A Wee Bit of a Rest

Just a little note to say I'm giving the blog a wee bit of rest for now. My days fill quickly with all the things that matter most - the people in my life. So for now - I'm cherishing the moments.

With love,
Linda

Encouraging Words For the Weekend

"Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

 Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations, and say continually: 'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart has trusted in Him and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me and I in Him.'"
St. Frances de Sales

 I so needed these words today. Rest in this day and know He will meet you in your tomorrows dear friends.
With love,
Linda

A Small Ministry

It has been nearly two years since I wrote these words. How is it that I can so easily forget the words gently spoken into my spirit? How is it that the daily living of life, with its joys and sorrows, can rub the sheen off a shining gift? The something I thought I would never forget had somehow slipped away.

I walk with head down along the unfamiliar walk to the mailbox. Everything is new, the familiar left behind to become someone else's every day. I feel that old shyness dogging my steps as I pass faces unknown to me. Then it comes - a gentle reminder of a long ago spoken word: "Smile."

Smile. I had forgotten. Forgotten the seemingly small ministry with the huge potential He had given to a heart longing to do something BIG. My head tilted up just a bit - eyes looking for the eyes of a stranger.

Sometimes I cannot will the eyes of another to look into mine, but there are moments of connection. That is when the smile does its work.

If I had any doubts (and oh how prone I am to such things), that very evening as we descended the stairs from the choir loft a friend grabbed me in a hug. "You are such a blessing, she said. You have a beautiful smile."

I'm not so sure about the beautiful part, but the smile - oh yes. The Father gave me that smile, and He has asked me to use it for Him.

Have you discovered the ministry of a small thing? If you have, how does the Father turn your little into something BIG?

Blessings,
Linda

This is a repost from 2011. The idea of the small moments of ministry has been on my heart lately, and I remembered this post.

Encouraging Words For the Weekend

"O Thou,
 Whose stillness drowns
 earth's total noise -
 its grating sounds;
 progress,
 traffic,
 voice;
 flutterings
 of my frustration,
 mutterings,
 agitation;
 the screaming silences
 without,
 within;
 the din
 of questions clamoring
 for their "why?"
 and "how"
 now!
 the rumblings
 of man's discontent,
 erupting hate,
 violence;
 war's distant thunder
 rolling near,
 and everywhere
 the cries
 of fear
 that paralyzes
 as it grips…
 and near at hand
 a faucet drips.

 O Thou,
 Whose stillness drowns
 earth's total noise,
 only in Thee
 is stillness found…
 And I
 rejoice"

Ruth Bell Graham - Sitting by my laughing fire...

I copied this from a book of Mrs. Graham's poetry published in 1977. Amazing the way things never really do change, and so comforting to know that neither does our Father. The same yesterday, today and forever.

Hope, in the middle of all the noise, you are able to find His stillness the weekend dear friends,
Linda

P.S. My apologies for yet another cloud picture. They sail across that brilliant blue sky every day, and I am captivated!

Great Things

This morning my little devotional said:

"Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God."
 William Carey

And I felt that familiar heaviness settle around my heart. Great things for God. It seems that admonition has been lurking in the shadows for as long as I can remember. It has managed to fill me with guilt and shame at times and even when I confront it head-on it never quite goes away.

We hear so much these days about finding our life's purpose. Isn't that what we all long for? To find the "thing" God created us to do and then go and do great things for God? I will be sixty-nine in a couple of months, and I admit I still haven't arrived. I'm an exceedingly slow learner.

However, I have, at long last, yanked that shadow out into the light and come to terms with it. In the third chapter of Luke, John the Baptist, that firebrand preacher, is warning the people of God's coming judgement:

"…every tree that doe not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire."
  Luke 3:9

The crowds, perhaps feeling a little of what we are tempted to feel when we think we haven't done enough, asked what they should do.

John didn't urge them to go do run out and find their purpose and begin to do great things. Instead he said:

"If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry."
  Luke 3:11

To the tax collectors he advised that they not collect any more in taxes than the government required. His instruction to soldiers was not to extort money or make false accusations.

Nothing earth-shattering. Simply do what is right in God's sight - love Him and others - great things.

What might that look like for us? Is it possible the fruit the Father is looking for is something as simple as helping the poor? Or perhaps it is caring for aging parents, praying with and listening to a friend who is in need of encouragement and help, reaching out to a neighbor, rocking a sick baby through a long night, picking up the messiness at the end of the day only to have to do it all over again tomorrow, writing that note or making that phone call, bringing a meal to a sick friend, or any of the small seemingly unnoticed things we do in obedience to the call of a great God.

Surely some are called to great things, and they are used mightily of God. We all have been given gifts to be used for His glory and the benefit of others. But in His kingdom even the things that seem of little importance to us are deemed great in His eyes. He takes those little acts of obedience and writes them into His great story of redemption and love. Each one building on another until it is one beautiful whole.

Blessings dear friends,
Linda

Searching

The Bible gives us only one glimpse into the life of Jesus as a boy. It's a familiar story. The twelve year old Jesus had gone, as was the custom, to Jerusalem with His family for the Passover festival. On the return journey neither His mother or father were aware that their son was not among the travelers on the road toward home. When He didn't show up that evening, they went dashing back to Jerusalem to search for Him. 

It isn't difficult to imagine the fear that raced through their hearts. They must have imagined every kind of evil possible on the crowded streets of the city. They frantically searched for three days before finding Him sitting in the Temple completely absorbed in a discussion with the religious teachers.

