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.
I posted a serious message from my heart this morning so now it’s time to be silly. Those who read my work also know I have a QUIRKY clown side. I saw this picture on Facebook and today is the perfect day to post it. Some of you may have seen it before and some may not get it but the picture alone should be enough to make you laugh at the ridiculousness of it. And after yesterday, LORD helps us get through this week.
Great photo shop work
Remember laughter makes you smile and smiling can facilitate kindness. So laugh, smile and be kind often.
Picture a favorite beach scene. You are sitting relaxed in the loose sand dunes just above the beach. The sun has warmed the sand and it tickles as it shifts through your toes. The sound of the turf is melodic as it pounds on the beach. The seagulls are calling each other as they slowly fly through the gentle breeze, that same breeze that brushes across your face. You inhale and you can almost taste the salt of the warm sea air that you are smelling.
Can you picture it?
Not big on the beach? Then picture the soft tranquility of a mountain stream. You are sitting on a felled tree that is now becoming a bench for anyone on the trail. The stream beside you is bubbling along the rocks as it heads though the forest to the nearest river. The clean air is as refreshing and clear as the water in the stream is cold to the taste. In front of you off in the distance are the mountains, maybe their tops are dusted with snow. The sweet smell of the evergreens is pungent and reminds you of Christmas. Over head a lone eagle floats with little movement as he soars of the updrafts.
Can you picture it?
Maybe you are not a nature lover? Maybe your enjoyment comes with an evening of dinner and beautiful music at an outdoor park. The smells of various foods wafting in the air mixed with warm summer night as the stars slowly begin to show their presence. Soft conversations with strangers around you creates friendships of similar interest. The orchestra or band is warming up their instruments for a night of expected pleasures.
Can you picture it?
Then picture this…..
You are sitting in a dark room.
There is no sound because you are deaf…
There is nothing to see because you are blind…
There is little to smell if anything because you have no reference to what smell is…
There is little to touch as your body has no sense of feel due to being paralyzed.
Senses…Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste & Touch…Gifts from God for us to enjoy His mighty creation. If all of your sense are working, praise God and enjoy these gifts. If you know those who are missing one or more of these senses, then share with them the beauty of what they don’t have so that through the senses that they do have working, they can get a glimpse of its beauty.
And remember as you enjoy your gifts, to share the joy that they bring you with others in hopes they may understand the beauty of it and share it themselves with others. And always remember to be kind. Kindness is enveloped in all of there gifts.
What a fun day today was. As I had said in yesterday’s post, today was probably going to be too busy to get to write anything but when I saw Nancy Merrill’s weekly photo challenge was SMILE, how could I resist with all the marvelous smiles I saw today from our new clowns. Yes, clowns. I am a member of a wonderful clown troupe that does many activities to help the community smile. We go play in parades, we do walks for community awareness situations, we have caring clowning where we visit local nursing homes to bring a little cheer for some sad folks. All the while, creating smiles wherever we go.
Today was the summer Clown Class, how awesome is that. We taught new clowns the history of clowning & the main types of clowns.
Yes there are types – White Face, Auguste and Hobo Clowns and they each have their own specific costumes styles and behaviors. You see, not all clowns are in the circus. Today we also had fun learning to make balloons…
how to do basic magic tricks…
how to be in a parade or do “walk arounds” in a crowd for fairs and festivals and even to create skits that makes the audience laugh or bring an important message. Just putting on silly clothes and slapping paint on your face does not make you a clown. A true clown has a purpose to entertain, encourage, show kindness and bring laughter and it is not all that easy. True clowns work hard at their craft to hone in their specialty to bring that much needed smile to someone, in hopes that for 5 minutes those people have forgotten the pain or frustration of their situation.
So now when you see a true clown that is trying to bring a smile to person or entertain crowd with laughter and kindness, remember the work they have put in to help you smile. The goofball at Halloween that thinks he is funny dressing up like a clown and scaring people is entertaining himself not thinking of others or trying to bring a smile to a saddened face with bring laughter to a crowd the correct way.
