Still Saturday::to pay attention...

I'm culling old not-worth-keeping photos from my ginormous archives when I stumble on this one -- with the "Be Still" coffee cup next to a stack of books for morning devos on my backyard swing.

That backyard swing's been reduced to rubble and I'm not sure I still have that coffee cup, either -- it's not in the rotation of current favorites. {You have favorites, too, don't you?} 

But I do still have coffee {iced coffee these sultry summer days, thank you} and devos on a newer backyard swing in the shade of the sweetgum trees. 

Today I read the first chapter in Colossians, as I have every day this week, and I review my notes from the message this past Sunday -- a message I listened to online earlier this week. The pastor reminds me that maturity in Christ is a lifelong process that requires practicing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading and meditating on scripture, and fasting. 

There are no short-cuts to maturity, the pastor tells me. Many of us don't practice the disciplines because we just want to go on about living of our lives. We don't take time to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us through prayer and Scripture. We don't pay attention, so we never mature. 

The disciplines aren't a check-list, but an opportunity -- a gift really -- to put "living" on hold to be still and pay attention. 

Green is the color of August...

An edited repost - my signature segue into August

There are two reasons I love the month of August: the green-tinted kaleidoscope through which we view this rain-nourished world around us, and though it's only a minor seasonal fact that has little to do with the weather, August is the last full month of summer. It's hump-month. We're half the way to cooler mornings and pleasant evenings and no mosquitoes. 

Not that I'm complaining, because I promised myself long ago that I'd cultivate contentment and stop wishing my life away in anticipation of something in the future.

To not fully delight in the gifts of the moment is both foolish and ungracious, for it's not only all I really have, it's abundantly more than enough. 

So I begin the month of August once again counting a multitude of gratitudes for a day and a week and a month of more than enough. 

• the color green - dotted with rippening beautyberries, a blazing flamebush, dangling clusters of wild grapes, and the giant orchids that have boldly pushed through the rain-soaked earth
• four days and nights to run my fingers through his soft curly hair and leisurely cuddles with a baby grandlittle
• Wednesday morning in study and fellowship with sisters in Christ and the teaching ministry of Beth Moore
• an evening round the table with Nick, Casey and Emily for the first time since Christmas
• the fervent prayers of righteous sisters carrying me through a seige with shingles
• the daily reading in the Word with Louis 
• my beautiful Emily home from Georgia - who makes days and nights with grandlittles possible
• a blue bowl of sweet cherries
• the assurance of God's new mercies every single day

Related: Green is the Color of August 

Photos: August greens on Pollywog Creek

I {LOVE} Sunday::to rise and shine...

...let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father who is in heaven...
Matthew 5.16

To be still and dig deep...

We're well into summer down here at the edge of the Everglades on Pollywog Creek - when time outdoors means swatting mosquitoes and air so heavy it weighs on you like a wet wool blanket - and yet one morning this week I grabbed my basket of cameras and a Bible and settled down under the shade of the sweetgum trees near the firebush - to be quiet and still and inspired by the bees to dig deep. 

I'd watched the firebush buzz with bees earlier in the week. I'd seen how they bury their face and as much of themselves as they can squeeze in and dip deep into the slender orange blossoms - hungry and thirsty for as much sweet nectar as their tongues can reach. And I'm reminded of how I should be in God's Word - putting my whole self into the sweetness and digging deep for every morsel of goodness and truth.

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Psalm 119.103

Snowbirds, insects, and preaching...

Goldfinches are one of the snowbirds of Pollywog Creek - significantly increasing our local population in the winter and consuming available goods. Apparently they leave their best clothes up north, because they only show us glimpses of the bright yellow plumage they show off elsewhere in the summer. These photos from my archives - including the morning moon - are from early spring. Our feeders are stored for the summer leaving our aviary residents to find more delight in the abundance of insects our hot and humid summers always invite.

 

This was not the post I'd planned for this morning, but I can't get the one I worked on all weekend to not sound whiny and preachy.

No one wants whiny and I happen to believe that "preachy" is reserved for the preachers - and if you don't attend a Bible-believing church with a Bible-teaching preacher, you need to find one. 

That said, what did your pastor preach and teach from scripture this weekend?  And what did you hear God say to you through the message?  

I'll go first. 

Our pastor taught from I Samuel 24:1-7, and the reasons David did not kill King Saul when the opportunity to do so was handed to him in a most unusual way. To do so would have been against the laws of God, the principals of God and the wisdom of God. To quote my pastor, "God has not left decision making up to us to interpret through the {emotional} circumstances in life." 

Pastor Bob said this, as well: "If you have consumer debt, you probably experienced emotions that clouded your judgement."  Emotions that led us to fail to consider the laws, principals and wisdom of God in making the decision to spend money we don't have. Oy vey anyone?

What did I hear God telling me? I hear him reminding me of the wisdom He is so willing and gracious to give when I ask. Last week I was unsure how I should respond to a difficult relational issue, and my first tendency was to ask my girlfriends for advice before seeking counsel from God first. 

There's nothing wrong with the counsel of godly friends, in fact it's scriptural, but not without relying on the wisdom from God in His word and in prayer first . 

And you?

{Tomorrow I'll be at Dan King's Bible Dude}

By this all people will know...

I use every resource at my disposal to identify this heron whose image I captured this weekend as he waded in and out of the water and snatched a blue-tipped damsel fly out of the air.

Every bird identification tool I use confirms he's a tricolored heron - from the white plume on his head to his overall contrasting plumage, but that yellow on his chest and abdomen throws me. Every resource I've referenced indicates that plumage should be white, not yellow, yet, he's clearly a tricolored heron.

Years ago, we entered a church where we were warmly greeted by a gentleman wearing a kilt and whose graying hair was fashioned into two long braids that hung down to his waist. It was an introduction to a church and worship service that was foreign to us in many ways.

We recognized elements in this church that were clearly Christian - from the pastor's bible-based message to the music and order of worship, but other characteristics, though not contrary to Scripture, were simply outside our experiences and the Christian worship service mold we knew. 

There are a multitude of differences in the ways we, as those who call ourselves Christians, look and work and live and worship that are outside our individual experiences.  

I pray that my distinctions still point clearly to a life in Christ and the truths of Scripture as I endeavor to hold onto the very words of Jesus in my relationships with others. 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35

31 Days::Day 22 - Rich to embrace...

I read through Romans 8 {my just one chapter} this early Monday morning and I'm hard-pressed to highlight only a few verses for the day. It's a chapter rich to embrace and chew on in its entirety all day, as well as my notes from my pastor's message on faith yesterday. Good words, I tell you. Good, good words.

Speaking of yesterday, when Louis opened his bible in church, he discovered - to his dismay - that it began with the book of Joshua. I don't think he would mind if I tell you that he was not happy. We looked in the car and throughout the house when we got home, but the missing pages are nowhere to be found. Fortunately, our pastor preached {mostly} out of Matthew 7, but if anyone finds Genesis through Deuteronomy, would you mind returning them to Louis?  

  

Day 22 - Romans 8 {vs 1-39}, Emily's glittered pumpkins, the whole house needs a just one thing pick-me-up throughout the day.