It is simply amazing to me how the minutes, days, and months slip by. When I was told that life just continues to speed up as you get older, I believed the person, but I didn't realize just how true the statement would turn out. Today is one of the first days in a long time that I have had to just sit. There was no big agenda, nothing that demanded my attention, and nothing that needed to be finished before the day was done. It was beautiful! This makes me ponder how busy am I? Do I need to be cutting back? I do not want to be so busy accomplishing everything on "my list" for the day that I miss golden moments.
Golden moments such as taking time to enjoy a sunrise (or sunset), listening to the wind in the trees, watching a bird at the feeder, lending a helping hand, or sitting peacefully. Golden moments that when I am busy, multi-tasking, worried, stressed, or just aware of the passing time, are not as full and beautiful. Golden moments when I can really connect with God because I did put all else away and have the ability to focus solely on Him.
Am I too busy? I have not decided that yet, but I do know that I will enjoy today and look for those golden moments amid the quick pace of other days
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Quiet
You know....sometimes in life it is just quiet. There is no breaking story news, no brilliant idea, no breathtaking views, just life. Life that goes on minute by minute with some good days, some bad, and some categorized as meh days. There are no awe inspiring statements but rather just a life lived to serve. Quiet.. I do not mind (it just doesn't give to much to write about), most days.
Quiet when you are home alone and only the refrigerator is running in the background. Quiet when everyone else has gone to bed but you are lying awake in your own, quiet when you are hand-stitching on the quilt. Quiet give me time to think, time to reflect, and time to pray. It is a time when I am completely relaxed.
But quiet can also be disconcerting, uncomfortable. I have found the quiet times in life can often be times where my patience is stretched for wait, not yet, and no seem to be the answers to the many questions that I have for God. So what can I do...I trust. Trust that God has got my back. Trust that he will and currently is working out my story. Trust that even when the world throws punches to the face, I am safe. Trust after picking myself off the ground, I have the strength to continue. I am loved. I am a child of God. So...I will trust. I will wait. I will be quiet. But I will not back down.
Quiet when you are home alone and only the refrigerator is running in the background. Quiet when everyone else has gone to bed but you are lying awake in your own, quiet when you are hand-stitching on the quilt. Quiet give me time to think, time to reflect, and time to pray. It is a time when I am completely relaxed.
But quiet can also be disconcerting, uncomfortable. I have found the quiet times in life can often be times where my patience is stretched for wait, not yet, and no seem to be the answers to the many questions that I have for God. So what can I do...I trust. Trust that God has got my back. Trust that he will and currently is working out my story. Trust that even when the world throws punches to the face, I am safe. Trust after picking myself off the ground, I have the strength to continue. I am loved. I am a child of God. So...I will trust. I will wait. I will be quiet. But I will not back down.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Inside and Out
Imagine this...quick short footsteps running down the hall toward a mother sitting in a chair with her back turned to the child. The footsteps slow and then stop in confusion when Mom can not be found. Then the mother calls out "Lisa, I'm right here." The child once again races forward, and dives into Mom's lap for the comfort, peace, and security she knows she will always find there. Meanwhile, Mom never once turned around or looked up as the footsteps approached the room where she was seated. She knew which child was looking for her, knew the sound of their approaching footsteps.
This memory kept me thinking, what about God? Does he distinguish between all his children's different ways of approaching him? Can he instantly tell that it is me coming to talk, just the way moms know the exact cry, laugh, voice, and footsteps of their children? Does God know the sound of my laugh, heart breaking into pieces, my footsteps to his door? I think so.
After all, He reminds us over and over in his word how loved and valuable we are to Him. In Matthew 10:29-30 it says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; your are worth more than many sparrows."
It is so incredible to know that my God knows me inside and out and yet He loves me! He hears me and knows just what I need as I approach his throne, and he welcomes me with his loving arms...
