Mullings & Musings...

• "The Presence of Greatness" (If you only look at one of these links today... this  SHOULD BE the one.)

"...one day when I was trying to explain Jacob to yet another person who’d asked, it all suddenly made sense. Jacob is content because he’s fully present in whatever moment he’s living. He doesn’t mourn or regret the past, and he doesn’t anticipate the future. He lives in the now with pure, childlike faith. I have no idea if the young man in the gym was born with his 'deficiency' or if it was a gift of God’s severe mercy like Jacob’s, but I saw in him the same restful, trusting contentment. And, perhaps even more stunning, I saw this contentment in his mother as well."

• Gently Led: It's About Time (Hard, challenging and beautiful words, expressing a truth I wish I could say I've learned, but truthfully, I'm still learning... and failing... learning some more... and trying again...)

"Approval. Even the word makes me happy. The receiving of it produces in me a high that modesty does not allow expression of. Approval is as satisfying when received privately as publicly. It is not the attention that draws. Just the validation that someone views Me as worthwhile and important. I have devoted parents and had devoted grandparents. I have the blessing of gracious friends and family. By most worldly standards, I have been successful.I have received in roses, awards, words of affirmation and adoring love: Approval. Healthy and encouraging.It is in my life as a gift.

But through the years, I fashioned it into a savior. And I set it above everything else..."

• "She" (You blink and they become... Such a sweet mama/big girl moment provoking memories of many similar moments with my girls and reminding me to anticipate the many more ones to come in the future.)

"I was chopping vegetables last week at the counter.  We were about to savor our last packet of Hidden Valley Ranch, sent over last month in a box across oceans.  And she came in– hopped up on the counter, flipped blond hair over a shoulder, snagged a carrot with pink-painted nails and started to

talk about boys.

And I almost stopped her, I did.  I almost reminded her that I didn’t really have an opinion about Troy Bolton in High School Musical, but I didn’t..."

• The Morning I Heard the Voice of God (I first read this a few years ago - and found just as encouraging and exciting this time around. Thankful to the pastor at one of our supporting churches for linking to it!)

"Think of it. Marvel at this. Stand in awe of this. The God who keeps watch over the nations, like some people keep watch over cattle or stock markets or construction sites—this God still speaks in the twenty-first century. I heard his very words. He spoke personally to me.

What effect did this have on me? It filled me with a fresh sense of God’s reality. It assured me more deeply that he acts in history and in our time. It strengthened my faith that he is for me and cares about me and will use his global power to watch over me. Why else would he come and tell me these things?

It has increased my love for the Bible as God’s very word, because it was through the Bible that I heard these divine words..."

• Of Frozen Turkey and Hospitality (Needing this read when a recent attempt at hospitality "flopped.")

"I always want it all to turn out just right, but it rarely does. There’s usually something that’s not quite Martha Stewart about the whole affair, and that’s when I remember that God’s not looking for me to get it right. God just wants me to keep trying. In fact, the actual words in Romans 12:13 say that we should 'practice hospitality.'"