Happy Birthday, Grandma!
One of the blessings of being the first born is also getting to be the first grandchild. One of my favorite stories from childhood is when my mom, who was living in Ohio, called up my grandmother (her mother) to wish her a happy birthday. It was also the day of my birth, but Grandma did not know it yet, so Mom said, “Happy Birthday, Grandma!”
Of course, Grandma began her usual thanks for the wishes when the new term hit her. “Wait… Grandma?”
And thus began the plans to transport me back to Southern California and all the family members who had new titles like grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc. When life became more difficult not many years later, I believe the special position as the “first” everything, and all the spoiling that came with it in my formative years, gave me a balance that made the hard times easier to survive. And they made me a better big sister who could take control and take care as needed. Not perfect, mind you, as I was still a child, but I think I was a little more attentive to my baby sister.
I still have fond memories of shared birthday gatherings when there would be a cake with both names, or a big and little cake when we each got our own. I loved sharing my birthday with my grandmother, and it never felt the same after she left this world. But I will always have that sweet story of the phone call “reveal” to my newly ordained Grandma. 😁
Here’s one of those memories from a Polaroid I shared to my Flickr feed, though I’m sorry I cannot seem to control the sizes from Flickr pages to this blog…
Thank you for joining me on this trip down memory lane. And if you have a grandmother who needs a pretty card for her birthday, feel free to download and use the card above. You can add a name in multiple photo editing apps, but I recommend Photo Studio Pro the most.
And one last thing; I learned today that there is a scientific group doing studies on mother’s milk that shows how different needs of a baby create different chemical components within the milk. It’s a different composition for boys than girls, it changes for sick babies, and first-time mothers have more cortisol in their milk which causes first-born babies to be more alert, attentive, and anxious. It’s almost like some Intelligent Being designed things to work in certain ways that benefit the human race, huh? 🤩 Read a summary of more highlights from this amazing study by Katie Hinder, an evolutionary anthropologist, on X (you’ll need to log in) at https://x.com/i/status/2016990657450299837 and prepare to be amazed. (If you don’t have an X/Twitter account, maybe look up the scientist by name. It’s a lot of fascinating study.)
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I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy…
Do you remember the Sunday School song begun in the title? If so, and since it’s my birthday tomorrow, my wish is for you to sing this fun tune (from way back in 1926) with me:
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart;
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart to stay.
I've got the peace that passes understanding,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart;
I've got the peace that passes understanding,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart to stay.
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart;
I've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
Down in my heart, (where?)
Down in my heart to stay.
And I had to share this as part of my birthday celebration because with age, I need that joy in my heart more than ever. I’ve always been a joy seeker and have even been described as “bright and bubbly.” One person from across a congregation would watch for me to get into a conversation because she knew I would likely smile about something, and she said she loved my smile because I smiled with my whole being.
Truthfully, though, when you get older and you look in the mirror and see the weight and the tired eyes (I know, I need to take my own advice from a couple days ago to look beyond the mirror), it makes it easier to frown in frustration than smile with joy. But I must remember that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and joy (plus peace and love) are the fruit of His Spirit. They are part of His personality dwelling within me, so they remain the same no matter my external circumstances.
And here’s a video of a couple singing this with some pretty harmonies and even the added chorus that says, “And I’m so happy, so very happy, I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart; yes I’m so happy, so very happy, I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart.”
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Good Morning, Lord! 🌞
While I struggle to be an earlybird kinda person, for some reason, I keep writing things with “good morning” in their titles. So, just because this begins with that, please enjoy it as a prayer to start your new day at whatever time your morning might be. I wrote it years ago, so it’s a good time to present it with a new, pretty background and frame. This is my real prayer to The Almighty Creator who loves me, my Abba Yahveh, and I hope it’s one my readers can pray to Him as well.
Here it is in plain text in case the image makes it difficult to read….
GOOD MORNING LORD!
HERE I AM.
I KNOW YOU HAVE PLANS…
FOR THIS DAY;
FOR ME;
FOR ME IN THIS DAY.
FOR MY LIFE,
FOR ME IN THIS LIFE.
YOU ARE MY CREATOR.
AND I AM YOUR CHILD.
I AM NOT JUST AN EXPERIMENT.
YOU MADE MANKIND
(AND ME)
IN YOUR IMAGE.
YOU HAVE PERFECT PLANS.
NOTHING SURPRISES YOU.
I TRUST YOU.
I RECEIVE YOUR WISDOM
ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU
HAVE CHOSEN TO SHARE WITH ME
IN THIS LIFE.
I RECEIVE HEALING
FROM YOUR HAND
AND THROUGH
YOUR HOLY AND PRECIOUS BLOOD THAT WILL NEVER LOSE ITS POWER!
MAY I LISTEN TO, AND HEAR,
YOUR VOICE.
MAY I SEE, AND KNOW,
YOUR WILL FOR ME.
MAY I FOLLOW, AND OBEY, YOU.
MAY I SHOW YOU MY LOVE
BY OFFERING YOU PRAISE,
FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE,
AND FOR ALL THAT YOU DO–
THIS DAY AND FOREVER!
IN YOUR HOLY, MEMORIAL NAME, YAHVEH, AND IN THE NAME AND BLOOD OF MY MESSIAH YAHSHUA,
AMEN AND HALLELUYAH!
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Beyond the Mirror (a scrolling poem)
Many years ago, I was on the phone with my sister, and she was heartbroken by the changes she saw in some of the young girls in her church. Puberty had taken hold of what used to be innocent little darlings in her Sunday School class, and pride seemed to be growing faster than their maturity. All that mattered was how they looked, who liked them (in their peer groups), and what was happening next in their busy calendars. They had become too busy and self-focused to even think about God or the lessons they were once taught.
I told her it was normal, and it didn’t mean she wasn’t a good teacher or that she had dropped the ball. It was part of learning how to let go of the apron strings and reach for the future. But, having once been teenage girls ourselves, we both knew what was happening and that it could be a dangerous time when peer pressure could lead to bad decisions that could negatively affect those futures.
As much as we want to prevent it for others, most of the time, people (especially teen people 😏) must learn on their own, and sometimes by hard lessons. But we can continue to shine a light of truth around them, so they’ll know where to look when they are confused or feel beat up by unreal expectations. In that vein, I put this poem together, and I love how it came out. It was also one of my first times using PowerPoint, so with days of trial and error, I finally created a video of the slideshow to present it. A wonderful Creative Commons soundtrack made it perfect. Enjoy the video, and/or read the words below. If you know a teen or young woman that can be inspired, please share it. And now….
Beyond the Mirror
Mirror, oh Mirror,
please tell me what you see.
Am I beautiful?
Do I need more makeup?
Am I the prettiest and best,
with shining eyes
for the whole world to see?
I want to be special.
I NEED to be special!
What are my gifts?
Can I sing? Dance?
Who am I,
and what can I do
to be wonderful
on this earth?
Oh, Mirror...
Please tell me.
~~~~~~~~
What? Look in my pocket?
Ooh, a bunch of smiles.
Thank you.
They'll be perfect
for more selfies!
Um, tissue. Why tissue?
I'm not sad.
Am I getting sick?
Hold on... What is this?
Bread?
Why do I have bread
in my pockets?
Wait! Why are my arms
suddenly looking
so muscular?
