Aesopโs Fables Month: The Lion and the Mouse
Being small, I’ve often been encouraged by idioms such as “Dynamite comes in small packages,” or “Big things come in little packages.” I may even have heard these as reminders after reading about the tiny but mighty mouse in tonight’s Aesop’s Fable. And to encourage you, dear reader, I’ve included some great events in history where individually small components came together to create huge victories.
See, we are conditioned to look upward when seeking rescue. We scan the horizon for anything massive and strong to deliver us. Deep pockets, big shoulders, or grand miracles. Yet time and again, the ancient wisdom of Aesop reminds us that the cords binding the mighty are rarely severed by giants; they are cut strand by strand by those the world deems too small to count.
The Classic Fable Retold
Dozing in the warmth of the afternoon sun, a great lion was startled awake when a tiny field mouse scurried across his nose. Annoyed, the king of the forest pinned the creature beneath a heavy paw, baring his teeth. The trembling mouse pleaded for mercy, crying, โSpare my life, great King, and one day I may repay the favor.โ Amused by the sheer absurdity that a helpless rodent could ever aid the ruler of the wild, the lion laughed and let him go.
Days later, the lion found himself cornered. Snared in a heavy rope net that was set by hunters, his struggle and mighty roars only tightened the cords. Thrashing in vain against the coarse hemp, his pride and power collapsed into helpless exhaustion. Hearing those familiar, desperate bellows echoing through the brush, the tiny mouse returned. Setting his sharp teeth against the thickest knot, the little creature began to gnaw. Fiber by fiber, strand by strand, the mouse chewed until the mesh frayed, snapped, and set the mighty predator free.
Dunkirk: When Battleships Needed Dinghies
History proved Aesopโs point along the cold surf of France in the early summer of 1940. Over three hundred thousand elite Allied soldiersโthe armored fist of an empireโwere pinned against the beaches of Dunkirk. Behind them advanced the full fury of the German blitzkrieg; ahead of them lay the English Channel.
The mighty Royal Navy was paralyzed. Giant battleships and destroyers could not safely navigate the shallow, mine-choked waters, so it left them sitting ducks for aerial bombardment. The lion was cornered in a deadly net of geography and fire.
The rescue did not arrive in the form of a grand naval fleet. It came in a quiet, ragtag swarm of civilian wooden dinghies, weekend pleasure craft, paddle steamers, and shallow fishing boats. Manned by shopkeepers, elderly fishermen, and teenage boys, these little wooden “mice” crossed the smoking channel again and again. Reaching directly into the shallows where the war machines could not tread, they ferried hundreds of thousands to safety and altered the trajectory of the free world.
The March of Dimes: Deliverance in Pocket Change
A continent away, another towering giant was brought to its knees by an invisible predator. Polio was the scourge of summer, terrorizing communities and leaving thousands of children paralyzed in iron lungs. The full weight of modern medicine struggled in the dark, desperate for resources to unlock a viable vaccine.
The breakthrough was not bankrolled by a single corporate titan or a massive federal windfall. It was built by children. Across America, millions of ordinary families and school kids gave up their ice-cream money to mail single ten-cent coins directly to the White House. The mailrooms filled to overflowing, buried under mountains of tiny, silver offerings.
Those millions of individual, humble dimes funded Jonas Salkโs laboratory, broke the back of the epidemic, and eradicated the disease for generations to come. A nationโs crisis was resolved. And it wasn’t by a single strike of mighty power, but by the quiet power of the collective small.
Never Despise the Small Things
It is easy to look at the immense problems of our world, or even the heavy trials in our own lives, and feel hopelessly inadequate. We might convince ourselves that unless we possess immense wealth, high office, or grand influence, we have nothing valuable to bring to the fight.
Yet God rarely chooses the mighty to accomplish His deepest deliverances. He calls the willing. And, as the saying goes, “God doesn’t always call the equipped, but He always equips the called.” When circumstances leave the strong helpless and entangled, a quiet word of encouragement, a single small sacrifice, or steady, faithful labor can cut the very knot that held a giant bound.
Zechariah 4:10 BSB
[10] For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the Lord, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.โ
1 Corinthians 1:26-27 BSB
[26] Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
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Aesop’s Fables Month: The Tortoise and The Hare ๐ข๐
The lesson of the Tortoise and the Hare is often told to children as a sweet reminder to be patient. Yet for those who have walked the disjointed roads of life with burdens strapped to their backs, the fable is far more than a moral on pacingโit is an anthem of stubborn, quiet endurance.
The Classic Fable Retold
In Aesopโs well-known contest, an arrogant Hare openly mocked the deliberate, plodding gait of the Tortoise. Amused by the idea of a mismatch, the Hare challenged him to a footrace across the country path. Confident that his natural gifts guaranteed an effortless win, the Hare sprinted far ahead, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Certain that his competitor could never close the gap, he stretched out under the cool shade of a tree to sleep off his complacency.
The Tortoise possessed neither swift legs nor a cheering section. He simply understood the road before him and refused to stop. Step by deliberate step, bearing the weight of his shell, he pressed forward. When the Hare finally woke and bolted toward the finish line, he discovered that quiet, relentless perseverance had already claimed the prize.
The Fast Track and the Outsider
High school culture is built for the sprinters. The crowd naturally watches the teenagers who have the luxury of unbroken continuityโthose who grow up on paved tracks with intact homes, long-standing neighborhood cliques, and the effortless momentum that carries them into student council, homecoming courts, and letterman jackets. For them, moving through the grades is as natural as running a straight line.
For a foster child, there is no paved track. Bouncing between homes meant bouncing between schools. Every transfer meant walking into unfamiliar hallways midway through the term, trying to catch up on lessons taught differently elsewhere, and knowing deep down that I didn’t fit into any of the tight-knit circles already established. My education became a patchwork of fragmented pieces gathered here and there.
Missing Records and the Weight of the Shell
The heaviest burden arrived through bureaucracy. When you are shifted through the system, paperwork doesn’t always follow. Key academic records were lost in transit, threatening to hold me back and force me to repeat ground I had already fought to cover. Following the standard track was no longer an advantage; it was an anchor designed to keep me behind.
I realized that waiting for the system to fix itself would only cost me time. So, like the tortoise carrying the weight of textbooks on its back, I stepped off their path and chose the self-directed route: studying for the GED.
There was no classroom support or guidance counselor paving the way. In the dry heat of Arizona, with the distant mountains framing the horizon, it was just me and a single tutor, multiple books, and the daily decision to keep going. I sat down and studied the material both with the tutor and late at night after moving to the safe space of my grandparents’ desert home. Subject by subject, we pre-tested until I was confident I’d pass.
Crossing the Line Early
When the test results arrived, the outcome shattered the expectations of the conventional track. While the passing requirement is 60-70%, and the average students barely scrape by with the minimum, my composite score across all subjects was 91%. The tutor was impressed yet unsurprised and encouraged me to believe in whatever I could become. More than that, taking ownership of my education allowed me to graduate six full months ahead of the very peers who had started with every social and systemic advantage. Sadly, GED on a job application doesn’t get many callbacks even with a great score.
But as a funny aside here: One of the schools I attended was while I was at the girls’ home I’ve talked about before. Now, it’s called “Aviva Center” but then it was called “Hamburger Home.” And, yes, I applied to a McDonald’s for work, and yes I listed last high school attended as “Hamburger High School.” And, no, they never called me. ๐คฃ
The race of life is rarely won by unearned speed or easy starts. Privilege may offer a sprint out of the gate, but character, grit, and faith are forged by the plodders who refuse to quit when the hill gets steep. I’m still on that hill in many ways, and I’m thankful for the tutors and encouragers I’ve had along the path. Someday, I hope you’ll all share the joy of the finish line with me when I publish at least two children’s books, two novels, a memoir, and a book of poetry. ๐
Ecclesiastes 9:11 BSB
[11] I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all.
Hebrews 12:1 BSB
[1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.
2 Timothy 4:7 BSB
[7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
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Aesop’s Fables Month: The North Wind and The Sun ๐ฌ๏ธ๐
The Classic Fable Retold
In the ancient dispute between the North Wind and the Sun, the contest was simple: which of them possessed the power to strip a traveler of his heavy winter cloak? The Wind boasted of sheer power, launching into a furious, howling gale to tear the garment away. Yet the harder the tempest roared, the tighter the shivering man clutched his coat around his chest. When the Wind finally exhausted his bluster, the Sun stepped forward, offering nothing more than steady, radiant warmth. Basking in the gentle heat, the traveler loosened his white-knuckle grip on his jacket, unbuttoned his collar, and willingly laid his heavy cloak on the ground.
The Instinct of the Cloak
The traditional moral reminds us that persuasion and gentleness succeed where force and fury fail. But for anyone who has survived a turbulent, unpredictable childhood, a cloak is never just a piece of woolโit is armor.
When you grow up in chaos, your defenses are built to survive howling gales. You learn to tuck your chin, pull your boundaries tight, and brace your heels against any approaching storm. And you always learn to jump at the loud cracks of thunder signaling a new storm is on the horizon. Soon, all loudness becomes thunder to your traumatized psyche.
The great tragedy of an authoritarian approach is the assumption that louder demands and sharper snaps will compel genuine surrender in every subject. In reality, blunt force only proves to the wounded soul that the storm is still raging, making surrender impossible.
The Warmth of the Kitchen
Providence gave me an unforgettable glimpse of the Sun in my very first temporary foster home with a woman named Phyllis.
Phyllis was an oasis of warmth. Though she and her husband Joe were scheduled to travel and could only take emergency placements, they fought for permission to keep me for extra weeks simply because they saw a child who desperately needed sanctuary. In her home, I was not treated like just another foster charge, but like a princess.
One afternoon, Phyllis invited me into the kitchen to help make matzah ball soup. I had never heard of it, let alone tasted it, and I had no frame of reference for the culinary tradition she was sharing. There was no test to pass, no critique of my technique, and no sharp command to keep up. She simply stood beside me, guiding my small hands into the mixture, teaching me with patient grace. In the warmth of that kitchen, the cloak of heaviness I had worn into the house began to slip from my shoulders without me even realizing it.
The deepest warmth, however, arrived on a night when the storm inside me became unbearable. I lay on my bed in the dark, rocking myself back and forth, doubled over with severe stomach cramps born of sheer terror and anxiety. Even in a safe house, a traumatized nervous system keeps the siren blaring. I expected a harsh voice telling me to go to sleep, or a door closed against the nuisance of a crying child.
Instead, the door creaked open, and Phyllis quietly stepped in. She didn’t demand that I stop crying. She didn’t offer a lecture on why I had nothing to fear. She simply sat down on the edge of the mattress, placed her gentle hand on my trembling back, and began to rub in slow, steady circles until the churning knots unclenched and exhaustion gave way to sleep. Her gentleness proved that warmth and understanding creates a safety that force can never achieve.
Snapping Fingers and Howling Gales
That sanctuary made the contrast all the more stark when the winds shifted. In a later placement, authority looked like a woman named Grace sitting in her command chair, snapping her fingers across the room to summon all of us foster kids into compliance. Things like, “Bring me my cigarettes!” Or “Get me a glass of water!” Even a simple, “Hand me that magazine!” was delivered with such harsh authority that we had no choice but to fear what might happen if we didn’t do exactly as demanded.
There was no invitation in her home, only leverage. Every task was a demand, every movement monitored, and obedience was extracted through cold intimidation. The snap of a finger was an order to bow, yet every sharp click did the exact opposite of what she intended: it hardened my resolve to resist. On the outside, I moved to perform the chore; on the inside, I pulled my protective cloak so tight that nothing of my true heart could ever be reached. She had my compliance, but she never touched my spirit.
I wanted to get placed elsewhere, but the one kind person there was my older foster sister Mary. She had a younger sister and two brothers in the home with her. She begged me to endure, so there wouldn’t be an inspection that could cause her and her siblings to be movedโand quite probably separated. It’s not easy to find a foster home that will take four siblings. And Mary was almost 18 with plans to take over the care of her family as soon as she was able. I hope she made it happen.
The Power of the Soft Answer
Force can command the hands, but only warmth can win the heart. Having experienced both the howling gale and the patient sunbeam, the truth of the ancient fable is unmistakable: when we meet defensiveness with rage, volume, or demands, we are merely playing the North Windโforcing wounded souls to button their armor tighter against the chill.
True strength does not howl; it radiates. It is the steady gift of an open kitchen, the patient touch on a trembling shoulder, and the quiet dignity of a truly listening ear and caring heart that invites the weary to finally set their burdens down and rest.
Proverbs 15:1, 4 BSB
[1] A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
[4] A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
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Aesop’s Fables Month: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Welcome to another famous fable. I chose this one because I referenced it in my first fable post and that made it stand out as a great focus piece. As a warning: this post includes some harsh environment references from my dysfunctional childhood.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
In classical folklore, the image of the boy shouting fearfully from the hillside is an enduring fixture: the reckless thrill, the mischievous grin, and the spectacle of an entire village dropping their tools to scramble uphill in a frantic effort to save him and his flock create a hard-to-forget scene. For centuries, this fable has stood as a primary warning against dishonesty. Yet when the story is reduced to a simple playground rule about telling the truth, it overlooks the far darker, lasting wreckage the lying boy leaves in his wake.
The Classic Fable Retold
A young shepherd boy, lonely and bored while tending his villageโs flock on a distant hillside, decides to stir up excitement by falsely screaming that a beast is attacking the sheep. Twice he raises the panic, shouting, โWolf! Wolf!โ only to laugh and jeer as the exhausted villagers race to his rescue, breathless and armed for battle. But when a real wolf prowls out of the forest shadows toward the flock, the boyโs terrified, genuine screams fall on deaf ears. Convinced it is another cruel prank, the villagers stay in their homes, leaving the flock to be scattered and destroyed.
The Boyโs True Crime
The traditional moral is neat and tidy: a liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth. But that only accounts for the boy’s personal fate.
The far greater tragedyโthe collateral damageโis what his antics did to the villagers below (and to the innocent sheep). By exploiting the adults’ protective instincts for his own cheap amusement, he drained their empathy and conditioned them to meet urgent cries with rolled eyes and folded arms. He didn’t just ruin his own credibility; he poisoned the trust of the villagers, leaving defenseless sheep to pay the ultimate price when real wolves appeared.
The Burden of the Unheard
I was never that shepherd boy. Growing up, stories like this didn’t inspire me to test limits; they petrified me into measuring every word. Yet the bitter irony of the world the boy built is that cynical ears often fail to distinguish between a manipulator and an innocent child.
My sister and I spent our youth learning that when you are small, your alarms are often treated as mere background noise. Whether it was the throbbing pain of a sewing needle embedded in my foot dismissed as childish dramatics, or the domestic storms in our home, adult skepticism stood like an impenetrable wall.
One scary night, our motherโdeep in alcohol and rageโdemanded the police come to drag back our stepfather, who had recently walked out to stay with his parents. Slurring insults at the responding officers, she teetered on the edge of passing out. My sister and I stood there, hoping badges meant rescue. Instead, the officers looked at the chaos, assessed that she would soon sleep it off, and told us to simply “hang in there until your mommy sobers up.” To their tired eyes, it was an ordinary domestic squabble not worth the paperwork. They left us in that dangerous place.
Later That Night at The Stationhouse
When the danger did not pass, the unfolding crisis brought a different set of officers, and the reality was entirely different. This time, they took me directly into the police station while they searched for emergency shelter placement.
It was a bewildering world of adult triage. While the two officers grappled with system gridlockโone even expressing a quiet, protective desire to simply take me home to his wife if only he was allowed to get personally involved in his casesโthey ended up faced with a dilemma and began arguing with each other.
“You read her her rights!”
“No, you read them. I always have to do the dirty work!”
And when it was decided which officer had to read them (the one who wanted to take me home), he gently explained that the shelter was full, so I had to go back to my mom or be booked into juvenile hall as a runaway. That meant Miranda Rights were required.
My true character was on full display to the two arresting officers and many others at the station at three o’clock in the morning. At one point, an officer told me to plug my ears so the adults could exchange an off-color joke. I did not pretend. I pressed my fingers into my ears so tightly that when the punchline passed and the room quieted down, I remained frozen in silence, utterly unable to hear them telling me it was safe to let go. When they turned around and realized I was still standing there, following their command to the letter, their surprise was palpable. I was an open book in a room accustomed to reading between manipulative lines.
Providence in the Lion’s Den
That grim destinationโCounty Juvenile Hallโshould have been terrifying. Instead, providence went to work with a brush of absurdity.
The facility didn’t possess a single standard green uniform small enough to fit my frame. Their only solution was to dress me in a tiny, pastel pink outfit they found in the back of the uniform closet. That morning, during roll call, an intimidating line of tough, street-hardened girls filed past my cell on their way to breakfast. But instead of targeting vulnerability, their hardened expressions cracked. One by one, they glanced at the tiny figure in pink and muttered in disbelief: “How cuteโฆ how smallโฆ what could a little thing like that have done?”
What began as an arrest became an unexpected sanctuary. Years later, the gravity of that detour landed with full weight when I learned what the unavailable shelter had actually been: McLaren Hall, an infamous institution later exposed for pervasive, systemic horrors against the children placed in its trust.
Bureaucratic gridlock had looked like callous abandonment, but an Unseen Hand had used a lack of beds, a tiny pink uniform, and a hall of unlikely protectors to shield an innocent lamb from a predator far worse. It was the purest lemonade squeezed from some very bitter lemons. And the lemonade became even sweeter when I got moved to a temporary foster home with truly loving and caring “parents” within a day.
Tuning Our Ears
Aesop warned us of the liar whose deceit destroyed his own credibility on a lonely hill, but the deeper moral is one we must live out every day down in our own valleys.
When we allow constant cultural noise, past deceptions, or exhausted skepticism to calcify our hearts into cynicism, we become the villagers who shut their windows and cover their ears. We risk ignoring the literal child standing faithfully with her fingers in her ears, or the genuine plea whispered in the dark.
The remedy for the boy who cried wolf is not to stop listening; it is to cultivate the discernment that sees past the noise to protect the truly innocent.
Proverbs 31:8-9 BSB
[8] Open your mouth for those with no voice, for the cause of all the dispossessed. [9] Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the poor and needy.
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Aesop’s Fables Month: The Milkmaid and Her Pail
Yesterday, I promised you the follow-up to the clichรฉ Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch from the Aesop’s Fable of the milkmaid. I had initially assembled something built on general references, intending to simply re-read the fable, make sure I had highlighted all of the important points, and then hit publish. Only, things did not go as planned. In a single evening of digging, I uncovered a rich, traveling history that I simply have to share.
The Classic Fable Retold
In the traditional fable, a young milkmaid named Patty walks to market balancing a full pail of milk on her head. Lost in daydreams of selling the milk to buy eggs, hatching a flock of chickens, selling the poultry to buy a fancy gown, and tossing her head at suitors, she accidentally tosses her head in real lifeโsending the pail crashing down and spilling every drop.
The Compass of a Tale
Growing up, moral tales were never just light bedtime reading to me; they laid down the invisible boundary lines that secured my world. From a very young age, stories like The Boy Who Cried Wolf sank deep into my conscience, teaching me to weigh my words and never shout for help unless I truly meant it. Fables offered a reassuring sense of orderโa moral compass whispering that actions carry weight, that character matters, and that, eventually, truth and justice will find their footing.
September’s Journey & The Traveling Tale
As we open Septemberโs journey into Aesop’s Fables, that well-known mishap of a milkmaid named Patty turns out to be only one of many rewritings of the same story. If you dig into the archives expecting a neat, 2,500-year-old Greek script, you will find quite a surprise: the story of the shattered vessel didn’t begin with Patty at all.
Not Aesop?
Centuries before it arrived in European schoolrooms, it began in ancient India within the Panchatantra as a tale of a poor holy man kicking over his jar of rice while lost in a daydream as he rested on his mat. It traveled through Persian and Arabic folklore before French poet Jean de La Fontaine reimagined the main character in 1678 as Perrette, skipping with joy down a country road until her pot tumbled.
By the time English translators named her Patty, our culture had organically woven two separate, timeless idioms around her solitary walk. We have the motherly warning when Patty went to her to confess her spill: don’t count your chickens before they hatch; and the quiet grace we must summon afterward: don’t cry over spilled milk.
Beyond Aesop
Looking across the centuries, the variations are abundant. I found versions with and without the milkmaid being named, characters carrying baskets or pots instead of milk, and wildly different reasons for the final mess. In some, Patty tosses her head in haughty disdain to reject the boys attracted to her new dress. In others, she flips her hair in pride as she prances in front of a rival village girl’s anticipated jealousy.
Yet within every variation lies the same core truth: disaster strikes the moment our full attention abandons the present task for an imagined future.
My Takeaway
What finding all these stories taught me is that humanity is desperate for a moral compass. In the depths of our hearts, we desire a world where right is right and justice prevails. Throughout the history of these moral tales, storytellers subtly altered the characters and settings in ways to fit the needs of their audiences at the time. But the underlying intent never changed: we need to communicate that knocking down the first domino inevitably tumbles everything behind it. We write and rewrite the same moral lessons with different characters because we hope people will learn, take heed, andโif necessaryโchange their ways.
In The News (Justice & The Law of the Harvest)
When we look at the world around us, this tension feels sharp as we read current headlines. We watch society wrestle between human empathy and the hard demand for accountability when terrible choices are made that cannot be taken back no matter the excuses or reasons for them. The story of the mother who strangled her 3 children has been weighing heavy on me as people make excuses for her deciding their lives had no value. She had choices, like dropping the children off at a fire station. But no matter how torn we are, we inherently know something is broken with the idea that someone could plant corn and grow tomatoes. We know that in truth, each person will reap what they sow.
But Grace
But grace is God’s idea; His answer for our human failures. While He does not change the law of the harvest (we still grow what we plant), He offers unmerited favor to sustain us through the consequences, anchored by the promise of an eternity in His presence.
Salvation won’t undo every consequence (Patty’s milk was still soaked into the dust). But grace helps us look up when we would otherwise be crushed by hopelessness. That grace is a free gift to us, (and free to mother who took the lives of her children as well), but it cost The Lord everything! And because that price has already been paid, He’s waiting now with an outstretched arm to walk with youโeven through the consequences.
Hebrews 4:16 BSB
[16] Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
A Light Finale:
Q: What do you call a camel when it gets upset over spilled milk?
A: A "drama dairy."
๐๐ซ๐ฅ
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Clichรฉ Month: Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch ๐ฃ
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
We can’t have a post about chickens and eggs without asking the age old question, right? So what do you think came first?
The babysitter I mentioned in the “Giddy Goat” post also had chickens. It was the first time I ever saw eggs sort of x-rayed (called egg candling). They had this tray they’d put all the eggs in and shine light through it, so they knew which eggs had baby chicks in them. I love to eat eggs, and I’m really glad they have a way to not harm a growing baby in the shell just so I can have breakfast.
The Peril of Premature Calculations
But having one of those egg lights still isn’t a guarantee of what you’ll be getting when the eggs hatch because not all of them make it. And if any get dropped and break, then no matter what’s inside, it’s no longer new life or breakfast.
But haven’t we all caught ourselves doing that at least onceโmentally spending a tax refund before the return is filed, rehearsing an acceptance speech before the judges deliberate, or daydreaming about any number of things before we know what reality will bring? Apparently, this happened a whole lot during the California gold rush in the mid 1800s. While many “forty-niners” began their journeys with big dreams, more often than not, they were just hard workers earning very little profit.
But a few really did strike it rich, so it continually fueled hope for others. Human nature loves to dream ahead because hope is a powerful driver, but when optimism borders on certainty, the enduring English proverb steps in: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”
I hadn’t realized it until writing this post, but I sort of acted this clichรฉ out in a literal sense when I was a very young adult. I was living in a super small apartment and working part-time for minimum wage. Each week, I had about $10 to spend on groceries. I would push my cart around the supermarket once to put everything in I thought I might want, and then go around a second time to remove everything I couldn’t afford. At least I didn’t wait to calculate until I was at the register, but just putting more than I could afford into my cart was counting my chickens in a way.
From Tudor Proverb to Aesopโs Fable
While calculating in grocery aisles or dreaming of gold strikes is universally human, the literal poultry phrasing took root in 16th-century England. English writer Thomas Howell recorded the earliest known version in his 1570 collection New Sonets and Pretie Pamphlets, cautioning: “Counte not thy Chickens that vnhatched be.” A few years later, in 1579, Thomas North used it in The Diall of Princes, writing that it was foolish to “make reconyng before the chickens were hatched.”
Nearly a century later, in 1664, poet Samuel Butler immortalized the lines in his famous mock-heroic epic Hudibras:
“To count their chickens, ere they’re hatch’d;
โ Samuel Butler, Hudibras (1664)
And calculate what they’re worth.”
Long before English poets turned it into a rhyming warning, the moral core of this clichรฉ was born in the world of Aesop’s Fables. The concept comes directly from the classic tale “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” As the young farm girl walks along with a pail of milk on her head, she daydreams about selling the milk to buy eggs, hatching those eggs into a flock of chickens, and selling the birds to buy a fancy gown. But when she tosses her head in pride, the pail crashes downโleaving her with no milk and no chickens to count.
Balancing Vision with Wisdom
There is a sizable difference between having visionary faith and making presumptuous plans. Scripture actually addresses this balance in James 4, reminding us to hold our timelines with humility:
James 4:13-15 BSB
[13] Come now, you who say, โToday or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.โ [14] You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. [15] Instead, you ought to say, โIf the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.โ
Proverbs 27:1 echoes a similar encouragement:
Proverbs 27:1 BSB
[1] Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
Where Have You “Counted Your Chicks”?
Think back on your own experiences:
- Maybe you headed out for the day without preparing for getting back home by making sure you had enough gas or maybe return bus fare.
- Or you celebrated a game-night lead just minutes before an opponent pulled off a surprise comeback.
- Or, maybe like me, you filled a shopping cart with wish-list items before doing the math at the checkout. I know I’m not alone there from the people I’ve seen digging in pockets and purses for change.
Share your favorite near-misses in the comments below.
Looking Ahead: Stepping into Aesop’s Fables for September!
This post officially brings our daily August journey through clichรฉs and idioms to a close! But my love for timeless wisdom is just getting started.
Starting tomorrow, September 1st, I’m dedicating the entire month to Aesop’s Fables. I’ll be expanding on the full story behind that daydreaming milkmaid, kicking off day one by exploring the fable’s other famous takeaway: why it does no good to cry over spilled milk! ๐ฅโจ
Thank you for following along every day in August. Get ready for talking animals, clever twists, and rich moral lessons all through September!
A Parting Riddle
To send August out with a chuckleโฆ
Why do baby chickens make terrible secret agents?
