It is funny to me when God puts random things together in my mind to make connections.  Vannah wanted us to play this card game with her over the weekend...the catch was, she would not tell us the rules of the game except that the winner was the person who could get rid of all their cards.  She was the only one who could actually know the rules of the game and we could only learn it as we played and any time we did something wrong, she would give us another card and say "Failure to blah blah blah"  we were supposed to learn from that failure what we should have done when we played the card we tried to play.  I remember the angry feeling I had because she had said we are to keep quiet when we play, so I played a card in silence and she gave me a card and said, "failure to say "HAVE A NICE DAY""....well, at that point I didn't really want her to have a nice day :P  It feels like....that's not fair....you keep changing the rules....I want to quit this dumb game that I can't possibly win because I don't understand it....haha! I stayed in it and learned some of the rules when I and others messed up and I actually got to make up the next silly rule....the "sing happy birthday to me when you discard any 2"....but that is a secret until someone messes up....shhhh!

Crazy game, right!  Then, yesterday I was on the way home and saw that some neighbors down the street had installed an invisible dog fence.  Thoughts of that are always humorous in my mind....thoughts of dogs getting shocked or of videos of people trying on the collars and getting the shock....I don't know....my brain wanders :)  Anyway, I started thinking about those poor dogs and how now they have a new rule in their life that they will not understand it until they experience a negative outcome from failing to stay within the boundaries....it's kind-of like that game Vannah played with us.

I had life, rules, and boundaries on my mind and was just thinking how blessed we are that GOD has given us His WORD....yes, it has rules and boundaries spelled out and stories of people who went astray and others who found grace and mercy when they returned to the path.....some people resent God's Word for the rules and boundaries, but it shows us the way through....the way to win.....the way to live.  I appreciate it more and more as I experience struggles in life and I start to see past the stories or history to more application to what is happening right now and I have found that nothing gives me the answers or the peace I need or the understanding for what to do next or how to perceive/respond to my circumstances like it does.

God thinks of everything, doesn't He?!!!!!  :)