Forgiveness

  Unforgiveness is a bitter master. It drives mercilessly and leaves those who hold it unsatisfied. It keeps the pain others inflicted raw and alive. Festering, never healing clean. Burning at the slightest pressure.

  It does not allow one to move on, to leave the past behind and live in the moment. Yesterday  remains; the loop of a never-ending nightmare.

  Worldly wisdom teaches one to hold onto ones hurts. To let them drive us.

  To those who do not see themselves as forgiven, to forgive is nearly impossible. But those who have experienced the grace of God, they know what it is to be forgiven.

  In forgiveness, there is freedom, the ability to move on. Forgiveness heals old hurts. It ends nightmares and brings the morning bright. To those Christ has called, forgiveness is a privilege and command both.

  We who have been forgiven must forgive day by day, moment by moment. As our fellow man endlessly offends us, we must endlessly forgive him. For we have endlessly offended God, and He has endless forgiven us. And He give us the privilege of being able to forgive as He does.   

What I did this Week: a picture a day

  This week I did take a picture-a-day and then one.

  Sunday morning, I finished working on a dress I made and then botched and then made over. After I finished it I wore it to church.

 

  Monday, I ate the leftover ice cream pie I found in the freezer.

 

  Tuesday afternoon, my little siblings and I looked at recipes.

 

  Wednesday was the first day of VBS. Usually, VBS starts on Monday for us. This year, thanks to tropical storm Bill, we started Wednesday.

 

  Thursday was day two.

 

  And Friday was a hot dog supper to celebrate the end of VBS, and it was fun.

 

  Today we had fish stick for lunch and a lot of childhood memories were realized. I have never cared much for fish sticks, and in my old age I know why.

 

  I also baked a cake today.

 

And that was my week.















Happy Cocoon

Chasing happiness is a fruitless journey.
Pleasure is the elixir that touches you lips and leaves you thirsty for more once the glass is drained.
Happiness, pleasure, they are a means, not an end.
We are not supposed to lay down our arms once we have won them.
They are good things, there is no doubt to that.
But they are the signposts that lead us on to the prize.
It is easy to get caught up in happiness.
In the pleasure the world brings.
The world is beautiful and wonderfully distracting.
We blind ourselves with it, we are satisfied by its beauty.
Until the wonder of God and His grace shatters our blindness.
Makes us see that the pleasure we thought would make us happy really points up to Him.
The only source of something greater than happiness.
The source of joy.
Joy that comes tearing through our happy, pretend cocoon and shows us the beauty of God and His truth and the world as it should be seen.

"Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new, too late have I loved you! Behold, you were within me while I was outside: it was there that I sought you, and, a deformed creature, rushed headlong upon these things of beauty which you have made. You were with me, but I was not with you. They kept me far from you, those fair things, which, if they were not in you, would not exist at all. You have called to me, and have cried out, and have shattered my deafness. You have blazed forth with light, and have shone upon me, and you have put my blindness to flight!"

  ~ Confessions, Saint Augustine

What I did this Week: Let's see how this works

  So for my first picture-a-day post. Here goes.

  Monday my baby sister stole my heels and when stomping out in the backyard with them.

 

  For my Tuesday picture, here is my Latin lesson. Learning a language is fun. And being able to understand another language as you read it is exhilarating. 

 

  Wednesday I made bagels for dinner.

 

  Thursday, the old family cats accepted the new-blood (or at least I caught them at it).

 

  Friday, I fulfilled a long held dream of making ice cream pie.

 

  Today I made waffle pizza and discovered that combining these two awesome things is double awesome.

 

And that is that. I do realize I did not take a picture for Sunday. It was not until Monday that I remembered I had planned to do this post. But there is always next week.









Just to Know

  Sometimes the world seems overly awful. A body questions if society and life could possibly get worse. Then in the evening comes dusk. That magical mixture of gold and green just to let us know God has not let us go.

What did this Week: A few things

  It is not that I did not do much this week, I just did not take a lot of pictures. I am thinking that I will try to do a photo-a-day post on Saturdays (at least for the summer anyways).

  Monday I made a dress, then I threw it in the wash and the hem crept up above my knees. So now I'll have to fix the hem.

 

  I made this berry crumble after wrestling some bushes for black berries. And the pain was worth it.

 

  Then my brothers and I tried to do this experiment with celery and dye.

 

  







  And I made pumpkin bread.

 

So went my week!

 

In the Image of God

  Image-bears is what we are. Us people. Humans. Selfish, sniveling ingrates. Gifted with image of God, we often throw it back in His face. Telling Him what He is making of us is not good enough. That we know better. Clay is all we are. Something to be formed. Something that cannot see what is best for itself.
  To bear the image of God, it is a gift, a privilege, a responsibility. A treasure in our safe-keeping. The world often says otherwise. Says our bodies are ours to care for or destroy as we see fit. And living in the world, it is easy to give into that lie.
  But when the end comes, we will all have to give an answer for our care of the image of God. Our gift, our privilege, our responsibility. What better time then now to question what we will say on that day.