Because they always crack under pressure! ๐ฃ๐
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: When Pigs Fly
The Ultimate Badge of Impossibility
Whenever someone says something completely absurd, improbable, or unlikely to happenโever in a million years, our wonderful English language gives us a delightfully sarcastic reply: “Sureโฆ and pigs might fly, too!“
It belongs to a colorful family of expressions known as an adynatonโa figure of speech so exaggerated that it highlights an absolute physical impossibility. We use these sayings whenever we want to express skepticism with a wink, whether we are talking about waiting “until the cows come home,” looking for something like “a needle in a haystack,” or promising to tackle an unpleasant chore “on a cold day in July.” Or maybe “when the sun rises in the west.”
Note: An ancient example of an adynaton was “Till the rivers run backward.” Of course, they could not have known that in 1812, an earthquake on the New Madrid Fault would do exactly that to the Mississippi River. It’s an interesting factoid you can read here.
From 17th-Century Satire to Real Biplanes
Long before our neon aviator pig took to the skies, people were using airborne swine as a comedic punchline. The earliest known variations appeared in 16th-century Scottish proverbs, but it was formally recorded in English print by lexicographer John Clarke in his 1639 collection Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina. His phrasing carried a wonderfully silly visual: โPigs fly in the air with their tails forward.โ It was the go-to retort for calling out someone telling tall tales or making promises they had no intention of keeping.
For centuries, the phrase remained safely locked in the realm of sarcasm. But on November 4, 1909, an eccentric English aviation pioneer named Lord Brabazon (John Moore-Brabazon) decided to take the idiom literally. Determined to prove the cynics wrong, he strapped a small wicker basket containing a live piglet onto the wing strut of his biplane. Before taking off into the skies over Kent, he pinned a hand-lettered cardboard sign to the basket that read: “I am the first pig to fly.”
With that short flight, history gained its first official airborne pigโand the world lost its most foolproof guarantee of an impossible event! And if you think that’s funny, check out my previous post about the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
Whatโs on Your “Flying Pig” List?
We all encounter dreams where our first instinct is to look up at the clouds, throw our hands in the air, and say this clichรฉ or something else meaning we don’t believe it will ever happen. Maybe we try to tell ourselves that “With God, all things are possible” but that often doesn’t go beyond the encouraging words. What big dreams or everyday moments make you think you are more likely to see a pig soaring through the stratosphere than to complete your task?
- Getting a book published?
- Getting an entire house decluttered and organized?
- Emptying out your storage shed?
- Or finally crossing off the last lingering chore on your to-do list?
While we will always find things that seem impossible, with a little extra determination and maybe some ingenuity, we can do more than we think possible. Share your comments, and we’ll pray for each other to find hope (or supportive friends) to help us tackle the overwhelming obstacles that try to hold up our dreams. And speaking of tackles, here’s something fun:
A Super Bowl Take on Flying Pigs
One of the funniest modern takes on the idiom came from the 2015 Super Bowl in Doritos’ fan-created commercial contest. When a boy asks an older man on a porch for a chip, the man smirks and says, “Sure kid, when pigs fly!” Refusing to take no for an answer, the kid builds a harness with rocket fireworks and wings for a farm pigโlaunching the airborne swine right past the stunned man’s porch to claim his bag of chips! Here’s the video…
A Parting Riddle
And speaking of flying thingsโฆ
Why did the boy throw his alarm clock out the window?
Because he wanted to see time fly! โฐโ๏ธ
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Clichรฉ Month: Slow as Molasses (or Mud or a Snail or a Slug) ๐
The Grand Sluggish Derby
If you have ever found yourself stuck behind someone driving ten miles under the speed limit in the passing lane, or waiting on a slow computer update when you are in a rush, you know the feeling of moving “slow as molasses in January.”
We have a whole collection of colorful ways to describe sluggish pacing. You can be “slower than a herd of turtles,” “slow as mud,” or “creeping like a snail.” But as our artwork proves today, in a three-way race between a jar of cold molasses, a puddle of mud, and a garden snail, the snail will easily take the checkered flag every single time! (Of course, if that snail is “Turbo,” it would beat you and me, too. ๐)
When Molasses Broke the Speed Limit
We associate molasses with slow, sticky physics because of its high viscosity, especially when the temperature drops. But the phrase has an ironic and dramatic historical counterpoint: the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.
On an unusually warm January day in Boston’s North End, a commercial storage tank ruptured, sending a towering 25-foot wave of 2.3 million gallons of dark molasses hurtling through the streets. Far from moving slowly, that sugary tsunami rushed at an astounding 35 miles per hour, flattening buildings, sweeping away vehicles, and tragically reshaping local history. While our everyday kitchen syrup takes its sweet time dripping off a spoon, history proved that under enough pressure, even molasses can move shockingly fast. Read all about it on its Wikipedia page with some pictures included.
The 1919 Boston flood didn’t create the idiomโit just became history’s most famous and ironic counter-example to it. People had already spent over 70 years using “slow as molasses” to mean excruciatingly sluggish, which is why a deadly, 35-mph tidal wave of molasses in January 1919 shocked the nation so much. But the phrase itself first emerged in American speech and print way back in the 1840s to 1860s.
Other Slow Idioms
“Slow as Mud” showed up in the late 1800s to early 1900s. It emerged in 19th-century American vernacular alongside cousin phrases like “clear as mud.” Though the fun irony caused clear as mud to become the more widely recognized phrase, slow as mud didn’t disappear because it has its own “sticky” charm.
“Slow as a Snail” / “Slow as a Slug” came to us back in the 1300sโ1500s in Middle English and early Modern English. John Heywood even recorded snail-like slowness in his famous 1546 proverb collection, and William Shakespeare referenced snails as the ultimate standard of creeping pace in As You Like It (1599) with the “whining schoolboy… creeping like snail unwillingly to school.”
So, snails and slugs have held the crown for centuries, while molasses and mud were 19th-century American additions to the language of sluggishness!
Yahveh’s Timing is Never Slow
Living in a fast-paced world can make us terribly impatient. We want instant answers, immediate results, and prayers answered by yesterday (or faster โบ๏ธ). When things move at a slower pace, human nature tempts us to wonder if things are stalled or forgotten; or if we’re praying wrong or asking for the wrong requests.
But God’s Word gives us a beautiful reminder about the difference between human sluggishness and divine planning:
2 Peter 3:9 Berean Standard Bible
[9] The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Pet 3:9 (BSB)
What looks like a slow crawl to our hurried minds is often Godโs grace giving us the room, time, and space to grow, reflect, and get things right.
Better Late Than Never
Whether we are tackling big life goals, cleaning out cluttered spaces, or learning to surrender our impatient timelines, moving slowly is still moving forward. It brings to mind that other classic platitude: Better Late Than Never. Like Aesopโs steady tortoise or our speedy neon snail, crossing the finish line at a steady pace is always a victory.
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: Don’t Make a Mountain Out of a Molehill๐
Sometimes, It IS a Mountain
Too many times, this clichรฉ has been used to make people feel like their issues are small or unimportant. Like the time when I was nine and had to go to the ER for a tetanus shot because we thought I stepped on a rusty map pin. Apparently, at least one sewing needle got mixed with the spilled map pins, so it turned out that I had a full-size sewing needle in my little girl foot.
Had they done an X-ray instead of deciding I was making something out of nothing (another way to state this clichรฉ), I wouldnโt have needed surgery six weeks later to clean out the beginnings of gangrene. The doctor told us that if we had waited just three more days before coming in, he would have been gone on a three-week vacation and returned only to amputate my foot. It wasn’t a molehill at all; it was a very real mountain.
Making Everything into Mountains
The extended problem of not being listened to way back then created a lifetime of fearing that little things were bigger than they appeared. It held me back from sharing my true feelings because I anticipated bigger or worse reactions. And it intimidated me into missing out on who knows how many experiences because I was worried about outcomes that may never have come to pass.
When you learn early on that a real crisis can be brushed aside, you naturally start holding a magnifying glass up to every bump in the road, bracing for the worst.
The Real Meaning and Use of This Clichรฉ
The phrase itself has ancient roots. Long before English speakers talked about moles, ancient Greeks and Romans warned against “making an elephant out of a fly” (ex musca elephantem facis). The English idiom emerged in the 16th century, appearing in Nicholas Udallโs 1548 translation of Erasmus and John Foxeโs 1570 Acts and Monuments as a reminder not to “make of a molehyll a mountayne.”
The true wisdom of the proverb was never meant to invalidate legitimate pain or silence genuine warnings. It is simply a reminder to examine our perspective when anxiety rises and tries to rob us of peace. It’s to bring us to a stop, look, and listen moment because fear exaggerates reality. With a few deep breaths and a second look at our situation, we can avoid turning everyday friction into insurmountable peaks.
God’s Word Brings Peace (And Boldness)
The following verse uses the word fear in almost every translation, but a better word for its original meaning would be timidity. God is not the one who holds us back and makes us doubt moving forward. He actually wants us to be bold and strong.
2 Timothy 1:7 Berean Standard Bible
[7] For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
2 Tim 1:7 (BSB)
To help us have confidence to boldly assess our hills (and mountains), He gives us soundness of mind and the clarity to discern the differenceโacknowledging real mountains when faith is needed to climb them, while having the peace to step over the everyday molehills without fear.
And even if we are facing a true mountain, we never face it alone.
Isaiah 41:10 Berean Standard Bible
[10] Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10 (BSB)
And the very best way to avoid turning the molehills in life into mountains that seem insurmountable is to look away from the dirt and look up to Our Savior and Creator. This song is a wonderful worship song for refocusing:
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: Pretty is As Pretty Does (and My Thoughts on Dolly Parton)
Long before “pretty is as pretty does” became a staple of Southern front porches and mountain wisdom, it began as an Old English proverb: “Handsome is that handsome does.” It traces back through centuries of literature, from Geoffrey Chaucer to Oliver Goldsmith, and the saying served as a timeless social check. It reminded generations that outward charm, fine clothing, and physical beauty are entirely hollow if they aren’t backed up by kindness, integrity, and good deeds.
My earliest recollections of Dolly Parton are from a 45 my mom bought us with Coat of Many Colors on side A, and Me and Little Andy on side B. We all loved side A, but my empathetic heart was drawn to the song about the sad and cold little girl and her puppy, Andy. (I’ve included the video at the bottom so you can listen along.) From there, I listened to a variety of music until I gave my life to Christ at 19, so I didn’t hear much about Dolly until she began releasing gospel music like He’s Alive backed by a full choir.
By that time, I was also paying closer attention to the lifestyles of those who portrayed Christianity in entertainment to see if they really believed in their hearts. Some things Dolly said and did made it hard for me to see her as genuine, and I wondered if she was just adding gospel music as another genre on her resumรฉ. Of course, in all entertainment and media, there is no guarantee that what we see or hear is anything deeper than an act, so we pray for each of them with grace and know that God sees their true hearts.
A Rooted Love for Her People
On a recent trip to Pigeon Forge, we finally rode the aerial tram. Our tram operator gushed over Dolly as so much more than just a singer and actress. He talked about all she did for her community after the big fire in 2016 (a tragedy that made me cry when I saw the news reports), and about her project to get books into the hands of every kid in her home state of Tennessee. He even said something along the lines of “No one better ever come here and say anything bad about our Dolly!”
I really hadn’t known much about her philanthropy until then, but now, as the world mourns her passing and celebrates her life, the tributes are everywhere. Time and again, they show how Dolly never outgrew her deep sense of home or her love for the mountains where she grew up. For example, after the wildfires swept through Sevier County in 2016, she didn’t offer empty platitudes from afar. Through the “My People Fund,” she delivered no-strings-attached monthly checks to hundreds of families (900+) who lost everything, helping her neighbors rebuild from the ashes up. And when there was money at the end, she divided it among them with an extra $5,000 each.
A Legacy Written in Millions of Books
Her philanthropy was always driven by personal empathy. Dolly founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to honor her fatherโa hardworking man who never had the chance to learn to read. What started as a local initiative in East Tennessee has now become a worldwide literacy project that’s placed hundreds of millions of books directly into children’s hands to inspire their love of learning, completely free of charge.
A Sparkling Personality
In a culture obsessed with appearances, Dolly Parton spent her life proving that old clichรฉ with her own inner beauty. Growing up one of 12 children in the rural mountains of East Tennessee, she learned the stinging pain of superficial judgment from those who had more than she had. When her mother lovingly stitched her a winter coat out of discarded fabric scrapsโthe true story that inspired Coat of Many Colorsโschoolyard classmates ridiculed and bullied her for wearing rags. Rather than growing bitter, Dolly realized a profound truth: worth is never defined by a price tag, and true riches come from the heart. She decided early on that she would sparkle in her behavior first, and the rhinestones and sky-high wigs became a joyful outward celebration of a heart that was already overflowing with love.
Her approach mirrors the wisdom found in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 3:3-4 World English Bible
[3] Let your beauty come not from the outward adorning of braiding your hair, and of wearing gold ornaments or of putting on fine clothing, [4] but from the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in Godโs sight.
1 Peter 3:3-4 (WEBUS)
But wait… Didn’t Dolly do exactly all that outward adornment? She did, but from what I’m learning, it was secondary to her drive to truly shine from the inside out. In one interview, she said she never felt pretty, so all the decoration was playful compensation for that. And if Scripture isn’t saying we must forego outward beauty, maybe it’s okay if it’s in balance, secondary to what’s on the inside. Dolly seemed to understand that flashy costumes and outward fashion fade, but a soul anchored in love, empathy, and active generosity carries eternal weight.
Hope and Grace
I hope it’s right to think of her as now being in The Lord’s presence. I pray that the generosity and empathy we witnessed were tiny compared to the love in her heart for her Creator. And I hope that anything she said that didn’t line up with Scripture was said or done unintentionally and is fully covered under the abundant mercy and grace of God.
Like the uplifting flutter of the song Love Is Like a Butterfly, Dolly’s life was a masterclass in spreading color, light, and genuine care wherever she went. She elevated the old proverb into an art formโnever dimming her iconic sparkle. True beauty is never only skin-deep; it is measured fully by the record of love and grace you leave behind.
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Clichรฉ Month: A Bird in the Hand (is Worth two in the Bush)
The first time I saw the letters “FOMO,”ย I remember thinking how it seemed impossible for enough people to clamor for a coveted thing to be worthy of its own acronym. As a mostly-contented person, it didn’t feel like I could ever fear missing out. But I was only basing that on “stuff,” so I hadn’t realized all the fears that come into play over missing out on things like attention, approval, acceptance, etc. And social media, with all its reactions and love hearts is only making it worse.
But Scripture says it this way…
[6] Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
[7] For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it. [8] But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
1 Tim 6.6-8 (BSB)
But how to be content with what we have in both tangible and intangible items is its own battle. And it is an old battle based on the history of this clichรฉ.
Few proverbs have stood the test of human history quite like the timeless reminder that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. For centuries, this folk wisdom has warned us against abandoning the blessings right in front of us to chase elusive prizes rustling just out of reach. While its roots trace through ancient fables and medieval falconry, the deeper spiritual truth it touches on is one our restless hearts constantly need: the power of present contentment.
From Falconry Gloves to Faithful Hearts
In medieval England, the phrase held a literal meaning for falconers. The “bird in the hand” was the trained raptor perched securely on the hunter’s leather gloveโa prized, reliable partner. The “two in the bush” were the wild game birds hiding in the brambles. To risk the valuable bird already secured for the mere chance at wild quarry was pure folly. In 1546, John Heywood recorded the sentiment in print, cementing the idea that what is held and nurtured is always worth more than the illusion of the unknown.
In our daily lives, however, human nature tends to do the exact opposite. We focus on the rustling in the bushesโthe opportunities we missed, the resources we wish we had, or the uncertain future we cannot controlโwhile neglecting the quiet blessings resting right in our open palms.
“What Is That in Your Hand?”
When Moses stood before the burning bush in Exodus 4, full of fear and insecurity about the massive calling ahead of him, God did not hand him a grand army or an elaborate new treasure. Instead, the Lord asked a simple question: “What is that in your hand?”
All Moses held was an ordinary, weathered shepherdโs staff. A stick! In Moses’ view, it was just a humble tool of daily labor. It wasn’t anything flashy or extraordinary, yet God demonstrated amazing power when He touched that staff and Moses obeyed God’s direction.
When we stop obsessing over what we lack and instead surrender what is already in our grip, He can do the same for us; turn the ordinary into an instrument of His power and grace. Faithful stewardship begins when we look at what God has already entrusted to our care and commit to using it according to His will and plans.
Resting in the Watchful Eye
In Matthew 6, YahShua (Jesus) points us directly to the birds of the air to teach us the antidote to anxiety. They don’t sow or reap. They don’t have storehouses full of provisions. Yet their heavenly Father feeds every single one and never takes His watchful eye off of themโeven when they fall. If God interacts this way with the sparrows among the branches, we can be confident that He will do even greater things in His interactions with us. After all, YahShua Himself said we are worth more than many sparrows.
King Solomon, in Proverbs 15, says it this way…
Proverbs 15:16-17 Berean Standard Bible:
[16] Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with turmoil.
[17] Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred.
Prov 15:16-17 (BSB)
True peace is not found in owning everything or scrambling after every bird in every tree. It is found in cupping our hands in gratitude as God sends provision our direction. Cherishing the daily blessings God has placed before us will allow His peace to fill the spaces where worry used to dwell. A bird or an education; a typewriter or a pencil; multiple talents or just one thing you do with heart: God can take what He has given you and make it exceedingly abundant above all you can ask or even think. So, for this day, look at what’s in your hand from The Lord with total focus; more than on all the desires outside of your grasp. He can and will do more than whatever you can imagine.
1 Corinthians 2:9 BSB
[9] Rather, as it is written: โNo eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.โ
1 Cor 2:9(BSB)
As I put this together, I couldn’t help but think of the following hymn:
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Clichรฉ Month: Quit Waffling (And You’ll be Peachy Keen) ๐ง๐งก
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
This has been a long day of research. That’s not a bad thing, though, and I learned a bunch of stuff I’ll need for future posts and websites. However, all that time and learning meant I kinda wore out my brain for the day and couldn’t think of a good clichรฉ to write on. So I went to the calendar for the special events associated with August 24th and found a great reason to do a mashup of clichรฉsโbecause I really need to quit waffling on a number of things, so I can be peachy keen. ๐
How about you, Reader? Are you like me with a ton of undecided actions holding you back? If so, enjoy this info on two unrelated clichรฉs that go together like peaches on waffles. ๐ Mostly created by Gemini, it’s getting harder to edit into my own words because the AI is taking what I share and learning my style, so it’s written a lot like I would write it. Still, I promise I’m not just gonna be lazy and leave it as given without editing and examining it well.
So, every August 24th, two completely unrelated food holidays collide on the same date: National Waffle Day and National Peach Pie Day. At first glance, a golden grid drenched in syrup has very little in common with a sweet summer fruit pie other than both of them being sweet and yummy. But, when you pair their accompanying folk sayings together into a single breakfast-table pep talkโQuit waffling, and you’ll be peachy keenโyou end up with a surprisingly profound guide to living a joyful life.
A Tale of Two Waffles
Most people think the verb “to waffle” (meaning to vacillate or hesitate endlessly) comes from flipping a pancake back and forth on a hot waffle iron. I actually thought it could be related to how a waffle sort of looks like a loom with weavings in crisscross directions. But language history reveals a clever case of accidental linguistic twins.
The breakfast waffle traces back to the late 12th-century Middle Dutch word wafel, rooted in ancient terms for honeycombs and woven webs, before officially entering English print in 1725 courtesy of Dutch settlers. By 1744, English cookbooks solidified the familiar double-f spelling we know and use today.
The slang verb arrived via a totally different road. As early as the 1440s, Middle Scots and Northern English used the dialect word waff to describe a weak puppy’s yelp, a fluttering gust of wind, or a waving motion. By the late 1600s, it meant fluctuating aimlessly, and the 1800s formalized the verb “to waffle.” Over time, English speakers blended the fluttering, wind-tossed indecision with the griddle cake. Eventually, to waffle became the universal shorthand for someone stuck in the middle, shifting weight from one foot to the other without ever making a solid choice.
From Ripe Fruit to Retro Cheer
On the flip side of hesitation sits the delightfully upbeat promise of being “peachy keen.” Long before 1950s teenagers turned it into a bouncy bobby-sox anthem, a “peach” was late-19th-century American slang for anything exceptionally fine, lovely, or sweet. A ripe, unblemished peach was considered nature’s peak perfection, so if a situation was sweet and smooth, “peachy” was a great way to describe its perfection.
Of course, it was also a way to sarcastically describe the opposite. A friend might ask a troubled friend how they are doing and get the answer, “Oh, just peachy!” But we’re talking about the sweet side today. ๐
Adding “keen,” which was an old word for sharp, eager, and enthusiastic, created the ultimate mid-century seal of approval. To be peachy keen is to experience the smooth, uncomplicated sweetness that comes when things fall into proper order. It represents the peace and satisfaction waiting for us on the other side of deliberate action instead of sitting on the fence like we talked about in yesterday’s post.
Finding Spiritual Sweetness Beyond the Hesitation
Spiritual paralysis often disguises itself as caution. We spend endless energy waffling over decisionsโwondering if we’re walking in God’s will or planting seeds that will reap the whirlwind. We impatiently wait for answers, overthinking the risks, while we hop anxiously between two or more opinions.
While there are times, according to Scripture, that we should stop and wait, or be still and let God fight the battles, God’s Word also reminds us that double-mindedness robs us of stability, like a wave tossed back and forth on the sea. So we want to pray for God’s unmistakable direction and follow Him as He leadsโwaiting but not hesitating.
Isaiah 40:31 BSB
[31] But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.40.31.BSB
Psalm 27:14 BSB
[14] Wait patiently for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the Lord!
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.27.14.BSB
2 Chronicles 20:17a BSB
[17] You need not fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/2ch.20.17.BSB
Clarity and contentment rarely arrive while we are standing frozen at the crossroads. They unfold when we step forward with faith, make our move, and trust that Our Heavenly Father is leading our steps.
Hebrews 11:6 BSB
[6] And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/heb.11.6.BSB
The next time you find yourself fluttering in the breeze of indecision, take a lesson from the breakfast table: God can take those “what if” thoughts and bring you through the Valley of Decision to sweetness on the other side. Step back from the waffle iron and let your Abba do the cooking.
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Clichรฉ Month: You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too!
Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?
“In or out?” I ask, holding the door open for a moment, then partially closing it to get the message across to the cat to make up its mind. But the cat just stands there, frozen, spanning the threshold in just the right way to make closing the door impossible.
Just like the cat, I stand half in the house and half on the porch…waiting. It is the universal posture of indecision. We chuckle at our stubborn pets, but truth be told, most of us do the exact same danceโusually while staring into the bakery case at an abundant selection of coconut cream pies and chocolate mousse cheesecakes. Our mouths water while we try to decide if we should grab a treat to go. Meanwhile, our brains are running the clichรฉ a moment on the lips; forever on the hips. And we wonder if the creamy decadence is really worth a lifetime of snug waistbands.
A 16th-Century Flub
That familiar tug-of-war is precisely why the old proverb about cake has endured for centuries, even if modern English thoroughly mangled its punchline. It always confused me to hear “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too” because I’d think: Of course, I have to have it before I can eat it! And then I’d wonder: Who in their right minds wants a cake for any reason other than to eat it?
But when Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, penned the earliest known record of the phrase to Thomas Cromwell in 1538, the meaning was crystal clear since, in Early Modern English, “have” meant to hold, keep, or preserve in your pantry. This was the form seen in Thomas Cromwell’s 16th-century correspondence (“a man can nat have his cake and eate his cake”) and in John Heywood’s 1546 book of proverbs (“wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?”), as well as in John Ray’s 1670 proverb collection (“You cannot eat your cake and have your cake”).
So in case you’re wondering, it’s that original meaning that I tried to show with a guy having cake in his tummy while examining the empty plate in confusion and wondering where his cake could be.
The Paralysis of the Middle Ground
In the spiritual view, this goes far deeper than dessert menus and feline standoffs. It’s about decisions and consequences; actions and reactions. It mirrors the classic country hymn lyric that wryly observes how everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. We may love the glorious promise on the other side of the finish line, but we flinch at the surrender required to finish the race.
Believers struggle with decisions to follow God’s will with blind trust. Those who don’t yet believe struggle with letting go of what they’ve always followed up until they hear The Lord calling to them. Fence-riding might feel like a clever way to keep our options open, but in reality, hovering at the threshold leaves us out in the cold. We must let go of the idea that riding the fence will get us anything but a backside full of splinters.
So next time you feel stuck between two options, think about today’s clichรฉ and take a look at both sides of the bakery case. The before-you-eat-it side is pretty to admire and looks very different than the after-you-eat-it sugar crash. And the reality is that every decision has a price (good or bad), and you must choose which price to pay. Even the cat eventually realized it had to choose one side of the threshold or the other. It couldn’t be on both sides of the door at the same time, and you can’t have your cake and eat it, too….er, you can’t eat your cake and have it, too.
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๐ฌClichรฉ Month: (don’t) Follow Your Heart ๐
Follow Your Heart?
Have you ever followed your heart only to have it lead you someplace you didn’t expect to go? Maybe you thought you were following true love. Maybe a religious experience turned out to be a little too much like a cult instead of being Bible based. Maybe you were totally certain you were supposed to go to a certain school, job, or address and all the promises fell flat.
Few platitudes are as universally celebrated as “follow your heart.” You’ll find it in graduation cards, you’ll hear animated heroines speak it as a mantra, and Hollywood pushes it as the way to fulfill your dreams. On the surface, it sounds empowering. But beneath the romanticism, there’s an uncomfortable truth: our hearts (emotions) are fickle, easily swayed, and often terrible navigators. Even God’s Word says our hearts are so deceitful that we can’t even know them ourselves.
Jeremiah 17:9 WEBUS
[9] The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
https://bible.com/bible/206/jer.17.9.WEBUS
Danger and Deceit
This is the danger of following your heart. Even though we’re told things like, “The heart knows what it wants,” or “Listen to your heart,” those efforts often lead us to a broken heart or into hopeless depression. And why? Because they mix up emotional desires with being led through this life by our loving Creator. Only the Spirit of The One who made us can lead to the places He planned and designed for us. Every other direction is hit and miss. Maybe it will lead to someplace great; maybe not. John Bevere speaks on this in his message: “Breaking Intimidation.” He says things of the soul can imitate things of The Spirit.
The affiliate link above is for the book at Amazon, and I’m not certain if that portion is in the book or only on CD, so I asked Microsoft Copilot for a summary of that portion of the message. Here’s that summary…
John Bevere warns that the soul (mind/will/emotions) can imitate the Spirit, creating impulses that feel right, sound noble, and even look โspiritual,โ yet still come from human desire rather than God. He uses John the Baptist as the example: everything about his priestly family line suggested a respectable ministry path, but the Spirit led him into the wilderness insteadโcamel hair, locusts, and a calling no one expected. Bevereโs point is simple and sharp: following your heart is often just following your soul, and the soul, no matter how sincere, โcannot receive the things of the Spirit.โ True direction comes from the Spirit, even when it contradicts what seems good.
