tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88150859779791293962024-02-20T14:22:47.796-06:00Of Wilderness and Rocky PlacesFor me, faith is knowing that the same God who grows a crushed pinecone into a magnificent tree, will use the lowly seed of my circumstance to accomplish His amazing purpose
Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-87150008278329948442023-12-30T03:36:00.001-06:002023-12-30T04:37:05.284-06:00Crazy Daisy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJHDOXAn8TV-2VaNG_3Ua_E1q4qyGJj36HGgZxO0TcajsrcpIb_1YrXGg_yEMpTWhDPbYtuW9uBrvnrtFyiYuo6CvpvCctu_zK739eYE9OTY48MU0HW_P177qhC1YWoFCka8tKZV6nyFyIQzT76r5BFK1nFOKjk1j6NyPZDCA-odBcVbdPmJ3XqI2suo/s996/IMG_1307%20plate2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="996" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHJHDOXAn8TV-2VaNG_3Ua_E1q4qyGJj36HGgZxO0TcajsrcpIb_1YrXGg_yEMpTWhDPbYtuW9uBrvnrtFyiYuo6CvpvCctu_zK739eYE9OTY48MU0HW_P177qhC1YWoFCka8tKZV6nyFyIQzT76r5BFK1nFOKjk1j6NyPZDCA-odBcVbdPmJ3XqI2suo/w245-h245/IMG_1307%20plate2.jpg" width="245" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I own two vintage leftover Corelle plates in the 1970s pattern of my childhood growing up years - “Crazy Daisy Spring Blossom Green”. I have on occasion, also used these plates in my adult years, mostly when recovering from a winter virus… the times that call for easy-on-the-stomach-comfort foods like mashed potatoes, white rice, honey toast, or scrambled eggs. It’s not just the food, but also the plates themselves that have always been a part of the comforting factor. I’ve even had my dinner on one of these plates at times when I’ve simply been emotionally drained and was feeling in need of a little extra TLC</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">On Christmas Eve this year, I came across an article warning the general public that vintage Corelle plates should no longer be used for eating purposes because the protective finish becomes worn over time, exposing the paint used on the plate’s pattern. That paint has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead that may leach into the food that comes in contact with it. After reading the article, I reluctantly removed the two plates from my kitchen cupboard, and retired them to a place of honor on my dining room hutch. I felt sad that this meant my longtime comfort habit was being retired, as well. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s funny how something familiar that gives a person an emotional feeling of comfort, can turn out to be just an illusion of safety and security. Those childhood plates that had been bringing me present comfort, could in reality harm me. Had I used those plates constantly, rather than just for brief periods of life respite, I could have experienced lead poisoning. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Comfort distracts a person from what’s making them feel un-comfortable. Comfort can bring a person to rest in a place where things don’t change and where easy habit overshadows thought-filled examination. However, resting in that comfort for <i>too</i> long can lull us into believing that it’s better to sit back and feel good than it is to deal with the stress of change. The truth is, that good feeling is not lasting. As long as our circumstances stay the same, we will continue to be surrounded by the stress or misery that first caused us to seek out the insulating comfort to wrap ourselves in, to hide ourselves in. Eventually, we realize that most of our comfort measures are a temporary fix, and to become unstuck, we need to continue to move forward through the thing we were avoiding.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Moving through difficulty changes us. It forces us to adjust to new circumstances. When we adjust, we change. Change is essential to growth, and growth is what moves us forward into good things ahead. It hurts sometimes to leave old situations, and maybe even relationships we were once so connected to, behind. But there is also the promise of joy ahead. God tells us that <i>He</i> is our ultimate comfort. He is the <i>only</i> comfort that can go with us and grow with us. Even when the circumstances we are in seem unbearable, He is with us, guiding us towards something good. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">On Christmas Day, following the night my comfort plates were retired, I gathered with my kids at my first-born son’s house for our traditional holiday dinner of Nachos Navidad followed by the exchanging of gifts. My heart was filled with quiet jubilation when I opened a small box from my second-born son and daughter-in-law. In it I found a necklace with a charm they had carefully crafted from a piece of a Corelle plate with my precious “crazy daisy” pattern on it. With this necklace, I am able to wear a piece of comfort around my neck - like a loving hug from some of the people I love best, like a loving reminder of my Ultimate Comforter who goes with me through the uncomfortable things towards the better things ahead, like a loving symbol telling me hope is a living thing that exists in the process of change. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This season has been a difficult one, a confusing one, and an emotional one that has caused upheaval of some situations near me that were in desperate need of change. The upheaval has left me personally on a tumultuous path, one that I fervently have been seeking comfort on as I struggle to find my way forward. At times I feel very alone, conflicted about the direction I am supposed to take. Yet, every time I have huddled down seeking comfort and escape, God sends another person along to encourage me and help me take a few more steps forward. He is giving me hope that change is coming as I walk through this situation that continually threatens to overwhelm me with fear and anger and sadness. He is showing me once again that broken hearts can still feel love and joy. He is showing me that there are people all around me, that I am not alone. And He is protecting my sliver of faith that there is indeed, something good far ahead when all I can see right now is something awful. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">As Psalm 23 says, even when I walk through the darkest valley, God is with me. He is shepherding me. He is my protection and my comfort. Amen.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBp7wKEDcIjvdoyjEh-lQWSwDQbBKq2lazAKZdzE0K2-2xk0_jroQgTHZxH5cZBVZte04WpgJRbXdX2Ix4VbPi0fIa6OL95EP8tX2x7z7TInfGx3U9tpE_M-ZwGxZH_beTJt_rSjSdxVrSvHVbVkXvSEpUsTeZs_bCGsNUF6ubEuSMu37JkCrhOKm1b4/s2203/IMG_1309%20charm.heic" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2203" data-original-width="2203" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCBp7wKEDcIjvdoyjEh-lQWSwDQbBKq2lazAKZdzE0K2-2xk0_jroQgTHZxH5cZBVZte04WpgJRbXdX2Ix4VbPi0fIa6OL95EP8tX2x7z7TInfGx3U9tpE_M-ZwGxZH_beTJt_rSjSdxVrSvHVbVkXvSEpUsTeZs_bCGsNUF6ubEuSMu37JkCrhOKm1b4/w226-h226/IMG_1309%20charm.heic" width="226" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">”All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.“</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">2 Corinthians 1:3 NLT</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.1.3.NLT</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">”I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”“</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">John 16:33 NLT</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.16.33.NLT</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">”See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.“</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Isaiah 43:19 NIV</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.43.19.NIV</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">”I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.“</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Romans 8:18 NIV</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.18.NIV</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">”…But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.“</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Romans 8:24a-25 NIV</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.25.NIV</span></p>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-36168756334847964492023-04-06T12:05:00.003-05:002023-04-06T12:09:06.809-05:00Remnants of Hope<div class="separator"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGwwxx5ZHOK6-VhZTDzP7Rc7ppr0nfk9bzCQRNssHc2ceU9Jxsx2Bm2BiG1fUk1i53xNCsxNkZm_gwvutaLMo8vtqb6X5Sy9a6pZUn1rqs6QR6v-imIO7PKhdmsf1d2Z0yjjLLm8W8RTJr-6SRmuAm1CUpqZgPzixejVsxfKK8qLn2kspTFTBwksw/s3067/944E52F0-590F-465D-B38B-63B4918C4684.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3067" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZGwwxx5ZHOK6-VhZTDzP7Rc7ppr0nfk9bzCQRNssHc2ceU9Jxsx2Bm2BiG1fUk1i53xNCsxNkZm_gwvutaLMo8vtqb6X5Sy9a6pZUn1rqs6QR6v-imIO7PKhdmsf1d2Z0yjjLLm8W8RTJr-6SRmuAm1CUpqZgPzixejVsxfKK8qLn2kspTFTBwksw/s320/944E52F0-590F-465D-B38B-63B4918C4684.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">As Easter approaches, I’ve brought out the appropriate holiday bin in order to decorate for our family celebration on Sunday. The basketful of treasures pictured here is probably my favorite item in the box, each one crocheted or knitted by my Gramma B (except for the eggs which were made by my friend’s mom). When I look at these heirlooms, I think about my grandma’s daily life. She consistently invested her time and used her hands to express her love and consideration for other people, and her actions were often accompanied by words of her faith in God. When I remember my grandma, I find myself hoping that the legacy of faith that she gifted me with never becomes just another heirloom. I hope that I am teaching my own kids that faith is not just a tradition to be pulled out of a box and ritually repeated on holy days and holidays. I hope their nostalgia for the past never transcends the opportunities of their present to experience the faithfulness of God firsthand - opportunities to be stretched and depend on Him, opportunities to show compassion to others in today’s crises, opportunities to worship and serve from hearts of gratefulness rather than simply out of habit and discipline. I hope that the legacy of faith that my grandma gave to me is one my children are personally and powerfully experiencing in their own lives, just as I am in mine. I believe if they saturate their hearts and their motivations with the love of God, their faith will be active and growing. That belief is the reason I constantly pray that the legacy of faith I am sharing with them will continue to be a living thing, even more precious than a remnant of the past.</p></div><p><br /></p><p>“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil… Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. </p><p>- Deuteronomy 11:13-14, 18-21 NIV</p>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-43287590545157760942022-05-03T10:36:00.001-05:002022-05-03T10:47:30.734-05:00Grief & Joy (by Molly)<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 15px;"><i>(intro by Lora) There’s nothing more difficult for me as a parent than watching my children struggle with something I cannot fix for them. There’s nothing more affirming than seeing my children build resilience by growing stronger in their faith in God’s goodness. My heart was eased, reading this essay Molly wrote for her Old Testament class at school. She’s finding the best path through the hard places. Here are her words…</i></span></p><p>Proverbs talks a lot about grief as well as joyfulness. Reading through these verses hit pretty hard in my life actually. They talk much about how people like to hide their grief and seem as if they're joyful even when God knows they aren’t ok. The following questions and answers are how I interpreted the verses that I read.</p><p>These verses taught me a lot about how joy and grief go together. You can’t really have joy without grief. If we didn’t have grief we wouldn’t know what joy feels like. But if we didn’t have joy, we would just be sorrowful all of the time. But, if we go to the Lord in our times of grief, he can help us through it and help us regain our happiness.</p><p>Our world is kind of a mess. There is so much grief all of the time between wars, sickness, and environmental issues. People try to show they’re happy and that it’s all ok when in reality, it’s kind of a mess. Many people also don’t realize how much God can help them through these situations which makes the grief able to take over more.</p><p>In Proverbs 17:22 it says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” In the past few years of my life grief has been kind of strong. Although there were no deaths, my parents had gotten divorced spring of my 8th grade year. And all before that, it was a stressful situation. My mom did everything she could to be happy and strong for me and my brothers but I knew she wasn’t ok. As well as I knew I wasn’t doing well either. All of my friends at school and people outside of my family saw the happier quiet version of me that didn’t show any signs of sadness, grief, or sorrow, but when I was alone it was not really ok. During this time my cat had passed and he was the thing I was comforted by the most so it was not a wonderful situation. In this time I noticed myself getting closer to God and leaning on him for help more. This summer I’m getting baptized as well. As I got closer to The Lord it helped learn that I could trust some of my friends and that they could help me as well. So although in a bad situation of grief,it led me to get closer to the Lord. So the verse shows that getting closer to God gave me a cheerful heart and helped me to become happier even when the grief beforehand was making me sad and made me feel lonely.</p><p>These verses show that even though you can’t have joy without grief, in the end it will end up ok. If you are happy at one point but it ends in sadness, the Lord will always help you through that situation. An example could be that a close grandparent dies. You had much happiness with them and loved them so much but they were older and passed and you had much grief over them. Knowing that they are in a better place and being taken care of even better than they were before will help you get through the stage of grief and help you to be happy yet again.</p><p>Proverbs is a great book to help you learn that joy and grief go together. Although grief doesn’t seem like a wonderful thing, it’s a part of life. It helps you learn things as life goes on. Always remember that when you aren’t doing well, God is always there to help.</p><p>- Molly</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJIXdLtaAeDKm-x6v1bsDXcEpS245JEIqso_ccqNjd8Gf461Gwh9-Y7x42ldeGlrUE81mT7n1aR1dnWVEgnkQv8VzgJR_spLNfBgpy0n_9QOt8WFSX5TAq5Mk3hvS6EI1w_Qbbb6m19_EeyRasFTBaUlJRvlNsBYnKoIX6iwThLAds3GsyNAFJ8NV/s2148/B34D440D-EE47-405F-90C8-37733D2411F2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1611" data-original-width="2148" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSJIXdLtaAeDKm-x6v1bsDXcEpS245JEIqso_ccqNjd8Gf461Gwh9-Y7x42ldeGlrUE81mT7n1aR1dnWVEgnkQv8VzgJR_spLNfBgpy0n_9QOt8WFSX5TAq5Mk3hvS6EI1w_Qbbb6m19_EeyRasFTBaUlJRvlNsBYnKoIX6iwThLAds3GsyNAFJ8NV/s320/B34D440D-EE47-405F-90C8-37733D2411F2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-28537433353044737552022-05-01T20:46:00.008-05:002022-05-02T07:54:40.760-05:00THE ALTAR OF MY HEART<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 15px;">It’s confusing in Wisconsin when spring shows up on the calendar, but snow continues to fly through the air. We feel like we are in the wrong place at the right time. The earth’s angle is tilted so that we are being exposed to more sunlight, but many of our days still feel cold, and the clouds often interfere with that extra light we have been waiting for all winter. Yet, we know the sun is still there. We know that spring is indeed arrived and our activities reflect what the calendar tells us, more so than how the weather feels. I put my snow shovel away, and take out my garden shovel. My fleece mittens are put in the closet, and my rubber coated work gloves come out. I stand on the step outside my patio door, shivering, but confident that the sun’s warmth will soon overcome the chilly air.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 15px;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This particular spring marks the one year anniversary of my divorce. It feels strange to have stopped counting the marriage years and started over again at the beginning of the number line. I have been compelled to look back at my blog entry concerning my marriage from eight years ago, titled “I WILL…” In it I had written, “In days of old, God's people built altars to acknowledge and to remember the places where he had performed a miracle, or had saved them, or had revealed himself to them in a significant moment.” My entry described how I perceived the altar of my marriage vows. At that place and time, my marriage was challenging, but I was intent to persevere… to continue to move forward in love… to believe my husband shared my intent… to trust God would save us from the imperfections of ourselves. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Despite that intention, our vows crumbled and divorce broke the altar of our marriage. With a broken marriage came a broken life. With a broken marriage came a broken confidence in the church that I believed would help us, but had instead harmed us. With a broken marriage came a broken desire to interact with the world outside of my hurting children, even with people whom I knew loved me and supported me. With a broken marriage came a broken ability to consider the future with any kind of vision or anticipation. With a broken marriage came a broken heart.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My broken heart was full of confusion and uncertainty. It felt like my life was turned completely upside down. The marriage altar was destroyed, and instead of feeling that the presence of God was with me, I was feeling lost and traumatized. Despite the feeling of disconnection in my heart, the knowledge in my head caused me to turn to the one concrete place I knew to be whole, to hold truth, to be unchanged. I turned to read the words of God in the Bible. There, in the very beginning, in Genesis, I found other people who were navigating traumatic experiences, who were confused and uncertain, and who in the midst of their upside down circumstances knew to look for God.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In Genesis chapter 8, after a forty day storm that destroys the face of the earth and most of humanity, and after countless days of just floating aimlessly on the open water, Noah’s ark lands him in an unfamiliar place. His home has been destroyed, and his future plans are completely unknown. Noah decides the place where he belongs at that moment is at an altar he builds before doing anything else, worshipping and waiting on God. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In Genesis chapter 12, Abraham is asked to leave the homeland he has lived his whole life. He travels to one foreign place after another, sometimes fearing for his life. However, in each place God leads him to, Abraham builds an altar, to thank God for his presence, and for the future fulfillment of his promises. