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This is My Prayer for You

by | Sep 8, 2012 | Uncategorized

from a very special friend of ours
I pray you can take a moment and listen to a gentle teaching from Joel.

On the road less traveled, here, sitting in the middle of the Salmon River, I want to lift up a prayer for you:
I pray that you would know
the richness of God’s love and presence in your life.
He is the God of life.
He is the Breath of life.
And as you breath your lungs take in the presence,
the very presence and power of God.
(If you don’t believe me, just read your Bibles…
…or just get out here, where nature screams it.)
But in this moment in time –
Wherever you are at –
Whatever your struggle –
Whatever your victory –
Whatever your pain –
Whatever your shame –
Know this – that you cannot escape the presence of God.
And I pray the you would sense that right now.
And as you draw in the next breath that it would give you peace and strength
– to get through this day and face tomorrow.
And that you would trust that the goodness of God would follow you
– like a never ending stream.
And that you would know God in the way that I have come to know him.
And see him in everything that lives.
And that you would find the time to escape man’s world and man’s creation
and see God.
In some ways that’s a big prayer and in other ways it is so simple.
I pray that you will breathe the presence of God in,
in a way that you have never known or never understood.
And maybe you’ve never believed –
But as you take your breath
(We’ve lost in translation,
but literally the Bible says that he is our Breath, he is our Life)
And as you draw in that Breath this life that fills your body and your lungs and your heart,
Know that God is present – not just with you but in you
and by virtue of his presence he knows your thoughts.
Your struggles.
Your secrets.
And he loves you anyway.
May that give you peace and joy and security today.
Worship him.
Breathe him.
Know him
– like you’ve never known before.
This is my prayer for you.
From the road less traveled.
You know what I’m going to say…
Get out there!

My prayer

by | Sep 8, 2012 | Uncategorized

After reading the book “Saying it well” by Charles Swindoll.
It has left me with many things to process.
He tells the reader to find your calling.
Your place in life that gives you peace.
A calm heart’s condition.
A restful soul experience.
A knowing that you are right where you need to be right now.
In reading that I had to ask myself… have I found my call in life?
Is it possible to ever really find it?
This blog is three years old now. 
Over 500 posts have been written and what can be said about it is this:
The heart and soul of why I sit before a screen and pound my thoughts out by the strokes of a key board
is to encourage others in the process of relationships.
Looking back into the writings that the Lord put on my heart the whole message is knowing one’s heart condition.
Creating an attitude of gratitude as I learned from the wonderful
Ann Voskamp and her book ‘A thousand Gifts’.
We have many things to be grateful for even when we feel we have nothing.
When we feel we have nothing then we need to start small just as Ann did and write down everything before us and around us and open our eyes to what we really have been given.
In the “Saying it well” book he tells the reader if one is going to write or speak
it has to be in such a way that when others hear your words
they will feel and be moved and be touched within
by the intensity and power of what they read.
Ann has done that by simply teaching others to be grateful.
Touching others with our words is not an easy task for a writer.
We have to reach in and find the right reason to share what is on our heart.
Charles Swindoll said, “whenever someone is reading your writings or listening to you
they are taking a part of their day to pay attention.
Make it worth their time.”
I am learning:
It is the character and the life of your writing that will help others to return.
We read favorite books because we enjoy their style and their personalities.
The same is true for this kind of writing.
More than anything I want this to be an authentic place where being real is the way it is and being honest and open is acceptable.
Today I am grateful and thankful for the readers who read this writing of mine and comment and encourage me in this process.
My prayer is that I can encourage you too
as we walk this journey called life together and perhaps in this process we can all find ‘something to think about’.
 

In time

by | Sep 4, 2012 | Uncategorized

It has been two weeks now since we lost our old black dog.
My heart is still heavy and sad.
I watch Emma my old red Australian cattle dog lay outside on her bed.
She is lonely.
I can tell she is not sure of what to do without ‘her buddy’ near her.
Change is hard.
How can we move towards change
We can put our foot down and resist it or
we open our hands and welcome it.
For me
change is hard.
I rarely move my furniture.
I drive a 1995 toyota corolla.
We have lived in the same house now for nearly 16 years.
(the longest I have ever lived anywhere)
When we find a church we love we don’t like to leave it.
Change brings grief and stomach upsets and fatigue.
Especially if we have to change and we didn’t want to.
Losing a buddy was not something Emma wanted.
None of us want to lose something close to us.
When we do
our choice is to feel it
acknowledge it and then move forward
taking one step at a time
one very small step at a time.
Emma is very sad.
I do believe dogs grieve.
In time she will be less sad.
In time she will know we are here for her.
In time she will understand she gets special attention
because it is only her now.
We all need to accept life as it changes

In a moment in time.

Something new

by | Sep 3, 2012 | Uncategorized

Soft clouds awakening the day… the dark shadows representing
the quiet of the night.
We open our lives with anticipation of what is to come
in the newness of the morning.
A new day
A new beginning
A new chance to begin again.

Joining Deidra on jumping tandem with the Sunday community
{photo by Margo from Yamhill}

To realize

by | Aug 27, 2012 | Uncategorized

When our hearts bleed from deep pain and grief
all we can do is trust in the one who gave us the feelings and
thank Him for the ability to cry.
To sit with another and say nothing
when their hearts are grieving…is a gift we can give them.
Our pastor taught today on Job.
The story of Job is in the Old testament about a man who loved God.
Who stayed firm and strong in his testimony in the midst of losing everything dear to him including his health.
Job lost many things and still he praised God.
I challenge you to read the book of Job.
He was a wealthy man and yet he was brought down to nothing.
Loss is part of life but we are never prepared when it happens.
Like a rug pulled out from under our feet we slam to the floor
unsure if we can get back up again.
When we reach up and ask another to be with us
we begin to realize we cannot do this walk alone.


Joining Deidra on jumping tandem with the Sunday community
{unsure of who took the photograph ~ found it in my picture file}