Archive | November, 2016

Six ways to soothe your soul. 

19 Nov

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

10-28-16-6

I wasn’t prepared to hear this revelation. A group of seven folks sat around the table, eager to learn about the writing craft. And I planned to impart all I knew about my writing journey.

“How about if we share a bit about our story,” I said, hoping to know a bit about them.

Everyone took their turn. And then the lady seated in a wheelchair to my left spoke.

“I lost my leg. But I still have my courage,” she said in a peaceful tone.

I gave a silent gasp. She not only had a leg amputated, but she lost her sight too.

“I want to write my story,” she said, “to inspire others who might be feeling sorry for themselves,”

Admirable desire for sure. But little did she know that God had already written her story. He wrote all the details: He knew the moment she would receive the bad news from the doctor. He knew the limitations put on her life. He had written her future. He jotted down her every need and He’s still writing her story.

He’s also writing your story and mine, too. So we can be free to let go that anxiety about the future and instead, take a deep breath of relief. He’s aware of what we’re facing. What is being cut off from our life. What is diminishing. What we lost. What we miss. He knows the joy and hard times of tomorrow. And best of all, He’s written in the tablet of His love our victory over grief.

That tablet is the Bible. No matter what you’re missing in life, whisper these six truths found in Psalm 139. They will soothe your soul:

  1. He knows me intimately. “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.”
  2. He knows my every move. “You know when I sit and when I rise…”
  3. Even my thoughts are familiar to Him. “You perceive my thoughts from afar.”
  4. He knows where I came from and where I’m going. “You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”
  5. He knows what I’ll say, “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely…O LORD.”
  6. He is close enough to touch my pain. “You have laid your hand upon me.”

If He knows your thoughts, your words, ways and whims, how can He not know how to soothe your soul?

Source: Six ways to soothe your soul. | Janet Perez Eckles

 

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The Epitome of Love

18 Nov

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

pink-butterfly

 

“One word frees us of the weight and pain of life, that word is “love”

The irony of that quote is it was written before Christ by a

Greek Tragedian.

 

We are so blessed to know that God came in the flesh to redeem
us back unto himself.
That was true love.

 

I thrive on love.
There is promise in the air.
I stand on the word of God.
I see Him everywhere.

 

He is in the air I breathe-
His promises fill my soul.
Without Him I can do nothing,
With Him, I am whole.

 

We are all so different-
still all of God’s own plan.
I marvel how He leads us
to support our fellow man.

 

I thirst to hear the words you speak-
I long to know your soul.
Tho diverse in our interests-
Our similarities make us whole.

 

 

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God Has Been Watching Over Me~Part 2

16 Nov

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

One day on my way to school, the traffic around the school was hectic and I tried to go around an older car that was double parked. Just as I got alongside of that car the driver (who obviously hadn’t seen me) started off, while edging over toward me. There was oncoming traffic so I couldn’t move away from the car. I tried to slow down and let the car pull ahead, but it was too late. My brake pedal got caught under the rear portion of the car’s running board (Google “Running Board” if you have never heard of such a thing) and flipped my motorcycle and me to the pavement under the car (luckily, behind the rear wheel).   The motorcycle and I ended up sliding down the street behind the car on the pavement a few yards. I don’t think the driver knew what had happened, because he sped off down the street. I got some minor road rash out of that experience, but was otherwise unhurt, and there were only a few small scratches on the motorcycle. It would have been a totally different story if I had ended up on the street in front of that car’s rear wheel! Thank you Lord!

 

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Another time, I was giving one of my friends a ride on my motorcycle. He was quite a bit heavier than I was, and that made it difficult to turn if he didn’t lean into the turns with me. When we got to his house, I was turning into the driveway but my friend wasn’t leaning into the turn with me. His extra weight kept me from being able to turn enough, and we sideswiped a three-foot high flagstone wall that tore my jeans and scraped a 2”x4” patch of skin off of my right leg. That incident could have ended up with broken legs for both of us if Someone hadn’t been watching over us both that time.

 

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The summer after my junior year in high school, my girlfriend’s family moved to El Paso, Texas and I longed to see her again. After getting the OK from her family and much promising, on my part, to be careful and not to do anything foolish, my parents gave me permission to make the.* I left early on a Friday morning and rode my motorcycle the 225 miles, from our home in Albuquerque to El Paso, to visit Barbara for the weekend (when her folks would be home). The trip down was long (3 ½ hours), uneventful, and I was filled with anticipation. I liked Barbara’s parents and we had a great visit that weekend. Then it was time to tear myself away from her Sunday afternoon in time to make the trip back home to Albuquerque before dark. It was during the second hour when the lack of sleep, the desert heat, and the constant hummmm of the engine that I woke up with a start, just as my motorcycle went off the road onto the gravel shoulder of the oncoming lane! Somehow I was able to get back onto the pavement, without crashing, and back into my lane. As LUCK would have it, there was not another car anywhere on that stretch of the hiway at that time (now who do you suppose arranged that?). And, as you might have guessed, the amount of adrenaline that incident produced kept me awake for the rest of the trip home.

