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Meditation Journaling 3

4 Jan

My Take

DiVoran Lites

In the mid-sixties, we learned from Pastor Peter Lord and his dear wife Johnnie how crucial meeting with Jesus one-on-one-is for an alive Christian life. We couldn’t be more thankful. It has meant watching God do all that He has promised, such as showing his compassion as we go through various degrees of pain and anxiety and learning to trust Him and rejoice in the way he gives us love and peace. 

Journaling is one of the most pleasant things I know.  On my eleventh birthday, my parents gave me a journal. They knew I liked to read and write. I still have it. On my closet shelves, I have 130 journals that I have written as an adult. I’m starting to enjoy reading them again.

I understand that not everyone likes to read or write. Sometimes people have too many work-related items to go over. It’s still possible, though, to have a personal connection with God. the Internet and mobile phones can be a great help.  Lunchtimes are good times to listen to God if you’re on your own. Walking is another option, as are audiobooks for the car for long drives. Our Father likes to listen when we tell him our secrets or show him our love in praise. He will fulfil all needs according to His riches in glory.  

If you are thinking about journaling or if you like reading about it as I do, here are some tips that work for me. If you start to journal, you will soon come up with plenty of tips of your own.

  1. Find a regular time and place where you won’t be disturbed. 
  • You can use any kind of paper you want. You can buy very inexpensive spiral notebooks. However, you may want to buy them at a real office supply because the writing shows through the other side on the less expensive ones. 
  • I love buying big heavy blank books, decorating the covers, and writing to my heart’s content on the thick, unlined paper.
  • I have met so many people who love pens. It’s not hard to find the one pen in the universe you like best. Journaling is a life-long joy and needs to be as pleasant as it can be.
  • Of course, we need a Bible and perhaps some reference books to guide us. I’ll give you some recommendations as we go along.
  • You might want to decorate your books as people are now decorating their Bibles. You can get stickers or draw and paint your pictures in your journal. You can also obtain books that tell you how to decorate a Bible or a journal.  My favorite is, Honoring the Spirit, by Sue Kemnitz * 
  • Keep a pad to write down scriptures that come alive for you. I enjoy sticky notes because when I need a bit of encouragement, it’s always written out and stuck to a mirror or the refrigerator. 

“I m convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through the Anointed One, Jesus Christ!” Philippians 4:19 (TPT)

*Precious Bible Promises, over 1000 Promises From God’s Word Categorized For Easy Access. 

*Honoring the Spirit, by Sue Kemnitz. “I am with you always.”

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Wisdom

28 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Meditation Journaling

No wonder followers of Christ know how to defeat fear and illness. “Jesus loves us, this we know, for THE BIBLE TELLS US SO.” When we choose to immerse ourselves in any version of the Holy Bible for a short or long time, God awards us with wisdom, peace, love, and joy. Instead of knowing the Bible by rote, I study it for ways to communicate with God. For me, the way to immerse myself in true meditation is to write things down, and that’s where journaling comes in. 

In the Bible, the words “do not be afraid” appear 365 times. Meditate, meditation mind, ponder, think thinking, and thought a total of 445 times. Wisdom and Knowledge get 391. The Bible verses are like essential oils; they soak into our hearts and do wonderful things for our bodies, souls, and spirits for all the years of our lives. 

Pixabay

Although I journal and study the Bible, I still worry sometimes. However, I am closer to knowing how to be free, and that’s where my peace comes from. 

For me, the best antidote to despair is to recognize when I’m starting down the slippery slide of anxiety. Alerted, I say Jesus a few times until the fear passes. It doesn’t take long for the Lord to switch me over to what he wants to discuss with me.   

“Solid food (for the soul) is for the mature, whose spiritual senses perceive heavenly matters. And they have been adequately trained by what they’ve experienced to emerge with understanding the difference between what is truly excellent and what is evil and harmful.’” TPT Hebrews 5:14

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

For the Love of God

21 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Pixabay

When we moved to Florida in 1965, we went looking for a church in the denomination (religious belief system) we were used to. We found two, but one of them had air conditioning, so we chose that one. We were in for a lot of good surprises because we began to listen and learn. We went to church several times a week and left our children in the nursery. As the years flew by, they graduated into evening classes of their own. 

