Reflections:

Morning on the Mountain

I sit here watching the mountain come to life, listening to the sounds of all the animals slowly waking up. A rooster crowing, a goat bleating, a duck quacking, a chipmunk chattering, a hummingbird over my head getting its first drink of the morning nectar, and a dog in the distance barking.

The dogs sit here next to me asking to be petted as I read my Bible, and Tom and I talk about what we are reading this morning.

Genesis 1:29 (KJV):

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Now, “meat” in the old King James English simply means food. God was talking about the plants, seeds, and fruit He had given for food.

That led Tom and I into another conversation this morning about the Sabbath.

This is something I find interesting because I was brought up believing the Sabbath was Sunday. I think a lot of us were. It was simply what we were taught, and I never really questioned it.

But when you sit down and read the Bible for yourself, you find something interesting.

The Sabbath in Scripture is the seventh day.

It goes all the way back to Creation.

Genesis 2:2–3 tells us that after God finished His work of Creation, He rested on the seventh day. He blessed that day and sanctified it — He set it apart.

Then, when God gave the Ten Commandments, He said:

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8 (KJV)

And He explains which day He means:

“But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God.” Exodus 20:10 (KJV)

That seventh day corresponds with Saturday on the calendar we use today, traditionally beginning at sunset Friday and ending at sunset Saturday.

Here is the part that really got me thinking: I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where God changes the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week.

Now, the New Testament does tell us that Christians gathered on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7 talks about believers gathering to break bread, and 1 Corinthians 16:2 mentions the first day of the week. So, Sunday certainly appears in the New Testament.

But I don’t find a verse saying, “The Sabbath has now been changed to Sunday.”

So how did so many of us grow up believing Sunday was the Sabbath?

That happened gradually through Christian history.

As Christianity spread, Sunday became increasingly important to Christians because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Christians gathered on that day, and over the centuries Sunday worship became more established. In A.D. 321, the Roman Emperor Constantine issued a civil law-making Sunday the “venerable day of the Sun” — a day of rest for many people in the Roman Empire. Later church practices and laws further strengthened Sunday as Christianity’s principal day of worship and rest.

So it wasn’t that I opened my Bible and found a verse where God said, “I am changing My Sabbath from the seventh day to the first.”

I didn’t.

And that is what Tom and I were talking about this morning.

I’m not saying this to tell anyone what they have to believe or what day they have to walk into a church. That’s between you and God. I’m certainly no Bible scholar. I’m just a woman sitting on a mountain with her husband, a cup of coffee, some dogs wanting attention, and an open Bible in front of her.

But I do think we should read it for ourselves.

Sometimes we believe something simply because our parents believed it, their parents believed it, and it was what we were taught growing up. There isn’t necessarily anything dishonest about that. They were teaching us what they had been taught.

But there comes a time when we have to open the Bible ourselves and ask, “What does it actually say?”

And this morning, that’s exactly what we were doing.

I love these sounds while I sit here reading and writing, sipping my first cup of coffee. Oh, that beautiful aroma. There is nothing better…. unless you count the smell of a campfire. Now that is a beautiful thing all by itself.

It is actually a bit cloudy and cool this morning, so I’m hoping we will get some more rain. We do not have as much smoke now since the rain God blessed us with a few days ago, and I’m really hoping we will get a bit more. We really do need it here.

Well, here on the ranch, it’s that time of year when we start getting things ready for winter. We are in the process of purchasing pellets, hay, feed, and sawdust to make sure we have enough for winter, as sometimes the snow gets deep here. We dig out the winter clothes and the cleats for our boots and make sure our pantry is stocked the best we can. I do not want to be going to town if I don’t need to.

Living here on the mountain teaches you that you cannot wait until you need something to go get it. When the snow or freezing weather comes, it comes, and sometimes going to town just isn’t worth the risk.

So, we prepare.

We stack the feed, fill the barns, make sure the animals have what they need, and get everything ready before that first real freeze or snowstorm rolls across the mountain. There is something comforting about knowing the barns are full and everyone two-legged and four-legged is tucked in and taken care of.

It’s nice to sit by the stove and know that we can survive the winter even if we lose power. We are as ready as we can be.

And that, my friends, is a good place to be.

I will be cleaning and sanitizing the rabbit hutches again, and we will do another deep clean of the barns. We will set up the water heaters, so they are ready to go, as well as clean all the waterers and feeders. I will be bathing the dogs, so they get that last good bath before winter, in case they need to come inside due to low temperatures.

And lastly, I will make one more trip to my parents before winter hits and stay three weeks with them. I may not be able to get there — or get back — during the hardest part of winter from here.

We are also getting ready to put new flooring in the laundry room so the dogs can be in there if it gets too cold. I have a feeling it’s going to be a cold winter this year. It is cooler right now, and I think we may see winter come early as well. This is just a gut feeling I’ve had for the last several days.

I can feel it in the air.

I think I may even decorate for fall before I leave for my parents. Or, if I’m really moved to do it, maybe I will decorate for Christmas.

I’m also getting the curriculum ready for Jesse, as we will be homeschooling him from now on. We did this for a couple of years early on, and then when we moved, they went to the public school here. We wanted them to have the opportunity to meet people and make friends.

Here, Jesse is still allowed to participate in school courses and after-school sports, etc., so we are thinking of allowing him to go in and be involved in a sport.

But not football.

I cannot do that.

I wasn’t able to go to all of our oldest son’s football games due, in part, to my knees, but I also just could not watch him get bashed up. He had three concussions, and two of them were major ones.

No… I cannot do that again.

I went to all his childhood games…. wrestling, baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Every one of them. It was hard sometimes, but I went. But when he got older? No way. I just could not bear it.

I tried. I really did.

But I could not watch my son flying through the air and landing with that dreaded thump of his head and watching it bounce up then hitting the ground again. I know he wanted me there, but I just could not do it.

It literally brought tears to my eyes watching.

Even thinking of it makes me cry. Truly.

So, I will not allow Jesse to play football. He is rather clumsy anyway, and I just could not bear it if something happened. He can join 4-H or play baseball. Basketball, probably. That is bad enough.

But football?

No… way!

So, I digress.

We are preparing to get ready for this school year, and I have to say, I’m looking forward to having him home again and learning here. I think even with all the crazy in the world, it should be a good year.

I’m tired, but it is a good tired.

There is a difference between being tired because life is wearing you down and being tired because you spent the day building something, fixing something, caring for something, or preparing for what is coming.

This is that kind of tired.

The good kind.

The kind where you look around at the end of the day and know maybe you didn’t get everything done, but you moved forward.

And that is important.

Sometimes things happen that are just out of your control.

Am I a bit disappointed that we may not get the house painted this year?

Yes, I will be.

But there is always next year.

I did get the wallpaper finished in the guest room. Tom got the chair rail up, and now we have the floor to put down. Then I start on Jesse’s room. We bought the paint the other day, and I know he is excited to get his room done as well.

Little by little, project by project, we are getting there.

And this morning, sitting here with my coffee, my Bible beside me, the dogs at my feet, and listening to the mountain wake up around me, I think I’m okay with that.

Till next week

Stay Safe Pray Prep

Love from God’s Mountain

Selina Moore — Isenhart

Text © 2026 by Selina Moore-Isenhart Illustrations © 2026 by Selina Moore-Isenhart

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