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.
Good morning friends. If you are in the USA, I hope you are having a good holiday. If you were in the path of Ida, my prayers go out to you. Nature can at times be a truly unimaginable beast.
I did not make a post on Amazing Stonework buildings last week as weather was not camera outside weather. As a matter of fact, it cleared a bit on Friday when I was finally able to take these pictures of the First Presbyterian Church of Davenport. Another beautiful made of that colorful red granite.
While this church was started in 1833, the location and style more match that this structure was built late 1800s or early 1900s.
As with some of the other churches from this Hill Top area, it was hard to get far away enough from the building itself to get a full view of the building so there are several picture of the more amazing features.
This is the main front of the building with two entrances. The main one under the portico and then a second one with stairs to the far right. Notice the beautiful curved wall below the three stained glass windows.
In this wall are beautiful stained glass windows as well. You also can see the beauty of the granite from this shot with each block being placed to show off its individual color and details.
The second door into the church has a lovely archway that is delicately detailed.
Check out the cross at the top eve, the details along the eve and around the arch and the leaf details at the bottom side of the arch
There are several turrets on this building showing their own style of artistry.
This one is on the west side and has a pointed roof with octagonal type shape. Its windows and stone structures around them show the beauty of craftsmanship of the era.
The two on the east side are more rounded in shape but still show the beauty and details in the stone.
Check out the windows on them as well. But my favorite windows for this church are between these two turrets. The windows, the stone color, the details of the columns surrounding the windows are all stunning.
Truly beautiful from the onside as well.
With the beauty of the windows of this building, I have to tie in with Ludwig’s Monday Windows. Make sure you review the other post on Ludwig page for their windows – the plane with which we review our worlds. They are quite interesting and amazing. I also remind you to share the beauty of old stone buildings with us here on Amazing Stonework. They can be brick, mortar or stone. My goal is to share the beauty of architecture of old that we don’t really have with our modern structures. Come share what you see here.
And in closing, I remined you always to be kind. Kindness is an attribute that can last a long time, like these amazing buildings. Be amazingly kind.
Normally with my blogging I am sharing my world but I thought this would be a fun challenge as I have never done it before. I had a birthday over the weekend and maybe it time to start new challenges. Melanie B Cee does a fun looking challenge called Share Your World where you answer a set of questions and since it is a holiday and I am home, lets play.
QUESTIONS
Do you believe in soul-mates? (my definition of ‘soul mate’ is the IDEAL partner romantically).
No. I do believe that there are things that attract us to people but if we rely souly on that for a marriage, then the marriage will fail. Marriage is a partnership of respect, work and love.
What are three scents you like?
A summer shower, especially after a hot day. Flowers while still in the garden, lilies are a favorite but roses come close. Christmas trees or evergreen boughs at Christmas time.
What are some things you might be considered too old to do, but that you enjoy?
Going on long hikes through nature. While physically I am sort of able to do that, but due to the stupidity of youth, my knees are shot.
Blowing Rock, NC
What is one food you absolutely refuse to share?
I don’t think I have one. If I find something truly delicious I want to share it so we can all experience it deliciousness. If it is something I myself am making, I make sure I have plenty to go around.
YUM!!! A truly southern delight – pork chop with gravy, turnip greens, black eyes and FRESH stewed tomatoes over buttered bread.
GRATITUDE SECTION (as always, optional)
I am grateful for my health. I told my kids on this birthday that I am not old…yet. When I turn 80, then I may be old. I see may friends who are younger than me who are having health issues usually associated with old age and I am grateful I am not experiencing them.
And in closing any of my posts, I always close with a reminder of being kind.
Cee’s FOTD shows us again the beauty of gardens even as fall approaches with her post for Flower of the Day. I am adding more photos of my accidental growing hobby, a plant that I did not realize would give Kudzu a run for its money, Birdnest gourds. I trimmed them back some yesterday to cull the attempt for full takeover of the yard, 2 garbage bags worth of cutback. I will not plant them again here out front but in reality I have enjoyed watching them grow. They bloom twice a day. One bloom in early morning and one in early evening, so that has been interesting. Each bloom does not create a gourd.