I am an Auguste clown and my specialty is face painting. I am not that great at it but the children don’t really care. They are soaking up the caring gentle nature I try to bring to help them laugh with their friends. I have posted my picture before but in case you missed it, here is Skeeter C Clown. The C stands for Christ as I always try to always bring a Christian nature to my clowning.
Skeeter C Clown
So as I close I always remind my readers to smile and be kind. Kindness reflects the love God intended us to always share by turning the frowns of this life upside down.
I know this is not really due until tomorrow but I will be burning the candle at both ends tomorrow. When I read the prompt and tried it, well, I had to write about it tonight. How many directions can you go with a sentence like tails uplifted. Yes, the brain went there for a split second but we do like to remain family friendly.
You see on my sofa is a book that stays there for me to grab in an instant as I look for any new bird that comes to my feeder, the National Geographic Birds of North America.
My finger landed in the middle of the page of Wrens stating “Tails are often uplifted”. The book is probably pressed to open easily there as I have a bird visiting that I think is a wren but I cant get him to sit still long enough for a good look. I need a set of binoculars so that I don’t run them off when I get close to the window. Below is a picture of “tail uplifted” and they indeed do that plus there is a prominent stripe of white across the upper eye area. I see the stripe of white but the color is grayish instead of brownish. Need him/her to sit still to verify.
According to the map of location for each bird, the grayish ones don’t come in my area. Well, tell the bird book that as this bird is grayish – but maybe it’s a Warbler – they don’t come in my area either. Hmm, so the hunt is on.
As we hunt for the cuteness of the fluttery type, let us always smile and be kind. A smile is understood by man and animal alike as a kindness tool. So smile and be kind to everything.
In being able to walk around town and get views of neat looking doors for the Thursday Door post, I also ran across some interesting street art that I thought I would share. I have a very busy weekend coming up and may not get to play much so doing another for today.
As those who have been reading my posts, you have seen my posts on the flooding here of the Mississippi River. But this is still an area that loves this monster of a beast. This first painting has some age on it as it is beginning to peel but it really reflects times gone by with steam driven locomotives and paddle-wheel boats carrying people and cargo through the midwest and along the rivers.
Hope they touch it up before it flakes too bad.
Then as you walk around you see street paintings that area different type of detailed and some that are of the modern flare. Back in October, we were challenged with a prompt about what is art? I posted one called Perceived Art that showed the detailed side of the one below. It is so large is spreads across both side of the road under the train track.
The tentacles go across the street and hold things like pencils
Then a little further down the same street you get a more unrealistic take on art.
Bird in an argyle vest, hmm
But the two below are really creative, making shop windows and doors out of a flat brick wall.
I didn’t know whether to show this one here or with Norm’s doors. There are 3 doors…
As we smile at the neatness of someone’s take on art, remember to spread that smile around to maybe brighten someone’s day and always be kind.
It is interesting to walk around the old section of town just north of the business district. There are still many homes well maintained from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and their doors are always interestingly combined with the wonderful porches we no longer see.
Some interesting takes on architecture of the day on a small income home.
The last one shown with the drive up is actually the back door. The front door you could not see for the steep hill and tall grass. I would hate to cut that hill.
On the business side we have a couple of interesting doors with stone faces which always bring in different architectural flares.
Insurance company with a woman’s touch
Come along and join in on Norm’sThursday Doors. Door show an interesting personality of designer and resident.
Doors always open up a new world of opportunities. There was a song on the radio this morning telling that God put a million, million doors on this earth and that one of them is you. We are all doors that can shine out the love from above that was given to us to share and reflect God’s love and kindness. So open your door and shine forth in kindness.
Are you in need of encouragement tonight. Let me tell you about my morning and be encouraged. Today I awoke with a start at 7:50 a.m. with a strong feeling to pray for my daughter. Don’t usually get up until 8:15. While I always keep my children prayed up as it were, this was a strong urge. I obeyed then went ahead and got ready for work since I was up and going. About 20 minutes later my daughter called me and said I needed to come pick her up. She had a massive blow out of her rear passenger side tire on the interstate on her way to work. Fortunately at that moment no one was around her as she did swerve but was able to maintain control. People stopped to make sure she was OK and to see if they could help but because of the idiotness of today’s auto-manufacturing, they don’t put spare tires or even donuts in cars anymore. Cost savings. Safety hazard in my book. So with my morning of protection and love I want to remind everyone that God is always there, you may not feel Him or like His answer but he does usually answer, even if its “wait”.
