D is for Doubt

 

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Doubt don’t got to dominate.
Doubt don’t got to rule.
Doubt is not the potentate.
Doubt is but a tool.

Doubt will help you measure
Your discipline and depth,
Your devotion to your treasure,
The fullness and the breadth.

Don’t follow doubt’s creation
To let it weigh you down.
With dogged determination
Defend your solid ground.

When doubt dangles its discordance,  
Deal doubt a diligence blow.
Depose doubt’s clanging dissonance.
Go to what you know.

Dedicate yourself to deepness.
Truth and triumph will console.
Your decision for completeness,
will guide you to your goal.

 

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Letter D for A to Z Challenge

Award Flu

I have not signed into or written on my blog for months.  Honestly, I found myself paralyzed by the blog awards.  It may seem silly, but what I found flattering and uplifting, I simultaneously allowed to confine and enslave me.

Not uncommon in my life, once other things clamoring for my attention filled my time, I found it easy to neglect blogging.  What had so recently been a joy to engage in, was now a weight.  Though I wanted to make time for it, I likewise wanted to avoid it.  The months went by and before I knew what had happened, blogging was but an afterthought, something I would read and respond to rather than a personal venture of my own.  How did the kindness of an award turn into a burden?

When I received my first award, I was touched that someone might think enough of what I had shared of myself to affirm me.  I followed the award reqs and I felt encouraged as was intended.  Then, as is almost routine among bloggers because everyone is about supporting other bloggers in their craft, more awards continued to come.  I appreciated the acknowledgement.  Wanting to honor those who had honored me by following through with what was expected in the awards, I found my strong sense of fulfilling my obligations shackling me and I couldn't break free.

The blogging community is about empowering others to write by providing tools and incentives to do just that.  The awards are one of those vehicles by which we can be a support staff to each other.  In no way do I want to impugn the giving of blogging awards.  Rather it was my response I hope to discourage in others.  I let self-imposed expectations inhibit me from doing something through which I found satisfaction.  I put up my own unnecessary road blocks.  Initially getting and responding to the awards was fun for me, but soon it became a trap for me.  I felt this cloud hanging over me.  I needed to let it rain my responses, I thought, before I could write anything else.  Pretty soon I didn't want to write anymore.

I tripped myself up by not letting go of something I didn't need to hold onto.  It is a real lesson for me personally in more than just blogging.  I like to say, "Get over yourself.  Get out of your own way,"  and here I was very much in my own way, not knowing how to move.

I just have to admit that fulfilling the requirements of the awards, as fun as they are, has got to be a secondary concern for me or award flu might set in again.  Better to get over myself and get on my way to delighting in living.

A Son's Wedding - A Mother's Transition

It has been a whirlwind weekend for our family.  We headed off last Thursday to join my son and prepare for his wedding on Saturday, on my birthday.  

Family came from all parts and we had a wonderful family reunion after the rehearsal on Friday.  

Then came the big event on Saturday.  It was beautiful and lots of tears were shed by Mom, (that's me).  

My Children were all in the wedding, the groom in the middle.

Of course they were happy tears, sort of.  I didn't think this would be as difficult as it is.   After all, isn't this what we get them ready for - to go off on their own, live their own lives, start their own families?

Really it isn't that I am not happy for the bride and groom.  I am.  They love each other and they bring out the best in each other.  What is difficult are these transitions.  It is like you are leaving behind one life and beginning another.  Transitions are difficult.  You know an era has passed.  That's a hard thing on a personal level for me.  Even happy transitions are hard things for some of us.

And so, though I should be rejoicing, and I am, I am also struggling with the emotional tumult of transition.  I feel bad for my family because I am sure I am a bit salty right now.  But salt brings flavor and salt preserves; so perhaps I'm adding something good with my internal wrestling match as it flavors their lives.

I am spending extra time with the Lord lamenting the emotions that accompany transition.  I am not complaining.  There isn't anything to complain about.  Look at this beautiful couple!  It is a wonderful thing, marriage.  

I am confessing, confessing that I want to be as joyful as I know I should be, but I am not there yet.  I am thanking, thanking God for the beautiful bride He has given my son, and the wonderful family He has blessed us with.  I am praising, praising God for who He is and how He works all these things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  I am just resting, dwelling in His presence so that my lament will turn to praise and thanksgiving and contentment and joy.   

