Establish Peace

Isaiah 26:12 Lord, You establish peace for us. All that we have accomplished You have done for us.

Isn't it the eternal vicious cycle ... to sweat and struggle to keep up with the [fill-in-the-neighborses] and then, at the end of the day, fail to even feel good about what we have done? Is it ever enough? Will we ever attain that elusive peace?

Yes, we will. When we realize that it's never ours to establish. I don't know about you, but that's a relief and an encouragement to me.

For more encouraging Words this Wednesday, pop over to Amy Deanne's.

Wednesday's Word (Be Still)

This morning I had a little Monday-esque fun, which was a bonus since it's Wednesday already. We are getting ready to take Sarah to sleep-away camp and I am drinking my eighth cup of coffee. No spiking allowed because I have to drive an hour one way to get her delivered... speaking of delivery, her original delivery was 14 hours long and I am not getting any points for that. Still.

In the middle of washing her sleeping bag and camp clothes, the power went out. As I clearly should have expected, it being the middle of July with no wind or snow or storm-like power-outage-causing phenomenon. So she may go to camp with a new wardrobe and sleeping bag. Yay.

Then the nice people who rent our former home from us -- you know, the one I never wanted to leave -- they called to say the downstairs bathroom ceiling has collapsed. They're sorry they didn't mention anything sooner, it just seemed like a little leak under the upstairs tub. Um, yeah, my beloved clawfoot tub that we had installed just before deciding to move to the country. That one.

So I decided to go on battery power (for the laptop) and upload this Word for Wednesday (which is much more powerful than a battery :)):

Psalm 46:10. It's a good one. Also, if you're looking for more encouragement today, be sure to click over to Amy Deanne at the 160 acre woods.

Word for Wednesday * Let Me Hear

Matthew 13:8-9

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.

I really do want to hear. To listen and really, really hear.

Go visit Amy Deanne at the 160 Acre Woods for more Word-Filled Wednesday.

Seasons * Word for Wednesday

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

A few years ago I had the privilege of spending several days and nights with a woman who was in her late 90s. Mother to six children and grandmother to dozens, she was also an accomplished attorney and published author. Her husband preceded her in death by a decade and her children were spread all over the world, successful and happy and proud of her but none was able to come to her deathbed until just the day before she died.

What a strange privilege, really, to be with such an accomplished woman in her last days and nights. I have a huge respect for people who work in hospice and "end of life" care. I am sure their jobs are difficult, just as I am sure their rewards are immediate as well as eternal.

My late friend's name was Vivian, which of course means full of life. And she was! At the time I was intent on listening to every word she had for me, and it seemed she was intent on saying a lot. I didn't have to take notes even though it's my first nature to do so. All of her words were painfully and carefully chosen as she recounted what she considered her life's most important lessons. "There is time for everything," she told me, "just not all at once."

There is time for everything, just not all at once.

Okay, maybe it's profound only to me, because I was there, and it was the thesis of the last great speech of a great teacher and orator whom I respected deeply. But if I could impart the depth of feeling behind her words, I am convinced that mothers everywhere would breathe a sigh of relief. Just a little respite from the "hurry up" superwoman lives we live. Vivian didn't go to college until her last child was a senior in high school, she wanted me to know. She didn't write a word until she was 56 years old, and her oldest child was passing the bar at the same time she was.

By anyone's standards, Vivian's life as a mom, a lawyer, a writer and a teacher was extraordinary. And so is mine, and so is yours. The lesson I am trying desperately to internalize is that I can have it all, just not all at once.

***

For more encouraging words on this Wednesday, hop over to Amy Deanne's 160 Acre Woods.

Word for Wednesday

Hebrews 10:22...let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Those are the girls' quilts on our fence (still waiting on my clothesline installer... I heard a nasty rumor that suburban CC&R's won't allow clotheslines. Is this true? Anywhat, in the country we can hang our quilts and even our undies out for drying) with the church across the road that I'm always yammering on about.

Seems like a reminder of what's pure and good is in order for me today. I hope your day is blessed. For more encouraging words, take a stroll through the 160 Acre Woods.

Word for Wednesday

Job 29:19 My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches.



We know that Job had great favor with God and man before his time of trial. In this passage it seems to me he is remembering fondly the time of favor; it seems to me that he is reassuring himself by remembering that his troubles have not always afflicted him. I personally keep a "promises kept" list in which I record how God is good to me even in times of trial. So when it seems like the roots have to reach through a lot of rocky soil to reach water, and the dew of refreshment is a long time forming, it is valuable to me to look at the times that God has fulfilled his promise. Over and over again, my roots have reached the water, and I know that God will not fail to help me no matter the circumstance.

The Word-Filled Wednesday group at Amy Deanne's is so encouraging to me: click here to read others!

Word for Wednesday

Isaiah 11:6The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

God can do amazing things, work out problems we would think were impossible. If a leopard can lie down with a goat (and not to eat dinner, heh heh) then how much more can God resolve our day-to-day differences with others, or our financial worries that seem like those ends will never meet?

My picture is our lop-eared rabbit being watched over by the dog... not really a lion and lamb, but it is the best I could do to add a photo illustration, LOL, I couldn't go find a real lion and lamb together in my spare minute! Probably Amy Deanne could, though, so go check out her Word-Filled-Wednesday and get a list of others who are posting scripture today too!

Wednesday's Word

I do love Amy Deanne's blog... it's such an encouragement to me. So I keep stealing -- I mean plagiarizing -- I mean joining in for her great ideas. And this post is of course not based on my idea at all, or even Amy's, but God's:

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”- Ephesians 4:15

I love this because it speaks so directly to what I've been walking through lately. It is hard to say the truth sometimes, when avoiding conflict or disagreement is my main life's goal! But when we speak the truth in love, we are walking in Jesus' shoes. Surely many, many people didn't like the truth he spoke, and yet that soft answer does turn away wrath.

I hope you have a blessed day!