1 Corinthians 2:14 BSB
[14] The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1co.2.14.BSB
The Romantic Rebellion
The belief that our inner feelings are the ultimate moral compass took root during the late 18th-century Romantic Era. Poets and philosophers, who reacted against the cold rationality of the Industrial Age, argued that personal passion and raw emotion were inherently pure. Over the 20th century, pop psychology and modern individualism cemented the idea that it was unhealthy to suppress our desires. They suggested that trusting immediate emotional impulses was the highest form of self-discovery.
An Ancient Warning
Long before modern cinema made the human heart into the hero of every story, ancient wisdom urged caution with yielding to wild emotions. In classical philosophy, Plato illustrated the human soul as a charioteer (Reason) struggling to manage two horsesโone noble, and the other a wild, rebellious appetite that was “the mate of insolence and pride… hardly yielding to whip and spur.”
Scripture provides more anchors against letting blind, emotional trust lead us to places of destruction or depression:
Proverbs 4:23 BSB
[23] Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.4.23.BSB
Proverbs 3:5-6 BSB
[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.3.5-6.BSB
Rather than letting unchecked desires drag us toward a fire, wisdom calls us to tether our hearts to truth, discernment, and sound guidance.
Leading Your Heart
In the 2008 film Fireproof, there is a pivotal conversation between Caleb and his friend (and boss) Michael that perfectly dismantles this platitude. When Caleb tells Michael he is “in” with The Lord and wants some faith advice, Michael gets very excited. He calls Caleb his brother (but you gotta hear how he says it ๐) and then gives great big-brother-type advice:
“And don’t just follow your heart, man, because your heart can be deceived; but you’ve got to lead your heart.”
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Clichรฉ Month: Read Between the Lines ๐งฉ
It’s a clichรฉ AND a game! What more could we want, right? And though I planned something simple for a relaxing Sabbath weekend, I ended up having to learn some new things, but I’m very happy to share a cool new trick at the bottom. After you look at the rebus puzzles to try and figure them out, you can click to reveal the answers. And this is so much easier than trying to print upside-down text like I tried first. ๐
So for this clichรฉ, it’s a phrase we all the time whenever we sense some kind of unspoken truth lurking beneath polite conversation. To “read between the lines” is human nature’s built-in radar for deciphering what is meant beyond what is merely said. But long before it became a way to “hear” the subtext in everyday dialogue, reading between the lines was a literal, tradecraftโessential for wartime communication, diplomacy, and survival.
Invisible Ink and Wartime Grids
The idiom traces back to the mid-nineteenth century and has direct roots in cryptography and steganography. Military couriers, spies, and clandestine correspondents needed ways to transport secret directives through enemy territory without raising suspicion. The solution was deceptively simple: write an ordinary, innocuous letter with unusually wide gaps between the lines of text.
In the blank space between those visible sentences, the author penned the real message using sympathetic, or invisible, ink made from organic acids like lemon juice, milk, cobalt chloride, or vinegar. To an officer who tried to intercept the message, the parchment appeared to carry a simple, and maybe even mundane, missive. But once the intended recipient exposed the paper to heat, a candle flame, or a specific chemical wash, the hidden writing would darken and reveal itself. If you did not know to literally read between the lines, you would miss the mission entirely.
A similar tactic relied on physical cutout masks known as Cardan grilles. When a recipient placed a custom stencil over a lengthy, seemingly boring letter, only specific words from alternating lines were visible through the cutouts, spelling out the real message.
Not by Words, But by Things
Visual rebuses operate on that exact same creative frequencyโthey challenge our eyes and minds to decipher hidden meaning from spatial placement rather than literal text alone. The word rebus originates from the Latin phrase non verbis, sed rebus, meaning “not by words, but by things.”
Originating during the Renaissance as intellectual parlor games across Europe, rebuses eventually evolved into the beloved graphic wordplay puzzles we know today. Placing a word in a specific direction, altering its size, or planting it firmly between physical boundaries forces our brains to decode subtext in a playful, visual way.
Try Your Hand at Deciphering
To celebrate the art of hidden messages, try solving the puzzle card below. Look at the spacing, arrangements, and word positions to unlock each common phrase or idiom.
Click here to reveal puzzle answers
1. For once in my life (four ones in my life)
2. Forget it
3. Try to understand
4. Travel overseas / Overseas travel
5. Breakfast
6. Downtown
7. Eyeshadow
8. Stepfather
9. Once upon a time
10. Potatoes (pot 8 Oโs)
11. 3D movie
12. Top secret
Shabbat Shalom and let me know if you had fun with these. You can visit the ESL Vault Rebus Page for a bunch more free puzzles, and you can also find some rebus puzzlesโincluding one called Read Between the Lines at the Google Play Store.
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: Soft as a Kitten’s Ear ๐ฏ
Whispers, Paws, and Unexpected Comfort
There is an unmatched texture in the natural world that immediately melts away tension: the delicate, velvety warmth of a kittenโs ear. It isnโt just soft like fabric, it’s alive and pulsing with gentle warmth. Pair that with the low, rhythmic hum of a catโs purrโa soothing frequency that scientists say closely mimics the calming auditory comfort a baby hears in uteroโand your defenses don’t stand a chance.
Our feline companions have an uncanny intuition for when our hearts are tender. Years ago, I had a sweet boy who was my constant shadow. Charlie always curled tight against my side whenever I would lie down. But there was great comfort in being pinned into place while we both slept.
When liver failure took him from me, my grief sent me to bed in the early afternoon. But then something remarkable happened. As I laid down, our other cat Abbie, who had always been a bit aloof with me and attached to my husband, walked quietly into the room, hopped up, and settled into the exact spot beside me where Charlie used to rest. I mean, the exact posture and everything! It’s like she knew I needed that spot filled just exactly the way Charlie used to fill it, and she held that quiet vigil until I fell asleep. Animals simply know when to offer grace without saying a single word.
From the Dry Goods Counter to the Nursery
We often treat toughness and tenderness as opposing forces, but true strength is almost always anchored in love. When we look back at the grit of the historic night riders from yesterday’s postโlike my GG Great Grandfather John Wisdom, “The Paul Revere of the South”โitโs easy to focus solely on the sheer endurance of galloping sixty-seven miles through the dark. But the driving motivation behind that ride wasn’t just cold military duty; it was personal. His mother lived in Rome Georgia, and a sonโs fierce love for his mama fueled every mile of that daring journey.
That is why the old idiom “soft as a kitten’s ear” carries deeper feeling than phrases like “soft as silk” or “soft as velvet.” Before the creation of synthetic microfibers, people measured comfort against the living world around them. While high-society writers favored imported silks, everyday speech favored the warmth of the hearth; the down on a baby chick; the fleece of a lamb; and the delicate fur of a newborn kitten.
By the early-to-mid 20th century, American department stores and textile mills grabbed the phrase for their advertising. Print ads for blanket makers like Chatham and St. Marys frequently pitched virgin-wool crib blankets and layette flannels as “soft as a kitten’s ear and warm as a mother’s hug.” Copywriters knew that comparing a fabric to an animal’s ear evoked something a bolt of woven silk never could: living, breathing warmth, gentle vulnerability, and total safety.
The Courage to Remain Tender
Living in this harsh, fast-paced world tempts us to build thick walls around our hearts. After enough disappointments and griefs, it feels safer to become distant and untouchable. But God never intended for our souls to become frozen. In Ezekiel 36:26, He makes the beautiful promise to remove our hearts of stone and give us responsive, living hearts of fleshโsoft, beating, and capable of deep empathy.
Ezekiel 36:26 BSB
[26] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/ezk.36.26.BSB
It takes real spiritual courage to stay tenderhearted because it means being willing to feel deeply and to let Godโs gentle peace soothe our rough edges. While we need the spiritual equivalent of the layered oak hull of Old Ironsides to navigate lifeโs stormy seas, we must make sure the Holy Spirit is the most important layer. Never lose the warmth within. Make your convictions firm, but keep your spirit soft as a kitten’s ear.
In closing, if I haven’t mentioned it before (or if I have) I am really getting a lot from the book Bold and Broken by David and Jason Benham. (Affiliate link included.) And there’s an older country song that carries this message beautifully called Strong Enough to Bend by Tanya Tucker…
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Clichรฉ Month: Tough As Old Ironsides
Boston Echoes
Over 35 years ago, the company I worked for assigned me within an hour of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Standing in the historic heart of Boston has a way of resetting your perspective on the American story. When I took a tour of the city, history stopped being a hard-to-recall page in a textbook and became something real and memorable. I learned that the famous Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought mostly on Breedโs Hill, and I got up close to the USS Constitution, the ship later dubbed Old Ironsides because of its resilience in battle. And because August 19th is “Old Ironsides Day,” it seemed the perfect day for this clichรฉ.
Later, I stood captivated inside the Old North Church, where the acoustics let the soaring notes of a live violin echo right into my soul. That was part of the tour because of the famous Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
Most of us picture Revere sitting in the window swinging lanterns, but he was actually the strategist on the ground! It was church sexton Robert Newman who crept up all 154 stairs to hang the two lanternsโ”one if by land, two if by sea” โsending Revere galloping into the night.
That kind of courage has found its way into other historical events, and in my family, into our genealogy. In my family tree, my ancestor John Wisdom became known as “The Paul Revere of The South.” In May 1863, he rode nearly 67 miles through the dark from Gadsden, Alabama, to Rome, Georgiaโswapping out exhausted horses along the wayโto sound the alarm and save the city’s vital bridges and ironworks. Whether in Massachusetts or Georgia, history is forged by people willing to ride into battle and risk their own safety to protect others.
The Oak, the Copper, and the Broadside
That same resilience brings us to the harbor, where the USS Constitution still rests. On August 19, 1812, during a fierce battle against the British frigate HMS Guerriere, sailors watched in disbelief as 18-pound cannonballs shot by the enemy struck her hull and bounced harmlessly into the water. A sailor famously shouted, “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!”โand the nickname “Old Ironsides” was born.
Her sides werenโt iron, of course; they were three dense layers of resilient white oak and southern live oak. But what held that indestructible wooden fortress together? None other than Paul Revereโs foundry, which forged the heavy copper bolts and spikes that pinned her hull planks tight under fire. Decades later, when the ship was slated for scrapping, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. penned his stirring poem Old Ironsides, rallying the public and cementing “Tough as Old Ironsides” into American slang for anyone built to take lifeโs hardest hits without breaking.
Taking the Hit and Standing Fast
Life has a habit of firing unexpected volleys. Hard news, sudden changes, and emotional friction can feel like a heavy iron shot headed straight for our hearts. Our natural instinct is often to retreat or fracture under the impact, but God designed us with holy durability as long as He is part of the layering.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 BSB
[7] Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
[8] We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
[9] persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/2co.4.7-9.BSB
But spiritual toughness isn’t about being cold or unfeeling; itโs about what holds your frame together when the sea gets rough. When your life is anchored in faith and covered in grace, the enemyโs fiery darts and the worldโs heavy blows simply bounce off. Hold fast to your course, stand firm in His strength, and trust that in Christ, you really are like the companion clichรฉ to the one above: Tough As Nails. ๐ ๏ธ
My thanks to Google’s Gemini for much of this history, and to Ancestry for the connections to my Great Great Great Grandfather.
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Clichรฉ Month: Act the Giddy Goat ๐
G. O. A. T. Clichรฉ
Iโm smiling as I write this, mostly because I found a clichรฉ I’d never seen or heard before, and it’s just so funny and cute. I’ve mentioned before about Gabby, the goat owned by my babysitter when I was in second grade. Gabby was a typical hop-on-everything, climb every tree (especially the mostly-barren eucalyptus in the back yard), and eat the can or paper you’re holding kind of goat. So, I can totally picture the kind of person about whom someone might say, “Don’t act the giddy goat.”
I’m also laughing because it makes me think about how often the Google Play Store gives me a persistent tap on the shoulder while saying, โHey Crystal, you look like someone who would really enjoy “Goat Simulator.” But then, that’s only one of many they think I’d enjoy, but still… Did they see my pictures from Goats on the Roof in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, or did they hear that one of my favorite restaurants there is “Local Goat“?
I havenโt actually downloaded it yet, but I asked Gemini about the game. It says it’s basically this clichรฉ turned into a game: An absolute, unbridled, ragdoll physics mayhem.
The algorithm clearly thinks I need a daily dose of pure, nonsensical chaos, and I canโt exactly say itโs wrong! I mean, don’t we all just need to let go and be silly sometimes? So, what does it truly mean to “act the giddy goat”? It turns out, that delightful barnyard clichรฉ has a surprisingly fun, head-spinning history.
From Divine Madness to the Barnyard
While the modern phrase might feel perfectly suited to the madness of a video game goat bouncing on a trampoline, the linguistic roots run far more serious and much deeper. To โact the giddy goatโ is a colloquial gem, primarily British and Irish in flavor, that means to behave foolishly, play the clown, or carry on without restraint. It first became a popular idiom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the component words have been doing their own unique dance for hundreds of years.
The real surprise is in the etymology of โgiddy.โ It actually originated from the Old English word “gidig,” which literally translated to “possessed by a god” or mad. It described a frantic, intense, and often dangerous level of frenzy. Over time, the divine madness definition softened. By the Middle Ages, “gidig” was describing simple physical dizziness or lightheadedness. Centuries later, it settled comfortably into the meaning we often associate with it today: slightly silly, lighthearted, and excitable.
Combine that evolving โgiddinessโ with goatsโcreatures clearly designed to be chaotic acrobats like Gabby, renowned for sudden, joyful, frantic sideways leaps and head-buttsโand you have the perfect expression for someone whose common sense has, at least for a delightful moment or two, left the building.
But when you think about goats, sometimes their “giddiness” looks a little… different. You can’t talk about funny goat antics without thinking about screaming goats, goat yoga, and the dramatic swooning of the Tennessee Fainting Goat. Because of a genetic oddity, they just comically go stiff as a board whenever they get scared or excited. And boy did I find a lot of videos of them!
Fainting Goat Videos
Letting Go(at)…
One of the videos I watched had some African visitors to America looking for goat meat and finding a farm with fainting goats. They mentioned how those same goats at their home would become quick meals for hyenas. It made me think of how we humans, when faced with things that startle or surprise us, might also freeze in our anxieties. But freezing could put us at risk of attack from the enemy of our souls, so we need to do like many of the goats and get up quickly. Maybe even get in a quick scream.
But the true giddy goat reminds us of the value of periodic folly. Taking ourselves too seriously all the time can be a fast track to burnout and spiritual stiffness. Scripture reminds us that a cheerful heart has a continual feast, and sometimes the most healing thing we can do is smile at our own awkwardness. Munch down that stubborn homework or tin can, jump up on a picnic table, and just enjoy a little random silliness. Which makes me think I really should try that game. Have you tried it? What do you think?
On the more serious side of things, I may have mentioned the devotion by a writer friend (Harriet E Michael) who was a missionary kid in Nigeria. I can’t recall which of her books mentions her complaint to her father about why God calls His followers sheep when all she saw growing up were smart goats and stupid sheep. Her father gently reminded her that goats are fine on their own, but sheep need a shepherd. And if we’ve become a wooden goat or a giddy goat for a time, we need to always come back home and find our true identities in being sheep that belong to Our Shepherd.
John 10:14 BSB
[14] I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jhn.10.14.BSB
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Clichรฉ Month: When the Cat’s Away, the Mice Will Play ๐โโฌ๐
We Love Our Black “Galaxy” Kitty
In honor of National Black Cat Appreciation Day, I couldnโt help but think about how our sleek, shadowed feline companions get a bad reputationโmostly as symbols of superstition. But if you’ve ever known a black cat, especially a tuxedo cat, you know how not-scary they actually are.
Currently, we have a black feral who won’t come in the house, won’t sit on our laps, and gets a bit haughty if she sees us feed another neighborhood cat, but she lives here most of the time. We call her Galaxy because of the white cluster of fur on her chest, sort of like a spinning space galaxy. She likes to be scritched, and sometimes, she will even jump up on the front porch glider and sit close (but not too close) while “making biscuits” in the air. We feel a strong victory when we get her to enjoy our company like that.
But When The Cat’s Away…
The core sentiment of this clichรฉ originated in medieval Latin: “Dum felis dormit, mus gaudet et exsilit antro” (“When the cat sleeps, the mouse leaves its hole, rejoicing”). By the early 14th century, the French had framed it as “Ou chat na rat regne” (“Where there is no cat, the rat is king”), emphasizing the immediate shift in control. In 1599, William Shakespeare referenced the concept in Henry V, pointing out that an unguarded territory invites chaos by “playing the mouse in absence of the cat.”
The common denominator is, of course, that the mouse is very happy to have the house (or castle) all to itself. And after our last indoor cat left to cross the rainbow bridge in January of 2023, we experienced exactly what happens when you have no cats and a closed storage room with a window. (Actually, we still don’t know where they got in.)
After that experience, I’ve thought very strongly about getting another indoor cat to dissuade any new critters from moving in during the cold winter, but thankfully, we haven’t seen evidence of them for awhile.
What Kinds of People Play Cat and Mouse Games?
Real character isn’t proven when authority is standing in the room taking notes; it’s proven in the unchecked moments when nobody is looking over our shoulder. What we are on the inside will eventually come out in our words and our behaviors. Scripture says…
Luke 6:45 BSB
[45] The good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil treasure of his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.6.45.BSB
Mice may be small, but they make big choices to invade, chew, nest, and poop (yuck) when they think they can get away with it. Some people also make big choices in the abundance of little things they do without caring how they affect the big picture. I think it’s actually that big-picture care that speaks most about the integrity of a person.
I found so many quotes about integrity and character, that I could never share them all with you. But here are a few I like:
“Character is built by thousands of small choices.”
“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” โ Thomas Paine
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.” โ H. Jackson Brown Jr.
The Apostle Paul spoke of character to the Ephesian slaves (working class) in how they should obey their bosses…
Ephesians 6:6-7 BSB
[6] And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
[7] Serve with good will, as to the Lord and not to men,
https://bible.com/bible/3034/eph.6.6-7.BSB
But God Even Loves the Mice
My annual Bible study has had me in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah this week, and I’ve been amazed at the progression of the people as they learn about God’s law and about His grace. They’ve been in bondage due to sin and ignorance, so someone finds the Torah and begins reading it to the people. Many are moved to begin obeying it. This is followed by testimony of all the ways the people have abandoned The Lord and how, when things went bad, they would come back to Him. And what did He do? Over and over again, He forgave them and provided ways for them to come back into His holy presence.
There were some that just refused to be changed, whether by the law or by grace, and they made the prophet so angry that he beat them. But that’s an effect a person with no integrity can have on a person with integrity. They can push your buttons until you feel like pulling your hair out, or doing like the prophet and pulling out their hair. And when their lack of caring causes them to reject The Almighty, it feels even worse.
In case you want to see what The Bible Project says about these 2 Bible books, here’s their message on that subject:
But the goal of personal and spiritual growth is self-governance: deciding for and in ourselves that we WANT to do the right thing simply because it IS the right thing. We move beyond the fear of whether the “cat” is home or away, and we treat every moment as if we want to make the “cat” happy and proud. And we grasp the reality that God knows our (mouse) form and yet He still loves and forgives us. Now that’s a reason to get excited that we have freedom and time to play.
Psalm 103:14 BSB
[14] For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.103.14.BSB
I’ll wrap up with these encouraging words from Hebrews…
Hebrews 4:14-16 BSB
[14] Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. [15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. [16] Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/heb.4.14-16.BSB
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: Stop and Smell the Roses ๐น
It seems like everything is a rush and a hurry these days. The chaos of trying to do all, be all, and have all keeps us striving on a regular basis. But does it bring the results we truly long for, like contentment and peace and happiness? And if not, how do we get there?
I think taking a detour that leads to someplace beautiful could be a great start.
Where Did “Stop and Smell the Roses” Come From?
While the sentiment feels timeless and like we’ve been hearing it forever, this modern idiom is often tracedโnot so far backโto professional golfer Walter Hagen. In his 1956 autobiography, The Walter Hagen Story, he wrote a famous piece of advice: โYouโre only here for a short visit. Donโt hurry. Donโt worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.โ
I guess many people’s favorite flowers are roses, so over the decades, popular culture refined “the flowers” into “the roses.” Eventually, it turned into a universal shorthand for slowing down to appreciate the blessing of the present and whatever is going on in the moment. Even though my favorite flower is the carnation, somehow Stop and smell the carnations doesn’t have the same ring to it. ๐
It’s a Blessing to Focus on What Matters
When the pace of life becomes overwhelming, stopping isn’t just about freezing in place; it is an intentional act of redirecting our thoughts toward sensing all the goodness around us. Thinking, seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling all take just enough time to help us focus on the moment. King David needed a break like this during his time of exile:
Psalm 143:5-6 BSB
[5] I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I consider the work of Your hands. [6] I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.143.5-6.BSB
Taking that mental detour allows us to shift our gaze from the chaos of our schedules to the steady faithfulness of our Almighty Creator.
Releasing the Worry of the Rush
Much of our rushing is driven by the anxious belief that if we don’t hold everything together ourselves, things will fall apart. Anxiety isn’t just a topic on commercials advertising some new pharmaceutical relief; it’s a very real part of many lives. Even Christians with all the reasons in life to be at peace often struggle.
I don’t think I’ve shared yet about my diagnosis of severe PTSD (found when I was tested for Adult ADHD), but it has had effects on my health and in getting things done more than once. At the same time, I feel that God has given me experiences to recall and meditate on to bring balance. One of those was a trip to Niagara Falls almost 30 years ago. And it’s a story about the falls themselves that builds my peace and trust in The Lord.
Niagara Falls Erosion and Geology tells about the cracks that led to a couple major collapses at the American Falls with the major one in 1954 taking chunks of the viewing platform and railings at Prospect Point.
On my visit, I heard the story, so when I looked over the edges and saw the piled chunks of cement with pieces of the old railings sticking out, it made it very real for me. What makes it have balance is knowing how the falls became so much stronger as that collapse leaned against the crestline of the American Falls that still stands firm. And not only strength, but white water beauty was added to the scene as well.
Jesus reminds us that He is The One who governs our lives and plans to bring strength and beauty from them as well. And He gives us reason to lean into Him instead of collapsing into worry and grasping with white knuckles a railing that may not promise the safety we seek. He says…
Luke 12:25-27 BSB
[25] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? [26] So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest? [27] Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.12.25-27.BSB
If God clothes the delicate petals of a bloom with such care, we can safely pause our striving and trust Him with our days and our momentsโand with our whole lives.
An Invitation to Rest in YahShua
Ultimately, pausing to notice beauty clears away the mental clutter at least long enough to hear our Savior speak. He speaks most in His written Word, so while you’re stopped to sense the blessings around you, pick up a Bible and find great and precious promises to give you new strength:
Matthew 11:28 BSB
[28] Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.11.28.BSB
Whether it is literally taking a beat to stop and breathe deeply while you walk in a garden, or simply turning your heart toward quiet gratitude in the middle of a busy week, don’t forget to take a pause today. What is one small, beautiful thing you can stop and appreciate right now?
Something I appreciate is really good song lyrics. This song by Hillary Scott & The Scott Family came from a cave-in (loss of a baby by miscarriage) in her own life. May the lyrics speak to you, readers, as you need them.
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Clichรฉ Month: Time to Recharge Our Batteries
Shabbat Shalom Y’all (and All Y’all). I haven’t done a blog break this month because there are so many great clichรฉs to bring out, so for this Sabbath, I asked Google Gemini to give me ideas that worked with the rest and rejuvenation of a Sabbath weekend.
I know it could be our batteries, your batteries, or my batteries, and it still means the same thing, so I wanted this to go out to all my readers to wish you a great recharge and restful weekend, especially if you’re in the USA or anywhere else with a strong heat wave.
Where Did “Recharge Your Batteries” Come From?
Unlike ancient agricultural idioms or biblical proverbs, โrecharge your batteriesโ is a modern industrial metaphor applied to an ancient human need; the need to rest and recharge before continuing to move forward. Even God knew we’d need to recharge, which is why we have Sabbath and why YahShua (Jesus) said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” For this idiom, its history follows the rise of electrical technology before entering everyday speech:
- The Technical Precursor (1859โ1900s): French physicist Gaston Plantรฉ invented the first rechargeable lead-acid battery in 1859, followed by Thomas Edisonโs nickel-iron battery in 1901. For decades, “recharging batteries” was strictly an engineering term used for telegraph lines, submarines, and early electric vehicles.
- The Metaphorical Shift (1920sโ1930s): As consumer radios, automobiles, and flashlights became standard household staples, the concept of a “run-down battery” needing to be plugged in to restore power entered popular culture.
- Documented Print Debut (1930sโ1940s): By the late 1930s and through World War II, newspapers and military dispatches began using the phrase figuratively to describe weary workers, executives, and soldiers taking leave to rest before returning to duty.
So without adding any other pictures or song references, here are some ideas for your own personal recharge over the hot weekend. This list is fully from Gemini, so I could rest a bit as well. And I love the idea of the cool water foot soak. Comment below if any of these work for you.
Sabbath Recharge: Staying Cool in Extreme Heat
- Host a “Living Room Picnic”: Spread out a blanket inside under the A/C or a direct fan. Have a simple lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and snacks, avoiding any cooking that adds heat to the house.
- Themed Hydro-Sipping: Make staying hydrated feel special by infusing large pitchers of ice water with cucumber, mint, lemon, or frozen berries.
- Cool Feet, Cool Body: Place a shallow basin of cool water by the sofa or a comfortable chair and soak your feet for 15โ20 minutes. It is an incredibly fast way to lower your overall body temperature.
- Low-Light Sanctuary: Pull the shades and curtains tight during the hottest hours of the day (noon to 4 PM). It creates a calming, sanctuary-like atmosphere while significantly blocking solar heat gain.
- The Afternoon Audiobook or Podcast: Instead of active reading, simply lay down, close your eyes, and listen to a peaceful audiobook, a podcast about rest, or a relaxing scripture playlist.
- A Taste of Winter: Pull something pre-made from the freezer, like a chilled soup (gazpacho), pre-cut frozen fruit chunks (grapes or banana slices), or enjoy a simple icy treat like a popsicle or a scoop of ice cream.
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: The Left Hand Didn’t Know What the Right Hand was Doing
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
I didn’t grow up attending a parochial school where students had their knuckles slapped for writing with their left hands, though even if I had, it wouldn’t have mattered for me since Iโm thoroughly right-handed. In fact, I only crossed paths with a few left-handers throughout my life until I met my husband, a born-and-bred southpaw. (And, no, right-handers are not called northpaws.๐ค)
With August 13th marking International Left-Handers Day, it felt like the perfect opportunity to celebrate him and his unique trait that belongs to only about 10 to 12 percent of the worldโs population. It also got me thinking about how much strange, unfair baggage has been historically tied to the left sideโand the famous clichรฉs and idioms that followed.
