About Me

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I love expressing heart-felt and inspired words that come unseen at times, yet powerful and profound within.
Enlightenment, in between the lines.

As you will find, I truly believe in the divine power of Gratitude. And how, by that power, it can change lives.

This journey of blogging has been an adventure!
And I'm so glad you stopped by for a quick visit : )

Thursday, June 30, 2011

~ The One Needful Thing ~

My day begins.

And in the middle of scribbling out my
"to-do-list," I see it ...

A gentle reminder - if only I remember it first.

Why do I become so easily caught up in the daily
rituals and the mundane, before the One Needful Thing has been sought out and
listed first?
Are my prioritized habits really that watered down?

I read it again - there above my pantry door, adhered black-bold in vinyl
as if speaking aloud this time - audible to my ears - since my heart is too
caught up in task's that don't hold a flame to
the One:





What are the basics I need in my daily life?
Food.  Air.  Water.  Shelter.  Clothing.

Yet, "every needful thing" is so much more than just the basics. 
It is interwoven gold threads, complete sure, into the
One needful thing.

Him.

All of the basics parallel to Him.

His word is divine food for my hungered soul.
He is the breath of life.
Living Waters, that I "shall never thirst."
Shelter - dwelling place with Him.
Clothing - protective armor of Him.



When I focus my priorities on
the One needful thing,
everything else that follows behind, becomes do-able.
Possible. Burdens lighter. Abilities magnified.

My heart yearns to focus - to hear Him - Spirit to Spirit.

I stop writing half way down and pen in capped-bold:
"The One Needful Thing."  

I re-prioritize.
He is now #1 on my to-do-list.  As He always should be.



The One Needful Thing I can't ever do without.
And that will not ever be taken from me.




"But one thing is needful:
and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her."
-Luke 10:42


"Why do I make to-do lists to run my life
but not make time to let God’s Word revolutionize my life?"
-Ann Voskamp

Monday, June 27, 2011

~ Stone Polishing Refinement ~

Perfectly shaped
round rocks lay scattered across
white-lined foam ocean sand.





















































How did they become so?

Is it through natures ebb and flow motions riding countless waves,
being tossed to and fro, swept up in whirlpools, endless grinding
on ocean floor
traveling hundreds of miles and hundreds of years
smoothing rough edges - polishing refinement?

Where did they begin? 
What is their story to tell?

It is here I gaze in awe upon each one,
so uniquely their own. 
A myriad of color - freckled tiny with gold specks, black specks,
white marbled thread veins ...
and wonder how long did it take
for them to
become
these perfect orbs of creation?

And then I wonder
how long does it take for a stone heart,
even my very own -
to become polished?  Perfect?  Beautiful?

Is it through daily
constant motion of life waves as well,
tossed to and fro, enduring daily pounding, life-storms, trials and challenges
to smooth my rough edges?

Is it giving my heart to Him and
willing
polishing refinement for me to
become
who He created me to be?

I see beauty upon these
stones in their own perfect shape...
imagining what they once were and now are.

Hope swells within heart-depths,
to become beautiful within -
with smoothed rough edges outward,
the way He would have me
become.



















"Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft

in the quiver of the Almighty."
-Joseph Smith

Sunday, June 19, 2011

~ A Father Indeed ~


"A father carries pictures where his money used to be."
~Author Unknown

I am very fortunate indeed to have 2 fathers in my life.  They have both taught me so much and I feel that I have learned twice as many of life's gems because of both of them!

Here's to all the amazing fathers everywhere!  Who not only make a difference in their own little corner of the world - but who touch the world outside of them as well.

Be sure to watch this touching video, and pass it on to your fathers for sure!

Enjoy a collection of some of my favorite Father's Day quotes:



 "He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
~Clarence Budington Kelland

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say:
"You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
~Harmon Killebrew

"One father is more than a hundred Schoolemasters."
~George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs, 1640

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope."
~Bill Cosby

"Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name."
~William Wordsworth

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."
~Mark Twain, "Old Times on the Mississippi" Atlantic Monthly, 1874


"Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown."
~Author Unknown

Sunday, June 12, 2011

~ How To Really See ~

"Look not on his countenance,

or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him:

for the Lord seeth not as man seeth.  

For man looketh on the outward appearance,






but the Lord looketh on the heart."
-Samuel 16:7










Saturday, June 11, 2011

~ Simplify ~

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak"
-Hans Hofmann

I was told once while packing for a vacation with limited storage space:
"bring only what you absolutely need."

It was somewhat challenging to pack that way,
but in the end I had an enlightening experience.
I had with me exactly what I needed
and realized,
how simple it really was.
That I could truly live off of what was just in my small suitcase
and nothing more.

And the other element - truly unexpected - I felt deep within ...
Joy. Freedom. Contentment. And undeniably -
Gratitude.

When I came home from that trip,
I simplified my life.
Everything around me.
My home. My attitude. My surroundings.
eliminated the negative, energy-draining toxins ...
daily depressing news, busy schedules, t.v., certain people, drama, habits –
the outside world details which I
considered top priority and most important that with - eyes now open -
wasn't.

Breathing, existing, living - transformed itself.

Sure, the pressures, anxieties, worries, fears, frustrations from the world
are still around me, and I feel them pounding heavy now and then,
and battle them daily ...

but

not so compounding, and vice-gripped as they used to be.
Eyes of eternal perspective – true importance.

And I have found that by living a more
simplified – less world compiling life,
has blossomed God-gratitude within deep soul fiber.

A simple life does not mean going without.
A simple life is going
within.

True deep innermost fulfillment that doesn’t compare to outside counterfeit opinion.

Needs versus wants.
God versus the world-judgements.

Why I try to complicate things more, is beyond me.
I make an effort to teach my family this concept daily.
How simplicity truly leads to gratitude.
To inner-spirit satisfaction. To God.

Herein lies the secret to a joyful - much more fulfilling life.

Simple is beautiful.

































Simple is God.



“When the solution is simple,
God is answering.”
-Albert Einstein






"For our rejoicing is this,
the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity,
 not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,
we have had our conversation in the world,
and more abundantly to you-ward."
-2 Corinthians 1:12

Monday, June 6, 2011

~ New Beginnings ~

I've always known
it would come ...
these life-gathered precious moments speedily rushed blurred in the
blink of an eye.

People warned me, a young mother
son nestled within my neck ...
"Time goes by so quickly.  Enjoy every moment."

I didn't realize then -
as I do now,
they spoke truth.

And later words spoken from lips, reminded me,
a mother once again, with
angel daughter bundled in pink ...
"Time flies in the blink of an eye."

I blinked.
It happened.

Son - 18 almost 19 years old - over night.
High school graduate.  Young man.  The world waiting for him
to step into.

Daughter - 15 almost 16.  Over night.
Beautiful, inside and out. Discovering life daily.

A page has turned.  A new chapter.
New beginnings.

New life.



And this mama-heart
longs to keep them just a little while longer.
To slow time down a bit
and bask in their spirit.
Their light.
Their child-heart still beating within.
And hold their hearts forever.

Spring has sprung into summer.
And they - with the beams of sun -
light the way.  A new path.

Mother pleading prayer from lips:
"Remember to 'always' walk in His way.
Light and Life with Him. 
Be in the world, but not of it."

He wouldn't want it any different.


"I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life."
- John 8:12