 

 

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* See Bill’s blog “Trip To El Paso”- 9/29/2012

—–To Be Continued—–

 

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For the Love of Photography

15 Nov

A Life to Live

Melody Hendrix

Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.
Ansel Adams
 
You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world. Oprah
 
Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.  Mark Ribound
 
We take pictures as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone. Unknown
 
Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving, what you have caught on film that is captured forever…..It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.  Aaron Siskind
for-love-of-phography-copy

 

I am retired and enjoying life. My hobbies are my 5 grandchildren, son and daughter, and my loving husband. I am a photographer and extreme nature lover. I love spending time in my garden or in the wilderness connected to God my Creator.
Melody

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Man Angels~Part 3

14 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

On Saturday morning my son and I set out for Titusville in separate vehicles. He took his trailer so he could put the shutters back in storage. He didn’t get any breakfast because he planned to eat at a drive-through. All of those were swamped. So he decided to go on and though I had planned to get gas I decided I had enough because the lines were long.

We got home while the day was still young. The power was out, but I had my cell phone so I called my neighbor had been looking after my cats to tell her I was home. She came right down to deliver the house key. We’ve known each other for almost fifty years and our children played together when they were small. After I made our son a chicken-salad sandwich, (yes, I could tell the mayonnaise from the refrigerator was still fine because he didn’t get sick) he got to work setting up the generator. He had done his own shutters and generator for the storm at his house. So at my house he was an experienced starter-upper. As I followed him around and we casually visited, he said he was enjoying himself tinkering with the generator. He also said he didn’t envy the house-cleaning I had in store, which I assumed meant he preferred machines to dust-cloths.

 

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He finished starting the generator and taking down the shutters by noon. He took the shutters in the trailer and I drove my car so I could bring the key back home. He then took off in search of a fast food line he could get through. My neighbor told me later that he stopped at her son’s house to say hello.

Our power was out for five days. Dear son-in law-gassed up the generator and it ran another fifteen hours keeping the food cold and giving me places in the house where there was light as well as a room AC in our former garage. Our yard man came and set to work cleaning up after the storm. Our lawn men came. They did their work and asked if I needed any more help. One of them was getting married the following Saturday. He indicated that he’d much rather be mowing lawns than tending to his fiancé and her mother as they fretted over the wedding plans.

One of the neighbors came by and noticed the tire was flat on my car. Later that evening, I discussed it with my husband over the phone and he told me just what to do—get the yard man to help me fill it at the gas station I watched carefully and I now I can do it by myself if I have to.

 

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The next day, five houses on my side of the street had power, but I didn’t know it until my neighbor told me. I still had no power. I called my daughter and she asked if there were any line men around. There sure were…just across the street. I walked over to talk to them and apparently, it was the way the generator was permanently wired into the house and had something to do with pulling plugs and turning on breakers to get it on. He started to explain it, but sometimes my short-term memory takes a break, so when he said he’d come help if I had any trouble I asked him if he could come right then, before I burned the house down. I’ve had a fear of electricity ever since I was a small child. It’s my very first memory. I saw an electrical outlet in the wall and a bobby-pin on the floor. My baby brain said they belonged together. I stuck the metal bobby pin in the electrical outlet and va-va-voom. It fit. I got quite a buzz out of that.

 

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The linemen had come from Indiana which is where my husband was. I asked the lineman about his family and about the hours they were working. He had three children and was now working sixteen hours on and eight off. He was cheerful. He missed his family, but to all the men I met the challenges seemed as if they were welcome adventures.

 

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Today on my walk I heard the shrill screams of children coming from the school grounds up the street. When I got there, I saw a line of kindergartners looking small against a huge fire engine. They were watching a demonstration of the distance a fire hose could shoot into a retention pond. Every time the fireman who was hunkered down with the hose made an archway of water, the children cheered. The two men with the fire engine were as slow-moving and patient with the children as could be. Surely they were man-angels, too.

