SelahV Today by hariette petersen

THIS IS LOVE

I started putting out birdseed in hopes of attracting some Cardinals with sunflower seeds. I put a mix in another feeder which attracts a bevy of sparrows. Yesterday as I searched for ways to get my body comfy and Hubby had heated up four rice-filled socks to strategically place on the most painful areas, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was filling my feeders before he left for work. Once he’d gone, I waddled out to the kitchen to make a cup of apricot tea in hope of it soothing my stomach. 
There on one of my feeders was my first cardinal of the season. 
Along with the cardinal came a couple of doves to feast beneath the other feeder. 
Friends, and dear family, that is love. 
My husband took the time to fill those feeders with seed. Not so much for the birds. BUT for me. He knew I gained great pleasure at sitting at my kitchen table, sipping tea and waiting for the birds to show up. That is love. Little things that make a big difference to the one we cherish.

A Grateful Wife On Valentine's Day

Thanks for making me brownies last night after I said in passing that I wish we had something sweet to eat.

Thanks for making me an egg sandwich this morning for breakfast.

Thanks for the pretty purple and white flowers you got while grocery shopping Friday night.

But most of all, thanks for being YOU, and thanks for assuring me of the love you have for me... every single day of our lives.

I think about all the sweet loving gestures that hubbies are offering their wives (young and old, alike), and I am so grateful I've had those kind of gestures from you every day of our 50-plus years of marriage.

It amazes me. It's far more than I deserve. But I am nevertheless overwhelmed with a joyful peace and comfort, knowing you are near. Happy Valentines my dear husband.

Related articles

Verses That Influenced 50 Years of Marriage for My Husband and Myself

Can You Be Destroyed By Things You Love?

When I first heard the clip from the lastest Hunger Games movie where Plutarch says to Alma Coin, "It's the things we love most that destroy us...," I thought, how lame... we love our husbands, wives, grandkids... God... and they destroy us???

According to the character, Plutarch Heavensbee, yes, they can.  I am not sure what Plutarch was eluding to with Alma.  The clip was short.  However, as I rethought that scene in the trailer, it hit me...it didn't matter. 

The love of "things" can destroy us.  We can be so consumed by things-- gaining them, holding onto them, protecting them, hoarding them, keeping them all to ourselves-- that yeah, we can be destroyed by our obsession. 

However... obsession is not love.

Obsession is selfish and love is not.  Obsession is self-centered and love is selfless, generous and thoughtful.  Obsession is envious and rude and manipulative, love is not jealous, it's courteous, and considerate.  Obsession is impatient, demanding and love is patient and yielding.  Obsession hoards and becomes stagnant; love multiplies and flows freely.  Obsession smothers; love releases itself to love even more. Love frees the soul, the mind, the heart.  Love brings peace because love is forgiving. Love is the motivating factor for why God sent His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16, NKJV 

What could be better than having God abide in us? Eternally?

I'm praying that the new year will find me loving a lot this year.  And I pray that things do not consume my thoughts and energy in such a way that I forget what is most important in life.  To love and love abundantly.

 

 

Mother's Day In Review

For many, yesterday was a day of remembering Moms.  In fact, on Facebook (the world-wide social network site), I saw precious tributes.  One gal even asked everyone to change their profile picture and replace it with one of their mothers til Monday.  I thought that was sweet.  I didn't do that.  I have no idea where any pictures are of my mothers.

My biological mom is barely a memory...she abandoned us when I was just three, the three or four times I saw her afterwards leave fanciful feathers fluttering in my mind.

Step-mother #1 stirs memories of sadness as a whole--although, one cannot toss aside the years in which she washed my clothes and cooked meals.  I have to give her credit where credit is due.  Most of what she was in my life was not her fault.  Albeit hard to suffer the anguish of abuse, mentally ill people need our forgiveness, especially when they let you pull taffy on a cold winter night.

Step#2 didn't really consider me much more than my father's daughter. She and her children got some of the better parts of my dad's time, money and affection.  Enough said.

Step#3 was a gem.  I do call her blessed for giving my father the best 4 years of his heartbreaking 82 years of life.  When I watch others share how much they miss their mothers, the heartbreak they have without them, I often think I may be more blessed for never having known the joy of moms. In a sense I have been spared that kind of pain.  Admittedly, it makes it harder to empathize with another's burden...that makes it easier for me to understand how folks feel who cannot fathom my loss of a son...two babies.

