What a fun challenge Cee has given us to match pictures with a song. Here are some pictures that I think may work for this song…
When I am stuck with a day that is gray…
The sun will come out…
So you gotta hang on…
Remember even when your day may be gray, you can still be kind. It make may the day shine bright again.
Good morning friends. We finally got a little rain yesterday and it was great, short but still so much needed. The ground had really been dry. We as people can get dry as well. Not only thirsty for water but dry and parched on the inside. One of the things that helps me remove the dryness from the inside is music, specifically Christian music. It does not matter if it is one of our cherished hymns or one of the new contemporary melodies that reminds us of God’s love and protection. The Psalms originally were songs of worship that we read today reflecting the hope and love of God for all of us.
During the week, the staff at my church prepares for worship for the following Sunday, making sure the slides and sounds for worship service are clear and easily understood. While many of us across the world have a building we call “the church”, the true church is all of us coming together to worship God as a family. And since we are ALL children of God the Father…then we are ALL family.
It’s like a weekly family reunion and we want to make sure that those who come to our building can all feel welcome. So periodically we have to go through the song slides to make sure they can easily be enjoyed. One song we are singing Sunday needed major rework. Not only were the colors not pleasing for the eyes, but it was on 24 separate slides making it a nightmare for the sound booth. So I corrected it, giving it a calming shade of green and cutting it down to 12 slides. But as I did this I had to really study the words and SEE what the song was saying. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the beautiful melody that we miss the point of the words, regardless of it being a hymn or contemporary song.
Hold Me Close, Let Your Love Surround Me….
Isn’t that what any of us want? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to sit in the lap of Jesus…as a child…as His child.
So this Sunday, pay attention to the words you are singing and lift them in honor and pray as He showers us with His grace. Down below is one of the songs we are singing at our church this week and it has the words on the screen. It is a song we could sing daily talking about the power of His love for us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9_0jiO5ZRM
And as always in closing, I remind you of the power of kindness. Spread it around wherever you go.
Monday’s have the potential of being a real beast so this evening we are sharing some humor provided by Max who has the ability of turning a serious frown into a warm happy smile. Come along and smile with us.
Not Just a Bag
I look and I see it
Is it something I will git
Mommy just had it
But I can’t smell it
What could be in a bag so small
Maybe a new toy, maybe a ball
It’s too high for me, oh the gall
If I tried to jump up, I would fall
But the mystery about it is still so sweet
Maybe it’s a goody, a yummy sweet treat
If legs were taller, it’d be mine in a heartbeat
But I am afraid my shorts legs make for defeat
As we find ways to cope with stressful days, remember to be kind. Sometimes being kind can release the pressure of the days stress, even for you.
There are many novice photographers better than me, but I would venture to say I at least will tie with someone who has the most fun trying. Since retiring a few years ago(I retired when I was very young, Ha) I have developed a love of bird watching and tie that into my love for photography and you have mostly fun photographs.
I work part time at the church and have also placed bird feeder there so today is a sample of birds at home as well as at church. Most of the pictures are new but some are favorites. I have become fascinated with the hummingbirds of the area and most from the church were taken today as the phone were very quiet.
These two seem to fight over the feeder or at least like to play chase. I know the pictures are not real clear but I did not have my telephoto lens with me today, so we are zooming way in per the computer.
They seem to have no tail feathers when they sit as their wings are longer and cover them when they rest. But when they fly, it is amazing how they move those for balance and direction.
I love this picture even though the hummer is not real clear. But his reflection shows up in the water as do the flowers below. And you can see how he spreads his tail feathers.
Both of these birds seem to be females as they males have that legendary red throat. I have a male one at my home that guards that feeder.
I need to learn how to work with the shutter speed on my camera to see if I can catch the wings clearer. Below are some other pictures I took today and a few of my favorites of my bigger birds. The cardinals are beginning their molt so they are looking real sad as they lose old before the new arrives.
As we enjoy nature around us, remember nature likes kindness too so remember to be kind to all kinds.
Yes, I am behind schedule. Its been one of those weeks. But I have a beautiful building for you today, built in 1904, out of porphyritic granite. After doing my granite research and verifying the many colors ranging from white to black, I believe this to be Dakota Mahogany, from Milbank, South Dakota. This granite bed is 2.6-2.7 billions years old and that in itself is amazing. This being Iowa, that makes more logic sense that the granite on the east coast, but I am no expert.
The building is still used as a high school and will soon be crawling with teenagers. As I pass by it going home from work, I see the marching band is already practicing, getting ready for football games. Football means fall and I am more than ready to be rid of this 90 degree heat.
In reviewing a lot of the columns you see on buildings today, you see them polished and shinny but these they left in their natural block form that was ground into rounded shapes where they came out from the building. You can see the individual blocks and enjoy their wide variety of color.
But when you look close, you can see the cuts in the stone where they shaped the columns plus making their colors more prominent. Even the feet of the columns are cut and sanded into shape.
Above the doorways on the east and west sides of the building are beautiful arched windows with a masonry balcony above them that has interesting metal grillwork. Here I want to tie in with Monday Window and Ludwig’s challenge of beautiful windows for these are indeed striking.
The north side door is not as artistic but still amazing to look at with scroll work and stone columns at the roofline.
The south side of the building is where the school has expanded down through the next block making a quite large school. And while the extension is made of brick, it just doesn’t have the artistic heart of the older building. So I remind all to look at older buildings with a different eye and see the beauty of architects of old. You could not afford to build buildings of this artistry today. So I remind you before destroying an older building, check to see if there is any soundness left to the structure and if so, find a use for it and let its beauty remain among us.
