No Holiday complete ...

without input from the Cookseys! Well they played this for us a long time ago, but I finally bought it and found the You Tube version. Enjoy!

 

REV 6:2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but

my friend, Lisa, sent this to me and it made me laugh out loud!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

I liked this one!

Magical is a nice word!

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Hmmmmm!

Just heard on tv that the lava bed under Yellowstone National Park is TWICE the size once believed. If it blows, it will be a larger volcano than Mt. St. Helens and could effect the entire country.

Certainly something to think about?!?!!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Celebrations

We had the tree decorating party and here is the result!

 

Now the oldest grandchild pointed out to me the bare places at the bottom and I had to assure her, "I like it just the way you guys did it!"

 

Then the party really took off!

Little people rule! Literally and figuratively.

 

Then we set Lizzie loose with the iPhone camera ...

 

Rowan phoned Mommy to tell her about the party.

 

Lizzie and Pop did a selffie!

And a good time was had by all!

We polished off an entire pumpkin pie and each had fun getting their mouth filled with Reddi Whip.

 

Festival of Lights was postponed due to bad weather. We have a few weeks for that still.

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Idea from my Friend Penny

I had not yet heard this song. Hope you enjoy it! From Sidewalk Prophets.

Winter Weather

Our plans were changed by the winter storm that blew through. There might be another one Sunday afternoon, the day we planned Festival of Lights. So no gingerbread or Grandgirls overnight. We will do the tree Saturday and pizza  before Ellie rushes off to a Girl Scout party.
Here is Bob's attempt to capture the morning! This was during the text from Kathy that said, "There are diamonds in the trees!"

Awaiting His Coming

In the Protestant church, we hear more about Mary this time of year than other times. She has been a role model to me for many years. Here are a few reasons why that is so.

Luke 1:35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 

Some ancient authorities word it: "The child to be born of you." 

KJV says  "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. "  

In verse 38:  Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

I find that when a promise is made in the New Testament, it most likely is available to us today. One year I was impressed that this power of the Holy Spirit inside Mary was not just a one time thing. Jesus was for us the forerunner of all of God's plan and design. He was planted inside Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is still indwelling people today.

2 Corinthians 3:17 reads  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  

  JN 14:16-17And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

 

So awaiting Jesus, I am reminded here that as I yield to God my Father, the Holy Spirit will indwell me, too. And the birth in me will be the holy Jesus, Son of God.

So this is my Advent drawing of me within that clay cradle, awaiting the coming of Christ anew within me. With Mary as my example, my prayer remains,

 "Let it be with me according to Your word and will, my Lord!" 

Lest we get too puffed up, I also remember the sermon that stated,

 "Jesus did everything right and He got a cross."

May your heart be yielded in every way this season to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

'Tis the Season

Friday evening the Grandgirls are to spend the night so we can make Gingerbread! This is a tradition Lizzie wants carried on and I gladly agree!

 Lizzie was lecturing as if she was the star of a cooking show!

 Ellie was determined, as always, to keep p with her!

I will need to update the photos as these Grandgirls are now 12 and 8 Years old!

Then Saturday morning the group of 5 kiddos and various parents will be here to decorate Pop and Grammy's tree. It has become usual for the celebration to be held here since our house has the most room for the 12 or so of us to gather around the tree and food! So this year I asked to begin a new tradition of having them help decorate our tree. These old arthritic hands are not as robust as they used to be! Hopefully this will be a joyous occasion finished off with pizza for lunch!
Sunday afternoon/evening we plan to go to the Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights. Here's a few pics from last year!

Hope your Christmas preparations are joyous!

Drummer Boy and Our Grandboy

I have" An Accapella Christmas" CD by the Haven Quartet. I was playing it in the car last week. You see, I've been working a bit with Rowan on learning to sing. He wanted no part of it until we got to the Little Drummer Boy with the vocal percussion parts and "Rum Pa Pums." I really wanted to make it so you could hear this version of Drummer Boy, but I cannot find it on YouTube or anywhere else. I own the CD but also cannot figure out how to add it to my blog. So you will have to imagine a 2-year old with great verbal skills asking for rum-pum song over and over again. What joy!