In everyday work and planning, we all know the frustration when the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Tasks stall, wires cross, and you end up in a full-blown tug-of-war with your own to-do list. Scripture even reminds us of the practical necessity of coordinationโnobody builds a tower without first sitting down to count the cost and make sure all efforts pull in the same direction.
โFor which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, โThis man began to build and was unable to finish.โโ
Luke 14:28โ30 (BSB)
Yet Scripture also offers a brilliant paradox in Matthew: when it comes to quiet generosity, we are instructed not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. In character, humility means doing good without staging a self-congratulatory parade.
โBut when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,โ
Matthew 6:3 (BSB)
We truly need both: the intentional coordination where both hands work as a unified team, and the quiet integrity where one hand acts without demanding applause from the other.
Hereโs to giving our left hands a little extra appreciationโand making sure both hands stay in sync. How about you: are you a left-hander, or married to one like me? Or maybe both? ๐คฒ
P.S. A fun FYI for you: There’s an old trick I learned from a kid’s album many (many) years ago. If you hold your hands out in front of you with the palms facing away, when you extend your thumb to a ninety-degree angle, your left hand will create the letter “L.” Is that cool, or what?
This is a fun song with a catchy chorus, but I couldn’t find it with lyrics. Still, this is a pretty amazing ensemble singing in this video.
with Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, Kris Kristopherson, and Willie Nelson
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๐ต๐ฌ Clichรฉ Month: The Elephant in the Room
Weโve all been there: Gathered for a group dinner or party when that relative or friend walks through the door, dramatically sporting a new look. Maybe it’s a huge new tattoo, a noticeable facial piercing, a vibrant shock of wild neon hair, or maybe itโs a new relationship partner that no one saw coming.
Instantly, the conversation stumbles. There is a collective hush followed by a palpable second of silent checking and cross-referencing. Everyoneโs gaze darts around the table, evaluating reactions without actually sharing an opinionโpositive or negativeโout of deep social fear that someone else in the room will disagree. The collective breath is held… and thatโs when it arrives.
In that exact moment of shared paralysis, no one is just sitting at a dinner table anymore. Everyone is living out a classic, textbook example of The Elephant in the Room.
(That’s usually when everyone quits playing their White Elephant game for a whileโthough don’t worry, weโll untangle that particular tradition in a bit!)
Where Did the Pachyderm Come From?
First, how did a giant mammal end up sitting on our living room furniture in the first place? ๐
The core concept actually stretches back to an 1814 fable by Russian poet Ivan Krylov called The Inquisitive Man, which told of a museum visitor who noticed every tiny beetle and fly, but completely overlooked a massive, live elephant walking among the exhibits.
Later in 1882, Mark Twain adapted that same image for American readers in his short story Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning, writing that an obvious truth was “as plain as an elephant in a house.”
Yet, the exact, modern phrase we use todayโ“the elephant in the room”โdidn’t officially become a regular part of our language until the mid-20th century, first appearing in newspapers like The New York Times in 1952 before exploding into popular psychology in the 1980s as a way to talk about unaddressed family secrets. We humans, it seems, have spent over two centuries perfecting the art of ignoring the obvious!
The Psychology of Silence
The defining characteristic of an “elephant in the room” isn’t that the issue is hidden or subtle. It is the exact opposite: the issue is so glaringly obvious that everyone is aware of it. Yet, an invisible social contract keeps everyone tight-lipped.
Why do we do this? Usually, it comes from a mix of social conditioning, a fear of creating conflict, or simply waiting for someone else to speak up first. We convince ourselves that ignoring the massive problem makes it go away and hide, when in reality, the pressure to look at it only builds.
The funny thing about naming the elephant is that once someone finally has the courage to say, “So… are we going to talk about this?”, the collective sigh of relief in the room is almost deafening. Light replaces tension, and everyone can finally breathe again.
Speaking of Unwanted Elephants…
Since we’re on the subject of giant, awkward things in the room, let’s talk about a related pachyderm phrase that hits close to homeโespecially for those of us in writer’s groups or holiday parties that host a annual White Elephant Gift Exchange like we do in my local LCW group!
Have you ever wondered where that term came from? The history is surprisingly brilliant (and a bit petty).
Legend has it that in ancient Siam (modern-day Thailand), rare albino elephants were considered sacred royal property. Because they were sacred, they couldn’t be put to actual labor. If a noble or royal official displeased the King, the monarch would reportedly bestow a magnificent White Elephant upon them as a “gift.”
On paper, it looked like a high honor. In reality? Feeding, housing, and maintaining a non-working, giant, sacred beast was so astronomically expensive that the gift would completely ruin the recipient financially! It was a passive-aggressive masterpiece: a gift that was far more trouble and expense than it was worth, and one you couldn’t possibly get rid of.
Today, weโve repurposed that royal headache into a fun holiday tradition where we swap quirky, useless, or eccentric itemsโhoping to pass off our own “white elephants” to a willing friend. And when we add “stealing” to the mix, it becomes quite comedic to watch the few really good gifts make their way into many hands before their final homes are decided.
Honoring the Real Giants
Since August 12th is World Elephant Day, itโs worth stepping away from our human idioms for a moment to celebrate the real animals behind these two (and more) proverbs. Elephants are extraordinary creatures. They are deeply empathetic, protective of their herds, and blessed with incredible long-term memories that keep their families safe through changing landscapes.
Truthfully, the only thing that makes a proverbial elephant in the room anything like the real thing is sheer size. They are certainly more majestic than most of the subjects we may be trying to avoid. So, I guess a way we can honor them as more than just large creatures is to become bigger (metaphorically) like they are and just stampede right over our fears of telling the truth. Directness paired with grace is always the best path forward. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, or maybe just watch this clip from Hatari with adorable baby elephants and the fun Henry Mancini orchestration of “The Baby Elephant Walk” song:
Lots of help from Gemini on this one, so here’s a shout of thanks for the helpful collaboration. And one final bit of fun, can you tell whether this elephant is real or not?
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๐ตClichรฉ Month: A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
A Stitch in Time Saves NineโOr Ten, or Eleven…
Itโs one of those old-school clichรฉs weโve heard a thousand times, usually repeated when we’re putting something off or just at the beginning of a problem when someone is warning us to stop things before they get any worse.
๐ชกOriginating back in the early 18th century, the wisdom was pure and practical common sense: fix a tiny tear in a garment right when it appears. Then, it only takes a single thread. But if it is left to unravel, the cost is greater in multiple ways. It means spending exponentially more time, and it means many times the stitches or patching a massive rip later on.
Folk Origins
The first recorded printing of this idiom was in 1732. Thomas Fuller, an English physician and writer, used the phrase in his 1732 compilation titled Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British. In the original phrasing, Fuller actually recorded it as: “A stitch in time may save nine.”
Because Gnomologia was a collection of existing regional sayings and folk wisdom, we know Fuller didn’t invent the phrase himselfโhe collected it from oral tradition. Like most classic proverbs, it emerged organically from daily working-class speech rather than from a single famous author.
Why Nine?
“Nine” wasn’t chosen for exact mathematical precisionโit serves two specific functions:
Rhyme & Rhythm (Mnemonic Device): The slant rhyme between “time” and “nine” was intentionally used to make the advice catchier and easier to remember.
Exaggeration/Scale: In English folklore and proverb traditions, “nine” frequently represented a substantial or magical multiplier (e.g., a cat has nine lives, cloud nine, a nine days’ wonder). It simply signified “a whole lot more effort later.”
The High Cost of Clothing
In the 18th century, textiles and garments were completely handmade. That meant they were extremely labor-intensiveโand costly. Most people owned very few clothing items, and keeping them usable for as long as possible was a necessity.
The Mechanics of Fabric: Hand-woven fabrics under tension (like work clothes) can unravel quickly once a single thread breaks. Catching that loose thread right away required just one quick stitchโhence the literal advice to act before the entire seam gave way.
Simple Advice
Itโs brilliant, simple advice… that almost none of us actually follow on the first try.
Enter procrastination. The word itself stems from the Latin procrastinareโcombining pro- (“forward”) and crastinus (“belonging to tomorrow,” from cras). It literally means pushing today’s responsibilities into tomorrow’s territory. But letโs be real: just because the word starts with “pro,” doesn’t mean it’s a pro-level life strategy! ๐
Many of us play that familiar mental game of handing off today’s small, tedious tasks to our future selves. We convince ourselves that “Tomorrow Me” will magically possess boundless energy, pristine focus, and unlimited motivation. So we leave the box in the hallway, skip the small errand, or ignore the growing pile in the corner.
In reality, though, procrastination is just high-interest debt we charge to our future selves. What starts as a minor, easy-to-ignore delay slowly compounds over time. Before you know it, those few skipped “stitches” snowball into a full-scale, all-hands-on-deck effort like I’ve previously described as my Operation Cleanout.
So, what about you? What small “stitches” are you currently leaving for “Tomorrow You”โand why?
My Take
Weโve all heard the golden rule of organization: “Never touch an item twiceโdeal with it immediately.”
That sounds great on paper, right? But if I’m being completely honest, that rule has never worked for me, no matter how hard I’ve tried. Picking something up only to realize I don’t have the time or energy (or desire) to handle it right now just leads to moving it from one surface to another; one pile to another; or one room (or closet) to another. That’s when you begin to feel like your stuff is more in control of you than you are of it
The real secret isn’t learning how to handle things instantly; it’s learning not to pick them up in the first place until you’re actually ready to act on them.
Thatโs easier said than done in the digital age. While our digital devices are fantastic at compiling all those previously forgotten thoughts into one place, they are equally great at adding unwanted extra layers to every piece. The digital services mix all the ingredients into a lovely cake, but the notifications pile on so much extra icing that you can barely find the slice underneath!
This is the world for most of us now: Constant pings, live notifications, social media updates, and endless emails. We get pulled into opening messages and checking alerts out of curiosity or habit. The next thing you know, we’ve accumulated a mental inbox of things we want to know about but simply don’t have the emotional bandwidth to act on in that moment. Our FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) makes every read-wait-read notification become another thread pulling on our already tense and worn attention span.
Don’t Lose Hope
The positive turnaround isn’t about beating yourself up over a growing pile or an overflowing inbox. It’s about adding small, deliberate tasks that you know you can accomplish to reduce the overwhelm of so many tasks that feel impossible. When we protect our attention, by refusing to “pick up” an email or task until we actually have the time to process it, we stop generating false stitches that need fixing later. Getting a friendโlike the wonderful friend I’ve been blessed withโto help you refocus on one pile or box at a time makes more of a difference than I can put into words. And I never knew just how much I needed her until she volunteered her time and her heart to partner with me in getting victory over my unravelling seams.
Some One Stitch Ideas You Can Use (Compliments of Google’s Gemini)
- Audit Your Digital Gateways: Turn off non-essential social media and app notifications so you aren’t continually tempted to “pick up” messages before you have the time and desire to process them.
- The Two-Minute Rule: If a task takes under two minutes (like hanging up a coat, replying to a quick text, or rinsing a plate), do it immediately before it enters your “tomorrow” pile.
- Process Inboxes in Batches: Schedule specific, dedicated windows during the day to check and respond to email rather than leaving your inbox open continuously as a distraction engine.
- Leave Things “Ready to Act”: If you know you aren’t ready to address a physical project or document, leave it completely untouched at its origin point rather than moving it halfway into your active workspace.
- The Nightly Five-Minute Reset: Spend five minutes before bed clearing off just one primary surface (like your desk or kitchen counter) so you start the next day with clean momentum instead of leftover debt.
- (My addition) Forgive yourself even while not excusing yourself. It’s okay to be an imperfect human. Just learn which imperfections create more chaos than peace, and gift yourself the effort it takes to get victory over them.
Biblical Wisdom on Diligence & Today’s Actions
Scripture frequently reminds us of the value of stewardship of our time, prompt actions, and the subtle dangers of letting small delays accumulate into overwhelming burdens:
Proverbs 27:1 BSB
[1] Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.27.1.BSB
That Proverb reminds us that “Tomorrow You” is built on an illusion of guaranteed time, encouraging us to honor the moments and capacity we have right now.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 BSB
[10] Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/ecc.9.10.BSB
This Ecclesiastes verse emphasizes wholehearted focus when we choose to engage with a task. Doing it with intentional energy prevents half-hearted efforts that require fixing later on.
Proverbs 24:33-34 BSB
[33] A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, [34] and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.24.33-34.BSB
Solomonโs classic warning here highlights how overwhelming chaos and clutter rarely arrive in a single huge event; they creep in quietly through a series of tiny, repeated delaysโthe exact “unraveled seam” our clichรฉ warns against.
One Day at a Time
I’ll close with this music I feel is totally perfect for all the stitches we may need to do in life. Whether it’s the stitch that saves nine, or the stitches to repair the torn seams, we still only have today to take care of them. And this version changed the lyrics on one line and made it even more fitting. Where the original says “violence and crime,” this one says, “crowding my mind.”
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Clichรฉ Month: Beauty is Only Skin Deep; plus Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
I’m bringing you two related clichรฉs today because they are parts along the same line of looking at real beauty vs false beauty. I write from the point of view of someone who’s never really liked what she saw in the mirror, though I haven’t hated what I see either. It just always seemed like most others were prettier than me. There have been moments where I fixed myself up into something I was more pleased with, but even those never made me feel gorgeous or beautiful.
On the other hand, my acceptance of being more plain than those “real” beauties in my life has driven me to develop inner beauty. Caring how others feel, trying to be helpful to almost everyone, and freely talking about my various failures in life to make sure no one feels like I think I’m better than them has always been among my goals. Even with winning behaviors or skills, if they made someone else feel loss, it took the wind right out of my sails. (Hmm, that’s another clichรฉ, huh?)
Sometime during my travels with the photo studio, a TV was on with a show called Monsters. The episode I watched back then (around 1990) has stuck with me for years even though I didn’t actually know the show or what the episode was called until a few weeks of deep searching gave me the result: Season 2, episode 23, called “The Bargain.” I’ve linked to it on YouTube, but the summary goes like this:
A woman owns a bookstore and has feelings for a customer who doesn’t seem to feel the same. She decides it’s because she’s plain, so when she sees an ad for a new face, she calls the number. Her new face is beautiful but comes with a few prices. In the end, the woman with her old face gets the guy who’d been in love with her inner beauty all along, so she lost everything by focusing on the outer shell. I guess this actually goes a little with yesterday’s clichรฉ to not judge a book by its cover as well.
Now, the second clichรฉ makes a similar point, and the illustration of it is shown perfectly in the old Twilight Zone episode called Eye of the Beholder from season 1, episode 39. But I was unable to find that in a full original episode without commentary. I have linked to the unveiling moment in the remake from 2002 since the point is still shown, and the videography still pulls off some of the tricks of the original.
If you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to spoil this one, so I’ll just tell you that it’s an episode about a woman who has plastic surgery to “fix” her face to give her the beauty of those around her. The surgery fails and the lights come on to reveal that beautyโboth hers and othersโis not exactly what most expect it to be.
On a side note, if you watch (or rewatch) this full episode, pay attention to the amazing use of shadows and camera angles that hide the actual faces of the cast until the reveal at about 16 minutes in. The strength of the film is in the audio until the lights come on, and you never realize something is being purposely hidden from the audience. It’s done brilliantly.
So how do we look at the world when we’ve been so trained to judge on outward appearances and yet somehow know they are not the answer? The Bible speaks to this in three different ways.
Proverbs 31:30 BSB
[30] Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.31.30.BSB
1 Samuel 16:7 BSB
[7] But the Lord said to Samuel, โDo not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the Lord sees the heart.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1sa.16.7.BSB
1 Peter 3:3-4 BSB
[3] Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, [4] but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in Godโs sight.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1pe.3.3-4.BSB
Each of us should work on our inner beauty, and we should also strive to see the inner beauty of others. It is that true beauty that will allow us to make genuine connections to each other; connections so strong that they supercede any abundance or lack of external beauty.
This message is portrayed beautifully in the Pure Flix movie called “A Hot Cocoa Christmasโ (formerly called “Much Ado About Christmas”) and one I highly recommend is worth renting. I wish I could find the karaoke scene that shows the connection between the couple, but here’s the trailer for the whole movie:
Just imagine a world where the insides truly mean more than the outsides to most people. No more harming others because they’re wearing the shoes someone else thinks they deserve; no more attacking people because of any outward display (age, race, gender, etc.) someone dislikes; no more graffiti and damage to the outsides of buildings or cars or wherever people feel their appearances need to be made; and people dedicated to bringing out the best in others, so their inner beauty can shine. All that would be Heavenly. Dream with me, and let your own inner beauty sparkle. โจ๐คฉ
Shout out to both Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot for helping me find the info for that old show and for pointing out the symmetry arc my mind naturally found by looking at these three sources to present my points.
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Clichรฉ Month: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Thatโs the classic advice we celebrate for National Book Lovers Day on August 9th of each year since 1995. Note: The link goes to a page for 2023, but it’s the only one that gave a history. It also has some great quotes about reading like…
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” โ George R.R. Martin
Appearances can be deceiving, though, and the true value of any story lies within the content of its pages. I agree… especially if that book happens to be a recipe book.
That makes my mind immediately jump to that classic Twilight Zone episode, “To Serve Man.” The Earth welcomed nine-foot-tall alien visitors called the Kanamits with open arms, largely because of a book they left behind with that noble-sounding title. Humanity judged the book entirely by its cover! Spoiler alert: If anyone had taken the time to actually peruse the pages insideโand decode a bit of the Kanamit language firstโthey would have realized long before it was too late that it wasn’t a manual for goodwill… it was a cookbook, and humans were the main course. ๐ Here’s a quick clip from the episode:
The Proof in the Pudding
Thankfully, the recipe books in my home don’t require a government cryptographer to decipher, and their intentions are far more wholesome!
Whether it’s a cookbook, an instruction book, or a novel, every bookworm knows that the proof isn’t just in the readingโit’s in the application. What do you do with the words you read? A quote I’ve always liked says…
If all else fails, read the instructions — attributed to Agnes Allen.
When I first saw that quote over 40 years ago, it was appended by the followup instruction: And if that doesn’t work, follow them. That’s great advice since all the pretty recipe pictures and yummy ingredients won’t mean nearly as much if they’re never matched with a bowl and a mixing spoon. The Bible puts it this way:
James 1:22 BSB
[22] Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jas.1.22.BSB
Once you make a cozy bowl from a trusted set of instructions, the true value of that book is undeniably in the taste. As another idiom says, The proof is in the pudding. (Which is wonderfully convenient, since August 9th is also National Rice Pudding Day!)
Turning the Page with Comfort Food
This is actually a perfect mashup of holidaysโnourishment for the soul and nourishment for the body. One of the many “Today is special because…” sites I visited mentioned that most bibliophiles have more unread books than read books. I resemble that remark. ๐ And that even includes recipe books. That’s partly because I’m more apt to play in the kitchen and try to create something than I am to follow a detailed recipe.
For example, I’ve never made rice pudding, but one of my favorite experiments while looking for ways to sweeten food without sugar resulted in making fried apples with banana. Here’s a picture:
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
By caramelizing the bananas and butter directly into apples already sizzling with butter and cinnamon, you get the absolute perfect sweetness without needing added sugar. (Just a tiny touch from the vanilla bean paste!)
Tasty Fried Apples with Banana
- Apples ( I Prefer Honeycrisp Plus One Fuji or Gala; Peeled and Sliced)
- Banana (Mashed)
- Butter (Generous Amount Based on How Many Apples)
- Ground Cinnamon (To Taste; I Recommend Ceylon over Cassia)
- Vanilla Bean Paste (To Taste/About ยผ TSP)
- Optional Misc Spices Like Nutmeg and Allspice (To Taste)
- Optional Topping (Toasted Oats, Flax, Toasted Pecans, etc.)
Instructions: Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced apples, cinnamon, and a touch of vanilla bean paste, and a little water for steam. Cover and simmer until the apples begin to soften and caramelize. In another skillet, add the bananas and mash them with butter until they create a puree. Mix the puree with the caramelized apples and allow the whole mix to brown and caramelize a little more.
Serving Suggestion: Spoon into oven-safe bowls and sprinkle with your chosen topping. Put in a warm oven until time to serve. In my picture, you’ll notice I decorated the bowls with some thin slices of banana before adding the topping. But it was fine without the banana slices or crunchy topping. I think I was just trying to get a fancier picture like my efforts using 2 cutting boards. Whatever your method, please come back and add a comment to let me know you’ve tried them and what you think. Hubby used to like them better than most of those served in restaurants, but he cannot have any banana anymore. (Potassium is a no-no without kidneys.)
And with that, I bid you good reading and good eating. ๐๐ฎ
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Clichรฉ Month: Raining Cats and Dogs
Raining Cats and Dogs: The Truth Behind the Downpour
I’ve always been a cat person, but I’ve had some special dogs in my life as well. The first one I remember was Kute Kitty Kolleen of Keswick. She was a very red Irish Setter, and I was told she put up with me teething on her nose. (Yuck!?) I do not recall my teething days, but I sure loved that dog and her puppy Kollette. They both lived with my grandparents. I’ll save the other dog memories for National Dog Day on the 26th of this month.
With August 8th marking International Cat Day and the entire month of August celebrated as National Dog Month. (Wait, cats only get one day and dogs get a whole month? Not fair!) Both of our favorite four-legged companions are sharing the spotlight for this blog. That makes it feel like the perfect moment to dive into one of the most famous pet-centric sayings in the English language: “raining cats and dogs.”
The Slippery Roof Myth
At some point, I heard the story behind the clichรฉ. The legend states that back in the 1500s, homes had thick thatched roofs made of straw and reeds. Cats, dogs, and other small animals would climb up to sleep in the thatch for warmth. Then, during torrential downpours, the wet thatch would get slippery or cave inโliterally raining pets through the ceiling and into the living room!
Itโs an amusing visual, and one I thought of immediately upon deciding to use this clichรฉ, but it turns out that linguistic historians have largely debunked it. A properly constructed thatched roof was a foot or more thick and tightly packed, so even an abundance of rain wouldn’t send sleeping critters tumbling through the ceiling.
So, where did the phrase actually come from? While its official origin remains mysterious, historians point to two far more likely roots:
- Norse Mythology: In ancient Norse lore, dogs were symbols of the wind (associated with Odin, the storm god), while cats represented heavy rain and atmospheric turbulence (tied to Freyja, whose chariot was pulled by cats). A fierce storm of howling wind and driving rain was figuratively called “dogs for the wind, cats for the rain.”
- 17th-Century City Streets: In 1600s London, poor drainage meant that sudden, severe rainstorms created heavy street flooding. The rushing runoff would sweep up debris and, tragically, stray animals that hadn’t survived the storm, making it look to people passing by as though they had literally fallen from the sky.
Raining Dogs and… Polecats?
Early variations of the phrase in the 1650s actually described severe downpours as “raining dogs and polecats” before settling into the catchy pairing we use today.
Fun Fact: Wait, isn’t a polecat a skunk?
If you grew up in North America hearing “polecat” used to describe a skunk, you’re not alone! But when 17th-century English writers wrote about “polecats,” they were referring to the European polecat (Mustela putorius)โa wild, agile cousin of the ferret. When European settlers arrived in the Americas and encountered skunks, they saw a similarly sized, dark-furred animal with a potent scent gland and borrowed the name “polecat” as slang.
Rain Chaos and Muddy Footprints ๐พ
It’s funny all the directions a mind can run from one little thought!
About pets and weather, isn’t it amusing how these idioms stack up? Youโd think if it were literally raining cats and dogs, theyโd be fighting like cats and dogs just to scramble for cover and get out of the deluge!
Unlike the disciplined ants in the old children’s rhyme (another thought direction altogether,) who politely march one by one, hurrah, hurrah to get out of the rain, a sudden downpour usually brings pure chaos when pets are involved.
So if it rains for you this month, I don’t think you’ll find any cats or dogs falling from the sky, but you may get wet neighborhood cats showing up on your porch for food. Here’s a collage with 4 of our rainbow bridge kitties who were indoor-only cats (2013) plus 4 of the outdoor cats who used to show up at feeding time (2022). We still have 3 of them showing up in 2026.
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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๐ต Clichรฉ Month: Any Port in a Storm ๐
As August 7th celebrates National Lighthouse Day, I thought about the first time I heard this clichรฉ. It was after I was married to my military husband. We were discussing some of the bad decisions people make when they are searching for answers. Even though he was in the Army, he still knew this clichรฉ as a description for ports in life that aren’t good but are better than sinking. That’s why I asked the AI to make the dock in the above image have broken planks.
Driven by Desperation
Dating back a few centuries to the age of wooden sail ships, “Any port in a storm” was a mariner’s literal reality. When pitch-black skies and violent storms threatened to overwhelm a vessel on the tossing sea, a captain couldn’t be picky about where he docked. He couldn’t wait for his home harbor or a pristine coastal resort. He had to steer into whatever harbor or rough wooden dock was closestโeven if it was known for rocky shores, thieves, or dangerous currentsโbecause a risky harbor was still better than a watery grave.
In everyday life, the phrase has come to mean taking whatever makeshift solution or shelter is available during a crisis, even if it carries its own set of risks. But as my husband noted, settling for a broken port out of fear often leads to a whole new set of troubles once the storm passes.
I’ve selected my share of dangerous ports during the storms of my life. As a teenager, a friend and I got lost while touring The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Our house parent left without us, and we had to take city buses at night to an apartment of someone she knew and sleep on the floor until someone could come get us the next day. Anything was better than staying out all night in the dark and dangerous city. And when I was homeless, crawling under the overhang of a building that sat behind a casino in Las Vegas was better than sleeping in a park and watching a gang beat someone up. (That happened on my first night of homelessness, so no park felt like a safe harbor after that.)
Sadly, some people select a port because it looks safe enough, or maybe the person throwing the “rope” seems genuinely helpful, but the next thing these people know, they are roped into addictions or trafficking they never saw coming. Once there, they don’t trust any lighthouse they see because they don’t know if it could be another trick. We must remember this when we reach out to minister to those who’ve made bad choices but truly want to be free.
The Rest of the Story: A Living Lighthouse
On a lighter note, I’ve got a wonderful short video for you as a quick version of a Paul Harvey episode of The Rest of the Story. It’s a fun radio throwback on the maritime legend in the story below! While Paul weaves in the American folklore of ‘Hatteras Jack’โthe selfless helper who appeared at the sound of a foghornโthe real-life history of the protective law and the SS Penguin belongs to New Zealand’s famous Pelorus Jack.