In closing I remind you of always being kind. Kindness can open doors thought to be closed and let light in through windows once thought dark.
Thanks to the fun challenges that we enjoy through blogging, we share that fun with others. Cee’s challenge for Flower of the Day is a favorite of mine, so today, I am sharing my indoor flowers.
My violets are three different colors but right now only two of them are blooming. The baby plant, which is supposed to be pink, has not bloomed yet.
Flowers share their beauty with us so that we can enjoy them and maybe share that beauty with others. Flowers can make you smile, some will make you sneeze, but their beauty can bring you peace. And we all need some of that. So enjoy the flowers you find in your area, smile and remember to be kind. That can also bring you peace.
Monday’s I usually send out a post for an encouraging word to help us all have a little brighter smile for the week, knowing we do sincerely care for each other. But tonight I am asking you to remember we are at war. Not a war that you can see with guns, tanks and such, but a war that is even more devastating…spiritual war.
Tonight, I feel we are at war in all of our churches, so I am sending this out to any Christians who understand the true love of Christ. We know Satan is busy lying and deceiving, trying to take down any followers of Jesus as he can. We see it everyday on the news but I saw something today that broke my heart and it reminded me that we are indeed in the midst of a spiritual war. What I saw is not important, so no need to ask. It is just a reminder that Christians are being singled out and that it is only going to get worse.
We, as Christians, MUST stand firm TOGETHER, holding each other up, praying fervently for our pastors, our leaders and our churches. We have seen amazing answers to prayer recently in our church, so we know how well prayer works but I ask you tonight to go strongly to the Lord to pray for pastors, our church leaders and our church congregations and against those who seek to destroy them.
Again, we must be vigilant in prayer. A question from the sermon this past Sunday was “what is prayer” – prayer is nothing more than communicating with God. It does not have to be done in a special way but it does have to be done sincerely and it needs to be done often. The more we tune into the Lord, the more power we have to resist the evil schemes even when we don’t realize we are being attacked.
So I ask you tonight, pray for your church leaders, your pastors, your churches. By all of our prayers, they will be strengthened.
And I close with a reminder of the spiritual gift of kindness. Kindness has the ability to turn away meanness.
Today we say goodbye to the beauty of my sunflowers. The tallest of the spiers was well over 12 feet high with over 15 huge blooms on one stalk. Some blooms were over 9 inches wide.
Then Wednesday a storm came through and all but one of my sunflowers hit the ground. The picture below was taken less than one minute before she snapped. The weight of even more blooms that the earlier picture proved she was no match for the wind.
The storm took out power as well as limbs and some trees. One year plus one day ago we had a derecho come through that caused massive damage to trees, crops and power. I am afraid that as our oceans warm due to human carelessness, that the collapse of that important system for the entire globe will only make our weather more erratic.
The weight of each of these blooms was almost too much to carry indoors but the are making my table beautiful for now. I had to use a heavy cut-glass vase to make sure the weight of the flowers did not pull the vase over.
But I enjoyed them so much that yes, I will plant them again next year. If you love flowers as a lot of us do, join in on Cee’s wonderful challenge of Flower of the Day. And as always I remind you of the beauty of kindness. It complements any flower of any garden.
Good afternoon friends. Today’s building is quite beautiful but I am not sure what the column material is – red marble or red granite. I may do the high school next week because even the blocks seem to be out of the same material where today’s building is brick and concrete with the red columns.
The Rock Island County office building has beautiful details of concrete that show off the brick around the building. You can see the edge here in this picture, delicate details in concrete. I find it amazing.
The front door is surrounded by massive columns, and a large archway open through the concrete columns above.
The inner area inside the columns show intricate details on all edges and levels. The ax, gavel, and greenery with ribbon are interesting.
The corners of the building each have a detailed roof design with what I am assuming may have some copper metal somewhere due to the greenness, or just painted that color. But the concrete design in the block panels are similar to what we have been seeing in other building of that time.
Thank you for coming to read about the old stone buildings in my area. If you have them in your area, feel free to share them with us here. And as always remember to be kind. Kindness shows inner power, strength and beauty.
Good morning. Hope you are well this morning. I am bringing you thoughts from several sources this morning in hope that it makes you feel the love and peace of Christ. I think there are times we all struggle with “Am I doing this right, am I following Jesus the right way today?” Or maybe it’s just me and my ADD. Sometimes my mouth opens and…good grief where did that come from? Pastor’s sermon Sunday really showed me how easy it is to get off track, even as Christians.
Some so-called Christian leaders even advocate the working out of a system of morals, ethics, and religion that would bring together all the religions of the world. It cannot be done. Jesus Christ is unique. Billy Graham
I am rereading the Left Behind series and finding that since it has been so long since I read it the first time, I forgot about a lot of the inner details of the books, so it’s almost like reading it for the first time. I ran across a statement that hit closed to home as one believer was trying to explain the difference between religion and Christianity. It said “…religion is man’s attempt to reach God, while Jesus is God’s attempt to reach man.”
Our ordinary abilities will never worship God unless they are transformed by the indwelling Son of God. Oswald Chambers
I remind you today of how very much we are all loved and all God really wants from us is that we follow him. When we go all in with that, He give us the riches of the world, not as the world gives but as He gives us through His love for us.
And as always I close with a reminder to be kind. It show the beauty from the inside.
For the Love of 