The End

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Treasures From Germany~Part 4

13 Nov

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

 

There were several things that interested us while we were in Germany. All those years before that we lived in Wiesbaden (1967-1970) , we had never heard of the Kaiser company (founded 1872..became Kaiser in 1928) that produced porcelain figurines. But when we arrived in Heidelberg (1980-1983), that was the rage – to have some figurines by Kaiser. We found several that we liked and purchased them for ourselves. And some we purchased for our family. For instance, my Aunt Jessie loved dogs, and especially poodles. So we purchased this poodle for her. Following her death, I reclaimed it.

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And this little Scottie just took my fancy – he’s got such a happy expression, don’t you think?

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These dolphins reached out to me, so I purchased them. Kaiser had several different versions of the dolphins. I liked the two set best. Some were glazed (shiny) but I liked the unglazed better.

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I think this squirrel is quite the cutie.

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But this little bunny rabbit looks so much like Thumper from the Disney movie Bambi®, that I had to have him in my collection! He’s adorable!!

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We have a couple of nudies that appealed to us, and here they are.

 

I don’t have pictures of them, but my Aunt Jessie had several Kaiser figurines of gymnasts. Our Janet has them now, as she was quite interested in being a gymnast herself. They are quite delicate and beautiful.

Our Karen has a Mother and Child figurine, and a running horse with her colt – all made by Kaiser. Here they are in a picture of them on her fireplace mantle.

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As you can see, all of those Kaiser figurines are white bisque. While we saw many of the same figurines that had been painted, for some reason, I liked the plain white much better. However, there was one figurine that we purchased that couldn’t be anything but painted. It is so delicate and beautiful, and we treasure it.

 

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Another type of figurine that caught our attention was those made by Lladro (Spanish pronunciation – yah’ – drow). Many of their “human” figurines are rather grotesquely elongated – definitely not proportioned, and did not appeal to us at all. However, the figurines they made of animals were something that did appeal to us. My family purchased them for me and gave them to me as Christmas presents two different years. I enjoy them so much, and am thankful to have them. They were rather expensive, even in Germany.

One other figurine type we purchased while we were in Wiesbaden, and have enjoyed them all these years. They are Dresden “musical angels,” with each one having a different musical instrument. Two seem to be the same, but after looking closely, you will see that one is praying for her sister instrumentalists (far right – hands closer together), while the other one is directing the music (far left – hands more apart). I have treasured these figurines for over 40 years.

 

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~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

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This is one test you don’t want to fail

12 Nov

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

11-04-16-f-failure

 

“This way, Ma’am” the airport agent said as she took me by the arm, leading me close to the security counter. “Hold out your hands, palms up.”

I obeyed. And with quick strokes, she swiped both hands with a paper/cloth material. That was their way to detect if I had handled any controlled substance.

A minute later she drew close. “Okay, all clear. You may proceed.”

Wow! That’s what I would like God to say should He swipe not my hands, but my heart. Sadly, He might not see it clean. Instead, He might detect insecurities, restlessness about the future, feelings of inadequacies, confusion and at times, fear.

What about you, will your heart be clean, clear and ready to proceed on?

No need to stress because it’s more crucial to answer God’s question. He will put us through one more test. The one that makes the difference. The one that determines if we will cross the entry to heaven.

And in case you thought that we’ll pass the test by simply saying we know who Jesus is, or if we called out His name, or if we turned to Him in hard times, here’s His answer: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Will you be one of those who pass the test by doing His will?

 

Source: This is one test you don’t want to fail. | Janet Perez Eckles

Janet’s Two Minute Video for this week

 

 

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God’s Plan About Love

11 Nov

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

 

 

We are here to love, to serve God and our fellow man.
What greater purpose can there be than to meet
with God’s ultimate plan?

 

His purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son.
It is God who works in us His will to be done.

 

It is human to question God’s purpose and will.
Have faith to believe, dear friend.
Soul be still!

 

It is at the end of the day when my work is done
that I have time to reflect on what God has done.

 

It was in my struggle to understand
God’s purpose in allowing death and sorrow
that led to the answer, by way of the spirit,
to face my tomorrow.

 

orange-tulips

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Does History Matter

10 Nov

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I wrote this post during the mid-afternoon on election day. At this point, I have no idea who the winner will be.

I grew up thinking everyone’s family listened to the week day six o’clock news and discussed the world and local events of the day. I assumed everyone’s parents knew the history of political candidates. Take for instance Mitt Romney and Al Gore’s fathers. George W.Romney was the Governor of Michigan and ran for the Republican nomination for President in 1968 and lost to Richard Nixon. Al Gore’s father, Albert Gore Sr. was a Democratic Senator from Tennessee. I can’t remember exactly why my parents were not fans of these men, but I do remember they had doubts about them.

