Reflections of Love, Loss and Encouragement

Good Saturday morning friends. If you celebrate Thanksgiving where you are, I hope It was a wonderful time of family and love. This past week we lost two women from our church family that were synonymous with their biblical names reflecting love, kindness and strength of character. I did not know Mary as well as Ruth but we as a church family will miss both ladies. Even in this last year as Ruth began to slow, her love of Jesus and people never slowed and the power of kindness radiated from her. Something we all should remember and try to copy.

As we start into this holiday season, first with this past holiday of Thankfulness, we next go into a season of preparation. A time filled with hope, love, joy and peace. Another fierce encourager in our church family gave out a small devotional book to help us prepare for this season, the season of Advent. I realize not all churches celebrate Advent but I think we should all understand its purpose and decide individually whether or not to celebrate this beautiful season. I hope to shed some light by sharing this devotional with you, each week until Christmas, to help us focus on “the coming”. So many of us focus on the coming of Christmas that I think we forget to focus on the coming of Christ. The nation of Israel focused for centuries on the coming Messiah and now that he has come, we need to focus on His return so that not only are we celebrating His birth, but we are focusing on our preparedness for His return.

The circle of evergreen surrounding the candles of advent represents God’s never ending love for each of us. He came into this world to save us. The large white candle represents Christ, an ultimate gift of love from God surrounded by four other gifts from God to help us walk through this darkness.

As we prepare to walk through this season with these gifts from God, lets remember to share these gifts with those around us and to always be kind.

Giving Thanks

Here in the US, we are celebrating Thanksgiving. A day set aside to be thankful for all we have. The first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621, was a celebration of the harvest between the early Americans and the Indians. We celebrate it today with loud and busy families and way too much food.

As with all holidays, an element of sadness can occur when we focus too much on the physical aspects of our surroundings and not enough on “the heart of the matter”. Some families may have very little to share physically but love and kindness is a free component that carries more value that all the turkeys eaten on this day.

For all of us, let us remember to give thanks for the bounty of this day. And in all things be kind. If your bounty is very small, give thanks for what you do have and in all things be kind. Giving thanks is choice of the heart. We can look around us and be sad for the things we wish we had or we can praise God in all things, being thankful for what we do have. So I challenge you on this day of thanks to be Thankful for in all things and the world will suddenly begin to look much brighter.

May you have a blessed thankful day and as always remember to be kind in all things.

Wordle 527

Its fun when you spot a challenge you have never seen before by reading the post of people you do follow. Susi Bocks of I Write Her has encouraged me over the past couple of year with my meager attempts of writing. I am of the old adage that if you do use it you will lose it and the creative process, regardless of the genre, stimulates the brain and I want mine to stay stimulated so I play with writing. And she wrote a story here on Wordle 527.

Bwarren creates a fun challenge with The Sunday Whirl and Wordle 527 by giving you a list of words that you have to assimilate into a 100 word story. Join in with it and see how you can stimulate your brain. Today’s list is below.

Meredith looked down the stone path of the enchanted forest. She knew the legend of this forest but she had no clue of its truth. The icy wind blew making her breath hang in the heavily scented evergreen air. She knew few people dared to walk this path during this time of year but winter was the best time to spot this elusive bird. Sparks of anticipation spread up her spine as her courage began to brew. Stepping on the path her eyes caught sight of a huge feather lying along the paths edge. Did she dare go?

Hope you enjoyed my fun. Remember in all that you do, always be kind. It can make all of our stone paths a little smoother.

Should Encouragement Sound Hard?

Good morning friends. I wanted to share my “slap in the face” from my devotion this morning with Oswald Chambers. As the end of the year gets closer, and the holidays are within touching distance, we run around being “do-gooders” in the name off sacrifice for others. We sacrifice out time, our talents, our money with the hope of making our Lord pleased with us and of course helping our fellow man. We don’t outwardly look at it like that but I think sometimes that thought can niggle at us. I think we forget what true sacrifice is and I boil it down to this analogy – If the task you are doing to help fellow man may seem to others like a sacrifice or burden but to you it is a chance to show love and support, then your heart is in step with Christ. If the task you are doing to help fellow man feels like a sacrifice or burden then your heart is not in it, so stop. While it may be needed, its long term effects will not last. And it is needed to last in some form of caring.

