Arise and Shine

Another beautiful offering from artistic poet jacobemet!  Poetry is such a soul-full language.  It’s still not one I fully appreciate, not being a poet myself (see HERE), but I admire those who have the gift of poetry, for truly, being able to compose it is a gift, as is poetry itself.  

All that sings

And all that speaks,

All that rises

From valleys and peaks,

All that aches

And all that pleads,

All that groans

With basic needs,

All that marches

And all that climbs,

All that hangs

For times and signs,

All that ebbs

And all that flows,

All that sleeps

In blanketed snows,

Echos the voice

Of Love Divine

Calling our name,

Arise and shine

Mountains in the Sun

Wow. So true.

Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth.

Today when I came out to the porch the sun was shining and those mountains that were hidden by the clouds yesterday were clearly visible today.

I was struck at how something so big could be so hidden. And yet I could not deny it.

The lesson I have been learning in this is that God can hide very big things. There are days like yesterday when I attempt to look over the bow of His Providence and it looks like we are lost on a murky sea with no land in sight. Other times—and let’s be honest, most of the time it is in 20/20 hindsight (which I suppose to keep the analogy going could be said looking aft)—we see that we were not far from land at all, and we wonder how it snuck up on us.

I would very much like to know why God likes to…

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Out of the mouths of babes…

One of my bloggin’ buddies, Slim Jim, has started a new series which I call “Post-It Note Theology”, based on the above picture which I have also stolen from his most worthy and informative site.   He certainly has longer, more in-depth treatments of Christian apologetics and other scholarly things, but I likewise appreciate these spiritual sound bytes for my brain!  To my exceptionally non-techno mind, a sound byte is like a food bite. It’s not enough to fill me up and sustain me indefinitely, but it gives me something to chew on and draw me back for more.

Here’s his most recent tidbit:

As we adore Him, we abhor sin.

As several of us were sitting around his blogging meal and began sampling this morsel, the digital table conversation began.  Here is a part, (and their websites are pretty cool also):

Wally Fry

Nice. Fill our minds with the things of God, and no room left for the things of Satan. This is a time when limited brain power is quite useful. Space is limited, so no room for the garbage if I put the right stuff in. Good reminder, Brother Jim, thanks.

patrickhawthorne01

Good point Wally…I for one have so much useless garbage stored in my brain that I must delete something in order to make room for more…Should I tell another joke before hitting the delete button?

Wally Fry

LOL, Patrick, what you said makes perfect sense to me. My storage is limited, so if I use it for God, not as much is left over for the devil. And yes, keep on with the jokes. Your cheesy jokes are a high point of my day usually.

Robert Lambert Jones III

I am reminded of Romans 2:4. It was the quality of God’s character that made me want to give up certain thoughts and actions. They simply didn’t compare well, and they got in the way of what I really wanted. Thank you for the memory prompt.

Interestingly, I was just considering myself how we tend to “fill up on junk food” that may taste good at first (and who doesn’t like a double-scoop cone this time of the summer??) but which is actually pretty bad for you, especially compared to real food.

Real food.  Sustaining.  Which is what adoration is, actually.  A disciplined steady diet of thinking about the love of my life, (well, yes, Bob, that’s you, but I mean….), the One Who gave His life to give me mine back.

And like the future food critic says in this vid, “Umm, ummm! Delicious!”

 

Frog legs for dinner…again?

Call me weird (and it’s okay, probably others already have) but I LOVE frogs and lizards and snakes and turtles.  I’ve been known to find fascinating specimens in our yard during early morning gardening, and taken it in to visit my husband who is still in bed. 

As I said…weird.

But definitely one of my favorites would be the croaking/jumping beastie.  They come in all sizes and colors, and they sing me to sleep on summer nights.  I don’t know the difference between frogs and toads, and I don’t particularly care; that’s my biology-teacher husband’s department.  But it’s just always a treasure to find them and hold them, to which Bob (the soft-hearted nature-loving guy that he is) always says, “put him down, he’s a scared little creature!”

That said, I will qualify my love of all things herpetologic by adding that I

Allowable Defects

Ho! Thank you, Federal Food and Drug Admin.