The Rest of The Rest of The Story…
(Thank you to Google’s Gemini for this amazing and true story.) Sometimes, the first moments of safety don’t come from a port at all, but from an unexpected guide who will get you to the port. Between 1888 and 1912, ships navigating the treacherous, rock-strewn waters of French Pass off the coast of New Zealand relied on a famous Rissoโs dolphin named Pelorus Jack.
For twenty-four years, Jack would leap through the waves, riding the bow waves of oncoming vessels and swimming ahead to lead them safely past the razor-sharp reefs. Not a single ship ever ran aground while following his lead.
In 1904, a passenger aboard the SS Penguin shot at Jack, injuring the beloved creature. Outraged, the New Zealand government passed a historic law specifically to protect Jack by name. After two weeks of healing, the dolphin returned to his postโguiding ships safely through the stormโwith one legendary exception: he never guided the SS Penguin again. Whenever that ship approached, Jack vanished. Years later, while trying to navigate without their guide, the SS Penguin struck a reef and sank.
The Only True Harbor
When the tempests and trials of life hit us, itโs so easy to feel tempted to just tie up to the nearest broken dock. But while the world offers many makeshift “ports,” there is only one True Harbor of safety when the crashing waves threaten to pull us under. That safe harbor is also our Lighthouse, YahShua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).
When you’ve docked in dangerous storms and you suddenly realize the planks beneath your feet are giving way, remember that He is the True Light shining over the rough waters, and He’s ready to guide you all the way home. Here’s what God’s Word says about His Light:
Matthew 4:16 BSB
[16] the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.4.16.BSB
John had only met Him when they were each in their mother’s wombs, but he knew who would soon be bringing salvation to the world.
John 1:9 BSB
[9] The true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jhn.1.9.BSB
And I love this verse I found in the Psalms about God Himself guiding us into safe harbor.
Psalm 107:29-30 BSB
[29] He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
[30] They rejoiced in the silence, and He guided them to the harbor they desired.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.107.29-30.BSB
Now enjoy this beautiful a capella version of I Thank God for The Lighthouse by Vocal Union…
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Clichรฉ Month: Toe The Line ๐ฃ
Boundaries With Purpose…
Aren’t you glad the toes in this image stay lined up exactly on the line rather than crossing into the text and creating unreadable chaos? That neon yellow boundary keeps order and allows the text message to remain crisp, visible, and perfectly legible. When things cross the line, structure (even digital structure) can collapse into a messy blur.
P.S. A quick spelling alert: Because we often talk about “towing” a heavy load, many people mistakenly write this idiom as “Tow the line.” But as you can see from our neon friends above, it is strictly Toe the lineโas in physically placing your feet against a boundary!
And that physical boundary is exactly where tonight’s clichรฉ story begins…
From Deck Seams to Track Meets
While we use “toe the line” today to describe following group rules or conforming to expectations, its literal roots come from strict physical discipline.
The most widely accepted origin comes from 18th-century wooden warships. The wooden decks of Royal Navy vessels were built with long planks sealed together using black pitch and tar. When the crew was called for morning inspection or disciplinary roll call, barefoot sailors were ordered to stand in a row with their toes touching the dark seam line running along the deck.
Standing still with your toes precisely on that mark meant you were paying attention and doing exactly as told. And since obedience to command in the military is necessary for victories and to save lives, most sailors did, in fact, toe the line. Here’s an image I found at archive.org depicting an inspection of hands and feet by The Royal Navy.
by Major W. O. Carlile, published in the Illustrated London News (1873).
Public Domain.
Interestingly, Captain Basil Hall was one of the first Royal Navy officers to write down the phrase “toeing the line” in his 1831 memoirs, describing how boys on the ship were made to stand at the deck seams as a routine discipline drill or punishment.
As time went on, the practice spread:
- In Schools: children were made to line up with their toes touching a floorboard or painted stripe before entering class or answering roll call.
- In Sports: Early runners placed their shoe tips right at the starting mark. Stepping over meant instant disqualification.
In every scenario, the lesson is identical: get as close to the line as required, but don’t step over it.
A Little Wiggle Room
Which brings us to the annual August 6th celebration of National Wiggle Your Toes Day. As one website reminds us, it’s one of the easiest holidays to celebrate because it doesn’t require any special equipment or dress code. Personally, I think wiggling barefoot is best, though. ๐ป๐ฆถ๐
Really, there is a fun irony in celebrating toe freedom right next to an idiom about strict obedience. Toeing the line requires keeping your feet anchored and perfectly still. But once the inspection is over, the race is run, or the school day or work is done, thereโs nothing quite like kicking off your shoes and giving your toes some room to wiggle.
Sometimes, learning how to toe the line is what earns us the freedom to relax when the day is done! Apparently, it’s even a treatment for anxiety, so don’t wait for just one day a year. Free up those “piggies” and get wiggling.
And don’t forget how much obedience is mixed with blessings in God’s order of things. Here’s a message from God through Joshua to the Children of Israel…
Joshua 1:7 BSB
[7] Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jos.1.7.BSB
Plus…
Psalm 37:23 BSB
[23] The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord who takes delight in his journey.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.37.23.BSB
This one took quite a bit of research between Google, Gemini, and Archive. Big thanks to both models of Google Gemini for their collaborative help.
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Clichรฉ Month: Don’t Spill the Beans ๐ซ
Donโt Spill the Beans: From Secret Ballots to Grandma’s Kitchen
Most of us know what it’s like to keep a secret. And some secrets are harder to keep to ourselves than others. Maybe a juicy piece of news, a surprise party secret, or some other plan that’s supposed to be a surprise, but a slip of the tongue can ruin the reveal. So, especially when dealing with those who just aren’t good at keeping secrets, someone might tell them, “Whatever you do, don’t spill the beans.”
Itโs an everyday expression, but how on earth did legumes become the official currency of confidential information?
The Secret Ballot of the Ancient World
The most popular story behind the phrase goes all the way back to Ancient Greeceโknown as the birthplace of democracy. Long before paper ballots or digital voting systems, ancient Greek societies needed a simple way to hold secret votes. They decided a simple opaque urn and two distinct colors of beans would be the best solution:
* White or light-colored beans represented a “Yes” vote.
* Black or dark-colored beans represented a “No” vote.
During the voting process, voters would step up to the urn and discreetly drop their chosen bean inside. The dark jar kept their choice hidden from the crowd. The vote was meant to remain strictly confidential until every ballot was cast and official counts began.
However, if someone clumsily knocked over the containerโor tipped it accidentally on purposeโthe beans would scatter across the floor. The vote tally was revealed prematurely, the secret process was ruined, and the entire election had to start over. All because someone had literally spilled the beans.
Spill it, Girlfriend!
While historians note that the exact English phrase really took off as 20th-century American slang (where “spill” meant to confess a secret or talk out of turn), the ancient image of a tipped jar spilling hidden votes remains the perfect visual metaphor.
A Tipping Point in Pop Culture
When I told my husband the subject of this clichรฉ post, the phrase instantly brought to both of our minds the classic childrenโs game Don’t Spill the Beans. Do you remember it? It was originally introduced by Schaper Games in 1967 and later made famous by Milton Bradley. The game took the idiom literally. Players carefully balanced small plastic beans one by one on top of a teetering red plastic pot. The goal? Steady hands and precise placementโbecause one wrong move sent the pot tipping over, sending plastic beans clattering across the table. Now the game is made by Hasbro, and you can get it at Amazon where you’ll notice the “beans” are flat and colorful. But it still looks funโand frustrating. (Link uses my affiliate shortcut.)
It looks like the ancient Greeks and 1960s game designers had the exact same lesson in mind: balance is everything, and once things tip over, it creates a mess.
When Spilling the Beans Would be a Real Disaster
Thankfully, it never happened, but I shudder to think of what we would’ve missed if it did. For all the history and game-night nostalgia, when I hear this clichรฉ, my mind skips right past ancient Greece and board games and heads straight to my grandmaโs kitchen.
Back then, making a pot of pinto beans was a labor of love. Long before they ever hit the stove, Grandma would sort through them by hand, carefully picking out the tiny pebbles hidden among the dry beans. A few times, I got to help her, but she preferred doing it mostly by herself to make sure nothing got missed. Then came overnight soaking followed by hours of slow cooking, seasoned generously with a good amount of bacon grease until the whole house smelled amazing. My mouth waters just to think about it.
So, in our family, “spilling the beans” would have been a crime. After all that work sorting, seasoning, and simmering, nobody dared spill those beansโbecause everybody wanted to eat them! ๐ (And don’t forget the diced white onion on top.)
I’ll end this with a couple Scriptures for when God Himself will spill the beans. It’s best not to have anything to hide (unless it’s a good surprise,) but there will come a time when all things will be revealed.
Luke 12:2-3 BSB
[2] There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. [3] What you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.12.2-3.BSB
Ecclesiastes 12:14 BSB
[14] For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/ecc.12.14.BSB
Many thanks to Google’s Gemini AI for the collaboration and help in finding this history of this phrase, the history of the game, and the beautiful image at the top.
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Clichรฉ Month: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Can you see that smug little grin on that sneaky raccoon’s face? He knows he tricked the dog into thinking he’s treed, but I’m sure the chase will be back on again shortly.
If you’ve ever put all your energy into a goal or project and suddenly realized you were far off base, you have experienced barking up the wrong tree. But don’t worry because you’re in good company. Humans, and even their four-legged hunting companions, have been doing that very thing for centuries.
The Frontier Origins…
The phrase “barking up the wrong tree” is a uniquely American phrase born on the early 1800s frontier. Settlers at the time relied on trained hounds to hunt raccoons at night. When cornered, a raccoonโs go-to defense was to scurry up a tree to get away from the chase. The dogs would then surround the trunk and bark furiouslyโa behavior known as “treeing”โto signal the hunter.
Raccoons, though, are super clever. A smart raccoon would often climb one tree and leap through the upper canopy into a neighboring tree. From there, it could sneakily slip away while the eager hounds would be left at the base of the first tree. Their noisy barking at a completely empty tree was just the distraction needed for the critter to get away before the hunters arrived. (Sneaky little smirking things. ๐)
I think I was about 14 years old the one and only time I went hunting for raccoons with my dad when we lived in Kansas. I only remember three things about it: it was too early in the morning and super dark outside, it was freezing and wet, and my little brother Jason was adorable when he would say, “We gon go coo hun” in his cute 4-year-old voice. Oh, and I remember the big gray Weimaraner he took hunting with us, but I don’t recall if he ever treed any raccoons.
Beyond the Hunt…
It didn’t take long for the phrase to move from describing a factual event between dogs and raccoons to becoming a statement about anyone in pursuit of an illusion. By the 1830s, the phrase leaped into popular print as a shortcut for misdirected energy, mistaken accusations or assumptions, or chasing a false lead. A person didn’t have to be running from a pursuit to confront a pursuer with a firm rejection and the notice that, if they thought they would get their way, they were barking up the wrong tree.
Barking Up the Right Tree…
Many years ago, a visiting young minister used the song “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones to illustrate the search for real satisfaction. He talked of how the songwriter had experienced fame and fortune and tried who knows how many diversions, and yet sang about trying over and over to be satisfied without ever getting there. Many of us exhaust ourselves barking up all kinds of worldly treesโstatus, approval, material successโonly to find they leave us empty-handed.
In Isaiah 55:1-2, the prophet calls out to the unsatisfied who are barking up all the wrong trees. He calls them to a free and satisfying feast and then asks them to look at the real value of what they have been spending their money on and their work accumulating.
Isaiah 55:1-2 BSB
[1] โCome, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!
[2] Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.55.1-2.BSB
When we change our focus from the empty branches and look to The God and Creator who knows our true needs, we can feast on those things that truly satisfy. We can stop wasting our time barking up the wrong trees and instead bark up the True Vine and receive fruit from The Tree of Life. ๐ณ๐งฌ
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Clichรฉ Month: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Most of us are familiar with the old advice to not put all your eggs in one basket. But do most of us know what it means or where it began?
The phrase as we know it today was famously popularized in 1605 by Miguel de Cervantes in his novel, Don Quixote. In the story, the sidekick Sancho Panza offers this bit of pragmatic wisdom: “it is the part of a wise man not to venture all his eggs in one basket.” It was a bit of cautious advice offered to Don Quixote, a knight who notoriously chased wild dreams and battled windmills, thinking they were monsters.
Not having read the novel myself, I asked Gemini for a summary around this part of the story. In case you don’t know it, Quixote was apparently a man of knightly bravado and chivalry (declaring that a single knight was worth a hundred ordinary men). His quest for vengeance resulted in both him and Sancho being beaten. Sancho’s advice was to remind Quixote that bravado without considering the odds is a quick way to have your gallant dreams completely shattered.
A funny note here: I don’t think I ever knew the setting for Don Quixote. I just knew there was a windmill on the book cover and that the main character was known for tilting at windmills. After finding out it was set in Spain, and learning that Spanish windmills are different from Dutch windmills (my childhood trips to Solvang, California, had me thinking all windmills were Dutch), I decided you shouldn’t keep all your windmills in one country, either. ๐ค๐
As the phrase is used today, it’s often related to either finance or to hopes and dreams. Whether youโre managing investments, planning your career or other future ventures, or simply navigating the daily twists and turns of life, Cervantesโ advice is still good over four centuries later. Spread your risks, plan your options, and always have a safety net. Because, if that single plan (basket) tips, you could go hungryโand have a big mess to clean up.
And speaking of going hungry, I just have to tell you about what I think is one of the most pleasant ways to have eggs prepared. It’s called “Eggs in a Basket” and many restaurants will prepare your eggs this way by request. (Cracker Barrel no longer has it on the menu, but they can still do this.) The cook will take two halves of your choice of bread and cut out a hole in the center of each. The bread is then griddled, and one egg is broken into each slice of bread where it cooks along with the toast. I prefer mine over medium since the runny parts absorb perfectly into the griddled bread that surrounds the egg. If you like eggs and toast, I highly recommend this preparation method.
I’ll close with a biblical way to look at this clichรฉ: Asking The Lord for multiple ways to minister to others is prudent. Not everyone needs to be fed or clothed. Some just need to know someone cares enough to listen. Others need prayer. And some may need biblical wisdom to guide and direct their lives. Because only God knows the depths of people’s hearts, He is the best One to guide us in how to spend our human investments to bring about the best returns.
James 1:5 BSB
[5] Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jas.1.5.BSB
Isaiah 30:21 BSB
[21] And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: โThis is the way. Walk in it.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.30.21.BSB
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Clichรฉ Month: Actions Speak Louder than Words
I almost added an ellipsis at the end of the word “speak” in the above illustration. I forgot to ask for it in the prompt, so when Nano Banana created it, I was pleasantly surprised to see this powerful message of “Action Speaks” jump right out at me. Even without the remaining words of the clichรฉ, it’s a solid and true message.
I realized after writing all of this that it’s almost an argument against yesterday’s clichรฉ that the pen is mightier than the sword. I mean, if you’re taking action by a sword, that would definitely be louder than threatening words. But today’s message is more about the actions that must follow the life-changing words of the pen.
Has anyone ever told you they loved you and then made you doubt their words by their behaviors? Or have you ever had someone promise you something from the bottom of their heart with a pinky promise and, no matter how strongly they swore its truthfulness at the time, never fulfilled that promise?
If you answered yes to either of those questions (and I’d think most people could,) you’ve had a demonstration of words being weaker than actions. If the bad behaviors or broken promises have broken something in you, then you’ve truly understood the louder language of actions.
Of course, this also works the opposite way. Like when I moved in with my grandparents at 12-years-old and fell in love with a neighborhood kitty cat that started hanging around our house. When she showed up pregnant, I asked my grandfather if we could bring her inside to have her kittens, and he vehemently said no to my pleas.
One afternoon, a few days later, I got home from school to find a box in my room. Not only was it perfect for Mama Cat, but Grandpa had added some cushiony towels and cut a little area in the front of the box shorter to make sure she could get her oversized belly in there. Those actions were not only a gift to the cat and her kittens, they were a precious gift from my grandfather to me that stayed with me forever.
Actions speak! AND they speak louder than any wordsโno matter how true and passionate those words may sound. It’s why real Christianity is far more than an emotional confession during fleeting moments of fear or conviction. What you do after you stand back up from your knees makes all the difference. It’s why baptism is one of the first things offered to new converts. More than a ritual, it’s an action that speaks of your plans to turn away from your sins by literally washing them away in the figurative blood of Christ. Your old self, along with the actions you engaged in while in bondage to sin, is buried with YahShua (Jesus) in baptism, so your new self can rise up like He did in resurrection and perform new actions that imitate Him.
What would Jesus do? is much more powerful than What would Jesus say? (Though, in His case, what He said was pretty important as well. ๐)
Even the Bible has strong words about the importance of actions over words. When shallow actions performed by habit spoke to The Messiah that people didn’t really care about Him as much as they did their rituals, He called them hypocrites.
Matthew 15:8 BSB
[8] โThese people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.15.8.BSB
Action that springs from the action of listening with our hearts brings blessings when we act on what we have learned:
James 1:25 BSB
[25] But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so โ not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer โ he will be blessed in what he does. (Emphasis added by me.)
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jas.1.25.BSB
YahShua says it’s our good deeds that shine a light and glorify God:
Matthew 5:16 BSB
[16] In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.5.16.BSB
In First John, we’re reminded of the power of action and truth:
1 John 3:18 BSB
[18] Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1jn.3.18.BSB
And in Colossians, we’re reminded how important our focus is whether we are speaking words or doing actions:
Colossians 3:17 BSB
[17] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/col.3.17.BSB
And I’ll close with a parable of YahShua that perfectly demonstrates today’s clichรฉ. It’s called “The Parable of the Two Sons” and says:
Matthew 21:28-32 BSB
[28] But what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first one and said, โSon, go and work today in the vineyard.โ [29] โI will not,โ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. [30] Then the man went to the second son and told him the same thing. โI will, sir,โ he said. But he did not go. [31] Which of the two did the will of his father?โ โThe first,โ they answered. Jesus said to them, โTruly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. [32] For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.21.28-32.BSB
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Cliche Month: The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword
I know, I know… If you’re a writer, you’ve been told to “avoid clichรฉs like the plague” (the ultimate clichรฉ in itself!) So why am I planning a month of posts all about clichรฉs?
Though the publisher’s advice to avoid using clichรฉs is not empty advice, totally dismissing them ignores a crucial fact: clichรฉs are clichรฉs for a reason. They are successful linguistic vessels that earned their status by capturing universal truths and vivid imagery so perfectly, they had to be repeatedโand repeated again.
While clichรฉs can be efficient methods for driving home a point without launching into a wordy diatribe, overused phrases can make writing feel lazy and flat. Still, a bit of clichรฉd shorthand to convey a warning or some sage advice is powerful when used correctly.
Throughout August, we’re going to take a deep dive into the paradoxical world of clichรฉs to learn the DNA of persuasive language. We will peel back their layers to expose the colorful, often surprising history and background behind phrases that still bring important punches of truth and deep thought to our prose. We will learn how to transform them from lazy shorthand back into powerful tools of expression.
For example, the exact phrase highlighted in neon text above was coined in 1839 by the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton for his play Richelieu. Beyond the play, it became the ultimate rallying cry for persuasion over force and freedom of speech.
We see the power of the pen throughout Scripture as well. Way back in Deuteronomy, God told the children of Israel to write His commands where they would see and remember them:
Deuteronomy 11:20 BSB
[20] Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,
https://bible.com/bible/3034/deu.11.20.BSB
In the book of First John, the authors use the pen to share what they have seen with their own eyes and touched with their own hands to those who read their words. In verse 4, they share their purpose:
1 John 1:4 BSB
[4] We write these things so that our joy may be complete.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1jn.1.4.BSB
God told Habakkuk to write clearly on stone tablets where a herald could pick them up and carry the penned words to others.
Habakkuk 2:2 BSB
[2] Then the Lord answered me: โWrite down this vision and clearly inscribe it on tablets, so that a herald may run with it.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/hab.2.2.BSB
Paul told the Corinthians that he used the power of his pen to write things in ways he knew they would understand:
2 Corinthians 1:13 BSB
[13] For we do not write you anything that is beyond your ability to read and understand. And I hope that you will understand us completely.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/2co.1.13.BSB
And God Himself told Moses to chisel out 2 stone tablets (more than once), so He could use the power of the written word, though He didn’t need pen and ink since He was God and could use His own hand.
Deuteronomy 10:2, 4 BSB
[2] "And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.โ
[4] And the Lord wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The Lord gave them to me.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/deu.10.2-4.BSB
So whether it’s the finger of God, a chisel, a paintbrush, an antique pen or feather, a modern roller ball, or a printing press (physical or digital), the power of words conveyed by a writing instrument is significant. The Holy Bible is the most amazing collection of words ever penned, and it still has soul-changing power.
Let’s take this month to learn the power of words, even as used in the form of a clichรฉ, and undo the negative definition of the word clichรฉ. Let’s learn to master the principals that made these succinct moral lessons powerful before they became relegated to the weakness of clichรฉ, ensuring our own words resonate with equal weight and authority.
Many thanks to Google’s Gemini AI for the cool neon word art, the history of today’s clichรฉ, and some inspirational words and editing for putting this all together.
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๐ตDrumming on the Mountain; Thoughts on Uncommon Instrument Awareness Day
Yes, July 31st is really a day for becoming aware of non-traditional instruments. While searching for examples, I sure found a lot of weird ones, including a bass guitar made from balloons. That one didn’t work very well, but the video at the end with the marbles is amazing.
I asked Gemini to create an image of people playing some uncommon instruments, and gave it a few ideas. What can be seen in the immediate music circle from left to right is: a hurdy gurdy, a didgeridoo, a theremin (think Star Trek), a glass harmonica, and a hammered dulcimer. And since I’ve included links, you can become aware of all of those when you get the chance to check the links. They’re all relatively short videos on YouTube, and the theremin is a beautiful rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
So, I titled this Drumming on the Mountain because of one of the quiz questions I often get in my “Drops” language lessons app. It asks, “What can be drummed on?” And my multiple choice answers often include libro (book) and mesa (table)โand montaรฑa (mountain). I mean, I know I cannot drum on la niebla (the fog) or la tormenta (the storm), so I started out guessing “mountain” just because that’s all that made sense in the multiple choices. But really, does anyone drum on a mountain? ๐ฅ ๐๏ธ
I hope you enjoy this brief nontraditional instrument introduction. My favorite is the hammered dulcimer since I found one with Greensleeves (aka the Christmas song What Child is This?). It’s a YouTube short, so I was able to keep it on a loop all the time I was typing this. ๐ถ๐
And now, a super cool instrument that sounds in some moments like a music box, but it actually has lots of sounds created by the percussion of falling metal marbles. It’s absolutely worth checking out.
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๐ตPrompt Response: Cotton Fields
Whatโs a song lyric that has stuck with you forever?
For some unknown reason, it’s the song Cotton Fields.
What Makes a Great Earworm?
Even though I’ve never lived in Louisiana, or even a mile from Texarkana from any direction, this song frequently pops into my head and out of my mouth. I’ll just be going about some menial household tasks, and the next thing you know, I’m singing, “When I was a little bitty baby…” That’s followed by the rest of the song as I remember it, and then I stop and wonder, “Now why am I singing this?”
I guess earworms don’t need logic (like I’m not sure I ever had a cradle that my mom rocked me in,) but it’s there often anywayโand it’s fun to sing. And I remember my mom singing it a lot, so maybe earworms can be caught. ๐
According to my research with Gemini, a great earworm uses simple, repetitive beats and catchy words. Repetitive melodies make it easy for the tune to stick, and a simple structure cements the rhythm. When these songs become “stuck,” it’s often due to associations with comfort or subconscious memories triggered during low-cognitive tasks, like doing household chores.
So there ya go; I’ve definitely got an earworm with this song, and I think I’ve had it for many years, even before I got married. And I must sing it mostly to myself because hubby didn’t recognize it by the first words. For him and for the rest of my readers, here’s a great version by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)…
The Prickly Reality (Bolls, Bracts & Burrs)
I’ve told you about traveling with my grandparents from Central California to Northern Arizona. That stretch of highway once had a few sections filled with cotton fields on both sides of the road. During one of our road trips, I convinced Grandpa to pull over and let me “pick” a little bit of my own cotton. I don’t recall him warning me, but I do recall learning a lesson about real cotton and those super sharp burrs that hold it onto the stem.
Those parts, the hard brown and pointy parts you see in the picture, are nothing to mess with. They are worse than a splinter, and they can really make your fingers bleed. I recall wrestling a few seeds from their fluffy cotton bolls (and yes, that’s the correct word, though I didn’t know until I listened to the above video and looked it up as I was sure they must be singing it wrong, lol). After a number of finger stabs, I put the whole batch in a baggie where it stayed for the remainder of the trip. And then it stayed in my room for years.
Wait, It’s a Fruit?!
Can you believe that we really do wear fruit (from the loom? Lol) on our bodies? According to my research, cotton is botanically a fruit. There’s a lot of good information at the Biology Insights website if you’re interested. I like the summary about it from Gemini …
It is one of those fun botanical facts that sounds fake until you double-check it! Because the cotton boll grows from a flower and houses the plant’s seeds, it is technically a capsule-type fruit.
Wrapping Up (in 100% Cotton ๐)
I really didn’t expect so much information from such a simple prompt, but it adds some variety to my posts, right? And there’s so much more i could say about cotton, from the textile industry, to organic material, to the various grades used in sheets. But it would take more research since I’m not even sure of the difference between Pima and Egyptian cotton. But I do know that God told the Israelites not to combine materials back in the days of Torah, and I’m certain He had a good reason for it. I’ll leave you with that verse as my sign-off for this post.
Leviticus 19:19 BSB
[19] You are to keep My statutes. You shall not crossbreed two different kinds of livestock; you shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear clothing made of two kinds of material.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/lev.19.19.BSB
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Blog Break โ๏ธโ๐ฅ I Did it Again
I started off with a simple idea, and then I started the research. How do I caption this? What are the copyright rules to use this song lyric? What do you actually call a piece of cotton growing in a field?
Oh, and which video is the best to embed with this? And why can’t I find one with lyrics? And oh, I should add that anecdote to the story.
If you were in my head, you’d be worn out by the cacophony of thoughts and sounds and ideas. But I can usually tug on a thread to make it more focused for these posts. When I realized that was going to take too long, I decided to ask Gemini to make an image of a blogger with a lot of thoughts. It decided to include almost everything we’ve talked about for various posts, and I’m only now seeing the misspelling of the word “lyrics” but if I keep making changes, this won’t be a break at all. Lol ๐
Good night and I’ll try to finish the promised post by tomorrow. ๐ด
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Word Art Preview
Some days, especially after a serious and word-intense post, I just need to be creative and play with some designs. I dug out these old Word Art images I made back in 2022 at the site: https://wordart.com/ which has even more to offer now with their inclusion of AI tools.
