She's a Shepherd!

She won!!! She won!!! My sister won her own flock!!! Don't know many other details yet, but I now have a new label option for my posts! So look for more sheepstuff to come!

I think it is interesting how a few choices that a person makes can dramatically change their life, lifestyle and the lives of others around them. I usually think of this from the negative perspective. When people make bad choices, there can be a pretty severe domino effect from their behavior that can reach farther than they will ever even know about. Our sin does that. It multiplies with very little effort.

But our good choices can have a similar domino effect. For instance, a few months ago Leah was just being raised in a loving family with a doting (and slightly eccentric) aunt who cares for her very much, and now she has an aunt that is a shepherd to a small flock of fiber animals! Weird! Leah will no doubt learn all that my sister is about to embark on right along side her. And who knows how this will effect our family, Leslie's friends and her whole community? It is fun to think about the possibilities.

So we know there are good and bad choices. But then there is a special designation for some good choices that can be called.... well... perfect. And these are the choices we are guided to make by the hand of our loving Father when we are listening to His voice and abiding in His great love and perfect purpose for our lives. They may not look perfect to the world... but thank goodness for that! What looks perfect to the world will age, and shrivel and fail and can be burned up in an instant or less. His love will never end. And He has never failed, not once.

That is what makes this contest and prize so special. My sister loves the Lord. And she is looking for His purpose for her life. She is not perfect and has made her share of bad choices just like every one of us. But she has been learning to set aside her own will --what she thought was best for her life...what she thought it should look like-- and see what her Maker had in store for her from the very beginning. And the abundance of blessings He has poured out and is pouring out and will continue to pour out on her is so much more than she could have even thought to ask for. A dear friend just said to me "Maybe I would know my Shepherd a little better if I had raised some sheep myself." And I wonder if that is not exactly what the Lord has in mind for my precious sister!

The one true God doesn't just do that for Leslie or me or my family, but he does it for ALL of His children. Any person in the world who searches for Him with their whole heart WILL find him. And what you thought was ok... or even good... will be drenched and drowned in the most unconditional love and hilariously, matchless joy. You will find perfect peace and be overwhelmed with the most relentless mercy and kindness you can imagine. You will have an abundance of things you would not dare to dream of!

Perfect. That is what He is. That is what He does. His love will never end.

The Lord is my shepherd. I have EVERYTHING I need. Psalm 23:1

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