When , in relief and a good bit of frustration (I imagine), His mother said, "Son, why have You done this to us?" He calmly gave what to His exhausted parents seemed like a puzzling answer: 

"But why did you need to search?" He asked. "Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49)

I've always read that verse from a Mom's point of view. Can I just be honest? I thought it might have been a teensy bit thoughtless of Jesus. But when I read that passage the other day, I saw it from another perspective. Jesus' perspective.

Please join me at Laced With Grace for the rest of the story.

Blessings,

Linda

Encouraging Words For the Weekend

"'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.' The vision of God unseals the lips of man. Herein lies strength for conflict and the common enemy of the praying world known as wandering thoughts. If the eye is fixed on God, thought may roam where it will without irreverence, for every thought is then converted into a prayer. Some have found it a useful thing, when their minds have wandered off from devotion and been snared by some good but irrelevant consideration, not to cast away the offending thought as the eyes are again lifted to the Divine Face, but to take it captive, carry it into the presence of God and weave it into a prayer before putting it aside and resuming the original topic. This is to lead captivity captive."
Charles H. Brent

Have a lovely weekend friends,
Linda

Wait

"*It is a truth universally acknowledged…," among believers: you can read a passage of scripture that you've read dozens of times and suddenly see something brand new - a precious nugget of truth just waiting for the right moment to be unearthed.

That very thing happened to me the other day. I want to preface this by saying prayer has, for me, been both the easiest and most difficult of disciplines. There are times God is so close I can almost feel the touch of His hands on my own. There have also been times when heaven seems like brass, ricocheting my words off into oblivion. Sometimes heaven is silent, and the deepest cry of my heart seems to have fallen on deaf ears. I wonder if God is even listening, and if He is, does it mean the answer is no. Should I stop praying for that particular thing?

I have a prayer I've been praying for over fourteen years. It's a big prayer. It requires a miracle. So far, heaven has been silent. I've thought, at times, I should just take no for an answer. But in my heart of hearts I believe I heard God whisper a promise to me all those years ago. So I continue to pray.

Back to that "universally acknowledged truth": The story in Luke 1 about Zechariah's encounter with the angel Gabriel as he served in the Temple are as familiar to me as the rest of the Christmas Story. As I read it the other day, one verse seemed to stand out in bold letters:

Luke 1:13 "But the angel said, 'Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son and you are to name him John.'"

I wonder how many times the prayer for a child had flown from the hearts of Zechariah and Elizabeth to heaven's throne room. How many years did they pray with earnest longing for this one simple, miraculous thing? Now they were old, and it surely must have seemed to them that the answer was, "No." Had they stopped asking years ago - knowing that time had passed them by? How long had it been since they prayed that prayer?

Yet all the while, the Father had a plan, and when it seemed like He had turned a deaf ear, the truth was He was only waiting for the right time. What must have seemed like an eternity to Zechariah and Elizabeth was only a tick of His eternal clock.

Sometimes the answer is to our prayer is, "Wait." In the meantime, God does the necessary work deep inside of us - preparing, molding, drawing us closer to Him until the wait is over. Until just the right time.

Blessings,
Linda

*Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Encouraging Words For the Weekend

                                                Why I Wake Early

"Hello, sun in my face.
  Hello, you who make the morning
 and spread it over the fields
 and into the faces of the tulips
 and the nodding morning glories,
 and into the windows of, even, the
 miserable and the crotchety -

 best preacher that ever was, dear star, that just happens
 to be where you are in the universe
 to keep us from ever-darkness,
 to ease us with warm touching,
 to hold us in the great hands of light -
 good morning, good morning, good morning.

 Watch, now, how I start the day
 in happiness, in kindness."

 Mary Oliver

Rediscovering my love of poetry and meeting Mary Oliver (how did I not know?)

Praying your weekend is filled with the light of His love and the peace of His presence.

Always,
Linda

A Little "Blog Business"

This picture, which speaks peace and sweet memories to me, has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I just can't seem to publish one without a picture.

The purpose is to tell the very few, but lovely and dear, people who comment here that I have turned off the comments. Recently I've been slammed with anonymous comments. I tried to deal with it by turning on comment moderation, but my inbox is filling up with these annoying comments. So I've just eliminated them altogether. I don't want people trying to use my little blog as a billboard for whatever it is they're peddling.

I can always be reached on FB or Twitter or Instagram - and there's always email.

Thank all of you who take the time to read my very humble words, and especially for the comments you've left over the years. They are so precious to me.

Blessings,
Linda

Finish Well

My exercise of choice, after years of trying lots of other things, is walking. We live in a quiet sub-division, and it is a joy to walk around our neighborhood. However, when the calendar page flips to May I begin to number the days it will be comfortable to walk outside. By the time June arrives, I am looking for an alternate plan. 

Of course, I could get up a lot earlier and beat the heat, but ever since we entered that lovely season called retirement - getting up early isn't the option of choice.

There is a mall that isn't too far away. It's not a very popular mall, so there aren't a lot of people to dodge. It's a bit on the small side and not terribly interesting, but it does have one thing that makes it perfect - air conditioning. So on these hot, triple-digit summer days, we hop in the car and drive to the mall.

Since it isn't very big, we have to walk six complete circuits to get in our two miles. Now I must confess, I really don't like walking in the mall. It's boring. The same thing over and over again. I would much rather be outside breathing in fresh air, but - air conditioning.

The rest of this devotional is right over at Laced With Grace. Please come join me there.

Blessings,

Linda