Miss Wisabus » Faith

Goodness and mercy

Elizabeth — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:24:20 +0000

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♥ Psalm 23
♥ new camera lenses (that I am chomping at the bit to try out!)
♥ 4-day work week
♥ Downton Abbey
♥ a good story
♥ clean starts
♥ I will fear no evil
♥ turning on the radio and hearing the perfect song
♥ dormant trees
♥ the gentle sound of a stream
♥ finding out how couples met
♥ beauty in the tiniest detail

One Word

Elizabeth — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:00:28 +0000

Last year, my word was open. (And LOOK, I did post the alone video before )

Isn’t it funny how the one word that I chose to focus on last year was the way I was most challenged in 2011? As in, “God sure has a sense of humor” funny.

Overall, I want to try to be more

OPEN.

Open to change. Open to people. Open to opportunities. Open to action.

It’s like when you pray for patience and are subsequently presented with individuals and situations that do nothing but try your patience and force you to either learn a very good lesson or act like a complete tool.

2011 will most likely go down as one of the most emotionally challenging years of my life. We watched on the sidelines as people we love dealt with health issues, found out that my husband lost his job, went an entire summer facing absolute uncertainty, thought my husband was getting his job back, had a door slammed in our face, saw God bring us provision in (what was to us) the nick of time, witnessed loved ones making heartbreaking decisions, and made it out on the other side.

When I look back on it, I can see that I did indeed learn to be more open about everything I planned on. And more importantly, things that I didn’t plan on. Which I guess is what the whole thing was about to begin with.

I’ve thought about my word for 2012 for some time now. I’ve turned to my thesaurus and Bible to find the word that I hope is demonstrated in my life this year.

STEADFAST

Please, God, let lessons that are to be learned on this subject be gentle ones. Or give me the strength to endure them.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10

Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. – Psalm 112:6-8

Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways. – Proverbs 4:25-26

So. Here goes.

Merry Christmas to You

Elizabeth — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:05:01 +0000

This is our…uh…much talked about Christmas card. To clarify — we are not currently expecting a baby. Sorry for any confusion. I just liked the card!

And here is Mom and Dad’s Christmas card. Wishing you all the best this season!

Link up with the 4th Annual Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange!

Better

Elizabeth — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:32:48 +0000

Since I last updated I have been following the doctor’s orders and taking a double dose of the big probiotic and my symptoms are gone.

THANK YOU, LORD!

I was really worried that I might have some lingering problems, but within a day of starting the regimen I was feeling a slight difference and within a few days it was all but gone. It’s been nice not to be afraid to eat.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, kind words, and offers to help me out. I won’t lie — this has been and continues to be a rough holiday season, for reasons other than health issues.

I consider myself pretty empathetic and very understanding of most human behavior, be it behavior that I agree with or not, but sometimes I am stumped. Being an eldest child it is very hard for me to let go of control or to go on living life without knowing what is coming next. This is an area where I see God working on me constantly and I’m not anywhere near learning whatever lessons He has for me, apparently. With that I must say that this is looking like a season where God is teaching me and several other family members to let go and let Him take care of things. It is difficult, but I am trying. My heart aches, I am angry and defensive of my family. I want to lash out at the gossips and their family members that encourage their behavior, I want to say something against the people who call my family names and ridicule us — all of this being done behind a facade. But I can think of no way to do this without making myself or my family look like the instigators and melodramatic teenagers here.

So I hold my tongue. I work on learning the equal importance of nothing said when so many words want to come out. I will let God mend the pieces of my heart — my heart that aches so in the present circumstances. There is something much bigger going on here than my conflicting emotions. In the end, I know all will be right, though I have no idea what the path to that place looks like.

⁶Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. ⁷ Don’t participate in the things these people do. ⁸ For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! ⁹For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

¹⁰Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. ¹³ But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, ¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

¹⁵ So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶ Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷ Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, ¹⁹ singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. ²⁰And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²¹ And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:6-21 NLT)

Thankful

Elizabeth — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:01:53 +0000

Thankful for another year, going into the next with an attitude of prayer. Wishing you all the best this Thanksgiving. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him … Continue reading → Related posts:

A Prayer

Elizabeth — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:19:14 +0000

I had a different post planned, but none of that seems appropriate tonight.

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us Thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in Thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In my heart I feel I’ve always known you

Elizabeth — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:20:02 +0000

♥ these words:
It is enough for me by day
To walk the same bright earth with him;
Enough that over us by night
The same great roof of stars is dim.

