The truth of God's love, the Encouragement we all need and occasional humor
Author: anitashope
Retired Quality Manager but still have the "Why" curiosity drive so I am turning my love for Christ and nature into my new why chase and am trying to discover more of His word as it relates to His love for His creation.
There is something infectious about a smile. Even though you may not know the person, you will smile in return. A baby smiles back at you just by seeing you smile or the mischievousness of children can make you smile.
A photo of my youngest stealing a piece of BBQ chicken (Now a chef)
Smiles are a way we show love, happiness, joy and kindness to name a few ways. Smiles are a way we show our inner light. But we are not the only beings that smile. Animals smile when they see someone they love, it being human or one of their own kind. Since blogging I have become fond of many photographers works but I found some pictures of Debbie Smyth that just made me giggle and I thought I would make a post on SMILING animals. Thank you Debbie and other photographers for making us smile.
This white dog even smiles with his eyes. Too very precious and one of my favorite pics.
Remember than a smile is also a show of kindness. If you can be anything…Be kind.
Art is very objective and life is ever a challenge so when you put the two together you get living art and living art can be terrifying or the most beautiful thing you could see. Artist over time have tried to capture the beauty of life as they see it but for me I have reconnected with the medium of photography now that I have retired. Many photographers here in this blogging world have exquisitely captured the beauty of this world and life as they see it and they share it with us.
I love the beauty of nature and thank God for His handiwork to awe us sometimes or make us giggle sometimes as nature like other mediums of art is tied to our emotions.
Today it is snowing. The first winter snow. Now in November we did have a freak snow come through with 14″ of wet heavy snow but that was in the fall. And after that storm, weather has been really mild. Just last week it was in the 40’s and for January that’s unusual…and weird. I fear we will pay for that mildness for the remaining of winter. This week temps have been in the teens but even with cold temps nature’s art was available to see if you looked for it. Below are a few pictures to share of what I saw first thing this morning. With a better camera than my phone, I am sure the art of snow would be more breathtaking. But it beautiful and peaceful to watch.
Everything looking pristine and fresh…and cold. Although the bird feeder is completely covered so the birds are having to did out their treats.
When going through the art of life, remember to paint to paint gently. Paint with encouragement, love and with an abundance of kindness. Kindness is felt in all of nature and can make your painting shine the beauty that God has intended.
The silliness of quick poetry on a tired Friday night. Thanks to Linda G Hill and M for the fun challenge of “flew/flu/flue.” Come join us for Just Jot January, see the zaniness that we can come up with and say Hi.
We are all birds of one kind of feather or another but we all want love and kindness, so remember to always be kind. And if you live in the midwest like me…its coming y’all…
Patience is a hard to obtain word when you are faced with various challenges. I remember as a young mom praying for patience with my over active ADD child only to open my eyes in time enough to see him sitting in the middle of the dining room table turning the sugar bowl on it side to watch the cascade of sugar spill onto the table.
full bowl on the table
I learned quickly not to pray for patience but have learned as I have gotten older to appreciate patience in others as well as myself. It is an acquired attribute. In August of last year, most of you know I started a process of corrective bone alignment surgery in my feet. Left foot first, then in November the right foot. Being in your 60’s is not a good time to learn how to walk again but it is what I have had to do with much patience. And slowly we are getting there but I am still using a cane to assure balance. Hopefully by February we can be done with it but I am not going to rush it. Most people are very respectful of a gray haired old lady with a cane and I will patiently plug along until I feel comfortable making a full stride.
So thank you to all those who have cheered me on. By spring I should be able to “have camera will travel” and participate in some of the fun photo challenges I see here on word press. And thanks to gc for the fun word and the great prompt to share.
So in closing as the word prompt says – patience – try to show some and have some. And in all things that you do, try to be KIND. Your kind gesture may the the spark of sunshine someone needs to help them get through the day.