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I can emotionally relate to the uprooted circumstances of Noah and Abraham. After one year, divorce still feels like a strange place to me. I continue to often surround myself with the boundaries of solitude and silence. I sit in my new church on occasion, listening to familiar words filtered through a shadow of grief and distrust. My children look to me to lead the way into the future, as their progress in healing ebbs and flows. The only surety I know is that God is here with me. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My heart may be broken, but I believe God is here. Even if this broken heart sometimes feels like the wrong place for me to wait, I try and remember the springtime. I’m starting to see that altar of my life has become my broken heart. Even though it sometimes feels like a place I don’t want to be, it is the place where I know that God’s light will awaken hope and healing, in time. It is the right place to approach God, to talk to him, to listen for him, to worship him. As I wait expectantly at the altar of my heart, I am beginning to see glimpses of what’s ahead. Even if I don’t always feel like God is here, I believe he is here. I remember the springtime. I believe that eventually, I will feel his warmth healing my heart. I believe that his light will show me where I am going, and that his promises for me will be fulfilled. Until then, I will wait here.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Hosea 6:3 NLT</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Isaiah 40:7-8 NLT</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Isaiah 40:31 NKJV</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Psalms 42:11 NLT</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">“But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Psalms 42:8 NLT</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPO6S4K3yRHCV3fbK6M1_lK876R23KdASKZVxtuTOItaUikV4uZh__1TJRaFWVdK-TP86HLMAO-uLesbP_7bf0zOTAUkQixGd1z055Agi87nLcq3knBxG3pOmbVq2optMp8DtzixQWuYv-unTdts-hXxZ_OInbx4-ang01J2PIjgdDE2qLK6BycIO/s405/BA9CDF4C-8B50-4AB1-9E0E-EEDF7EBEF3AF.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="405" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPO6S4K3yRHCV3fbK6M1_lK876R23KdASKZVxtuTOItaUikV4uZh__1TJRaFWVdK-TP86HLMAO-uLesbP_7bf0zOTAUkQixGd1z055Agi87nLcq3knBxG3pOmbVq2optMp8DtzixQWuYv-unTdts-hXxZ_OInbx4-ang01J2PIjgdDE2qLK6BycIO/s320/BA9CDF4C-8B50-4AB1-9E0E-EEDF7EBEF3AF.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span><p></p>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-83728102237003860242021-06-13T19:04:00.007-05:002021-06-13T23:41:02.924-05:00The Burden of Regret<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKWu42NGu7FL2PNOKk1DEoyaSZdYqwrgpgpCifm4Ser0vmozQScONXE2lIOznZXi7-EnIdhNtUlt5dqyumC7oIZoTiizLBP92j5kXg3rOE28u0a3u4cE9YfbjKwzWNLf-lcWQsHbSqLQ/s640/B2AF1794-CD9B-486B-BFD2-1FE2037AB5B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKWu42NGu7FL2PNOKk1DEoyaSZdYqwrgpgpCifm4Ser0vmozQScONXE2lIOznZXi7-EnIdhNtUlt5dqyumC7oIZoTiizLBP92j5kXg3rOE28u0a3u4cE9YfbjKwzWNLf-lcWQsHbSqLQ/s320/B2AF1794-CD9B-486B-BFD2-1FE2037AB5B2.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Regret - that feeling of sorrow linked to past choices. Regret is a burden that every grown up human being carries. It’s weight is felt in grief, in anguish, in remorsefulness, or even shame. To me, one of the most significant things about regret is that it is a burden that we put upon ourselves. Even when regret is linked to a choice that we made that was the right choice - the truly loving or kind or protective or responsible choice in that moment, we still often pummel ourselves in the aftermath of that choice. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">A friend of mine was looking at an old photo from summers ago. Six sun-tanned happy kids are in the photo, five of them sticky with ice cream treats. The youngest kid in the photo was my friend’s two year old adoptive daughter who had passed away due to medical issues, a few months following the day the picture was taken. One of her daughter’s conditions on a long list of medical diagnoses was Type 1 Diabetes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My friend texted , “This photo makes me happy and sad. Why couldn’t I have let her have some ice cream. I was so new to caring for her and wanted to do everything perfect. I should have let her have the ice cream.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I quickly replied, “But remember (she had been happily snacking on baby carrots, at the time), she loved those carrots like they were ice cream! You were doing the thing you believed was best. You were such a good mama to her!”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">She said, “I know, but look at her. She’s signing please (in the photo) But thank you for that reminder. She had only been with us a month or so...”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“It was like having a brand new baby for the first time, wasn’t it?” I asked.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Absolutely! I would have done that differently with the knowledge I have now. But she got my best either way,” she replied.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us... Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">-2 Corinthians 1:4, 6-7</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I know that my friend voiced her regret specifically to me not only because I had been present the day of that photo, but also because she believed that as a foster/adoptive mom myself, I would understand the burden of her regret. And she was right - I am very familiar with the wistful feeling regret can weigh in as. As a parent, making decisions from a place of loving boundaries can sometimes seem so impossibly hard. I occasionally look back and find my parenting choices regrettable even though they were the right choices - the actual best choices in those moments. Viewing my past through the lens of heartbreak or of greater knowledge is always going to be painful I think. It’s a situation in which I know that I need to forgive myself and have the grace to look behind my imperfections. I guess that’s the point of grace - of being able to not only accept it as a gift from God, but also learning to accept it from myself. I struggle with this often, especially as a parent... even more so with my adopted kids, where I have had to parent blindly sometimes. Circumstances have forced me to do the best I could, even though later I sometimes realized my best in the past was lacking in the light of the present.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Regret is a universal burden in any relationship, really. A few days ago would have marked my 27th wedding anniversary, had I not gotten a divorce in this past year. Divorce is a situation riddled with regret, and the burden of that regret is carried by each person in a family - no matter where the blame lays. On my former wedding anniversary day, I realized that a sacred day had now been transformed into a mourning day - the mourning of the hope that had once been woven through even the dysfunctional parts of my marriage. I looked around myself and I saw that my family is broken, the hearts of my children are broken, the rhythm of our lives is broken. I looked beside myself and saw the path beside me is broken - that my present ability to maintain any but my most immediate relationships is broken. I looked inside myself and saw that my desire to trust is broken, that the thoughts in my head are broken, that my desire to speak is broken... that my heart is broken. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The trauma of a broken marriage is painted with regret. The relics of my heart are the only pieces that remain of my vows. Those pieces are strewn about, splintered and worn. My marriage was beaten down, destroyed, and abandoned - but still, these pieces of me remain. My heart has become burdened with the questions regret asks - what did I do wrong, what should I have done differently, why did I say this or choose that? Regret weighs heavy, even when the choice that strains the remaining threads of a relationship is not ones own. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">-Matthew 11:28-30 NLT</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Regret is a ponderous burden. God tells me in the Bible to bring my burdens to him. I think when I consciously do that, I find some comfort in knowing that God understands my regret, how I feel underneath its weight. Maybe that’s the “rest” Jesus talked about... that knowing God is gentle and understanding of my inadequacy. Maybe the “rest” is that bringing my regret to him is not going to result in his judgement of guilt, but in his gift of grace. Maybe the “rest” I am promised is the realization that this lifetime does not end in regret, but in restoration. Maybe that hope is the “rest” I can lean into from regret.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Regret is not easy to talk about - it’s very nature is that it is brought about by something we wish did not exist. But I know there is healing to be had in carrying regret to the appropriate place - to not use it to condemn ourselves, but to give ourselves hope. Hope shows me a mother greeting her daughter again one day with a joyful hug and an ice cream cone. Hope finds me when my daughter paints a picture with a quote from her favorite movie written on the bottom that says, “This is my family. It's little, and broken, but still good.” Hope tells me that today’s regret does not cancel out yesterday’s joys or tomorrow’s possibilities. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.” </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">-Psalm 62:5 NIV</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-57852660980459055822020-12-26T01:06:00.004-06:002020-12-26T10:02:41.562-06:00Mid-Story <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYUiUhTouP9D8-VbsRi6bWCBX-H28Wx7xK966I2mt_HcS3EO-giIyr_8GZegqkQGUaGlWynXKzXhu9NKWSjSNmiIrdJxdUCz5-RQliJWT1boNF_ZvGuBXEwpc4ibo6uK7xpRJP3qNhpuk/s2048/134CA687-02CF-4AF2-9B5C-66C5B3641010.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYUiUhTouP9D8-VbsRi6bWCBX-H28Wx7xK966I2mt_HcS3EO-giIyr_8GZegqkQGUaGlWynXKzXhu9NKWSjSNmiIrdJxdUCz5-RQliJWT1boNF_ZvGuBXEwpc4ibo6uK7xpRJP3qNhpuk/w150-h200/134CA687-02CF-4AF2-9B5C-66C5B3641010.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div><br />This Christmas was different for everyone in the world, and our family was not excluded from that circumstance. In the weeks before Christmas Day, I heard the people I love voice their awareness of the coming differences with anxiety and nervousness about parting from the expected familiar - my son, my brother, my mother, my daughter, my niece, my friend - and even the voice of my own inner self, echoing around in my head. Each of us struggled with concern for different reasons, but our struggle was universal in that we all had suffered painful life changes that set us on new paths over the course of the year since last Christmas. <p></p><p><br /></p><p>Rev. David Crosby wrote, “You do not get to choose the events that come your way nor the sorrows that interrupt your life. They will likely be a surprise to you, catching you off quard and unprepared. You may hold your head in your hands and lament your weak condition and wonder what you ought to do. To suffer, that is common to all...Pain will change you more profoundly than success or good fortune. Suffering shapes your perception of life, your values and priorities, and your goals and dreams. Your pain is changing you.”</p><p><br /></p><p>The change that sorrow and suffering brings is painful. It breaks off pieces of ourselves that were attached to things we thought we needed, things we thought we depended on, things that we thought defined us... until life happened and forced us to see that the parts that have broken away are not meant to be with us on the road ahead. We feel raw and wounded in those broken places, sometimes in an almost unbearable sense. But time moves us forward down our new path, and we realize that our journey continues despite our pain, and despite our inclination to stay in the place where life was interrupted, hoping that somehow that moment will rewind itself and disappear. </p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the most hopeful verses in the Bible, to me, come in the middle of a book of laments. A lament is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a passionate expression of grief or sorrow.” Yet, in the middle of this book of laments, this hope appears: </p><p>“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’” Lamentations 3:21-24 NIV</p><p>Throughout my life, whenever I have been faced with a situation which has caused me great grief and sorrow, these verses have reminded me that the middle of my circumstances is not where life ends. The middle of my pain is not where joy ends. The middle of my struggle is not where hope ends. Even when a job is lost, an ability is lost, a relationship is lost, or a life is lost... there is more to the story than the sorrowful middle. That doesn’t mean that I should not express my grief, that I cannot lament over what has changed by my loss - but what it does mean is that I can hold on to the promise that this middle of sorrow is not a bitter end. </p><p><br /></p><p>In the church I’ve been attending this year, each week the pastor heralds the congregation with a blessing before we leave the shelter of the church and return to the lives we live outside the walls of that building. The blessing comes from Numbers 6:24-26 in the Bible:</p><p>“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” </p><p>I am deeply comforted each week as I listen to the words of this blessing spoken over me. I know that the original blessing was spoken by the priests over the Israelites when they were in the middle of a journey through the wilderness. These people were living a life of change and hardship that often brought about grief and sorrow and uncertainty. But in the middle of that wilderness, there was hope. In the middle of that wilderness was the promise that these difficult circumstances were only the middle of the journey, and that a wondrous destination still lay ahead. In the middle of that wilderness, the words of this blessing were spoken over them to remind them that God was with them always. </p><p><br /></p><p>When the very first Christmas was coming, Joseph was uncertain and anxious. He was nervous because the life he had planned had been interrupted and he did not know what to expect on the new path his life journey suddenly had taken. The book of Matthew records that an angel came to him in a dream in the middle of the time he was lamenting his unanticipated circumstances, and the angel said:</p><p>"’Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, God with us.'" -Matthew 1:22-23, NIV</p><p><br /></p><p>Immanuel, the name of Jesus, literally means “God with us”. As we celebrate Christmas differently this year, how thrilling and how comforting it is to know that in the middle of my lamenting, in the middle of my struggle, in the middle of my unexpected journey - Jesus is here with me, and He promises not to leave me hopeless, but to faithfully bring me through to the completion where love wins out and mourning ends.</p><p><br /></p><p>“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished...” -Philippians 1:6</p><p><br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-26641766620810253842020-01-05T12:55:00.000-06:002020-01-06T02:47:25.987-06:00The Waiting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
“There is a life and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy between.” ~Albert Camus<br />
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Last year was filled with uneasiness for me... a sense that the world was always tilting, and no matter how I attempted to adjust my stance, I never could find a balanced position that allowed me to relax. When the life you are living is filled with uncertainty and hyper-vigilance, you become tired... I became tired - chronically, heavily, depressingly tired. I’d look around and feel overwhelmed by the veil that lay over my world. I’d look within and feel defeated by the circumstances that had been heaped there without my permission. I’d look up to God and feel like he was pre-occupied with whatever was happening just over my shoulder. And maybe he was... maybe God knew that I sensed what was behind me around the curve of the road, just out of sight, but close enough for me to feel the chill of its shadow reaching out ever longer and leaving me uneasy with the darkness it cast around itself.<br />
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In last few days of 2019, I finally ran out of road. As I turned and looked back at where I had been walking, I saw the shape of the shadow that had been behind me become sharpened in the light of the glaring truth. Finally, I saw clearly what I had been sensing all along. It was a shifting figure painted with someone else’s shame and deceit. It was hard to look at... even harder as I began to comprehend exactly what it was - unfortunately familiar, something which could never be unseen.<br />
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Everybody in this world experiences undeserved pain. It rips at your heart, pounds on your head, leaves your soul shaken. In a detached yet spiritual moment, the horror reminded me that Jesus had died from such an undeserved experience. And not surprisingly, the thought was not comforting. It was more of a disruptive awareness - like a train clattering down the tracks through the night with its horn blaring, and its dirty graffiti covered cars hanging onto each other by a mere coupling.<br />
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I know other people - friends, family - who have experienced deep pain this last year, too. A husband who shockingly died in a matter of unexpected moments at work. A violent seizure disrupting a peaceful night and announcing the previously unknown presence of a brain tumor. An estranged child becoming more deeply lost to her loving mother by her own hard-hearted intention. Such pain feels like a betrayal. It is trauma at its worst, wreaking havoc with our faith and with our families. Sometimes, all we can do in those moments where life betrays us is to suffer, exposed. We want to run away from the pain, yet somehow hold on to the precious thing shrouded inside of it that’s being ripped away. Our minds are at war with our hearts. Our faith is at war with our fear.<br />
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I could probably write in a bunch of right responses here - to pain, to fear, to traumatic upheavals. But sometimes, the right response is not the one that you would think. Sometimes, you have to be wild and scream and cry and pound your fists. Sometimes, you feel so fragile, that you need to lock yourself in a room for awhile and leave everyone else outside. Sometimes, you are so confused that next right thing to do waivers and swerves like a car out of control from one side of the road to the other. Sometimes, you feel like time is standing still, but then you realize that it’s actually you who is standing still. When you look around you’re shocked to realize all around that life goes on regardless, and the reality is, you’re forced to a point to go along with it.<br />
<br />