And my shoulders...
they're, they're getting
so... so wide.
Why?
What's happening to me?
This isn't what I asked for.
Mirror! Wait, Mirror...
Where are you going? Mir...
~~~~~~~~
Oh, hello, sad little girl.
I didn't see you before.
Would you like a smile?
Oh, she took it,
and ran away with it.
Oh my, where did all these
sad people come from?
Here, you can have a smile, too.
And so can you, yes.
A tissue? Of course.
Wow, I've used up
all my smiles.
Oh, no,
I see another sad child.
What do I do?
Wait,
would you like some bread?
It worked!
He was just hungry.
~~~~~~~~
Why are you crying, lady?
My shoulder?
A hug?
Sure, you can have those.
Can I help you
carry that burden,
you ask?
Yes, actually I can.
Wow, that was easier
than I thought it would be.
We worked well together.
~~~~~~~~
Whew,
that was a busy day.
I'm getting tired,
but it's not a bad tired.
It's...oh, hello, Mirror.
Where have you been?
One more smile, you say?
Oh, yes,
that looks much better on me
than more makeup.
Thank you.
I see the real beauty now.
It was always there, huh?
I just needed to look...
Beyond the mirror.
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The Chaos of Learning New Things (and how Gemini AI can help)…
I love learning! I’ve often compared myself to Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit because of my desire for more and more input. But the older I get, the harder it is to process that input as smoothly as before. Plus, with technology, I think confusion and chaos come standard.
One of the biggest problems, though, is the lack of help sources. It used to be that search engines could direct you to just the right place for the answers you needed, albeit sometimes they were several pages deep. Still, if you had a math question, you could find an answer from a mathematician. If you needed a recipe, you could find a cooking site. But now, the answers you get are based on sponsorships and marketing.
Tonight, I needed to install an app for my digital thermostat, and the info on the booklet didn’t match the updated app in the Google Play Store. In addition, the review score there was 2.5 with lots of complaints about how the new app wasn’t as good as the old one. What’s a girl to do with all that confusing information?
Well, my newest phone offered me a free one year trial of Gemini Pro by Google. I’ve had a few AI conversations with Copilot and a Bible AI search, but when I noticed how easy it was to feel like I was talking to a human, I decided to limit conversations to needs that couldn’t be met by searching. Well, except for image generation. I love being able to create things I can imagine but could never draw. But that’s a share for another day.
So I went to Gemini and asked how to tackle my current dilemma. To my amazement, it knew about the negative reviews, the switch of apps, and even solutions that made all the difference — enough of a difference for me to install and use the app plus give it a 5-star rating. For example, once I told it the make of my thermostat, it knew the kind of servers and firmware in my device and recommended a 2.4g Wi-Fi signal to not overwhelm it. It knew that Wi-Fi guest networks were usually slower and confirmed I should put my phone on the same guest network until the install was set up. I admit, it was a little scary that it could turn off my cellphone provider’s data temporarily to make sure the devices stayed on a matched service, but it saved me a step. And almost everything it told me to do worked perfectly, so I had none of the issues the complaining reviews mentioned. I felt so victorious when I accomplished that task.
Finally, when everything was done, it asked if I wanted help drafting a review for those new to the app who were only seeing negative reviews and complaints. It gave me a long, detailed review, but I had to tell it to keep it under 500 characters for Google Play Store reviews. I was a bit surprised it didn’t know that. Anyway, I tweaked it a bit, but it made me feel so good to be able to post a high rating since anyone using the app with a new Carrier system needs to know they can trust it to work as it’s supposed to work. It’s hard to trust, and learn something new, when you’re awash in negative reviews and mismatched paperwork. I’ll post the review for the “SmartHome by Carrier Corporation” app in case some of the steps I took might work for other modern tech devices as well. Maybe this will have the answer for someone out there.
With Gemini’s help, I made this work. It works great on the 2026 firmware update and the app 2026 update if you follow these steps for manual setup.
1. Connect wall unit to 2.4GHz/Guest WiFi & put device with app on the same 2.4 signal. IMPT: Do the firmware update first & let it finish (Carrier logo on screen).
2. Skip the QR scan—it fails.
3. In the app, choose “Infinity System” (NOT Smart Thermostat).
4. Use “Manual Entry” for Serial/MAC/PIN from the wall unit’s Wireless > MyInfinity menu.
It’s hard to put that many details in 500 characters, but my personality of always wanting to be helpful hopes it will enable some who failed in the task to now accomplish it. And if my readers cannot use all the info, at least maybe you’ve learned that your Wi-Fi guest network is not likely 5GHz and that 2 devices wishing to communicate should not only be on the same Wi-Fi network, but also at the same speed.
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It is No Secret, or Is It?
When I was a little girl, my mom loved her music, and she had a lot of albums by Wayne Newton. One of my favorites was his gospel album with Church in the Wildwood, The Old Rugged Cross, and other traditional hymns. I sang with each of them, but mostly with the song, It is No Secret (What God Can Do). This video sounds exactly like what I remember:
As I got older, it began to feel like the things God could do were secrets, at least from me. I wondered where He was on the nights of drunkenness and violence that eventually resulted in social workers and foster homes for my sister and I. She ended up back at home, and I ended up living with my grandparents in another city. We both watched our mom ride a rollercoaster of efforts to get life right while everyone gave her different answers for how to do it.
One day, while writing in a poetry class in the group home I was in, I recall telling God in a poem how I just didn’t understand Him, or why things had to be the way they were. I concluded by writing that I wasn’t going to try anymore. It was partly giving up and partly pleading for understanding. Thankfully, God read it as a prayer that He eventually answered when I was ready.
Proverbs 25:2 says,
[2] It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.25.2.WEBUS
And then we have the Psalm in the image above reminding us that God’s wisdom is hidden from those who do not fear (respect) Him.
So, really, the secret is not one that is withheld from anyone who truly seeks Him with all their heart and soul, but it is hidden from those who don’t think it’s worth enough to dig for. Like a vein of pure gold in a rock or stream, or a cache of diamonds in the depths of a mountain of coal, God’s wisdom is an extreme value waiting to be mined. I don’t desire gold or jewels enough to take the risks associated with mining, but I do value God’s pure and holy truths enough to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking (see Matthew 7:7) until I find answers. Will you go mining with me?
⛏️📖⛏️
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Paper Snowflakes Aren’t Cold
(CC BY-NC-SA)
Years ago, I found a wonderful website called ”Snowdays” where you could make online paper snowflakes to your heart’s content. They gave you a virtual piece of paper and a virtual pair of scissors, and you cut the little snips and zigzags just like you once did with a folded piece of paper from childhood. It checked all the boxes for fun, creativity, and surprise when you got to your final creation.
When I tried to visit tonight, I had warnings about the lack of ”https” but felt okay on my private network. Unfortunately, it just said coming soon, so maybe it will be back with a more secure site. In the meantime, I found a similar one called “Super Snowflake Maker” and it yielded the images in the collage above. I love that I could change the background color and also the number of sides/folds I wanted. It’s such a pleasant activity when housebound because you don’t want to go out when the temperature is in single digits with below zero wind chills, but I think it will also be fun in the middle of summer. Visit https://supersnowflakemaker.com/ to make your own, and put a link in the comments if you save them somewhere online.
