by Sharon O | Nov 23, 2015 | Uncategorized
Today is the beginning of Thanksgiving week. Many will be taking vacations to go visit family.
Others will be shopping and preparing for the festive feast.
Some will be working single or double shifts. Holidays are hard in some professions.
There are some words I would like to challenge us with, words that give meaning to the day and season.
As we move forward into the fast chore list of what needs to be done.
Today’s word is going to be gratitude.
Dictionary.com says Gratitude is the quality of feeling of being grateful or thankful.
When we look up the words we learn of these meanings:
Grateful is warm or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received.
Thankful is pleasing, agreeable, welcome or refreshing, feeling or expressing gratitude.
Do you see where I am going with this?
Thanksgiving… giving thanks with a grateful heart.
It is a time of reflections, observations, remembering and expressing.
Giving thanks for all we have now, for love of family and friends.
Giving thanks that we live where we can worship without fear, sing songs without worry, and choose our acts of freedom every day.
Many cannot do this without great concern for safety and peace.
On this day of Thanksgiving, I pray we not only give thanks for our peaceful lives, but to say a prayer and
send a thought, or perhaps even tell someone, how grateful you feel to know them and have them close to your heart and life.
It is a time of giving thought for how much we are given.
Romans 12:3 [a book of The New Testament] The Message (MSG)
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.
No, God brings it all to you.
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
by Sharon O | Nov 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
I love to participate in the Friday’s word prompt, as it challenges me to think on a word, and the many directions one can go with it.
Today’s word prompt is: Dwell
I have read some who chose to write about the homes we live in as we dwell together. Yeah that is a great choice.
The word has three parts to it: dwell, dwells, and dwelling.
The Bible mentions them 179 times which is pretty significant.
The idea or concept from the dictionary is to live, stay or reside or to ponder upon a thought.
One of my favorite verses in the Old Testament of the bible is in Isaiah 32:18.
The message version is: My people will live in a peaceful neighborhood – in safe houses – in quiet gardens.
The revised standard version: My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure houses, in undisturbed places of rest.
Both of those verses are full of calming promises.
In Psalm 4:8 it says: In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Don’t we all want to claim that verse? No fear, no restlessness? no danger.
There is so much chaos these days for many, how we stay strong and with hope?
Another verse I like is Psalm 27:4:
One thing I ask of the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.
It is all we can do in this crazy unsettled world. Ask for safety, and peace and pray for those who are on the journey of finding that too.
In Psalm 91:1 it says: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I think we all need and want to find the ‘rest’ that is promised to us.
by Sharon O | Nov 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
Soon we will be entering into the time of Thanksgiving.
It really should be a life time of giving thanks, but we have a ‘calendar day’ we set aside for a big meal.
A warm inviting day full of family, friends and perhaps a fire in the fireplace, with the smell of turkey and baked pies cooking in the oven.
I remember the days of younger years, when we would go to my grandma’s house. She made everything.
The meal was carefully chosen and always the same.
Never changing the menu of the day which was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans and bacon, gravy. Oh and always the relish plates full of a variety of pickles and olives and carrot sticks. Grandma took great pride in making the meal and she did it up into her early 70’s all by herself.
I loved those times, when I could see the chandelier’s light reflect multiple prisms of beautiful colors, on the white ceiling in the dining room.
We didn’t always have warm fuzzy moments as a family, but it was a tradition I do remember.
The table was beautiful with china settings and crystal glasses, candles flickering, and often a beautiful bouquet of fall flowers as a center piece.
I learned the value of a beautiful table. Then as I became older and wiser I also learned the value of conversation and tradition.
We make the fancy dinner always on Thanksgiving.
Last year there were only three of us and it was still a festive time of sharing life together.
Thanksgiving is a time to pause… to think and to remember.
Giving thanks with a grateful heart, to the God who allows us to remain here one more season.
Life is challenging for sure. I am thinking of a family who will have this holiday without their loved ones.
Tragic circumstances took them away and it is a difficult journey to enter into the ‘holidays’ remembering.
Thanksgiving is a time of slowing down, sipping the coffee a bit slower, eating the pie and enjoying it.
Sharing conversation and prayers, enjoying the quiet time spent together.
It is a time to remember what we are giving thanks for and why we need to slow down.
In life we all need a time to pause. A time to think. A time to remember.
Traditions are good and wonderful, but let’s try to do something this year a little different.
