In honor of the holiday Ireland has shared with us all, St. Patrick's Day, I'd like to spin an Irish tale. (It's a completely true story...but you know, I did KISS THE BLARNEY STONE and therefore received the "gift of eloquent speech" or as others would say the "gift of GAB".)
I have lived my life believing that four leaf clovers were a fairy tale until Beth Nash told me her mother could always find them, wherever she looked. And she said, "If you find one, you can always find more." When I was visiting Beth in Alaska I actually found my first four-leaf clover right in her yard! (Yes, it was SUMMER!!!)
When I was visiting Ireland last year with Beth and my Irish sister, Maura Moynihan Berzman, I looked for the clover treasures everywhere I went. It's a wonder I saw any sights because my head was always searching the ground. I thought there could be nothing as special as finding a four-leaf clover in IRELAND, the land of the shamrock, the land of wishing steps, hills and bridges, the home of "luck"!
This is my friend Siobhan
O'Leary Wills and I in front of her B & B, the La
Cita Inn, which is just a very few miles from Blarney Castle. Siobhan's sister, Marion Walker is my neighbor here in La
Cita,
Titusville, FL. Anyway, she also has a vacation rental home in the country where Beth Nash and I stayed for a few days after leaving the B & B.
Isn't it a lovely home? Beth and I decided to take some pictures of the house as we were leaving, traveling back to Dublin to fly home. Our time in Ireland, this magical, green land was coming to a close without a four-leaf clover.
Before I got in to the car I thought, "This is my last opportunity. I'm going to take one more look." So I walked straight out in front of where you see me standing and looked into the grass.
And...you guessed it! Right in the center foreground of this picture I spotted the largest FOUR-LEAF CLOVER imaginable!!!!
And THIS is it!!!
Isn't it beautiful and amazing!!!
Even more amazing...just like Beth's mom always said, it was NOT the only one!
Beth and I spent at least another 30 minutes looking through the grass where she found 4 and I found 3 more! I framed all I found, one of which I keep in my bedroom to see it often. One is hanging at Siobhan's in the La Cita Inn and another is in La Cita, Titusville at her sister Marion's. (I framed the 4th for my Irish sister Maura for Christmas but I put away somewhere and now I can't find it!)
As I was having my quiet-time this morning,
journaling and actually LISTENING to to the Father speak, He reminded me of the verse in His Word, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
And then, of this clover and the entire day (which held more special surprises).
As I remembered this day I heard Him speak to me, "I know you Lisa, I gave you what you longed for. It was not even necessary to ask Me. I told you in My Word 'I will give you the desires of your heart' and I DID". I will continue as you continue to delight yourself in Me, just like this (morning)."
And then I realized for the first time that a DESIRE OF YOUR HEART is just that...it's something that my heart longs for. Something I hold inside. How many times do we pray and beg God for the things we want? He knows full well what is in our heart spoken or not because He KNOWS us.
As I mentioned earlier, there were other special things, spoken and unspoken desires that I didn't even consider praying about because they seemed trivia in the grand scheme of things and certainly they were nothing I NEEDED. But God, He gave them to me anyway. Not only that ...He LEAD ME TO THEM (remember Bethie?). And the result was being completely overwhelmed with His goodness and kindness to me, which means so much to me that even now as I think of it, I FEEL it and my eyes well up with tears.
So if these things that I didn't NEED (Does anyone NEED a clover?) and didn't pray for, He gave to me because they were a hope in my heart...How much more will He DO when we ASK Him in prayer?
Either way, the thing is, we must first KNOW Him and SEEK Him... ENJOY Him and His Presence. Do you?
"Valentino's" pizza: pepperoni, green peppers and sausage. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. It was so nice and hot...Delicious!
Hand and Foot requires a LOT of cards. We are using 9 decks here.
left to right: Julie, me, Mom, Maura, and Melanie. When we play cards we like to practice our Irish accent. Maura (whose family is Irish) says a phrase just like her Auntie Marq's and then we try to repeat it. That's when the laughter erupts! I'd say we are easily entertained.
Mom made the most wonderful salad. Sister Jewels (Julie) has to have "roughage" with her pizza, you know.
Counting points! Look how serious Mom is...that's probably why she ALWAYS wins!!!
