More From Julie Sipe

In a previous blog, I had mentioned that I am the administrator of a Facebook group called “Words for Thought.”  I started the group a few years ago after answering some of those self-reflection, “What’s my purpose?” types of questions at a difficult point in my life.  The devotion that I shared with you today was the very first post I ever wrote for that group.  It holds a very special place in my heart, and it contains a message that changed the way I viewed my faith and my journey.

The picture accompanying this blog is one that I took on my first venture past the field of sunflowers the summer after moving into our house.  Since the sun rises behind this field and I had taken it on my morning run, you can see that the faces of the flowers are turned away from the road where I’m standing... well, most of them anyway.  When I had taken this a while back, I had not paid attention to the fact that a few sporadic sunflowers are turned away from the sun.  Does that mean the sun stops shining?  No!  Just as our God continues to love and bless us in our moments of temporary doubt and turning.  Do the flowers around those few change the direction of their faces because of their neighbor?  No!  Just as we need to keep our focus on God despite the influences of people and situations around us.

For the last couple of years, the farmer who owns the field has decided not to plant the sunflowers.  I have greatly missed looking out my living room window and across the neighborhood to see the sea of yellow on the horizon.  However, I have not forgotten the lesson that I learned that first day... keep my eyes fixed on the Son!