We forget what true sacrifice is…

How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices! Oswald Chambers

That was a hard statement to read this morning. And it made me think about all the programs we are getting setup for the holidays to help the needy, to help their physical needs; the food baskets, the “Share the Warmth” clothing drive. But are we doing enough to help their spiritual needs, their emotional needs. I can’t answer that question. Its different for each person. Am I, myself, skimming off the top or digging deep.

The missionaries around the world are truly sacrificing for Jesus. Remember the big news stories about the missionaries in Haiti getting captured and now its old news…but you know what, they are STILL captured and imprisoned. As they are in Afghanistan and other third world countries. But what can we do about that? Pray! If every person in the world would pray for them, not just once, but every time you do something for others, say a true heartfelt prayer for them. The power of hell has no power over the love of God and His people who sincerely believe in Him.

Taking the time to stop – be still – pray…is a sacrifice we can all do. It doesn’t come from our financial resources or our talents, it comes from our time and our heart. True sacrifices come from our heart.

So as you approach the holiday season, look at things a little more differently. Look at the value of true connection to others needs and always surround it with love from your heart. Never forget to pray for others and always be kind.

Then and Now, a Week

A week is only 7 days but man, the things that can happen in such a short amount of time. Good Friday evening friends, I hope your week was good, as eventful as you wanted it to be and above all safe.

I have been exceptionally busy this week but have approximately 75% of my Christmas decorations up. I know its early but like the commercial on TV says, its only too early if you think its too early. Plus, Hallmark Christmas movies started on October 22, so the house has to look right to watch Christmas movies. Just sayin’.

Because of the amount I like to put up, it takes 2-3 weeks to get it situated like I like it. I takes me a week just to build the village. I added a train this year, a cheap one but it still choo-choos, has a whistle and goes around the track. That’s all I needed. Once everything is up and running, I will start sharing that part of my fun.

I explain all of that because I have not had time to post all the beauty I have seen this week. Coming from the deep south and now living in eastern Iowa, I get a taste of all four seasons. Fall though is probably the shortest, lasting only a few weeks – like 2 weeks max. Summer lasts forever and then winter is a sneeze away from fall. But there are 4 distinct seasons here. What happens with such a short fall is like in a cartoon – poof, the leaves change, sometimes overnight. This last week was fabulous with temps in the upper 60s – its November y’all, In Iowa.(Two years ago it snowed on Halloween.) Then Sunday the temp dropped into the 40s and poof…

Monday and Tuesday were alight with rich color. And because I am not an expert photographer, these picture don’t really show the beauty of their color. But I am sure where you live, the colors are just as striking. And the clear evening skies were amazing.

Wednesday showed more beauty but the cloud cover started moving in and today, Friday, its in the 30s and snowing…Yep, welcome to Iowa.

So thanks, fall, for stopping by with a quick hello. While I love spring, fall to me has the most dramatic colors. Maybe because they have such short lives pushing all their beauty out at once. They they turn brown, turn loose and go to sleep for 5 months. Five months is a long time to not see the rich colors of nature but if we look hard enough, we can also see the beauty of nature as she sleeps. I think the evergreen and its deep green color is a symbol of life and hope and maybe why we put evergreens in our homes, real and artificial, with multicolor balls and lights to remind us the importance of color, smiles and happiness in all that we do. My hope for you this season is to feel the happiness as the lights of Christmas start to come out. Share that joy and remember to always be kind. Being kind, especially at this time of year, can really help a struggling soul to believe in the hope that the struggles may soon be soften in not completely go away. May we all share the kindness this season gives us with the chance to do more.