This memory kept me thinking, what about God? Does he distinguish between all his children's different ways of approaching him? Can he instantly tell that it is me coming to talk, just the way moms know the exact cry, laugh, voice, and footsteps of their children? Does God know the sound of my laugh, heart breaking into pieces, my footsteps to his door? I think so.
After all, He reminds us over and over in his word how loved and valuable we are to Him. In Matthew 10:29-30 it says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; your are worth more than many sparrows."
It is so incredible to know that my God knows me inside and out and yet He loves me! He hears me and knows just what I need as I approach his throne, and he welcomes me with his loving arms...
Psalm 139:1-18
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Quilt of Life
The Patchwork Quilt
“Life isn’t given to us all of a
piece,
It’s more like a patchwork quilt
Each hour and minute a patch to fit in
To the pattern that’s being built.
It’s more like a patchwork quilt
Each hour and minute a patch to fit in
To the pattern that’s being built.
With some patches light — and some patches dark
And some that seem ever so dull
But if we were given to set some apart,
We’d hardly know which to cull.
And some that seem ever so dull
But if we were given to set some apart,
We’d hardly know which to cull.
For it takes the dark patches to set off the light,
And the dull to show up the gay
And, somehow, the pattern just wouldn’t be right
If we took any part away.
And the dull to show up the gay
And, somehow, the pattern just wouldn’t be right
If we took any part away.
No, life isn’t given us all of a piece,
But in patches of hours to use,
That each can work out his pattern of life
To whatever design he might choose.”
But in patches of hours to use,
That each can work out his pattern of life
To whatever design he might choose.”
Helen Lowrie Marshall
Quilting is something that my grandma taught me to love. The putting together of scraps, pieces that many just throw away, to make something with a pattern, something beautiful. And the more I think about it, the more I see God as a master quilter.
Imagine each and every piece in a quilt is a situation, a memory, a part of a life. There are bright colors and dull colors, happy prints, prints of different seasons, dreary prints. There are the ugly pieces, the beautiful pieces, and the mediocre pieces. Yet every one is necessary to the quilt. The dark and light, happy and sad, dull and extravagant make way into a pattern that only the quilter can recognize. A pattern that is only there because of the contrast in the differences in the fabrics.
Many times while suck in the moment of the ugly of life, it is hard to see why this particular situation needs to be apart of my life quilt, an the temptation arises to ask "why me?". I think about the different quilts I have made. I think about all of the original pieces of fabric that I choose, not because of beauty or design but because of how I thought they would look in the finished quilted design. In picking out the scraps to use for the quilt, the finished pattern is how I make choices for color and design.
I know that God can take all of my pieces of life and make them not just into the pile of scraps that I currently possess, but into a masterpiece of His design when I choose to hand Him every situation. The times of joy, tears, peace, sadness, excitement, anticipation, fear, love, fellowship, and many more are unscrambled in His artistic hands and placed into the pattern that he has picked out for me and is uniquely mine.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Exhist or Live
While reading a book today, I stumbled upon another quote that made me think....
"Loss is part of life. Whether it happens unexpectedly,
or later in life with disease or old age. It's inevitable.
The best we can do is consider each day a gift and
embrace it fully. Otherwise, we exist rather than live."
-Irene Hannon
Yes, death is painful and not fun for the ones who are left behind, but yet...
The person who has gone to heaven does not want to come back. They are having the time of their life and doing what they were made to do...praise.
Time continues on. Whether you sit in bed all day or are doing chore after chore, time continues on at the same rate for all of us on Earth.
We will see them again. Why wallow in your sadness on Earth when you know that you will see them again someday? Yes, you will miss them, but this is not the end. We have a story that goes beyond the glimpse of this time on Earth.
God's plan for you is not complete yet. I know that my dad was received into heaven with the words "well done good and faithful servant." I need to strive to follow God's will for my life so that I can also be greeted with those wonderful words.
So I choose to laugh, live, love, care, show compassion and patience, and continue searching for God's next step for my life because it is not finished yet and I am determined to "fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith." I will choose to live rather than just exist.
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