More or Less

bravery, courage, Faith, family, Father's Day, grace, grief, mercy, Prayer, rest, Salvation, Trust, Uncategorized

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Tiny House

Off to the side, a brilliant flash of blue and I’ve given up on capturing the shot with my phone. 

I’ve learned the “momentary-ness” of the bluebird is in itself a message, there will be chances again, encounters with happy bird. 

I think of my cousin; she sits on her porch and thinks of life and loss and love and our Lord. 

I remember the bluebird resting on her lantern, she told me so.  

It meant something to her in that very moment, did me too. 

We’d waited to walk until after the rain, the labrador’s paws searching for shallow puddle and hoping for pond. 

I remembered the nest I found and I wondered if this is where the sparrow came from, the one who rustled the bushes, startled by my search for tennis ball. 

I thought of the sparrow all week, strangely contemplating the words of Jesus. 

“Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:31

‭Because, most days I’m in the middle, more or less assured.

I  believe the middle must be me, must be that place of  humility that doesn’t look like insecurity. 

Days little things flit by like a bluebird. Little truths I must hold fast, must chronicle somehow.


My daughter, my guide, my wise gauge saying “too much, Lisa” or “Let, that go.” when I complained of lack of a thank you for a painting. 

Then she countered it with “your angel ministry has impacted so many people…”

She’d never called my art my “ministry”.

Oh.

I’d thought she thought that too much me.

Like blue or red bird unprepared to see, those are words I cherish. 

My son encouraging me to “give it time”, this first real commitment to my health, the healthy way.  He sees me sweaty. 

He sees me trying, won’t let me be weak. 

Like mental bullet lists, this momentary really only “secondary”  stuff is making me brave. 

Making me believe I’m worth more than I believe. 

So, we ventured down towards the pond, Colt’s leash taut with the pull of high grass and cool water. 

The frogs were singing, the thickness of humidity making their song deep down and hollow.  

The lab tilts his head, meanders towards the sound, two, three times, comes from the water then goes again, a lazy dip. 

I don’t worry with sticks or retrieving, just let him dip down, then walk my way then go back to cool again, again. 

The hill back up feels steeper. Did we choose a different angle back home? 

Slowly, we reach the pavement and again, a thought.

So significant, I wondered if others have such thoughts. 

Thoughts so true and clear and with no one around, just you and the wide open whatever and wherever that all of sudden, 

You utter, “Ohhh.” as your thought becomes voice and makes a sound.  

A sound that starts up high like an excited revelation but, then drops to a sauntered fade of realization that says but, what if, not possible or “Oh, well.”

These are the moments, I believe, that 

God says, “I know, child. I know.”

I’d seen a tiny truck on the interstate, driving too slow, I passed and glanced over longing to see a handsome frame like my daddy’s; but, not so.

This, I remembered walking Colt back home. 

The thought of my father became a sound and it validated my longing. 

I touched it, not for long and I could let it go, acceptance again. 

It was beautiful in its comfort. 

Oh.

Confirmation like feather then, grace resting in His understanding of me. 

“I know it’s hard, hard for you to know,

To believe you’re worth more than the sparrow. 

Let me show you.

 You are. Fear not the voices inside that shout out to turn back from where I’m leading you.

Utter “Oh” but, never “Oh, well.”

Look at the sparrow, Lisa Anne; consider the lily.

Remember the writer, her message last week. “You were MADE for this.”

Remember these truths more, 

Your fears, less. 

Happy Father’s Day in heaven daddy. 

Linking up with The Mom Gene to share my Sunday Thoughts, a new group for me. Happy to find it. 

The Essence of Days

Abuse Survivor, bravery, courage, Faith, family, grace, mercy, Prayer, rest, Teaching, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, wonder

Forward with Grace

Wouldn’t it be phenomenal to carry around all day…all the day long, 

the little confirmations

epiphanies 

the truths spoken by another

that happen to be gracefully

placed in your lap?

Most especially the ones that ease your mind

lessen the pressing pressure of what next, what now, what if and what if not? 

The ones that make resting and trusting and doing just our small part in this ginormously, great big world more like grace and less like not enough, even drudgery? 

God is for us. God is with us. 

Step easy, Lisa, tell others the same, that 

there are places He is preparing. 

Seemingly insignificant or maybe no step at all; yet, even my planted feet and heart in places I think dull and lowly are privy to the light.