I will likely add these to Flickr soon and hope I can reconnect with my former “Snowdays Flakers” from the group at https://www.flickr.com/groups/snowdaysflakers/ where no one has posted since 2018 but where you can also see some beautiful images. I plan to make more and use them for various projects and fun edits when I get the chance. In the meantime, you might like this fun book called Fantastic Snowflakes from a friend of mine, Mary Smith of “Home Crafted Artistry and Printing” as it includes step-by-step instructions for making paper snowflakes: (Amazon affiliate link for tracking) https://amzn.to/4rhduYn
If you’re in the colder 2/3 of the US right now, I hope this post leads to some fun that will warm you up a bit. Enjoy! ✨❄️☃️❄️✨
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There’s No Business Like Snow Business
Are you suffering from warning fatigue? The dings on your phone, the emails from your shopping apps reminding you to stock up before the big storm, or the endless scrolling across the bottom of your favorite TV show?
So here’s what I’m wondering: Do all these people really care about whether or not the viewers are safe and protected? Or, is it all just a way to get more visitors to their ad-laden sites or shopping pages? Or maybe there’s a hidden agreement with the pharmaceutical companies to refer people to them when the fears they’ve sown manifest into anxiety. I’m almost certain I’m overdramatizing that last line the way the weather reports do with their new use of words like bomb cyclone and haboob. .
But while I sit wondering exactly how much of the forecast I need to believe, I will let the downtime inspire me to write and create. Last year, the icicles were beautiful to look at from inside my warm home. I was willing to freeze a bit to get some pictures, though. And then I did my favorite thing to do with the Wombo Dream app; I uploaded my real photo and then applied various AI filters to it. The header image is one of the results. And I played a little more by adding some snow brushes and a pretty white frame in the Photo Studio Pro app.
Whether or not the content in the ads and apps is more for commercial purposes or for altruistic ones, don’t let the fatigue keep you from being prepared. Know what you need for whatever event is on its way, and then, if you’ve done all you can, relax. Maybe play a game or create some art while the power is still on. And, if you are a believer in Yahveh Almighty, put it in His capable hands and trust Him. May everyone be safe in all the seasons and remember that life and time are in God’s hands, and they always have been. He’s the Creator, and He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. (See Isaiah 44:6, and Hebrews 13:8.)
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Fun with Creativity and The Creator
List five things you do for fun.
WordPress Prompt on January 23rd, 2026
If you’ve read much of my blog, you’ve seen a lot of the things I do for fun. Almost anything kaleidoscopic, colorful, sparkly, or created with words gets my attention. I believe I am creative because I was made in the image of my creative Heavenly Father. Like the aspects of my own parents that I see in my own life, I am thrilled to model aspects of The Lord in my creativity.
The first thing I do for fun is spend time with Yahveh Almighty. Maybe it’s singing to Him, offering praise, giving thanks, reading and studying His Holy Word, or just having a pleasant conversation. However I interact with Him, it truly is a fun thing getting to know The One who put the universe together in infinite ways beyond my finite understanding.
The second thing is spending time with the love of my life, my soldier husband of almost 35 years. We plan to be together “forever and 3 days” because one day past forever isn’t enough. 🥰 Time with him includes more time at home these days, but I have great memories of travel to see my family out west or for vacations to my favorite places like Branson, Missouri, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Even a few short trips like the Red Skelton museum near Evansville, Indiana, and a really cool trip to see the World’s Largest Rocking Chair/Mailbox/Pitchfork Wind Chime/Mousetrap and more in Casey, Illinois. Check out these cool sites…
The third thing is writing. If I didn’t have fun writing, even this blog might seem like work. Although I have had some time where writing wasn’t as fun when I didn’t have the members of my wonderful Louisville Christian Writers (LCW) group to encourage me. And, actually, it wasn’t that writing was not fun so much as my life had so many big things going on just before the start of 2020 that all creativity seemed stifled, so writing and this blog took a hit. But now I’m back here and at LCW, so writing is becoming more fun every day. I hope I get back to poetry soon as well. I’m working on a children’s book from the lyrics of the first song I ever wrote at 7 years old, but I’ll save that for its own post.
The fourth thing is kaleidoscopes. My favorites of these include oil cells with floating pieces of sparkly and colorful stuff like dichroic glass. The two mirrors reflect the pieces into a mandala shape filled with moving designs that have a positive effect on the viewer’s endorphin level. And my wish list for new scopes is pretty big, but with just a few small purchases, it was enough to be considered a collector at my favorite kaleidoscope store: Nellie Bly’s in Jerome, Arizona. I love kaleidoscopes so much, well, you can find a whole album of my inside kaleidoscope pics on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/gp/crystalwriter/cmBKQ5Rp2k And I believe that what I see when I look down the tube of a kaleidoscope is similar to what God sees when He looks at His creations (and people) on this earth. All the designs are beautiful; and they’re even more beautiful when light, especially God’s light, shines through them.
Fifth: Viewing a kaleidoscope doesn’t use my own creativity (though I have built one and want to create more someday), so I love to wax kaleidoscopic and create designs digitally. I use any variety of apps and software to make designs. I started with making tessellations in the Silicon Mirror program by Torpor and later learned what a mandala was. You can still get the program for Windows for only $12, which is what I paid over 15 years ago, and it looks like they’ve come out with a Mac version for 5 bucks. Visit https://torpor.com/smk.htm to see the mirror and his other really cool programs and links to lots of images. My Flickr album for everything kaleidoscopic is at https://www.flickr.com/gp/crystalwriter/2148G1a628 and you can visit https://www.facebook.com/KaleidoscopesPlus to see images from other creative applications. The video at the top is a kaleidoscope transformation made in Mirror Lab. It was a huge file, so I compressed it and added music in Video Show for Android and then let Jetpack’s VideoPress optimize it here. And here are a few static kaleidoscopes I made from the same source as the video was made from.
The 3rd and 5th items could just be called creativity, and there are even more creative pursuits in my life like creating new recipes to cook and spending hours making images with Wombo Dream and a few other AI programs. I hope one day to create a magazine that will include many of my creative outlets along with creations and ideas from others. Getting back here to write again is stirring the creative juices and renewing my hopes for these future dreams. I hope my readers join me in the fun. 😊
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When You Pray
I got a text from a friend tonight. She told me that all over the country (USA), people were going to pray together. At 9 PM, I was to stop what I was doing and spend 1 minute praying for our country. I’m guessing the organizers told people in different time zones what time to pray, so we could all pray together.
Apparently, during World War II, Britain did the same thing and had great success. And it can never be a bad idea to bring any facet of life to The Creator of life and then trust The Master to work well with His creations. So, hubby and I joined hands and bowed our heads, and we prayed. We were in a restaurant, so you know that’s exactly when our server brought the first part of our meal. But she was respectful and waited. I pray it lifted up The Lord in her thoughts.
The day brought a lot of activity, and the night brought temperatures cut in half from the day, but all in all, it felt like a good day. I don’t want to bore folks with all my daily doings, so I looked in my photo history with my Amazon Photos and found this image from Jan 22 of 2024. It reminded me of the 9 PM prayer and thus became tonight’s blog image.
Now, I invite you readers to join believers all over who are taking that minute to lift up our land, our people, and our leadership to The Lord.
