And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.
Herman Melville, Moby Dick ~
Monday Ponderings ✨ {Day 67}
Category: Prayer
Make Room 🏡 {Day 63}
Better is a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting-and conflict.
Proverbs 17:1~
Simplicity makes room for relationship. ♥️🌿 Relationships with God, others, and everything real around us. It’s ok to love home, slow routines, and regular boring rhythms. I’ve been thinking about how on an extended social media break I start to slow down, revel in my mundane tasks, realize I don’t have to keep up with anything other than getting meals on the table and washing laundry occasionally. I can have long times with my coffee steaming into the early morn, Bible flipped open, hummingbirds approaching. I can listen and chat and make Rice Krispies treats with my little boys. I can read or not read, wear my favorite comfy flannel from a thrift store with no need for more. I can walk with my music and the wind. It’s so refreshing. It doesn’t need to become more than it is, some-holier-than-thou move, but lets me step out of the stream of a vague unease of missing out, the guilt and fear of not keeping up. ‘They’ want you to feel that way. So that you need them or whatever it is they’re selling. It’s unbelievably freeing to step back and let it swirl by. It makes me want to pray more about how I use social media and maybe stepping away from forms of it that aren’t bringing me joy and enhancing this quieter, contemplative pace.
~ 🌿♥️
Hello, Luna + Quote for reflection 💚 {Day 60}
Is it possible to live forgiven and not carry great loads of guilt, to participate in the salvation of the world? Is it possible to love and grow into a relationship with another person in which we are enriched and enhanced and built up? Is it possible to bless and be blessed? To give others the best that is in us and not the worst? To receive from others their best and not their worst? Yes. It is. As everyday realities, these births are wonders, whether as a new baby in the world or as a new creature in Christ. We are launched by acts of love and promise into ways of seeing and being. Our first birth thrusts us kicking and squalling into the light of day. Our second birth places us laughing and worshiping in the light of God. Like Issac. Laughter. Amen.
Eugene H. Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, p. 27 ~
Words 🌿🩷💚 {Day 59}
Too much talk leads to sin.
Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.
The words of the godly are like sterling silver;
the heart of a fool is worthless.
The words of the godly encourages many,
but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense.
Proverbs 10:19-21, NLT 💚🩷
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Praying 🤲 & Pondering 🙏🏻✨🌿♥️ {Day 58}
Happy Friday, Friends~
I have a lot on my heart today ~
Asking the Lord Jesus for His clarity, wisdom, and peace ~
Can I pray for you for something today? ✨♥️🌿
Monday Ponderings: Daisies 💛🤍💛🤍 {Day 56}
I love daisies.
You told me.
They’re so friendly. Don’t you think daisies are the friendliest flower?
~ “You’ve Got Mail”, Joe and Kathleen
I went on a daisy walk…
Maybe this will become a June birthday month tradition…
It was SO hot, but I absolutely loved it. My body doesn’t love cold anymore, and the sky, clouds, fragrance of the air was sublime.
Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
~Matthew 6:26-34, NLT
~
Refuge ♥️🌿 {Day 55}
Then I pray to you, O LORD.
I say, “You are my place of refuge.
You are all I really want in life.
~Psalm 142:5, NLT ♥️🌿
Wonderful words from web for wandering through … {Day 53}
Monday Ponderings ~ Happy June~ 🌲🌿🌱🍃 {Day 49}
Starting a bit of a June challenge for myself! June is my birthday month so I want to gift myself health, beauty, relationships, and simple routines. I’m putting this here for additional accountability and encouragement! It’s never too late to start again.
♥️🌲🌿🌱🍃♥️
Preparation {Day 48} 🌸
Every day is a preparation for death. By realizing this, it helps somehow, because we each have to die a little each day. Death is nothing except going back to Him, where He is and where we belong. ♥️
~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God
…at the close of the day… {Day 42} 🌅
…gratitudes…
•thankful for the laundry blowing on the line •the killdeers and geese•the smell of pine in the sun•delicious chicken and veggie kebobs•talking with Ricci and many others at graduation parties•for a hot shower •new gratitude journal•for a hubby who works hard•for remodeling •for gorgeous storm clouds•
Joy of loving 💜🤍💚 {Day 40}
We should ask ourselves, Have I really experienced the joy of loving? True love is love that causes pain, that hurts, and yet brings joy. This is why we pray asking for courage to love, and love more deeply than ever before.
~ Mother Teresa, Do Something Beautiful for God
A.M. Pine - Hearth Ridge Reflections 