I think that our inability to stop time from moving is the way that healing begins. It is a both a maddening and miraculous awareness. Before the horror and pain have even ended their barrage of mayhem in your life, the details of recovery are roused and engaged. The relationships in your circle begin to shift, and those with deepest significance, with the most soulful connections, begin to rise to the surface of your life, like cream in a jar of ice cold milk that has been left undisturbed overnight in the farmer’s kitchen. Suddenly, you realize that what you viewed as God’s pre-occupation while circumstances lined up to destroy your life, was not an abandonment at all. It was a patient waiting, a carefully orchestrated plan to ensure that what was meant to harm you, would in the end be used to help you. As your messed up life became separated into the before and after of the moment you became painfully aware of the circumstances that would change things forever, God had never taken his eyes off of you. Instead, he had allowed the cream to gather and rise, and even as you staggered under the suddenly too heavy weight of your crisis, he began to redistribute the burden of it. He ladled the cream from the top of the milk and began the process of turning it into beautiful new details whose possibilities had always existed in his plan, but could only arise through the process of separation.<br />
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As God has already begun to spread out the burden of my pain onto family and friends, I have felt a shift. While the ache is still there, so there is also a relief. I think that this past year of carrying this burden alone has both strengthened and weakened me. But I think there was purpose in the waiting. As the cream gathers to the top, so God had begun to gather my relationships and my life circumstances to a place where they would be ready for this time. As I became more and more weary of my burden, I became more and more ready to share it - not an easy task for an introverted independent woman like myself. And even as I am horrified and aching from pain, I am encouraged. Because when cream is whipped and shaken and blended with other good ingredients, it becomes part of a number of delightful new creations - new and good gifts. Creations that are served to satisfy all on their own, as well as creations that enhance the flavor of other good gifts.<br />
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So, as I contemplate the pain that has risen in me, I also am shedding the veil that had covered my world. The future is becoming a bit brighter, although my vision of it is still cloudy. I’m okay with the uncertainty of it, however. Just before the moment of horror I have recently experienced, God caught my attention with this quote... “Honor the waiting. It teaches you the beauty and ache of hope in equal measure.” The beauty and the ache are both necessary in order to experience the miracle of hope. God has shown us that truth over and over from the beginning of time. Who am I to not be willing to sit down and rest with him after the grueling process, and enjoy the sweetness that comes in a dish of ice cream? There is nothing that can take away the precious hope that remains in me because of my strong faith in the good, good love of my Father God.<br />
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“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”<br />
Isaiah 40:31 NLT<br />
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“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”<br />
1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT<br />
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“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”<br />
Galatians 6:2 NLT<br />
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“They brought sleeping mats, cooking pots, serving bowls, wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans, lentils, honey, butter, sheep, goats, and cheese for David and those who were with him. For they said, ‘You must all be very hungry and tired and thirsty after your long march through the wilderness.’”<br />
2 Samuel 17:28-29 NLT<br />
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“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”<br />
Psalms 27:14 NLT<br />
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“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”<br />
Romans 8:28 NLT<br />
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“For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”<br />
Psalms 100:5 NLT<br />
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“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”<br />
1 John 4:16 NLT<br />
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-999945703486737252018-11-05T19:25:00.000-06:002018-11-06T10:37:31.261-06:00Purpose, Perspective, Politics, and Papa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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My son told me he is going to vote tomorrow because his Papa (my dad) told him he should. I smiled because when I was young, I too voted because I knew my dad would call me up and ask, “Did you vote?” And, just like my son (kindred middle child spirit), I had this internal over-fondness of approval... especially from my dad - so when he called and asked me if I had voted, I wanted to be able to answer “yes” in order to hear that coveted “Good job!” from the other end of the phone. Almost 20 years later, I still make a habit of voting because I realize it pleases not only my earthly father, but my Heavenly Father as well. I vote because my perspective of the world is that of a woman who is a mom and a community member, and I believe that choosing a leader who reflects my perspective in those roles is important. A few years ago, I heard someone say, “The authenticity of your faith is connected to every aspect of your life.” The statement has stayed with me as I have faced situations every day that require difficult choices. I realize that each of those situations is an opportunity for me to be authentic and sincere in who I am and what I believe. I know that there are times when I fail to choose the right thing. I know that those times are most often when I choose to do the selfish thing. But, I also know that there are many times that I choose with integrity. Those are the moments that I want to stretch over into all areas of my life. I know that those moments of integrity have been modeled for me by my dad for a lifetime. I pray that God influences my own children through me in the same way He has influenced my life through my parents. In the meantime, I’m happy my son is choosing to vote tomorrow. And even if his motives are more self-centered than right-minded at this point, I am proud of him. I have confident hope that as he continues to experience life, and as he encounters more and more opportunity to make hard choices, he will also continue to grow in his ability to choose with a bigger perspective... to choose with insight and integrity. How fortunate we all are to have the opportunity to do better every day... Happy Election Day!</div>
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“But you, O Lord, will sit on your throne forever. Your fame will endure to every generation... Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them. But you are always the same; you will live forever. The children of your people will live in security. Their children’s children will thrive in your presence.”</div>
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- Psalms 102:12, 25-28 NLT</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-4093608797021361632018-11-03T02:55:00.000-05:002018-11-16T08:54:42.884-06:00Lost<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday was the birthday of our oldest adopted son. I didn’t celebrate out loud. I didn’t celebrate with joy. I didn’t celebrate with him. In my heart, I remembered the impish smile that was often on his face from the day we first met. In my heart, I also remembered how that playful expression would at times become anxious as he fixated on imaginary other-worlds. I think his fantasies were born out of loss... loss of people and places that in reality, no one should have to mourn. His loss has been magnified by the schizophrenic legacy of his birth family. Bit by bit through his young adulthood, our son has become lost in his loss. He has become lost to us, who are his adoptive family. He has become lost to his birth brother, who lived at his side for a lifetime. He has become lost to his friends, who he once reveled in the presence of. He has become lost, and as a result, <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">we are now a reflection of his loss. It is not a reflection made up of regret. I don’t regret loving him. I don’t regret the space we invited him to fill in our family more than 21 years ago. Even now, when he has chosen to leave that space he once filled... I don’t regret the impression of him left behind. What we reflect are the reminders that he was once here. Our loss reminds us that he was actively loved. Our loss reminds us that even though he has turned away now - he has turned away as a stronger person for having been loved through his own greatest loss. Our loss reminds us of the loss our own Father God experiences when one of His children turns their back to Him. So, on our son’s birthday as I contemplated his life, I purposed to celebrate with gratitude... to be grateful that he is in a safe place, to be grateful for the many memories of our time with him that bring smiles to all of our faces, to be grateful for the opportunity to learn to love someone through difficult circumstances and even through loss, and for the strength that lesson has grown in us as a family. CS Lewis wrote, “Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest on reciprocity.” I know these words are true.</span><br>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">Yesterday was the birthday of our son. I am grateful for him, and I celebrate his life in my heart. </span><br>
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More of this story:</div>
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<a href="http://ofwildernessandrockyplaces.blogspot.com/2016/?m=0">http://ofwildernessandrockyplaces.blogspot.com/2016/?m=0</a><br>
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“Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight...”</div>
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James 1:27a MSG</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-43586056389464686672018-09-08T14:59:00.000-05:002018-09-08T15:54:22.078-05:00Love Rises<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">My mom and dad have what is </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">surely the best example I know of what an enduring marriage relationship looks like. When I look at their relationship with each other, I see that the strength that holds them together is the inclusion of God. I love the quote by Tennessee Williams, "The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks." Those words paint a miraculous picture of the fragile thing overcoming the hard thing, of beauty and life surviving in the crevices of dark and difficult circumstances. I myself have experienced that marriage is not easy, especially in the face of the ongoing trauma that surrounds having a family member with extensive medical issues. My parents have experienced those circumstances in their marriage, my younger brother having been born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy that compromised his physical health and development throughout his 22 years of life. The experience of chronic trauma in our family was compounded by the additional heartbreak of my brother’s death. My parents’ response to such difficulty and sorrow always has taught me well about the paradox of suffering. They showed me that the pain of suffering brings about the gift of learning to love with no regrets, and learning to limit your focus to the most important things in life. My mom and dad’s example has helped me to understand that the very thing that feels like it is threatening to tear a family apart, can actually be a catalyst that brings deep unity to that family instead. Their example of faith has shown me that by choosing to trust God in circumstances that are unthinkably terrible, I am allowing him the opportunity to turn what seems tragic into something more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. In their marriage, my parents allowed God to carry them to places where they surely never would have chosen to go on their own. They have trusted God through many situations which anyone could not possibly choose to embrace, and which many people would even bitterly say called for resentment. Yet, here they are today, truly living in <i>gratitude</i> for the dark valleys they have journeyed through. Here they are today, privileged to experience a glimpse of a present and a future that is not framed by the lack of what they have lost, but rather by the <i>love of what they have grown</i>. I know that their love today does not exist because they have spent the last 50 years gazing at themselves, or even at each other. I know that their love exists today because over the last 50 years, they have consistently chosen together to look in the direction of God. I am so thankful for their example that the <i>most important thing</i> a husband and a wife can do in their marriage relationship, is to cling to love for God and for each other. My parent’s marriage and their lives are truly evidence that <b>love will always rise when given the opportunity</b>.</span></div>
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<i>“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”</i></div>
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<i>1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV</i></div>
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<i>"...I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'"</i></div>
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<i>2 Corinthians 12:8b-9a NIV</i></div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-40008036427704667552018-07-08T02:50:00.000-05:002018-07-08T20:46:36.475-05:00Legacy of Imperfection<div><br></div><div>The family I grew up in? The family I grew up in was as imperfect of a family as the next one. I say this, confident in my opinion that there are no perfect families in the world. The family I grew up in still exists - although with missing pieces, with holes patched up, with repurposed parts.</div><div><br></div><div><i><b>“Everyone needs compassion</b></i></div><div><i><b>A love that's never failing</b></i></div><div><i><b>Let mercy fall on me...”</b></i></div><div><br></div><div>My family was gifted with a legacy of love, but even though we were given that gift, we all struggle with carrying it at times. My mom and dad are tired, and yet they never give up on finishing the journey they began. My brother and I are incomplete, yet multiplied, all at the same time. We are missing a sibling, but have each acquired a spouse and children. We have increased in love, but (like all human beings) we hold on to a measure of selfishness, we hoard a portion of pride, and we are defeated by our own sensitivities. When those faults threaten to crack the foundation of our legacy, it’s important to remember that this day and this moment and this conflict are fleeting, but our family remains our family forever.</div><div><br></div><div><i><b>“Everyone needs forgiveness</b></i></div><div><i><b>The kindness of a Savior</b></i></div><div><i><b>The hope of nations...”</b></i></div><div><br></div><div>The legacy we were given is still with us, and many more hands have touched its surface... some gently caressing it, some powerfully supporting it, some clawing at it to take pieces for themselves. Our own children are connected to it, and just as is true for us, those connections mean that the paths they each choose to walk have all started at the original point of this legacy. This means that every stumble jars, every new direction stretches, and every heir added is cause for a shift in our balance.</div><div><br></div><div><i><b>“So take me as You find me</b></i></div><div><i><b>All my fears and failures</b></i></div><div><i><b>And fill my life again...”</b></i></div><div><br></div><div>Each one of us is challenged by our struggles, by our limited perspectives, by our imperfections. Some of us are challenged to let go and move over before reaching out to grasp a new area. Some of us are challenged to stay the course, and hold on right where we have been standing the whole time. Some of us are challenged to connect in ways that respectfully grow the legacy, rather than harshly force it to change. Some of us are challenged to find where we belong at all. However, <i>all </i>of us must recognize that surrendering our challenges to the One who can save us from their consequences is the only way to experience the gift that the legacy truly is - a gift of joy and of acceptance, a gift of forgiveness and of grace, a gift of hope and of trust, a gift of peace and of love...</div><div><br></div><div><i><b>“I give my life to follow</b></i></div><div><i><b>Everything I believe in</b></i></div><div><i><b>And now I surrender.”</b></i></div><div><br></div><div>...a legacy of love made perfect in imperfection.</div><div><br></div><div><i><b>“Savior, He can move the mountains</b></i></div><div><i><b>My God is mighty to save</b></i></div><div><i><b>He is mighty to save</b></i></div><div><i><b>Forever author of salvation</b></i></div><div><i><b>He rose and conquered the grave</b></i></div><div><i><b>Jesus conquered the grave.”</b></i></div><div><br></div><div>“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”</div><div>Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV</div><div><br></div><div>“Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”</div><div>II Corinthians 12:8-9 NKJV</div><div><br></div><div></div><div><br></div>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-41354169437507013802018-04-06T19:47:00.000-05:002018-04-06T22:49:04.631-05:00Essence Explored<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">There is an old folk hymn titled <i>“I Wonder As I Wander.”</i> I am through and through a wonderer. I wonder about everything as I wander through my life. Sometimes, it feels like my brain is an arcade game stuck on “jackpot”, and the never ending pay out is in questions instead of tokens. Some of these questions involve an ongoing self-assessment and re-assessment that attempts to categorize who I am. I’m not sure how often other people do this, but I continually find myself examining who I am on different days, in different situations. Many times, I’m defining my role or my boundaries in certain circumstances or with certain people. <i>Do I need to be guarded? Can I be relaxed?</i> Sometimes, I’m trying to see myself through someone else’s eyes and shaping my own response based on what I think they see. <i>Is this person needing some encouragement from me? Did that person just give me the cold shoulder? </i>These types of self-assessments are the simple ones, semi-transient, and happen almost subconsciously among the other thoughts filling my head.</span></div>
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In my quiet, more complicated moments, when my mind can focus on processing those simple assessments I’ve collected, I pause and try to glimpse my essence. Essence is the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something that determines what it is. My essence defines who I am as a total person. My essence is my soul. I believe the biblical truth which tells me that as a human being, I am created in the image of God. Who I am made to be is ultimately meant to be a reflection of Him. </div>
