Obie Shellenberger . . .

16 lbs. of mini-Schnauzer fur

Disassembled my cell phone—

took the back off, popped out the battery

and had the memory card on the floor.

Had to get a new $100 phone.

16 lbs. of gray fur

ate my blue-inked return address stamper

and inked himself, the carpet and the couch

BLUE.

Had to get a new $21 return address stamper.

16 lbs. of gray fur

jumped up on the table and chewed my GREEN Sharpie pen

dragging green ink across the carpet.

Had to shell out $110 to the carpet cleaners.

How can 16 lbs. of gray fur

cause so much commotion?

Just when I think he's learned . . .

I find his bottle of eye drops demolished

and I

shell out another $15

for a new bottle.

When I know he's exhausted

and has settled down for a 2-hour nap . . .

I come upstairs

to find that he has

ripped his doggie bed and shredded it to pieces

scattering stuffing all over the living room.

And I buy another one for $10 at Walgreens.

Sigh.

I can't help but think

of a girl—

just 5 feet and 3 inches

and at just the time she should know better,

she feels

some anger

or jealousy

tunnel right through her heart

and out of her mouth.

But You, God . . .

You just keep on loving me

no matter

how many things I shred

or

how much stuff I break.

I should have it down by now.

Shouldn't I?

But just the time I think I do,

I end up seeking Your forgiveness

so grateful

that You keep no records

and Your love is constant.

Thanks for never giving up on me.

Help me to be the kind of master

to Obie

that You are to me.

Your servant,

Susie

saturday, may 22, 2010

i walked at the park today

and the wind was so strong

here in colorado springs

i thought for a moment

that it might

blow all 16 lbs. of

my furry four-footed little friend, obie,

all the way to his grandparents house

in okc.

i choked and coughed

through the wind

as pollen soared

and stung my throat

but little obie seemed oblivious

to the difficulty

he chased a great dane

caught a frisbee

made friends with a st. bernard

and

sniffed a golden retriever

i was miserable

sneezing

swollen eyes

and ready to leave

after 30 minutes

the invisibles in the air—

the ragweed pollution

the dust

and everything that allergies are made of

wore me down

Lord,

make me more and more aware

of the other invisibles in life—

the small things

that trip me up

knock me down

and keep me from becoming all You dream for me

help me, like obie, to plow through

any obstacle

and find the joy

simply in being

content

to just walk with my Master

i love You, Father.

—susie

Girls in the Sisterhood!

Am thinking about Gideon today.

From the Old Testament.

He was a nobody.

But God chose Gideon to lead the Lord's army

against the enemy.

The enemy far outnumbered Gideon's little home-made army.

And God began whittling away at Gideon's army.

He couldn't figure it out.

Don't You want me to win, Lord?

he must have thought.

"The battle is Mine," said God Almighty.

"Trust Me."

God downsized the army three times

until there only 300 men left to fight against the giant army of enemies.

Gideon trusted.

And God confused the enemies, until they began to fight each other

and lost the battle.

Gideon won with only 300 men.

Wow.

God really does know what He's doing!

Perhaps He's downsizing some areas in your life.

Friends.

Money.

A job.

Those things that make you feel secure.

Though you may never understand . . .

can you trust without understanding?

The mark of a mature Christian is to

accept God's ways

without having to understand them.

Let me know your thoughts.

Love,

Susie Shellenberger

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Hi, Girls in the Sisterhood!

It's snaining today.

My own word for snow + rain.

Not quite snow,

but more than rain.

snain.

Feel like doing something constructive?

How about improving your

physical

mental

emotional

financial

and

spiritual

aspects of your life?

Sound like something you'd like to try?

If so . . .

You're going to LOVE

the 30-day challenge

in the June issue of SUSIE Mag.

The June issue just came out,

so you'll be getting it soon.

After you read through the challenge—

drop me a line and let me know what you think about it, OK?

Too tough?

Too easy?

Not interested?

Let me know what's going on with YOU!

And I promise to start writing more regularly

on here again!

Love you!

Susie Shellenberger

Girls in the SISTERHOOD:

I have a few things I want you to know about!

• The early bird discount for our "Never the Same" missions trip will expire at the end of January, so you need to get your application in! We're going to Antigua, Guatemala June 28-July 11, 2010. And we always need leaders. So if one of your parents wants to come, great! You can download the student application AND the leader application at: neverthesamemissions.com

• A precious woman in my Sunday school class has offered to purchase a one-year subscription to SUSIE Magazine for a teen girl who can't afford it. If this is you, send me your name and complete mailing address at: susie@susiemag.com and label it: I NEED THE MAG. (Please only do this if you really can't afford the subscription. If you can afford it but just don't want to spend the money, this isn't for you.)

