From the Archives

It could be a coincidence, but I don't believe in them.  Today is the halfway mark in the month-long challenge to write a blog post per day.  For me personally, it's been a challenge to "stir up the gift".  I really didn't feel like I had much to say today.

My mom has been going through some old stuff and found a few things and mailed them to me thinking I'd enjoy the memories.  They arrived today.

I didn't remember the little booklet I made for her entitled "Encoragements".  It was my kids that noticed the theme and said, "You need to blog about that!"  More than thirty years ago (circa 1978) I wrote a booklet of "Encoragements" and now the subtitle to my blog is, "My purpose in writing is to encourage you..."  The subtitle on my homeschooling blog is, "A journal of encouragement..."

To discover this thread through my life stopped me in my tracks.  It was humbling and inspiring at the same time.  To see it is to recognize a gift and a destiny designed by the Creator.  The inspiration is to keep on!  He is the Source...

For God who said, "Let there be light in the darkness,"

has made this light shine in our hearts

 so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, 

but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars

containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God, 

not from ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7

My encouragement for you today is to to remind you that you may feel like a fragile clay jar, but a great treasure has been placed within you!!  Stir it up and pour it out...it contains healing for the nations.

I carefully took the (yellowed!) pages of the booklet apart and scanned a few...  We'll call it a "repost from the archives."

The Holy Moments

This weekend we attended the wedding of a friend we've known since childhood.

The groom had waited 43 years to find the perfect wife and it was worth the wait. She stood beside him in glorious white. The musical prelude was the same as "our song". My husband sang a beautiful love song in the very spot that my heart had felt it's first "pitter-patter" toward him. The preacher was reminding us of what real love looks like and I was focusing intently because I earnestly desire to keep our love alive and strong when the moment was shattered by scuffling beside me and my head jerked sideways to see two sets of blazing eyes...

"She won't let me use her pen!" he growled.

"He's going to use it all up and wreck it," she hissed.

I was filled with fury that they were disturbing this holy moment with selfishness. And I tumbled down into the pit with them.

That's precisely how all of our holy moments are destroyed.

Immanuel is God with us. All the time. In every place. Permeating every moment.

The very minute that I treasure my stuff...my agenda...my opinion...my schedule...my time, space and comfort...my...my...my...over the treasure that is in the soul and spirit of another person the sacredness and joy of that moment is lost.

It's not that I shouldn't have healthy boundaries or that I shouldn't be a good steward of all that I've been given. It's about life being lived with a keen awareness that my family, my friends, and random people in the grocery store are so loved and treasured by God that they matter more than...the stuff. This requires an element of humility. It's a choosing to honour what God honours.

The boy matters more than the pen.

The nurture and training of my children matter more than my agenda for the moment.

Forgiveness restores the holiness to the moment. Grace is a healing balm.

Recognizing that the person in any given scenario is the most precious part of the equation preserves the sacred.

It's another divine paradox that the letting go releases the joy we crave.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another,

for love comes from God.

Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7