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I think this means that even when I wander away from God, even when I’m too focused on myself, the <i>potential</i> remains for my essence to reflect Him... He’s still there, He still loves me, He doesn’t disappear. It’s me who is wandering away from Him. I separate myself from Him when I live focused on myself - such as when I am consumed with despair over my suffering, or when I am lost in the guilt of my sin. There is a hopelessness that begins to infiltrate me when I wander away from God that feels like an empty yearning. My essence is changed without Him, and I begin to reflect that hopelessness that is seeping into me. In my experience, who I am when I’m separated from God is distracted, desperate, lonely, wounded, lost. When my essence is defined by this painful state of hopelessness, there is in me a longing for relief. Having much experience with the ridiculously human habit of making the same mistakes over and over, I do now realize that relief can only be had in the presence of transforming love and grace that is found in the essence of Jesus Christ. I know that the key to moving away from hopelessness is to shift my focus from the element of my self, and intentionally move my mind towards the catalyst of Jesus, who changes my essence.</div>
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Sometimes, I wander away from God when I suffer. When someone in my family is sick or hurting or has lost themselves in confusion, when our finances are constantly tight and there’s always another vehicle repair to pay for, when my head aches for two days or I feel completely exhausted and sleep doesn’t relieve it, when someone speaks lies about me or someone doesn’t speak to me at all... suffering can hi-jack my focus in those instances and deceive me. I wander away, withdrawing into myself, severing connections, and neglecting nourishment of my soul. Suffering leaves wounds... hurting, vulnerable places which I cannot always take care of on my own. The amazing truth is, however, that it is through these very wounds that Jesus can enter my life. In order for that to happen, though, I have to stop running away to nurse them myself, and intentionally move towards Him, seeking His help. His soothing touch and healing love can then attend to my brokenness and begin to soften my despair into hope, and focus me on God once again. </div>
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Sometimes, I wander from God as a result of my own sinfulness. In those situations, I am willfully moving away from Him and focusing on choices that do not reflect His character, and that distance begins to change my essence. Who I am without Him becomes exposed, and my selfishness is then apparent. Without God, sin rules my life, and leaves me hopeless, lost, and desperate. But, I know that if I humble myself and come back and expose my broken parts to God, that the blood of Jesus Christ will cover my sin... seep into it. The mercy of Jesus transforms my hopelessness with grace, and turns my despair into hope. Jesus changes my essence.</div>
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My wonderings and my wanderings have shown me that the most hopeful place for me is to be held in the hands of God. At times, the Bible refers to God as The Potter. When He holds my life in His hands, He can transform me with the love He’s given me in His son, Jesus Christ. The Bible tells me that Jesus offers living water. As it enters my soul, He refreshes me, brings life to me. The living water of Jesus Christ quenches my thirst. I absorb His healing touch completely, and as He continues to fill me, His love can overflow onto the people walking near me in my life. As I am filled with the living water of Christ, the Potter shapes my heart for the purpose of holding and pouring out His love and for loving Him in return. My soul was created to be saturated with Him and reflect the beauty of His love. I know, though, that my essence will only remain saturated with Jesus if I consciously choose every day to be near Him. The more I focus on staying near and asking God to fill me with the things HE wants for my life, the more tenderhearted I become. The fruit I can bear from His nourishment is gentle and good. </div>
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These days as my mind wonders, I intentionally remind myself to not wander away. I remind myself to take care to maintain my faith, and to remain close to Jesus in relationship and prayer. I find more and more that when wondering lures my mindset to wander away from Him, I recognize sooner the shadow that falls over me. The shadow is cold and whispers of the dark despair of my life when I’m separated from God. My remembrances of that hopeless place incites a desire in me to remain together with Him. I know that if I don’t intentionally stay close, I am being careless with my life, allowing my wondering to lead me to put the majority of my focus and attention on the world’s messages and values. In that mindset, my faith will easily become distorted, and eventually I will wander even further away, and become confused. I don’t want to wander away. I value my life near God, in Christ, and I want to remain saturated in His love. I am thankful that He continually holds out His hand of grace to me, beckoning me to come near, and to fill my essence with Him.</div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: 700; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: 700; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Essence</span></div><div>
<div class="tm-bottom break-words" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 3px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Water and earth <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">melt into clay <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">beneath prismatic arc <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">of sun and of rain <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Once arid and parched <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">the dust has known thirst <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">yearning for rain <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">from sky forth to burst <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Trickles of rust - <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">a medium forms <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">from broken hard land <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">now softened by storms <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Hands of a potter <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">enfolding the new <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">this clay that is one <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">where there once had been two <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Two elements strong <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">a mingled duet <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">blended together <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">to become what was meant <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Melted together <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">essence embraced <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">absorbing each other <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">long more than for sate <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">A vessel is shaped <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">concave at the heart <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">existing for purpose <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">delighted as art... <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Calls to be filled <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">desires to hold <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">to curve around gently <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">soft edges rolled <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">A vessel, caressed <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">sculpted with care <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">light shines from the hollow <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">exposed to the air <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">This new form is fragile <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">its memory fresh <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">with original thought <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">of each piece, separate <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Easily shattered <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">by foot or by hand <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">by careless intention <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">may scatter in sand <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">But, wholly together <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">two remain one <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">rain prismatic light <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">from within, reflect sun </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
<div class="tm-bottom break-words" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 3px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">LS 3/30/18 <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Isaiah 64:8 ESV <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">“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.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">“You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.” <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;">Psalms 65:10 ESV</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1 Corinthians 6:17 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ephesians 2:10 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Romans 15:13 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Proverbs 4:23 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">John 15:9 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2 Timothy 1:13-14 NLT</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV</span></span></div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-22794919682695379872018-02-14T17:29:00.002-06:002018-02-14T17:30:29.149-06:00Dear Dylan...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
February 14, 2018<br />
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Dear Dylan, <br />
This summer, you will be beginning another chapter in the story that God has been writing from the beginning of time. You have committed yourself to serving God through serving people with disabilities at Camp Daniel. You will most likely have many opportunities to tell people parts of your story, and you might even find that talking about your experiences will encourage others to want to serve at Camp Daniel, as well. While it is a wonderful thing to draw others to the mission of Camp, I hope that you will come to understand that main theme of your story is not about the service that you provide. You are part of a story that began a very long time ago, before Camp ever even existed in thought or reality. The main theme of the story has always been about showing people that God wants to share Himself with them - that He wants to relate to them personally. It's true that the setting of your part of the story is Camp Daniel, and that you will affect people in your service - campers and their families and volunteers and observers. All of these people will be impacted while you do the work God has placed before you, not because of what you're doing, but because of your attitude in doing it. Will you be joyful or frustrated? Will you be inclusive or reserved? Will you be patient or irritated? Will you be gracious or inflexible? Your attitude will draw people to God or repel them from Him. At Camp Daniel, you will be a part of a community that allows people to relate to God on multiple levels: intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. At Camp Daniel, you will be a part of a community that helps people to understand that worshipping God can be a tangible act that allows for His tangible response. At Camp Daniel, you will be a part of a community that allows people to be in God's presence through every relationship and truth that is realized there. At Camp Daniel, you will learn that it's not important to focus on which person has a disability and which person does not. You will find that the important thing to focus on is showing any person that you meet there that God loves them and values them and wants very much to know them personally. Never lose sight of the goal of connecting people to God - keep the main thing, the main thing. Your Uncle Dan held tightly to the promise that God is faithful to complete the good work He begins in each person. Always be strong in your relationship with God and with the people he places close to you. His presence will never fail you.<br />
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Love,<br />
Mama<br />
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“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” <br />
- Philippians 1:3-6 NIV<br />
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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”<br />
- Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV<br />
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"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your ancestors, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work."<br />
...He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind.<br />
...He gave him instructions for all the work of serving in the temple of the Lord, as well as for all the articles to be used in its service.<br />
... "All this," David said, "you have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan."<br />
David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. The divisions of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on the temple of God, and every willing person skilled in any craft will help you in all the work..."<br />
- 1 Chronicles 28:9-21 NIV</div>
Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-923203701686822582018-01-14T05:17:00.000-06:002018-01-14T05:36:26.281-06:00BREATHE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A new year inspires most of us to try and view our lives with new hope. We often think that we need to look for that hope in self improvement, self fulfillment, or self discovery. We make new goals or new boundaries for ourselves, believing that only by achieving our goals or maintaining our boundaries, can we be successful. We often neglect to ask God what his goals or boundaries might be for us. Or we do ask Him, but with the idea that if what He desires for us looks different from what we desire for ourselves, that we will be unfulfilled. But that way of thinking is a deception, designed to turn us from choosing to obey God, when all along, there is nothing that could possibly bring us more joy...<br>
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“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” -<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">Psalms 16:11 NLT</span><br>
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I’m usually just as guilty of self focus as anyone else when it comes to planning my new year... Who am I kidding? I’m usually guilty of self focus when it comes to planning my whole life! But over and over again, I find that trying to have things my own way, for my own comfort, and for my own gain leaves me in a pit of selfishness. Selfishness is never satisfying for me. In fact, it usually leaves me feeling irritated or lonely or even angry. I know that I am most content when I am God-focused. I see the things that God is pointing me towards this year, and they are challenging things - things that I would probably not have chosen on my own. I’m tempted to choose what I think is easier or more appealing. But I’ve been down this road before, and I’ve learned to trust not only that God knows best, but that God wants the best for me... that I will feel the best about my life when I am following Him. </div>
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One of the things God keeps asking me to do lately that I usually don’t want to do is to publish my poetry on my blog. My “self” tells me that most people don’t really like to read poetry, that it doesn’t speak to the majority of people’s hearts or interests. But God keeps putting words in my mind that come out in poem, regardless of what my “self” believes. So here it is again...</div>
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BREATHE</div>
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I allow my heart to steal my breath </div>
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knowing that it seals my death. </div>
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How foolish of my heart to dwell </div>
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on words that can’t give life, make well. </div>
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To worship words of men is folly. </div>
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It serves a cadence melancholy. </div>
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It’s truth and light </div>
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I yearn to know. </div>
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My heart deceives my path to go </div>
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on tangents dark without a light </div>
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to guide direction’s journey right. </div>
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My mind </div>
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my heart </div>
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my strength </div>
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my soul </div>
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must breathe the air with constant flow </div>
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that never fails nor will deceive </div>
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does not abandon, never leaves </div><div>that fills me with the breath that gives </div>
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the joy to love </div>
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the will to live </div>
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the strength to stay </div>
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to try, endure </div>
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the mind to grow the thoughts assured </div>
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of peace to know both truth and light, </div>
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know first by faith -then follows sight.</div>
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LS 1/18</div>
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“Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being...”</div>
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Psalms 51:6a ESV</div>
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“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”</div>
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John 14:6 ESV</div>
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“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”</div>