• You have an entire year to save up for our SUSIE Magazine Mom/Daughter Cruise. It's Feb. 17-21, 2011. We'll depart from Miami and hit two ports: Key West, FL and Cozumel, Mexico (both known for swimming with the dolphins). I'll give more information on this later. But please talk to your mom, grandma, aunt and any other fun females you want to bring on this amazing cruise!

Are you reading the Bible?

Are you praying?

What's God doing in your life?

I love you and want to know!

Susie Shellenberger

Hi, Girls!

I want to continue this line of thought:

Is God really good?

Or are we just swallowing that simply

because the Psalmist tells us so in

Psalm 145?

If you haven't read the past two blog

entries, please do so, or you may

feel a little lost with where this is going.

In my last entry, I asked:

Why doesn’t God remove temptation, obliterate the devil, destroy the demons?

Here are two reasons:

First: God created man in His image (Genesis 1:26).

Therefore, because He's sovereign,
He gave us a certain measure of sovereignty, as well.
In other words . . . He didn’t create us as robots.
He allows us to make our own daily choices.He won't force us into His ways.
He won't MAKE us live according to His Word.

He allows us the freedom of choice.
And many times, the choices we make
bring hurt to ourselves.
So to shake our fist at GOD
and say, "How come, God?"
is unfair.

Second: Not only did God make you in His image
and give you a certain degree of sovereignty,
but God made you for a purpose—
and that's intimacy.

God the Father desires that we love Him.
And because true love demands a choice,
He won't force Himself upon us
but will give an alternative to us.
The alternative is evil.
The alternative is sin and self.
So if I choose to ignore God and say,
"I don't want to develop intimacy with You.
I want to live for myself and call my own shots."
Then the only alternative I have
is in the direction of evil.
And God will allow me that liberty.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah
said that it's only because of God's mercies
that we're not ALL consumed (Lamentations 3:22).

Really, every one of us should have been consumed
a long time ago. It's only because of God's goodness
and mercy that we're alive today!
This is true spiritually and literally.

Think about it:
The air we breathe is composed in
nitrogen
oxygen
and a few assorted gasses.
If the oxygen content was a mere 2% higher,
the world would catch fire and we'd all burn!
If the nitrogen content was 2% higher,
we'd all be poisoned and die immediately.
Who keeps the atmosphere in such perfect balance?
God.

Yet we've all rebelled against Him.
We've all sinned against Him
But He is good and merciful to every one of us.
He's slow to anger
gracious
full of mercy and
lets us continue on and on and on
until we finally come to the place
where we finally bow
in repentance and give our lives to Him.

The question isn’t, “Why is there evil?”

The question is, “Why is God so good?”

He really is good!

Thoughts?

You are loved!
Susie Shellenberger

Hi, Girls!

It's been a while since I've posted,

but I want to continue this thought

on God's goodness.

Do you believe God is good simply

because

the

Psalmist tells us so

in Psalm 145:9?

Or has your knowledge

of His goodness

become more intimate?

There was an evangelist named Charles Templeton—

who was extremely popular and used mightly of God

way back in the 1950s.

After years of amazing ministry

and seeing God move in peoples' lives,

he simply walked away from his faith

and became an agnostic.

"I looked at the world," he said

"and it doesn't seem to me that it spoke

of a God who could be described as

father. It seems to be a universe

indifferent to man and to all

of God's creatures."

In other words . . .

If God is so good, why is there so much

suffering and evil and horror in the world?

Why are babies born deformed?

Why do people rape and kill?

Why are thousands starving to death each day?

Is God really good?

This is a question that haunts humanity.

Is God good?

What do we say to our friends when they're

honestly asking this question?

And what's the word for ourselves

when WE struggle with tragedy and difficulty?

Girls, whenever we have questions about the character of God,

we need to look to Jesus for the answers.

When we look at Jesus, we see that He freely

acknowledged the problem of pain

and the existence of evil.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," He taught us to pray

(Matthew 6:13).

"In this world, you will have tribulation," He said (John 16:33).

"There will be trouble; you're going to have problems."

Charles Templeton (the former evangelist) asked,

"Why is God doing this?"

But his question was misdirected.

God is NOT the author of confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33)

Man brings harm upon himself when he rebels against God,

when he ignores the ways and Word of God,

and when he violates the commands of God.

Why, then, doesn't God obliterate the devil,

destroy the demons,

remove temptation?

I'll stop here.

I'm going to give two answers to this question

on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

But first, I want some feedback from you.

How does this hit you?

You are loved!

Susie Shellenberger