Sad confession of NOT always understanding prompts and it taking me nearly 3 months to get that #1LinerWed means ONE LINE…
so since I should obey the rules finally, it will be long as I must remind also for everyone to always be kind.
OK, so I am breaking the rule again but I need to introduce the wonderful people who make prompts for us to play with ; Linda G Hill with JJJ2019 & #1LinerWed
How can you write about yourself. With Ritu calling today’s prompt from Linda’s Just Jot January prompt, she chose “self “as our prompt word to write about.
I fully agree with Linda’s take as self is many parts of you. So for self I chose to write about my alter ego self of Skeeter C. As a face painter, Skeeter does functions with the church, community and PUNCH to help promote kindness and the love of Christ.
Skeeter C. Clown
Skeeter has an alter ego herself that is Scatter C but I don’t have pictures of her. Scatter likes to go to hospitals and visit those who will tolerate her scatter brained self. She really was standing behind the door when the brains were handed out. Oh my, that was not a kind thing to say. Sometimes truth hurts, Sorry Scatter. Both selfs like to promote kindness, gentleness and encouragement. Having been on the opposite end of those attributes more times than they cared for they can really see the value of kindness and how if everyone could be kind there is an opportunity to engulf the world and maybe soften the hurt and sadness of it just a bit.
So I bid you, along with Skeeter C and Scatter C to be kind. If we can turn more frowns upside down and put more sparkles into those sad eyes, think how much fun that would be. Oh, and the “C” in their name stands for Christ as He is the center of what they do.
What a exciting word Debbie Smyth has challenged us with for One Word Sunday. I don’t really have my own pictures but tomorrow promises to be a new day so I thought I would join in. New means a fresh start, replacement of something old or broken or the beginning a whole different adventure. For me its a whole NEW adventure or job as it were. Last February I retired from 40 years of quality control and management of the manufacturing process. A much needed and well deserved rung of my latter but of late, even though I have fully enjoyed my writing and my new found friends across the world, something was still lacking. So when my church asked me if I would be interested in being the secretary for the church, I thought about it for a while and then said yes. Going from standing the firm line on making sure the manufacturing process was correct to answering the phone and being gentle like the previous secretary was may be a bit of a challenge. While I have always been a strong proponent of always being kind, now I have to add gentle into the equation.
Can it be done
So as I start my new chapter( its only part time) I will have to add a reminder not only to be kind but to also be gentle. That also is a fruit of the spirit mentioned in scripture.
It’s a word than dons power or specialty as in “master of my house” or “jack of all trades and master of none”; then in golf there is the Masters Tournament each spring in Augusta Ga. or in biblical times and even up to current times there is the master/slave relationships of people. For today’s Jot in January we are following Linda and Sadje’sprompt of master and since it is also a Sunday my mind went only in one direction – The Master.
It is my belief that all people follow. Even those that lead, follow. They follow what they believe to be the truth according to their own priorities and these priorities are gain by things they have lived through and assessed to be the truth in their hearts and mind. And that truth is their master.
Look at all the good and bad leaders of this world we have seen thus far. They lead from their hearts and were able to convince others that his/her priorities were correct and true until someone else came along with a better idea of what they believe to be true. I think in each person’s heart, whether it be for mastering his own life or mastering the hearts of a nation, it starts with being true to what he believes as the truth and that therein is the root of the problem.
In John 18:37, Jesus explains to Pontius Pilate that he is the witness of the truth where Pilate retorted “What is truth”. Philippians 4:8 reminds us that “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on such things.”
In my opinion when you take life and boil it down to the stickiness left in the bottom of the pan there are only two defining truths and therefore two defining masters – the Masters of Good and Evil and who those Masters are. You can walk in the gray matter between the two for a while but there will be a day where a choice will need to be made. The first choice you have to make and that choice will decide your direction of choices is do you even believe there really is a Good Master and Evil Master.
