Tag: postaday2011
Weekly Photo Challenge: Winter
I think someone at the top has been reading my mind. Or, possibly (gasp!) reading my site! However it is, I am so thankful for the “winter” challenge! Finally I will unload more of my fun shots of snow in action. Yea!
To show my appreciation, I’ll begin with a couple of snowy smiles:
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between – 3
Between Frost and a Hard Place
I am not sure what this phenomenon is called, but it is winter weather and it is beautiful.
The nearest I can describe it is that a heavy frost was forming on a breezy morning and the results were that the frost formed only on the sides of slender things, such as twigs and wires.
Except that actually, it was a sort of foggy morning, so perhaps the fog was freezing on the sides of things, in gorgeous crystals that extended like pennants from twigs. I don’t know.
Some of you northerners help me out, here.
Anyway, I have a photo; it happened.
Then when the breeze picked up enough to sway branches, the frost began falling off, tinkling like the tiniest bells, falling over the ground in glittery shards in the sunlight.
It was a most awesome morning.
I’ll never forget it.
Strength Rising
We once knew a man so strong, he could lift a FULL 50-gallon hot water tank and carry it out of our house. What must it have weighed?
He also lifted one corner of our barn when we needed to put a new pole under the roof.
On each occasion, we had only asked him if we could borrow a dolly or a housejack.
He shrugged.
He did not have those tools. Wonder why not?
He had strenth. He was accustomed to lifting motors from cars and rebuilding them, so his muscles were trained for heavy work.
What kind of heavy character-work would it take to develop that type of strength in character?
How do we achieve strength in character? Where does it come from?
As does physical strength, strength of character develops from use. Each undertaking begins with small steps toward small goals. Our friend could not lift a barn when he was 18, but he worked at developing that strength because he wanted to lift heavy things.
In the same way, the heavy points of character become easier to carry out when we have worked hard to develop the strength.
Think about it. What are you good at? I know a man who excels at arriving late. Likely it began with hitting the snooze button when he was a teen. I know a lady who organizes huge catering events, regularly. Likely that began with learning to cook as a teen. Be it good or bad, your most prevalent strengths, abilities, or skills began with a single step.
And your future most-prevalent-strength can come from a single step you take today.
Your new strength could be in forging forward, no matter the pain. Or you could specialize in giving up at the first twinge.
Your new strength could be in creating. Or it could be in destroying.
There is one strength that I wish we all could develop: the ability to give and accept help. So many refuse to give; so many refuse to accept.
There is One Giver of a bottomless well of all-conquering help, Who ever lives to help us. I am learning to accept His help, His strength, more each day, and to extend it to others–baby steps that could lead to a real strength, someday.
Will you join me?
The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Corintians 1:25
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image via wikipedia
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between – 2
I warned you I’d make this challenge say “winter”!
This is one of my favorite winter shots. And I have lots of ’em.
It shows a depth that hints at obstacles between me and the horizon and beckons me to long for the other side.
Crossing that cold divide, though, would require waiting for summer and knowing how to swim. Or it would require accessing a boat. Or crossing barbed wire fences not visible.
This peaceful obstacle between me and the future makes me say, “Oh, how lovely, the present!”
The Gift of Joy
What in the world is “joy to the world”?
People can be confused about life if they ignore the Owner’s manual. That’s okay as long as in our mistakes, we seek the Bible, where we find every necessary explanation.
Regarding joy, we find it is a gift from the Spirit of the Living God. (Galatians 5:22)
This gift, the angels tell us, seems to have come simultaneously with the birth of His Son. (Luke 2:10) Amazing, going far beyond the usual joy at a successful birth of a son, this joy seems to know no bounds, and is the soul’s antidote to the worst of evil. (Matthew 5:11-12)
Limitless, unrestrainable joy can be ours. Like a deep current under the surface waters of the streams of our lives, we can have this hidden, mysterious constant: joy.
But only if we have the Spirit that is Holy. Our having joy depends on nothing less.
For this reason, we find all sorts of encouragement to contentment in God’s Word.
Paul showed us that he had arrived at being able to possess himself with contentment, no matter what the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11-12) Lots of incredibly hard things happened to Paul, (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) so we should consider him a reliable instructor in contentment, and he encouraged us to be content, no matter what.
Contentment is a choice, and depends on our obedience, and nothing less.
Ah, but happiness—where does it fit? Jesus was not always happy, (Luke 13:34) and neither was Paul. (Acts 23:1-3) Happiness is a normal, natural response to our happenings. It is a feeling, an honest reaction, to life, and nothing more.
When we lose something, be it possessions, reputation, or loved ones, we are not happy. No.
We can draw, though, upon that miraculous joy, ever residing in the core of our beings (if we actually have it, have that gift of Jehovah God’s Spirit.) We can rise above happiness to contentment, on the strength of that joy.
Not all things bring happiness, but we can learn to walk in contentment, if only we receive the gift He stands ready to give us—true joy.
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Image by Fergal of Claddagh via Flickr
Sunday Scriptures – Between
When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.
Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan–
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.
Isaiah 8:15 – 9:7
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