The song below is a marvelous song of how much God does love all of us. He throws all caution to the wind for us, He is reckless with love for us. Listen to the song and be encouraged that God does love all of you.
And as you go through your day, remember always His love will shine through us when we allow it. So shine on, reflecting His love and kindness.
In learning first how to blog, then how to link, then all the other things I have learned, I finally figured out how to add text to a photo without losing it when brought it into another format. Yea me. Now I did this so I could participate in the new badge contest for 1 Liner Wednesday. I thought this was a face hard not to love so I submit this photo of Max as a candidate for the new badge hunt.
1LinerWeds Badge by Anita @ anitashope.wordpress.com
If not chosen then I hope you all enjoy this cute photo and good luck to all participants. Thank you Cheryl for the fun we have had this past year.
Man has the arrogant attitude that he is superior to all beings because he can communicate and analyze situations. I question that theory as all things were created by God and God doesn’t make mistakes…and the animals were created first. Hmm, ever thought of that? Just because we can not communicate with the animal kingdom, does that mean they don’t communicate. Watching Animal Planet on TV tells you that the animal kingdom is more complex than ever first imagined.
Eden was the beautiful place God created for beast and man, along himself, to enjoy and thrive in. Then when he created man in His likeness and gave him free will, things began to change. In theory, as Adam looked around Eden and saw how magnificent it was, that should have been enough, right? No, but that snake of a fellow, with his lies and twists on words ruined it for all creation and he has been using those same tactics on man ever since for further destruction of this world.
I bring this up due to a painting on a building that is downtown. A reminder of the cruelty of man since the beginning or rather since the banning of Eden. I won’t open this can of worms any wider as it misses my point of what I am trying to make. When Europe first discovered America, thinking it was India and thus calling the people Indians, that was the first sign intelligence.(Sorry for the sarcasm.)And that wasn’t the first time man ran over a people to prove one groups superiority over another but again we are not opening that can of worms as there are so many many opinions. But today I want to talk about the beauty of art. Wow, that is a full right turn isn’t it? Not really. While I was out walking last week when the sun did dare to shine I ran across this mural and was reminded of the plight of the Indians. Not just in running them off, but the diseases that were brought to them from another people.
This area was inhabited by the Sauk tribe of which Black Hawk was a leader. Because I am not from this area, I do not know a lot of the Indian history or if this mural is of Black Hawk or one of the other prominent leaders. I just know there is a lot of reference to Black Hawk here. A college, a shopping center, banking, street names and so on. When you first walk up to the building you see that the building is flat but when you walk to the front to see the mural, it has a 3D effect and is truly beautiful.
Ordinary flat face building.Amazing art looking like he is inserted into the building and standing on a protruding rock.
So remember that sometimes we all have our own agendas but those agendas must be thought on correctly so that we don’t overrun someone just because. And the “because’s” could have as many reason as there are sands on the beach.
I challenge you to remember the love and kindness God initially intended for all of us and that if we truly stand with Christ then we must remember to reflect His love, not our history. Let the love of Christ flow from you and reflect the graciousness He lavished on all of us and always be kind.
Words can not be found to console families across this word when useless meanness and violence erupts destroying the precious lives God made when he created each and every individual. As we gain ever closer to the last days, and only God knows when that will be, we see the evil one ramping up his efforts gaining more and more control of the minds of people who never were taught or refused to be taught the beauty and love of God. As a Christian my heart breaks for all of mankind who suffers from the after effects of the evil one’s rampage and as a warrior of Christ I stand firm on His word and send my prayers out to all who need them. God will direct as needed. I post these thoughts below to help encourage us all that even though the evil one seems to be winning these battles, in actuality, he lost a long time ago. Reach up to the hand offered down to you and feel encouraged knowing God is still in control.
For the Love of 