Let’s try to take note of ‘what we are giving thanks for,’ and remember all that we have been given.
1 Chronicles 29:13(NIV)
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
Psalm 7:17(NIV) I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.
Psalm 69:30(NIV) I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Without God, our lives would be without purpose and without hope.
In this season for giving thanks and remembering, let us give thanks for his glorious love and provision for our lives. Let us begin to give thanks with a grateful heart, for we have many things to be grateful for.
by Sharon O | Nov 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
One more time we enter into the challenge of a word prompt.
Write for five minutes then stop, with no editing and no revising.
I have to admit here, I did spend more than five minutes on this.
In order to look up what I needed, it took a bit longer to get my writing finished.
Today’s word is weary.
The verse I am going to work with is this one, from the New Testament book of the Bible,
“Come to me all, who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
The word come means to approach or move towards, a place or a person.
It is an active word, to move into view and appear or extend or reach.
It means we must make a decision to ‘come’ to Him who can help us.
“Come to me,” It is realizing we can enter into a place of peace if we decide to.
The word weary, means to be physically or mentally exhausted fatigue.
We have all been in this feeling at one point in time and understand the fog it leaves us in.
The word burdened means to have a difficult obligation or feelings of heavily troubled oppression.
“Come to me – walk towards me in your deepest heaviest spirit and accept my peace (my interpretation)“
The word rest means refreshing quiet, refreshing ease, relief and freedom from trouble or deep disturbance.
It is a quiet stillness that restores your unsettled spirit.
“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
In the message Bible, this is the way it says the same verse.
Matthew 11:28-30The Message (MSG) 28-30
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I think this could be a life verse. I love the line ‘learn the unforced rhythms of grace.’
Shall we drop our heavy hearts and let something go today?
There is so much in this life that can weigh us down, so many worries and stresses.
Perhaps it is time to finally, once and for all, ‘come to HIM’ who is able to help us, find the true internal peace we so desperately need.
by Sharon O | Nov 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
This was our anniversary week.
We did a variety of fun things to celebrate our ‘time’ together.
The day is always a good time for us, to remember how far we have come.
When we stood at the altar of the church as young, barely out of high school teens.
We had no idea what kind of dance marriage is and would be for us.
I call it a dance because there are moves in many directions as the years come and go.
The stage of young marrieds, alone and discovering how to navigate out of your parents home.
Then the stage of new expectant parents, anticipating a new baby and what that would look like together.
Then the parenting stage of crying infants, diapers, and lack of sleep.
Then the stage of no money and little sleep again, and toddlers and no energy.
Then the stage of preschool and driving to a place who you trust, to take care of your child.
The stage of trusting and hoping all will be well when they enter into grade school.
Then the stage of junior high and then on into high school, and you wonder and you wait, to see if you did a good job or not as they grow into young adult hood.
Then the stage of them emancipating themselves and moving out, starting a new journey of their own.
Then you drive away from the college campus and you pray for safety and the money to be enough and for them to make good choices.
Then you find yourselves standing as the parents of the groom, and you are now in the role of in-laws and how proud you are in this stage of life.
Then you find yourselves sitting in a nicu room filled with tiny babies, with your daughter, and one of them is YOUR first grand baby.
Then you become the parents of the bride, and then more grand babies come into your lives, and soon you find yourselves calling each other grandma and grandpa.
The dance of marriage is ongoing. You grow old together, seasons change just like the beat of the music.
The journey is easy if you follow slowly and learn to be adaptable.
The dance of growing older and marveling at how far you have come, and knowing that forty two years is a long time to learn this dance.
I love the imagery of dancing together, because every season of life is different and we must learn new steps to get through it.
We have years ahead of us, where the dance of aging will be even more difficult, than the young parenting years.
Oh we thought that would never pass, we just could not see how it would be ‘different’, those who told us, someday you will look back and realize how far you have come.
The dance of remembering is sweet and sad at the same time.
We moved through the dance of losing our parents and letting go of that part of our lives.
The days now are quiet and sometimes lonely.
Often you find ourselves in the stage of waiting again, and wondering if they will call or come visit, just as your own parents did many years ago.
The caretaking days have ended and even though, the dance of marriage is both difficult and rewarding.
In the end, it is beauty and a story unfolding, of life and of love, and of a familiar commitment.
This was our anniversary week and I pray for many more.
{THIS is part of the five minute writing challenge on one word: the word was dance}