Most of us have no idea what our leadership faces from enemies, both foreign and domestic. We live our lives, go to our jobs, have meals with friends and family, and take care of business while remaining blissfully unaware of the threats our leaders must watch for and prepare defenses against. We form our opinions and make our judgments on the little we think we know from what gets shared over the airwaves. But Yahveh Almighty sees what we cannot. He knows the threats, the credible plans, and the steps needed to protect us. So, our leaders need us to pray. And our Creator wants us to pray and wants to listen. Let’s gratefully step up to just one minute each night to raise a collective voice of prayer and praise toward Heaven and know that God is listening. In YahShua’s name.
🙏✨🤲✨🛐✨🛐✨🤲✨🙏
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International Squirrel Appreciation Day
In honor of this special day about squirrels, I had to share a Flickr gallery I’ve curated from real photographs taken by super talented photographers. I hope the pictures make you smile and send you to those photographer’s pages on Flickr to see even more masterpieces. (NOTE: I’m sorry about the giant size of the gallery slideshow. I couldn’t get WP to accept the Flickr embed code, and I tried putting the width and height in various places in the code to make it smaller, but nothing worked. I’m adding this note in case one of my readers can provide a helpful answer on this issue.)
And, for a little bit of light-hearted news, I found this video of a hero “attack squirrel” that protected his owner’s home…
And, for a final laugh, here’s a collage of 4 images created by Wombo Dream (aka dream.ai) that I made back in 2023 when I was fairly new to the app. My prompts were inspired by pictures of red squirrels, like those above, and some cute red pandas I’d seen. I asked for images of red animals with saddles and with smaller ones riding on the backs of larger ones. These include 2 cute successes and 2 utter failures that truly make me laugh out loud. Here’s to finding joy in the messy mistakes.
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Teach Me to Wait
I’m sitting here waiting, having stayed up all night, because my heater started acting up. The HVAC place will be open soon, and I will request immediate assistance to warm my house back up before shower time. I’m cold and a bit frustrated, but even more, I’ve been praying for a friend whose waiting is far more harsh.
Just after Christmas, M’s daddy was sent from the nursing home to the hospital. The cancer was back, and he needed doctors and nurses to help him fight for his life. Eventually, he needed a ventilator as well.
Last night, in the middle of the night, I got the text that they were removing him from the vent and placing him in palliative care. Later today, hubby showed me a Facebook post of her sitting in a visitor’s chair and just waiting for the inevitable. She looked tired. I’m certain she’s still grieving the loss of her mom just last year, and now this.
So, I’m praying for her, and I’m praying with her. I haven’t looked at an update yet because my heart breaks for her. I’ve experienced the losses of both parents, but each person feels it differently, so I take her before the throne of her/our Creator who knows exactly how to give her strength and comfort as she walks through this. And as the “World’s Best Daughter” waits for her daddy to take his first steps into Heaven, I’m thankful I had this night to keep a vigil for her heart’s needs. Even though it’s cold in my house, my own heart is warm with love for this friend and sister in Christ. May she feel His touch in greater ways than she ever thought possible. I pray in YahShua’s holy name, amen.
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Look and See How Good it Can Be
When I worshipped in a Messianic congregation, one of my favorite songs to learn was called Hineh Ma Tov. It was built on words from this verse in Psalm 133:1.
Psalms 133:1 WEBUS
[1] See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!
https://bible.com/bible/206/psa.133.1.WEBUS
So what happens when people do not live together in unity? My suggested emoji after that sentence was a sad, crying emoji like this 😭. But my last word was unity, and I didn’t say anything in the sentence that could lead my keyboard to think I was talking about something sad. Right? Or is even a keyboard smarter than many humans to know the end result of refusing to look for unity?
But I digress; I was only going to talk about the not-so-pleasant and not-so-wonderful effects of division. Chaos, anger, and jealousy, are just a few of the effects that go with not being on the same page. But THAT is really the problem. No ONE page that everyone can stand on together to allow the unity. Unity without a foundation is simply an illusion.
When the psalmist speaks in this chapter, the pleasant things he describes include the oil dripping from Aaron’s beard. That is pleasant to him because that oil is from a time of anointing to do priestly works for God Almighty. The priesthood was originally created and ordained by Yahveh as part of His mercy and grace to cover the sins of mankind. And if the priest was being ordained, it meant the law was being followed.
Law is a blessing! Think of this: When you’re in a hurry to get somewhere, and you have a green light, the law that makes cross traffic stop and let you through will benefit you more than chaos at the intersection. But all it takes is one person who spurns the law and wants to do things their own way to mess up everyone’s day.
God put law in our hearts, and all it took was one evil tempter challenging God’s way of doing things to create chaos for every human for the rest of time. At least until time stops counting because we move into eternity. So what would happen if all of mankind decided to look and see how good it would be to follow God’s way? We would be in unity, and behold how wonderful and pleasant it would be.
And here’s a video and lyrics with Paul Wilbur singing Hineh Ma Tov…
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Having Fun in the Mirror Lab App
(CC BY-NC-SA)
I found one of the pretty butterflies I created in Wombo Dream and decided to use it as a source for a bunch of bright and colorful designs in my Android Mirror Lab app. I hope you enjoy this little break from a text post and just enjoy the pretty pictures.
If you want to make your own, I highly recommend either the Mirror Lab app from The Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ilixa.mirror or the same developer’s newest app called One Lab at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ilixa.onelab These are not affiliate links. I just like to share things that I think are fun and hope my readers will enjoy them as well. You can also follow the developer on Instagram to see what others make from his apps. https://www.instagram.com/mirror_lab?igsh=MTZ4Y2R5b25qZm1rMg==
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A Little Bit of Snow
(CC BY-NC-SA)
Brr 🥶! Super cold temperatures are absolutely not my favorite thing. Ice storms, snow storms, and dips below freezing (32°f) make me want to stay hidden in a warm house under cozy blankets.
My husband made the statement that “it’s not that bad” and that started a whole conversation. Why does it seem worse to me than it does to him? Simple, I was not raised with cold or snow. If my sister and I saw a little ice in a puddle, we would slide a shoe over it like our one foot was ice skating. If we found a little bit of snow, we got really excited and wanted to touch it or crunch through it the way little boys love to splash in rain puddles. But both were rare in Southern California.
My first experience with strong cold and lots of snow was when my photography company sent me to Wisconsin in the middle of an arctic cold front. The temperature was 35° below zero, and it dropped to 84° below zero with the wind chill. I was warned not to breathe the air in without a scarf over my mouth, and my co-worker had to have her car towed to a garage to warm it up just to get started. That would be harsh for anyone, but those who live in that kind of cold regularly are prepared. Some even have plugs on their cars to connect to available power sources to heat their oil. It’s not that bad where I live now in Kentuckiana, but it’s still hard on my Western-raised body, even after 35 years here.
Do you have any life changes that have been harder for you to deal with because of a lack of familiarity? For example, if you were raised in a dysfunctional family, maybe going to someone else’s family gathering is somewhat uncomfortable. Or, maybe like me, you are childless, and hearing women talk about having babies or raising children feels awkward because you cannot relate to any of it. On the other hand, I imagine women who have traditional families, pregnancies, births, etc., and then read Scriptures about the curses that often made women in the Bible barren, may feel awkward with me. They must wonder if there’s a curse involved because I wondered that for a long time myself.
