{"id":1002,"date":"2017-06-13T14:27:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T14:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2017-06-13T14:27:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T14:27:52","slug":"prodigal-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/06\/prodigal-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Prodigal God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I shared with you that I have a cat. Everyone says she is &#8220;fat&#8221;. I say she just has sort legs. She is a good companion though lately when I&#8217;m away she likes to get up on my bed which she knows she is not supposed to do. Or she, like Goldilocks, tries out every bed and every chair. It wouldn&#8217;t be so bad but she shed! Big time. She is great and I wear a lot of black. I sue a lot of that sticky roller stuff!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, each morning when I get up she is waiting outside my bedroom door. I guess she hears the water running in my bathroom and knows I am awake. So she wait until I open the door. She has trained me to feed her first. She get 2\/3 c. of weight control, indoor-cat, cat food. And I add 3 &#8220;treats&#8221; to her bowl. Plus I freshen her water. Once she has that she comes back to my room to stretch out on my rug and take her morning bath and siesta.<\/p>\n<p>If the sun is up, she finds a sunny spot on the rug and luxuriates in that spot. One morning recently she settled down in a spot by my front door. I was just a narrow spot of sunlight. She seemed happy. But my room had a large sun-bathed spot &#8211; she chose to ignore it.<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that true of us? \u00a0At least of me. I am so easily satisfied with a small part of God&#8217;s blessing when He has given me everything to enjoy. I live as if He is a stingy God. He isn&#8217;t &#8211; He is lavish, abundant, exuberant, extravagant, generous, prodigal. Prodigal? That&#8217;s a word we think doesn&#8217;t belong there. We&#8217;ve always heard of the &#8220;Prodigal Son&#8221; and he was rebellious. Well, &#8220;prodigal &#8221; means: wastefully or recklessly extravagant, giving profusely, lavishly abundant&#8230; Pastor Tim Keller has a book titled, <em>The Prodigal God<\/em>. It&#8217;s true. God is a prodigal God.<\/p>\n<p>Next time yo see a sunrise or sunset, think of that. Next time you hear the chorus of birds in the morning, remember that. When you examine a flower blossom closely, remember how lavish God is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I shared with you that I have a cat. Everyone says she is &#8220;fat&#8221;. I say she just has sort legs. She is a good companion though lately when I&#8217;m away she likes to get up on my bed which she knows she is not supposed to do. Or she, like Goldilocks, tries out every&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Prodigal God - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/06\/prodigal-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prodigal God - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I shared with you that I have a cat. Everyone says she is &#8220;fat&#8221;. I say she just has sort legs. She is a good companion though lately when I&#8217;m away she likes to get up on my bed which she knows she is not supposed to do. Or she, like Goldilocks, tries out every&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/06\/prodigal-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-13T14:27:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-13T14:27:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prodigal God - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2017\/06\/prodigal-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prodigal God - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"I shared with you that I have a cat. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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