My Grandmother used to listen to the Haven of Rest on the radio. When I came back to Christ in 1972 I was delighted to find the program still on the air! Sadly, it is now only available in Cincinnati by listening to the Dayton station.
A little history: "The Haven Quartet, a four-man Christian vocal group, began in 1934 as the musical arm of the Haven of Rest radio broadcast ministry. Radio was a medium in its infancy, and Christian broadcasting in particular was a new, uncharted territory. The Haven of Rest program, titled after the old gospel hymn of the same name, and replete with nautical references, was broadcast live, Mondays through Fridays, originally from the studio of pioneering radio station KFI in Los Angeles. As the broadcast became better known, it began being aired over a larger and larger network of radio stations in the US and Canada from its own distinctive ship-like studio in Hollywood, complete with portholes and decks. The Haven Quartet would sing 4-5 songs live over the air during each day's broadcast, either a cappella or with organ accompaniment.


"By the 1950's, the group had begun pre-recording the broadcast music in library fashion, and due to popular demand, began issuing recordings of their music to their listeners and the general public. Today, after 65 years of musical excellence, the Haven Quartet continues to record their trademark treatments of traditional hymns and gospel songs, as well as contemporary Christian music. Fresh, creative, arrangements, a bright, clean vocal sound, and impassioned lead vocals from each of the four quartet members: these are the hallmarks of the Haven Quartet."

So, Mary nodded, we sang our song for Him, and hopefully, it was sweet to His ears.
Merry Christmas!

Quotes Collection 2

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. 

May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.

~ Psalm 143:10, NLT

Your Spirit leading me, perhaps somewhere that I am unfamiliar with. Yet, You will lead me on firm footing. This is excitement (and perhaps at times dread) beyond what the world has to offer!

Find the thing that stirs your heart and make room for it. 

Life is about the development of self to the point of unbridled joy.

Joan Chittister
Monasteries of the Heart Newsletter

Quotes Collection 1

Been collecting quotes for the blog since AUGUST! It is time to share a few :-) Most all of them come from gratefulness.org. I get a daily quote from them that helps me remember the holy above the mundane.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.

Margaret Fuller

Now think about how that caterpillar transforms in the comparative darkness of the cocoon!

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Joan Chittister
Uncommon Gratitude

 

Joy

Some days you just have to express your joy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

We Await

I celebrate the birth of Christ because He changed our world forever. No Hollywood prayers to Baby Jesus nonsense for me. He promised that it would be better for humankind if He went to be with the Father. That was hard for the disciples, who were blessed to know Him personally, to grasp and understand. There are times it is even hard for us to comprehend. His promise runs along the vein of giving us an Advocate, a Helper, a Mystery hidden throughout the ages and now revealed.

In John 14:16-17 Jesus said,  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

The fact that the Father will send anything Jesus asks of him is almost too wonderful to comprehend. He says He is asking on our behalf and that amazes me!

 Jesus assures us He will be with us through the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate, the Helper from on high. Then He goes on to declare that we will know this Spirit of Truth because "he abides with you, and he will be in you." Inhabited by a Spirit from on high! Beats Halloween tales ALL to pieces in truth, holiness and righteousness!


In John 14:26 He continues with  "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you." This truly holy and powerful Spirit will help us and remind us of all that Jesus says to us. That is good news indeed to the weary mind of a senior citizen!

As far as the mystery, St. Paul declares in Colossians 1:25-26  "I became (the Church's) its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,  the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints." You can almost hear the drum roll ....

Colossians 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  And suddenly I am in awe of God, the Star, the Babe in the manger, the plan of God for all generations and ages, the fact that He loves us so much that His Holy Spirit wants to come through us via Jesus and live in us.
 
 

Advent Poem

October, 1993 I wrote this poem. I still pray it every Advent season.

Here am I, stuff of earth

But by the Spirit's power rebirth

Has brought me receptivity.

Fill me with Yourself.

Molded by Your Holy Hand

I wait before You

Prostrate, kneel, stand

Cupped and ready, cleansed, atoned

Waiting for Your radiant touch

Virtue compelled to enfold Your own

The vessel of Your making.

Here am I, stuff of earth

Yielded for Messiah's birth

Be it unto me, O Lord,

As in Your word and will.

