Even as a teen, with nose dipped down books so early on, I could not help but fall in love with writers, where-from whose moody pens flow images and emotions so awe-inspiring, so surprising. Sometimes whisking me off to dreamlands where princes and princesses spend their "ever after" tale ender happily, ever hoping that the wicked witches, long been sent to the servants' quarter would never regain hold of their magic wands to weave evil over the growing court of little crown heirs.
I want to dedicate this page to make attempts at poetry and rhymes without needing no reasons. And being a lover of imagery, will test my pen to weave a few. No matter how ill-eloquent they might be, bear in mind, they are products of feelings otherwise hidden but has found speech. Whereupon this blog they are set free, mind you, friends, after having long been locked inside by sheer will and brutal control, and like a bucket full to the brim, no other way to go but out to spill.
More so with my musings and wanderings, which have found a little-squeak-of-a-voice here in Bloglandia. With gratitude, for as long as it has no fee, I may not live to regret why I never opted to set my pen free, then save myself to mourn over the death of my brain children. I believe God has someone out there, He has singled out to take meaning with my otherwise irrelevant thoughts.
beautiful lines and comments collections:
February 16, 2012 at 1:30 pm
http://deeperstory.com/on-choosing-your-own-adventure/
by: Alece Ronzino
It has taken me awhile, but I am finally okay with not understanding how God’s sovereignty and human freewill fit together. I have to believe God loves me enough to give me choices. I also have to believe God loves me enough to be actively engaged in my life.
I don’t know how that works together. But that’s okay. If God wasn’t beyond my understanding, then He wouldn’t be worthy of my worship. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”- Isaiah 55:9.
I think sometimes people treat the intersection of God’s sovereignty with our lives like it is science. “Do A and B to determine God’s will.” But God is the Creator. He’s an artist who shaped us into existence and now shapes how we exist. I believe He is currently weaving something together that is more beautiful than our minds can fathom.
Which tier?
March 30, 2012
by: Stephanie Spencer
"The problem in this scenario wasn’t that the tiers existed. It wasn’t that we chose a cake with three tiers instead of four. The problem was a misunderstanding about which tiers we were talking about.
I think this is a lot like friendship. Like it or not, friendship has tiers.
Some friends are part of our biggest tier. The one shared with the
majority. People who share in our life events, but not in our deepest
secrets. Others are part of our smallest tier. The few people with whom
we share our most intimate moments. Many are part of the tier in
between.
Tiers in and of themselves are not bad. We are meant for community, but our capacity for relationships is not unlimited.
But, like my wedding day, problems can surface when we are not on the same page about our tiers."
Exchange between me and Steph.
lolitavalle on said:
This is just so wonderful, Stephanie.
My heart is exploding in finding myself with the message. I used to look at friendship like expecting the other to be in the same tier…. but I was younger then. It pained me when I knew that a friend I cared was hurt because she thought I needed to give her the top but I failed because I had someone else I shared in that place.
I do believe this is applicable to all kinds of relationships, including the most intimate ones and the business-like ones.
Now, I think I know better…… like knowing where to put myself….. the area I could control, so right, so true.
So profound and I am so amazed at the analogy, Steph……. tiers (sigh). Such a gift of perspective and grace.
Thank you.
My heart is exploding in finding myself with the message. I used to look at friendship like expecting the other to be in the same tier…. but I was younger then. It pained me when I knew that a friend I cared was hurt because she thought I needed to give her the top but I failed because I had someone else I shared in that place.
I do believe this is applicable to all kinds of relationships, including the most intimate ones and the business-like ones.
Now, I think I know better…… like knowing where to put myself….. the area I could control, so right, so true.
So profound and I am so amazed at the analogy, Steph……. tiers (sigh). Such a gift of perspective and grace.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your kind
words, Lolita. I am glad the post touched your heart. I found my ability
to give grace to others was increased when I stopped trying to force
them into the same tier.
Daily Devotion for May 9, 2012 Letting God Fill My Empty PlacesBy: Renee Swope
"You God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water." Psalm 63:1, NIV
It was a source she'd come to depend on. A place she went to get her needs met. But it was never enough; every day she came back for more.
Filling her jar with water, the woman looked up and heard Him ask her for a drink. Then He offered her something in return: living water. Unlike the water she came to get that day, He said the water He offered would satisfy her so deeply she'd never thirst again.
But she had a hard time believing His promise. "You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" (John 4:11) She asked.
What she didn't realize was that Jesus wanted to satisfy a deeper thirst in her heart — a longing He'd created to lead her heart to Him: the One and only Source that could satisfy her soul.
All He needed to draw with was His Spirit, for it would draw her near to Him. And as far as the depth of the well, it was her heart He was looking into. She was the only one who could stop Him from reaching the parts that needed Him most.
I know that place of needing Jesus to look into my heart and show me the emptiness only He can fill.
Like the woman at the well, I've depended on other means to get my needs met. Yet when I look to them, instead of Him, they are never enough.
I've looked to people: family and friends, bosses and boyfriends, teachers and mentors, my husband and kids. I've longed for their approval and the affirmation that comes with it.
