Willing...

 

Hello Ladies-girls, men, and any literate bunnies....(thinking of Spring, I guess.)

Does every one of you have the hope that Spring will come? I love the snow fall but am wanting the pinks blossoms and green buds to appear soon.

I am joining with the writers at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog today. From her creative basket she grabs a word and we all write with that word in mind-for five minutes, only. Lots of fun. Words tumble out like cookie crumbs from a babbling toddlers mouth.

Today's prompt: WILLING.

Go.

What holds me back? Fear? of failure? of looking silly? of not dong something perfect?

But I do not let the garbled nerves tangle my determination-

       I will do what I am called to do.

                      Write.

                              Speak.

                                   Rally the world to acknowledge the need and stir heart to
                                        help empower those girls and women at risk for sexual exploitation
                                              and gender-based violence. 

What have I (really) got to lose?





                                                          my pride. (It's not about me.)

                                                                     looking silly.

                                                                                    Who doesn't today?

                                                       

                                                                not being perfect.

                                                                                 It's process, not perfection.

                                                                      FAILING.

                                                                            

                                  He has promises to make ALL things work toward my good.
                                       And if I do step out of the beat or off of the path,
                                      His Loving-kindness and Mercy faithfully follow me
                                               and guide my hand onto the lighted way.





photo credit



I am willing.

Are you?
What are you willing for?

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Small Beginnings

I only seem to have moments to write ever so briefly on this blog...that's why I enjoy Five Minute Fridays. Lisa-Jo Baker gives us a prompt and we write stream-of-conscious for five minutes....

Today the prompt is SMALL.

 

This is what I first thought-a word of not despising small beginnings.

 

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. ⁷ 

Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.

And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁹ 

“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house;

his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. ¹⁰ 

For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice,

and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel . . .

~Zechariah 4:6-10 

Are your hands building a foundation? Are your dreams small, just a wisp of a cloud?

Photo Credit

I have had a small dream--well actually a very large dream but is starting small--to help empower girls and women who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, to point them to the One who washes away dirt and makes us clean, who washes away tears and replaces them with embraces, to point them in the direction of gaining a future and a hope.

The dream is LARGE-so large that I am overwhelmed. I stood at the foot of this great mountain of injustice and oppression and knew not how to begin.

I was reminded of the proverbial saying: One eats an elephant one bite at a time.
Or one climbs a mountain one step at a time. But I have to take the first step.

Zechariah already had the plumb line in his hand beginning the work.
Just a beginning. First thought taking material form.

And He says to him, to me, to you-"the Spirit moves." He takes over. He places the finishing touch on the work.

And when it is accomplished we can only exclaim, "Grace! Grace! All was Grace!"

The Ladies Of Virtue Foundation is forming . . .
What is your work?

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin...."  
    -Zechariah 4:10 NLT


 

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Write Anyway

What a beautiful day, today. The sky is cotton blue, the sun shining, and snow crystals frozen on the trees. It's February-the month of LOVE.

Today is also Friday which means I am linking with other writers at Lisa-Jo Baker's place. We tap out thoughts onto our computers for five minutes ONLY. No editing. I noticed that some are using the prompt "Write." I think I am going to use Lisa Jo's full title: How to write and live brave (when you’re terrified).

GO:

Why do we as writers let fear paralyze the exegesis of our words? As writers thoughts, feelings, opinions, and insights topple in our minds like Chinese acrobats. Why do we let the guard dogs keep us from doing somersaults? Who made them the guard dogs anyway? And maybe they are actually Golden Retrievers.
 
For there is nothing new under the sun. Surely what I think, one of you has as well. The questions of insecurity. The web of dark gossamer strings that I try to conceal. The Oprah-light-bulb-life-changing thought that I think I am the first to grasp . . . you have those too.

So if we are not so different, and every one of us is on this journey of life-why don't we join hands and listen to each other's words.

We will find that we are not so very alone.

 

 Photo Credit

 STOP.

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New Year-Full of Things that Have Never Yet Been

I have been thinking and desiring to write for months...but then I sometimes wonder if you will be interested in the "goings-on"of my mind. Reluctance put my writing into idle mode. But, I believe that perhaps I should/will share some of the things I have been learning...

For the moment I want us to think about the Year 2014. January, the first chapter, will be the past in a few short hours. All of those dreamy-wishful thoughts for you, and from you, for the New Year...well, they will not fade away with the coming of February; hopefully, they will only intensify!