***Always Be Kind, Share when you can***

Three Strikes, Am I Out?

There is an old saying that trouble comes in threes…

***Three puppies may be trouble but they are cute troubles***

Well I had three “accidents” last week that could have caused serious injury but I walk away with minor bruises. God is definitely protecting me and yes I need to slow down and be more careful. All three incidents were from rushing and carelessness.

Incident 1 – I posted last week about the balloon drop we did from trunk or treat but I did not tell of almost cutting off my thumb with the paper cutter, the big one at the church office. The original sign for the balloons were too large so we had to cut them down …a lot…at the last minute. My right hand going faster than my left insured that I closed my thumb in the device. Fortunately I got away with only a cut on my cuticle and now a bruise coming out under my nail. Moral of story – slow down.

Incident 2 – Doing the final cut on the front lawn and raking up the last of the gourd debris I tried to break my nose or put out my eye. My wrought iron flower pot hook that is attached to the fence was empty but the hook was still quite capable of causing harm…and it did. I never wear my glasses outside when doing yard work as they fall off easy when bending down. But today, I did and it probably saved my vision. As I bent down to gather debris, I hit that hook square on with my glasses, right on the eyepiece. I did not break my glasses but did bruise my nose from the force of the sudden stop. Moral of the story – slow down.

Damaged Eye Glasses Broken Glass Stock Illustration 1540899305 — ***Good grief!!***

We have a theme going dont we…

Incident 3 – I had a small flower pot that the plant was pot bound and so I was going top repot it. It is a cute little pink pot that is prefect for starter plants but I left this spider plant in it too long. In trying to get the plant out without damaging it or the pot, I got impatient, the pot slipped from my hands and fell to the floor hitting me square on my pinky toe before it hit the floor and broke. After a loud word of pain, I reached down and picked up the damaged pot, took the hammer and broke the rest of the pot off of the tightly bound plant. I would have never been able to get that plant out in one piece without breaking the pot. So now, 1 bruised foot and 1 broken pot later, our spider plant is correctly repotted in a correct size pot. Moral of story – slow down.

Life can get us in a bind sometimes making us be more clumsy than necessary because we THINK we need to hurry.

But when we rush, it actually slows us down. Sometime those short cuts are worse time eaters or dangerous to our health. So the moral of todays three strikes – SLOW DOWN

Cartoon Turtle with Sunglasses Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock — ***Be Cool!***

May your week be safe, and as always be kind. That is something you can never regret.

Prayerful Encouragement

Hello friends. I come to you this afternoon with a few words of warm encouragement as it is nearly 60 degrees outside…in November. That’s pretty warm but the dreaded “S” word is in the forecast for the weekend. Welcome to fall in the midwest.

While I was out running my few errands, I couldn’t help but notice a tree full of the season – God’s visual reminder that He always has something beautiful for us to focus on instead of the chaos we face daily.

Music is another way I can focus less on myself and more on what God wants me to understand. There is a song on the radio now that explains that God never lets go of us and our situation, He never can, He never will.

I think sometimes we get so focused on our situation that we lose sight of His love for us and the immense power of prayer. Even when we can’t seem to utter a prayer for our own relief, the scriptures remind us that the Holy Spirit is there to utter one for us.

We are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. Oswald Chambers

We all have family and friends that need prayers but there are probably a lot more of us who think we never need prayer…but God knows hearts, our hurts and our fears. So we are never left alone, the Spirit is always close by.

Just a reminder that prayer is not an afterthought or an idea of ‘all I can do is pray’. Prayer is a power tool, a direct link to a God who loves you. And the more we realize His love for us, the more we can share His love for others. I leave you a link to another song of encouragement called “Still in Control” that reminds me that My God is Still in Control. May it encourage you in whatever you face today.

Have a safe and blessed week and as always remember to be kind. It can open doors of Joy you never knew were there.

Refusal to Leave, FOTD

Its been a while since I posted on Cee’s Flower of the Day but this was by my door this morning, refusing to go to sleep for the winter, so I am posting it again. Cee’s FOTD is a great way for us to connect with each other showing the beauty around us, so join in and share your beauty.