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Mark 12:30 ESV</div>
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“For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness... By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.”</div>
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Psalms 33:4, 6 ESV</div>
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“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”</div>
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1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV</div>
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“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength... Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”</div>
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Psalms 33:16, 20-22 ESV</div>
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“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”</div>
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John 14:27 ESV</div>
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“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”</div>
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Hebrews 11:1 ESV</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-32488080454172810642017-12-13T18:23:00.001-06:002017-12-13T23:40:22.854-06:00ABIGAIL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Snow falling gently</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No wind in the dance <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Floating from the sky <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Alighting on each branch <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />of every tree once naked <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />save for grayish bark <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />now dressed in lavish white <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />pearls of moonlight in the dark <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />I walk through powdered rivers <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />leaving rippled trails behind <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />The world now is muted <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />No blaring sounds remind <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />of harshness or entitlement <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Peacefulness surrounds <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />our desolation and perverseness <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Placidity abounds <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />I inhale the frigid air <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />feel the sharpness of its bite <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />aware this tranquil moment <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />is a mantle and a guise <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />concealing misery and angst <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />a world of desperate souls <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />seeking hope in places grim <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />seeking light in darkened holes <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Yet the miracle of snow <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />provides a blanket of relief <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />falling from the sky <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />as a gift we all can see <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />invites us lift our eyes <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />up to heaven and to gaze <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />in the wonder of the season <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />and our gratitude to raise <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />Snow falling silently <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />calling us to pray <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />for a healing of despair <br style="box-sizing: border-box !important;" />that will wholly grace someday</span></span><br />
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-41612417831192912862017-12-07T01:45:00.000-06:002018-01-24T14:02:30.683-06:00EVERGREEN<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A pine in the woods buried in cold, nestled in sugary crystalline snow, peeking its needles through glistening ice, uncovered by wind gusts sweeping the night. It holds beauty in circumstance brutal and fierce. It shows strength found in roots, where wind cannot pierce. A pine thrives through seasons, no grudge towards the cold... whether springtime or harvest, in truth, it’s all gold: the treasure of summer - to grow towards the light, or to tuck into winter ‘neath stars twinkling bright. Enduring life long, standing serene, branching out strong, it thrives... ever green.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our year has been one of drought in many ways, but somehow, at the same time, we have found our needs met by means we would have never imagined. Many times we felt extremely humbled, even uncomfortable, with the generosity given to us... but always, always we have felt overwhelmed with gratefulness to God for being faithful and to the people he has chosen to be the answers to our prayers. Throughout everything, we, too, made ourselves available to the tasks God set in front of us, and were grateful all over again - that we could do more than simply receive, we could give. I will never stop thanking God for allowing us to experience the joy that arises within, when we find ourselves able to help and encourage each other. We hope you will experience the joy of both giving and receiving God’s love this Christmas!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought...”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> -Jeremiah 17:8</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 15pt; font-weight: bold;">P.S. Please enjoy these glimpses of our group photo chaos. The branches of our family tree obviously grow in many different directions!</span></div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-91372507215855391922017-11-27T00:01:00.001-06:002018-11-22T01:41:23.977-06:00Wish<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">While a year of my life</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">concludes on this day</span></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
a year of my life begins.</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">Ends and beginnings</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">together inlay</span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
become chapters </div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">of stories therein</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">some to be told</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">over frosted white cake</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">as if history</span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
now reprised.</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Others are secreted,</span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
only in view</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">of one looking</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">deep in my eyes...<br>
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hide<br>
make a wish <br>
take a breath<br>
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There are times when I celebrate</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">times when I mourn </span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
the days that have followed</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">the day I was born.</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">Some days are wearisome</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">leaving me worn</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">wishes forgotten</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
thoughts full of scorn</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">or at very least crumpled</span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
tattered and torn</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">cast off in my worry</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">and pain from the thorn...<br>
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cry<br>
lose a wish<br>
take a breath<br>
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As I reflect on the past year</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">measure the depth</span><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
the distance across it</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">the height and the breadth</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
gaze at whole of it</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">pensive</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">instilled</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">with joy of a rose in it</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">wishes fulfilled</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">find stories glorious</span></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
love stories true</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">adventure and comedy</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">memories new<br>
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smile<br>
see a wish<br>
take a breath<br>
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I open my book</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">to the page with the fold.</span></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The next chapter waits</span></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
for this year to disclose</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">whether hope births assurance</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">in things yet to come</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">and perseverance arises</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">to challenges won</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">whether longing fulfilled</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">provides strength like a tree</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">where pruning and new growth</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">bear fruit within me</span></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
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close my eyes<br>
take a breath<br>
make a wish</div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: ".SF UI Text";"><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText-Semibold"; font-weight: bold; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">“The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, ‘Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.’ So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the Lord gave me this message: ‘...can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.’”</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: ".SF UI Text";">Jeremiah 18:1-6 NLT</p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: ".SF UI Text";"><br></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: ".SF UI Text";">“Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.”</p><p style="font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: ".SF UI Text";">Luke 5:36 NLT</p></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“‘Are you tired? Worn out? ...Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace...’”</span></font></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Matthew 11:28-29 MSG</span></font></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="sans-serif" size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand... how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”</div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT</div></div></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><br></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”</div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Romans 5:3-5 NLT</div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“‘I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more... <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.’”</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">John 15:1-2, 5 NLT</div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">“As the Scriptures say, ‘People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever’”</div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">1 Peter 1:24 NLT</div></div></div></div><div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><br>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-31257161237967828242017-11-23T02:08:00.000-06:002018-01-22T11:13:45.476-06:00LIFESONG<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>There are two ways in life.</b></div>
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Two choices apply.</div>
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One choice is to live.</div>
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One choice is to die.</div>
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If I focus on death</div>
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I’m worthless like chaff:</div>
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separate,</div>
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rootless,</div>
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and crass.</div>
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Lacking in sense,</div>
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riding the fence,</div>
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wasted,</div>
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searching</div>
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for more.</div>
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Walking in dark,</div>
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standing unmarked,</div>
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resenting</div>
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the law </div>
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of my Lord.</div>
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Sitting alone</div>
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with thoughts’</div>
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undertone</div>
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of places</div>
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I ought not to be.</div>
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Standing transfixed</div>
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by solar eclipse,</div>
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scorning </div>
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the light</div>
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I can’t see.</div>
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Yet...</div>
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If I focus on living,</div>
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I’m strong </div>
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like a tree.</div>
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I naturally choose</div>
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to nourish my leaves</div>
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by rooting myself,</div>
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preventing the wither,</div>
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drawing my life</div>
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from the flow </div>
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of the river.</div>
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Reach out </div>
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as I grow,</div>
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living in truth,</div>
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reap what I sow,</div>
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bearing much fruit.</div>
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I rise</div>
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toward the sun,</div>
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focused in thought,</div>
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surviving the heat </div>
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in seasons of drought.</div>
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Embracing</div>
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then rain</div>
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with branches that bend,</div>
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knowing it strengthens </div>
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my heart to depend</div>
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on the roots of my faith,</div>
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on promises true,</div>
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belief they’ll prevail</div>
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and never </div>
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fall though.</div>
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Like a tree </div>
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planted strong,</div>
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I’ll meditate long</div>
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and prosper </div>
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in all I may do.</div>
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There are two ways in life.</div>
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Two choices apply.</div>
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One choice is to live.</div>
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One choice is to die.</div>
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“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.”</div>
