was a mission to complete!  
            All my journeys had lessons preparing  me for what was to come next. With the many jobs I had in my lifetime, somehow the next step became a follow up to whatever was next  in my working phase of life.
After we came to Daybreak, I thought my working days were over. Then Brent approached me to consider a position to serve the church in the Administrative Assistant role. It was another role that God had prepared me for. It turned into 14 years that I will never regret. I learned so much. I knew it was where I belonged.  I got to know my Christian family. My parents and only sibling were gone. Now my original family was gone, but I had a new family that gave me courage, strength and love. There is nothing more important than to feel like you belong somewhere. I searched my whole life trying to find my ‘family.’ So, in all this, I offer my gratitude first to God for putting me on this path and secondly to all of you that I’ve had the privilege to know and be my family in Christ.
            There is something about pathways that piques my curiosity. You never know where these ordained paths will lead, but we can know that we never walk alone. Our God is always with us.  Along with God, I know my brothers and sisters will love me through anything He has planned for me. I look forward to the continuation of this journey with each of you.  Be reassured that God has our needs taken care of.  

by Rebecca Vickery
​“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”  Luke 6:46-48
In 1998, on March 13 in the middle of a small café, I heard about Jesus in a way that instantly connected and resonated with me.  He was not a far-off Savior unfamiliar with my suffering, but a man/God who loved me enough to live a life devoid of privilege, facing temptation and suffering, and to die that I might have a relationship with him.  My response was a radical shift from an earlier me who had laughed in the face of someone who shared a gospel tract with me.  Instead, I knew that I could have no response but to follow him forever.  I was 16 years old.  After this time, I would devour the Bible as if I truly required it for living.  Because I did.
I have a treasure trove of His word in my heart from my earliest days of following Jesus.  Even now, when I am spending less time in His physical Word than I should, I still have this treasure trove to return to.  I can reflect upon it, and it comes to mind readily when I am spending time in prayer or faced with stressors in this world. 
God’s Word lays a foundation in our hearts that cannot be broken when battered upon by fierce winds or rising flood waters.  I reflect upon this even as our state capitol is under water and being threatened by an overtaxed dam.  Our physical world around us can literally be washed away, and if we have a foundation that is built upon the Rock that is Jesus, then even if we are crushed, even if we are outwardly wasting away, even if we are swept away in the floods, we will stand firm. 
My health has been so strange and frustrating for me in the last few years.  I have faced relationship challenges that have left me bewildered.  I have faced health issues with my children that have kept me up nights researching. I could lament and cry at God, and ask Him why my life can’t be as perfect as everyone else’s looks on facebook.  But instead, I cry with God and thank Him that He’s there with me when I do.  And I rest upon my foundation.  The rock on which I stand. 
Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble, but that He would give us peace.  Peace that passes understanding.  Recently my good friend spent a sabbatical at our home after the recent passing of his mother.  At the end of his time with us, he thanked us for a peaceful sabatical.  Even amidst the chaos and overpopulation of my tiny home, he had a place for refuge.  Peace that passes(d) understanding.
A prayer:
Lord God, we know that you control the winds and the waves.  We know that you can bring restoration and destruction.  Lord we need your mercy in our state.  Please help the people in Montpelier and other areas affected by the flood waters.  Preserve life and preserve properties.   Preserve our infrastructure and restore roadways that have been damaged and communities that have been cut off.  Lord I also pray for those experiencing a metaphorical deluge of flood waters.  Be our firm foundation.  Help our hearts not to be troubled.  Help us not to be afraid.   Remind us of your promises and your mercy that is new every morning.  Help us to be rooted and established in your love AND in your word.  We know that you are the one who keeps us from falling.  Help us come to you even when we can just communicate to you with our groanings.  Thank you, Holy Spirit, for interceding as we need it.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen

​By Mary Spence
Our daily bread… not weekly or monthly or yearly but daily.
 
He is asking us to trust him with our daily needs,
To rely upon him and not ourselves,
To trust him and know that he will provide for us.
Each and Every day.
To bring our needs to him and to trust that he will provide.
Matthew 6:26-27
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
I used to struggle terribly with anxiety. Through my faith and growing relationship with God I began to exercise my faith muscle and trust in him for all my needs. I began to see over and over how he was providing:
In the people he brought alongside me at just the right time,
In how He provided opportunities and blessings beyond my greatest expectations.
In unexpected provision when there seemed to be no way out.
 
As I learned to keep my eyes focused on Him, I began to see that none of the many things I was trying to control was actually under my control. Slowly my anxiety became less as my faith became deeper and stronger.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and he will make your paths straight – Proverbs 3:5-6
In all your ways. Even those sinful secret ones. As if we can keep our humanness a secret from the one who created us. He knows our every thought; our every move before we even make it. And He still loves… just like we are. Even in our sin.
Father
As we come to you for daily bread help us to remember that your ways are not our ways, and our plans are not your plans. Help us to submit to your will; to hear when you speak, to answer when you call. Let us trust in you with all our heart. To lean on your understanding, not our own. Please make our paths straight and keep our focus on you, especially when we are being blown back and forth like a tumbling tumbleweed by the trials of this world.
We thank you, that you declare, “No! They are mine!” That you are a firm foundation we can stand upon. That we can see your light in the darkness and find our way out of the confusion and discontent and disorientation. That you pluck us from the muck and mire and place our feet on the rock, on your firm foundation. AMEN!