My beliefs are there is definitely a Good Master and an Evil being that wants to be a master but has already lost. He is just going to take as many as he can away from the Good Master through his trickery and lying by deceiving those into believing the Good Master is not the truth. The choice is intimately up to each individual as he searches for his own truth and that which makes him happy.
The choice
Everything we do in life is a choice and my hope is that more of us choose the Good Master as he will bring to us the love, tenderness and kindness we are all so hungry for.
The screen door slammed as Jerry entered the kitchen sniffing the air of fresh backing cornbread just coming out of the oven.
“Sup, grandma. Smells great in here.”
“Sup? All that education you have had and that’s the way you talk.”
“Sorry. Good afternoon Grandmother. How are you this fine evening?” he teased pecking her on the cheek.
“Hmp, now you are just being ridiculous,” she said as she sipped in her tea. “There is sweet tea in the fridge and get out the syrup so it can be warming up a bit.”
Reaching in the fridge, he pulled out the bottle of Georgia Cane Syrup made by Johnson’s farm at the southern part of the state. He poured himself a large glass of tea and came to sit at the table across from his grandmother as she finished slathering butter of the steaming ears of corn. Reading of the bottle of syrup he noted the date on the back label.
“Does syrup get old?” he asked.
“No, why do you ask?” she said.
“It’s got a date on the label.”
“Oh, that’s a best used date, before it starts to separate,” she explained.
“Separate?”
She stopped with her hand on her hips and stared at her grandson. “Have you learned nothing from me and this farm? What is syrup made from?”
A gleam lit in his eyes knowing a good banter was in the making. “Well that depends. You have maple syrup where they pull sap from a tree, boil it down to make syrup.”
He glanced up to see the good natured scowl deepen on her brow.
“We don’t grow maple trees here in the south. We grow cane. Your grandpa had 2 full acres ever year before he passed. The sugar cane juice, sap, is boiled down as the cane is crushed. If you let it sit too long on the shelf it will turn to sugar crystals – separate. Here, take your plate and grab you some field peas and greens from the stove. Pork chops, corn and cornbread are already here on the table. How big a piece of cornbread do you want?”
“Normal size for now,” he said. “Then I will get a bigger slice to sop up remaining juices on my place before I add the syrup.”
“Yea, that’s the best part of the meal,” agreed Grandma as they settled in to a warm enjoyable meal.
Growing up in the late 1900’s gave a different meaning to the family meal. It was a time for fun shared over good food, teasing to help you grow with lots of assurance of love and togetherness. We seem to have lost that as we are rushing to the next battle to conquer. A lot of the encouragement has been lost and we find ourselves at times not knowing exactly what the next step needs to be. So I challenge you this year to try to regain some of that back. Love on you family members and friends and encourage each other. And as always…remember to be kind. Even when drawing a hard line if needed, it cane be done with love, encouragement and KINDNESS.
Linda’s guest prompter today, Virgobeauty, gave us a word prompt ofenigmatic. Such an interesting word reminiscent of times gone by with its amount of use for today but still an interesting word. Come join in on the fun of Just Jot January and say hey to everyone. It promises to be an enigmatically good time.
ENIGMATIC DAWN
Early Dawn
The early light sneaks in, etching out shadows of night before
With mystifying stealth, where no man had trod before
With unfathomable skill she stares on open untouched land
Making sure she touched places where no one alone can stand
Early Morn
With brightness she increases, making the impenetrable darkness flee
The valley below eyes twinkle in hopes of the newness it may see
The enigmatic dawn flits quickly by as the brightness of the day begins
Leaving the question behind for all of “Who today will win?”
– Anita Neal –
Brand New Day
May the brightness of your life shine as the start of a brand new day. We get the opportunity to start fresh each day, leaving the woes and dramas of previous days behind. Remember God shines His light on you so that you can shine it on others. Always remember to be kind. Kindness is a love gift from above. Let your drop of kindness flow outward creating ripples of joy across the waters of life.
and it taking me nearly 3 months to get that #1LinerWed means ONE LINE…
; 