Faith and Footsteps

Do you have any idea what’s in your food?  I mean what’s really in there?  Believe it or not, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actually has a portion of their handbook subtitled, “Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans.”  Yes that’s right!  The FDA has a standard for allowable defects for the foods you eat every day. If you’re eating right now, I suggest you put the food away!

• Canned mushrooms are allowed to contain up to 20 maggots of any size per 100 grams.
• Apples are permitted to contain up to 11% of mold.
• Peanut butter may have an average of one rodent hair per 100 grams.
• Tomato sauce may include no more than 15 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams.

First, let me apologize for ruining your appetite. These are just a fragment of the…

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Who is that?

OH!  The things I can do on my new computer!!  Messing about with photos is just so much fun!

Those who know me, know this is not what I look like, (albeit most have never seen me first thing in the morning).  YAOW-ZA

I tried to find a free glamour photo editing app, but despite wasting an inordinate amount of time in doing so, I was unsuccessful.  Either, a) such an item doesn’t exist (at least for free, because I’m not going to waste money trying to look like a red carpet wannabe), and b) even if it does exist, I’ve tried to picture myself as a modern day version of Marilyn Monroe, but something gets horribly lost in the translation.  So here’s what I found:

Migraine morning

I’m writing this with a migraine.  I hate them.   But my mother had them, my brother used to have them, so I’m following in a fine, well-trod family tradition, not one I would recommend.

I first noticed it around 3:30 this morning, but chose to “wait and see” hoping it was only a simple headache that would go away if I fell back to sleep–mild case of denial, that.  People with true migraine syndrome will understand that the medication prescribed by the physician works more efficiently (translation: faster, more complete relief) when taken at the first

I Don’t Want This

This is such a cool poem.  Right, I know that doesn’t sound very sophisticated, but since I’m not a poet, I’m satisfied with that assessment.  Here’s why I like it: The author, Rose at http://seekingyoufirst.com/, has it tagged under “motherhood”, which intrigues me.  I’m thinking (Rose, I’m willing to stand corrected) that the author came up against some crazy arguments about how staying home to raise your children is somehow a waste of potential skill and talent.  

Like raising children doesn’t take skill, talent, and several more virtues besides?  (Okay, now I’m just getting revved up.  Best not go there.)  Here’s from Rose, a poignant statement:

What If I told you I don’t want this?

What if I told you I wanted to trade in for less…

Would you see me as weak?

Would I cease to be a pillar of strength?

Would I somehow become less intelligent?

I know this is what I’ve worked for,

But this is not what I want.

I’m not her, I am not that woman!

I don’t want this and I don’t want that.

I need more of…

What if I told you I want, no need, to trade in for less.

How could I, with so much–

Settle for such less?

 

Ahh… but it’s   so      much      more.

 

I don’t want this!

Check out Rose’s site!

Where’d THAT come from?

Status report: my garden is semi-surviving despite this June’s horrid hot/dry spell.  Here in Missouri it appears the wheat is getting in okay, but I’m concerned for the corn if we don’t get some rain soon.  If y’all have a few spare thunderclouds, you might send them our way.  Just keep the twisters. 

Is that too much to ask?

Even though my garden is surviving the shock, I’m not sure my husband will when he gets the city water bill…it should come any day now.  Actually, he knows the score and is more than supportive with my gardening habit hobby.  With all the musical instruments and classic comic books and thin, round pieces of plastic “art” (he prefers the more expensive blu-ray to the less esteemed DVD…), I suppose we’re even-steven.  At least he can eat my time-well-spent.

So look what I found this morning on my

Open your hand, and…voila!

My husband is not a lumberjack, but he’s not afraid of hard work either.  I think I’ve told this story before, in a bit more detail perhaps, but it’s still one of my faves:

One of our notorious Midwest storms had blown through, and in its wake we had an intimidatingly sizable branch in our side yard.  All Bob had was an axe, and so out he went to get started.  Not long into what he expected to be hours of work, a friend “just happened” to drive by and invited Bob to use his new chainsaw.  Whew! 

Still, it was quite a bit of timber now piled up, but—low and behold!—here comes some young men with a flat bed, and $30 later our yard was cleaned up.

But it all started with Bob’s axe in hand.

Segway to the scene described below: God is talking to a very hesitant hero-to-be, gearing him up for the important adventure of