What says the USAβs 250th birthday holiday week more than Haiku? ππ β₯οΈππΏβ¨ Look for photos and haiku this week! I wanted to try something different. I am also planning a no public library borrowing for the month of July. This doesnβt include what I have already on my pile or on hold. ππ Just no new. Iβm planning on reading what I have! β₯οΈπ₯°πΏβ¨π Any exciting July plans or goals? Creatively? Personally?
I could stare at our skies forever around here.Getting out some different coffee mugs for summer!See you next spring! Eclectic birthday gifts! π₯°β₯οΈKids were so happy!Smells heavenly!
Better is a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting-and conflict.
Proverbs 17:1~
Simplicity makes room for relationship. β₯οΈπΏ Relationships with God, others, and everything real around us. Itβs ok to love home, slow routines, and regular boring rhythms. Iβve been thinking about how on an extended social media break I start to slow down, revel in my mundane tasks, realize I donβt 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. Itβs so refreshing. It doesnβt 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. βTheyβ want you to feel that way. So that you need them or whatever it is theyβre selling. Itβs 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 arenβt bringing me joy and enhancing this quieter, contemplative pace.
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 ~
They’re so friendly. Don’t you think daisies are the friendliest flower?
~ βYouβve Got Mailβ, Joe and Kathleen
I went on a daisy walkβ¦
Maybe this will become a June birthday month traditionβ¦
It was SO hot, but I absolutely loved it. My body doesnβt love cold anymore, and the sky, clouds, fragrance of the air was sublime.
Look at the birds. They donβt plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And arenβt you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
βAnd why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They donβt 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?
βSo donβt worry about these things, saying, βWhat will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?β 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.
βSo donβt worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Todayβs trouble is enough for today.
Jesus replied, βNow the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels-a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
John 12:23-25, NLT
Prayer for tonightβ¦Jesus is our True Example. ππ»β₯οΈπΏ
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. Iβm putting this here for additional accountability and encouragement! Itβs never too late to start again.
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. β₯οΈ