Buck and Anna Dunn, married May 11, 2013 

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

 Thank you to those who have passed along awards to my blog.  I appreciate you and will get to the responses eventually.  And thanks for coming by and celebrating this joyous time with me too. 

Recreation in Christian Meditation

A to Z Challenge:  R is for Recreate in Rest

Recreation has come to mean having fun, often if not usually actively, and often involves vacationing with lots of activities.  It is not uncommon to need a vacation after a vacation because not much recreating has gone on, that is renewing, reviving, or restoring, in busy vacations.  

I remember an acronym for busy:

Bound

Under

Satan’s

Yolk.

We human beings are designed to need recreating rest daily in sleep, weekly from our toils, and regularly throughout the year to reconnect with who we are and detoxify from the pollution of life.  Without this kind of recreation, we become weary, worn, and warped.

So what is a better form of recreation?  Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline discusses the recreating power of meditation, noting that the significant difference between Eastern meditation and Christian meditation is the difference between emptying and filling.  

Eastern meditation stresses the need to become detached from the world, emptying oneself, losing one’s individual personhood to merge with the Cosmic Mind, as one does is seeking the Nirvana, the extinction of desire and individual consciousness.  There is no personal God to be attached to.  The goal is to be free from burdens and pains of the reality of life.  Detachment is the ultimate goal.  

Christian meditation, on the other hand, goes beyond detachment to emphasize an attachment to God.  Rather than having us withdraw from the world, it redirects us to be able to deal with life.  We are not led to be ethereal to our humanity, but rather we are empowered to be more fully compassionate in our humanity.  Through communion and communication with the God who loves us and wants us to dwell in His omnipresence, we are filled with His love to be recreated for loving others. 

Jesus took time to be alone with God to be renewed, to pray, to be quiet, to rest.  I wonder what He might think of our modern version of recreating.  I am not against having rip-roaring fun.  That has its place.  However, if the only recreation we know is at the frenetic pace of busy and we don’t rest contemplatively to recreate, we lose more than we gain.  We miss out on something profoundly rejuvenating and fulfilling, a recreation we were made for, and we settle for tired, tattered, and twisted.

A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge: G is for Gratitude

A to Z Challenge:  G is for Gratitude

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The power of gratitude cannot be understated.  It promotes well-being in all areas of one's personal life:  physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.  It will help one face those most difficult of circumstances, and it makes the joys of life all the more joyous.  The positive effects of a thankful heart permeate to the very depths of who we are reaching out to impact our sleep, our health, our grades, and our approach to life in general.  

Our relationships will be stronger if we learn to appreciate as a way of life.  Forgiveness comes easier and grace flows in both directions more fluidly when gratitude is the river on which we sail.  Though slumps do come, they are overcome more quickly and with greater success when one is cultivating gratefulness. The sun shines brighter and life is just downright better with an attitude of gratitude. 

There are a number of studies which investigated the power of gratitude, all objectively verifying measurable positive reverberations from taking positive steps toward changing ones thinking and developing a more grateful attitude.  Here are a few of the suggestions.

1.  Count your blessings.  Don’t just think about or even just speak about what you have to be grateful for.  Write down 5 things a day and watch your attitude change and your health improve.  

2.  When you catch yourself complaining, stop.  Examine where that complaint is coming from.  Pull out the weed of complaining and find the flower of what you can be thankful for to plant in its place.  (Remember the old saying:  For every cloud, there is a silver lining.)  Be aware of your thinking and learn how to put off the destructive and put on the healthful.

3.  Find someone to help.  No I don’t mean to help you; I mean find someone you can help.  The act of giving of oneself has the added benefit of growing gratefulness for what you have.

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  

                                     1 Thessalonians 5:18

Here is an anonymous poem on gratitude found in many places:

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire.

If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something,

for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.

During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,

because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,

because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.

They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary,

because it means you’ve made a difference.

It’s easy to be thankful for the good things.

A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who

are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.

Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,

and they can become your blessings.

~Author Unknown 

I wish you, today, a day filled with many things for which you are thankful.  

A to Z Challenge:  G

Quiet Time with my Lord

I am again participating in Five Minute Friday on Sunday.  Oh well.  