We kept going because our preacher and his dear wife were so close to God and their family that we wanted what they had. Also, the people in that church were wise, gentle and kind. The first thing they taught was that God loves us. Did you know that? I didn’t. But once we knew, our lives began to change for the better.

The most important thing we learned was that it was good to study the Bible for ourselves and pray alone every day.

While Bill chose to listen to Bible audiobooks on the way to work, I chose to do morning devotions while our two young children watched Captain Kangaroo.  Someday, I’d like to share the routine I have fallen into and what it does for me. 

Being at church is a tremendous help, but it can’t fill all our needs for fellowship with the Lord Jesus. All Christians know that Jesus died on a cross to atone for our sin. That is one thing all Christian churches teach, and there are many other things they agree upon.  

You see, sometimes we believe so strongly that we are in the only church that knows everything about God and the Bible that we think we might suffer if we went anywhere else.  

How do we choose churches to attend out of all the Christian churches within our reach? Most of the time, we stick to the denominations we grew up in. If our parents went to church or sent us to church, we learned what they had been taught, and our children stayed in the denomination or gave up church altogether. 

  But sometimes we may change churches for one reason or another; a move or a marriage can trigger that, and so can the fussing that might get into a church. Sometimes we get hurt and don’t want to go there anymore. 

As important as belonging to a group of Christians is, going to church is not enough. Love, peace, and joy come through the Holy Spirit straight to our hearts. Holy churches, large and small, are almost everywhere, and as Christians, we want to be involved in them and support the wonderful things they do.   

If you need to know where to go to church, ask your Father, who is in heaven and who is in you for yourself. While you’re at it, tell him thank- you for his love. 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Freedom

14 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Photo credit Pixabay

Beloved, your faith in Jesus covers you in a robe of righteousness. In my eyes you are flawless. I give you celebration and glory. Enjoy true and lasting peace with me. We have a permanent relationship, one where you have access to My kindness. You find yourself becoming increasingly joyful. Keep celebrating and experiencing My glory. Keep remembering that I know what I’m doing. I am the one you can trust no matter what. 

Patient endurance refines your proven character and leads you back to hope. There you experience My endless love cascading into your heart through Holy Spirit who lives there. 

No wonder you don’t give up. For even though your outer person gradually wears out, your inner being is renewed every single day. 

Photo credit Pixabay

You are covered over with the righteous robe of Jesus. The judgment for your sins fell upon Christ on the cross. It is finished. You will never be judged for your sins because they are as far away as the East is to the West and never to be seen again. The judgment is for the types of rewards you will receive in heaven. 

Romans 5: 1-5, 2 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Romans 14:10-12. Notes on TPT  (Paraphrased)

DiVoran 


DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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The First Days of Christmas

7 Dec

Silent Night

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Pixabay

My child, I have restored your inheritance. I have chosen you and given you every skill, power, and healing you need. You are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion. I have your destiny and its timing in my hands. There’s a time to live and a time to die. I have all your life on my schedule, and the schedule will not be changed. I take you to many pleasant places, body, soul, and spirit. 

When you have problems or questions, I am here to solve them. You have privileges beyond your highest dreams. I give you the best of Everything.

 Paraphrase of Psalm 16:6

Oh, thank you, Lord, You are the best of Everything. 

I have a planter full of Thanksgiving cactus. I am glad to have them now in order to enjoy them before Christmas. My daughter showed me on her phone that there are three different kinds of holiday cactus: Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. The leaves tell which one the cactus is.

Pixabay

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Sacred Rhythms, Arranging our Lives for Spiritual Transformation

30 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Word for Word, November 23, 2020

“One can begin one’s (spiritual) quest by attending to the desires of the heart, both personal and communal. The Spirit is revealed in our genuine hopes for ourselves and for the world. How brightly burns the flame of desire for a love affair with God, other people, the world? Do we know that to desire and seek God is a choice that is always available to us? “

Elizabeth Dreyer as quoted in Spiritual Rhythms, by Ruth Haley Barton

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Starfish

23 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Painting by DIVoran

May the Lord of peace

Himself give you peace

At all times in every way. 