For this design, I added 4 lines of words and told it the shape and colors I wanted. For their free version, you get a 700 x 700 pixel image (I think they used to be bigger), but you’re allowed to use them for anything you want as long as it’s non-commercial. Since I don’t have ads on this page, I should be okay.
So when I say dug out, I mean I searched for these old images in my Amazon Photos, and downloaded them for editing. Then I used my favorite Photo Studio Pro app for Android to add the gradient background along with some butterflies and sparkles. I finished with a sparkling pink frame. And I saved the project in case I want to change any of the decorative steps or add more effects, like a video overlay.
I did one more with the same words but different design elements.
I highly recommend the site if you want to play with words and put them into designs. There are apps and software that can help you grow your image if you want to use it personally but larger, and they have prices for high quality downloads if you want to use them commercially.
One other option I will share is that AI can do some Word Art if you just tell it what you want done. I’ve only tried Gemini so far, and I asked for Psalm 23 in the shape of a lamb. Here’s what it produced:
and Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
I noticed a few mistakes, but this was just a trial run, so I didn’t do the back and forth I normally do when I’m creating images. My reasoning for wanting to do this is for my plans in August and September when I will use cliches and fables for my blog post topics. I’ve got some designs in mind for Word Art to go with those posts, which is why I said this was a preview.
So be on the lookout for my first cliche post on August 1st, but the rest is a surprise for now. If you make your own, feel free to let me know in the comments, so I can come see yours.
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๐ตThe Hospitality of Rest: Why the Sabbath Was Made for Us
Sometimes, a roadblock that changes our plans is exactly what it takes to slow us down for just long enough.
Today, my “Operation Cleanout” friend and I had big plans to build a new project. FedEx had dropped off my package a couple days ago, and it looked like it had been through a war zone. How is it that when your tracking shows your item is out for delivery, and then it gets delayed, it often shows up damaged? We didn’t know if the shelf would be as bad as the box, so we dug out all the heavy pieces. Sadly, even with lots of great packing materials to protect it, the mistreatment was more than it could survive. Our plans were instantly derailed.
(That kinda sounds like life, sometimes, doesn’t it? We think we’re all cushioned against the blows, and then reality hits.)
At first, I felt that familiar, heavy spike of aggravation. Broken momentum tends to undo all my other plans as well. Especially after calling Amazon and finding out that I had to deal directly with a seller in another country. But, as much as I dislike my plans being hijacked by circumstances beyond my control, I was actually more at peace because of having the presence of a good friend to share in the frustrations.
So, we started fellowshipping and talking about God and His Word and His precious promises to us. I noted her resilience to stand on The Word and not compromise what it directs her to do. In our conversation of why we do what we do, we talked about that tendency in modern Christianity to identify Friday-Saturday Sabbath as Jewish and Sunday as a โChristian Sabbath Day.โ She doesn’t think that way herself, but I mentioned what I had learned in my Messianic Jewish studies about the fact that Sabbath existed before Moses or Abraham or Judaism. It was the 7th day of Creation!
Later in the day, that conversation came back to me. As the evening approached and the thoughts of this week’s Sabbath rolled in, a verse kept circling through my mind: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27-28 BSB
[27] Then Jesus declared, โThe Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [28] Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mrk.2.27-28.BSB
When we look at the creation story and read about that first Sabbath, we read that God rested on the seventh day. But I found myself asking tonight: If the Sabbath was made for man, why did God rest? He doesn’t get tired.
And then it hit me…
For the first six days of creation, God was working alone. He was building, shaping, separating light from dark, and speaking galaxies into existence. He was being the Supreme Creator and doing Supreme Creator things all by Himselfโbut not for Himself. At the end of the sixth day, He made us. The prophet Isaiah reminds us of these plans in God’s blueprints in Isaiah 45:18…
Isaiah 45:18 BSB
[18] For thus says the Lord, who created the heavensโ He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: โI am the Lord, and there is no other.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.45.18.BSB
The seventh day wasn’t a pause because God ran out of energy or creative ideas. He took the time to pause because the home was completed and His family had finally arrived. He finished the work, turned the garden over to man, and then walked in the cool of the day with him.
Isaiah 40:28 BSB
[28] Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.40.28.BSB
The Sabbath was made for man because God wanted a designated time and space to fellowship with us. It’s not about religious observance and law keeping. It’s about spending time with God and making the time and space for God to spend time with us. It’s preparing a seat at the table, having a fulfilling meal, and then taking a walk together. And though God knew we would need a designated space to fill our wells for the week ahead, He made the Sabbath out of His deep, passionate desire to simply fellowship with us. Picture it like this: The Creator of the universe setting down His tools, turning around with a smile on His face, and saying, “Okay, I’m done working. Now, let’s spend some time together.”
While I collaborated with Gemini on this post, this beautiful statement came out of it:
โThe entire multi-day cosmic construction project wasn’t an empty display of power. It was the intentional staging of a home, built specifically so He could move in and share with us.โ
So for this Sabbath weekend, the battered box is still in the hallway, and the momentum for that project is still broken. But as I step into this day of rest, I can see my derailed plans as a gift. They slowed me down to talk of this deep subject with a sister in The Lord, and that came back as such a wonderful realization that my future Sabbath days will have a much deeper meaning than before.
If something in your life took a beating this week, and if your own plans got derailed, take a breath and take a break. God has invited us to take a walk in the garden with the One who made it. Let’s meet Him where He’s waiting for us. And as we’re walking, we can sing this wonderful old hymn with a new sweetness in our hearts and voices:
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๐ญHow The West Was LostโOr, Pure As The Driven Smog (Part 3–Finale!)
And here we are for the grand finale wrap of my short tenure as a teen actress in LA. (Yes, the San Fernando Valley is still considered LA. Lol ๐)
Recap
- I started as a New York newspaper boy with my long hair tucked up into a beret and a bulky scarf to hide part of my feminine face.
- Costume change two put me in raggedy orphan clothes just after we’d been rescued by a kind-hearted benefactor.
- Costume change three was like the scene above where the Irish nanny was getting the three orphans ready for bed. She had gotten us into clean night clothes and allowed us to dance around singing about living the โLife of Rileyโ in the song When My Ship Comes In. (Full chorus on yesterday’s post.) And within this scene, she also sang the light-hearted song โI’m Only a Shoplifter’s Daughterโ which went something like…
Shoplifter’s Daughter Turned Nanny
I'm only a shoplifter's daughter,
My mother was one of the best.
Sometimes the cops almost caught her,
But somehow she always seemed blest.
One day she lifted a sable,
And wore it right out of the store.
Since that day she has been able...
To not have to work anymore.
Hers was a fine occupation,
She wanted to teach me the trade.
But to my sweet ma's consternation (guessing on this line),
I never could quite make the grade.
I’m pretty happy with remembering (after 45+ years) all but one line in a song I didn’t even sing in the play. And I’m thankful the poet in me was able to create a line with similar syllables and a close rhyme. ๐
The Torch Song (Tears on My Pillow)
Now you may be wondering about the guy peeking through the door. He was the one the nanny had a crush on. Butler? Assistant? Barrister? I’m not sure. But he was totally not interested in her, so she sat down in the corner to sing a song of lament and cry a bit. Of course, we orphans had no clue about what it meant to crush on a guy, and we definitely didn’t know what a manipulative, guilt-inducing torch song was. But you’ll get it by the end of the lyrics.
Tears, tears on my pillow.
Each tear I shed for you.
With a heart that is burning...
With yearning desire.
But with tears like a rainstorm,
To put out the fire.
Some day when it's over,
I hope you'll know it's true.
When they tell you I died,
Please remember I cried...
All those tears on my pillowโ
For you!
And on that last “you,” she noticed him in the door getting ready to burst in and repeated it until it came out a little bit angrier.
Mr Crush (I cannot remember his name or his character’s name) shouted that she had to get the kids dressed and packed because they thought they found our father or uncle or some family member we had to go see.
More Costume Changes
- Costume change four was back to the newspaper boy that opened the play in my first post. Only this time, I don’t recall what the headlines were. I think something about orphans finding a long-lost relative.
- Costume change five had me back in day clothes to go with my orphan sisters to find our lost relative.
- Costume change six was likely back to the newspaper boy again, but I’m not absolutely sure how many times I did the little herald. I’m sure it was mostly for the moments the actors needed to get new props and people onto the stage.
- Costume change seven was the final and most complete change. There was no going back to any other costumes because it required me to paint my hair black (my first time using colored hair spray) and slather any visible skin with reddish-brown pancake makeup. This transformed me into an old Indian woman. (I don’t ever recall the word indigenous back in those days.)
And this brought me to my final line in the play…
โUgh, come, we go. Old man sick. Not long he go Happy Hunting Ground.โ
I don’t remember who the old man was other than him being someone who knew who the orphans really belonged to. They may have been children of someone related to the rich and fancy Astorbilts, or maybe to deceased parents who weren’t part of any fancy family.
But I’m pretty sure that the whole play ended on a bunch of happy notes, like the children moving to the mansion because their ship did come in. Maybe Mabel got the guy the nanny liked, and the nanny figured out someone else was interested in her.
Cue Exit Lighting
My age and lack of experience, or maybe being so busy with my own parts in the play, meant I didn’t actually get to watch the play, so the ending I remember best was coming out on stage with the whole cast and doing a group bow to the audience.
We repeated that whole experience multiple times. Maybe once a week or maybe more, and I think for 8-12 weeks. It was definitely more fun at the beginning than at the end when the newness wore off and the crowds got too small. I vaguely recall hearing that Jim and Teddy were trying to sell the entire showcase, actors and all, to an investor, but that was way, way above my head then.
It never got picked up, and soon all the actors found new stages and movies. Me, I enrolled in a trade school to become an administrative assistant (because the school told me I could be โmore than a secretaryโ), and I stayed there until I got a chance to travel with a company selling an all-purpose cleaner called Show Off. That’s a whole adventure for another day, though.
No More Acting
The experience taught me that acting is hard work far beyond memorizing lines in a script. And it taught me that actors behind the scenes like to self-medicateโor at least the young ones in this production. I tried very hard to stay away from the temptations, and they tried everything to get me to give in, including trapping me between two people in a sealed up car while they smoked and tried to give me a “contact high.”
I didn’t let myself get in that type of precarious position again, and it wasn’t right to try so hard to assuage their own guilt by not letting my no be no. But we were all young, and that’s just part of the experience of learning boundaries. I’ve prayed for all of them even without remembering most of their names. And I’m thankful that the glitz and glamour I thought was acting was not everything I imagined, so I was free to go the directions God picked out for me in this life.
If you aren’t sure where your steps should go, please consider allowing The Lord to guide your steps according to His good plans for you. I can tell you from experience, God’s way IS the High Way!
Proverbs 16:9 BSB
[9] A manโs heart plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.16.9.BSB
Psalm 37:23 BSB
[23] The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord who takes delight in his journey.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.37.23.BSB
Jeremiah 10:23 BSB
[23] I know, O Lord, that a manโs way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jer.10.23.BSB
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๐ญHow The West Was LostโOr, Pure As The Driven Smog (Part 2)
Behind the Curtains
Okay, so maybe the Aquarius Rising Theater didn’t have curtains, but we definitely had a backstage area where all the stress went to play before the play. It’s in that area where one realizes exactly how much work goes into play acting.
I promised you yesterday that I’d introduce you to the powerhouse woman who made all the difference in my stage presence. This castmate was both an actress and a stunt woman, and she had a commanding influence as a trainer behind the scenes. The actress was Spice Williams-Crosby, whom you may have seen play a saloon girl in The Cherokee Kid with Sinbad or the Klingon Vixis in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. If you want to learn more about Spice and her super health conscious endeavors that make me think she is still just as powerful now as then, check her official website.
Since I was only 16 or 17, I don’t recall if Spice was actually an official director or not, but she definitely directed me and others to pull off a truly great performance. She took our little production as seriously as if it were a high-paying, top Hollywood release. By the end of her training, I knew how to speak and act like a New York newspaper boy, a little orphan girl, and an old Indian woman.
Seven Costume Changes and One Tired Teenager
That newspaper boy had more than one headline to sell, and in between those sales, three little orphan girls had to show up in tattered clothing and then change to more appropriate sleepwear. The fun Irish nanny taught us to have hope for tomorrow with a little song that went something like:
Some fine day when my ship comes in,
I won't care about, never think about,
What my life has been.
I'll have chicken every Sunday,
Never go to work on Monday,
When my ship comes in.
That was the chorus, and I know the verse had the line, โI’ll live the life of Riley, hip hoorayโ in it, but I can’t recall the rest.
Wild, Wild Mabel
For some reason, though, I can recall all the words and the tune for a song I didn’t sing myself, and that’s the song Wild, Wild Mabel that was sung by Spice.
(Chorus)
Wild, wild Mabel,
Wild, wild Mabel.
There's never been a man who was able
To tame her.
Meaner than a lion, she could scratch and claw.
With a red hot trigger and fast on the draw,
Yes Wild, Wild Mabel was her name.
(Verse--partly spoken)
(Speak)
On a cold dark night,
Back in 74,
Mabel went out
To settle a score
(Sing)
With a tall dark stranger who was known as Dangerous Dan.
(Speak)
A shot was fired,
And the silence was broken,
The door swung open,
With the gun still smokin'.
(Sing)
Yes, Wild, Wild Mabel got her man.
(Repeat chorus)
Wild, wild Mabel,
Wild, wild Mabel.
There's never been a man who was able
To tame her.
Meaner than a lion, she could scratch and claw.
With a red hot trigger and fast on the draw,
Yes Wild, Wild Mabel was her name.
When I shared these lyrics with Gemini to see if they exist anywhere online, I got a little history lesson about an embedded joke in the lyrics. Gemini says, โThat is a direct, hilarious nod to ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew,’ the famous 1907 Robert W. Service poem that practically defined the entire ‘Wild West saloon melodrama’ genre!โ
It’s a very long poem, but it has some interesting history and alternate texts, so I recommend looking at its Wikipedia page for all the info, like the fact that Ronald Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney did their own alternating recital of it.
Stay Tuned for Our Final Act: Part 3
While the orphans were getting ready for bed, the Irish nanny had some comedic surprises of her own as she sang to us about failing at being a โShoplifters Daughter,โ and then walked to the corner of the room to sing the ultimate guilt-trip torch song, โTears on My Pillow.โ
You won’t find these lyrics anywhere else on the internet (or if you do, please tell me where), so make sure to check back tomorrow for the grand finale of this fun journey down my memory lane.
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๐ญHow The West Was LostโOr, Pure As The Driven Smog (Part 1)
Did you know I used to be an actress? And I played a newspaper boy!
It all started the other day while listening to Forties Junction on Sirius XM in the car. I heard a song I thought was by Judy Garland (I didn’t look at the screen until it was over), and I asked Gemini which movie she sang it in. Well, it wasn’t her, and it wasn’t in any movie. It was from a small theater production and only on the radio.
As we chatted about plays that never make it to the silver screen, my own memories of performing in a repertory theater in my late teens came rushing back. It was a simple showcase that lasted for about eight weeks, and it was one of the most amazing events in my lifetime. (I’ve spent a couple of days collaborating with Gemini to search for real examples of this period, and it’s been a huge help even if we couldn’t find everything. If anyone reading this happens to remember Aquarius Rising in Reseda, California, and has any snapshots, I’d love to hear from you.)
The Reseda Time Capsule
Just a few blocks from the busy intersection of Reseda and Sherman Way Boulevards, a small theater was born from a dying discotheque just off the main drag. Because it was alcohol-free, I frequented it while it was still a disco. I don’t recall how I first found it, but I’m thinking it was because of attending my first concert at Wolf and Rissmiller’s Country Club (later called Chuck Landis Country Club) to see Tanya Tucker and Glen Campbell when someone offered me a free ticket. (His girlfriend stood him up, and he knew I was too young for him to date, but it was okay with my mom to go see one of my favorite singers.)
At first, I danced until it felt like my feet would fall off, but later, my dancing moments came at the beginning and end of the night, with the middle finding me planted firmly on a barstool at the entrance having wonderful conversations with the owner’s wife in the ticket booth. Her name was Teddy Love, and she was one of the sweetest, most interesting people I’d ever met.
As the disco craze began to wane, fewer people at the ticket booth meant more time visiting with Teddy. So when her husband Jim (who worked for Burbank Studios) decided to convert the Aquarius Rising disco to the Aquarius Rising Theater, I was still very interested. I don’t recall if the magic shows were before or after the play, but I still remember their amazing feats of illusion, and the funny show that included the story of Petey the Snake. (Yes, I remember my promise to record it for you one day.)
My Big Break
Besides small plays in schoolโincluding a funny mime of being the target in a knife-throwing act and not survivingโI hadn’t done any acting. But it was definitely something I dreamed of, especially being so close to Hollywood. So when Teddy asked if I wanted to be in a play they were getting ready to showcase, I was totally on boardโeven though it meant I’d have to play a New York newspaper boy. And mine was the opening act for the play, โHow the West Was LostโOr, Pure as the Driven Smog.โ
I studied and memorized the lines, but I had no idea how to fake an accent I’d only heard on TV and in movies. Thankfully, a true Hollywood powerhouse was about to join the cast, and she would teach me how to knock out not only the newspaper boy’s voice, but those of the other two characters I ended up playing as well. Because of her excellent guidance, and some great makeup help, audience members didn’t know I played all three roles unless they saw it in the theater program.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
Tomorrow, I’ll take you backstage to join me in my rapid-fire pace of seven costume changes in just under two hours, and I’ll introduce you to the whip-cracking castmate who gave me a no-nonsense masterclass in stage presence and voice control (even if she intimidated me at first). And you’ll love the lyrics to the song she performed in the play: Wild, Wild Mabel.
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๐ตA Heavyweight Dilemma
Many children shout, โI can do it!โ as they struggle with a new task. At the same time, parents wrestle with when to step in and when to let them tryโeven if it means a painful lesson. But just like physical training, learning to lift beyond what is easy means building new muscle and new strength.
The Heavyweight Path of Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts, the 1700s preacher and songwriter dubbed the โFather of English Hymnody,โ wrote over 600 hymns, including the one that helped convert Fannie J Crosby. (Alas and Did My Savior Bleed.) But he didn’t reach those heights on a lightweight path.
A gifted writer and linguist from a young age, Watts learned Latin at four, Greek at nine, and Hebrew at thirteen. At only seven years oldโthe same age I wrote my first songโhe wrote an acrostic poem using the letters in his given name:
I am a vile polluted lump of earth
So I've continued ever since my birth
Although Jehovah grace does give me
As sure this monster Satan will deceive me
Come, therefore, Lord, from Satan's claws relieve me.
This early intellectual and spiritual discipline strengthened him for the trials ahead. As a “dissenter” against the Anglican Church in London, Watts faced a lot of opposition. In those days, church worship only allowed the literal singing of Psalms or other Scriptures. Writing songs outside of accepted Scripture made him a target.
But Isaac stayed resilient for most of his life, having learned to fight these spiritual attacks from his parents, who were also dissenters. Yet, in his final years, the attacks seemed to wear him down, leading to an early retirement.
Perhaps spiritual muscles mirror physical ones. Decades of fighting can cause fatigue. Or maybe, as times changed and non-Anglican beliefs became more widely accepted, life grew easier. With fewer attacks, he could lower his guard; and that may have allowed some weakening in his spirit.
The Cost of Lowered Expectations
My husband and I talked about this recently after he shared Watts’ story with me from Robert J. Morgan’s Then Sings My Soul book.
When we first met over 30 years ago, his young nephews were living in harsh conditions. While removing them from those conditions was good, the state’s foster and group home system placements ultimately hindered rather than helped them. Like the strongman in the image above, the system tried to โhelpโ by removing all the weights. They followed that by taking away their self-control with medication and a counseling narrative that drilled into them how they were victims.
By removing the weights, the state stopped their life-muscle building process. The toll of that deficit remains visible in their lives to this day.
State agencies often view themselves as virtuous for saving all of these kids from their hard lives. But we believe it would be far better for them to act like spottersโmaking sure the weight doesn’t cause injuryโrather than superheros who take the weights away entirely.
Consider one of our nephews: he was placed in a remedial reading class with lowered standards and materials. It quickly became a place for the kids to just goof off. During the four years we had custody, we removed him from that school for a single semester. I tutored him myself, and in just that one semester, he advanced four grade levels in both reading and math. Dumbing things down and lowering expectations does more harm than good.
Raising the Bar(bell) for the Next Generation
This brings me to my final point: young people are capable of growing up far earlier than we allow them to. If we expect less and hold them to low standards, that is what we will get.
Biologically, their bodies are proving they are entering adulthood; that they are old enough to become parents themselves. Yet we trap them in a frustrating limbo of zero responsibility and zero freedom. Instead, we should acknowledge their transition to adulthoodโlike a Bar or Bat Mitzvahโand let them lift the weights that come with it, staying close by to spot them in case they stumble. Given the chance, I believe they will prove themselves far more often than they will fail.
The real dilemma is getting the agencies in charge to finally get on board.
Revisit the Legacy of Isaac Watts
Here are a few of his amazing hymns you might recognize.
And if you’d like a solid 25 minutes of songs by this same YouTube channel (Old Hymns and Lyrics) watch the full collection here.
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Prompt Response: You Make the Lemonade
Whatโs the best advice youโd give to someone younger than you?
Sometimes, I think people have the idea that getting lemonade from the lemons in life simply means looking for the good in the bad. That’s my specialty. I’m often very good at finding even a thread of hope or promise within a terrible situation.
But what if it’s more than just looking for the thread? What if we learn from a young age to actually be the one responsible for adding just the right amount of sweetness to turn a sour moment into something more palatable to help us survive it. And maybe more than survive it, thrive from it because just sugar or honey in a glass by itself isn’t refreshing at all.
So learn your tastes. Figure out which sweetener is the best to your many tastebuds. Maybe you prefer honey or agave, or you need a sugar-free additive like Stevia leaf. Maybe you’ve even learned that the juice of one orange to about 5 lemons makes a lovely mix of flavor and color in a tall glass of summer refreshment.
In life, even if you’ve grown up as a survivor from a dysfunctional home, you cannot see the future and exactly which lemons might come your way. So get a recipe ready for dealing with the bumps and potholes no matter what they are. The first part of the recipe will always be looking for the golden thread of hope or peace to hang onto until you can get to the sugar jar. And I believe the strongest golden thread is the voice of our Creator as He speaks to us from His Word.
Take Romans 8:28 for instance…
Romans 8:28 BSB
[28] And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/rom.8.28.BSB
Notice it doesn’t say all things (or all lemons) are good, nor does it say we should just give up and wait for them to turn good. It says they will work together for the good. And here’s an interesting factoid: the Greek word used for โwork togetherโ in the verse is synergeoโwhere we get our word โsynergy.โ That implies partnership, cooperation, and an active blending of ingredients.
And remember this: you are not alone. Whether you are young or carry a bit more experience, your Master Creator is already in the kitchen with you ready to help you with your lemonade mixture. He will provide the ingredients for the golden thread and the sweetness, just like He provides oranges and sugar cane for real food and beverage recipes.
King David learned this, and even though he dealt with many bitter things in life, he ultimately proclaimed:
Psalm 34:8 BSB
[8] Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.34.8.BSB
And later in this same chapter...
Psalm 34:19 BSB
[19] Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.34.19.BSB
Note: Compliments to Google Gemini as my collaborator and for giving me the info on the Greek in Romans 8:28. It fit perfectly with the direction for this post.
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Blog BreakโHere’s a Picture
This was the image from Gemini for the day-after-Father’s-Day post, but I was looking for the older image that I see more as God with aged wisdom and like a father figure for that post. Still, for those who love the verses where YahShua says to bring the little children to Him, this represents them well. I left it as a public domain image so people can freely use it.
As for today, I had at least 3 ideas for new blog posts, but a friend went to the hospital for IV antibiotics, and with texting most of the evening and up to about 4 AM, my mind couldn’t put anything together. Please pray for the friend, SM, to feel God’s presence and hear His answers to get through the days of diabetic swelling and ulcers on her feet. It also happened last year, but it was worse because she didn’t catch it as early. I’m hoping this time is better from catching it early (who knew wearing tight shoes could cause such a problem?), and she can get back to her lonely kitties. I’m glad to be available for her when the rest of the world is asleep, but I’d rather her be healthy and at home. Thanks for praying with me for that. ๐๐ฆ
So I’ll say goodnight for this day and try to catch some nice deep winks to prepare my brain for writing an engaging post for tomorrow.
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๐ตLooking for LoveโAnd a Father
In my last post, I shared the beautiful memory of my birth fatherโthe man who tattooed my name on his arm as a mark of his love for me. But human stories are rarely simple. Sometime shortly after my fifth birthday, he was gone. And a little girl was left wondering: Why did he leave? What did I do wrong?
When your hero leaves, that important space is left empty. A lifelong search begins looking to replace everything that’s missing. Love; a father; protection; a new hero. If you donโt know what a fatherโs protective love actually looks like, you start looking for it everywhere and in everything.
In the years that followed, my mom made great efforts to replace what my little sister and I were missing. Men came and men went, many who tried to play “Daddy.” While some of them worked hard to live up to the name in their own fractured ways, darkness, addiction, and brokenness sometimes invaded those dynamics. Instead of finding safety, boundaries were broken that love should never have crossed.
When the very people who are supposed to protect you become the source of your wounds, the marks left behind may be invisible from the outside, but they are there nonetheless. These are not marks of love like a tattoo; they are stains of shame you feel the whole world can see on you. And those marks breed a quiet, devastating conclusion: If earthly fathers brought pain and abandonment, how could I ever trust an unseen Heavenly one to love me and stay in my life?
The “Foster Child” Mentality
By the time I was a teenager, I was looking for loveโand a fatherโin all the wrong places, learning all too well how to live with a victim mentality. But God is a master of rescue. Years later, after I began walking with Him, He began the work of healing those old, deep wounds. Eventually, I was even able to find a place of reconciliation and peace with those in my past who had hurt me.
Yet, as wonderful as the healing was, a quiet barrier remained around my heart. Not having a solid and safe father figure while growing up left me entirely unequipped to comprehend God as a “Father,” especially as my Father.
I read the Scriptures about the “Spirit of Adoption” bringing us into Godโs family, but in my heart, I still felt like an outsider. To me, God felt like the world’s best, safest “foster parent.” I knew He cared for me, but how could I accept Him as a true Father when I didnโt even know what that word meant? I wanted to be a real child of God, not just someone pulling up an awkward chair at a mixed family table.
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๐ต You’re a Grand Old Flag Day
โAmerica Bless Godโ
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
If you could have seen me on June 14th in my younger years, you would have thought, โOh my, she’s wearing red, white, and blue from head to toe!โ It’s still my personal Flag Day rule whenever I leave the house on this special day to wear at least some red, white, and blue clothing and jewelry. And, yes, when I went out to meet some family and a new friend today, I put on very patriotic colors to celebrate the day.