Today's prompt is 'QUIET'.  Here goes:

“Amazing grace, How Sweet the Sound...”  My alarm breaks the silence of the sleeping household.  I turn it off and again it is quiet.  Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I rise slowly and plod to the bathroom for my usual morning routine.  Dressed for the gym, I descend the stairs to feed the cat and dog who wait in eager anticipation, the mewing of the cat now breaking the quietude.  

Then, with coffee now in hand, I sit ready for the quality quiet time so necessary for me to be who I desire to be this day and every day, the follower of Christ bathed in the necessary time with my God.  Oh how I need this time.  No one else is up.  It is just me and my God.  Sometimes I feel His presence and sometimes I just know He is with me, though the feelings I must wait to follow the knowing.  Always He is meeting me and growing in me what I need.  Quiet time with my Lord, the most precious time, makes all other times all the more precious as well.

(Five minutes up.)

Finding quiet is not always easy but it is oh so necessary... for my sanity.  It is oh so necessary for my well-being  It is oh so necessary for me to walk in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord.  I need that time of quiet with my God, and I highly recommend it for all who desire the peace of God.  A world of delight opens before the one who will seek delight in the Lord.

I Will Praise Him in This Storm

I will praise Him in this storm, for He is my refuge and my strength, a very present help in trouble.  God is sovereign.  Whom shall I fear?  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.  To whom else shall I turn?  There is great joy and comfort in the Lord.  In Him alone will I seek my treasure.  He is my Rock and my salvation.  In the midst of any storm, I am safe in the cleft of the Rock.

A Storm over Liberty

And what does the Lord require of me?

“He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justice, to love kindness,

And to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8

We can rejoice in the God of our salvation and know that whatever He determines, He does to fulfill kingdom purposes.  If we align ourselves with His kingdom purposes, then whatever happens, we can look to Him for the answers and for the questions.  Lord, what do you want me to learn in this storm?  Lord, where do you want me, us to go from here?  What’s next Lord? 

As we seek Him, His wisdom, His knowledge, we can then get excited about the answers and direction He provides.  No matter what is happening in the world around us or in our own little microcosm of that world, He is with us.  He is leading.  He is in control.  Yes, we can praise Him in this storm as we walk humbly with our God and greet Him with gratitude.

Part of my devotional this morning was Isaiah 12:

Isaiah 12

  

Thanksgiving Expressed 

Then you will say on that day,
“I will give thanks to You, O Lord;
For although You were angry with me,
Your anger is turned away,
And You comfort me.

“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”

Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation.

And in that day you will say,
“Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted.”

Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.

Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

The Lord knew I would read this today. The Lord knew I would need this today.  The Lord knows His plans, and they are far above mine.  I will praise Him in this storm.

"

I Want to be that Person

Five Minute Friday Prompt:  Welcome

Grass and Blue Sky

I want to be someone who always meets and greets and makes others feel welcome.  I want to have a home where when you enter, you feel at home.   Welcome!  It Is a state of being.  It is the comfort you experience when you are with someone who allows you to be yourself, to let your hair down, to let go of pretenses.   That is who I want to be.

Warm and Snuggly

Welcome.  As I close my eyes,  I see the door opening and the blanket strewn across the couch calling to me – welcome.  As I cuddle up in that blanket, I see a hand reaching out to me with a cup of hot apple cider and a smile on the greeter’s face.  Welcome.   I feel welcome and I think, “I want to be that person.”

Hot Apple Cider

I want to meet and greet and be a warm blanket, not a wet blanket, an open door, not a slammed door, a hot cup of cider, not a lukewarm sour drink.  I want to offer a smile and a sense of comfort and wellbeing.  Welcome.

Ride Out Depression

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Dealing with depression is like being out in the sea without a boat and no sign of land.  It seems to be never ending all around you without hope of escape or rescue. 

Focus - A Personal Pep-Talk

Five Minute Friday prompt:  Focus.

Philippians 4:8

Focus.  I know your feelings are hurt, but focus on what’s important.  Get out of your own way, and focus on what’s important.

The Lifter of my Head

It was a beautiful day, among the best of the summer;  so I was especially enjoying my afternoon walk.  As the sun was shining, there was a spring in my step.  Taking a deep breath of the outdoor air, I noticed in the rear view window of a car:

Be 

   Joyful!

“Amen!” I say! “Thank you, Lord.”

Then I think.  “Lord, when did it turn around for me or rather how?  How did I leave that state of loneliness, feelings of isolation and depression?”