Given the post I shared on Mother's Day, and due to the prayers so many offered on my behalf, I thought I'd take a few moments to tell you how things went for me yesterday (and also share some family photos).  Before I do that I want to acknowledge the gorgeous flowers you see pictured above.  My son's dear childhood friend (and a former youth I taught in the first pastorate we were blessed to serve), sent them to me.  She's been rather faithful to me as a friend and sister-in-Christ since Chad's death.

[Karen Pollock contributes to Devotional Christian now and she wrote one of the sweetest tributes to my son (HERE).  But make sure you subscribe to Devotional Christian while you're there so you don't miss any of her moving devotionals.]

So...the flowers come in the middle of the night, at about 8:15 on Saturday night.  Such a gift I stumble to explain.  You see, Karen doesn't know this, but one of the hardest times I have through the Mother's Day extravaganza is May 7th...the night before Mother's Day.  That was the night six years ago I last spoke to my son--last heard his voice.  As usual, he had a story to tell, and part of it was his joy in going to see the Texas Rangers play ball in Dallas.  That evening at around 10:15 was the last time I heard his sweet words, of good-bye and "I love you, momma."  So often at that hour of each Saturday before Mother's Day, my heart fills with a bitter-sweetness of gratitude and regret.  Gratitude that God gave me that last "I-love-you, Momma" --- Regret that we hung up before I said I love you too, my precious son.  It's hard to forgive myself for that lapse in motherhood.

So, Karen...you are, my friend, another portion of Chad's never-ending story of a life. The love he shared with you nearly 30 years ago in friendship, blossomed into a basket of roses and daisies for me on a day only Chad, and I, and God would know is a day I find especially difficult.  Your flowers blessed me more than you'll ever know.  It was like a gift from heaven above.  I can almost hear my son say, "forgetta bout it, Momma; just stop and smell the roses today."

Secondly, my friends and new readers, that is just one facet of what I call God's divine interventions in life...a comforting Balm through a love cultivated years ago in a little country Kentucky church.  Corrie ten Boom was right when she wrote, "Every experience God gives you, every person He puts in your life, is the perfect preparation for the future, that only He can see." 

Thirdly, My daughter did what she does naturally for her--she loves through acts of service.  She prepared a brisket dinner for me and her own family.  Every single Sunday (for the most part) she makes Sunday dinner.  I couldn't help but think of how much I appreciate her gift of love.  A menial task, some might say.  But special because I have her in my life to share my heart, to embattle, to love, to plan stuff, to undergird and etcetera, etcetera.  Some folks wonder why I don't write much about my daughter.  I realize that it a curious thing considering the attention I give to the relationship I had with my son.  I'm simply following orders.  You see, as precious as my daughter is, and as much as I would love to give you all the nitty-gritty details of her life and her older children, Holly is a private kind of gal.  She makes me keep my thoughts closer to my chest, my fingers holstered, and for the most part, pictures stored in scrapbooks. 

To say she doesn't like to call attention to herself rather belies the kook she is at ladies' retreats. But she doesn't like to announce to the world all the things she does as she serves the Lord.  She doesn't tweet, friend, or blog.  This world is rather foreign to her.  It's doubtful she even reads a single thing I write--go figure.  But she owns a humongous portion of my heart, always has, always will.  I'd die for her.  She could have both kidneys and my liver.  I know she loves me...and while she's never stood up in the city gates and called me blessed, I know.  I know she cares.  I know because no matter how heated we may get over trivialities of life, she and I are on the phone talking and sharing by 10:00 a.m. the next day.  It's just the way we are.  It's not how we've always been.  And most of that is my fault.  I have learned a lot about motherhood from my daughter.  I think most mommas do.

Lastly...yesterday...Mother's Day was one of the most peacefilled, comforting, blissful, and God-infused days I've had in a long long time.  Here is just a sampling of things that held my attention.  Most of it is pictures.  I hope you have as much fun looking at them as I had cropping and adding captions today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click to enlarge me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
So among others, these were some of the sweet memories the Lord brought my way because of you, my friends who prayed for me.

