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.
Today we have more fun with Hammad Rais and Weekend Sky #60. I just had to play along as the sky today has been tumultuous, from rain to spiting snow and now the wind is crazy. We are under a wind advisory. BUT, it makes for great pictures. Even though I am no professional, it is fun to join in. So come show us your beautiful sky.
The Red Tailed Hawks are not even having to do anything but stretch out their wings and float on the currents of the wind. But the contrasting gray colors with the occasional blue patches of sky is what makes it so beautiful.
Since we are talking about weekend skies, I leave you with a sunset image of kindness for you to reflect on.
Always Be Kind enough so that the deaf may hear your kindness and the blind can see it.
Devereaux Frazier and Beth Amanda are currently hosting the Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge which was started by our star writer Christine Ray. We hope to offer all of you something that will spark your creativity and willingness to participate.
Today’s prompt—use the words for reasons they don’t understand in a piece of poetry.
With all of our eyes looking across the ocean, or maybe even next door, we see the greed and cruelty being dumped by one man onto the tenderness of those who don’t understand. So I give you my thoughts through “Who What Why”
For reasons we don’t understand
Greed and cruelty have fill the land
We start this life hoping it to be so grand
Then life surrounds us as though unplanned
Time moves quickly through the hourglass sand
Leaving us confused for reasons we don’t understand
As many of us have asked and prayed, remember those misplaced by the cruelty of war and the oppression of “bullies” all over this world. Especially for Ukraine. For if this door does not get closed, we could be the next saying – “for reasons we don’t understand”
Never forget the power and beauty of kindness, regardless of how small. It can have ripple effects to touch us all.
After blogging now for several years I started doing encouragements for my church, then I started occasionally posting them here. Then came along Susi Bocks’ encouragement of my writing and many of you who have appreciated my encouraging thoughts and have been very kind to me. Thank you for giving me a small voice. Twice now, The Short of It/I Write Her has featured my writing which has encouraged me to the point that I wanted to share some of the short stories I have written that are TOOOO long to post. So I took Susi’s advice and created an anthology featuring my short stories and some of my poetry. A couple of these poems, Susi featured this February.
If you are interested, you can go to Amazon and purchase either the Kindle version or the paperback version of Hope (An Anthology of Christian Perspective) and I hope you will be encouraged.
I thank you in advance if you do but my hope is that even here I can encourage one person who needs a hug. We all need hugs. Below is one of the poems of the book that I also had posted on my blog last year. This kind of sets the theme of the book.
Raindrops of the Heart
Raindrops of the heart can be a sad place to start
As life of those loved around us do inevitably depart
But Raindrops of the heart can also come from joy
As we remember the fun things we both did enjoy
Raindrops of the heart do not always come from grief
As laughter of the heart shows raindrops of relief
Raindrops of the heart are moments to be shared
As raindrops from the heart show moments that we cared.
Thank you for reading today. Remember the power and beauty of Kindness and share it often.
Good morning friends. Today is bitter cold here in the Midwest BUT…it’s the last day of bitter cold. Even though we did not get the normal amount of snowfall this season, we did get abnormally longer spans of bitter cold. But spring will arrive victoriously like the warmth and love that God gives us daily. Winter’s cold did not overtake us, and we can use this thinking for all of our trials. God’s warm love can help us overcome any cold challenge that we may face.
We are super-victors with a joy that comes from experiencing the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us. Oswald Chambers
The underlying foundation of the Christian faith is the undeserved, limitless miracle of the love of God that was exhibited on the Cross of Calvary; a love that is not earned and can never be. Oswald Chambers
It is also a love that can never be taken away. however, we can refuse it and walk away in our own stubbornness…but why would we do that? This love is the love that catches us when we feel like we are falling, a love that comforts us when we feel as though the world has forgotten us, a love that warms us when we feel cold right down to our core. This amazing love can never be taken away from us.
So relax in the love of God. Feel His warm love surround you. He’s got this, you will be fine. And as you share in the love and kindness of God, remember to share it with others. Kindness carries an unimaginable beauty.
Hammad Rais creates a fun and interesting way for us to share the beauty in the sky around us. Come join in with Weekend Sky and share your world.
This is a most special weekend sky for us in the Midwest…it’s the clearing out of winter’s hold as promised temperatures for Sunday bring in the start of spring.
Winter’s hold will soon break
After the two inches we got we got Thursday, winter is not going out easily. The thin wispy white you see is snow still trying to rain on us. But alas, tomorrow will be the last of the stronghold…and it will be done with a vengeance of single digits.
Beautiful sky
But Sunday brings in 40s – 50s. And all next week in the 50s. Yay!! Come on spring. And as we get into more tolerable temps, remember the value of Kindness as you go about your day.
What a crazy week we have had…50 degrees, no 60s, no 30s and now more snow. Welcome to the Midwest in March. I long for my sunflowers again this year, so I give you remembered photos and a poem of hope.
It’s Coming
Alas its coming, I can smell it on the air
The bursting of spring, a damsel so fair
I can feel the ground, it hasturn to mush
But we must wait, the new storm’s a rush
It will cover the ground in a layer of white
It doesn’t matter, our hopes are still bright
For spring is coming, the buds are showing
Flowers will be blooming, the sky glowing
For spring is coming
Come join in with Cee and her Flower of the Day. Flowers make us smile and we all need more of that. Even though we still may be masked, smiles of kindness can still come through your eyes. Smile and be kind often.
Those of us that are still in free countries sometimes forget how very blessed we are. This letter to Jesus brings the beauty and reality of this world into perspective. May we all realize how lucky some of us are. Thank you Marlagro
Good Saturday afternoon friends. Come in an enjoy my quirky humor and my real encouragement for today. You know how some commercials you see, just kind of stick with you? I am not trying to promote this company but this commercial is priceless. Plus it shows the simplicity of life – and the value of peanut butter.
Too many times we humans make life complicated. We want things we can’t have, things we don’t NEED and make poor choices in pursuing those things. Then we want to know why we are miserable when they don’t come to fruition. The old adage of putting the cart before the horse.
Scripture reminds us all the time about what our goals should be, regardless of our current station or on which side of the cart we placed the horse.
BUT…don’t you love it when a statement or thought says exactly what you are wanting to hear, then there is a but that shows the leaving out any conditions that may go with said statement. Yes, God does want us to have our hearts desires as long as those desires fall in line with the plans He has for us. He always has a plan for us.
There are people all over this world at different levels of success and we are to use our success regardless of level of life to remind the world around us of the beauty of God, especially the level or act seems insignificant. Think of the widow and her mite…she was probably below poverty level, yet she gave humbly of what she had. And she has been remembered for thousands of years for that. She did not feel any powerful at her level but look at the power of her testimony.
If you were able to see the video I posted at the top, all Ralph cared about was the peanut butter. He didn’t care that medicine was coming with it. Its a simple desire. So what is our simple desire, what is our peanut butter? While that question needs to be answer individually, scripture reminds us all of God’s purpose for us and that is Hislove. He created us out of His love, He sent Jesus to save us out of His love for us, and He still guides us today out of His love for us. We may not know what our peanut butter is but we are definitely His peanut butter.
We are precious in His sight
Never think that what you do for Him and others is unimportant. When it is done with Love, God feels it, regardless of size or human ideas of its importance. To Him it is all important.
We are made for His purpose, so let us shine out His light in all we do, and as always remember to be kind.
