Passionate Creative Christian

Good Morning!

                                                     Mid-week thoughts to ponder.

              Oh! Look there’s a big storm coming.  My whole day will be ruined. My life’s a MESS.

This day is going to be a really bad one.   I think I should go back to bed!  I fell over the cat, I burnt the toast. My hair’s a mess, I look fat and flabby, everything’s a mess.  It’s never going to get any better!!

Am I alone or have all of you had days like this?

How I used to handle these kind of days and how I am now learning to handle them are vastly different.

I believe what you say MATTERS. This day is a write-off or Wow! what a dreadful start! I believe by the afternoon there is Hope for peace and restoration.  I CHOOSE not to let this ‘agro’ go with me to affect others.   I CHOOSE ……..KINDNESS and LOVE.

Someone, I think it was Augustine, said……..I see a big storm coming, I will take all precautions to guard my life but my faith assures me that this too will pass and I will believe for better ahead.

For all of us this day and for the rest of this coming week I pray that all storms, whether they be natural or spiritual, or even simply the ‘normal’ hassles of  ordinary life will open the doorway of Hope to a place of Peace and inner tranquility even if the ‘outer’ still surges.

                                                   Blessings and Grace over ALL THINGS.

LIVE!

Good Morning.  Greetings to each one.

    Today’s entry began in an amazing way.  I had been away and the issue of HOPE was the theme for all that occurred.   Where do we centre our HOPE?.   What do we HOPE for?.  Is our HOPE based on need or want or necessity?   Is our HOPE practical, or in the realm of God where HOPE is of a much higher perspective?

Only you know the correct answer in your own circumstances but I decided to surrender much of what was my Hope and instead focus only on what was viewed from a heavenly perspective as being of benefit to others and worthwhile.

I decided to find something white as a symbol of purity.   The whitest thing today I saw is pictured here……….

  What can you find today in your environment that is the purest white?  Perhaps its a flower or a stone or something else?

A thought to ponder……..(no idea who first wrote this)

Within each of us, just waiting to blossom to full potential is the wonderful promise of all we can be.    

 (This is not conditional upon age……you could be 9 or 99 the potential to be a transforming influence on the environment around you is ever there).

Have a Great and encouraging week.

SHINE!

Let Peace be found in the simple and ordinary things today.

A note on my date pad.    Do you feel insignificant?   Perhaps unimportant in the BIG PICTURE of life unfolding around you?

I like this quotation.

Everyone has a unique role to fill in this world and is important in some respect.  Everyone, including and perhaps especially you, is indispensable.

Nathaniel Hawthorne.

May …..Love, Peace, and Grace flow through the airwaves to you.   a-men.

On the way to Rockhampton –  unexpected stop – unexpected mixture of colours.

A challenge!

Can you find, draw, photograph or tell someone about something beautiful in your ordinary life this week.

You may not fully realise what a difference you can make.

Share Love! Share Beauty!

Good Morning!

   Time away and birth of a healthy baby granddaughter.   Mother and child well.  Gratitude and thankfulness.   The blog today is looking at something outside of the fullness of personal Grace and wellbeing.

This thin tree is the only survivor of a massive forestry harvesting which has transformed what has been the beautiful and much appreciated walking paths I have enjoyed for many years.

 SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

In the midst of this decimation of everything  around the sight of this surviving tree and its unique shape brought me to prayer.  So much devastation in our world yet, always, always there is HOPE.

As it once was – Many, many,  years of walking and meditations and prayers.

Where I now walk………..One touch of new life on the way…………..

I found a pocket of wild ferns……….this was my first sign of  HOPE.

But the next day when I saw the one survivor pathetic cross-shaped tree I was deeply stirred.   Now the walk has new impetus.  I will not look around and bemoan what was but look forward once more to what may yet be in the future.

This is the seed of HOPE I would like to leave with you today. Rejoice in HOPE.  Always look for the ‘better’ even when you can only see the bleak /gloomy or sad.

Think on this……..Where the soul is full of peace and joy, outward surroundings and circumstances become of comparatively little account……   Hannah Whitall Smith

Blessings and Grace to you each one.   Marvel today at something beautiful you find on your way and delight in this.

Good Morning!