So here's to you dear reader... some thoughts for the coming year which is just getting warmed up, you know. Or "frozen-up" if you live in most of the continental U.S.

                                                      January
                        "And now let us welcome the New Year
                           Full of things that have never been."
                                                       -Rainear Maria Rilke

              New beginnings.  I love that.  Blank journal pages waiting to be filled with adventures yet experienced and memories yet to be made.  Believe.  Dream.  Stir  up the secret petitions of your heart.  Believe that the Sower of Dreams will give you the desires of your heart.  (Psalm 37:4)

Ask questions.  Contemplate- What would it feel like to be the woman you have always wanted to become?  What would your life be like if you were living the most creative, fulfilling, peaceful life that you can imagine?  What if a year from now you were living that life?  What would you need to change now?

Just ask the questions.  You need not fill in all the answers or concern yourself with the process of getting from A to B.  We are only for the moment opening our minds, stirring our faith and imaginations.                                                
                                                     "For He can do exceedingly,  
                              abundantly above all that we ask or think
                                 according to His power working in us."
                                       -Adapted from Ephesians 3:20    

"Abundantly," in the Greek, denotes "a starting point".  So imagine what you will-the best, sweetest, most incredulous things-  from THAT point, the Lord can take those (dreams) way beyond our wildest imaginings, excessive beyond measure, superfluous, making them superabundant "in quantity" and "superior in quality" beyond that point (quotes from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance).    

                                                   Photo Credit to Ben Hyland
            So take some time today/ this month/ this year and Dream!            




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Freefall to Fly

It has been awhile since I have written without thinking if I have a "good" thesis or if the citation correct or trying to lucidly write more jabbering thoughts into coherence. So I take a five-minute break today and join with other writers at Lisa-Jo Baker's Blog. She gives the prompt; we feed the words.

Today: FLY

Go.

Safe. Secure. Planted tightly and neatly between cotton sheets and brick walls.

The baby bird falls from the nest and suddenly I am free-falling hoping break his fall.

But, I cannot break his fall. What he needs is to learn to fly on his own.

So flying behind him, trying to catch up, I fly scattered in a sky I have never been before.

One that I do not want to know.

But I follow close, strenuously strangling behind.

Then I sense stronger wings than mine beckoning me to hide under their shadow.

They lift me high and I fly straight and safe.

I am beside my fledgling and beckon him into the shadow with me.

It's his choice.

In free-falling we learn to fly.

                                                                             Photo Credit

 

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Women Rising

Was August  the last time that I have written?! My school has started (Grad.studies in English Lit.) and yes, I have been busy. Right now I should be writing a literary critique on Uncle Tom's Cabin (which I am looking forward to). I had always wanted to read this iconic novel and I did! wonderful to understand why Abraham Lincoln is to have thought to state, "[the writing from] the little lady that started the Civil War."

My intention is to blog, but time eludes me. I STILL wonder at how bloggers consistently write AND live the life they are writing about! Even the Five-Minute Fridays have blinked by and now the autumn leaves are falling from the trees....yes, I WILL get the LOV header changed--as soon as my good friend helps me to do it!

Today, however, my excitement beckons me to the screen to share with you what I think is part of a grand moving of God upon women. The IF:Gathering hosted by Jennie Allen.

 

Unable to attend the conference in Austin, TX, I am thrilled to be able to host the event locally (within the comfortable confines of a cozy living room with friends, hot coffee, sweet treats, and lots of Buffalo-Chicken dip).

God is doing something globally-He is doing a stirring IN women FOR women. Do you feel it? Get ready; it's contagious.

Soon I will expound upon the plans that He has given me to start an organization to help women and girls who have been sexually exploited in such countries as Liberia, Tanzania, Costa Rica, and where ever else He may lead. Whether you are on the board on such an organization or whisperings prayers for such ministry in your closet- YOU ARE NEEDED.

Please join us.


 

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Worship

It's fun Friday and I get to throw caution to the wind as I join other adventure writers here.

The writing prompt: WORSHIP

I love what LisaJo says this morning: You already ARE a writer. No need for publishing, no need even for followers. Do words bubble out from the pool within? Do you write for yourself even if no one will read it?

You are a writer.

It takes courage to place our thoughts and feelings into concrete form of pen-and-ink, or let them flow through our finger tips to keyboard onto the screen.

What are we afraid of?

not writing perfect prose? by whose standard?

not painting our words like Monet? or LisaJo?

.