See, experience breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds confidence. My husband is far more confident about driving in the snow than I will ever be. But driving in snow, no matter how much fear it creates in me, is a little thing compared to the blinding Light of Christ to an unbeliever who was never raised around godliness or biblical Scripture. 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of God “calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” If you’ve ever come out of a dark room into bright light, you know what this is describing.
When we minister to those who are not familiar with the Gospel, we need to think of the way unfamiliar things make us feel. We need to remember that light can be blinding to those who have been in the dark for a long time. And we need to teach with such compassion and understanding that we are not surprised when a person we’re trying to teach feels overwhelmed by what we are used to in our walks with The Lord. If they reject the message for a time, it doesn’t mean you or I are bad teachers. Even Jesus did not convince every person He reached out to. Sometimes, someone is just set in their own ways and refuses to consider a new way. Other times, it may just take some time for their spiritual eyes to adjust to The Light. That’s when we let them play in just a little bit of snow for a bit until they’re ready for the deep stuff. ❄️
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This Day’s Prompt on Decluttering…
… Asked the question, “Where can you reduce clutter in your life?” I knew I could answer with something spiritual, or I could answer that question with the physical clutter in my life. I could go room by room, inbox by inbox, and even list Christmas movies on my DVR. But I wanted to see how a few others answered, and I’m so glad I looked because one of the blogs I found has a great article that spoke to my heart and spirit. (There are other posts I want to read there as well, so I followed and decided it was a great post to reblog.)
I hope my visitors enjoy this post by the Grace-In-Between blog, and may you feel the wonderful blessings of Yahveh Almighty as you rest with Him this Sabbath.
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From Whence Came the Poet
On this day (Jan 15) in 2022, we officially said goodbye to the father of many. My sibling family is a large one consisting of both sisters and brothers. Some are half-siblings, step-siblings, and adopted siblings, but they are all mine. The sister I was raised with has her own special place in my heart and life, but I carry each of my siblings in pockets of my heart—and often to God’s throne in prayer.
You see, I am the first born to this man who was wild yet called. His life was a wrestling match of soul and spirit with a God who never gave up on him. He ran from God geographically (though that’s not truly possible), and he ran emotionally, but he always came back. Whether it was a grenade in the face when his tunnel rat duties got him too close to the enemy in Vietnam, or a moment when lyrics or poetry came pouring out of him to remind him that God still loved and pursued him, something was always pulling him back to a place to consider God again.
He left my mom and sister and I just after I turned 5 years old. My mom kept all his pictures and told me stories of things like his interview with Jerry Dunphy after the incident in Vietnam. She said he was in a hospital bed and told the reporter that he prayed for God to give him his eyesight back, so he could see his girls. My favorite picture was the one with guys from his Brave Lions group that showed my name tattooed on his arm. And, yes, I wrote a song about that tattoo.
The years after that were scattered and chaotic. He had multiple marriages and other children. I struggled with my mom’s emotional and spiritual issues. But something always made this little girl long for her daddy. One winter, as a teenager, I ran away and found him in Kansas. I didn’t stay long, and I’ll share that story in another post, but it wasn’t time for us to be a permanent family yet. During that short time, though, I got to see his poetic, musical, and artistic sides. I was only gifted the ability to write poetry and sing. I’ve tried to learn an instrument, but it just never settled with me, and drawing without the help of technology never came naturally. But I love that I can see him as the DNA source of my love for words.
Somehow, that thing of finding himself oft pursued by The Lord also came to me. In my case, I was looking for deeper meaning more than a good time party, but it still filled my life with a mix of dead-ends and a few major moments with God before I willingly gave my life to Him.
As I’ve met and gotten to know my siblings, I’ve found similar stories in their life journeys. Some have finally let God catch up to them, and some are still looking for other answers. But I still call our journeys Grace by DNA because it seems we all took pieces from our shared father’s journey and made them part of our own journeys. I’ll be gathering those journey stories into a book I started back in 2020, but I’ll tell you bits and pieces here in this blog.
While writing this post, I searched and searched for the tattoo song, but I cannot find it right now, so I guess it’s not time to share it. The gist is a comparison of my father’s tattoo with the carved names in the midst of God’s palm, and it’s called Daddy Can Never Forget Me. It talks about how even if he tried to have it removed, the scar would always remind him of me, and then it talks about the nail scars in Jesus’ hands. I sent the lyrics to my dad at one point, along with a letter reminding him that God could never forget him either. He said it made him cry, and I hope it planted a seed that helped to bring him back to The Lord in his last years.
We did have some periods of distance between us through the years, just as I had times where I was distant from my Heavenly Father. But, thankfully, Dad and I didn’t give up on each other. And God never gave up on either of us as He led us to an eventual reconciliation before Dad left this world in 2021.
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Wombo Dream Butterfly Memories
When I first started using the Wombo Dream AI app, it was creative but lacking in crisp and defined images. The colors were pretty, but many of the images weren’t worth saving. That was around Christmas of 2022, and they were improving daily. I left a 4-star review and explained that horses having 3 legs and 2 tails wasn’t exactly 5 stars, but to keep improving. They replied with happy words for my review.
The images above were made on January 14th, 2024, so this is their 2-year anniversary. They came up in my memories in Amazon photos, and I decided they’d be the perfect share. There were a whole lot more, but I grabbed some of my favorites and let the AI in the Photo Studio Pro app for Android arrange them in a collage. I love that it did all the fitting, and all I had to do was change the background to create a frame I liked and hit save. I could stare at colors like this all day.
I saved a lot of my prompts before they started having problems near the end of 2024 when all the old prompts were erased. I think this may be a collection of some of the prompts I used: ”detailed butterfly with stained glass wings, in a garden of pastel flowers, colorful rays of light in the background, red, blue, purple, green, glittery, gold, silver, sparkles, colorful, sparkling, jeweled, jewel tones, bright, hot pink, glowing, garden, glitter, beautifully lit.” The next image is what I get now with these prompts and using the Dreamland V3 filter. You can see the details are better, so if they ever get everything fixed again, it will certainly be a wonderful app for playing with color and making butterfly memories.
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Strong Enough to Grieve
Temporary! That word carries both comfort and terror. Knowing that suffering will come to an end is comforting. Knowing the pain of loss when the end comes is terrifying.
Today marks 11 years since I said goodbye to my mom for the last time. It was bittersweet because of the healing that took place between us in her final days and hours. I wanted to let her go because I didn’t want her to suffer, but I didn’t want to let her go because I finally felt like I had a mom. Both the healing and the loss changed my life in more ways than I can count.
Anyone who was reading my blog knows that I pretty much stopped writing regularly after her passing. And then more losses and pain followed in the years after that made it hard to come back. But now that I’m here, and on this death anniversary, I want to focus on the good that God provides to comfort us in a life we have little control over. One bit of comfort is in that unseen eternity that carries more hope than anything in this world could ever provide. It’s a hope that my mom is there, in the Presence of our Creator and Lord, and enjoying every pain-free moment with Him. It’s a hope that I will see her again one day. And, it’s a hope that my own eternity will be filled with all the Love and Light that is God Almighty Himself. Those unseen hopes can carry a person through many troubles in this temporary life.
