HEART'S CRY

My perspective so needed enlarged.  Who knew that an evening ending with a movie with my youngest would be just the ticket!  He is stuck home with me to hold down the fort while my husband and middle son are away for the weekend.  We hung out at the horses brushing off stubborn winter coats.  While wandering around I found a treasure that I had walked by a million times...an old chicken feeder that will become a planter!  Then we wondered around Pamida and grabbed a Subway.   Flipping through the channels, my gentleman son picked, "Soul Surfer" over an action one.   So thoughtful! One theme weaving its way through the story was that of standing back to get perspective.  Sometimes we get so close to our problems and lives that we lose sight of reality and miss the joy and the beauty.  As this young girl fights back after being attacked by a shark-she has to overcome fear and gain a new perspective. At one point,...

I want to have a switch that I can flip to stop time...for just a second or two. I want to put my hand in the rushing torrent of time going by and  slow it down...just a smidgen. I want to reach up and hold on the sun, the clouds and the sunset and cause them to be still...for a moment. Mostly, I want to wrap my arms around my family and hide like I did when we played under the blankets and disappear...for just a little while. I can't hold back time. The seconds continue to tick and the river of time flows.   The sun moves and the seasons change.   Boys grow up.  Blankets are put away.   Time moves continually forward. I can't hold back time. While my heart longs for a respite and a stillness... my spirit cries to catch the wind while it is moving. To ride the torrent and follow the sun. To enjoy and celebrate the boys...and the TIME!  

  In the garden and in my life...it's time to thin. Thinning the seedlings in our garden is important to the life, health and productivity of the plants.  It reduces competition and helps each plant's capacity to produce.   However, after waiting and watching for those new leaves to push out of the ground; I'm not excited to thin them.  There is nothing wrong with the little plant that gets pulled and seems to go against all we are trying to do.   It's easy to pull the weeds that are competing for the time, energy and resources in our garden but taking out the crowded plants is just as important.   My life is the same way.  So many good things in it.  Activities, projects and goals sprout in my mind or become available to me.   Like always, I tend to get "overcrowded" quickly.  Activities and projects compete for my attention draining precious resources such as energy, time...

"Oreo, you are just like the kids when they were little!" I told him.   I had gotten up to enjoy the morning quiet.  Made coffee, ate a half of bagel, got out hamburger, put away dishes and had just set down to work on my sermon when I hear the door creek open and the pitter, patter of little feet come out to my chair.  He sat, looking at me knowing that I would put down the computer and put him out.  Had a treat and a drink of water and went back to bed.  I smiled. When the boys were little I would try to sneak up as early as possible to have some "me" time or just get a few things done and it never failed...they would come to find me.  Sometimes it exasperated me, I'm afraid to admit.  Now I get all of the early morning time I want.   And I dream of the sound of little feet coming to climb on my lap.  I put my head back and hear a parade in my mind as those little feet sounds change from pitter patter to the on-the-...

According to NPR this morning, Religion is going extinct.  Secularism will be the norm within two years.  So a group of atheist are celebrating with a Woodstock type march. They say this like this like it is a radical way of thinking and that our America whose beginnings were birthed from the Bible will be shocked and dismayed with a rising sense of helplessness, hopelessness and sense of inevitability.  Poor religious nut cases who hold tightly to God and guns will be marginalized and defeated. Little do they know!!!  Who created America to be who she is?  Who establishes plans and destroys them?   Can the God who scooped out the oceans and gathered the mountains; putting them in their place actually still be the head of a mighty church that the Gates of Hell Cannot Prevail upon?   What the atheist movement and NPR doesn't realize is that the church is not a building or a name.  It is not a "big church" that logs their...

Lowell Sandell from University of Nebraska Lincoln during a training on Turf and Landscape Weed Management stated, "Weeds are opportunistic taking advantage of an ecological and/or geographical adaptation to conditions more favorable for their growth as opposed to the growth of the desired species."   Weeds look for niches in the environment where they can take root and get established.  A place that is bare or diseased or stressed.  If it thinks it can take over... For the rest of the class my mind automatically jumped between weeds and habits and sin "that so easily entangles us." Compacted soils, acid soils, infertile/sandy soils, high fertility soils, shade and moist and wet soils attract their own weeds.  In addition weed seeds build up in the soil and will come out of dormancy when "the mood is right." Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Ever had an exhausting day where your life was compacted and were shocked at what came out?! ...

Financial peace.  A paradox?  An oxymoron?   My biggest question is:  Is it even possible?   We know what financial is....or do we? Do we know what peace means?       Finance:  The science of managing money and assets.  Financial: Relating to finances.  It is all about money and assets and managing them and the systems that circulate the dollars.  Peace: : a state of tranquility or quiet: as a : freedom from civil disturbance b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom  : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions : harmony in personal relations (Merriam-Webster) Maybe we should "get to know our money" before we can manage it?  I believe that we have to have a clear picture of what it will look like at the end in order to keep going towards our goals.   What we are aiming for.  My g...

I work in my yard with a heavy heart today knowing that families, churches and a community are grieving.  My heart will be with them.  I cannot imagine what they have to be feeling.  I hugged my boys tighter then usual as they left for work this morning...and they were more patient. While God does not cause horrible things to happen...He is with us through them.  "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18 "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3 I can picture our Great and Mighty God who created the heavens and the earth bending low today to wrap His arms around children who are crushed in spirit and beginning the work of binding their wounds and healing their hearts.  Raw and gaping wounds cannot be tended to by anyone else like Him. Oh God...Be near the brokenhearted today.  Heal their hearts and heal our lands.  Comfort all who mourn.  The cry ...

My pursuit of finding less has led me to reflect on "One Day at a Time."   Living in today while keeping my eye on the future. Why do I worry?  What is it about carrying a load that makes me feel at home?   Chewing on something for a short time to process and work through is healthy.   Hmmm...thinking of our old milk cow ruminating or chewing her cud after eating. But stewing, worry and anxiety?  What a waste! My Heart's Cry?  Submit more and worry less.   Less anxiety and more peace.   Less stewing and more working.   Less energy wasted.    More focus.  Keeping my eyes straight ahead! "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34 "Cast all you...

Surrender.  White flag.  Arms up.  "I give," I want to yell.  I'm so frustrated.   The churning in my heart and my stomach is threatening to go volcanic on me.  I'm mad.  I'm angry.  My Heart's Cry is not pretty or peaceful...it is raging. Why can't we get on the same page?  Why does one of us pull one direction while the other goes another?  Can't we just work together?  I'm sick of pulling or at least feeling like I'm pulling alone?  Should I be?  Am I just being selfish? What is the point of trying to go one direction if everything and everyone seems intent on going the other?  What would happen if I just surrender?  What don't I trust?  Who don't I trust in?  How can I be so connected and yet so torn apart?   Why do I think that I have to be the one to pull?   Who am I pulling for? To? With? Toward?    (Wikipedia) I'm trying to carry a burden that ...