Here we have the baby gourd
And here is how we look today, the one on the far right.
These average 8-10 inches in diameter but when you take in at the circumference, they are huge, 27-29 inches…and they are still growing. You don’t pick them until their stems dry out on the vine, then you store them in cool, dry and dark place until fully dry and hard. I will be curious to see how much they shrink when they dry.
Three more gourds, We currently have 15
But we do have 1 ten foot tall sunflower still growing, not counting the 3 four foot ones the birds planted by the feeder this year that should bloom in the next week.
Sunflower refusing to be over taken by the gourd.
So I give you fruit and flowers for today’s FOTD. Enjoy them and have a great weekend. And as always, remember to be kind.
Good morning friends. In life, we use analogies to help us create mind pictures in understanding a purpose that is beneficial for us. Kind of like Jesus using parables to help people understand His teachings. In today’s devotional with Oswald Chambers he stated :
“God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us.” Oswald Chambers
In other words, God’s purpose for man is not to develop us into wonderful people but to show how wonderful we can be when we allow His purposes to come out of us. So, be a grape today and allow the sweetness in you to flow out to others.
And remember to be kind. Its the sweetest attribute of Jesus.
When I first started blogging in 2018, this was one of my first posts. It was before I started adding pictures and scripture references. I am a firm believer in a picture being worth 1,000 words. Some will look through to just see the pictures and if I can get the message in the pictures as well, then we may reach that one person that needs reaching with a message showing kindness.
I was reading back through some of my old post and thought this message was still very relevant, so I have revised it by adding pictures and scripture references. Last month, I lost one of my precious babies, Mimi, and I firmly believe she did have a soul. I could see it in her eyes.
July 2018
You know that look you try not to show when someone makes a really stupid comment, or maybe they just need to be slapped back into reality for other reasons. You want to do the honors of the reality slap but you reframe due to the kind person that you are so you just walk away shaking your head.
I react this way when I hear people make comments about dogs or animals not having a soul. Hey, they were created first. Okay, so what defines a soul. After much research I found three “definitions”, and I use that term loosely as the soul comes from God and who can ever know the mind of God. So below are the three definitions that I thought described this concept of a soul the best:
The spiritual immaterial of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.(immortal meaning not dying but crossing over to God at death)
The principal of life, feeling, thought and action from those attributes.
my favorite – The part that consists of mind, character, thought and feeling.
Our soul is what makes us who we are. The ability to analyze a situation, and act on it through our personality or character with compassion. Now that compassion can be either gentle or strong. In scripture, the bible is descriptive in explaining God creating all life and gave it as a gift.
It is important sometimes to understand the original language the scriptures were written in so that you have a better understanding of the words used.
The above verse describes animals having hayyah (life). However, in the Hebrew it also has the word nephesh in combination with hayyah, which is the exact same wording as the description of the soul in the creation of Adam. In other words, though nephesh is only translated as “life” here, the Hebrew speaks of the soul. Animals thus have a nephesh hayyah just like Adam. Marianne Widmalm
Think of the things dogs do for us, not only with their protective abilities but all things. Think of your worst day and your dog comes to you to quietly sit by your side, sometimes with its head in your lap or they pushed under your arm to let you know “I am here”. How about the occasional lick on the face to wash away the tears you shed. Dogs KNOW the feelings of people and are especially tuned into their masters. They laugh with us when we are happy by bouncing around. Picture this, you just get home from work and are greeted with 100% tail wagging, circle turning unconditional love. How about if you trip and fall. You are immediately surrounded to assure all is well. And if you are hurt, they are by your side offering assistance.
Think of the times when this is all reversed, your dog is terrified of the vet or a thunderstorm. Now they are looking to you for love and support and when you give it, it strengthens the bond. Even when dogs are mistreated by their owners, they remain loyal. Dogs reflect God’s love for us. Always there, always protecting (even though we may not see it) and ALWAYS loving. Even when we don’t deserve it.
