Tag Archives: Spirituality

Our Daily Bread

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Following are some wonderful quotes for every day living. They are from a little booklet, Our Daily Bread, which is available through Discovery House Publishing in one-hundred and fifty countries.

Here, then, are a few nuggets for your living enjoyment.

God has not promised that your life will be easy…indeed, it may not be. But he has promised to sustain you in your struggles and uphold you with his mighty arm. If you trust him, he will empower you to make your way bravely through extraordinary difficulties with faith, hope and love. God will not allow you to be pressed beyond endurance.

Unexpected changes are opportunities in disguise.

God’s love cannot be explained, it can only be experienced.

If God has already told you what to do, you don’t need to ask him again.

God’s commands are given to enhance our lives rather than restrict them.

To multiply your joy, count your blessings.

You don’t need to know where you are going if you let God do the leading.

God uses ordinary people to carry out his extraordinary plan.

In God’s garden of love, you are his forget-me-not.

Each edition of Our Daily Bread is packed with inspirational stories and quotes such as these. I love it!

Awareness

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Too often we walk through life unaware of what takes place around us. Following is a brief excerpt from my poetry collection. It actually took place in my garden one warm summer day, just the way it is written.

ON BEING AWARE

One summer day

I asked the Lord

to make me more aware

and in that instant

watched a sparrow

catch an insect

in midair.

A Time to Weep

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A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Weeping and mourning go hand in hand at any funeral service, and laughing and dancing are a sure thing at weddings.

But have you noticed how weeping sometimes gives way to laughter after a funeral service, when the mourned one is remembered lovingly, with humorous traits being recalled? A time to weep, and a time to laugh.

Some cultures even celebrate their deceased with dancing. Nelson Mandela’s funeral was one of those, as mourners danced through the funeral home prior to the service.  A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

We have all had our times of weeping, mourning, laughing and dancing…it’s part of life…in Solomon’s time and in ours. The way I see it, these are all a celebration of life, one way or another.

Monday: A Time to Embrace

A Time to Heal

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A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up (Ecclesiastes 3:3)

King Solomon, in his wisdom, knew what he was talking about in this verse. I, on the other hand can only guess at what he meant and/or what it would mean in today’s world; but this is the way I see it:

A time to kill could mean capital punishment, war, or even the killing of fish, fowl and animals for food.

A time to heal could mean healing after a lengthy illness, a period of grieving or a spiritual lapse.

A time to break down could mean demolishing unsafe buildings or dividing walls; i.e. the Berlin wall (1989)

A time to build up could mean rebuilding after demolition, destruction and/or disasters.

My grandmother killed chickens to feed her family.

My body was healed of lung cancer.

And then there was 9/11.

We have all witnessed the building up of devastated communities after natural disasters in many parts of our world.

The way I see it, A Time for Everything is not only Biblical verse, it is a way of life.

Tomorrow: A Time to Weep

A Wonderful Analogy

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The following is a Face Book post sent to me by one of my granddaughters. It is attributed to Utmutato A Leleknek and is definitely worth sharing as others who have read it have pointed out. One of the Face Book posts shows the photo copied at the bottom of this page.  Enjoy the read.

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”
“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.” – Útmutató a Léleknek

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

The Great I AM

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Many years ago,1977 to be exact, while on vacation in Trinidad, I was introduced to a Pastor who gave me this very short but powerful prayer for use in times of need; any kind of need; spiritual, physical, emotional, to name a few.

“Jesus Christ, the Great I AM, have mercy on me.”

It is a prayer to be repeated over and over until the peace of Christ is felt in body and soul.

The prayer has been a huge blessing to me and several others over the years. Following are a few scriptures introducing “I AM”:

I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35)

I am the Light of the World (John 8:12)

I am the Door (John 10:9)

I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)

I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)

I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)

I am the Vine (John 15:1,5)

I am the First and I am the Last (Isaiah 44:6)

I Am who I Am (Exodus 3:14)

I am the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8)

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 21:6)

My prayer is that this prayer will be valuable to all who use the Lord’s name not in vain.

Second Time Around

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This was originally posted on October 2, 2014. It’s a poem I wrote in 1979, and sometimes once is not enough.

A MEDITATION

Thirst a little

That you may appreciate water

Hunger more

That you may enjoy the feast

Suffer some

That you may earn tranquility

Die a little

That you may hunger for life

Love abundantly

That you may know you’re alive.

©Patricia Ann Boyes 1979

All work is protected by copyright.

 

Prayer for Peace

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, love;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

A beautiful prayer for a troubled world.

 

 

 

Birds of Pray

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Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air…Genesis 1:28

Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom…Job 39:26

The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. Psalm 104:12

…they shall mount up with wings as eagles…Isaiah 40:31

Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap…Luke 1:2

…and birds of the air have nests…Matthew 8:20

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap…Matthew 6:26

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Luke 12:6

So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. Matthew 10:31

These are but a few of many scriptures pertaining to birds. The Bible is so full of fascination for me.

Letting Go, Letting God

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After attending two funerals this week and another today, I have just heard of one on the horizon. Whoa! So much grief in such a short span of time made me sit back and go through some devotional material to try to put it all into perspective and here is what was written in my spiritual journal in 2006; a quote from Our Daily Bread, brackets, mine.

If we are willing to submit to God, any loss in life will be seen as an opportunity to give back to him what is rightfully his and trust him to provide what is needed (comfort, peace, security, whatever is needed). If we commit ourselves to him daily and thank him for every blessing, our confidence in him will survive any test. Submission to God means taking our hands off what belongs to him.

And don’t we all belong to him? Now I will let go and let God pilot me through this sea of grief and pray that his peace and comfort will bless these grieving families.