May your Sunday be blessed with green pastures, still waters, and the peace your soul requires. Happy Sunday.
Author Archives: Patricia Ann
Wherever You Travel
Wherever you travel, wherever you roam; be healthy, be happy, and glad to come home. Happy weekend.
An Excellent Book to Read
Sometimes we need to read something out of our comfort zone and when we do we may see ourselves and our lives in a whole new way. We may learn to think in a different way and open our minds to topics we would rather ignore. It is all a part of growing.
This is what The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren offers. This is a book that must be read with a highlighter and a pen or pencil in hand because there is too much to absorb at one time.
Subconsciously this book spurred me on to write my own book. I realize this in hindsight, after recently reading it for the umpteenth time. Here are a few examples of the passages I had highlighted, and even made notes to write about them:
Page 247 – If you really desire to be used by God, you must understand a powerful truth. The very experiences that you resented or regretted most in life –the ones you’ve wanted to hide and forget–are the experiences God wants to use to help others…For God to use your experiences, you must be willing to share them. (I did this in my book, My Precious Life.)
Page 289 – God has given you a Life Message to share…You have a storehouse of experiences that God wants to use to bring others into his family…
Page 290 – He wants you to share your story with others…If you don’t share it, it will be lost forever…
Page 291 – Sadly, we never learn from a lot that happens to us.
Page 28 – We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners…Many people are driven by resentment and anger. They hold on to hurts and never get over them. Instead of releasing their pain through forgiveness, they rehearse it over and over in their minds…Resentment always hurts you more than it does the person you resent.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and remember to use a highlighter; it is absolutely necessary. I truly hope you will read and savor this excellent book.
So You Want to Know What God is Like
Well, he is just like us…or rather we are like him…in the following ways:
He experienced sadness: Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death…” Matthew 26:38 NIV
He experienced anger: Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them…Exodus 32:10
He experienced frustration: Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?” John 3:10 NLT
He experienced disappointment: Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. Matthew 26:40 NIV
He experienced jealousy: for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…Deuteronomy 5:9 NIV
He experienced love: “…As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34 NIV
Now, here is Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” which takes us back to the opening sentence.
But like I said in Friday’s blog, we humans began to mess up on earth and God was sorry he had made us…just look at this statement:
The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. Genesis 6:6 NIV
But the Good News is this: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Happy Sunday.
Whale of a Weekend
It’s Saturday again and I hope you bend over backwards to have a whale of a weekend!
How Beautiful is This?
Planet Earth is home to approximately eight billion people, give or take the many births and deaths on a day to day basis. It is believed to be the only planet in the universe to sustain life.
My question is this…why do we continue to mess up something so complex and beautiful by destroying the life and love it was designed for? Each and every one of us is in some way responsible for the state our world is in…each and every one of us; by our disregard for life whether by killing or indifference; our lack of empathy; our unforgiving and uncaring ways. It all adds up to being responsible for messing up our Planet Earth.
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you” Jesus says this in John:14:2 KJV.
It occurred to me that the universe may be God’s house and our beautiful planet could possibly be one of His many mansions.
Let me also say there are some who believe this planet is a random act of chaos in a universe reflecting even more chaos.
But I look at this Planet amid all the brilliance of the universe’s intricate design, and have to wonder, how beautiful is this?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…Isaiah 40:22 NIV
Need a Little Exercise?
Yesterday I was treated to another show of birds in my yard but what really caught my eye was a very plump robin on the birdbath. He leaned in to take a drink and leaned back to swallow it. After a few seconds of watching this, a song came to my mind. You guessed it…Rockin’ Robin. I found it on You Tube and before long was getting a day’s worth of exercise. Oh, those birds bring me so much joy!
Need a little exercise? Just dance along with Rockin’ Robin and his feathered friends on Jay Bird Street, the buzzard, oriole, pretty little raven and the gang. Go ahead, enjoy the movement, and if you have bad knees, you can bop in your chair. Have fun!
…a time to mourn and a time to dance…Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV
Some Wise Words
I picked this post up from one of Matthew Ruttan’s daily devotionals…as much for the picture as for the words. Some things always give us something to think about and this is one of those things…definitely thought provoking don’t you think? I hope your Wednesday offers you some wise words.
Wow! What a Day!
You know how some days can have that extra special zip? Well, my Sunday was like that. It started out in church even before the service began. Three people came down the aisle to the front row; a mother in her wheelchair wheeled by her son, followed by her daughter-in-law. The man and wife were in their very early mid years; the mother probably in her late eighties. It was touching to see how, with great care, the young man eased his mother out of the wheel chair.. she trembling with the effort to stand…and guided her to the pew where his wife waited to put her arm around her mother-in-law. The whole scene was one of gentleness, love and dedication. Wow!
The second “wow” came in the sermon, “How Small is Small?” This included the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-35). I’m not about to print the sermon or try to preach one, but I can tell you I know of five scriptures written about the mustard seed. My favorite is Matthew 17:20 from which stems my own faith. People who know me know that I once had a store which I named, “The Mustard Seed Gift Shop”. My car licence plate is MSTD SD. So, yes, the sermon was another “wow”.
See this dot . ? It represents the mustard seed.
The third “WOW” came in the form of my ninth great-grandchild; a beautiful, perfectly healthy baby girl, Violet Madison. She was born into my world on Sunday also. How wonderful to have the opportunity to say with great conviction and heartfelt love, “Wow! What a Day!” TYG
(You can read more about the mustard seed in Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19, and Luke 17:5-6. “).
A Few Days With Charlie Brown – Friday
Charlie may be a cartoon character but over the years he has displayed the emotions which make us all human. Charlie is beloved because he loves love as much as anyone else, as seen in this final clip. I hope you have enjoyed these few days with Charlie Brown.
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18
My Precious Life 