This is my Calibrachoa, a tiny orange flower with large ruffled like leaves that look like nasturtiums. It sits in a pot along my walkway to the front door.

Besides Daisey’s nose, you can tell the edges of the leaves are trying to turn but the blooms are refusing to give in. Nights are now getting down to the mid thirties so they may not last much longer. But I wanted to honor them for their resilience. It’s a reminder to all of us that even though some days we may feel old, we can still shine our beauty, love and kindness to help someone else smile.

The full bloom is no larger than my thumbnail creating another point that size does not matter in the beauty of all things God created. So remember always that we are all part of God’s creation, created for a purpose, if nothing more than to be loved by Him. So look up, shine forth and always be kind.

A Different Idea for Halloween

For Halloween this year, we participated again with several nearby churches on the “hilltop” with Trunk or Treat plus a soup kitchen. The temps this year were chilly for Iowa but not too bad and the sky was clear so it was all good.

The Evangelism team, (I call them the “E” team as in Encouragement team, because they are an encouraging force,) thought outside the box this year. We always try reaching out to the people in our neighborhoods surrounding the church to encourage them and show them the love of Christ. For the Trunk or Treat we had a “Balloon Lift of Prayer”.

The lift was a way to teach children or even adults, that praying for people you don’t even know can be a blessing and fun. Thirty heart shaped balloons that were filled with helium, were attached with the note below. The children were told the purpose of the balloon lift and on que, they prayed over them and then released the balloons into the air for God to take them where they needed to go.

And as the balloons lifted into the air, through the trees and into the sky, the children cheered them on.

The children were then given a package that had the same note, an uninflated balloon, and a piece of candy to remember what they did and why. We gave out over 60 bags. The children and parents seemed to enjoy this fun time and we hope to do it again maybe in the spring with a children’s festival.

All moments can be teaching moments to show God’s love, if we incorporate then in love and fun. As promised, below is a copy of the note we attached to each balloon. A very valuable lesson we learned is the weight of a single sheet of paper is too much weight to make the balloon fly so, we cut it down.

The full intended note did go with the children in their bag with their balloon and candy. Hopefully they will read this note and the pictures with scriptural references and understand how much they are loved by God.

Hope you enjoyed our fun time that we had and as a reminder, I remind us all the power of being kind.

Morning Encouragement

Good morning friends. I hope you are all well. We have now survived Halloween and are on to the real holidays involving turkey and trees. Yes, I am a major fan of the tree holiday and have lots of it to put up. Christmas is a time where I can look through the pinholes of life and see God face to face. What??? Walk with me through Oswald Chambers’ devotion this morning as he shows how this concept ties in perfectly with how we should live our lives.

“Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. He prefaces his instructions with an ‘if'”. Oswald Chambers

It’s a hard concept and a personal choice for each individual. We, as humans, want to know exactly what lies in front of us so that we can make safe and sound choices. But in my opinion, that’s now how it really works. We live by faith, trusting that He will take care of us. And He does.

“The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.” Oswald Chambers

Our lives may seem random and boring with the day to day tasks but Oswald reminds us that when we obey Christ, those random circumstances of life become tiny pinholes through which we see the face of God. It’s like trying to look through the holes in the fence to see the big picture.

Sometimes we can’t see anything but other times when we look with our heart we can see the love of God.

As I stare at the lights of Christmas, I am reminded of the star of hope that came to lead us in our day to day tasks so that we can enjoy the beauty of the tiny pinholes. So today, try to see where the pinhole of your day can find the face of God and see Him smile down at you in love.

I think animals want to see God too, so for a little humor this morning we see them looking through peepholes. They may march to a different drum, but they know who the drummer is.

So I remind you today to smile and know that God loves you. And always remember to show kindness wherever you go. Kindness creates pinholes for you to shine the love of Christ through.

Have a great week.