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Psalms 1:1-6 NLT</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-35654652421876018062017-07-09T22:46:00.000-05:002017-07-09T23:12:24.629-05:00The Dark Side of Light<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Depression follows me like a shadow</b></span><b>, and my perspective of it shifts based on where my eyes are looking. Most often, I am looking at my family, and I see darkness and light play over their lives in varying degrees of contrast.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I see my oldest adopted son, whom has spiraled from the joyful light of living out his dreams and achieving his goals, down into the dark depths of schizophrenia. I see the shadows of paranoia, hostility, and anger that have hurt and isolated him from the people who care about him the most. I am helpless to stop the darkness from consuming my son, and the obvious contrast to the light-filled life he has left behind makes my heart ache. The years of effort and love that my family and my brother's family have invested into him causes my sense of reason to shake its fist in frustration and ask <i>"Why? Why would God bring him to us, only to allow him to be lost like this?" </i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Matthew 5:3 in The Message Bible says, </span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><b>"You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.</b>" </i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am trying to come to a place where I can have hope in my son's </span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">"poorness of spirit"</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Jesus said that he would bless those who found themselves in the circumstance of being emotionally depleted. While I cannot understand why my son is rejecting the life and the people that he had previously chosen to care about, I also cannot understand the pain of the twelve years he lived before I</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> ever knew him. What I do understand is that I know my son is aware of the love that God has for him. He has been immersed in that love for the last twenty years of his life, and it cannot be without effect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I also see my husband, who suffers daily with pain and exhaustion. I see the shadow of disease hanging over his life, limiting his relationships, challenging every celebration, coloring every experience with its unavoidable presence. I hear his tired voice as he pushes through each day, never questioning why, just dealing with what's in front of him and inside of him as it comes. I feel his frustration as we figure out our limited finances and as we plan our family schedule trying to predict his stamina. I feel his arms around me as he gingerly holds me - tight enough to comfort me, loose enough to avoid more pain in his body. I respect him for his refusal to feel sorry for himself and his refusal to allow others to offer him pity. I am not so strong as he is, though, and I sometimes cry over the shadow that his sickness casts over the life we once lived as I mourn what we've lost. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Matthew 5:4 in The Message Bible says, <b><i>"You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you." </i></b>Maybe that's why my husband can accept his situation without question. Maybe his acceptance of </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">what is gone opens him up to the comfort God has for him. Maybe the peace he now has within himself is something he would have never experienced with the intense focus he used to have on things in his life which brought only temporary satisfaction. Maybe he does mourn what is lost, but the comfort of God fills him with gratitude for the blessing he has in his family and in his faith.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I see another of my sons, who teeters on the edge of darkness and light. I see the shadows pulling at him, as they also do me. I see him struggle with the hopelessness of the dark things of the world that stand out so starkly against the light which he knows holds God. I listen to him reason through his own emotions. I watch him fight with his own impulses. I feel his pain and his confusion as he wades through the muck of adolescence and of this world that sucks at his feet and tries to pull him down. I deliberate over parenting decisions and finding balance between guidance and trust. I ruminate over the past and wonder if I protected him enough or if I protected him too much. I love him fiercely, but I know that my love alone is not enough to keep him from being overcome by the dark. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Matthew 5:5 in The Message Bible says,</span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i> "You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”</i></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I know that my son battles with his emotions. I know that it's scary to be vulnerable and transparent and to let people really know who you are inside. I know this because I often face the same battle and fear. I want to hide away and deny my fears and protect myself from the judgement and knowledge of people around me. But I also know that letting people know me is what God created me for. I know that he wants us to encourage each other and to grow together and to never feel alone. And I also know that when someone rejects who I am, that it does not change my value, no matter how much it hurts. When I watch my son struggle, I sometimes feel helpless, but never hopeless. I know that he belongs to God and that nothing can ever overcome that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So... this again is the paradox of blessing. I know that my need for God is greatest when my circumstances are too big for me. I know that it means I am blessed by the difficulties I face because they push me down and cause me to be dependent on God to lift me up. I know that dependency means God's presence in my life has the opportunity to be big and strong. I know that strong presence is a light that is bright. However, I have also experienced that the brightness makes the contrast of the dark things even more prominent. This is where I struggle to stay in the light, rather than step back into the gray of the shadows. </span><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Choosing to see suffering and choosing to be seen in my own suffering is very difficult. The grayness of depression allows me to avoid dealing with an emotional intensity that is painful and revealing. Yet, I realize that God has called the grayness a worthless place to remain. He does not want me to be hidden. He desires me to bring his flavor to the situations I am faced with in my life. He desires me to shine his light out into the darkness that surrounds me.</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> It's up to me to decide now, whether to stay hidden in the grayness or to walk towards hope and leave the shadows behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.”</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Matthew 5:13 NLT</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>“No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.”</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Matthew 5:15 NLT</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"It is not the emotionally endowed that God blesses, but the poor in spirit. It is not the buoyant and boisterous he comforts, but those who mourn. Not the prideful, but the meek." -David Mathis</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.” -Matthew 5:3-5 NLT</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us." - Samuel Smiles</i></span><br />
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-28799595843640254662017-03-23T23:09:00.001-05:002017-03-24T10:56:32.568-05:00A Ballad of Perspective<div>Some days I feel too much, other days I feel nothing at all. My perspective has been dark lately, and peace likewise elusive. I read an article that explained, <i><b>"the give-and-take between seeing the exquisite wonder of the world beside its bleakness, is a struggle." </b></i>I think that's true. I know that a huge part of my struggle with depression is not being able to stay in balance - not being able to find the place where I <i>feel just the</i> <i>right amount</i>. People say to <i>think positively</i>, but I find it impossible to choose to <i>only</i> focus on the wonders of the world, when I know the bleakness of the world exists even if I consciously look away. And as difficult as it is to allow my heart to see that bleakness, I know that it's only when <i>both </i>of these perspectives are woven together, that my true destiny can be accomplished. Because I want to fulfill the purpose I was created for, I <i><b>mindfully hope</b></i> in the goodness that will one day arise from the bleak things in life. I <i><b>focus my</b> <b>faith</b></i> on the knowledge that resiliency <i>is possible</i> when wonder bravely stands alongside of that struggle for hope. And I remind myself that <b><i>love</i></b> <b><i>does not give up</i></b> in the midst of suffering<font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">. Even though I often find myself behind the bleak veil of depression, I intentionally seek to find a glimpse of wonder each day. On my darkest days I compel myself to look outward and fix my gaze on one miracle. One image I've focused on lately, is the marvel of a magnificent river. God's handiwork displayed in a river has captivated my attention over and over for the last few years. On this day, as I contemplated that image, my thoughts once again melded into words that flowed from my hand to a page - words that became, this time, a poem...</font></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><b>GLIMPSING WONDER</b></font></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>I <font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">walk upon a winding trail,</font></b></div><div><b>I dream upon a river's flow,</b></div><div><b>divided by an unseen wale,</b></div><div><b>'tween what I feel and what I know</b>. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Weary of the dusty road,</b></div><div><b>rough with unexpected stones,</b></div><div><b>weary of this cumbrous load,</b></div><div><b>weighing on my mind and bones.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>The river tangent to the trees,</b></div><div><b>soothing with its dulcet roll,</b></div><div><b>sings a song upon the breeze,</b></div><div><b>beckoning my restless soul.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Weary of this pitted ground,</b></div><div><b>eroded from assailing trial,</b></div><div><b>weary of the onerous sound, </b></div><div><b>of groaning with each wending mile.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>The river cantillates refrains, </b></div><div><b>of resonating rhapsody,</b></div><div><b>enchants, allures, and sustains, </b></div><div><b>my dream from whole fugacity.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Weary of this wretched woe,</b></div><div><b>of never ending vicissitude</b>,</div><div><b>weary of the ache and throe,</b></div><div><b>of continual solicitude.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>The river captivates each sigh,</b></div><div><b>weaves symphonic undersong,</b></div><div><b>assays each sorrow drawing nigh,</b></div><div><b>sings its theory never wrong.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Weariness becomes lament,</b></div><div><b>weeping melancholy's tears,</b></div><div><b>the river bank is pain's decent, </b></div><div><b>where suffering emerges clear.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>I walk upon a winding trail,</b></div><div><b>I dream a gentle river slope,</b></div><div><b>mingling thoughts in staid grisaille,</b></div><div><b>with light to find prismatic hope.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>- Lora Stonelake 3/2017</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><br></div><div><i>"This give-and-take between seeing the exquisite wonder of the world beside it's bleakness is a struggle."</i></div><div><i> - Lori Chandler</i></div><div><br></div><div><div><i>"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."</i></div><div><i> - Henry David Thoreau</i></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i> - Max Planck</i></span></div><div><br></div><div><div><i>"The nearer the dawn, the darker the night."</i></div><div><i> - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div><br></div><div><i>"Dreams... They lift us from the commonplace of life to better things."</i></div><div><i> - </i><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</i></div></div><div><br></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><i>"Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><i> - Ephesians 4:23</i></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><i><br></i></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><div><i>“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”</i></div><div><i> - Isaiah 26:3</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i> “My soul yearns for you in the night, and in the morning my spirit searches and looks out for you” </i></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i> - Isaiah 26:9</i></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><br></i></span></div><div><div><i>“You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”</i></div><div><i> - Psalm 18:28</i></div></div></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><i><br></i></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><div><i>“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!'”</i></div><div><i> - Lamentations 3:21-24</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><div><i>“Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”</i></div><div><i> - </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>Hosea 6:3</i></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i><br></i></span></div><div><div><i>“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance... <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”</span></i></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i> - 1 Corinthians 13:7, 12-13</i></span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: start;"><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></i></div><div style="text-align: start;"><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>"God chose a very unique word to describe His peace--a river! A river is not calm and void of activity. It is active and cleansing and confident of the direction it is headed in. A river doesn't get caught up with rocks in its path. it flows over and around them, all the while smoothing their jagged edges and allowing them to add to its beauty rather than take away from it. A river is a wonderful thing to behold... </i></span><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">To have peace like a river is to have security and tranquility while meeting the many bumps and unexpected turns on life's journey."</i></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> - Lysa TerKeurst</i></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></i></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>"I will have peace flowing like a river."</i></span></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i> - </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Isaiah 48:18</span></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i>"A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it." </i></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <i>- Psalms 46:4-5</i></div><div class="content apply-wordwrap" style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i><br></i></div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-55663457836875769412016-11-02T12:45:00.001-05:002018-11-04T01:12:43.531-05:00Climbing Towards Hope<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I was 13 yrs old almost 14 on November 2, 1984. I was an 8th grader in middle school living with my mom and dad and brothers in Illinois, and my biggest decision was if my best friend and I should sleep over at her house or mine on Friday night. My future husband was a sophmore in high school, 14 almost 15 years old. He lived thirty minutes away from me, just down the road from Six Flags Great America, with his mom and little sister. </div>
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We didn't even know each other then.</div>
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We barely even knew ourselves. </div>
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Yet, one thousand miles away in Colorado, a baby was born on that day who would one day call us (us!) Mom and Dad. </div>
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Fast-forward twelve years to 1997 and the scene shows my husband and I with our own 4 month old baby Cody, living in Wisconsin. A social worker knocks on our door and after spending five minutes in our living room, she drops off two skinny, mop-headed boys ages 8 and 12, and that is the day we all became family. As a newly married couple of less than two years, ourselves in our mid twenties, with all of four months of parenting experience consisting of changing poopy diapers and rocking a crying baby to sleep, we probably were the farthest from ideal parents that anyone could imagine for these boys. For the almost teenager with autism, Tourette's syndrome, and the beginning whispers of schizophrenia especially - we would not be anyone's first pick. However, at the time, we were the only option available within two counties. No matter - this child had already survived twelve and a half years of storms without an umbrella, and he was not about to drown in the mud puddle of trial and error that we had to offer him. </div>
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I am aware that we were not prepared by the world's standards of what "qualifies" a person to make a difference in the life of a child living with the challenges of disability and a traumatic past. We had no special training and not a whole lot of support from so-called experts... but we did have a home, some extra beds, and a carboard box in the closet full of matchbox cars and a plastic alligator that would appear as treasure to two little boys with no other place to go. </div>
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Nineteen years later, I am constantly looking back and cringing at the hundreds of mistakes we probably made in trying to raise this boy along with his brother, but I know in my heart that we got at least one thing right. We listened to God when He said that we were to show our love for Him by taking care of anyone who had no one. Still, I believe the important part of any story is not what people do or who they are, but what God does and who He is. What we had to offer this child was so inadequate - the times that we failed him and still do are numerous. But God takes anything we are willing to give to Him and uses it for His purpose according to His plan. I look at our story and and I see it is about some very imperfect, uncertain, unremarkable people - and I also see that it is about an amazing God who is so powerful, so compassionate, so capable that He can use our brokeness to accomplish His task exactly as He intended. God knew that baby born in Colorado 32 years ago would eventually become our son. </div>
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When our son reached adulthood, my brother became our son’s guardian and successfully took on the responsibility to mentor him over the last 14 years into becoming a man... a man who serves God and who serves his community and never knows a stranger. At the same time, however, our son is also a man who struggles with his intellectual limitations and with the ominous shadows of mental illness. He, like all of us, lives in the constant tension of who he is, who he wants to be, and the challenges of the obstacles in-between. The past few years have been difficult for him, as his emotional memory and his psychiatric symptoms battle to reconcile with his present life and sense of well-being. It is a painful struggle. </div>
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I have been thinking about my son for hours today, his birth day. My heart is broken because he is spending this day that should be a celebration of his life in the psychiatric unit of an acute care center. I have been crying angry tears because life's circumstances are so unfair and many times cruel. For the millionth time I feel completely helpless in facing the darkness of the terrible things in this world over which we truly have no control. </div>
