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.
“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b
Today’s devotion from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young was right on for me. ‘My Presence with you is both a promise and a protection.’
What an awesome reminder. As humans we tend to forget that and get wrapped up in our own self pity and despair, or ride that train of pride and self will forgetting who got us where we are or who has us protected in his hands. ‘The way to stay on the path of life is to keep your focus on Me.’ Awareness of God’s presence has always been our best protection whether on the mountain top of great things or deep in the valley of fear. Never let go of His hand.
Where ever you are in your life journey, remember His presence and try to reflect the grace, love and kindness he has bestowed on you to others. Its a way to make you feel even better than you are making others feel.
What is a line anyway…it’s the space between two dots.
When you look through nature and your surroundings, in my opinion, the only straight lines come from man. At least for any distance. God likes to make things interesting. Even when you look at things under the microscope, there may be burst of short straight lines but they are angled away from each other.
I love old stone architecture and all lot of that has some straight lines mixed in with curved lines balancing their beauty. These pictures are the straight line of a building of many floors accentuated by lines of rounded granite strips with curved lines thought them. The details between the windows is an interesting take on things you would maybe see in Egypt . It is quite beautiful and again a mixture of straight lines and curved.
The square lines from the granite block mixed with the curved molding lines.
The building is currently being renovated and turned into condos. The entry way is beautiful and I will do a post on this building when I do a series I am gathering pictures for about architectural stone buildings.
Lines created by multiple floors, love the lines at the roof lineDetails of the curved line work
I totally went over board with Cee’s CFFC and lines, sorry but I thought these lines were amazing.
Remember in all the beauty of the world you see, to reflect that beauty with kindness. You just may make someone’s day.
Photography is a wonderful means to create reminders of things we saw, things that move us and pull us back to that memory or things that scare us. The photo I am submitting saddens me each time I see it and recently I drove back out there and it is still the same. I ask the question to my self as I have no idea who to ask but …”Why is this allowed to remain this way?”
Death and crash of a tree in a place of remembrance for those who have live.
Grave was created 100 years ago
I changed this to black and white with heightened light and clarity to give it a more lost look of apathy. Fits in with this month celebration, as some do, of death.
Life that goes to fast to remember is a life not worth living. It is our story, good and bad, that makes us who we are. And nothing is all bad…there is always a silver lining somewhere, you just have to find it.
It is my Christian belief that we all have a purpose on this earth to share the gifts God has given us and he has given all gifts…love, kindness, blessings…the air we breathe. And I believe we are all meant to share his attributes in any way we can. So as you go about your day, try to remember to show kindness in any way you can.
There are many types of creatures on this earth, some we call solitary but I don’t think anything is truly solitary. It is not how God designs anything. I have been concerned for my dog Mimi as there seemed to be a sadness about her. She was a rescue and although I got her when she was young there are still underlying issues of trauma from her youth that still show 6 years later. I can tell from her behavior. I just wish I knew what they were so that maybe I could remedy her stress or fear.
Instead, I got her a playmate. At first it was “Whaaat is this???” But then a light started to shine in Mimi that I had not seen. She began to show tenderness and love. She has never been an affectionate dog and I had learned to accept that but it shied me away from rescues as while I knew many needed rescuing, I am not sure I am the best one for it. As the days have now turned into 3 weeks, Mimi now wags her tail and she comes up to be loved on – is it a jealously thing or is it a beginning of understanding of tenderness and love? I don’t know but I am glad to see it. I have a baby gate setup in the hall to the bedrooms and when Mimi has had enough, she whines to go to her room which is where she would spend a large part of the day before hand because that is where the bay window is for guard patrol of the front of the house. She is definitely a guard patrol dog – the entire street knows it.
I bought a rubber chew bone, puppy size for Daisy, but Mimi feel in love with it, playing with it as well between the two of them until it was destroyed. Today we got a new bone – a Kong large bone for them to play with and it is amazing how gentle they play together. But there are the crazy chasing moments where they are both running circles around the ottoman, a happy crazy that sometime has to be slowed down for my sanity.
But even crazy dogs get tired and need to rest…
So I remind you of my thoughts, that we are all created to share love and kindness. As God shared his love with us, we in turn need to share it with others – sometime inter-specie as well. And in all things regardless of specie, try to be kind. It is a true reflection of who we should be.
What a fun and interesting challenge for windows. Doors and windows are amazing portals into an different world belonging to the building or boat or whatever, to let God’s light shine in and warm its space. Ludwig has created this fun challenge and those who participate with Monday Windows usually have amazing pictures to share.
I am posting again on the windows of my church, First Baptist Church of Davenport. An amazing historical building that is still filled with wonderful life. Today’s window showing, while it is in my church, this time it is not in the sanctuary. We have a room called the Parlor where more fancy events or serious meeting occur. It is filled with beautiful antiques and soft comfortable sofas.
All three windows for this room are similar with a different scripture texted across the lower section of the arch portion of the window.
I do apologize for not holding my phone straight but the window’s beauty still comes through. Two windows are on one side toward the front and one window is on the side facing the parking lot. The outside of these windows are almost as pretty as the inside with the beautiful stonework between the windows.
Come join in on Monday windows and as you share the beauty you see, remember to share everything to do, or say or everywhere you go, to do it all with kindness.
Coming from the manufacturing world, and the quality control side, I am a bit of a geek when it comes to engineering of large objects reflecting man’s creativeness in a different direction. Some objects are fascinating in how they have changed and improved as engineer ideas have strengthened. How fascinated would the Wright brothers be today riding in a 747 airliner.
Another marvel feat in my mind is the ditch wind mill. It’s original purpose was to remove water.
“Historically, windmills in Holland served many purposes. The most important probably was pumping water out of the lowlands and back into the rivers beyond the dikes so that the land could be farmed. In the fourteenth century, hollow-post mills were used to drive scoop wheels to drain the wetlands.”Note from guidelines of Travel in Holland.
Holland Wind Mills
Today when I think of the Holland windmills, I picture them surrounded with the lovely flowers that grow near them.
Tulips
I live in the midwest, and the midwest has wind farms and the wind mills here are for generating electricity. We have all seen pictures of them but when I first came here I was shocked at the size of these things. Even more shocked at the n umber of time they would get stuck on an off ramp due to their shear size. Below is a good representation of just how large one blade of the three blade wind turbine is.
Its hard to imagine unless you have seen one
Last weekend, my daughter and I drove down to Peoria Ill. to a Home Free Concert. Oh, and if you haven’t seen them before, I highly recommend them. But to get there we drove past one of the wind farms. Unbelievable. They look like they are right by the highway when in reality they are 1/4 to 1/2 mile away.
When coming home that night, you could seen red light for miles. It was truly amazing for a geeky person like me. Making use of God’s air flow.
As you see the amazing things man has done, remember the one who really is responsible for the amazing things man has done and let the breeze of his love that warms your heart get shared with others and remember to be kind.
I have heard the saying of flies after honey but I always think of them after the sugars on our plates. Do they really go after honey in flowers? Apparently as my dianthus was covered.
Come join in on the fun of Monday Macros with Heaven’s Sunshine and share the fun with macros.
And as a reminder for the start of the day, always find ways to be kind. A smile, hug or sweet hello.
The resilience of nature is truly amazing. A week or so ago I posted the demise of my banana tree left alone for 5 minutes with my new puppy. Lesson learned and tree was moved to the no puppy zone, aka my bedroom.
Damaged but not killed
They are a pretty hardy plants, after all they survive hurricanes, so I was hopefully. Today circumstance were perfect to sneak in a Sunday afternoon nap, and it was fabulous. But right as I got comfy my eye caught this…
A new leaf coming out of torn debris
I was so excited and told you that if I saw it reviving, I would post its picture. It lives. And as I lay there looking at it, I asked myself again “wonder how tall it is going to get”, after all the ceiling is only so high.
Nature is an amazing thing when you think about it. Think about ancient civilizations now gone and nature reclaiming the land. God’s amazing creation.
While thinking about the amazing attributes of nature, remember the amazing attributes of mankind. We too can be resilient in hard times and with God’s help we are an amazing creature. Remember to reflect the love in you from God to those around you to make His kindness radiate to others.
World Communion Sunday is a celebration observed by several Christian denominations, taking place on the first Sunday of every October, that promotes Christian unity and ecumenical cooperation. It focuses on an observance of the Eucharist – the sharing of the bread and wine as taught by Jesus, that we also call communion.
It was started in the 30’s by a Presbyterian minister and within 10 years was spread to many other Christian denominations and now is across the world giving us the opportunity to pray for all of our Christian brother and sisters across the world.
Our church chose 6 random countries from the list of International Missions and prayed for those countries and some of their Global Servants who work in those countries with love, education, rebuilding, medical needs or anything else that may be needed. We will be praying for them for the month of October with an emphasis on Water as many countries do not have clean or sufficient water supplies but to also pray that the Living Water be spread through out the world. Below are the 6 countries we are focusing on as we pray also for Living Water to flood the earth. But remember this is only 6 out the 195 countries in the world today. Even in our own countries, prayer is needed to spread the Living Waters of Christ.
I have a challenge for anyone who would like to jump in. I have about 300 people who read my blog. If each person would take one country of your choice, even it’s your own, and say a quick prayer for that country, then throughout the month think of other countries and say a quick prayer. They will not know you are praying for them but I promise those prayer will not be wasted. No prayer is ever wasted.
Another thing that is never wasted….kindness. Share kindness where ever you go and watch the ripple effect of it spread out from you.
Linda G Hill has given us a fun monthly challenge of adult coloring or showing off your kids coloring. Today’s adult coloring books are great for me on nights when the brain just will not shut off.
This month’s Escapist Coloring prompt, I played more with feathering shades of colors together and blending them – similar to how I do some of my face painting techniques only this is done with pencils.
A rhinoceros made fully of flowers showing a gentle side of a possible fierce beast. Even in a creation of power, a spirit of gentleness and kindness can be present. It is a tool we all have and can use at our discretion, so remember to show your kind side and gentle spirit.
For the Love of 