Daily writing prompt
What are the most important things needed to live a good life?
…HOPE…
The only thing I can take…
Live Wire…
Sometimes growth hurts…
Our Feelings may be fleeting
But our Character is NOT!
Your never gonna guess…
Psalms 139
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in—behind and before;
You have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, If I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?
I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Flowers figured it out…
Keep reaching…
… ??? !!! ” ” We are ALL on our way home, one way or the other!
Beloved…
I will let you in on a little secret…I did not choose my new name…
But I have no Doubt who gave it to me!
Chocolate?
Of all the LIFE INTERRUPTUS going around, it seems, why would writing a blog about chocolate be something I focus on? Hmmm…well, as much as I do like chocolate, and I do have some go to sweets, I can actually go without it for the most part.
I do have some random funny memories of chocolate, and I guess if one can ask me randomly about my chololate love, I can answer with randomly funny memories. At least that is what I am telling myself, as I sit here typing this.
I do remember eating a whole bag of Riesen chocolates, in one sitting, nearly causing myself to founder…don’t judge, I am proud of my accomplishments in chocolate and caramel.
I remember teaching my kids how to play poker and blackjack using m & ms as our different money currencies, and then we could eat our winnings. Not as fun as it sounds, since, by the time we were eating our winnings, they had passed through the sticky fingers of three little card cheaters.
I remember making, what others refer to as the best chocolate chip peanut butter cookies ever! I used to make a triple batch to sell at the church bake sale, and every time someone asked for the recipe, I told them that if I told them, I would have to kill them. Not kidding!
The last memory worth sharing is the one where I thought my husband had poop on his side and on the back of his shirt one morning, until he reminded me of our chocolate chip party from the night before, with a disgusted look on his face saying, “If you thought it was poop, why did you stick your finger in it, ugh”!
I guess this might be the reason that WordPress gave the chocolate question. Sometimes, what we think is something silly, or even oddly placed, can in fact be an opportunity for ideas. Who know, but I am happy to have made the effort to ponder and find an applicable answer, that isn’t more than a list of edible morsels.
I, personally, am walking away from this excercise with two stories for my monday posts, a feel good about making some other reader smile, and an overpowering urge to dump half a cup of Hershey Chocolate Syrup into my morning coffee…
To Be a Flower…
I dreamt of being a flower, blooming and then fading away… Perhaps the fragrance I leave behind will remind you of Him…
Investigating Truths…
Episode 9
Reflections from my daily read…
I will admit that as I am a creature of habit, I make an effort to spend at least a few minutes each day in the Bible. Some days I might get into a really good part and end up reading for hours. Life, weather, attitude, and a host of other scenarios can play out on any given day to have an effect on this creature’s habits!
If my time in the word becomes lacking, it can begin to unsettle other aspects of my day, mainly my writing! I will admit that my life is as far from organized as is possible, but for the most part, I am acclimated to chaos on a daily basis. I am guessing this to be the reason that my morning read is so necessary for carrying me through to the morrow. I have had to establish some attitude adjustment practices, to keep things in a healthy perspective.
As you may have guessed, I am going to be using the Bible as my Attitude Adjuster! Everyone has, at least once in their life, been lectured about how fortunate they should be for what they have, so I am not going there at all…quite frankly it makes me wanna throw up in my mouth a little, with each ignorantly gifted piece of advice, given from a place of comfort. Trust me, those with their face in the dirt, do not need others to point out that at least we have a toothbrush to get the dirt out of our teeth. What I am able to do, however, is reflect on the lives of those in the Bible. If Paul could write countless letters and passages in scripture, often from within a prison cell, I aspire!
Unlike Paul, I am blessed with a means to write down anything and everything from the comfort of my chair, clicking Save and Share willy nilly, with all the modern writing tools readily available. Try imagining how long and painstaking it must have been for anyone to write down and record information back then, let alone get it out on the wire to those in need. If you wanted to like or respond to anything Paul said, you would have to put your shoes on, pack your bag for a long journey, and hope you arrive before winter. If you wanted to let him know that you were coming, you had to either send a letter many months in advance, or just show up and hope he was located where you planned to visit.
By comparing myself to those who came before, I am simply sharing a method of thought that helps me place things into perspective. This is the place I go to bring back a sense of gratitude for what I do actually hold within my grasp. If I dwell on actual stuff in my hands, well, it does not help keep a healthy attitude. What I can attest to, is the fact that I am here…I have not starved to death, nor am I walking around naked, for which you can thank me!
If men and woman of biblical times could lead full lives in Christ Jesus, then for goodness sake, so can I!
We walk by GRACE…
I may not have what the world views as “much”…
But, God’s Grace does and will continue to sustain me!
I will never forget you Ralph…
I have been a fan of Beverly Cleary since I was a small child. I read most of her books, but the most vivid memories come from one book alone… Runaway Ralph! To this day I can picture a tiny mouse on a miniature motorcycle driving across the furniture. Once I was an adult and a mother, guess where we spent many a night storying it? Ralph and I found great joy in expounding on details of his little bike, things he was doing, or places he drove his set of wheels. I loved seeing the story come alive in my girls eyes. Thank you Beverly…
Investigating Truths…
Episode 8
Looking Up!
Believe it or not, this flower is actually a good three feet above my head! I would not have even noticed it, had I not paused for a moment to rest my aching back. I am not sure that I want to go as far as to say that I am glad I injured my back. But I can certainly appreciate the lessons gained from my recovery process. One of those lessons is that I need to slow down!
I learned to slow down both physically, as well as mentally. In the physical realm, too much of a good thing (walking) is never healthy without taking the time to make sure you are capable of pacing yourself. I am learning to slow my walking down, and also to take days off for a refuel. Selecting regular days to rest is something I have to force myself to do. Mentally, I think it is also very necessary to do the same thing…
Take a day off!?!
While realizing that it can be difficult, it’s so very necessary that we take a mental day off, once in a while! You know, shut the brain door… close the shutters to our internal house windows.
I hope you weren’t’ expecting me to expound on the mental day off, as there are too many self-help resources that have already saturated the market on this subject. Actually, I am not even going to spout anything useful in the physical activity department. I just like to “walk” you into an insight I’ve gained, rather than just throw it at you like a water balloon.
Beauty and goodness are all around us! Each and every day, the sun rises to reveal these things. It carries on toward darkness, til it’s replaced by the rising of the moon. Over and over, again and again, this happens. We’re given so many opportunities to see and experience all that God’s created just for our pleasure and enjoyment.
My insight, if you have not already figured it out, is this: Slow down, and take the time to LOOK UP!
Journey With Me! 