FReeper Canteen ~ Sunday Chapel ~ WHY DO WE STILL HAVE SCARS? ~ 09 July 2023

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

 

 

 

WHY DO WE STILL HAVE SCARS?

One of the greatest truths we can know in life is that God is always able and willing to forgive us for our shortcomings. All we have to do is ask for His forgiveness. And if God is willing, then we too, should forgive ourselves. Yet one of the greatest ironies concerning forgiveness is that the painful memories, the scars of our past, remain with us. We may wonder, "What's the sense in receiving forgiveness if the scars from the painful memory remain?" Maybe the question should be, "What goes through your mind when you are confronted with the scars of your forgiven past".

The answer to this question is found in Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is with you; His power gives you victory. The Lord will take delight in you, and in His love He will give you new life. He will sing and be joyful over you". It is God's desire to rejoice over you with pride!

A minister humorously explained it like this: A proud parent always carries a picture of his child in his wallet and when given the opportunity will happily show the picture to anyone. So it is with God. God loves us so much and is so proud of us that He too, in a sense, carries a picture of us in His wallet and will gladly show it for any angel to see. I know that it is a funny notion to think that God really carries a wallet, but the minister used this exaggeration to illustrate the fact that God has caring thoughts about us. Zephaniah takes us a step further and says that when God looks upon us, He is so overcome by joy that He sings over us, the same way a mother sings over her newborn baby.

So, what goes through your mind when you are confronted by the scars of past mistakes for which you have already received God's forgiveness? Instead of becoming sad and condemning yourself, take it as an opportunity to rejoice in the fact that God has forgiven you. Allow the scars of life to remind you that God is indeed rejoicing over you and is willing to empower you to live a life of joy and forgiveness. Allow the scars of your forgiven past to remind you that you are now the "apple of God's eye." Allow the scars of your past to be a spring board for you to rejoice in what God wants to do with your life in the here and now. And if you will listen closely enough, you will hear Him joyfully sing over you.

LT Patrick Sturm, CHC, USNR

[radu]

I’d noticed some rain up there the past couple of days and I’m glad you finally got some after all the dreary days you’ve had.
You need some sunshine so you can have some summertime temps for a change. I can’t believe how cool it’s been.

Glad you had a little downtime today. I hope you’ll squeeze in a little tomorrow, too, because you probably won’t have time to breathe next week.

[radu]

Howdy, luvie.

Have you had a good weekend so far?

[Songcraft]

"Scars In The Hands Of Jesus" - The Florida Boys

[luvie]

Hey there, radu!

Yes, it’s been a great weekend. Never reached 100...yet...and I didn’t do much. My favorite way to spend a weekend. LOL!

How were things at the museum this weekend?

[Kathy in Alaska]

My, my, but your plan DID play out perfectly! Good job!

Looking towards the airport are brief, very brief, patches of sun.

[radu]

Yay! Glad you’ve avoided the return of triple digits so far. You’ve had enough of that already.

A little busier at the museum this weekend but still a tad slow. No one seems to want to get out in the muggy heat unless they have to and I don’t blame them.

Kinda cool outside right now after rain not long before sunset. I got in two hours of mowing after I got home from the museum and finished in the nick of time. It started raining as I backed the mower into the garage. It’ll rain on and off tonight and tomorrow so I have a little break before mowing the yard.

[luvie]

Good that it was pleasant enough to mow and you had some time before the rain came. I’m glad you had SOME visitors at the museum, especially with it being so humid. That turns everyone off.

The triple digits start again tomorrow for who knows how long. I am very weary of it.

[radu]

Not quite perfectly. I didn’t have enough time to go out to the big garage to blow the grass off the mower with the air compressor. I just swept it off as best I could and put it in the garage here at the house. I’ll drive it out there tomorrow during a break between rain showers to blow it off real good.
At least I got the areas mowed that needed it the most and I’m happy with that.

The sun did break out a few times at the airport but it was filtered sun. That counts though! LOL Nice to see it after so long. It must be wearing on y’all up there having so many cloudy, chilly days.

[radu]

We’ve had steamy upper 80s the past two days and it’s been partly cloudy. I got home at 3:30 today and by 5:00, it was completely cloudy and a little breezy. I decided I could handle it to mow so got down to it. I knew rain was on the way and kept a close eye on the western sky the whole time and knew I was cutting it close while I did the last area I wanted to do today. Real close. LOL Now I just have the yard and I can do that Monday. Then our temps go back into the 90s again.
Sorry you’ll be back in the triple digits again next week. :-(

Though we didn’t have a lot of visitors, those we had were fun. One guy came in today with a couple of items to donate and he hung around for a while. He’d been there last year and mentioned he wouldn’t mind being a volunteer there. Life got in the way for a while but now he’ll have time to do it. He’s a veteran and you know how I love to learn little tidbits from them. Learned a couple today and look forward to learning more in the future.

[luvie]

Oh, it’s gonna be great having that new volunteer that’s a vet! You can learn from one another and he’ll invite his vet friends! Win/Win!

[radu]

We’ll see how it works out. We’ve had other people say they want to volunteer but they haven’t stuck with it. I guess they have other things they’d rather do on weekends or something. It always gets back to the core group of us who have been there from the beginning. Maybe he’ll stick with us but I’ll learn all I can whenever he’s there.
I’ve learned a lot from Mike but when he’s there, he’s generally out in the shop working on whatever they’re restoring at the time. I have to grab him when he’s inside working on a display.

Today I learned about AAFES Pogs. We have some in a display case but I had no clue what they were.

[Songcraft]

"If We Never Meet Again" - Cynthia Clawson

[luvie]

Well, I suppose youi’re going to tell US what a AAFES Pog is? Because, I don’t have a clue either. LOL!

[Kathy in Alaska]

What a beautiful tune...I’m listening for a third time. It’s been a busy, long, day and it’s time to just kick back and enjoy it. Thanks...((HUGS)

Hope you had a great Saturday.

[Allegra]

Well, I suppose youi’re going to tell US what a AAFES Pog is? Because, I don’t have a clue either. LOL!

I have a quart-size ziplock bag of those things in my storage unit.

I don’t know why I saved ‘em. LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

And a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good morning, ML...((HUGS))...and a Blessed Lord’s Day and Shavua Tov to you and yours.

Hope you had some fun during your long day...maybe a little time with Blue.

[radu]

The best way to explain what AAFES Pogs are ....

"Because of weight, the U.S. Treasury Department does not ship coins to the Middle East; so, AAFES officials chose to make pogs in denominations of 5, 10 and 25 cents."

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome Troops, Veterans, Families, and Allies!
God Bless You and Keep You Safe.

Thanks, unique, for our troop blessing.

[radu]

He said a lot of people kept their pogs rather than redeem them. He has a small box of them himself. He said he didn’t know why he save his either. LOL

Now I want a set of them to go with the three decks of cards I have - - Iraq Most Wanted, U.S. Military Heroes, and United Nations of Weasels. LOL