The Lord be with you all. 

2 Thessalonians 3:16

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

Chickens

16 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

When I was a little girl, I had a playmate whose family had chickens in a chicken house. Her name was Patricia, and we always had fun playing together. One day Patricia and I had an outdoor tea party. She had a trained chicken that would lie on its back so we could pretend to have baked chicken for dinner. 

My family has always been chicken people. Bill and I have never owned them, but my Mother and Dad had them several times, as did my Granddad and Grandmother.

Several years ago, my parents lived in Ft. Bragg, California, in a small farmhouse. Dad had his salmon boat, and both liked being close to the Pacific Ocean. Mother liked to beach-comb while Dad was out pulling in the shrimp. While we were there, Mother took me out to the shed where the chickens were kept and let me watch some eggs hatching. One took a long time, and Mother decided to help it out. In my ignorance, I told her that I had read that you shouldn’t help them out. She knew better, but she did what I asked and let the egg alone. It turns out that I was wrong, and she was right, and the poor little fellow never made it out of the shell. Some things are better left to the experts. 

When I was a child, my Grandmother kept chicken in a small chicken shed near the detached garage. When I stayed with her and Granddad, she let me go out and bring in the eggs. One day they taught me how to turn a live chicken into a baked one. It wasn’t a lesson I’d ever want to repeat, but now that I’m older, I know how important it was for them to give me the skills they thought my family and I would need in order to survive. Back then, there were no superstores as we have now, and they ate whatever they could raise or what they could get from a small general store. They had no idea how far from the concept the future would take us.

Grandmother also taught me, as did my mother, to learn to cook and clean. My mother, who was busy with the restaurant she and dad owned, paid me a dollar to iron a basket of clothes for the whole family every week. My brother and I worked in our restaurant doing dishes and taking out the wooden boxes full of empty pop bottles. Once in a while, I was allowed to fry hamburgers for sandwiches.  At that time, people were eating more beef than chicken. 

When our son grew up and got married, he and his wife had two children. Eventually, they moved to a place with acreage and used the shed for a chicken house. The family had gone full circle, except that they no longer processed their chickens for food. They just gathered the eggs and used them, and shared them. Once or twice, when they went on vacation, they brought three chickens over to our house. Our son arrived with a trailer attached to his SUV, and the men carried a big cage out and put it on the back porch. We let the chickens roam in the yard, and they cleaned up all the bugs they could find. When the sun started to go down, the chickens wanted back in their cage. Their way of showing it was to jump/fly into our kitchen window. We’d go out and pick them up and carry them in and put them to bed. Their water bowl was on the porch with them. When we woke up in the morning and took them back outside, there was sometimes an egg in the cage and sometimes one or two lying in the flower gardens. Eggs don’t get any fresher than that. 

  At one point, eggs were deemed to be bad for people. We missed them, and are now glad that their benefits have been “discovered.” Often, scientists warn us about certain foods, such as eggs, and oil and we all obey like sheep, but sometimes I take a look at the mandates and wonder why God put those things on earth if he didn’t want his children to thrive on them. We humans don’t think like God thinks, so it’s a good idea to be familiar with our Bibles so that we will know how he wants us to live. 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Porcupine

9 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

The name of this rodent came from the French: porc d’ espine or thorny pig. It is the third-largest rodent in the world. After a gestation period of approximately 112 days, the babies are born enclosed in a thin placental sac. Their quills are soft, moist, and flexible. The quills quickly harden in the air and become prickly.

When porc d’ espine is frightened, he turns his back lifts his tail and slaps the ground. The quills loosen and may stick into an enemy’s face.  

Pixabay

At times our small family, Dad, Mom, daughter, son, went into the Sangre de Cristo mountains in Colorado to fish. Dad taught us that skill, and Mother taught us about the names of wild-flowers and trees. Our dog, Brownie, went along too, and one day he got interested in a porcupine and received a snoot full of quills. 