So, as I’ve been waxing poetic lately, I think it’s finally time to share the poem I feel God gave me shortly after my mom’s passing. I had been saving it to submit to a publisher, but maybe someone will stop by here who really needs to read it. Many have been brought to tears by the words in these verses, and I pray it blesses at least one someone out there.
STRONG ENOUGH TO GRIEVE
By Crystal A Murray (C) 2015 All Rights Reserved
No, you weren't the kind of mom that...
Fixed my lunches,
Made my bed,
Came to school functions,
Helped me study,
Or pushed me to graduate.
You didn't help me to...
Get ready for a prom,
Plan a perfect wedding,
Or prepare for a family.
See, we didn't have a storybook life.
Not even a sitcom, really.
Alcohol and mental illness,
Along with some bad "dads" in our home,
They stole hours and days.
They stole my childhood.
And yet, I loved you.
We finally became friends.
There were still many battles,
But I was old enough to stand.
And then we both got stronger.
The love of God changed our hearts.
And His grace changed our lives.
Old things went away... mostly.
But some damage was done.
Some scars would stay,
And even hurt at times.
You were better, but not always.
I was stronger yet often weak.
Oh, but I still loved you.
When the cancer came,
I was ready to fight in prayer,
But you said you were ready to go.
And so, I came to your side.
And that's when I learned...
You were still tormented.
You battled something oppressive that neither of us could see.
Much of what I took personally and hurt from
Wasn't about me.
But I had never known that.
It was all personal to me.
My hurts were so deep,
Healing seemed impossible,
And all my memories felt painful.
But then, a new friend prayed.
God sent her to both of us.
I had been strong enough...
To do what you needed,
To prepare for your death,
And to take care of business;
But I had not been strong enough to grieve.
After our friend prayed,
she taught us how to pray.
She showed us God's words that promised victory.
And then the peace came in.
You were delivered from your torment.
And I was set free to grieve.
I found memories of good times.
I sang you heaven songs--
Many I recalled from childhood.
And you rested.
I held your hand and felt new love for you;
Love not restricted and bound...
By years of pain,
By bad memories,
Or by guilt for my imperfections as a daughter.
Real, heartfelt love.
So, finally...
I grieved freely.
As your breath slowed,
As comfort took over pain,
And as God let me get some sleep, too.
You slipped away.
And I cried.
Now I remember the good.
And though it brings me sadness,
It also sets me free
because now...
I am strong enough to grieve.
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Psalm 12 Written in Haiku
I love writing haiku. It’s actually how I journal my day every night. It keeps me focused on short, rhythmic bursts of thought, and the meter is relaxing to me. I have learned about the “correct” use and meaning of haiku, with its nature words and less rigorous syllable count, but for the purposes of my haiku writing, I prefer to focus on the Americanized syllable structure (5-7-5) I learned back in elementary school.
Psalm 12 was the chapter used in my current Bible study called “The Full Story_____From the Beginning to the Amen” by The Bible Project. So here it is condensed into simple haiku verses.
A Psalm of David,
To the choir director.
A song of lament.
1.
I need Your help, Lord.
The loyal have disappeared,
From the human race.
2.
They all keep lying.;
Speaking with flattering lips,
And deceptive hearts.
3.
I'm praying to God,
To cut off the boastful tongues,
And the lying lips.
4.
They claim false power.
They reject God as Master.
And claim the control.
5.
But devastation,
Has caught God's attention, and...
He hears the groanings.
The poor and needy,
Cry out, and God rises up.
He provides safety.
6.
The Lord's words are pure.
They've been refined like silver.
Extra purified.
7.
You, Lord, will guard us.
You protect us forever,
From evil attacks.
8.
Though the wicked prowl,
And the human race exalts...
The worthless wicked.
See, I read this AND listened to it. But I didn’t really hear the pain in King David’s heart until I began to write the words myself. Now, I’m seeing him cry out in verse and begging God to see what men are doing to each other and fix it. I don’t know if he was king when he wrote this, but he obviously felt powerless to change things himself. His hopes were likely dashed because, not only were there wicked and evil men doing harm to each other, but the general populace were praising the wicked instead of holding them accountable.
Sadly, it sounds like much of the world right now. People take power that was never meant for mankind, like deciding what is good or evil based on their own desires, and they reject the wisdom of The One who created all life and wrote the owner’s manual. Our Creator chose how life would form in the womb when we were fearfully and wonderfully made. He even chose that life would form sometimes in less-than-ideal situations. But He asks us to trust that He knows best and has a plan for our good no matter what it looks like at that moment.
But after that life has begun to form, some people take the position of thinking that because they can control it, they should control it. They will snuff out that life because it doesn’t line up with what they think their future desires will be. And, they will find professionals to help them kill the innocent child because somehow, that murder helps their bottom line. And all the ignorant will celebrate the “freedom” obtained by the death without realizing the deeper bondage the death will bring to all who helped make it happen.
Proverbs 14;12 (WEB) says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.” And that tells us how much we need to trust the wisdom in Proverbs 3:7-8 (WEB) “Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil. It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.” Though the words in Proverbs are not promises, they are the more likely scenarios.
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Ideas and Titles and Brains, Oh My!
Come up with a crazy business idea.
by WordPress Prompts
I’ve never tried using one of the daily WordPress prompts before, so you readers get to join me on my first venture of this kind. You’ll see the prompt like a small subtitle above this paragraph, and it says to come up with a crazy business idea.
But here’s the thing, my mind does this on a regular basis. Ask my husband how many times I’ve asked him, “You know what kind of business someone needs to start? ” And then I’ve regailed him with all the aspects of whatever perfect idea I have at the moment.
One of my great ideas was for a talent show where the contestants first had to compete in brain games before they could perform. I figured it would limit those performers who were too ignorant to recognize that there wasn’t a talented bone in their bodies. Always beware when someone hits the stage with a promise that they are the best you’ve ever seen or heard before.
So this crazy business idea is to have a business where you collect a variety of business ideas, company name ideas, etc., and feed all those ideas to some kind of think tank to see if they really could make something profitable out of all of it. Sort of a “treasures from junk” kind of effort but with investors with multiple MBAs using a jumble of ideas instead of an artist using trash from the dump to create a masterpiece.
If you’ll look through a list of my blog posts, you’ll notice that coming up with titles is one of the most fun parts for me. I love twists and parodies of well-known ideas like my post about Time but using the spice and calling it, “There’s No Present Like the Thyme.” And many years ago, I had a hairdresser who was going to dental school to become a hygienist because she wanted to do both teeth and hair to prepare people for special events like proms and graduations. I thought it was a great business idea and told her she should call it “Style With A Smile.” She loved the name, but after she got married and moved to Kansas, I never found out if she created that business or used my title idea.
I read once about a woman whose actual job was to create titles and names for everything you can imagine. She not only named businesses, but she creatively named projects within the businesses, departments, and of course reports and books and chapters within the books. Back when I was a young person looking to create a career, that would’ve been the one I jumped into with both feet. Or with all the cells of my brain 🧠 in rapid fire mode. And on that note, if you are struggling to name a book or story that just doesn’t seem complete without a better title, drop me a comment and we can see if I can brainstorm something that works perfectly for you.
