Go now, a child of God. Choose well the road you take,
And the decisions you make. Keep in mind always that The God you serve continues to call to you, making you more and more every day into the faithful one God wants you to be.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sophie

THREE WORD WEDNESDAY

Draft; noun: A preliminary version of a piece of writing; a plan, sketch or rough drawing; compulsory recruitment for military service; a current of cool air in a room or other confined space; verb: Prepare a preliminary version; pull or draw; adjective: Denoting beer or other drink that is kept in and served from a barrel or tank rather than from a bottle or can.


Locate; verb: Discover the exact place or position of; place within a particular context; establish oneself or one's business in a specified place.

Serenity; noun: The state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.


Is that you, or Sophie?

Sometimes I see you in my cat, Sophie- a boy cat. Sophie is a prankster. Yesterday he hid beneath the dining room table and as I walked by, Sophie jumped and knocked a glass of chocolate milk from my hands. The milk went everywhere and Sophie turned back to look at the empty glass spinning on the hardwood floor, only as if to snicker as he ran to escape my cursing that filled the room. A few minutes later, Sophie sat at my feet as I rinsed the glass in the kitchen sink. He sits not facing the cabinet or me, he sits watching the rest of the kitchen like a protector to make sure nothing comes up behind me, watching and waiting. Sophie started biting his nails. Unusual for a cat, but every evening, he will sit upright with his back propped on a pillow against the couch and bites and pulls at his front paw nails until satisfied. I’ve taken to biting my nails too. I didn’t used to. I do a lot of things I didn’t used to do, since you’ve been gone.

Occasionally, I feel you in the room with me. If I didn’t think you were re-incarnated as Sophie, I’d hope she could see you when I don’t. There isn’t a draft in the whole house. It is sealed up tight. I could not mistake the wind for your ghost passing through the room. I know when you are there. You are like Sophie, hiding in wait, one day you will show yourself and I will certainly be surprised and fling everything I am carrying through the air, and you will laugh. We will both think it is funny . I would love to hear your laughter again. Knowing you are near is my serenity. I miss you; I love you, brother.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

God's will week Thirty-Three


One of the most evident things about growing up is that life is no longer an illusion. We realize that the people around us are not who we thought they were. We are faced with the daily challenges that in our youth our parents tried so hard to keep hidden. Things really arent that different, we just see things we were told to look away from before. 

My brother is in my thoughts a lot lately as the first anniversary of his death approaches. My sadness still comes and goes. Not a day goes by without me thinking of him. Its hard not to be able to call him when I want to talk to him. Through this time of my broken heart, I have examined love. I look at wedding photos. I read love stories. I have wondered if I had ever loved? I went to a funeral of a friend’s father, and I felt the overwhelming sadness of losing a loved one. I would have obsessed over this feeling but something else distracted me. In the line-up of pall bearers there was a man I loved when he was a boy and I almost married him. I have had a series of loves and losses since then. I realized that love isn’t something that can be contained. Love is a choice that we all make. Sometimes love is one of the hardest choices to make, but it can’t be forced. And when love isn’t there it can’t be ignored.

The last time someone told me they loved me, I wanted to scream in defiance, “How do you know? Everyone else who told me that before you, lied??”
But I fought my impulses and kept silent. In fear of me not hearing him, he repeated it, and that’s when I knew I should not have ever questioned it. It was true and genuine and he would fight for it with me.
Losing love can harden our hearts. I don’t want that to happen to me. Love is a choice I make every day.

Hebrews 5: 8
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

I have a mantra this year, “God is good and all he does is Good.” Last year changed me, and as I go into this new year, I am different, I'm a litttle more grown, and still growing. 
Good that can also come from loss.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

God's Will Week Thirty-two


What do I have to say about my absence last week?
I was in prayer and in God’s care.

No, nothing bad happened. I had a good week. I tried not to let the memories of last year ruin the memories I made this year. I made it through with a lot of prayer. I had some lows but a whole lot more highs to balance things out.

The book of Exodus in the Bible talks about forgetting the pain and failures of the past and strain toward what is ahead, Life with Christ. I am taking a blind leap of faith and putting my future in God’s hands.
I am a worrier. I worry. I have a book that is 1001 things of whatever… I forget. But one of the 1001 things was to live each day like a new beginning and the last day on Earth.

With that thought I will share this verse:
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
A song by Ryan Adams is in my heart, "Do I Wait" here is a link.
It is sentimental of someone in your life that used to be fully in your life.  I miss my brother, Jason. 
I hope he is the first person I see when I get to heaven.