The strange thing about quills is that they carry their own antibiotics in a fatty substance inside them. Neither the animal nor its enemy is likely to get an infection from the needles. But Brownie whined as Mother held his back legs to keep him from running away. Dad got his pliers out of his leather tool bag and pulled them out one by one. None of us ever saw another live porcupine, but you know how dogs sometimes twitch in their sleep or move their legs as if dreaming of running? We felt that sometimes he might be dreaming of that awful day when he ended up with a hurting nose.   

The quills themselves look like straws with black trim. Native American Indians have used them for generations for their splendid artwork. Each porcupine has 30,000 quills. That’s plenty to twist, wrap, and braid and use for decoration. You see them on dance costumes, leather medicine bags, knife sheaths, and baskets.

God is such a wonderful creator. The Bible says, God works all things together for good, and I believe he has a use for everything He makes. I’d say we’ll never run out of discoveries of his creation, and when we get to Heaven, we’ll probably learn all about them if it’s something we’ll enjoy knowing. 

Armadillos

2 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Pixabay

What is that strange creature, and where did it come from? Our local lore tells us that a circus train went through town in the 20’s and derailed and armadillos escaped from it. 

In our neck of the woods, they are so common and do so much damage digging holes in yards that there are legal ways to get rid of them.  We’ve had several encounters with them but the only armadillo that expired by our hands was the one that had his burrow started at the corner of the house. The length of it when finished could have come to as much as fifteen feet. The problem is that our part of Florida is all sand so it’s easy digging for a small creature made for digging. It wouldn’t take much to make the house tilt and who wants that? We turned on our garden hose and let the water pour into the burrow to flush him out, but our best laid plans failed because he drowned, and we were sorry. 

We rarely see them in the daytime, but some mornings when we go outside, we can see that one has been digging for worms in the night. We fill the holes and hope the critters stay in the woods where they belong. 

When we do see them in the daytime it’s like this: we hear a loud rustling in the weeds on the other side of the fence. When we find the source of the noise it’s always an armadillo crashing through as he looks for something to eat. If we get close enough and make enough noise, he’ll realize he has company and since he has bad eyesight, he gets up on his back legs and sniffs the air. That tells him he’d better get out of here. He then waddles away as fast as he can, which isn’t at all fast compared with many other small wild animals.

We’ve taken our various dogs for walks on the woods trail. Dogs love to get hold of armadillos and one of them, a beautiful German Shepherd picked an armadillo up in his teeth. The poor creature expired. It’s hard to believe that anything, even those teeth could get through the fatty scales on his back. My dear aunt who was with us on the trail looked back and the dog was digging a hole to put the armadillo in. She said,”He must be a Christian dog to want to bury it.” 

Our son and his neighborhood friends played in the woods so much they practically lived there. When they got old enough to carry BB guns, they shot an armadillo and cooked it over a campfire. Now that he’s all grown up he tells me it tasted like pork because of the fattiness.

The guys took a chance handling the armadillo because they sometimes carry leprosy. It’s not a terribly scary thing if you are treated with antibiotics early in the process. Isn’t that miraculous after the scary things we read in the Bible and other places about leprosy?

Armadillos are mammals. The nine banded armadillos we have here in Florida birth their babies into the opening of a burrow. They nearly always have four identical babies born from one egg that splits into four identical embryos all male or all female. They are born with their soft armor on. Mother armadillos are good parents and nurse their young. They are protective too and if the original burrow is in danger, they have been known to move on to another one taking their babies with them.  Yes, one at a time.

But just think: If present day armadillos were anything like their long-ago ancestors you would not want to have anything to do with them. They were as big as a Volkswagen Beetle so big that their empty shell would shelter a whole family. 

To Christians who believe in God as Creator of everything it is amazing to hear or see the things he has invented. I sometimes envision him at his work bench using his strong hands to make new creatures, or did he already have them all designed from the beginning? 

Leprosy

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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