Life is not always a happy time.  It's not always perfect.  It has moments, though -- snapshots in the course of living which we need to be vigilant not to miss.  Moments flash before our eyes, and can be blurred before our cameras grab the perfect shot.  Often in our desire to have the perfect day, we waste time trying to catch the perfect smile, the perfect pose.  Then we miss the seconds of love and lose a memory we could capture and lock inside our hearts forever.  Enjoy today.  Enjoy tomorrow.  Be like my son...stop and smell the roses.  Smell them today.  selahV   

GUESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU

Whenever my granddaughters get in one of their sibling spats, I pull out this little book and read it.  It is simply precious.   

A mere 20 pages in this board-book gently coaxes the reader into a contest of love between Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare.  As the little hare tries his best to express his love to the big hare, the big hare's love proves far greater an expression than Little Nutbrown Hare can meet or even conceive possible. 

The content easily serves as a conversation starter between parent and child on the dimensions of love.  The love described between the covers can even promote a comparable discussion on God's surpassing love to each of His children.  That's what happened between my granddaughters and myself. 

The illustrations are simple and visually show the height and depth of immeasurable love.  In one illustration Big Nutbrown Hare extends his arms outward to express how much he loves Little Nutbrown Hare.   

Having read this to my 5 year-old and 9-year-old granddaughters, I might personally add that they love hearing it as their bedtime story.  I rarely finish it before they are in slumberland dreaming of the love they have for me and I for them.

I highly recommend it.  If your local bookstore doesn't have it you can order one by clicking on the publisher's link below.  It's well worth the money.  SelahV 

[ GUESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU.  Written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram.   Printed first in 1994 and later in 1996 in Board Book Edition.  Publisher is Candlewick">http://candlewick.com/">Candlewick Press.  It sells for $6.99 U.S. and $9.99 in Canada.]

We Are Talking FOREVER, Gang, FOREVER

People are turning away from faith, from God, from all they've known and believed true.  They mock; they scorn; they ridicule.

But the LORD endures forever.

The government in Illinois passed a law that prohibits kids from bringing a homemade lunch to school.  Prayer is forbidden.  Children are taught other religions are sacred and to be respected, but Christianity is taboo.

But the LORD endures forever.

Japan's nuclear plant is melting down and will destroy life as Japan once knew.  But the LORD endures forever.

America's politicians are so puffed up with power and self-deception that our blessed country is on the brink of economic collapse.  But the LORD endures forever.

All sin is now categorized in some disease form or another, and people are excused from their sinful immoral actions and choices.  But the LORD endures forever.

Christian churches are being burned in places all around the world.  Christians are literally losing their lives for the sake of the Gospel.  But the LORD endures forever.

Wars upon wars are being waged in the Middle East.  The world is unfaithful.  The governments are unfaithful.  Little is trustworthy.  But the LORD endures forever. 

 ¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
    His faithful love endures forever.

² Let Israel say,
    "His faithful love endures forever."

³ Let the house of Aaron say,
    "His faithful love endures forever."

⁴ Let those who fear the LORD say,
    "His faithful love endures forever."  Psalm 118:1-4

Forever, my friends.  His faithful love endures forever.  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the LORD and His faithful love endures forever.

Forever is a long, long time.  People carelessly say they stood in line "forever" at the check out.  They've been waiting "forever" for their tax refunds.  They sat "forever" without being served.  But friends...as long as we've lived, we've only lived a second in the eternity of forever.  I was allowed to have my precious son on earth for 33 years before his appointed time on earth came due.  But that 33 years was but a blink of an eye in comparison to the eternity I get to spend with him and Jesus because "His faithful love endures forever."

Give thanks to the Lord while you have breath.  Give glory to Him Who gives you faithful enduring love--forever.  Say it, my friends, say it.  "His faithful love endures forever."  selahV

I WANT MORE

Today, people are wishing everyone everywhere Happy New Year.  They're wishing them good health, prosperity, success, happiness for 2011.  We all want those things for those we love...for friends and strangers alike.  However, for whoever reads this today, I am praying for far more for you:

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11

Please pray this for me, too.  Thanks.  selahV

WHEN LOVE IS DEBATED

Sometimes folks like to debate the oddest things. Take "love".  The very nature of the word "love" begs Christians bear in mind that "love does not insist upon its own way, rights".

Doesn't arguing over the finer points of love rather defeat the purpose of simply loving?

"Love is kind...is patient...is not rude...is not vain-glorious."

Love is consistent with the heart of God.  Love is the essence of God.  Love leaves His imprint wherever it goes. 

Any loving I do, apart from Jesus Christ living within me, is hay and stubble.  For in and of myself, I can do nothing.  It takes faith..."for it is impossible to please God without faith."

"Faith in what," we might ask. In Jesus, I conclude. For in Him and by Him all things were created and made possible.  Where do we get that faith?  In Jesus, through Jesus, with Jesus.  Faith is all wadded up, wrapped inside, and fused into the Christ of the ages.  Faith in Him is counted unto righteousness.  Why?  I submit it is because faith is Jesus, just as God is love.

It's kinda like grama's biscuits. You can take grama's biscuit recipe and follow each and every instruction, and put all the ingredients into the bowl, knead them all together, lay them out on a pan, and bake them in the oven.  You can take them out and butter them, add jam, apple-butter, or stuff a piece of smoked ham inside.  You can dip them in honey or cover them in white gravy.  It still doesn't make them grama's biscuits unless grama made them.  They are simply biscuits you make that grama showed you how to make.  Grama's biscuits just need grama.  And Christian love needs Jesus to be God's love.

God is love.  Love is God.  Without Him, or apart from Him, our love is as clanging cymbals. I can have the smoothest way of describing love in the world.  It can drip off my tongue like honey.  But without Jesus, the best of all I say is annoying chatter, banter, buzzing, clanging noise. So to rudely try and insist upon one's view of love being the all-encompassing view to adhere to, rely upon, and comprehend, reduces one's efforts to hay beneath the manger of Jesus Christ.

I understand love because once I had no love--then Jesus came into my life and began to love through me.  And I sat in absolute wonder.  Where in the world did that come from?  Why, all of a sudden, do I have a burning desire for others to know Jesus, too?

I've never cared that much for my own blood, why all of a sudden do I care about a complete stranger?  Love.  Jesus Christ is the catalyst.  Certainly not me.  I already know that any righteousness I have is unrighteous and as "filthy rags".  Jesus is my righteousness.  I am the salt resting inside the shaker--Jesus, the Christ.  He has fused His being into the grains of my life, holds me inside of His sheltering hand, and turns somersaults of love all over the land as I go about the day.  Most often we have no idea how much salt from the Shaker has spilled out and flavored another's life.

No where is that more clearly seen than at the funeral of a saint of God.  I cannot begin to count how many funerals I've attended and watched as the bereaved sit or stand and hear complete strangers come to them and share specific acts of love a deceased has shown.  I have repeatedly seen a deceased relative come to Jesus because of the testimony of love they see and hear about their beloved.  I'd be willing to bet that the readers who come by here have multiple stories of their own.

Jesus is love.  My love is not of myself, but of Him.  Love does not insist upon its own way; it persists in His way.  Anytime I find myself looking back at myself for all the good I have done, I see a flawed righteousness.  Jesus is my righteousness, my portion, my gift, my ability, my all in all.  Love is seen in others as sacrificial, as generous, as forgiving--it does not keep record of wrongs.  God is love.

^"Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect). But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded)." 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 Amplified

Fragmentary is our love.  Incomplete is our teaching, our knowledge.  Love endures.  Jesus is all there is really left standing before a holy God.  The rest is burned away. 

I've been sitting like a fly on a wall and reading folks on a website go back and forth about love--it's doctrine, it's a feeling, it's action.  How the lack, thereof, equates to faithlessness, without Jesus.  For they will know you are my disciples by the love you show one another. Amid the truths of their words are snipes and put-downs, the questioning of one another's true love.  I can't help but wonder as I read, what of this will endure?  What of this will stand the test of fire?  "...the incomplete and imperfect will vanish"; what will endure?

"For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God]. And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Amplified.

Do we see others as God sees?  Do we see love through our own lenses, or through God's?  Are we just talking past one another?  It may be because we are looking at a dim reflection of His all-encompassing, unimaginable, unexplainable, un-debatable love.  selahV

MORE ON LOVE:

It's All About Love, Not Words by selahV

It's All About Love, Not Prophecy by selahV

Will You Join Me ?

Today and tomorrow I am praying and fasting. Will you join me?

Heavenly Father, I long to see Your glory and majesty fill the earth.  I hunger for Your righteousness and seek Your face.  You alone are mighty.  You alone are perfect and holy.  You alone are truth and righteous.  You are the love we seek in all the wrong places.  You are the peace we cannot perfect.  You are the joy we cannot reproduce.  You are the strength in our weakness. 