We are not meant to be seen as God’s perfect, bright shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace. 

Wisdom from Oswald Chambers

The seemingly useless steps are taking us to places we’ll be a light, maybe be warmed by the light of another. Then, round the corner and look back, enlightened. 

I believe this. 

I am trusting this as truth. 

I just keep taking the next step knowing there’s no call for standing in the crowd and recounting my failures, there’s no retribution that demands I shrug off the notice of the works of my hands. 

There’s no need to deny or lessen the good by stepping back into my wanderings to tell of the bad. 

There’s grace in the ordinary life I live that just needs to live, knowing it’s all miracle, all of this beautiful stuff every morning. 

All the days long. 

A wise man I read as often as possible shares occasionally, using the phrase “Miracle, All of It” and gracious his words are beautiful and true examples! 

The everyday essence. Bird nests discovered, things coming through, us being children of God, dogs snoring, eyes waking, happenstance meetings to discover “me too”. 

No accidental occurrences. 

Miracles

of grace. 

And us happy all the day because of them. 

This is God’s desire,

I believe. 

The Tide

bravery, courage, Faith, grace, mercy, rest, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, wonder

I’m not at all a deep water person. I see my family riding the waves when I sit all alone and I’m the watchtower one, keeping head count, strong shoulders popping up from the deep.

They’ll stand and talk, drift away. I glance towards my book, but not for long. I hurry to take account of them again, my family out in deep, dark water hoping for strong waves to ride.

I’ll join them sometimes; but, only for the sake of taking part. The pull back towards the unknown keeps me near the shore. The way the water causes me to plant my feet and pause makes me uncertain.

Still, every summer I get a little closer to letting the tide take me where it may, a little more adrift, a gradual and deeper depth.

As a little girl, I almost drowned and it seemed no one noticed soon enough.

This is why I’m hesitant to go too deep. I resist the pull of let’s go farther out, let’s explore new places and experience new opportunities and challenges.

Take more chances.

I worry over the steadiness of my feet.

Lately,  I took some chances and went out to ride the waves, played around in the deep with other brave and happy swimmers; but, decided no, you should just sit it out.

You’re not quite ready, head back to shore and think about this a little while longer, maybe you can try again.

So, like finding my place from the water amongst all the bodies and chairs, I headed back towards safety.

Stopping where the tide hit the backs of my calves and nearly knocked me down, I braced myself for a minute lest I fall embarrassed by my lingering and dropping back.

I stepped from the cool water and back to my place, the place of feeling safe but, wishing I’d have gone farther.

I settled apart from the others, the sea teasing and taunting me for my lack of courage.

There’s a song Mark Hall and Casting Crowns sings called “That was Then”… Goes on to say “This is Now”.

Standing at the water’s edge
I dropped my dreams when I dropped my nets
No hesitation, no regrets
I followed You
But that was then
And this is now

Now is when you forget how strong you were before because you forgot the one who made you believe you could.

Or maybe now is when you ventured out all cocky without your soul tethered to your anchor.

This morning, I’m acknowledging my progress.

I’d love to say “finally” as if it might never happen again; but I know I’m new at swimming in this ocean.

I can’t ever stay steady focused or brave in my stepping  out on my own.

This is my 499th post and regardless of where I’m going in this writing journey, where I’ve been and who I am now seems to be most relevant to me this morning.

Because, more than becoming a better writer, a more polished and creatively appealing assembler of words, I have grown in my understanding of God in this thing I still call my uncovered treasure from tiny God-planted seed.

I stop now, because I sense my rambling, my lack of creative and skilled elimination of repetition. Apologies, my work is in progress.

I wonder again though, just how far God might take me, how much farther out he might point my steps if I’d stop reminding him that I can’t swim.

Yesterday, I prayed “Lord, thank you for slowing down my success. Thank you for drawing me back. Give me strength to stay near.”

I’ve had some special opportunities in writing and painting happen for me.

Yet, I got caught up in the excitement looking for the next big wave.

Then, the river seemed to dry up, stopped its flow.

So, I prayed.

By day’s end someone commissioned five paintings.

I returned to “boot camp” to continue my commitment to make my body an acceptable living sacrifice and in between these two steps I had the courage to ask for writing help and signed up for a mentor.

Trusting the tide.

“Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:133‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Linking up with Jennifer Dukes Lee. her post challenges us to think of what lies we are telling ourselves about ourselves. A very timely one for me.

Read here: http://jenniferdukeslee.com/six-words-can-make-difference/

The Way

Faith, grace, mercy, Teaching, Trust, Uncategorized

My soul waits

 
I suppose I’m gonna have to search and find it.

Maybe spend the afternoon half watching, half drifting in and out. 

Because, I can’t stop my mind from singing the song. 

A pretty little thing, got me thinking in a way down a path of payin’ attention all day 

Must be somethin’ meant for me to see and know. 

“O’ Brother, where Art Thou ” there surely must be more to your funny film. 

More to the story.  More to mine. 

Starting with my Bible now, and from there every little thing, I’ll be focused in an easy way, open to noticing sweet small things, good things, Good Lord. 

Settin’  my mind to know the way. 

Take a listen, Alison, classic and early. 

Good Lord, show me the way!

I’ve sketched a girl, an angel and just below the place my journal rests I notice the bold verse. 

Yes. 

In your word, I hope. 

Little Whiles

courage, Faith, family, grace, Prayer, rest, Trust, Vulnerability, wonder

I stopped in at the art store, the time of the month to collect on any art sold. 


I looked towards “my wall” and there they were, “all my girls”. 

We talked of business being slow and of shoppers being a little scarce. I listened, and for a second drifted towards the pity place. I turned to leave and said ” See you soon.” Then stopped, turned back and she looked up from her work to hear me announce…

“It’s never been up to me, what happens with the paintings. I’ll keep painting and see where God takes them next.”

No reply from the shop owner just a nod that said “I know, Lisa. I know this because I know you.”

What I expect gets all messed up in the mix of what comes true. You’d not believe the number of angel paintings I’ve sold or given as gifts if I could recount . You might not believe either that God led me to love writing, rekindled two flames from tough times. 

You might, no should believe there have been days marred by thoughts of others thinking I think too much of myself, my words, my canvas. 

You would be correct. Certainly days that prideful and glorious expectation took all the joy away and made it prideful pursuit to sustain my worth instead of gentle and humble, happy revelation of  what God could do through my hands and thoughts. 

Yes, plenty of moments of “too much Lisa”, not enough Jesus. 

So, he causes a pause in the fury of it all, the addiction of being praised and noticed. 

I’ve learned to love the pause; I know it’s wisdom and wonder and wonderful. 

That I’m writing and painting and waiting seems to be my place now, a slight lull, a place of a simmer.  

So, I know, the embers are there and I’m expecting God will decide when and how the fires will burn, burn for Him. 

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

http://www.fiveminutefriday.com

Linking up with others to write prompted by “expect” . 

Driving the Train

Abuse Survivor, bravery, courage, Faith, family, grace, grief, marriage, mercy, Motherhood, praise, Prayer, rest, Teaching, Trust, Uncategorized

My “Jesus Calling” devotional just lit a fire down in my soul, a warmth bubbled up and found its way to the bottom of my lashes. 


Little cups slowly filling with the hot need to pause and realign my heart, my thoughts, my confidence. 

So, I let it happen as I saw her there, my mama in the conference room. My big brother trying to figure out the “unfigurable”. This doctor and that one, then another. 

My mama found the right time in awkward and helpless pause of them all and said.

“Not a one of us is driving this train. God’s driving this train.”

My mama always spoke the truth. I believe she’s been watching me feel less than capable, wavering unsteady on the cusp of hard but good things. I believe she sees me about ready to retreat; and she’s proud of me that I haven’t. 

I believe she knows I won’t. 

My world’s not falling apart, some of the details are just tediously unpleasant and tough. Requiring a steadfast stance, a throwing off of the burdens of second guessing and scared. 

I have a life I never fathomed possible. 

So many thankful things. 

The way my husband has endured so much.  The way my son-in-law looks after my girl. The way my son is focused and committed but not in a way that’s crazy obsessive to his future, the way my daughter demonstrates loving her husband.  It’s a pretty love they have, I’m thankful to sit back and see. 

The way today is the first morning in a week I did not wake to a pile of labrador poop. So, I’m thankful for rice and Pepto this morning. I am. 

But, I tell you something!  I dreamt an awful outrageous dream just hours ago filled with trauma and memories and somehow they all mingled with today stuff and yesterday junk.