My parents, especially my dad, had one habit that I found maddening. Growing up in the rock and roll generation I was sure “my” music was brand new, not that old stuff he listened to. He often burst my bubble by naming the individual or group who had first recorded a song.  He knew the songs history and he shared it with me.  That may have scarred my psyche, as for the life of me, I can’t tell you who the recording artists are for most songs. I DO know that my obscure favorite, Little Black Egg was a one hit wonder by the Nightcrawlers! (Should you click the link, don’t judge me. I was a 13 yr old whose brother had a band. I am sure there was some subliminal sibling angst going on.)

Over the course of the election season, I came to realize my childhood was not necessarily typical, although for the time it may have been. I read posts and comments that indicated some people who were voting  had no idea of  history and worse yet, no interest in it. I’m not talking about memorizing dates, but learning who did what and why. For instance, Al Gore’s father was on the board of Occidental Petroleum. Did that affect his stance on the environment?   Whether we like it or not, we have a political class and they have history. It is not enough to listen to sound bites and political videos to  make a good decision. A catchy slogan does not make a good leader.

I spent a lot of time praying over this election and regardless of who won, I intend to continue praying. Our new President will need wisdom to navigate the pitfalls awaiting our country and I know the one who gives it freely. Do you?

if-any-of-you-lacks-wisdom

.November 11, 2016 is Veteran’s day. Thank you to all who served and protected our freedom.  A special thanks to a veteran I have never met, Forrest J. Sterling. He is the author of Wake of the Wahoo, The Heroic Story of America’s Most Daring WWII Submarine, USS Wahoo. The Wahoo disappeared during the war and it’s remains were not discovered until 2006 in La Perouse Straight. Sterling served on the ship until its final mission. Because of his book, I know what life was like on the fighting submarine my uncle, Howell Holmes served and died on. It fills in a missing piece of family history. My regret is that my dad was not alive to finally know what happened to his baby brother.

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Video

God Has Been Watching Over Me~Part 1

9 Nov

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

It’s hard for me to remember just how God watched over me during my early years (1-5) but I know He did. I do remember playing with Patsy in the back yard of my home in Dallas, Texas sometime before I was five years old. (See Bill’s blog “The Little Girl Down The Street”). As part of our play time, we made and ate mud pies. Now I know that we both could have gotten really sick on that diet, but God had to be watching over us during that time.

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Our house in Dallas was on a corner lot, adjacent to a main thoroughfare, and I lost my toy Parachute Man when a gust of wind caught him and he drifted into the path of a car on that street (See Bill’s blog “Parachute Man”). I had been told not to go into that street for any reason, but as a six year old little boy, it took Someone bigger than I was to keep me from chasing after my Parachute Man, into the path of that car (He must have had His hand on my shoulder).

 

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During a summer retreat with my family at the Alta Frio Baptist Camp in Texas when I was six, I was bit by a Cotton Mouth Moccasin (See Bill’s blog “Snake Bit”). My dad and mother witnessed the incident as I ran ahead of them into the shallow water at the edge of the Frio River, where we were going to swim. God protected both my dad and me that day. My dad had been in the medical corps during WW I, and he immediately applied a tourniquet around my leg, scooped me up and quickly carried me back to our cabin. There he made small slice marks in my leg, with a razor blade at the fang marks, and sucked the blood and venom from the wound, before taking me to the doctor’s office (on gravel roads at least 10 miles away in a friends old Model A truck). With his teeth full of fillings, that harmful venom could have entered his system and, at the least, made him sick (was my dad’s medical training just an accident?).

 

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When I was around 15 several guys my age followed an older boy on adventure to explore an abandoned mine in the mountains near our home in Albuquerque, New Mexico (See Bill’s blog “Hole In The Ground”).   That old mine shaft had never been shored up with bracing of any kind. There was one short section of the tunnel that had caved in at some time in the past, and even though it had been partially cleared, we still had to actually crawl through that section that we skinny boys could barely squeeze through. If that section, or another section, had caved in while we were at the bottom of the shaft, the chances are we all could have died before anyone found us.

 

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One day the next year I was driving down the street on my motorcycle, in front of the local Junior High School, and happened to see my sister with her friends walking home. I hollered at them and waved as I passed them (See Bill’s blog “Keep Your Eyes On The Road”-). When I looked back at the road there was the bed of a dump-truck, stopped, in the middle of the road (no flagman, orange cones or warning signs of any kind) with men making repairs, just in front of me! Without thinking, I just reacted, throwing the motorcycle almost to the ground, cleared the edge of the truck bed, slapped my left foot on the ground, pushing the motorcycle upright again. All this happened in a split second at 25 miles per hour. There is no way I could have looked up in time and reacted that fast without His help!

 

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—–To Be Continued—–

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