I've also looked to possessions and positions and accidentally put my hope in recognition. I've thought "if only I had or could..."
But no matter how much I do or get, it's never enough to fill me up. And it's not supposed to be.
Why? Because the empty places in our hearts were created to be filled by God alone. The deepest thirst of our soul can only be quenched by Him.
We see this deep thirst even in King David, who had everything: the highest position, unlimited possessions, and great power, yet none of it was enough. He described himself as parched and thirsty for God:
You God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Ps. 63:1)
Then David went on to describe what he experienced when he drank deeply of God's love:
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live
and in your name I will lift up my hands. (vv. 2–4)
And the same thing happened to the woman Jesus met at the well that day. She drank deeply of His love and was filled to overflow, and we can be too.
Just like the woman at the well, God put a longing in our hearts that was intended to lead us back to Him. Only His unconditional acceptance, approval and affirmation can fill the empty places in our hearts - the deepest thirst of our souls. Until God's love and acceptance is enough, nothing else will be.
Dear Lord, show me the empty places in my heart and ways I try to fill them. Then lead me back to You and show me how I can position my heart to be filled and fulfilled by Your promises and the power of Your love. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
How can we let God fill the empty places in our hearts each day? Visit Renee's website/blog for a practical and powerful way to identify your empty places and let God fill them on a daily basis. You don't want to miss it!
A Confident Heart by Renee Swope. This best-selling book dives deep into the Living water of God's Word. Find more truths to fill the well of your heart by clicking here.
Letting God Fill My Empty Places a message on CD by Renee Swope
For more daily encouragement and powerful truths, join Renee's Confident Heart Facebook page.
Reflect and Respond:
Only God's unconditional acceptance, approval and affirmation can fill the empty places in our hearts - the deepest thirst of our souls. Until God's love and acceptance is enough, nothing else will be.
Ask God to help you identify your empty places and show you how HE can fill them. Click here for an illustration Renee shares of how she's learned to do this.
Power Verses:
Psalm 143:8, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life." (NIV)
Jeremiah 2:13, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
http://redemptionsbeauty.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/how-to-find-mystery-in-the-ordinary/
Lynn Morrissey says:
Shelly, when reading your post, I
couldn’t help but be reminded of these breathtakingly poetic words by
lyricist John Greenleaf Whittier to the beautiful hymn, “Dear Lord and
Father of Mankind.” They are my favorite verses: “Drop Thy still dews of
quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain
and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm; let
sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and
fire, O still, small voice of calm.” In the stillness, we cease
striving; then, in the quietness, we are able to hear God speak. And in
the still-point orderliness of lives freed from strain and stress, we
are able to experience God’s peace. I got to thinking about “ordinary”
time. I understand its meaning, and yet, upon deeper examination, one
realizes there is nothing *ordinary* about it (in the commonly defined
meaning of the term). Ordinary time is ordained by God. What could
possibly be ordinary about anything that He ordains? How interesting
that the words “ordered,” “ordinary,” and “ordained,” all derive from
the same root. So if God ordains even ordinary time, it is pregnant with
meaning and pulsing with wonder. You asked, “How do you search for the
mystery of Christ beyond His birth and resurrection? Where do you find
it?” Of course we find Christ in His Word, as you said, and in the
intimate communion of prayer, and we also find the mystery of Him in
the extraordinariness of the ordinary, in this ordinary human life which
He condescended to enflesh. His mystery is racing in every
life-and-breath experience we live, in every “grey cloud, water droplet,
and golden-eyed sun rising” we behold (as you so eloquently penned it).
Oh thank you, Miss Shelly, for helping us to behold mystery with poet’s
eyes. If we are to behold mystery, it’s crucial to have the eyes of a
poet, eyes which see through the transparent ordinary, straight through
to our extraordinary God! What greater compliment to your writing could
there be than that you give us eyes to see, and words to still our
hearts. I never win anything, and that’s ok. What I love is just a place
to express praise to this extraordinary God our ours! Thank you so much
for inviting that! You’re a treasure!
Oh my Lynn, your comments are so rich I
have to read them more than once, sometimes twice. Thank you. I love the
words of Whittier in that hymn. They make me want to bow and stay there
awhile.
Lynn Morrissey says:
Oh that’s it, Shelly! As God drops His still dews of quietness, we drop to our knees. We bow down. It’s always about worship!
“Love moves beyond what doesn’t make sense, transforms fear into brave. I held on to what I know is true with trembling hands that day. God’s providence, founded upon His love for me, is greater than my fear. ”
And say amen to this,
“And I refuse to take a detour, miss out on what He has for me while fear’s deceptive voice tries to hold me hostage to safe and comfortable. Safe and comfortable, they’re highly overrated.”
Every time, from this day onwards, I will wear this banner….courage…….and I will get out of that safe chair…….when faced with thoughts of the unknown, the unsettling things, what tomorrow holds, what ifs, loosing something and the likes, that the enemy wants us to believe, which would eventually keep us at the loosing end anyway….. I move to trust in His promises, no matter what!
Thank you, Shelly.
Lynn Morrissey says:
Danelle says: