SelahV Today by hariette petersen

Don't Throw Pebbles in a Rock Fight

It just won't work.  You'll come out scathed, scratched, scarred and bloody.  Some folks don't need stones.  Sometimes all it takes is a word or phrase to fell an opponent.  You've heard the old addage: "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

That is such a load of bunk.  Of course words hurt.  We aren't made of steel and iron--we have emotions.

A primary catalyst for pulling me out of bed each day is communicating with others.  It fuels my life and motivates me to turn on a computer, to pick up a phone...to talk.  I love chatting, writing, emailing, facebooking, and such.  However, there are times when communicating becomes nothing but drudgery.  Ever feel like that?

For me, it feels like I'm on an uphill trek wearing shoes made of lead.  On these occasions, I do not like chatting, because chatting becomes a task, an exhausting mental trading of words which are not heard...which are dissected and tripped over and kicked out of the way...

like an unwanted stone in the middle of a pathway.

It often occurs when the world has been exploding all around me. I'm heading up some conversational hill and an avalanche of words come rolling down on top of me.  I just say, whew...forget about it.  I'm going back down.  No sense trying to talk or explain when it is such a strain on the brain.

I was talking to a friend about this and I happened to visit her blog and found a post she wrote a few days ago.  It was as if she was reading my mind.  Appropriately titled: "Leaving Crazyville" (link), Victoria's words of thought are an inspiration for we who find ourselves tired of struggling to be understood by folks who already have all the answers. selahV

Praying for Our Girls

Sometimes I sit so far away from my granddaughters and I worry.  I worry about who they meet and what friends come into their lives.  I worry about the parents of those friends.  I worry about the strangers who walk beside them in the aisles of life. With daily headlines about inappropriate behavior by teachers, and even spiritual leaders in a church, I worry about a predator coach or teacher who is not who they appear to be: a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I think of how protective my son was over his little girls' feelings and emotions.  I recall the way he agonized over how they might be hurt by the world.  And now, with him in heaven, I feel I must take up some kind of baton to help bring them safely across some happily-ever-after finish line. But we know,

don't we...

that the finish line is not always a safe place to be in this world?  As we all stand cheering, sometimes there are monsters who lie in wait to do harm.

In these moments of my mind, I turn to God and petition his protection over them.  I lean on His unfailing grace to guide them in ways I cannot.  I pray for Him to bring friends in their lives that honor Him and seek to strengthen my grandchildren's faith.  I pray that He give them the strength to overcome the difficulties in life and to stand strong in the face of evil.

I so pray that every time they meet a stranger, that the stranger might be like Walker Moore, who found himself seated next to THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW DRESS/link. selahV