I so enjoy reading LisaJo's posts. She creates beauty with her talented way of creatively and uniquely  forming words into picture ideas.I would love to have more of that skill. But I have my own unique voice. And so do YOU.

Even if we all share the very same message, we each have a distinct way to convey it. When our words post in a blog or FaceBook, those for whom it is meant will read it. Have you had the experience that you have a "lightbulb" moment when an idea or message that you have heard a hundred times is illuminated for the first time in your understanding? That is why we need to keep writing-we never know just who needs to hear our words at the very moment in their lives when we write them.

Caution to the wind. Write from you heart.

Write for One, and that is WORSHIP.

  
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Last

I really enjoy these Five-Minute Friday writing sessions. Knowing that I can produce some thoughts onto the screen and only expend a  few moments in a packed schedule, leaves me feeling satisfied. Ideas for blogging come to me like the consistent waves of the ocean upon the sand. But a damn stops the ideas midway; the damn of "life." I am too busy LIVING to stop and W-R-I-T-E. Not a very good existence for one who wants to write. 

But, one must live the experiences in order to write, right?

Every author that I have read about writing, exhorts of the mandatory need of disciplined writing-even, when there seems to be no time. Well, unless my blog posts have the subject structure that I want to present them in, I do not post them. I fear they be just incoherent ramblings (kind-of like I am doing now ; )

So enough rambling and let's write! for five minutes. LisaJo Baker's prompt today is LAST.

GO:

The afternoon sky is hazier than last month. Grass is drying into a wheat-tan color. The newspaper is full of colorful flyers advertising back-to-school sales.

The last days of summer are here.

Two boys now grown preparing for the first days of college. Mama preparing her heart (and celebrating inwardly!)

Mom freezing corn for home-made chicken corn soup that will fill the nostrils with aroma mid-winter.

Canning tomatoes for fresh spaghetti sauce.

Washing curtains that are neglectfully covered with puffy, gray dust.

School-clothes shopping even though the girls are HOME-schooled.

One daughter changing dance academies. Another gaining a new tutor.

Mom also starting graduate studies, making preparations to register a non-profit organization.

So much change.

The last days of fervent ice cream licks, the tongue trying to beat the melting-heat, will soon be over.

Reluctant hearts relinquish the inevitable last days...but looking expectantly ahead, knowing that Last Days mean there are First Ones ahead.

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Small

Today's writing prompt for 5-Minute Fridays from LisaJo Baker is SMALL.

GO:

raindrops. seeds. new apple blossoms.

These things I think on, when I think of small.

You, who spend your life within those same four walls day-after-day, wiping runny noses and dirty bottoms, cleaning greasy hand prints off of the refrigerator-again, do not think your day is small.

You, who sit at a desk answering telephone calls with a memorized, amiable response, do not think your response is small.

You, who travel to the same job with tasks never cease to be filled with buckets of stress and you wonder if the long hours and just-enough-pay-to-make-it-through to the next paycheck is making any difference, your effort is not small.

For raindrops become tidal waves of refreshing wet at just the time.

Seeds grow thriving green plants.

And little, pink apple blossoms grow into fruit bearing trees.

Nothing is your life is SMALL. YOU are not small. 

He makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

  

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Lonely

 Good Morning! Today I am writing with the Ladies at LisaJo Baker's site. The Main Momma gives up a writing prompt and in five minutes flat we see what our fingers can spin. The results of which is as much of a surprise to me as to you.

Today's prompt is LONELY.

GO:

Mirages of classmates gathered together laughing, talking, having uproarious fun with one blonde girl sitting on the sidelines. She wants to feel apart-of them. Yet she feels so alone-on the outside looking in. She tries in her mind to forge words together that would guarantee belly-laughs ensuring her of belonging. Yet, the ideas cannot form. So she sits and laughs at the right time. And wonders when she will fit in. If ever.

Now- The blonde girl is grown. She attends bible studies, parent meetings, church functions, community projects. She purposefully looks for the "outsiders." Her eyes scan the periphery of the crowd, guided not so much by sight as by instinct. The radar goes off. She smiles and hopes that her warm words cover the one so she does not go home feeling lonely.

In the paths that we cross today, we may encounter a lonely soul. Trying lifting her with a smile.
Maybe you are the lonely soul. Do the same. Your smile may just lift yourself.

