Examining the Heavy Heart
I've been so moved over the last couple of days by the comments to my last post. It seems I'm not the only one lugging around a heavy heart, although, in all honesty, I really didn't think I was alone. With all the relationships in our lives, situations in which we find ourselves (of our own making or not), and the plain fact that our world is a broken-but-beautiful mess, it would be next to impossible to not be burdened in some fashion or another.As I've been examining my own heaviness-of-heart, I've been driven into scripture to search out the word "heavy". There is all manner of "heavy" in scripture. I found...heaviness, as in literal weight that is heavyheaviness, in relation to a...
Encouragement in the Produce Section
I've had a lot on my mind today. There are concerns weighing on me, and while I've laid them before the Lord, I've still had somewhat of a heavy heart. On top of that, I had to go to the grocery store. Now, I really like to cook, but HATE to go to the grocery store. I tend to put it off until there is nothing in the house, and after being gone for a week, the cupboards were definitely bare. So, I packed up my heavy heart and my shopping list and made the trip to my local Sweetbay.I got a cart that had a wobbly wheel, and for some reason kept using it in hopes that it would miraculously stop making that noise. It didn't. But, it was getting full so I kept squealing and knocking my way...
The Language Inherent
Every time I head out for a prayer walk, I inevitably start out by praising God for His creation. I'm so moved by it, oftentimes to my own astonishment. It seems that when I'm in the midst of creation, the most minute details stand out in stark relief. I notice the intricate patterns on the smallest bug, the delicate veins in the tiniest leaf, the ripple in the surface of the water indicating the wonder of life below its surface. These things speak to me in ways I can't fully explain, filling me with amazement for the Mind that could imagine such things into being.As I was walking, I thought, not for the first time, about creation being a type of love-language from the Father to His...
Nineteen
Isn't she beautiful? She's my baby and she's nineteen today. After a week of looking back on twenty-five years of marriage, I've been in a nostalgic mood to say the least. Nothing like coming home to the realization that nineteen years have passed since God, her father and I worked together to usher this little bundle of pure energy into the world. And the world hasn't been the same since!Her determination to hold out in the womb as long as she could, while still coming on her own terms the day before my scheduled induction, was a prophetic look at how she would live her life. She is bold and opinionated, fiercely loving and loyal to her friends with whom she's unafraid to be honest, and a...
Mystery Revealed – An Epilogue
I'm sitting at the San Francisco airport, waiting to board my plane home to Florida. We actually extended the trip another day because neither one of us was ready to come home! Typically, once we get to the end of a vacation, Kevin starts to transition mentally back to work and is ready to get home, but this time, he really relaxed. I was so happy for him, as I know he was fully present in the moment this week. It made it all the more special for us both.He was surprised by one of his cousins who "phoned a friend" and arranged for Kevin to play golf at the second-most exclusive club in the country (second only to Augusta), called The Santa Lucia Preserve or "The Preserve". They allowed me...