But, wake up oh, sleeper Lisa! 

Acknowledge you took some bad things to bed with you. Don’t lie there all day! 

Now, let them go and let God! 

He’s got the whole world in His hands.  It is absolutely not up to me to hold it all, hold it all together or figure it out. 

Not my place now. 

Knees down, hands open, face to heaven. 

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,”

‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Enjoy the ride, the driver knows the way. 

Who is in charge of your life? If it is you, then you have good cause to worry. 

But, if it is I, then worry is both unnecessary and counterproductive…

back off a bit, redirecting your focus to Me.  

Jesus Calling

Hard Words and Hope

bravery, courage, Faith, grace, Prayer, rest, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability


A particular line, a verse in the passage I’m studying, caused me to be cautionary. 

Again today, a word with a serious tone, unpleasant, almost intimidating. 

in·so·lent

ˈinsələnt/

adjective

showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect.

“she hated the insolent tone of his voice”
I walked away slowly thinking of my prayer. “Give me grace, help me give grace.”

I’d prayed before encounter, will be praying again. Conflict resolution, doing hard things, handling unavoidable resolutions I’m responsible for…I cower. 

I don’t feel strong.  

Weak, I feel weak. 

So, I’m looking towards my feet and I’m proceeding with thoughts and patient steps towards what will be my next step.

Sometimes like a “heads up” a feeling will linger, taking its time to be tangible, maybe pointing out the concern I already knew. 

People are not always kind; in fact, when faced with desperation they might be downright insolent. 

I had to look it up, the word “insolent” seemed so important for me to grasp, an angry sounding word shouting out of a Psalm, saying, “Listen up, Lisa; be aware.”

“Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts; their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:66-71‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Me, the one who still maintains people are good, it’s just stuff that happens to them that makes them not so “good” or good hearted. 

When my children were little,  they’d tell me about a mean boy or girl, a bully or an arrogant peer. 

I’d caution them not to label, saying “Something must be bad at home.” 

I believe they believed me. 

Grown up children carrying scars all around, I notice the negative directed towards me and decide, most likely,  “Something bad must have happened or is happening now to cause their behavior.”

I look at the faces on the “jail report” and have to look away, it’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen, a newspaper with mugshots of people who lost their way and committed crimes.  Their expressions either lost or stoically arrogant and accepting of their label.

 I don’t allow myself to gawk over another’s distress. I look away wondering “their story” and think what a sad commentary on our society that people purchase this like glossy fashion magazine or news. 

They print this publication in color, the faces jump out from convenience store cover. 

Somewhere along the line misfortune tainted their choice to walk a straight line. 

I choose to believe, still. 

We all stumble in many ways. James 3:2


Empaths like me try to see the other side, still we’re blindsided at times when compassion doesn’t set things right and we encounter ugly face to face. 

When we’re forced to accept that our compassion is not always enough. 

It’s the bane of my work, do the best, let God do the rest and then “rest in that”. 

This, one of many what I call a “Lisaisms”.

I suppose there’s a reason God brings struggle to our lives, causes us to struggle with the hard things like unfairness, disappointment, disrespect and struggling people who put us in places that require us to stand firm in kindness. 

When being hard makes sense. 

To defer to imagining how we might feel in their place. 

Surely it’s important for me to know that I might encounter people I can’t change. Two days in a row, the word “insolent” in my verses. 

“Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:78‬ ‭ESV 

So, you speak truth in a way that you can maintain because bending one way or another will make it harder to hold onto you and your hope. 

You know yourself, important to hold fast. 

Because hope is bigger than insolence. Integrity more sustaining than offense and I believe God’s faithfulness more pervasive than the perverse of those whose actions are perverse. 

I’ve read and left in draft this post, thinking too dark.  

I’m cautious over readers who might turn away, the content just too contentious. 

But, we live in a difficult world. We’re surrounded by people with difficulties who are difficult. 

We ourselves are these who lean towards the ugly at times. We have to keep ourselves leaning or better yet, upright. 

Knees down, hands open, face to God. 

Someone said to me the other day, as we were talking of a loss of life, young stolen by drugs and then mental illness, incarceration and finally homelessness. 

 “We are all just a circumstance from the bottom.” Vickie

So, let me not grow hard Lord, keep as my philosophy the “but, for the grace God” thingy I say. 