On the highway of life I will be making an actual journey.   A baby is expected on 28th June.  (800 klms further north from where we live.    We hope and pray we (Dave and I) may be able to help in some way). It will be caesarean and we know it will be a little girl.  Our son’s almost two year old son is delightful but handful of mischief.   Probably no blogs for 2 weeks but to be ‘connected’ is important to me so you will journey with me in my heart  and prayers.   Travel well! enjoy your journey! Look ever for what is hopeful and beautiful even in this fractured world.

Blessings and Grace!

Good Morning!

Today I was stunned by the beauty of the bougainvillea  at the corner of our house near the verandah.    During spring and summer the colours are often striking, a rich bright red.

At this time of year here – winter – when many things are paling and trees like the frangipani are now without leaves, it was amazing to see that this bush appeared to be unchanged even by the slightly lower temperatures.  Its still very warm temperature-wise, but usually in June the blooms become more sparse and eventually paler or non-existent.    I appreciated its beauty today in a new way.

I found a quotation on my date pad as well this morning,  and it seemed so appropriate I put it here for contemplation.

Children of God have a tremendous treasure in nature and sometimes will come to the realization that things in nature are holy and sacred.   We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf…….even the fading ones.

Oswald Chambers

Open your eyes this week and find a rich ‘holy’ glow in ordinary life and living.

Blessings to each one.

Good Morning!

   Mid-week thoughts to meditate upon and consider

                          They build their lives too low who build beneath the skies

The author unknown quote triggered, I believe, a dream and this blog is the written expression of this dream.

CANOPY PARACHUTE OF DIVINE GRACE

 Spiritually ‘free’ to soar. ……….earthbound by humanity yet heaven-bound in deliverance by the Saviour Christ.

Free to soar to inspirational heights and to view the world from God’s perspective.

To be able to pray for a broken world from His Perspective.    Always anchored to ‘reality’ by personal relationship with the Divine  ………He is the anchor ROCK of life.

yet, yet…totally ‘free’ to journey with Him into heavenly places………always we’ll be blown by the Spirit into heavenly places where there is ‘holiness’ and ‘beauty;

Ever our compassionate eyes will be drawn to the broken and the lost and we will comfort and care for them as HE directs and Wills.

Grace keeps our FOCUS on this and reminds us of our freedom and eternity pursuits as well.

     Blessings and a-men for us all.

Good Morning!

                                              New week, new possibilities, new Hope.

It is also TRINITY SUNDAY for those who follow a Church Calendar of readings.

This is always a powerful reminder of just WHO our God is.  He is SPIRIT and was from before the beginning of time. He is DIVINE LOVE – revealed in Christ as Saviour.

The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its fragrance as it drifts away, just as no person can tell what becomes of their influence (ie love, compassion, care, prayer, faith) as they continue through life and into eternity.

Natures miracles do not seem like miracles because they have become so common.  For someone who had never seen a flower, even a dandelion it would be the most startling event in the world.  (I have no idea who may have originally penned these words.  I found them and they rang true to me)

It’s time – It’s surely time to become examples of BLAZING LOVE because of the Spirit within.   Let’s SHOCK the world.  All the people of the world in our immediate area of life.    Show the world WHO  our God really is.

Blessings, Grace and Peace to all as this week unfolds.

Good Morning!

(integrating purple)   

A mid-week thought

Grateful appreciation for the writings from Henri Nouwen’s  – Dare to Journey, Little snippets surfaced in my mind during the night.

Human beings are seldom satisfied.   When things are going smoothly we easily become bored.  When we are cold in the winter our hearts and our spirits long for the spring.     In the heat of summer often we sigh for just ‘a cool’ breeze. – a touch of winter breath.

We should not be concerned about our human tendency to speak about the open field or dream about it when we are in the darkest forest.  Often much activity forces us to long for rest and solitude.   Loneliness can push us towards  the search for friendship.  Some of the most beautiful writings and photographs have come from this longing for the opposite in life to where the person was actually standing.

The most profound thought that came to me from this was………….When we come to the realisation that we are on our own merely creatures…….. Then we must know profoundly our need for the Divine.   With a forged and unbreakable link with HIM all these other swings of human longing can have real purpose.

Thankfulness in all circumstances.      Not for the circumstances but for

THE PRESENCE OF GOD with us in them.

(If we have chosen to follow the Shepherd)

THANKFULNESS IN OUR HEARTS FOR THIS DAY AND FOR THE REST OF THIS WEEK.

May beauty and Joy touch your life no matter how rocky the pathway!

Blessings and Grace!