Soon after 9-11, I found my heart so full of poetry, it had to get out. So I have pages and pages of it. It was just a season and a time in which I found an outlet and joy in writing poetry. The interesting part is that I haven’t experienced that kind of imparted gift since then. I hope to see it come back around. But in case it never does, I am thankful for the clarity of expression I experienced during this season of poetry. Below I wrote this, as an expression of how we fill our lives …
A Mother’s Heart…A Thanksgiving Prayer
I love watching old programs and movies. I wish programs today were more like the ones in the ’50s and ’60s. Much more receptive to Christian values. It was a given that people went to church. Although the name of Jesus is omitted from the end of this Thanksgiving prayer, I still love it. I offer to you… Jim Anderson, the imitable father of Father Knows Best prayed this prayer one year at the end of the Thanksgiving episode… “Oh, Lord, we give Thee thanks from the depths of our humble hearts, for all the blessings Thou hast seen fit …
A teachable change of seasons
Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn. We’ll watch the leaves dry up in the waning sunlight, just to be pinched off their twig by a gust of chilly wind and tossed to the ground with a crunch. Winter will follow, with life lurking beneath what appears to be dead. This is the perfect time to help our children understand the truth of life out of death. God has shown us His redemptive plan through His own creation and the change of seasons. Are you ready to watch the show of color that comes with Autumn? This year, do more …
Moms are meant to graduate
I’m graduating this week. Sunday was a Baccalaureate service for our oldest child, and the week will wrap up with the commencement of her Class of 2013. While my long-ago-little girl takes exams and anticipates her diploma, I’m doing some evaluating of my own. I’ve been the best mom I could be, but I have not been a perfect mom. Is mommy guilt seeping in? A mom can’t help but ask herself if she did the right things, made too many mistakes, or gave her children a good example to follow. Did my children see me? … read my Bible …
A Mother’s Heart…Sweet Smell of Sacrifice
In ancient Jewish tradition, a mother wove a seamless garment for her son when he left home. Did Mary do this for Jesus? No one knows but I’m pretty sure, if she held to tradition, she must have. If Mary lovingly created it, Jesus wore it, probably wearing it before His betrayal when He went to Simon the leper’s house. As He reclined at the table, a woman came and broke open her beautiful, alabaster passion box, full of the extremely valuable, perfumed oil of spikenard. As she lovingly poured it upon Jesus’ head, it likely trickled down His cheeks, …
Woman, Why Do You Weep?
In the chilly dampness of the early morning hours, a woman gropes her way through the dark city streets of Jerusalem. Carrying only a small oil lamp to light her way, Mary Magdalene is joined by Joanna, Salome, and Mary, the mother of James. Leaving the city, they wend their way to the dew-moistened garden where Jesus had been buried. Dressed in their mourning apparel and blurry-eyed from their tears of grief, they enter the garden of the tomb, carrying the spices to anoint Jesus’ body. The first glints of sunlight peek over the horizon as they approach the tomb. …
Raising kids with the urge to lead
John C. Maxwell said that “Everything rises and falls with leadership,” so if our children are to have a strong future, we must raise strong leaders. In less than a week, the United States Supreme Court will hear the Perry Case to determine if the 2008 proposition voted in by the people of California to protect marriage is constitutional or not. We will all feel the ripple effects. Our children will live and raise their families in the wake of the decision. Moms are raising kids in an atmosphere antagonistic to the family, and the same is true in much …
Who’s Your First Love? And Monday LINK UP!
Before we begin today’s post, we want to announce the winner of yesterday’s giveaway that Julie Gillies is so graciously providing. PAMELA GRADY, you are the winner! Congratulations! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ February is the month of love and romance. Red and pink hearts are everywhere in honor of Valentine’s Day—the universal day for showing and sharing love. Of course, we don’t just love in the month of February—or one day a year—but it is the day we focus on finding ways to demonstrate our love. Little children certainly don’t limit their display of love to just one day! Whenever my grandkids come …
Love is Not a Doormat
Doormats are handy things–dusting off the snow before entering a somewhat-clean floor, wiping off the mud from the now-melted snow, stomping your tennis shoes to get the ever-living sand out of them, especially if you live by the beach. Doormats are weathered. Doormats can be pretty and decorative–that is until the above happens and they become grubby. Doormats are lasting. We usually keep the same doormat by each door until we move, then we finally throw the things out, like old rags. Sometimes, whether it’s learned behavior, taught behavior or even caught behavior, we decide that Christians must in every …
He Came!
I grieve when I fail the Lord, when my obedience lacks its first response. But then I remember it was for failures that Christ graced a rough-hewn manger. It was for failures that He breathed His last earthly breath as He hung in disgrace for the failings of the world. It was to a failure, one who penned the precious psalms that touch our hearts in time of need and, yet, as a man after God’s own heart, sinned and ripped apart his fellowship with the Lord, then repented and repaired it. It was to a failure, one who had …