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However, in the midst of the battle with my feelings, I choose to remember that God is a good and perfect Father. I choose to focus on the promise that He has a plan and a purpose for everyone's life - everyone's. And I choose to believe the truth that even when life's journey takes us down inconceivable paths of hardship and suffering, if we look to God to lead us through, we <i>will</i> get to the magnificent destination where He knows we belong. </div>
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So, in my brokenness I am praying to God, and looking for Him wholeheartedly to be at work in this mess. I am determined to be grateful for the many good things in the life of my son, and to continue to be hopeful for an even better future. </div>
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It's very easy to feel the face of God shining on us in the good times. I am thankful for those mountain tops we find where we experience complete joy and satisfaction. However, I'm aware that it is in the difficult climb that I grasp for His hand and ask Him to hold me up in my weariness, and to trade my heavy burden for His lighter one. It is in the hard places that I have truly come to know God, and to find rest for my restless soul. That knowledge is treasure, and so, on his birthday today, I pray that my son will find rest for his, also.</div>
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“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 NLT</div>
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“Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.'"</div>
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Matthew 11:28-30 NLT</div>
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“Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.”</div>
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Isaiah 58:7 NLT</div>
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“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”</div>
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Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-73264136551660219252016-06-10T23:44:00.001-05:002016-06-11T11:35:21.625-05:00This Flower Called Marriage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear Jason,</div>
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I love this handmade anniversary card that came in the mail for us from my parents today. I appreciate more and more my mom's talent as a nature photographer. This photo she sent to us is so beautiful - with the flower petals overlapping, one blossom resting on the other, the centers of the growing flowers filled with life-giving pollen. </div>
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This photo reminds me of our marriage on the days it is at its best, but ironically, it is often-times that those <i>good</i> marriage days are some of the <i>hardest</i> "life" days. </div>
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I think about how we are entangled with each other, our lives woven together over the last 28 years since we met, our history overlapping like these flower petals. We are steadier in a storm because we are standing together, even in the times we ourselves feel like pushing or pulling away, even when our circumstances attempt to push or pull us away. Being interwoven almost forces us to persevere together, in order to survive at all. I <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">reminisce about how we each have had in the past and will again have in the future, our stronger times and our weaker times. (Thankfully, usually not at the SAME time!) During those times, each of us knows we can lean on the other, lay our head against a loving shoulder and feel supported, even in the times when there are no words to help. Sometimes, just being able to rest on each other renews our strength to continue the climb.</span></div>
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I gaze at the yellow center of the flowers, where the pollen's purpose is to give life. I know you will agree we discovered early on that we will surely fail each other often - that neither of us are perfect, and that neither one of us can be the other's savior- no matter how much we desire to rescue each other. I believe we have both learned that putting each other at our center is as destructive as putting our own self or our children or our finances or our health in that most central place. More importantly, I believe we have learned individually, and as a couple, to keep God at our center, because God is where our marriage draws its life from, and God is the source for our relationship to create seeds that grow fruit such as love, consideration, patience, and faithfulness.</div>
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I sit here journaling on this night before our 22nd anniversary, contemplating this beautiful photo, my mind flooded by this entire garden of thoughts accompanying the sweet sentiment from my parents. I am overwhelmed by the glimpses of truth revealed in such a small piece of creation. I am fully graced by God's love for both of us and for our family. I am grateful for the gift He has blessed me with by planting you and me together, so that we may share deep roots in the rich soil of His goodness. I know that we will continue to weather the fierce storms and the burning heat of each drought, and I know that we will also continue <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">to soak up the gentle rains and life-light of the sun. I know that we will thrive together, all the while leaning on each other, and faithfully keeping our faces hope-filled and upturned to gaze at Him. </span></div>
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My prayer for you this next year, my husband, is from Ephesians 3:14-19, "When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will continue to make His home in your heart as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."</div>
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And my prayer for our marriage follows in verse 20, </div>
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"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."</div>
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Happy Anniversary,</div>
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I love you always.</div>
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“I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by... remember your mercy.”</div>
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Habakkuk 3:2 NLT</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit."</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jeremiah 17:8 NLT</span></div>
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“I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit... I <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.”</span></div>
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Leviticus 26:4,12 NLT</div>
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June 11, 1994</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another Anniversary Post:</span></div>
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<a href="http://ofwildernessandrockyplaces.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-will.html?m=1">http://ofwildernessandrockyplaces.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-will.html?m=1</a></div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-12756116281230733252015-12-25T22:52:00.001-06:002015-12-26T10:15:43.614-06:00The Blessing of Burden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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On Christmas Eve, our church usually holds two service times. This year our family chose to go to the later session, a bilingual service where the Spanish speaking and English speaking congregations of our church (which typically meet separately) came together to celebrate Christmas with traditional carols (switching between languages at each verse), relevant scripture and sharing of personal experiences (translated into both languages), and a concluding prayer time accompanied by a candle lighting ceremony involving each person present. One of my favorite Christmas hymns, <i>Oh Holy Night</i>, was among the carols that had been chosen for this service. It's a magnificently powerful song describing the wonder of the moment that Jesus Christ was born into this dark, oppressive world. To me, the most significant lines are the ones that describe the awe and the hope that Jesus brings to us - an awe that brings us to our knees and a hope that is possible to recognize and hang onto, even when complete weariness and impending doom seem to be upon us:</div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Fall on your knees, O hear the angel's voices</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">O night divine, O night when Christ was born </i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">(Oh Holy Night, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">lyrics </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;">by: Placide Clappeau)</span></i></div>
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Another part of the service that stood out to me happened very unobtrusively during the children's sermon time. As I listened to the story being read, I noticed one of the Hispanic ministers, Pastor Loles, resting on a chair towards the back of the stage. I watched her rub her hand wearily over her round belly, stretched with the miracle of her first child living within her. A faint smile was on her face, her cheeks rosy with the heat of the stage lights. I observed her deliberately take some extra-deep breaths, and suddenly my own chest felt taut with the memories of a growing baby nestled under my ribs, competing with my lungs for room to move. As always happens at Christmas time when I regard a heavily pregnant mother, my mind wandered to thoughts of Mary carrying the precious life of the Baby Jesus within her that very first Christmas night. Without fail, my thoughts of Mary are consistently intermingled with both compassion and wonder. What an immense burden for her to be carrying in such extremely difficult circumstances... but at the same time, what a privilege she was blessed with to be sharing her own life with the life of God himself! On this Christmas Eve night the thought in my mind was this - Mary's burden was also her blessing.</div>
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<b><i>MARY'S BURDEN WAS ALSO HER BLESSING!</i></b></div>
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A burden by definition is a heavy load, or something which causes hardship or distress. It's connotation is a negative one, rather than a desirable one. </div>
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How many times in my life have I wanted to refuse a burden held out to me? How many times have I railed at God for putting an unasked for burden upon me? How many times have I felt as if I could not take one more step forward because the heaviness of a burden is more weight on my shoulders than it seems I can possibly bear? </div>
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This past year and a half, I have struggled with the burden of depression. It is unlike any other burden I have ever encountered. It is one I have seen others carry, and one that I had told myself I never wanted to experience. I wasn't prepared for how it would slowly creep up on me... how one day I would look around and find that everything in my life seemed to shrouded by it. </div>
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Familylife.com describes living with depression as this. "Your world is dark, heavy, and painful... depression seems to go to your very soul, affecting everything in its path." The website also states that the burden of depression affects 25% of the population. It's amazing to think that a burden that deceives me into feeling completely alone is the same burden that is experienced by over a billion other people in the world. </div>
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For me, the perplexing thing in my struggle has been that at some point early on, I began to recognize the veil that covered me for what it was - depression. I can see it's there. I'm aware of its deception, of its intent to destroy. Yet, I continue to flounder in the presence of it in my life. I have watched in despair as some of my relationships have been strangled by the veil, and somehow I have not been able to reach beyond it to sustain them in a healthy way or, with more than a few people, to sustain them at all. Some people and situations that were once so important in my life have been lost to me, either faded away or ripped away, both experiences very painful and disorienting. Even my environment has been affected by the veil, plunging myself and those close to me into chaos and disorder and conditions that only serve to make the burden heavier, the veil more opaque.</div>
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This Christmas Eve as I considered the blessing of the burden carried by Mary, I thought about my burden and the possibility of it having potential to be paradoxically transformed into blessing. Was the terrifying situation which Mary found herself in, in any way comparable to the thorn of depression in my life?</div>
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In contrast to a burden, a blessing is a positive label - one defined as God's favor and protection, something prayed for, something for which we are grateful, something that brings well-being, or another person's support. When I think about the smothering presence of depression, it's very difficult to feel that the presence God's favor and protection can rest on me at the same time as a burden that seems so heavy and wearying. But even though my <i>heart</i> feels defeat, my <i>head</i> knows well a Bible scripture that I have read over and over, and at times I find myself holding onto it like a flotation device in the middle of a stormy sea.</div>
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<i><b>“Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.'"</b></i></div>
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<i><b></b>Matthew 11:28-30 NLT</i></div>
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Another version of the Bible says, <i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><b>"Learn the unforced rhythms of grace." </b>MSG</i></div>
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I am weary - there is no doubt - and the burden of depression is heavy. Jesus calls to me as I struggle, and because I do know his voice, I recognize it - even through my depressive veil. I know he calls to me with no judgement, no expectation, no "to do" list, no disapproval, no annoyance, no anger, no disappointment, no hidden motives. He calls me with an attitude of grace that I do not deserve, and he desires to honor me with his presence. But even though I know in my <i>head</i> he has already chosen me to be close to him, even though I know in my <i>head</i> that my life has great value to him just as I am - still in my <i>heart</i> I struggle with the weight of the world, and with the opinions and actions of the imperfect people in it. Feelings of rejection and inadequacy in the face of exclusion and judgement are hard to live with and yet, for some reason, they are also hard feelings to give up. Feelings of fear and helplessness relayed by news of incomprehensible violence and unimaginable cruelty are hard to lay down. Feelings of loneliness and disconnection even when I am with those closest to me are hard to look past <i>despite the fact that I know</i> my emotions are not always accurate indicators of the truth.</div>
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As I grappled last night once again with the choice of putting down the burdens I have picked up under my own free will, and instead holding to myself the promises that I know are true ( because I know that what God has promised is <i>always</i> true, despite how I feel ), some lyrics from the song <i>Breath of Heaven</i>, also known as simply <i>Mary's Song</i>, came to mind:</div>
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<i>"I<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> have travelled many moonless nights</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i> Cold and weary, with a babe inside</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i> And I wonder what I've done</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i> Holy Father, you have come</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> And chosen me now to </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">carry your son</span></i></div>
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<i>I am waiting in a silent prayer</i></div>
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<i> I am frightened by the load I bear</i></div>
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<i> In a world as cold as stone, </i></div>
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<i>Must I walk this path alone? </i></div>
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<i>Be with me now , <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Be with me now</span></i></div>
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<i>Breath of heaven </i></div>
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<i>Hold me together </i></div>
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<i>Be forever near me </i></div>
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<i>Breath of heaven</i></div>
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<i>Breath of heaven </i></div>
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<i>Lighten my darkness</i></div>
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<i> Pour over me your holiness</i></div>
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<i> For you are holy"</i></div>
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<i>(Breath Of Heaven, lyrics by: Amy Grant</i>)</div>
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Like this song portrays, I think that Mary was probably filled with feelings of doubt concerning her situation, with fear and dismay over her circumstances, with loneliness in the face of others judging and rejecting her... but I also think that Mary's faith in God and what he had promised was stronger than her desperation. The author of the song's lyrics explains, "It is a prayer that fits a lot of people's circumstances, because it is a cry for mercy." </div>
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I am laying here now, on this early Christmas morning, glancing out the window at the grayness of the December sky. I cry for God to have mercy for me in my circumstances, to hold me together during the many times today that I'm sure to feel like falling apart for a number of reasons or for not any reason at all. And as my heart reaches out to my Savior, my head recognizes the blessing in the burden I'm carrying. The blessing comes with bringing the burden to Jesus, in exchanging it in his presence for the simplicity of being loved by him, in looking away from despair towards hope, and in the faithful expectation of waiting for the day when the veil of depression is torn forever. </div>
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<i>"Breath of heaven</i></div>
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<i>Lighten my darkness</i></div>