I saw a video on FB the other day of two dogs, one on the floor and one on the sofa. The one on the sofa had a cookie and as he bit into it, it broke in half. After eating the half in his mouth, with his nose, he pushed the other half over to the dog on the floor. Now I know not all dogs would do this but why would even one? Because of its inner being, the soul.
Think of the times our dogs let us know of dangers heading our way. We understand that the dangers may not be real for us but still the dog sees something they feel is not right and they let us know. How many times has your dog looked at you asking the question “Do you not see this?” Yes, we do. But we know how to handle the wind tossed scary plastic bag that is moving up and down the street. We laugh at them sometimes but they are always in protective mode – some more and some less – because of their love for us. And the more we love them, the more they love us. An ever evolving circle. Kind of like hoe God loves us..
My whole point of this is to remind us (in my opinion) of dogs and all animals having the gift of a soul. Everything that has breath is a creation of God and the soul is a gift given out of love to all living things. All of it reflects God’s love for all of creation.
And to help drive my closing comment – even though I know it is a controversial point – how can any creature who shows love and shows kindness NOT have a soul. Its part of the inner nature of God.
While we in Iowa are not suffering from Ida, we are having the typical summer rainy day. I am not complaining as we needed it badly. I was able to do my chore for the day before it started which was laying out some repair sidewalk pavers from a plumbing catastrophe from this spring. But since about 11:00am it has been softly to occasionally raining hard. I was thoroughly entertained by watching my birds. First it was the daddy cardinal that was still somewhat in molt. He looked even more stressed as what feathers he had regrown were not wet making him look like what we call down south “a drowned cat”. I found an example for you on the internet…
Now this cat is obviously getting a bath but you can tell how much he hates water. He just looks bedraggled, like the bird I saw. But I was very touched by this daddy bird. He was trying to train one of his fledglings how to eat from the feeder. He would show him, then he would feed him to make sure he understood the process. It was interesting and made me smile as all creation understand kindness. Mankind was the one that broke the system…in Eden…but that another story for another day. Today we are smiling.
The birds that were the most fascinating on this rainy day were the hummers. They were unfazed by the rain, sitting out on top of the other feeder hooks as it rained down on top of them with only occasional shaking of their feathers. My hummingbird feeder hangs under the eaves of the house so it is somewhat protected from the rain.
They usually always feed from the outer hole where she is about to land but as the rain would roll around the edge of the gutters above, it would drip right on her head. Boink! This young female would look up at the gutter and you could hear her say “What the hey!”
The wind and rain come up the hill from the river below and blow between mine and my neighbors house and that can sometimes create a strong tunnel of wind. After a few minutes she caught on and moved to the inside feeder hole giving me a better chance of closer pictures. They have gotten use to me always being there so they don’t shy away too often. Especially when I put out fresh food, like I did today.
All of nature is so fascinating and I have really gotten into the backyard birdwatching, well actually this is my front yard but you get the idea. So I post this so that even on a dreary day, if you look hard enough, you can find something to smile about. Maybe its nature, or a good book or what ever you desire is, just let more smiles out. I promise it will make your day brighter.
And as always, I remind you to be kind. It will make you feel more like smiling which makes you beautiful.
Good morning friends. This morning I bring you needy ducks. As I walked close to the river at the park, I saw them coming. Running as only ducks can do knowing people may have something they want. I stopped and watched them come closer.
As the braver ones up front stopped within two feet of me, they waited expectantly, softly quacking and muttering. This reminded me of how expectant some people can be of a church or Christianity as a whole. Only to stop short, mutter softly, not understanding what the real gift is that could be given.
I had nothing to give these ducks so pretty soon they turn their backs to me, complaining as they go and slowly waddle back out of the sunlight to the shade of the trees.
Too often I see people coming to the church to get out of a jam. The church will do what they can only to see the previous pattern of this person’s life repeat itself. Some will get so disgruntled that they go back to the dark shade of the trees without truly understanding the benefits God can give them with His light.