You see, my family raised me to think about the intrinsic value of our homelandโto carry a deep-seated and passionate patriotism that holds respect for flag and country above thoughts and opinions on what’s happening within its borders. It was foundational to my upbringing as a grateful American-born citizen. And I’ve been privileged to witness that same level of patriotism in some not born here but nevertheless grateful to become part of the American experience. It will be exciting to shower my Canadian sister-in-law with red, white, and blue goodies when they move to the states later this year. ๐ฆ
When it was time to prepare for this post, a quick trip through my huge collection of flag photos brought me back to some forgotten snapshots that perfectly capture the spirit of the day. During a visit to the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum (tucked right below Arnie’s Barn at Top of the Rock) in Branson, Missouri, I found these historic flags from our nation’s history.
What makes these two designs so special is the amazing artistry within their threads. Early congressional resolutions simply mandated thirteen stars, but they did not specify a strict layout. That gave early flag makers complete artistic freedom to represent their personal patriotism within these pieces of folk art.
The flag on the left is famously known as the Cowpens Flag Pattern, named after the 1781 โBattle of Cowpens.โ On the right, you see the creative variant often called the Wreath-with-Corners layout. Keeping a star in the middle was a popular choice for 19th-century folks celebrating the 1876 Centennial. For personal citizens, it was a break from the rigid structure used for military flags, allowing their artistry a proud form of display.
These unique pieces of American history are a powerful reminder of the intrinsic value of patriotism. They spark the flint from the very first Flag Day on June 14th, 1777, as declared by the Second Continental Congress during the height of the Revolutionary War.
Though they passed the โFlag Resolutionโ that included the 13 alternating red and white stripes (colors that represent courage/valor and purity), the blue field (representing justice), and the 13 white stars (for the 13 innocent colonies), the date was not represented yet. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the date, but it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that National Flag Day was officially established by an act of Congress and signed into permanent law by President Harry S. Truman.
These colors and their history inspired songwriter George M. Cohan while on a street corner back in 1906 where he crossed paths with a Civil War veteran. The old soldier cradled a torn and battle-worn American flag. He whispered to Cohan, โShe’s a grand old rag,โ and that moved Cohen to pen a song in her honor. Public pushback convinced him to change โragโ to โflag,โ but the heart of the song remained the same. Here’s a rendition of it with verses and lyrics.
In case you don’t know, this entire week is actually National Flag Week, so as you fly your American colors, join me this week by choosing your own red, white, and blue outfit or jewelry to celebrate and salute our national emblem. It represents a deep, unshakable allegiance to this place we call home.
As a fun side note for my readers who are history buffs: Betsy Ross may get all the fame surrounding our flag, but she was actually only the seamstress. In fact, it was a signer of โThe Declaration of Independenceโ named Francis Hopkinson who was the true creative mind behind the layout and original design.
And I’ll close with one final image I found from back when the YouVersion Bible app had a companion app calledย Bible Lens for matching pictures on your device with Bible verses. I love the one it found from Galatians 5:13 to go with one of my flag pictures. Photo Studio Pro allowed me to add some sparkles and a vintage frame. I’ll share the verse and then the image with the verse.
Galatians 5:13 NLT
[13] For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But donโt use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.13.NLT
Note: Some of the words for the historical information were assisted by Google Gemini, but Iโve edited and personalized all of it before publishing.
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๐ต My Brother’s New Music, Makin’ Chains, is Honest and Deep
There’s something thrilling about watching a musician with a dream as he carves out his new path in real-time. As his big sister, I’m super proud of Shayne’s achievements so far, and I know there are plenty more in the future. As a writer, I know the emotional labor that goes into crafting words from the depths of your soul, and with the deep truths presented in this latest release, I know my brother put it all out there.
It’s not common to present something so gritty and raw as only a second release, but with this one, Shayne is building a momentum even I didn’t expect. He put in the studio hours and put out the heart and soul that will prove to the world he’s not afraid to tackle heavy, complex human stories.
Shayne’s latest single, โMakin’ Chainsโ does exactly that.
If you are expecting the bright, melodic energy of his first release, โSavage Grace,โ prepare yourself for a deliberate shift to something much darker, grittier, and cinematically truthful. โMakin’ Chainsโ is a bit harder for me to write about. It’s not meant to make you feel comfortable; rather it’s an intense, unflinching look at generational patterns, anger, and the harsh cycles we create when pain is passed down as an inheritance.
The track itself is a bluesy rock with the guitar and vocals sounding like a weight being dragged across a hard floor. Shayne sings about the painful links forged into an ever-growing, weighted chain on our lives. He paints a detailed picture of the forger of that weight wanting to be free of it, and he sings a raspy whisper of the solution found in the Light.
But he doesn’t take the listener to the breakthrough in this song. That’s kind of hard for me, but I also know it takes some serious artistic bravery to drop a song that leaves you uncomfortable. It’s a mature stance to step away from the easy and catchy lines and deal with something so tragic and real. It’s genuine storytelling without holding back. I need to learn from my little brother. ๐ Knowing Shayne, though, I’m hoping he’s got a future track prepared where the story moves into that Light he whispers about in โMakin’ Chains.โ
To feel the heavy and authentic atmosphere he’s built with this track, you can watch the official video below.
With Makin’ Chains officially live and streaming everywhere, you can find the track, artwork, interviews, and choose your favorite streaming platform at: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/shaynesavage/makin-chains
To keep up with all future releases, merch, and more, bookmark his official website at: https://www.shaynesavage.com/
Note: Some of the words for this review were assisted by Google Gemini, but Iโve edited and personalized all of it before publishing.
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When AI Gets Goosebumps
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Because the last three days were so intense, I’ve decided to share a couple images that came up in my photo memories because of my recent topics onย mountains. These were made in the Abstract Fluid and Kintsugi filters; I really love the colors, and especially the gilded edges, on these pictures.
As for the goosebumps, I just had to share the laugh that when I presented my last blog post for editing (part 3 of the Upside-down Mountain posts), Gemini didn’t find any corrections and said the post gave it โliteral goosebumps.โ A play on words because it’s literary, or a test to see if I’d catch the word literal and say, โ No you didn’tโ? I don’t know, but at least it gave me a good smile and laugh. And I’m very happy that Gemini saw the value and hard work I’d put into that postโand all the posts on that subject.
Of course, I was really tired having been up for hours trying to fix a ghost notification on hubby’s phone that was going off every 2 minutes and then showing nothing in the pull-down notification screen. I need to tell you how to fix it in case it ever happens to you. This is an Android issue, and maybe even Samsung-specific.
So, I tried deleting files. I tried updating the Samsung password since my account fuels every Samsung device in the house and it was warning me that it had been 6 months since the last update. I tried every setting I could find that had to do with that notification, and nothing worked. That’s when Gemini came to my rescue.
First, it had me check to see if I was using message/notification reminders where they periodically pop back up if unanswered. Nope; that was clear. Then came a few more tweaks in notifications, privacy, and accessibility, but still: sounds with no words, every 2 minutes exactly. I knew that phone was not an airplane but would likely be tested that way if it kept it up when hubby got up the next day. So, like a bulldog with a bone, I kept digging.
Really, it’s not as hopeless as it would seem. And part of that is due to a very smart app Gemini told me to download from the Galaxy Store. It’s called โNice Catchโ and it can record all the little changes to your phone with about 7 hours of history. And the developer made it free!
Once I got the download open, I switched on the main toggle (and then every toggle) just to try and find the phantom annoyance. Within 2 minutes, the first one came up. And then 2 more, exactly at 2-minute intervals. They were repeats of the flash flood warning that had hit our area the previous morning when 8 inches of rain dropped in 1 hour. Once we had that info, Gemini was able to direct me to the exact setting that was creating the notifications.
If you have a Samsung smartphone, and especially if you’ve ever gotten random notifications with no visuals, this app works. With or without that app, though, here are the steps for making sure your phone’s emergency notifications are set exactly as you want them. I’m guessing these will be close to the same for every Samsung Android device. Go to…
- Settings (the gear โ๏ธ icon)
- Safety and Emergency
- Wireless Emergency Alerts
- Alert Reminder (It will likely say 2 minutes by default, and you can change it to once, 15 minutes, or never.)
Other settings on this page include setting your emergency alerts to full volume even when the phone is on Do Not Disturb, and having the alerts spoken to you.
I will research more for my own phone as I’ve found articles saying the Nice Catch developer, โGood Lockโ has lots of great customizations in their app suite. Comment below if there’s something you think I should know about or would be interested in. Thanks!
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๐ต The Upside-down Mountain of Blessings; Part 3
The dark clouds roll in with a thunderous crackle, and a howling wind blows blinding sheets of rain against the neighborhood. A flash flood violently surges over the riverbanks, ripping up trees and slamming directly into two houses. From a distance, the two structures look identical. But as the mud rushes over the foundations, their differences become obvious. One house stands completely unmoved against the torrent, while the other one collapses into a catastrophic heap of crushed bricks and broken wood. This is the closing cinematic scene of YahShua’s famous sermon.
After dismantling four millennia of religious chaos and bringing the focus back to its original purposeโgraceโHe ends with a sharp warning about an unavoidable storm. He forces us to look past the outward appearance of our lives and look directly at what is underneath them. Without explicitly asking Himself, He poses the question: What is your foundation?
Matthew 7:24-27 BSB
[24] Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25] The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
[26] But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. [27] The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fellโ and great was its collapse!โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.7.24-27.BSB
So I ask you, dear reader, what is your foundation? Are you trusting in The Lord and built on a rock-solid foundation that is backed up in Scripture? Have you tested the beliefs that frame your spiritual life against the words of The Carpenter?
And if you’ve ever wondered what a house (and rock) made of knitted yarn looks like, check out this cute image…
I loved working on this study with Gemini because it brought up some focal points I may have missed if I’d spent the hours required to search all the sources the AI has access to. One great point was this: The wise builder didn’t build a house to earn the rock; he built on the rock because he trusted its strength. At least it’s a great point to someone who has spent many days and hours trying to perform flawlessly enough to keep the Rock in my life rather than causing Him to give up on me.
I also liked the notes on comparing our walk with Christ to a phone that needs to be charged. A phone doesn’t earn its power by working, it sits passively on a charger to receive power. But it receives power *so that* it can go out and run its apps. Good behavior and holy living are not a currency we pay to get God to love usโthey are the natural fruit of a life that has finally let God and His love be the source of power.
Stopping the Grace vs Works Pendulum
We don’t obey God to convince Him we are worthy of His love; we obey Him because we have finally allowed Him to fully love us. His way. Based on His worthinessโpoured out in blood at Calvary. We obey because, like a glass submitting to a vessel that’s pouring water into it, we trust Him to fill us up. Good behavior and obedience, including letting God serve us in healings and other blessings, is the fruit of that trust.
The balance of both grace and good worksโwith grace setting us free from struggling for a paycheck attached to our workloadโstops the pendulum. Once we’re free from being servants of sin, we become like children who want to please our holy Father because we love and trust Him. We’re no longer swinging from one extreme to the other trying to figure out which lessons to follow to become perfect or shunning works all together as if they are a type of bondage.
Now, we’re praising God from the top of the upside-down mountain of blessings, and from the valley below. We realize blessings are His gifts of love toward us rather than rewards for our perfection. He pours out gifts because He wants to. No more begging; just receiving, trusting, and loving in all kinds of weather.
As we wrap up this journey on the Upside-Down Mountain of Blessings, look at your own spiritual foundation today. Are you still trying to climb the old mountains of performance, or are you ready to build on the Rock of Christ’s finished work? Iโd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below: Which part of this upside-down message speaks most deeply to where you are at in your faith journey right now?
Read Part 1 at: https://crystal-writes.com/2026/06/07/upside-down1/
Read Part 2 at: https://crystal-writes.com/2026/06/08/upside-down2/
And now, enjoy an old childhood favorite about the wise man and the foolish man…
And I’ll finish this in style with the beautiful song โGod on the Mountainโ by Lynda Randle…
Note: Parts of this study (and a few of the words) were assisted by Google Gemini, alongside website studies at Bible Hub and Got Questions, but Iโve edited and personalized all of it before publishing.
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๐ตUpside-down Mountain of Blessings; Part 1
Imagine standing in the desert heat in the Shechem Valley of ancient Israel. You’re listening to the voices of the nation’s tribal leaders shout across two steep cliffs. From one lush green peak, Mount Gerizim, you hear shouts of blessing after blessing poured over the crowds. The shouts promise things like wealth, rain, and victory. And then, from the barren ridge of Mount Ebal, terrifying declarations of curse after curse ring out, warning of catastrophic dangers like poverty, hunger, and exile. This was the environment of the โvalley of decisionโโthe place where God asked for a commitment of loyalty from His people. In Deuteronomy 30:19-20 it says,
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 BSB
[19] I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, [20] and that you may love the Lord your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/deu.30.19-20.BSB
For centuries, this was the landscape of ancient Judaismโa clear-cut line where your physical state (blessing or curse on wealth, health, and safety) was your spiritual โreport card.โ Originally, it had a beautiful purpose in driving loyalty to The Creator and away from the many false gods of the surrounding nations.
But even good things can become co-opted by human misunderstanding until they no longer resemble their original purpose. Over time, religion began to use those โreport cardsโ as excuses to elevate or destroy people based on how they determined God must be judging them. (Think of Job’s โfriends.โ) If you were successful, you were deemed blessed, and if not, you were deemed cursed.
Suddenly, instead of โone peopleโ gratefully serving the One Lord who delivered them from the bondage and slavery of Egypt, religion devolved into a caste society of judgmental haves lording themselves over the have-nots. It didn’t help people’s hearts grow closer to Yahveh at all. In fact, His heart broke for every person driven away from Him by those whose service to Him was shallow and purely on the surface.
But fast-forward to a different hill in Galilee. Here, a radical new Teacher sits down with the crowd. He looks far beyond the external โreport cardsโ and instead looks deep into the eyes of the poor, the grieving, and the socially rejected. Even if they only came for a free meal or healing, he doesn’t shout at them from a mountain of curses.
Instead, He catches everyone completely by surprise. He looks right at the broken and says, โBlessed are you.โ
Welcome to the Upside-Down Mountain of Blessings, where YahShua (Jesus) rewrites everything we thought we knew about the favor of God.
When we talk about this event, we call it The Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, and The Sermon on the Plain in the book of Luke. On the mountain, YahShua mirrors Moses going up the mountain to receive the laws of God, bringing tried-and-true instructions for Kingdom living to His disciples. On the plain, He acts more like Joshua delivering those historic blessings and cursesโexcept He turns them totally upside-down.
We call them โThe Beatitudesโ (from the Latin word beatus meaning โblessedโ or โhappyโ) and โThe Woes.โ Notice how the traditional โreport cardโ gets completely flipped. Here’s the account from Luke 6…
Luke 6:20-26 BSB
[20] Looking up at His disciples, Jesus said:
โBlessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
[21] Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
[22] Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. [23] Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[24] But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
[25] Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
[26] Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.6.20-26.BSB
(You can also read Matthew's account of The Beatitudes, which focuses on the blessings without the woes, here: https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.5.3-11.BSB)
In all of this, you can see how far humanity swung the pendulum of religion away from God’s original intent of โencouragingโ people to choose His ways. From the Old Testament mountains to the hills and plains of the New Testament, religious systems had stripped away God’s mercyโleaving a distorted picture that still causes people today to accuse God of being a bully in the Old Testament. But YahShua demonstrated the true heart of The Father by fully ministering to the actual needs of those who followed Him.
And now, as you see your hardships are not a sign of God’s judgment or abandonment, you can release that crushing burden of being required to perform flawlessly for Him to earn your mountain of blessings.
But this leads to a slightly uncomfortable question: If the Kingdom is a place where the empty are filled and the broken are blessed, how do we actually receive it? What does it look like for Our King to roll up His sleeves, kneel down on the ground in front of us, and offer to do the one thing our spiritual pride hates the mostโminister to us in our messy and broken conditions?
In Part 2, we will look at exactly that scenario as YahShua declares Himself a servant and washes the feet of His disciples. Read Part 2 here.
In the meantime, check out this fantastic ApologetiX parody of โVenusโ by Bananarama and titled โJesus (Sermon on the Mount). While this specific video isn’t sung directly by them, it’s an excellent parody with great visuals and full lyrics included!
Note: Parts of this study (and a few of the words) were assisted by Google Gemini, alongside website studies at Bible Hub and Got Questions, but I’ve edited and personalized all of it before publishing.
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๐ต Prompt Response: Soul ATM
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
Day One
When I first read this prompt, my mind immediately went to how many lasting things I could get if I had no limits. I thought of how I’d contact a banker and ask for help with investments that would keep the unlimited flow going long after the 24 hours. And then…
It occurred to me that an unlimited budget did not have to be about any kind of money or finance. What could be worth more than those things and give me unlimited prosperity for 24 hours? Souls! Having a flow of guaranteed souls dispensed to me like an ATM does money, and then being able to send those souls in a new directionโtoward the cross of Christโwould be amazing.
I think my mind went there after hearing from a Facebook friend who I met on the site years ago but who has since blessed me greatly with her sincere love for The Lord. She told me about how she tries to use every opportunity God gives her to share her salvation testimony. She is driven to carry the Good News to as many souls as God allows to cross her path.
So, can you imagine having a day with an unlimited budget of souls being sent your way? They need The Lord you serve, the peace He provides, and the promise of eternity. You have the answers that will give them that hope and peace, and this unlimited budget means they are sent right to you and ready to listen.
Most of us will share our experiences and testimonies here and there as a door opens or an opportunity presents itself. A few, like my friend Miha, will create open doors and opportunities. And whether you were only given 2 talents or the whole 5, or even only 1 talent, the Lord wants to gain interest on the investment He made for your soul and paid with His very own blood. Anything that can make interest (usury) is certainly a valuable asset, and we really do have an unlimited budget of hungry and empty people who need God.
In The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) it begins like this…
Matthew 25:14-15 BSB
[14] For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions. [15] To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent โ each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.25.14-15.BSB
Each servant spends his investment differently with one of them not spending at all but burying his talent. There are many interpretations of what these talents are, including the possibility of those abilities within each of us that can be called talents, but the end result is always the same. We need to multiply what The Lord has entrusted us with that He will be able to profit on His return. He tells the person who hid his talent…
Matthew 25:27 BSB
[27] Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.25.27.BSB
So whether it’s financial gain, or actual performance talent, when The Lord returns, we know He is returning for souls. That means interest on that would be more souls.
Over forty years ago, I sat on a church pew in Riverside, California, where I was visiting for a revival. They presented a video set to Steve Greenโs classic song, โPeople Need the Lord.โ But it wasn’t a generic Hollywood production. The church had taken photos of their own communityโordinary people on familiar street corners, living out their daily lives. I wept as I watched unfamiliar faces with the same needs as the familiar faces in my own daily life. I understood then that the mission field isn’t always across an ocean; it’s often right outside our own front doors. We are surrounded by a Soul ATM, a world of empty people rushing by with a need for mercy and grace and maybe not even knowing where to look. It just takes one person willing to step out of their own busyness, set up a chair, and offer the only Good News that can truly change their direction and fill them with the hope they need.
Here’s a beautiful rendition of that song…
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๐ตGirl’s Day Memories
First, I really like this knitted filter. ๐ And I’ve also found that it will often create more pictures for me while the other filters keep giving me โrestricted contentโ warnings because my prompt has words like child or daughter or kid in it. It’s sad that people in our world use those words to create content that wouldn’t be deemed as โsafe for workโ so it causes a warning if anything gets even close to that.
But I’m not writing about sad stuff except maybe the bittersweetness of memories because they cannot be had anymore. So on to the content I planned for today.
My day’s plans were put on hold due to a sciatic flair, so I spent the day on a phone visit with a friend. (The amazing friend who’s been helping me with Operation Cleanout and getting organized.) She understood my lack of ability to move, lift, and twist today, so we enjoyed a time of visiting via voice instead of in person. During that visit, a thing I shared with her hit me as a good topic for my blog readers.
Growing up for a time in government housing meant things like looking for inexpensive ways to find meaning in a day and finding out how to do that at home because we didn’t have a car. Eventually, we established a pattern. When the monthly check would arrive, my mother would treat me and my sister to a girl’s day. Our first stop was usually to take the bus to the nearest โLicorice Pizzaโ record store and buy ourselves at least one new record to listen to. I can still see the blue label on the Wildfire 45 rpm we loved to sing with. โShe ran calling ‘Wildfire,’ she ran calling…โ And once in a while, we got a whole new album, like a greatest hits collection by Anne Murray because we all sang with that one.
I don’t recall which stores we shopped at for nail polish, but we always got at least one new color to try, usually one with sparkles in it. We’d get out all the old ones from previous months, and sometimes we painted a different color on each nail just for fun. I think they actually do that in professional manicures now, but we just loved to experiment back then.
On the way home, we got off the bus a couple blocks past our apartment complex, so we could get our favorite dinner treat: Chinese food to go. In those days, the more people you ordered for, the more extra food types you could add to your order. It’s why that one old Doris Day/Brian Keith movie is called โWith Six You Get Eggroll.โ Of course, we had to have an egg roll and fried rice with every order. ๐ And they always added these paper sleeves with wooden chopsticks, so we always tried to figure out how to use themโat least for the first few bites. ๐คฃ
As a side note, as an adult, I always wondered why fried rice just didn’t taste the same as I’d remembered from my youth. One day, just for my own curiosity, I added a little bit of the oil that floats on top of my natural peanut butter, and there it was….that unmistakable flavor that made me always want more Chinese food. I guess most Chinese restaurants used woks and peanut oil back then, and the taste was totally different. And, I think, so much better!
Anyway, with our bags full of little white boxes covered in red designs and symbols, we headed home for a few hours of unstressed mom and daughters fun. We’d sit on the living room floor and try the foods while the record player dropped a stack of 45s, including the latest purchases. We would sometimes play the music through headphones to more fully hear the nuances of left and right sounds. And then we’d make the house smell like a salon while we played with color.
I wish every day had those good memories, and I wish they were never undone by Mom going on a late night drinking binge, but even with the myriad of imperfect and stressful days, I’m so thankful for those times, those pleasant moments, that brought balance to my life. Now, they bring balance to my memories as well.
Philippians 4:8 BSB
[8] Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable โ if anything is excellent or praiseworthy โ think on these things.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/php.4.8.BSB
I know the words are a bit sad, but here’s a video of Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphey with a slideshow of beautiful horses…
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๐ต Buttermilk Biscuit Dance?
Did you know we have a national march for our country? No? Me either! Yes? You should blog about it and teach the rest of us. ๐ I think you’ll recognize the tune when you hear it, though. I’ll tell you later about the biscuit dance, but for now, I’m taking you back to 1897 when a man later dubbed The March King, John Philip Sousa officially debuted the song he’d written the previous year. It’s called โStars and Stripes Forever,โ and it became our national march tune by an act of Congress in 1987. It was even used to close out each show of Sing Along with Mitch.
I actually have a whole Sousa CD because I really like that marching beat. I guess it’s time to get it out to use as some walking beat inspiration. In the meantime, guess what people did with the powerful march at song in the 1930s and 1940s. They made a parody. And if you didn’t know the tune from the march, you likely recognize it from the parody. Though I heard it as Be Kind to Your Fine Feathered Friends, all the videos I could find think it’s Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends. So here’s one video (no lyrics, though) by Peter and Mary in 1954, and it actually has verses…
Now, about those biscuits falling out of their mouths while they try to dance like chickens… May 14th is actually Dance Like a Chicken Day AND also Buttermilk Biscuit Day, so I asked Gemini to create a picture for me with people doing the Chicken Dance while eating buttermilk biscuits. I say definitely don’t try this at home because the mess would be huge, but I also say not to try this at all because you could choke. But it’s fun to look at in a picture.
And now I have to ask, do you know how to Chicken Dance? (Which was originally called The Duck Dance by the way.) If not, here’s a great video celebrating Wurstfest (since apparently the song by Werner Thomas is of German origins)…
While seeking help from Gemini to find all these sources, it asked me if I was going to write a poem or haiku to go with the subjects. I tried to cover it all in 2 stanzas…
It's a duck, mother,
Feathered sister or brother,
So be kind to it.
Also remember,
The stars and stripes wave freely,
Even o'er the swamp.
And while you’re eating or dancing or playing a tune, follow the encouragement from the Psalms to praise The Lord on many types of instruments:
Psalm 150:3-6 BSB
[3] Praise Him with the sound of the horn; praise Him with the harp and lyre. [4] Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flute. [5] Praise Him with clashing cymbals; praise Him with resounding cymbals. [6] Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.150.3-6.BSB
Finally, I have one more video I just have to include because of the duck dance reference and because these baby ducks are adorable while flitting around to the Chicken/Duck/Hamster Dance music… ๐ฆ๐ถ
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๐ตWriter’s WeekendโBlog Break
I found an old golden hour sunset that I was trying to edit, and I couldn’t get it quite where I wanted it without turning on the computer with better software. That’s when I decided to ask Wombo to add the swing and the woman, and now I can take a little break for tonight.
We had a great writer’s meeting today, and I’m so impressed by the hearts and writing talent of those in our group. But it also means I get home a little late and have so much on my mind that a single topic for a blog post is a little hard to focus on. I wouldn’t trade it, though, and I hope it just gives readers an excuse to read old posts they may have missed. ๐
But just for fun, here’s a little squeeze box (accordion) tune to go with the funny fish poem I posted about in April called I Fished in a Tree.
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๐ต The Clock on God’s Wall
Anyone who read yesterday’s post to the end where I talk about my stepdad being in ICU without a DNR probably expected a goodbye post to follow soon. And you’re correct. But oh how perfectly God directs the timing even of the hard things. We can trust the clock on God’s wall.
I waited for a bit today to see if I got any phone calls; did my daily Bible study and other routines, made a cup of coffee, etc. I got out my phone to make the call to the hospital ICU for an update, and then realized I should finish the task I was on so it wouldn’t make noise during my call. The wait delayed my call for about 5-10 minutes. When I got the palliative nurse on the line, she gave me the news that his heart had stopped in the past 5-10 minutes.
I don’t consider things like that to be coincidences. I see them as a piece of timing that God orchestrated perfectly and nudged me into. He knew the difference it would make if I were talking to the nurse when the monitors began to signal my dad’s final moments. But by hearing it in the past tense, I was able to feel the jolt of sadness but also the peace of knowing he was in God’s hands already. Bittersweet is a good adjective for that. So, while I mourn a bit on this Earth, I can also rejoice that we have such a loving and personal Lord and Savior to plan for our needs and carry them out in just the right timing.