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Playing With Butterflies
This is another one of those days I’m keeping things short because I’ve gotten myself either too busy or too distracted to take the writing time I’d like. But, the great thing about having a creative spirit, is that I can be creative in different ways.
For the image above, I took an old AI generated butterfly and used Photo Studio Pro to put it in a PIP (Picture-in-Picture) effect. I love playing with those. And as I played, I saw the words “no crop” and wondered what it meant. So cool… it was like adding an extra PIP layer.
Oh, but before the no crop move, I also went to the effects menu and added the sparkling hearts and stars.
I recommend this software, especially if you have Play Pass from Google where the app and all its effects are free. I would only give you one word of caution: It’s addictive. I find it far too easy to stay up way past my bedtime just playing with all the cool frames and effects. But if my readers enjoy my creations, it’s even more with it.
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My Writing Dreams and Goals
Since I posted the writing goals worksheet yesterday, I thought I’d take just a moment to share some of my own. I’m short on time, so I’ll probably add more later, but for starters, I want my own publishing company. I have the domain and had a beautiful site years ago with Yahoo Small Business, but it languished, so it’s time to move forward with it. The image above is a sampling of logo ideas I worked on with Gemini.
For this year…
Goal 1: Blog every day!
Goal 2: Publish 2 children’s books. One already has a story board.
Goal 3: Create the layout for the magazine I want to publish.
When all these things are ready to be published, I want them under the ” For One Soul” label because that’s how I see all my writing and ministry. The words on my business card say, ”Live every moment of your life as if it could be … For One Soul.”
Later, I’ll post about the thoughts behind that statement. For now, I’d love some feedback on the logo ideas. Thanks.
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Writing Goals for 2026 with Downloadable Goal Sheet
Now this is my kind of preparation! A kitty cat, butterflies, and TWO cups of coffee. ☕☺️
But real preparation requires thoughts and planning, so once a year, my writer’s group shares their annual goals, and we pray for each other and the goals we have set.
In case you are a writer and would like to create your own goals for this year, I’m including the info I put into our goal sheets pasted here as well as in a Word document available for download. Let me know if you find it helpful, and don’t forget to print it on pretty paper to hang on the fridge.
😁🖊️✏️🖊️✏️🖊️✏️🖊️✏️😁
My Writing Goals for 2026
Three writing tasks I'd like to work on this year:
One thing I hope to publish (or submit) this year:
One writing activity I’d like to do more of in 2026, and how often?
Signed: __________________________________________________
Witnesses…
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Put Your Hand in His
I’ve gotta keep this one short, but since I talked about music yesterday, one of my favorites growing up was “Put Your Hand in the Hand” and I still love to sing it. I’ll add more about this tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this image from multiple creation sources and a video from the original performers in 1971.
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Just An Old Fashioned Love Song
I could blog for days on some of my favorite songs, both in hymns and secular music. It’s probably why I like the band, ApologetiX so much because that gives me hymns with the tunes of my secular faves. But for tonight, I want to talk about gathering with people who love The Lord and singing praises to Him. The greatest love is from God to us, so the greatest love songs should be from us to Him.
Now, when I hear the words “community hymn sing,” I’m pretty certain it’s going to be hymns sung by the whole community. I expect a “turn to page 1234” moment where we all pick up a song book and sing together. Of course, most have replaced the song books with overhead lyrics on beautiful backgrounds, but you get the idea. We all worship The Lord with good old-fashioned songs that tell of our love for Him.
But that’s not what happened when we attended the first one for our community. Instead, there were different groups playing and singing, no lyrics for the congregation, and me wondering whether it was okay to sing along. Did I enjoy it? Yes! It was all my kind of music, and most people wanted folks to sing with them. And despite not having the lyrics available, I was surprised at how many I knew by heart.
So, though both my husband and I would’ve preferred what we expected to find there, it does bring up something important. Why did I know so many of the lyrics even without them in front of my eyes? Because I’ve sung them to The Lord for so many years, they’ve become a part of me. This is what Proverbs is talking about when it says to “Train up a child in the way he should go.” It’s not a promised guarantee that a child raised to love and honor Christ will never depart, but if the practice is modeled before them and instilled in them, there’s an excellent chance that what’s been instilled will never depart. And that means, if the child grows up and grows distant from The Lord, there’s a well of memory within him or her which can be tapped into when they are ready.
I had my time of doing things my own way, but teachings and music from my own childhood were a well in me that I’ve tapped into many times since giving my whole life to Christ as a young woman. If you’ve got children, or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews (as was the case for me and my husband when we raised 4 nephews for 5 years), use every opportunity to put something into that well for them. One day, when they realize they’re running dry, what you’ve placed into them could save their soul. You’ll know it and be filled with joy when you hear them singing their own old fashioned love song to their Creator. I’m still hoping and praying for that day because I want all of us worshiping God together for eternity.
And, now, here’s one of my favorite songs from my time in Missionettes as a little girl. It’s called “Pass It On” and the lyrics can still make me cry.
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Hand in Hand with God Almighty
Sometime in the past month, I read a quote that said something like, “God is more interested in what you do with Him than in what you do for Him.” I can’t find it again now to correctly attribute it, but those words say so much to my heart. I did find a similar quote by Malcom Smith that says, “While we are in a frenzy of doing for Him, we are in grave danger of missing the whole point of the Gospel – which is being with Him… He has many servants but few friends!”
In the short video I’ve shared above from The Bible Project (I love their videos and highly recommend them), the guys animate a lesson about partnering with God in this life. When I watched it as part of one of my studies, it made me think of that quote, and the whole message has been working in my spirit.
So many religions, and even non-religious ideologies that require good deeds, have leadership (or gods) that demand allegiance in word and deed but not in any sort of relationship. People do good (and even sometimes evil in the names of their gods) to get to their future reward. And they will pay any price because they think that reward must be earned. And it works for keeping people in line with the rules, but it’s too shallow for a life with a Creator who loves His creation so deeply that He actually left His glory to suffer in the flesh to make sure we can spend eternity with Him. He absolutely wants a partnership with each of us.
Another quote states it well by saying, “When you finally realize it isn’t about cutting off sin, it’s about loving God so much that your desires for sin no longer exist.” That kind of love will bring you all the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit and His Wonderful Presence. In Deuteronomy 4;7, Moses says, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to Him?” (WEBUS) And if having that kind of close friendship and love with your Creator sounds good to you, memorize this promise from Jeremiah 29:13 (World English Bible/WEB)…
13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
And here’s an older beautiful hymn with lyrics to sing along; What A Friend We Have in Jesus…
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God Knows Our Form
I think the Apostle Paul said it best in Romans 7:15… “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.” (NLT) But, at the same time, Psalm 103:14 reminds us, “For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”(NLT)
So God made us to be like Him, but He also knows that sin is a very real part of us that will keep trying to lead us away from the paths of righteousness. He made a way for us to have our sinful behaviors go to judgment without us, and He had a plan for it years before Calvary. We find that plan in Genesis 15 where God and Abraham carry out the ritual of the blood covenant.
In verse 17, Abraham is still kinda knocked out, and he sees two flames in front of him that walk through the pieces. They are a smoking furnace (or fire pot) and a flaming torch. I don’t know which one represented God, and which one represented mankind, but since the flames walked both directions through the sacrifices, and since God kept Abraham in a temporary sleep, the covenant was completed solely by God. I added the doves, white hearts, and crosses to the images to represent God’s Spirit in both lamps.