“God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill HIS purpose as long as we continue to walk in the light.” Oswald Chambers
We as a church, not necessarily the church we attend, but Christ’s church, must be willing to allow our light to shine thus so, for seekers to see it, want it and learn to walk in it. Oswald Chambers reminds us that it is the work that God does through us who understand this light that counts for the kingdom. Now that our churches are trying to reopen from this virus, it is that much more important for our light to shine. Not just for those we know who already understand the light, for we all who enjoy seeing it as well, but especially for those who are seeking the light. If we can show others how to quench their thirst with the river of light instead of the darkness of the shade trees, then they can be refreshed and encouraged.
As our churches and lives begin to reopen, allow God to work through you to help refresh others, giving everyone some much needed hope of survival in this life. Let’s let our light shine, showing all how to reach up for Jesus’s open hand. It is there waiting to be grabbed as He is anchored with the Father. Their love together can calm any fear, soothe any hurt and encourage you beyond measure. Reach up for His hand.
And as always, I remind you to be kind. Kindness comes from Christ, so let our kindness be a light to someone needing it.
I see the little guys swoop all around this water thing. They drink from it through those tiny holes. My beak won’t fit so maybe I can drink from the center. Nope too shallow. Everybody is over at the bath getting water. Too crowded for me. So I will just rest in the shade.
Young House Finch
What are you doing here? This is no place for you. Got to the bath with the big guys. This is for us little guys.
Hummer and Finch
I am not bothering you I am just resting.
Then go rest on your feeder. This one is ours.
Hummer and Finch
This cant be a feeder, there are no seeds. This is clear like water. And I was thirsty, less bodies are here.
We don’t eat seeds, we eat nectar from flowers. That’s is why my beak is thin to drink from flowers or here and yours is thick to crush seeds. Go to your seeds.
Hummer
The young ones just don’t get it sometimes. Can you believe that guy!
As we watch and laugh at the things of nature that amuse us, you can’t help but put words to what seems silly. These two birds watched each other for a good ten minutes before the finch decided to go to the large bird bath with his friends. I know the pictures are not real clear but I think you can still enjoy the silliness of the situation they created.
And as always, I remind you of the power of kindness. Even though they were totally different species of bird, they were kind and sharing of the space…for a short spell.
What would we have if we didn’t have the little workers who pollinate our flowers? We would miss out on all the photographs plus the unimaginable benefits we get from the work they do. Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge reminds us of the beauty we see all around us throughout the year. So today while I am showing various picture of my sunflowers(before they fell) the true subject is the bees that so loved these huge flowers.
When a bee lands on a flower, the pollen sticks to the tiny hairs on it legs. Then the bee takes this pollen, which is high in protein, to other flowers and finally to feed its developing offspring.
When water is added to the flower’s sugar, it creates nectar. The nectar is a food source for the bees that gives them energy to fly from flower to flowers, pollinating as it goes. If we didn’t have bees pollinating our plants, we would not have the vegetables and fruit we enjoy eating. It is all a part of the many intersecting rings of life.
So enjoy the many circles of life and understand how very much we need each other to survive. And in doing so, remember the extra advantage of being kind within all the circles. Kindness can be sweeter than any nectar from any flower.
Cee gives us great challenges for us to be creative and have fun and today I am going off the beaten path a bit with Flower of the Day and show you my jungle. Those who have read my post in the past know I had the jack-in-the-beanstalk sunflowers (12 footers) going there for a while until a storm came through and knocked them down – all except two. And the reason those are still standing is because of – my jungle. Every year I get a crazy flower in my bonnet and try to grow something I think would be fun only to have it take over my yard. This year was not exception.
My Jungle
You can see this crazy vine has even taken over the sunflower with wisps of the vine protruding outward at several places goin up the stalk. So what is this crazy vine that I thought would be fun to grow…
Birdnest Gourds…
They have taken over my baby Christmas trees
Currently I have about 8 -10 if they all make it and I don’t kill them first. My thought would be -“wouldn’t it be a fun project for the kids at church to paint the dried gourds”. Well we will see if I can complete the process. I will post pictures if we get that far.
In the mean time, remember to be kind. It is something you can always do even when not deserved.