The Great I AM

Dwells in my heart

There to impart the power

Courage and propulsion

For His dream.

Here is my stuff of earth in Sculpey clay. Shaped like a clay manger, my receptivity is like a cup of flesh, ready to receive the Lord's birth within my very very heart and soul. I await His coming.

"O Holy Night" Bob's Favorite!

With the Thanksgiving holiday we enter into Advent, the celebration of the coming of Christ into the world. Unfortunately, most of that celebration has been obliterated by the commercialism and materialism of America. I hope this season moves you closer to finding the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

here is one rendition of Bob's favorite Christmas song. Enjoy!

Happiness - Gratefulness

"Happiness is not what makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy." David Steindl-Rast "A Listening Heart" 

Recently, the Lord challenged me to daily make a list of 13 things for which I am thankful. It is quite a challenge. I have found the practice is also good for my soul. The next quote sums it up nicely. 

"The grateful heart is a manifestation of one's true self. Nothing sidelines the ego more effectively than a grateful heart." 

 Albert Nolan "Jesus Today; A Spirituality of Radical Freedom"; Maryknoll/NY; Orbis Books; 2011. (p.109) 

Listing in writing my gratitudes takes me away from myself and into the larger view of life.Last Sunday our Pastor used the Scripture illustration that only one leper turned back to say thank-you to the Lord! (Luke 17:16)

 I pray this holiday you might make time to try listing 13 gratitudes for yourself. 

The quotes above are from a website that sends a daily quote about gratefulness. If you are interested in increasing your gratitude try gratefulness.org. 

Along with Paul in Philippians 1:3, "I thank my God every time I remember you!" 

Be gentle with yourself, Molly D.

It's 35 Degrees ...

and there is a berry festival outside our windows! Much as we dislike the invasive Honeysuckle shrubs, they do produce a crop of red berries that the birds absolutely devour this time of year. The Bluebirds have returned ot the yard with new interest. They have been missing a good part of the summer :-( Nuthatch, Cardinal, Titmouse, Chickadee, Blue Jay, Junco, ah! the winter birds seem to have all arrived. Cannot tell if this photo will post so you can see the red berries?

 

 

As I ate breakfast Mrs. Bluebird came and sat on the deck railing, looking in at me and I looked at her. She was puffed up to keep warm and reminded me of a bluebird hued tennis ball! Then, shortly before my coffee was finished, Mr. Bluebird took a similar position, until he decided to fly away in a dash of brilliant blue that left my eyes dancing.

 

The seed feeder is almost empty. This batch of black oiler sunflower seeds has what looks like rabbit pellets mixed in it. I am sure the chipmunks are delighted when those get dumped on the grass down below the deck! Offered the pellets to the dog (who LOVES sunflower seeds) and her response was "Naahh!"

 

Guess I better feed those hungry birds. The suet feeder is depleted, also. The arctic front is due to move in and they will need their fuel to survive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

God is In The Heart of Humankind

Have been enjoying e-mail from Joan Chittister's group.

Lectio with the words of Joan Chittister

What can we learn from the spiritual heritage of other traditions? Answer: that God is in the heart of humankind and if we listen clearly, we can hear that same voice in another language.

Photo by Carolyn Gorny-Kopkowski, OSB

Her photo was probably the image from a Kiva? I like my photo from New Meico better though!

This woman looks to me as if she, too, is praying!

 

I agree with Joan that we must keep listening for the Voice of God!

 

 

 

 

 

Radical acceptance requires Total Surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Autumn Chores Get us Closer to Christmas Trees!

When you wait the ENTIRE day for the service man to come fix the ice maker on the less than 1 year old refrigerator/freezer, and no one calls to tell you "Oops! We never got that set up!" what's a Grammy to do?
Well, I've been making the best of it by using one of my birthday  iTunes gift cards to get some Pentatonix Christmas in here.

If you have ever tried to sing "The Carols of the Bells" and if you have ever tried to sing a cappella, you will appreciate this work that these folks make SEEM so simple. TURN UP YOUR VOLUME it played back pretty quiet on the blog site.

So while I changed the twin bed sheets to flannel (the nights here have been about 20 degrees lately) I rejoiced over this wonderful version. The repairman will be here Thursday morning.