God walked through the pieces to represent His promise, and then He walked through the pieces to represent Abraham’s promise. Because He knew man would fail, He prepared to pay for that failure with His own blood. (In Acts 20:28, Paul exhorts the teachers to feed the church of The Lord, which He purchased with His own blood.)
In the covenant (see Jeremiah 34:18), people make promises to each other and walk through the sacrificial pieces to confirm their promises. Whoever breaks that promise must pay with their own blood. You can read the steps Abraham took to prepare the sacrifices for the ritual in verses 9-11. In verse 12, a deep sleep falls on Abraham as God recites His promises to Abraham about His blessings on future generations that would come from him. Abraham’s part is to remain faithful and upright before The Lord and to teach his family to do the same.
There are other teachings suggesting what the events between Abraham and God could have meant, but when I was taught what the blood covenant was, it made perfect sense to see the future act of Christ at Calvary as being planned by a loving and merciful God who knows our form. He has been so good to me (and to many others I know), and I’ve seen His mercy deliver me from failures more times than I can count. To think He was planning it so far in advance just deepens my awe for His grace and mercy. What does it say to you?
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A Flood of Emotion
If you know any artists or writers or creators of any type, you know they can be temperamental about your reactions to their creations. I don’t watch any of those chef programs, but the previews seem to show some real volatility in recipe creators/cooks who don’t get things their way or get the reactions they hoped for. But I think we come by it honestly from being made in the image of a Creator who puts His whole heart into everything He creates.
I’m up to Day 3 in my Bible study, so the last 2 days included Genesis 4 through Genesis 11. Mankind rejected the Light and Love God gifted him in exchange for what sounded to them like a good idea. Back in Genesis 3, Eve is shown looking at the tree while thinking how it… A: Looked good for food (lust of the flesh), B: Was delightful to look at (lust of the eyes), and C: Was desirable for obtaining wisdom (pride of life). Those three sin-inducing thoughts are at the root of every temptation or sin we face.
So, they did things the human way and rejected God’s way which led to a rejection of the gifts He wanted to shower on them, such as the ability to eat from the ”Tree of Life” and live forever. It was only God’s mercy that sent them away from the tree rather than leaving them in eternal bondage to their sin.
Then came Noah, the grandson of Methuselah, who found grace in the eyes of The Lord and was rescued with his family from a flood meant to wash away all that had destroyed God’s beautiful creations. As I wrote my study comments, I used a crying emoji, and it suddenly made me think of all the flood waters as God’s tears. Can you imagine that much heartache?
But, after it was all said and done, God ached for the many lost people (and critters) washed away and buried with no chance of salvation. He placed the scientific phenomena of a colorful spectrum in the Creation sequence, so water now reflects His desire to rescue mankind with a hope of redemption and restoration.
And now, for a little fun, here’s a video by my favorite Christian parody band, ApologetiX, with their song Noah Man to the tune of Nowhere Man by ”The Beatles”.
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Into A Dark World… A Creator and A Savior
In the YouVersion app, I’m doing one of the year long studies from The Bible Project. This one is called, “One Story that Leads to Jesus.” You can find it at… http://bible.com/r/GP4
The day 1 study included an animated video and then Genesis 1, 2, & 3 + Psalm 1. It had inspiring images of chaos and such that God turned into a world of life and peace. And it made me think of a song I wrote many years ago. The first line said, ”Into a dark world, a Savior came.” Since the study is going on with a group of people, it includes discussion. Here’s what I wrote…
Because of the mystery of God’s creation, the exact nothingness that preceded creation isn’t truly known. My writer’s brain took elements, like the enemy being cast down, and put that together in a story where the darkness that covered the earth was a result of that battle and belonged to the cast out devil.
And then…
Because there is nothing that is more powerful than The Almighty Creator, I imagine God driving His hand straight through that icky darkness and proving that Light is the most powerful.
Just like Jesus brought Light and Salvation into a cold and dark world, I believe the type and shadow before it was God bringing a garden of salvation into a place the enemy only thought he had control. God’s wonderful creations are all part of the story with the happiest ending of all, life forever with our Creator Abba Father.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tell me what my commentary means to you, and if you like the study idea, I’d like to hear if you joined YouVersion and signed up for this or any other study. Blessings on your week and all of January!
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God Likes New Things
Yes, and so do most of us. Even when we repurpose used things, we typically try to find new ways to use them. Even old recipes change in New kitchens, and old songs change with new bands. Could it be that we are just like our Creator?
I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, but after neglecting this blog for 6 years, I thought getting back to it was a worthwhile resolution. I may not write big and wonderful posts every day, but I want to share something each day. And today, because it’s a new year, I decided an old note I’d written myself about new things in the Bible, was a great jumping off point. Or, I should say, jumping back in point. (I really did start this on January 1st, but it will show posted on January 2nd because I forgot how long it takes to add tags, alt text, make sure the image fits, etc. Now I need new mercies. 😎)
Below is my simple list of some new things I’ve found in the Holy Scriptures, in no particular order, and I’ll include their references with links to Bible.com aka You Version. I’m using the World English Bible as it is in the Public Domain and easy to understand. Please comment on what you think or any new things you think God likes that I haven’t listed.
†New Life (Romans 6:4 WEBUS)
[4] We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
https://bible.com/bible/206/rom.6.4.WEBUS
†New Heaven (2 Peter 3:13 WEBUS)
[13] But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
https://bible.com/bible/206/2pe.3.13.WEBUS
†New Earth (Isaiah 65:17 WEBUS)
[17] “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind.
https://bible.com/bible/206/isa.65.17.WEBUS
†New Songs (Psalms 96:1 WEBUS)
[1] Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth.
https://bible.com/bible/206/psa.96.1.WEBUS
†New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2 WEBUS)
[2] I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
https://bible.com/bible/206/rev.21.2.WEBUS
†New Thing (Isaiah 43:19 WEBUS)
[19] Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
https://bible.com/bible/206/isa.43.19.WEBUS
†New Man (Colossians 3:10 WEBUS)
[10] and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
https://bible.com/bible/206/col.3.10.WEBUS
†New Heart (Ezekiel 36:26 WEBUS)
[26] I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
https://bible.com/bible/206/ezk.36.26.WEBUS
†New Mind (Romans 12:2 WEBUS)
[2] Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
https://bible.com/bible/206/rom.12.2.WEBUS
†New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 WEBUS)
[17] Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
https://bible.com/bible/206/2co.5.17.WEBUS
†New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15 WEBUS)
[15] For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
https://bible.com/bible/206/heb.9.15.WEBUS
†New Testament (Hebrews 9:16 WEBUS)
[16] For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.
https://bible.com/bible/206/heb.9.16.WEBUS
†New Wine/Wineskins (Matthew 9:17 WEBUS)
[17] Neither do people put new wine into old wine skins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved.”
https://bible.com/bible/206/mat.9.17.WEBUS
And a final verse about God’s mercy and how it is fresh and new for us each day because He knows our forms and that we need new mercies on a regular basis.
†New Every Morning (Lamentations 3:22-23 WEBUS)
[22] It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. [23] They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
https://bible.com/bible/206/lam.3.22-23.WEBUS
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