Beautiful You

How beautiful on the mountains

   are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,

Breaking the news that all’s well,

   proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,

   telling Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,

   shouting in joyful unison.

They see with their own eyes

   God coming back to Zion.

Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:

   “God has comforted his people!

   He’s redeemed Jerusalem!”

God has rolled up his sleeves.

   All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.

Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,

   sees him at work, doing his salvation work. Isaiah 52:7-10

Being beautiful is easier than you thought.

Photograph from morguefile.com

Those Wings

You are still a bird whether you sit in the nest or on a tree branch or tucked close by whatever your safety button happens to be.  But you were made to soar.  Learning to trust Him will let you experience His currents of love beneath your wings.  Fly, baby.

Photograph from morguefile by quicksandala

Light Hearted

Candlelight dinners may have been the inspiration of a woman who chose to read or craft or soak in a bath instead of cleaning that day.  Just saying.

Photograph from morguefile.com by melschmitz

Pressing Through

On Saturday morning I woke up with some neck and shoulder pain.  Slept wrong apparently.  Laurie and I holed up at mom’s, working until late in the night, slept a few hours and sorted again until early afternoon.  Then home to prepare Cade’s belated birthday dinner (John had gotten the main things started for me and the girls were there to give me a hand to get it all ready.  Jenna washed up everything afterward when I headed to bed.)

Monday and Tuesday mornings included visits to the doctor for relief, and when I called again Wednesday morning and we tried again for progress, it was determined that home in bed, rest, heat, and stretching would be the best route.  But I was a little discouraged, not sure what is going on or how to address it.

Early afternoon I got a text from Mrs. Alex…”How are things at the office today?”  She rarely texts me during the work day.  I texted back to let her know what was going on and she immediately responded, asking what if I had had lunch.  Shortly after she arrived with a delicious sandwich, salad, and coffee.  It was such a blessing...a provision...and encouragement.  A clear message from God in this unexpected timing...“I’ve got you.”  I don’t know what is ahead...just letting the muscles loosen up or something far more time-changing.  But either way, I know it will be ok.  (Prayers appreciated as I press on.)

Photograph from morguefile.com

Delicious

I have noticed that in the last couple of months and the busyness that has pressed in to tend to much after momma’s passing, I have had an appetite change.  Being pulled to other things has tempered my hunger for God slightly and a long list of tasks has been happy to slide into the prominent places of my mind as many things need done and rest is calling me.  It has made me more aware of what happens when secondary things get our focus and begin to consume our attention and our time.  It feels like God has become wispy, and has slightly fluttered away.  I know it isn’t at all true, but it is easy to think that He’s less somehow, as this distance in perspective occurs and other things seem to rise in importance.

Where we walk and what we eat are core.  

If God calls us to something there will always be options that appear on the horizon.  We can take the trail of responding to Him, or allow ourselves to become distracted and soon we will likely start looking for signposts to rationalize any waywardness.  It is so easy to begin to choose the easier (but oh so costly) paved roads and forget the mountain of immovable goodness we once knew.   If we are feeding at other tables and begin to fill our plates from the flavors that will satisfy our current sweet tooth, our appetite will be changed.

It is easy to shift from first things when we are distracted, fearful, or busy.  I know how precious this relationship with my God is and how vulnerable I am to getting sidetracked from something extraordinary when I don’t give it my eye and ear and heart and my appetite consistently.  It is so easy to drift away.   

This God is worth having and worth the effort invested so I don’t let go of the best gift I’ve ever received.

Photograph from morguefile.com by oleiah

Count Me In

If you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, and heartily obey all his commandments that I command you today,God, your God, will place you on high, high above all the nations of the world. All these blessings will come down on you and spread out beyond you because you have responded to the Voice of God, your God:

God’s blessing inside the city,

God’s blessing in the country;

God’s blessing on your children,

   the crops of your land,

   the young of your livestock,

   the calves of your herds,

   the lambs of your flocks.

God’s blessing on your basket and bread bowl;

God’s blessing in your coming in,

God’s blessing in your going out.

7 God will defeat your enemies who attack you. They’ll come at you on one road and run away on seven roads.

8 God will order a blessing on your barns and workplaces; he’ll bless you in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

9 God will form you as a people holy to him, just as he promised you, if you keep the commandments of God, your God, and live the way he has shown you.

10 All the peoples on Earth will see you living under the Name ofGod and hold you in respectful awe.

11-14 God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you.God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the bottom dog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today. Don’t swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command you today by going off following and worshiping other gods. (from Deuteronomy 28)

Photograph from morguefile.com by svklimkin

Simpler Than We Thought

One reason I love the early morning is that before the activity of the day begins, the birds are awake.  There is no other noise going on to overpower their songs.  They remind me regularly of the gift of trust that can be our reality because of the power of God’s faithfulness if we believe He is who He says.  

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”  Matthew 6:25-27

Being good stewards of our resources is important.  I am just reminded that I don’t have to be stressed about the provision of the basics of my life or fearful for my future.  So many decisions are driven by an underlining of fear, but there is more peace available for us than most of us are willing to posture for.  We have to be in the vulnerable stance of trust to gain it, and walk it out to keep it.  Am I willing to believe He is good and delightedly working for my well-being?

Photograph from morguefile.com by AcrylicArtist