Let me not become someone other than me because of hard faces or insolent words, trampled on hearts. 

Help me help others rejoice. 

“Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:74‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Linking up with Jennifer Dukes Lee as she shares some solid motivation for us with fitness goals, boot camp, et al. 🙂

http://jenniferdukeslee.com/start-chain-reaction-good-habits/

Living Creative

grace, rest, Vulnerability

Expression is joy.  It reminds me of its bliss each time I succumb to take the apron from the nail, loop it over my head and tighten its strings around my waist. 

Smoothing it down and a little pert pat, and I sit to contemplate color and creation. 


I’ve two pieces of new old wood. I’ll layer them in buff as background and then free flow sketch shape of female form, angelic. 

I’ll say “thank you Lord” later, or maybe during too as I sing along to lilting blue lyrics a’la AlisonKrauss. 

My happy way of life. 

Words and Art, fill my cup to full. 

Five Minute Friday: Future

bravery, Faith, grace, Teaching, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability

Writing for five minutes, hoping to get it right, to not let age and deficits in tech savvy cause me to abandon the five minute rule and say “oh well!”

Here go thoughts on future and the year I named “breakthrough” feeling only like stepping towards if not just peeking in. 


I don’t lay out my clothes and don’t shop by grocery list planned ahead for meals. 

I’m not sure what I’ll have as mood to match my blouse, my shoes, my day. 

I can’t think far enough ahead to say oh, a roast on Sunday or a ham or oh, well, I’ll just do spaghetti. 

And worklife requires such things, projections, successions and sustainability.

I figure my clothes and meals can at least not be confined to demands of planning.

Now, as far as my future, I do best to live daily and am horrible at goal setting, writing, painting and all. 

I’ve been hearing the navigational command and I’m veering that way; but, more like a wanderer than a traveling soul headed towards a destination.

“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭30:21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So, thank you Friday prompt for prompting this self-examination. 

I need an itinerary for my future, I’ve haphazardly gone without with only vague sense of direction far too long. 

I’ll get focused on future, lest I discard the things I believe God keeps nudging me towards. 

‘Cause I heard about faith in a new way last week, too. 

It’s not emotion, it’s motion. 

It’s evidence, action, not just talk or thought. 

The Bloom on the Ground

bravery, courage, Faith, grace, rest, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability


When I saw it there, a cream colored snowball size object, I was careful to drive around. 

I paused and then stopped, opened the door and walked back behind the car to see. 

A magnolia bloom, petals curved in towards themselves as if to comfort.

This feeling we know, the striving for awhile then close to falling apart, pulling knees up to chest and then lying still, waiting to pick ourselves up again. 

To be picked up, cradled, and redeemed. 
No one around to see me that morning, the oddity of me caring for the fallen bloom and the way I found happiness in deciding to place it on my desk. 

It wasn’t my concern, the connection some find strange, the one with sky and feather or flower. 

I cupped it in my hand and it unfolded gently and began to fall apart in my lap. 


The tiny matchstick-like stamens scattered out on my car seat and I collected them gently, so many and so fragile, I thought. 

I let them rest inside the hollow place in the center of the flower, the place where growth had begun before.

Where the bloom had been made to grow big and glorious. 

Only to have fallen from up high in strong and ancient tree onto the hard gravel path. 

Then the storm came and morning left it face down and alone. 

To be found by me.

I thought about faith and transgressions and falling because of failure.

If I’m honest, because of falter. 

The broken bloom in white bowl on my desk all day, a testament to being broken and still beautiful. 

The creamy white petal tips now tinged even more rusty apart from the tree.

The cone of flower holding fast to its center, knowing it wasn’t time yet for flower’s fading, too soon to have fallen away from grace. 

Beauty in the fallen and the fragile.

“If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139:11-14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Grace, grace, that a fallen magnolia bloom intent because of God, might catch my eye and slow me down, turn my thoughts, remind my heart of beauty even in broken. 

Broken, yet, still beautiful. 

God is everywhere.  Don’t forget to notice. 

I got so very much off track this week that I forgot what I wanted to remember most, this beautiful prayer, perhaps prompting my thoughts and joy over the fallen flower. 

So, a little late linking up with Jennifer Dukes Lee here: 

http://jenniferdukeslee.com/memorial-day-six-ways-find-peace-hectic-world/