 
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Story

Hello. How are you today? It is Friday, already! Moreover, it is August 2nd!!! Can anyone believe that?
Twenty-three more days till school lessons start. Not quite ready yet. There is so much I want to do before I begin lessons (for my Masters in English literature). We have not eaten enough ice cream nor gone to the drive-in....

But, TODAY. Today, I am going to sneak five minutes to write before I go in the yard and determinedly relieve my flower beds of weeds.

LisaJo's writing prompt is STORY.

Go:

Who doesn't like a story with a happy ending?

I think that is why I prefer nineteenth century literature over twentieth.
Life in the nineteenth century was neat, orderly, square with predictable endings.
At least, that is the manner that many authors treated the stories.
Stories representing what society wanted: clean-cut answers
to difficult situations. Of course, this was not reality.

Reality was stories of black slaves receiving slashes that cut open their skin.
Irish immigrants, starving, sailing to America in hopes of finding life only to
work their fingers to the bone pounding railroad ties into the earth.
But denial, or rather perspective is a powerful tool.

The twentieth century brought two World Wars that broke any idealism.
Cynicism replaced faith, hope, and trust. The stories written largely reflect the
chaos in culture and within. Stories with unraveled endings.
Dystopias replace the warmth of the hearth.

But what is a story without hope? not one that I care to read.

Can you take a story with despair and from a hopeful perspective write a new ending?

How will you end the story of your life?

STOP.

All by Grace,
Nicol

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Confessions of a Transformed Heart

I  want to share a book with you today that will take your mind out of within your four walls. As you read Nancy Shepphard's book you will be taken to reflect on your own spiritual journey.

My son and I were headed to Liberia to learn of the culture and to inquire about possible future ministry projects. When I found out that the hostess of where we were to stay wrote a book about her thirty years experiences of life as a missionary, I purchased it and had it sent express. With Nancy's easy to read style and engaging and sometimes humorous prose, I devoured the book on the thirty hour travel to Africa. I felt as though I already knew Nancy and her family intimately by the time I greeted my hostess in person.
I was delighted to learn that Nancy is as candid and funny as she presents in Confessions.

The insights she shared gave me a jump-start into understanding the Liberian culture. And Nancy's "Confessions" will stir your own heart as one longing to fulfill God's destiny for you.

(Thank you Nancy for being so hospitable. I am thankful for our friendship that blossomed in Liberia.)

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Bible Love Notes and

BELONG

Today's prompt from LisaJo Baker is one of the most beautiful words in the English language-
BELONG.

GO:
This is easy for me to write about today.

The emails coming from Liberia, reaching out to me before I have had a chance to reach...

One man who works at the UN his shares his faith and asks for help in continuing his father's mission work of educating Liberian children in a school sixty miles from the capitol.

Another young man with whom my son Asher and I shared food, faith, and fun sends his warm regards and shares the current events in his life.

                                                                     Asher and Prince

A new friend, Shirley, beautiful inside and out, tells me what a blessing it was to have Asher and I at her home where she could cook for us. (The most delicious meal that I had in Liberia by far! Plantains, rice, and a whole fried fish, including eyes, which I did not venture to eat.)

                                                                         Shirley and I  


Belonging is sharing. Belonging is loving.

To Belong is to be Loved and that makes us beautiful.

Over vast oceans, across barriers of culture, He makes us belong to one another.


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Present

It is Friday today! This post is linked with LisaJo Baker's blog where we write for five minutes on her given writing prompt.

Today's is PRESENT.

GO:

When I read the prompt for today, I was not sure which meaning LisaJo had in mind for the homonym PRESENT. Did she mean the "here and now; this moment of reality" or "a wrapped up gift"? From reading her post, I soon realized that she meant the present of the "here and now."

But (in perhaps waxing too poetic) I am still considering them both. Our present is a present, isn't it? For yesterday is gone, a mirage of memories. Tomorrow is not yet, a figment of our imaginations.

But we have TODAY. Right now. To wallow in. Jump in. Celebrate. Sleep away (which is sometimes delightful too). Fill with worry. Or anger. Or bitterness. Or joy, contentment, and peace.

TODAY is a present for ours to open and unwrap and use in the manner we desire. I am sure all of us would agree that we want to spend our time wisely, making the most of every PRESENT moment, so that each minute would shine as a diamond. But it is the very minute stitches that create form in a quilt, giving it shape and design. To look at one stitch in isolation of the many others is to see only thread going through material. But viewed in unity with all of the others reveals a beautiful work of art, a blanket of practicality and beauty at the same time.

