Am I Weeping with the Savior for Our Groaning World?

I sat in the cold, blank hospital room and talked with my sweet friends, an elderly couple.  I had visited them before in their warm, cozy home. The man had chronic pain since I’d known them, in his back and in his heart.  His heart because he lost his only daughter at a young age in a car accident, maybe over 30 years ago now. My mind wandered, searching for something to talk about as I noted the empty room, comparing it in my mind to the walls in their home cluttered with pictures of their dear, gone daughter. As if…

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When Life Seems To Scream Brokenness

                                Debris by Amy Jung, Mormon Row/Grand Tetons/Wyoming

Weeding and yearning for it to be done for good this year, I pick what seems to be the last, living clematis in my front flower bed. It’s a day that needs beauty, and a single, white, fragile flower seems perfect.

Beauty seemingly unstained by the world, yet destined to succumb to decay surely by tomorrow morning.

My thoughts may seem a bit dark to you if you’re in a good…

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My Only Comfort

“That is mine! It belongs to me!”

Those words (or something like them) have been heard by every person who has lived if they’ve lived in community with others.

Parents cringe when they hear them.

We all say them though…even if it is merely through our attitudes and actions.

It can be seen in our homes, school and work.

It can be readily spotted on the nightly news. Someone kills or hurts someone over something that was theirs.

It even happens inwardly–in my own heart.  It can come out like through a sigh when someone or something keeps…

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The Lord is at Hand

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Look at these two little stinkers.  They look like they’re up to something here don’t they?

We enjoyed a beautiful fall day on Sunday.  After church, we went apple picking and pumpkin grabbing.

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The kids wanted to go in the hay maze at the pumpkin farm.  Papa got them started but they ALL decided it was too big and too dark.

As he walked to the car to get a flashlight, a woman consoled him in that her seventeen year old son was too afraid…

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A Peek Inside My Private Journal…

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A peek inside my Journal:

6/18/13                                                                                                                                                                                                             “Do you, the good shepherd, also protect me?   Do you protect me and care for me too?”

That is all I’ll let you see!  Sorry…no further details!

My journal has become, not merely a recording of my thoughts and the events in my life, but my side of a life-long conversation with God.  I try to record how He answers prayer and how He guides me as well.  It’s where I talk to Him.  This was my question of the day a few days ago…maybe the question of the year.

That was written in a…

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Do You Feel Like You’re In the Dark Today?

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Just a short post this week.

I was feeling particularly discouraged yesterday.  The day I normally post on this blog.  So much so that I didn’t finish my article and gave up.

I decided to let it go and write next week but I was encouraged this morning and thought I’d share.

So…did I mention that I was discouraged yesterday?

We’re talking discouraged to the point of nausea.  Discouraged like everything looked very dark and hopelessness settled in.  On top of that…I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. My husband was gone all…

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The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away

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I was tired. The dishes weren’t done. My girl was looking sleepy and my boy was knee deep into a project. Both were sick.  From the looks of us, you’d never know that in five minutes we’d be trying to imitate Christ.  But it is Easter weekend and I didn’t want to miss the opportunities to reflect on our faith.

I brought out the basin of water, the towels, the plate with bread and the juice.  Lights down, we sat together and read the passage of the night Jesus was betrayed. The…

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A Weeping Savior for a Groaning World

jesus statue cry 2 “Mama…why does God let me be sick?”

He groans.

I had to steady myself because a couple of weeks ago…when that question was asked…I was asking the same questions inside. There is no kid-sized answer to that question.  Not for a week like that week.

So what do you say to a boy who is racked with nausea when he asks such a question in the midst of tears?

What do you say to that when it is also a week when, in your small town, there are two young lives…

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Quote For The Weekend…Beauty From The Stuff That Makes Us Weep

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“Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.” 
 Clive Barker, Days of Magic Nights of War
 
We should say…it takes a real woman to do that too…
 
And that real man or woman’s heart is first tranformed by Jesus Christ.
 
When the movie, Les Miserables, ended, I wanted it to stay dark in the theater.  I didn’t want people to see my heart bursting out of my chest.  Thankfully, there were a few others moved in…

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Getting Ready For One Precious Day…

The Mayfly:  Sometimes called the dayfly.  For most of her life – two to three years – she swims in a pond.  Her wings grow all of this time.  These beautiful wings are kept shut up in a tight case getting ready for one, precious day in the air.

This week, as my son and I studied science together, we read about this Mayfly.

My son didn’t understand why I cried when I read about the Mayfly.  I suppose it was silly…but maybe I am just a bit emotional this week.  Today I…

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