What a nice day it has been. I’ve accomplished a lot in the kitchen, since I have a good bit of zucchini that I need to preserve or use up. I made a batch of zucchini pasta and have frozen several bags of zucchini to use in bread at a later date. I’ve also dried and turned some of my garden herbs into powder.

In a couple of days, it is time for another grocery shopping trip. For months now, I’ve been dreading these days. I don’t mind purchasing groceries for my family…in fact, I really like it! But something has felt off in stores to me. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I decided to take this to the Lord in prayer. After all, I know that He is always there to lead me and to give me guidance.

In 2016, He put a deep burden on my heart for us to get out of debt and to start learning how to grow our own food. Even though many people couldn’t understand the choices that we made, we did it anyway. Looking back, I can see His hand all over what we did. I can see the problems that we are facing today as a society, and I am so glad that we made changes to our life.

As odd as it may sound, I kind of feel the same way now. Whenever I walk into a Walmart it almost feels wrong. It could be because mental illness is at an all time high right now, and I do not know who might be around me or my family. For example, a couple of days ago a man attempted to burn down a bank in a town very close to us. Taking our family out in public is riskier than it used to be.

But I think there is more to it than that. I think that the Lord could be preparing my heart for what’s to come.

I have been trying to learn how to grow as much food as I can. But I still need to purchase quite a lot at the grocery store. So a few weeks ago, I decided to remove this stressful activity from my life by starting to order groceries online for pick up.

I tried grocery pick up before, and didn’t really like it. But now it truly feels like a step in the right direction.

I still will visit hometown stores and such, but hopefully I am done with most everything else. We haven’t visited an indoor mall for a few years. My husband and I almost did last December, but we both felt a check in our spirits and decided not to. No, a shooting didn’t happen, or anything like that. But I’m sure that we would have been exposed to a lot of things contrary to the Word of God.

On our date night last week, we stopped in a Books A Million to see if there were any children’s books that I would like to buy. While I found a few things, there was also a huge amount of witchcraft/”spiritual” books on the end of many aisles. I could almost feel the spiritual warfare going on inside of that building. This solidified my decision to avoid large secular stores whenever possible.

We live in a wicked culture, and wickedness is pretty much everywhere when we are out and about. It is just getting more and more bold. I want to avoid it whenever I can.

…that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Philippians 2:15

There is nothing new under the sun. Even Paul wrote about being in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in his letter to the Philippians. I feel like we are in the same place today, and that the Lord has warned me to avoid certain places for my safety. While it might seem strange, I want to heed His warning.

If you hear a small still voice that doesn’t contradict God’s Word, it is probably wise to listen to it.

I still hope to be a light wherever the Lord leads me to go.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. I hope your day is full of God’s blessings.