                                                                           Photo Credit
         
So today when you wipe that little nose, shred the carrots, clean the smears off of the mirror, drive kids in a chauffeured relay race-Remember you are stitching  the tiny stitches of the PRESENT.

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Beautiful

Writing Five Minutes with other ladies, joining together to post on the prompt BEAUTIFUL at LisaJo Baker's blog http://lisajobaker.com/2013/07/five-minute-friday-beautiful.

GO:

Black eyes covered with failing cover-up.

Black and blue turning purple and green from where the thick fingers grasped the forearm to stop the protests.

Hearts turned hard and calloused from the frequent blows.

Eyes vacant.

THEN- a ray of Love pierces the darkness.

Bringing with it the healing power of softening the hardness.

A new learned trust allows the callous to slough off and as the color of tissue turns

pink again so does the heart. Soft, pliable-full of hope and a returned Love.

Her eyes are full of Life.

He makes all things BEAUTIFUL in His time.

STOP.

To read amazing stories of God's restoring love, please visit the Project Rescue site. http://projectrescue.com/resources/videos/ 

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In Between

Writing thoughts like candy gum drops-one sweet bite at a time till five minutes is gone.

Five Minute Friday is now with LisaJo Baker and the other lovely ladies and the writing prompt

is IN BETWEEN.

GO:

Before-here-there.

Behind-present-forward.

Past-Present=Future.

And so much is IN BETWEEN.

The In Between is full of planning, preparation, hope and sometimes worry.

So much of our time is In Between. Today I am prepping for a beach visit. It's one of those not-really-planning-activity-because-I-need-to pack days; I will be doing activity at the beach.

I feel the pull to write about living in the PRESENT and sucking in the sweet marrow of the moment.

For the rest of this summer, my current present, I feel the need for carpe diem.

My Winter and Spring were overflowing with term papers, research projects, and final essays about women in culture, culminating in a baccalaureate degree, a trip to Liberia that is certainly life-changing as I plan registering an NGO, and the life-stuff of two adult sons (now 18 and 20) a teen daughter and a tween one, husband, and a dog. Fall does not look any less full as I begin my studies for a Masters degree in English.

BUT-In Between are the blessed months of summer. 

Thank God for times of refreshing (Acts 3:19). 

Sweet tea, lemonade teeming with ice cubes, ice cream dripping down the chin, drive-in movies, splashing in the pool, and reading while swaying in the hammock.

Yes, thankful for times of refreshing, those in between times!

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Kid Hangover?

Are you a cranky Mom? Or more like me, a Mom who gets cranky?

There may be a very good reason for your grumpiness that you have not considered. I read Anne's blog post from Modern Mrs. Darcy this morning and want to share it with you. I think so many of us NEED to recharge in quiet, and not realizing that, nor pursuing this need creates a cranky atmosphere in the home.

First I will share my comment to the post:

 Yes! I am one too! I understand the kid-hangover and the over-stimulation. Has anyone mentioned Wal-Mart as a TRIGGER? I predictably get headaches from shopping there- bright, fluorescent lights and excess visual stimulation. One of my daughters is similar to myself, needing and enjoying alone time. But my eleven year-old is an incessant talker=Mom wanting to hide in bedroom. Since we are usually home together all day, I have made sure to incorporate some alone/quiet time into my schedule: a soaking hot bath and an hour to read before bed usual do it. 

This is not selfish time. It is necessary for either recharging or rebooting. Think of you computer: sometimes it simply needs to be turned off and revamped. While sleep does this for our physical bodies, and to an extent our minds, introverts need time to download the day's processes, conversations, etc. Being introverted or extroverted is not merely about how much we talk or exude energy but how we REFUEL our energy.

If you can relate read more of Anne's post HERE.

YES! I am one too! I understand kid-hangover AND the over-stimulation. Has anyone mentioned Wal-Mart as a TRIGGER? I predictably get head-aches from shopping there-bright lights and excess visual stimulation….one of my daughters is similar to myself, but my eleven-year old incessantly talks=Mom wanting to hide in bedroom. Since I am home usually all day, one way in which I had to give myself boundaries (from the audio noise) is to make sure I have an hour before bed-no-kids-time.
I am sure that you have mentioned before that introverted and extroverted is not merely how we exude energy but how we RECHARGE. Another safety-net feature to my life-hot,soaking baths (of course, by myself). - See more at: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/2013/06/its-more-than-a-kid-hangover/#comment-26271

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