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<i>Pour over me your holiness</i></div>
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<i>For you are holy"</i></div>
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<b><i>"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine....For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."</i></b></div>
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<i>Isaiah 9:2-6 NLT</i></div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-55286150850085322792015-12-21T12:32:00.001-06:002015-12-21T17:48:35.174-06:00The Light Side of Dark<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><i>"THERE ARE STORIES ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED... IT'S TRUE. ALL OF IT. THE DARK SIDE, THE JEDI. THEY'RE REAL." </i></b></div>
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My husband, my son, and I had a dinner and movie date last night, and we went to see the new episode of StarWars. It was so great seeing some of the old characters and storylines blend into new exciting ones, and others conclude as lives reaped what had been sown. As I watched the story on the screen whose beginning first thrilled me when I was the age of 6 years old, the story which continued to unfold across my lifetime to where my present age is 45 years old, I couldn't help but consider the allegorical connection. I thought about how we don't know at the beginning of our life stories where the adventures will lead - what conflicts might come, what relationships will develop, what trials will be faced, what lessons learned. Maybe if we did, we would choose to skip the hard parts, the scary parts, the parts and the people that bring difficulty and distress. However, we need to realize that it's by experiencing the conflict - facing each challenge, living through pain and fear and anger and sadness, gleaning the good stuff and leaving behind the bad - that we are able to find the blessings of satisfaction, of gratitude, of contentment, of joy. It's by choosing to live through every moment written for us that we get to the ending that was meant for us. </div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i>IT'S BY CHOOSING TO LIVE THROUGH EVERY MOMENT WRITTEN FOR US THAT WE GET TO THE ENDING THAT WAS MEANT FOR US.</i></b></span></div>
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Last night, as I sat in the theater next to my husband and my grown son watching the continuation of a life spanning saga unfold on the movie screen, I thought of the numerous challenges I've encountered both in marriage and in parenthood. As difficult as many of those experiences have been, I know without hesitation that I would purposefully choose to relive each arduous moment because I believe it is only with the toil that an appreciation for the preciousness of contented moments grows, such as the gratitude and joy I feel in just spending time with my family. </div>
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As the movie ended with the scene of the scarred hero contemplating the light saber marked with his life experiences held out by the hope filled young heroine, my StarWars-inspired reflection ended with these conclusions: </div>
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1) The prize of a valuable relationship is worth the difficult responsibility required in striving for that connection to live and to flourish. </div>
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2) No matter how dark the circumstances around us seem to be, there is there is nothing so dark that it cannot be overcome by light. Like the Apostle John wrote in chapter 1 of his book, <i><b>"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” </b></i></div>
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Oh, and <i>StarWars: Episode VII</i>? Definitely four stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️</div>
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Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8815085977979129396.post-20516606314221409822015-08-23T06:00:00.000-05:002015-08-23T16:23:11.626-05:00Relentless<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I attended a summer youth camp as a nurse a few weeks ago. A few times that week, I was able to get away from the health center in the evening to listen to the guest speaker. One night as he talked, the speaker hushed the large audience into silence and directed each of us to wait and listen for God to whisper a word into our heart. The word that came to my mind and echoed over and over again was "relentless". It wasn't a word that had been on my mind or in my conversation that week, but the feeling that came over me as I thought about it during that moment, was almost one of familiarity. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Hearing the word in my head felt confirming… like when elderly folks empathetically discuss the difficult happenings in someone else's life, nodding their heads up and down in understanding that life is not easy, and that every person is faced with their own set of struggles and disappointments as they move through one day after another.</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I quietly slipped through the side door to return to my nursing duties, and was not surprised to be quickly followed by my most “frequent flier”. I greeted him affectionately, and asked if he needed something, although I suspected I knew what it was.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The bandage came off again,” he said sheepishly, hands in his pocket</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How do you know?” I asked, looking curiously at his feet which were enclosed in both socks and shoes, just as they had been forty minutes earlier. I myself, had carefully eased the sock over his right foot, then watched as he put on and then tied the shoes I had directed him to wear instead of the flip.-flops he had been wearing throughout that day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, I had to look at it!” he said in a worried voice, anxiety clouding his deep brown eyes. “I know that stick poked into my bone. It probably has a hole in it! It’s gonna rot my foot off!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sighed as I thought about the 4 or 5 times I had already rebandaged a small cut under his toe where a stick had lacerated the skin a couple of hours earlier.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Buddy,” I said as I handed him two band-aids and sat in a chair, “I promise you, it’s just a small cut in your skin, there is not a hole in your bone, and your foot is not going to rot off… it’s really not!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He looked at me miserably, and I thought of the note his mom had given me about his struggles with worry, as well as her suggestion that I try and distract him. “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Distract him?” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “I have tried to over and over, all week long! It’s been one small thing after another… some real, some imagined… but, truly, this boy is impossible to be distracted! He is relentless!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Suddenly, I knew what to do, because God had whispered that word in my ear. “Hey…” I said softly to my young friend. “I’m not going to bandage up your foot anymore. I gave you those two extra bandaids and you can put one of those on it yourself if you would like to. I know that we cleaned it and put ointment on it, and I know that even though it’s a bit sore, it’s gonna heal in a few days, and you’re gonna be just fine!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How do you know?” he mumbled, not looking up, shuffling his feet on the floor.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Because I do,” I said. “God made that skin on your foot to protect your bones from that stick. He made that skin so that even when it gets hurt doing it’s job, it can heal itself by making new cells and becoming strong again. I trust God! I trust that when he made you, he did a great job, and that you are going to be just fine.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I paused and waited, my eyes on the top of his head.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, he raised his gaze towards me, and his eyes filled with tears. “But I can’t stop thinking about it!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well…” I said, and thought for a moment. “How ‘bout this? Every time you think about it, Buddy - that’s an opportunity to remind yourself that God is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i> relentless</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in His goodness and in His faithfulness. And even if you think about it a hundred times before you go to bed tonite, that’s a hundred chances you’ll have to thank God for His goodness and His faithfulness and to ask Him for healing.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I sat back while he contemplated my words silently. As we heard the voices of more kids coming up the sidewalk, he stuffed the bandaids in his pocket. Giving me one last puppy dog look, he disappeared out the door.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After five days of providing around the clock nursing care for hundreds of teens, I went home from that camp drained and exhausted, but in the back of my mind still, was the word that God had given me just the few nights before. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It made me think of the sun shining in the desert, or the ocean waves pounding against a cliff… things that are powerful, naturally driven, connected with both life and destruction.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I turned the word over and over in my mind, and I looked it up in the dictionary:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4854909203269264; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless. /rəˈlen(t)ləs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">adjective:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4854909203269264; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">oppressively constant; incessant...</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I looked it up in the thesaurus:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">persistent, continuing, constant, continual, continuous, non-stop, never-ending, unabating, incessant, unceasing, endless, unremitting, unrelenting, unrelieved, unfaltering, unflagging, unwavering, dogged, tenacious, single-minded, tireless, indefatigable...</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indefatigable!!!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I knew as I read that particular synonym that God was not using r</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">elentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to describe </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">me</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, because anyone who knows me, knows that I am </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">without a doubt</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fatigable! </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, this word </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - it did seem to describe how I often feel about my own life circumstances, and, more-so perhaps, about the circumstances present in the world around me.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My own family lives daily with the constancy of a chronic incurable disease in our midst. We arrange ourselves - our activities, our conversations, our noise level, our holidays, our relationships… our entire lives really, around the incessant presence of pain. Our need to consider it is never-ending, and our quest to tame it is unwavering. We seem to be in a continual pursuit of balance - not wanting to bow down to pain by sacrificing our joy, yet not wanting to instigate pain with a disregard for its latent tendency to react strongly to exuberant living. This persistent dilemma of the unknowns about the future is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in its attempt to steal today from us.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are innumerable atrocious circumstances in our present reality. Every day we hear about the horrors in our own country and across the world, of what one or more humans under the influence of unimaginable evil, will do to the most pure and innocent of all people. These situations persistently,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> continually, constantly, continuously, never-endingly,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> unabatingly, incessantly, unceasingly, endlessly, unremittingly, unrelievedly, unfalteringly, unflaggingly, unwaveringly, doggedly, tenaciously, single-mindedly, tirelessly, indefatigably never ever stop pursuing destruction. They are </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I began to wonder why God would whisper this discouraging word to me, why he felt a need to plant it within me when I already struggle each day to not drown in heavy laden thoughts of the hopelessness of this world. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I thought again of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sun, shining hotly on the desert plain, baking the ground a full thirty degrees hotter than the stifling air above it, until it cracks into a mass of chaotic grids. I thought of the powerful ocean waves pounding </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentlessly</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> against a cliff, undercutting it with sand and water and rock, over and over and over again, steadily destroying it into pieces that crash into the water below.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I continued over the next weeks to on and off muse over the word, a revelation finally occured to me in the middle of my antagonistic thoughts about it.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the very word that exemplifies the arduous adversity in life - t</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">his</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> word, this very </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">same</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> word, also illustrates everything that my God means to me. </span></b></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the pursuit of my heart.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in his desire for my devotion.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in his faithfulness to never leave me on my own, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in keeping </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">every single one</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of the promises He has made in His Word.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C.S. Lewis said, “The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and therefore, it is quite </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Apostle Paul wrote, “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>If the same word that describes the circumstances I am surrounded with, also describes my God, then I can only conclude that God is present with me in all of these circumstances.</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though the world can be horrific and each day filled with difficulty and suffering, if I walk through the desert in the presence of God, He will be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in using what otherwise would steal and to destroy anything good in me, to instead give me life, and to give it to me abundantly. </span><b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">relentless</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> life is a blessing, not because I avoid the hard things or because I am blind to reality, but because I can walk through the midst of it all with God, and in His presence find peace instead of resentment, calmness instead of anger, patience instead of frustration, and love instead of hatred.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God created the sun to light up the world and nourish His living creation - the same sun that burns, brings life. He created the waves to carry life in the sea, to carry life to the shore - the same waves that crash, carry life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think that I finally understand the intention of God in placing that word in my mind one month ago. He was reminding me of who He is, of what He wants, and of His promises to me. He knows that in my humanness, I struggle more often than not, to appreciate and embrace - or at times, to even just </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>tolerate</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>relentless</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> life I live in. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>He gave me the gift of a word to remind me to have hope in His faithfulness and to wait for His joy</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The morning after that chapel service at youth camp, as I unlocked the door to the health center, my buddy was standing there waiting for me. I smiled and invited him in, wondering how he had fared through the night with his worry.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Umm, can I have another bandaid?” he asked, a bit sheepishly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I held one out to him silently, a questioning grin on my face, I’m sure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I know God is going to heal it,” he said confidently, then gave me a sideways look. “I know He is... even though I still think my bone is rotting… even though my foot might fall off.” His confidence waned. “Maybe I should go to the doctor when I get home?” he asked uncertainly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a sigh, I pulled out a chair and motioned him to sit down. “C’mon then buddy, take off your shoe and let’s have a look, and let’s go over this again…”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relentless...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">" I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the feeling of hitting the bottom.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But there’s one other thing I remember,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They’re created new every morning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How great your faithfulness!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> He’s all I’ve got left. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to the woman who diligently seeks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a good thing to quietly hope,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> quietly hope for help from God."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Lamentations 3:19-26, The Message Bible)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, KJV)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Sustain me according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hope be crushed." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Psalm 119:116) </span></div>
Lora Stonelakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926501300562731313noreply@blogger.com0