I have no care to bind the wind
Or set a fetter on the sea–
It is enough to feel his love
Blow by like music over me. – Sara Teasdale, “Enough”

♥ being on course
♥ finding new inspiration
♥ The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the little soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
♥ remembering what i want
♥ in your eyes are my secrets / that I’ve never shown you / in my heart I feel I’ve always known you
♥ provision
♥ divine appointments
♥ Light tomorrow with today. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
♥ God’s timing
♥ the love of a dear friend
♥ learning the impact you’ve had on the life of another
♥ Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor. – Paul Hawken
♥ true, heart friends
♥ To love is to find pleasure in the happiness of others. – Gottfried Leibniz

Move our hearts to hear a single beat – September 11, 2001

Elizabeth — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:59:08 +0000

I stepped out of Mr. Wheeler’s room, already late for my next class by default because it was on the other end of our small campus in the band room. I took the back door out of the 7th and 8th grade wing (where my class was held…if you can call 2 classrooms and a hall with 40 lockers a “wing”) across the grass, still wet with morning dew, up the ramp and into the main building. I rushed up the hall to my locker weaving my way through the seniors that congregated at their end of the hall. Ahead of me I saw the face of my journalism teacher from the year before. He signaled me to step aside in the hall. Annoyed that I would be made even more late to class, I did it begrudgingly.

He did not mince words.

“An attack, the likes of which we have never seen, has just occurred in New York City. They have flown a plane into the World Trade Center. This will mean war. Go to your class and if your teacher doesn’t already know, tell him.”

Shocked and barely understanding, I moved on down the hall to my locker. I locked eyes with my Spanish teacher and it was clear in her face that she already knew. I crammed my heavy World History text book onto the top shelf in my full length purple locker. 262. The number is etched in my mind. I couldn’t know yet just how many big moments would happen in this very place, but I paused. Somehow, deep inside, I knew that things would never be the same.

I was 16. I had only had my driver’s license for 20 days. I was 2 months and 3 days from turning 17. All I could think was, Hasn’t this happened before? Was it the same time? The same day of the week? I was only 6 years and a few months removed from the horror of April 19, 1995. Then, I was a child.

On this day I felt like one again.

As I opened the door to my vocal music class the din of 40-some-odd students discombobulated sounds exploded into the hall. I walked to my chair with the rest of the altos. We had only been in school for two weeks. Just long enough to be classified and placed in the appropriate sections.

I leaned over to my nearest classmate.

“Did you hear?”

“Hear what?”

I shook my head. “It’s bad.”

The class was out of control. Clearly, none of them knew. They were horsing around and being a disturbance to those of us who had chosen to take our seats when the bell rang. The band director, our vocal music teacher, came out of his office and placed a radio on a desk. He turned up the volume and asked us to listen. The radio hosts were guessing that maybe it was an accident. They mentioned several times that they didn’t want to presume the implications of the act if it was not an accident.

For a moment, relief swept over me. Maybe it was a terrible accident. Maybe my teacher had been wrong.

Our vocal music instructor was trying to listen and a group of boys in the back were at it again, knocking over music stands and chairs. The teacher had had it. He stood up and shouted. At some point just before this, we listened as the CBS news anchor announced that a second plane had flown into the other tower.

Our teacher stood up again and spoke. He did not shout this time, but his voice was raised.

“You need to understand what this means. Someone has attacked us. This will more than likely mean war. There are some of you sitting in this classroom who could be fighting in this war. Pay attention. We have never seen anything like this. I know you all remember the Oklahoma City bombing, but this is much bigger. If these towers fall, we could see thousands of people die.”

In my mind I tried to figure it out. Two buildings. How many floors are there? How many people work on each floor? I hadn’t seen any photos or video footage, so I didn’t know where each building had been hit. Near the top, right? It had to be. Would they fall? Hadn’t this happened to the WTC before?

Dear God, please let them get out.

They described what we now know were people jumping out of buildings. I have always been very stricken in moments like these, especially when such things are broadcasted on TV. (Over the past few weeks, with all the 9/11 remembrance coverage, I’ve come to find this is known as “secondary trauma”.) My imagination ran wild and I could not comprehend what was happening. Were we safe?

Both buildings fell as I sat in class, praying for the people inside.

The rest of the day is hazy in my memory. I remember the entire student body (at the high school) was called in for an assembly with our new superintendent. He talked to us about what happened and the magnitude of it all. Once again, the fact was mentioned that there would be students in that auditorium who would go on to fight for our freedom. This held true. As far as I know, none of the students in that room on that day were killed as a result of the ensuing wars. For that, I praise God.

Like tragedies for generations past, I know that this event has colored my world. I know that because of it, I pay more attention to everything around me. I do not live in fear, but instead with an understanding of the world that I never had before that day 10 years ago.

Grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that’s the case . . .

We’ll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace

But Jesus, would You please . . .

Saturday Verse

Elizabeth — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:53:33 +0000

Home & Heaven

Elizabeth — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:13:22 +0000

The sweetest type of heaven is home — nay, heaven is the home for whose acquisition we are to strive the most strongly. Home, in one form and another, is the great object of life. It stands at the end of every day’s labor, and beckons us to its bosom; and life would be cheerless and meaningless, did we not discern across the river that divides us from the life beyond, glimpses of the pleasant mansions prepared for us. – Josiah Gilbert Holland
Home and heaven are not so far separated as we sometimes think. Nay, they are not separated at all, for they are both in the same great building. Home is the lower story, and is located down here on the ground floor; heaven is above stairs, in the second and third stories; and, as one after another the family is called to come up higher, that which seemed to be such a strange place begins to wear a familiar aspect; and, when at last not one is left below, the home is transferred to heaven, and heaven is home. – Alexander Dixon