Trying to set up a new tradition of "Come decorate Pop & Grammy's tree" since Christmas is here every year because we have the most room! Pizza and ornaments! Sounds pretty good! Hope they all agree :-)

Years Ago and Even More NOW

Years ago I came across this prayer by Teilhard de Chardin from his work The Divine Milieu translated from the French:

"O God, grant that I may understand that it is You

Who are painfully parting the fibers of my being

in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance

and bear me away within Yourself."

Now that I am older and more internet savvy, I decided to search for the prayer on-line to use in the blog. Well, as the famous spinach eating sailor says, "Blow me down!" 

I had no idea it was lifted from a longer prayer. Much more appropriate now that I'm 63 than when I found the excerpt almost 25 years ago! Entitled "Prayer for the Grace to Age Well" here it is:

"When the signs of age begin to mark my body

(and still more when they touch my mind);

when the illness that is to diminish me or carry me off

strikes from without or is born within me;

when the painful moment comes to which I suddenly awaken

to the fact that I am growing ill or growing old;

and above all at the last moment

when I feel I am losing hold of myself

and am absolutely passive within the hands

of the great unknown forces that have formed me;

in all these dark moments, O God,

grant that I may understand that it is you

(provided only my faith is strong enough)

who are painfully parting the fibers of my being

in order to penetrate to the very marrow 

of my substance and bear me away within yourself."

Teilhard de Chardin

My gracious!  I had no idea the extent of that prayer. Even now, Lord, help me to embrace this truth once again.

My pain, Your pain

Those who know I have a chronic pain condition or two are sometimes reluctant to share with me about their own pain. I must assure them, "Your pain is your pain!"

Only the Lord Jesus Christ knows exactly how we each suffer. Your pain is not to be compared or contrasted with mine. When it comes down to it, suffering is just lousy suffering. Now granted, there are times I can make my suffering WORSE, especially when I fall into a pit of self-pity. The only way someone else can make it worse than that is if they are willing to play "Poor you" with me and wash my back with the muck.

The Lord knows my suffering and yours. He wants to enter into it with me and with you. He does not encourage self-pity, but He does encourage inviting His Presence into our every moment and situation.

So the next time you are in pain, especially the kind that grinds you down with constant, unrelenting suffering, please invite Him in and call me so we can pray together.

I find this prayer a comfort at those times:

BCP  For Trust in God O God, the source of all health: So fill my heart with faith in
your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for
your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your
healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 My Mother used to have a ceramic likeness of this art. Wish I knew what happened to it when she died.

You Must, Molly Lin

Help me obey today, Lord.

GOODSPEED: EPH 4 beginning in verse 31
You must give up all bitterness, rage, anger, and loud, abusive talk, and all spite.
You must be kind to one another, you must be tender-hearted and forgive one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
So follow God's example, like His dear children, and lead loving lives,

just as Christ loved you and gave Himself for you,
as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Fifty two years ago today I began my life without my earthly father. Thus began in earnest my search for my Heavenly Father. I am still struggling to obey Him, but I know Him better for the search of 52 years!

I was just barely eleven years old at my Daddy's funeral.

I had myself baptized and confirmed within five years. And I journey on together with my heavenly Father.

Too Much Aggravation

My life has had too much aggravation lately. Is it just me or is everyone going through this? If discouragement is the #1 tool of the enemy of our souls, then I need prayer IN A BIG WAY.

Just too many things pushing me to the brink of my patience. I am getting tired of holding my temper.

I thought it was supposed to get easier to let things go as we age. Hah! Another myth busted.

I asked someone to do something and they readily agreed. Several days later they came to me asking me for the names of the persons they recruited. ?How should I know?

I made a return doctor appointment just like my doctor asked me to do. I set the alarm, left the house in a timely manner, showed up for my appointment and the office staff dismissed me. They had cancelled my appointment and not told me - for the second time this year!!

The new refrigerator stopped making ice cubes. Had to set up the second repair appointment this year. They could not come out for over a week. It is NEW! I'm buying ice at the market down the street.

We have had several hard freezes and I am still killing bugs in the house and around the windows and crunching across the front porch.

I will stop now before I post things I might regret.