I tried a bunch of pictures with Wombo, and they just weren’t working, so I asked Gemini to better interpret what I was trying to say. I think the image is amazing, and because I did no personal editing or framing on it, it’s public domain for anyone else who might want to use it. I did not ask for the Scripture, so that was an extra nice touch. Here are those verses from Ecclesiastes 3…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 BSB
[1] To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: [2] a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, [3] a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build, [4] a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, [5] a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, [6] a time to search and a time to count as lost, a time to keep and a time to discard, [7] a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, [8] a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/ecc.3.1-8.BSB
And one more verse that seems fitting…
2 Corinthians 1:4 BSB
[4] who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/2co.1.4.BSB
I’ll close this out with a beautiful and fitting song by Casting Crowns…
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Haiku ScripturesโGenesis One
As promised, tonight I bring you Genesis, Chapter 1. Read it for the rhythm and nuances you might miss from just passive reading or from study. I hope my poet’s eye leads you to even deeper study on your own. The first-born teacher in me would be thrilled to know I’ve stirred up a hunger for even more of God’s Word in my readers.
Note: When I originally used the memorial name of The Almighty, I used what’s called the tetragrammaton (YHVH) with the vowels inserted. That read YaHVeH. (Or it could be YHWH/YaHWeH, but V and W were the same letter in Hebrew, and I’m drawn to the V because by itself, it means and. So when I read Yahveh vs Yahweh, I see it as โYah and…โ or โGod and… โ because He is the beginning of everything. Still, it looked distracting with the capital letters, so I’ve fixed that now.
GENESIS Intro…
Genesis One: One
โGenesisโ means โBeginningsโ…
Let us start from here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 1…1:1
In the beginning:
No heavens; no earth, until...
Yahveh creates all!
1:2-5
Darkness divided:
Yahveh says, "Let there be light."
... Eve and morn โ โDay One.โ
1:6-8
Waters Divided:
Those below from those above.
... Eve and morn โ โDay Two.โ
1:9-10
The dry lands appear.
They are split by the waters,
Which Yahveh calls โseas.โ
1:11-13
Earth starts producing:
Trees, plants, and seed-bearing fruit.
... Eve and morn โ โDay Three.โ
1:14-19
Great and lesser lights:
To rule the days and the nights;
Sunshine; moon; and stars.
Lights will be for signs,
And for seasons, days and years.
... Eve and morn โ โDay Four.โ
1:20-23
When birds and fish swarm:
They fill the skies and the seas.
... Eve and morn โ โDay Five.โ
1:24-25
The earth brings forth life:
Many animals and beasts,
And crawling creatures.
So much accomplished:
Most of creation is done...
God says, โIt is good.โ
1:26
ankind is made:
Created in God's image...
Man is blessed in God.
1:27-31
See man; See woman:
The greatest of all creations...
It is very good!
1:28-31
Plants and animals:
Plus humans, to multiply.
... Eve and morn โ โDay Six.โ
End of Chapter One
And now just for fun, here’s a couple 30-second music tracks to accompany two of the stanzas of haiku about God creating man. Comment about your favorite.
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๐ตMilestones
I’m keeping this really short because I wore myself out today going through many of the milestones I’ve kept in boxes because they are so precious to me. And I’m thankful for the memories, but there comes a time when you’ve got to whittle the physical parts of the memories down a bit. I’ve still got all the good stuff in my heart where it matters most.
And speaking of milestones, my little sister is celebrating a big one, so I played around with some AI music and created a short chorus for her. I made it to just โMy Little Sisterโ so my readers can download it for their little sister’s birthdays as well if they like. Here are the lyrics…
Happy birthday to you sister,
The best little sister I adore.
I celebrate with you, little sister.
Have a great birthday...
And many, many more!
And here is the sound track…
And because I love the Holy Word of God so much, I even found a birthday Bible study to share with her and you all. Just go to Bible.com to find it with this link:http://bible.com/r/ADb which should take you to a study called A Birthday Card from Your Creator (A 7-Day Devotional).
Psalms 139:14 CSB
[14] I will praiseย you because I have been remarkably andย wondrouslyย made.ย , Your works are wondrous, and I know this veryย well.ย
https://bible.com/bible/1713/psa.139.14.CSB
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๐ต Holy, Pure, and Undefiled (Full Song)๐ถ
It’s done, and I’m excited to share it with my readers. This is the finished song with 3 verses added to the chorus I shared on the post April 18th. I’m not sure what was harder, writing the lyrics, getting a sound I like from Gemini (Lyria model), or getting this uploaded to YouTube so I could embed it here. Though difficult and time-consuming, I actually enjoyed the process, and now I’m excited to try a bunch more of my poetry set to music. What a fun way to write for the joy of The Lord, and then to make a joyful noise.
1 John 1:4 BSB
[4] We write these things so that our joy may be complete.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/1jn.1.4.BSB
Psalm 100:1-2 BSB
[1] A Psalm of thanksgiving. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. [2] Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with joyful songs.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.100.1-2.BSB
I won’t bore you with a ton of details, but there have been some great lessons learned. Part of the learning felt like being in the music studio redoing tracks until they didn’t have any more hiccups. I heard Elvis was famous for doing that hundreds of times. And Marty Robbins was able to go into the studio and sing a song to perfection at the first take. (I’m sure you know who Elvis was, but if you’re not familiar with Marty, look up his album called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs for some you might find familiar like โEl Pasoโ and โCool Water.โ Or you might remember him for โA White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation.โ)
And that was a fun rabbit trail. Lol ๐คฃ Anyway, to get the recording with which I was finally happy, it took coming back after I ran out of credits, and it took using multiple AI models. The Pro model didn’t want to help once it saw religious lyrics (I’m sad for that part), but the fast model that helps with a lot of Bible queries from me said it’s just how it’s trained. So, I let the fast model create the prompt with all the right spaces and breaks and punctuation to tell the Lyria model how to sing my words. AI knows AI, so the understanding was finally there to get my song, complete with ending tags (though it could’ve done a little better on that part), and a big orchestra & choir sound. The more I’ve played it, the more I’ve liked it.
And the last piece to the puzzle was finding out that Adobe Express would listen to the video and create captions in time with the music. I had to change some font sizes and boldness within the parameters of not having Adobe premium, but I was able to get them done in a way that should help y’all sing along. So, here for its debut blog performance, please enjoy Holy, Pure, and Undefiled with Lyrics by me and all the rest by Gemini and Lyria…
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๐ต Computerized Music Studio ๐ถ
Can a computer really create its own music? I somehow qualified for a trial of Gemini Pro, and I’ve just learned that I can plug in some lyrics and have it create a music track and vocals. Now it’s not like in the old days of AI origins (just a couple years ago, lol ๐) where all image requests were totally distorted, but it does get a few things wrong on the vocals, and sometimes it has technical glitches. I guess it’s all part of my cyber journey. But I had some good experience and fun while working on these, and I even felt a little like I was in the studio with a band trying to get a track just right. While I’ve never truly enjoyed being on stage, I’ve always loved the studio experience.
So, back in 2013, I wrote a chorus that was part of a prayer. I wrote how I longed for God to see me as pure, holy, and undefiled. I’ve sung it to God many times because it’s where I desire to be, and where I desire to come back to when the cares of this life have distracted me. Here are the lyrics to the chorus…
Holy, pure, and undefiled,
Let my heart and my mind be...
Holy, pure and undefiled,
Lord may I be more like Thee.
The AI cannot use the tune I created myself, but since I’m more of a lyricist than a musician, I decided to let it choose the tunes for me. Now I guess I have to learn my own song. Lol ๐ Here are two 30-second videos with the lyrics set to different music tunes and styles…
When I asked Gemini (Google’s AI) to add some music for me, it wanted to know a style. I started with an anthem sound, and I love what it created.
And then I asked for the same chorus with a country sound and a male vocalist. I liked this one a lot as well.
Finally, I decided to write some verses to go with the chorus, but there were things that didn’t work in every video until I ran past my limit on generations of new songs. I guess it’s about 50 of the short ones and only 10 of the long (3-minute) ones, so I’ll have to wait until it fully resets to try it again. When it does, I’ll create a new post, and then I’ll put a link here for anyone who follows this one. I’d love to hear your thoughts, though.
Psalm 98:4 BSB
[4] Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth โ let your cry ring out, and sing praises!
https://bible.com/bible/3034/psa.98.4.BSB
Find the complete song with 3 verses and new music and vocals on my post from April 22nd titled Holy, Pure, and Undefiled.
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My Own Creative Muse
Like the character Cameo in yesterday’s story, I feel like I have the voice of a โmuseโ in my mind that drives me to create. Unlike Cameo, I haven’t turned away from that voice completely, though I’ve gone through dry spells. Maybe that’s why the story came to me and made me examine the relationship between our thought lives and our real lives. And if you ever battle with the still, small voice like Elijah, maybe Cameo’s journey will be enjoyable for you as well.
Though it’s not time to share more of her story yet, I want to share just a little from recent creative endeavors. The above photo is a close-up from the first good blooms on an azalea plant hubby got for me a few years ago. He did the research to find out what would make it grow, and it paid off well. I’m thrilled with the plant and with the pictures. I added a sparkly frame on this one because I knew how it would affect the images I got from Wombo Dream AI. Get ready for a barrage of pink and full instructions for any why might want to try designing images in Wombo.
So my first stop was to their browser page because they recently updated it with a new โeditโ button. You can upload an image, and then tell it how you want it edited. Maybe you want the flowers in purple or the sky in green. Put your thoughts in the prompt box, and let it go to work. I told it I wanted the image in stained glass. The outputs were the same in the app as in the browser, so here are some from the app before I added the frame…
You can visit the website without downloading the app, so you can make your own fun edits at https://dream.ai/ and click on the โStart Creatingโ button. On the creation page, you can use my prompt (below) if you like, or create your own. When you add a prompt, you’ll notice a button that says enhance. That button will add some fancy extra prompts that are well trained into the AI. Once you have the prompt you want, it’s time to select a filter. Anything that doesn’t say โPremiumโ is okay to use. The latest filters are V4, and the V3 filters also work well. Once your filter is selected, you can choose generate to make your picture. It will download with a watermark if you don’t have premium, but it’s not bad and may be able to be cropped out in another program if it really bothers you. Here’s the prompt…
Turn these beautiful magenta azaleas into a stained glass window.
This is just the beginning of what you can do. You’ll notice you have image sizes to choose from in case you want to make a phone wallpaper size or a Facebook header size. And then you can look toward the bottom for the browse button where you can upload your own image. Or mine if you’ve downloaded it. That’s why I make most of my images Creative Commons. At some point, the page may ask you to create an account in order to download your images. I’m not sure if the gallery to store your images comes with every account, or only on the app, but having lost a number of gallery photos when they crashed last year, I recommend actually saving your favorites to a permanent location.ย
Now, because I’m a fan of abstract creations, there is a V2 filter I go to often. I’ll share the collage and prompt for that, and I hope to hear from readers that you’ve tried this for yourself and had as much fun with it as I do. The prompt (for use with the image at the top and with their enhanced additions) is…
Turn this into a beautiful stained glass window with the original magenta pink azalea and pink glitter frame colors intact. Intricate lead lines separating vibrant glass pieces, sunlight streaming through to cast colorful reflections, delicate floral motifs surrounding the azalea, subtle gradients blending pinks and purples, the window set against a softly illuminated stone wall, enhanced by shimmering highlights on the glitter frame that catch the light at different angles.
And here are the images…
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๐ต The Poetry of Poetry: And the Biblical Rhythms that Never Fade
Every April, while I’m finding excitement in it being National Poetry Month, I’m hearing many โI hate poetryโ voices–even from my fellow writers. But I don’t think it’s poetry they hate. If they read God’s Word, they are reading poetry in a lot of it, especially the Psalms. If they listen to music, they are listening to the meter and rhyme of poetry. I think it’s the abstract and flowery ideas often found in poetry that they feel resistant to; not the idea of rhythmic words.
Poetry is to words what a kaleidoscope is to bits of colorful glass. When tumbled together in the presence of mirrors and light, the pieces in the kaleidoscope can present an image that will stop you in your tracks and take your breath away. And the same thing can happen when you read a poem that captures words with precise rhythms you can feel like a song.
In biblical poetry, the use of parallelism (like mirrors in a kaleidoscope) creates a cadence that works as a mnemonic to help you remember the words and their meanings long after you’ve closed the book. It’s why so many Scriptures can easily move into song — the music is already within the words.
So today, I invite you to look more deeply into the idea of poetry. Look at why the rules of meter and rhyme (the musical elements) of a poem matter for both writers and readers. Ignore the idea that every poem is by a creator who abuses artistic license (though there are plenty) and let yourself enjoy the poetry that surrounds you in so many ways. Even nature with its mirrored flower petals and fractalized seashells displays itself as a poem without words. So, if you understand the technology and technique behind it, you’ll understand and admire the poetry of it.
There is an unspoken symmetry in the words that click with our spirits. It’s like the broken pieces in a kaleidoscope lining up to become a star, sparkling with unexpected beauty. My article, โThe Poetry of Poetryโ (1300+ reads at Scribd.com) is your invitation to open up the kaleidoscope and look at the mechanics behind the design. The exact placement of the mirrors and where light is invited in can completely change the reflections of the glass. You’ll learn the mechanics of poetry in what I’ve put together, and it will help you see how a poet can use words and rhythms to create reflections that pull you into the vision of the piece.
Download the PDF of The Poetry of Poetry
And, finally, enjoy this beautiful version of Psalm 23 (Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy) by Shane and Shane. This will give you biblical poetry with the mathematics of perfect harmonies. For me, this song with lyrics was easy to sing, and it brought more than one moment of tears.
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A Passover Prisoner Exchange
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Who could this prisoner be whose freedom now hits him square between the eyes while he watches a substitute take his place on the cross? His cross! He was found guilty. He was sentenced to die that death. And he knew how wrong he was for committing his sins because he’d been raised better than that. He was supposed to be a preacher–not a prisoner. And now he is free even though he didn’t do anything to deserve it. The weight of the chains that once bound his wrists now weighs even heavier on his heart. What will he do with his new freedom?
I’m not going to tell you his name yet. I’m going to let you guess, or study, or maybe a little of both. If you already know, you’ve probably never thought of him as a backslidden PK (Preacher’s Kid). If you don’t know, I’ll tell you tomorrow. But today, I’ll remind you that because of the ultimate Passover sacrifice, no one is without hope.
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๐ตBehold the Lamb!
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Scripture tells us that there is safety in a multitude of counselors. I think that’s because perspective is created by individual experiences mixed with the wisdom we’ve been taught. We share our perspectives with others (hence the proliferation of blogs, podcasts, videos, etc.), and when that is mixed with someone’s experience, they get new perspectives with which to counsel others.
I love to read, but not so much book-length manuscripts. I’ve read a few novels that kept me enthralled, but it’s just a handful of authors that have that effect on me. So, I read lots of articles and blog posts, and other quick content. I love the Bible app by YouVersion because of the abundance of Bible studies there. And I can study alone or with others. Their plans are best on the app, but this page should work even if you don’t have the app yet… https://www.bible.com/reading-plans and you can search plans by topic, length, author, etc.
My latest study is called โA Gospel View of Christ, the Lamb of Godโ by Returning to the Gospel. The link should take you right to it.
In reading this study, which is happening during Passover week (and Easter week) because I didn’t start it right when I planned, I’ve read of an amazing โcoincidenceโ (we know it’s more likely a โGod-incidenceโ) about the examination of the Passover lambs. All of Exodus Chapter 12 is about the Passover, and you can read it at Bible Hub, but here are the 2 verses that gave me a new perspective…
Exodus 12:3, 6 BSB
[3] Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
[6] You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/exo.12.3-6.BSB
I added bold emphasis to point out the 10th and 14th days. They chose a lamb but did not slaughter it until it had been thoroughly examined, and then all the people slaughtered their lambs at the same time. The study pointed out that on the 10th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, the sheep were being brought through the โSheep Gateโ to be examined for the Passover. It is known as โShabbat HaGadolโ and is a significant Sabbath for the feast. On that same day, Messiah YahShua was entering another gate riding on a donkey. He would have dinner with His disciples, and then they would go pray in Gethsemane. From there, the betrayal would mean His arrest and then a whole lot of examination. And they found no spot or blemish, so He was ready to be sacrificed.
I don’t believe Abba Yahveh Almighty lets any of that just happen. It’s a full plan to redeem us and to remove any excuses from those who know the details but refuse to believe. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out one day that each thing that happened back then was on a clock that matched the original Passover to the minute–or even to the second. An article at โHebrew for Christiansโ has even more amazing details. My favorite is the connection between the Passover lamb and the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet: Aleph (pronounced ah-lef) and Tav (pronounced tahv). In Hebrew, these are written as ื and ืช.”
In the Hebrew Scriptures, these two letters often appear together. While they act as a grammatical pointer, they also represent the ‘First and the Last.’ Remember that YahShua said He was the Alpha and Omega, which is the Greek equivalent of Aleph and Tav, or A and Z, or First and Last. I used the parallel Bible at Bible Hub to view the Hebrew letters, and it’s as they say. Read the whole article for more at… https://hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shabbat_HaGadol/shabbat_hagadol.html
And with all that information, now I want to turn to the reason for seeking these things. We need to behold The Lamb so we can fully understand what He did for us and share that good news (or God news) with others. Close your eyes and imagine that pure and spotless lamb, silent and waiting, not even knowing the power that would flow from it’s perfect body to cover the door posts of Israel and protect them from the Death Angel when it entered Egypt. And then, envision another Lamb, this One knowing the power in His precious blood. Pray with me…
Abba Yahveh, our Father, we thank You for not just teaching us, but for loving us. Before we knew what we were missing, You were creating and perfecting a plan to remove every barrier that separates us from you by covering sin in perfect blood. Before we knew You (while we were yet sinners), You already loved and wanted us for Your own. You literally moved Heaven and Earth to make it happen! As You reach out and pursue us, even into the depths of the bondage of sin, may we look up and reach out to You and allow You to deliver us and set us free. It is not Your will for any of us to perish without You. Thank you for that and for ALL of Your wonderful mercy and grace. May Your Holy Presence dwell with each person who brings this prayer to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
And now, a beautiful song written by Dottie Rambo called โBehold The Lamb.โ
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๐ตProverbs 21: When God Weighs Hearts
Do you suppose that most people who misbehave think they are doing anything wrong? It seems to me that even those who know they are doing something evil (like taking revenge on someone) only do so because they somehow feel justified. Proverbs Chapter 21 begins with talking about the King’s heart being in God’s hands and following His direction. Then it goes to other men and says…
Proverbs 21:2 WEBUS
[2] Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.21.2.WEBUS
The juxtaposition of the two types makes sense because the wise king who’s writing most of these proverbial instructions is trying to lead people by God’s direction. Even if he later fails and begins his own ways of doing right in his eyes instead of God’s, it doesn’t change the wisdom that real leadership works best when it’s in God’s hands. And it doesn’t change the wisdom that God weighs the heart and motives underlying the thoughts and behaviors.
But because of Calvary, we now know that God doesn’t stop with weighing hearts. He doesn’t see a pain-hardened heart with a jagged rock in the middle of it and just give up and throw it away. Instead, He offers the one suffering from a heavy heart an opportunity to let Him remake it into a tender heart of flesh.
Until putting this post together, I’d been reading all those verses showing the differences between righteous people and fools with a bit of judgment toward those who make foolish decisions and then pay foolish prices. It may be how it’s written, but I want to take this moment to look at every one of those differently; followed by a but it doesn’t have to stay this way thought process. Because, with the mercy and grace found in the holy blood of Jesus Christ shed at Calvary for you and me, we are no longer destined to be stuck in unrighteousness. We don’t have to be a king to put our hearts in the capable hands of The King of Kings and let Him direct us like He directs the rivers and oceans.
Verse 7 tells us…
Proverbs 21:7 WEBUS
[7] The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.21.7.WEBUS
So we know they refuse to do right because they already think they are doing right. And when being driven away causes the pain of rejection, the stone in the heart gets a little harder and sharper, and the person makes even more wrong decisions that bring even more rejection. It becomes a cycle that threatens to trap the heart in heaviness forever. But God looks deeper than others can see, or we can see about ourselves. We may feel burdened by the idea of God weighing our hearts when He may just be checking what needs to be done to fix things. Using the pottery metaphor, He’s finding out how much water to add to make the clay pliable again and soften it enough to pull the rock away like in the image above.
The Psalmist says…
Psalms 51:10 WEBUS
[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
https://bible.com/bible/206/psa.51.10.WEBUS
And we can sing with the Maranatha singers, Change My Heart, Oh God and know that He will do it.
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Proverbs 17: What Does John 3:17 Have to do With St. Patrick? Finding the Refinerโs Fire in the Mud of Slemish Mountain
For six years on Slemish Mountain, Patrick was a slave in isolation from his home and family after being kidnapped at only 16 years of age. His journey didn’t begin in a cathedral but rather in a pit; in the furnace of refinement. Proverbs 17:3 describes it this way…
Proverbs 17:3 WEBUS
[3] The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.
https://bible.com/bible/206/pro.17.3.WEBUS
From a Pit of Mud to the Reflection of Christ
In Patrick’s Confessio, the raw Latin he uses to describe himself says, โEgo eram sicut lapis qui iacet in luto profundo.โ The literal translation reads, โI was just like a stone which lies in mud deep.โ But it was from that stone in the mud that The Refiner (who Patrick referred to as โQui potens estโ or โWho powerful isโ in English) began His work.
The image I asked Gemini to create is of a silversmith carefully watching the refining process going on inside a kiln on an Irish hillside. There is a story about a woman going to a silversmith to learn about the process and better understand the Scriptures about these crucible moments we must sometimes walk through in this life. The author is unknown, but it’s a powerful story…
โThe Refinerโs Fire
There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: โHe will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.โ This verse puzzled the women, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study.
That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didnโt mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: โHe sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.โ (Malachi 3:3)
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, โHow do you know when the silver is fully refined?โ He smiled at her and answered, โOh, thatโs easy โ when I see my image in it.โโ
I love what this woman learns from the silversmith. She sees the loving personality of a Master Creator who doesn’t put us through the fire without a purpose and doesn’t leave us in the fire without a plan. Without even realizing it, she sees Exodus 12:42 in action. In Hebrew, it reads… โLeil shimurim hu lโAdonaiโ with the literal translation: โNight of vigils/safekeeping it [is] unto-the-Lord.โ Like a silversmith, God never looked away but rather He kept a vigil throughout the night, never leaving His people unwatched, so He could bring them out safely. In the Complete Jewish Bible, it says ..
Sh'mot (Exo) 12:42 CJB
[42] This was a night when Adonai kept vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt, and this same night continues to be a night when Adonai keeps vigil for all the people of Israโel through all their generations.
https://bible.com/bible/1275/exo.12.42.CJB
For Patrick, the โheatโ of refinement while he lived in slavery wasn’t a punishment. It was the necessary environment to burn away the dross of his sin and reveal the “silver” of his soul when touched by salvation. As I put this post together, I realized the date of 3/17 and how St Patrick’s life and these Scriptures about the refiner’s fire line up with John 3:17.
John 3:17 CSB
[17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
https://bible.com/bible/1713/jhn.3.17.CSB
While The Refiner sits by the forge, watching the surface of the metal, ensuring the heat is perfectโenough to purify, but never to destroy, we know the kiln is not a place of condemnation. The Silversmith doesn’t put the metal in the fire because He hates the silver; He does it because He loves the silver and hates the dross that hides what it is meant to be. He will know the work is finished when He can see His own image in us and our behaviors.
Whether you are in the forge, or you are still stuck in the mud and mire, remember that The Watchman is still keeping vigil over His chosen and called people. It may seem difficult to get loose from our bondage and sin, but once we have tasted the grace of salvation and been set free, it will all be worth it. As it says in the lyrics of the old hymn,ย when nothing else could help, love lifted me. Then, we may even feel like Patrick (and so many apostles after him); we must spread the good news.
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Proverbs 7: Signs At the Crossroads of Temptation
You’d think it would be an easy decision to choose the correct door, right? I mean, dark and stormy versus light and sunny seems like a clear choice even without the warning signs. Read the warnings and story of caution from Solomon to his children in Proverbs 7, then ask yourself whether you would be wiser than the young man lacking judgment in the story. I hope we all would be stronger, but as I read about the way the woman works to deceive him, I can see the abundance of those deceits and lies in our present world. Sadly, the signs are usually more like what the AI had on them before I edited, a bunch of gibberish that’s almost impossible to comprehend. (The guy in the picture has it really easy now that I used my Photo Studio Pro app to give him the right signs. ๐) But we have The Holy Spirit to give us signs now. We’re promised that we will all find Him and know Him if we seek Him with our whole heart.
Jeremiah 31:34 BSB
[34] No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, โKnow the Lord,โ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.โ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/jer.31.34.BSB
Hebrews 8:11 BSB
[11] No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, โKnow the Lord,โ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/heb.8.11.BSB
Solomon knows the decision is not easy no matter who you are or how much wisdom you have access to. It’s the wisdom you commit to and hide in your heart that will help the most. So Solomon begs his children to grab the wisdom he’s making available to them and hold on for dear life. He tells them a cautionary tale of a young man who refused to listen to wisdom and walked into a death trap.
It’s an old story, you know. As old as the garden in creation. Temptation snags the one who’s not prepared or paying attention. And usually those things are lacking because of one of three things: The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. Those 3 are the foundational traps that caught Eve at the tree of โthe knowledge of good and evilโ not paying attention (to the right things) and unprepared. (See Genesis 3:1-6.) Examining the tree for what it might bring her made her forget the warnings from her husband and her God. She saw its beauty, she desired to taste it, and she wanted it to make her wise. And we know how all those desires ended.
But here’s the good thing: the enemy (ha satan) tried the same three temptations on YahShua (Jesus). But even after 40 days of fasting, The Lord was fully aware of the deceit and lies, and He did not give in. Instead, He had an answer for each of the temptations thrown at Him. He kept the victory by using Scripture, and so can we. He was tempted inย EVERY WAY we can be tempted and walked away victorious, so we could face the same things and find the strength we need in Him.
For the lust of the flesh, use...
Deuteronomy 8:3 BSB (or Matthew 4:4 or Luke 4:4)
[3] He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/deu.8.3.BSB
For the lust of the eyes, use...
Deuteronomy 6:13 CSB (or Luke 4:8)
[13] Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name.ย
https://bible.com/bible/1713/deu.6.13.CSB
And, for the pride of life, use...
Luke 4:12 BSB (or Deut 6:16)
[12] But Jesus answered, โIt also says, โDo not put the Lord your God to the test.โโ
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.4.12.BSB
Finally, the Apostle Paul gives us great advice when he tells us the right things on which to focus our minds…
Philippians 4:8 WEBUS
[8] Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
https://bible.com/bible/206/php.4.8.WEBUS
And that’s a good place to end with a video I found with the help of Google’s Gemini AI. I’ve never heard it before, but the a capella harmonies, the lyrics, and the visuals are all beautiful. It’s called The Wayside Cross by C. L. St. John…
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