I ask You to show me any err of my ways and heart and forgive me.  For those who have grievance against me or speak ill against me in any way, I pray for them--that You bless them beyond measure with goodness, grace and joy.  Have mercy upon them and do not render unto them that which they seek to offer to me.  What they grab as stones of discord, break into pebbles of peace for their pathways.

I pray for those within the Body of Christ who seek to divide and tear the Bride apart by spreading falsehoods; talebearing; and gossip.  Please take the hearts filled with unforgiveness; intolerance, unkindness, bitterness and pride and empty them.  Please fill them with with forgiveness, tolerance, kindness, love and humility.

Illumine those with critical spirits; remove the blinders from their eyes that they may see the destructive nature they have for others. Replace the deceit with truth, and unseemly attitudes and hatefilled words with gentleness, generosity and kindness.  Pour out Your grace and love to those they seek to harm and hurt.  Let Your pearls of wisdom fill their minds and string cords of harmony and grace for the brethren.  Heal Your children, Lord.  Cut through the past heartaches they have suffered; remove their animosity and anger.  Fill them up with Yourself, oh, Lord.

Please heal our land.  Help Louisiana.  Be with the leaders and authorities over us--guide their every step and bring about Your will.

Bless those whose feet and hands and mouths carry the Gospel Message to lands beyond America.  Bless my friends in India that their families will come to know You and Your salvation in Christ Jesus.  Bless my missionary friends in Brazil; help them reach their people groups; encourage them and meet their needs.

For my writer friends, I pray you give them words filled with power, inspiration, boldness, and clarity that bring comfort to the comfortless, joy to the broken-hearted, understanding to the confused, and hope for better days in Your steadfast love and grace.

Use the foolishness of our efforts to enlighten the world for Your glory.  Use our weakness to illumine Your strength and might.  Use our mistakes and stupidity as stepping stones to Your paths of righteousness and perfection.  Refine us, oh, Lord.  Cover us with Your mercy and grace.  Do not give us what we deserve.

I ask that all Christians be renewed in mind, spirit, body, and heart.  May we be filled with such love for You, dear Lord, that we cannot move, or blink without exuding Your unfathomable love for others.  Let this be our only goal--our only agenda--our only cause for living out our days.  In the name of Jesus, I pray.  Amen.  selahV 

IF SUCH IS LOVE

I find it intriguing what some will say or write that is to be understood as truth cloaked in love.  Can a child sleep peacefully in arms of hate and anger?  Can life be found in a bottle filled with poison?  Is Christian mercy truly found in condemnation?  Is self-control arrested by words of strife and discord? 

If such words are love, love me not.

It is written that: "A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit." Proverbs 15:4. ESV

It makes me wonder.  If gentleness brings forth a firmly rooted tree that bears fruit, what does harshness bring forth?  Illness and death?  Indeed, as I consider it, harsh words do bring forth such.  To pervert gentle words, one must color them with unseemly, unkind things.  One must take the time to conjure up the opposite of all that is good and kind and charitable.  One can see how the perverseness of gentleness could break the spirit of another--if, that is--if the spirit of another is the goal and subject of this passage of proverbial warning.

I think, however, this slip of Solomon's wisdom goes deeper than that.  I think it is a sword that cuts both ways.

When a person is the deliverer of harsh rhetoric or criticism, that person is whose spirit is broken--crushed, perverted--is it not?  Their words have so little life within them, they can deliver no blossoms of peace, love, joy, patience, tolerance, kindness, indeed--gentleness.  With every harsh word a person writes or delivers, they blight their own tongue with boils filled with hypocrisy.  When the boil is popped it creates a cancerous venom that touches all who hear it, read it, agree with it, or acknowledge it.  Perverse words then poison the minds and hearts of others.  These "others', in turn, spread the venom as quickly and easily as does the blood cells flowing through the veins of one's leg bitten by a rattlesnake.

However...

when one takes another's venomous spew and returns it with gentle words of kindness and grace and peace, one cuts off the flow of the harsh and hateful.  Gentleness, soft answers, and grace are the scalpels one needs to halt the perverted words of others.   

It is really pitiful when a person has to resort to saying things they feel must be said to hurt another.  It's even more pitiful when one pretends to speak their truth in love.  What truth is found in such? what love?  Just the darkness of one's own spirit is revealed for all the world to see when one resorts to negative words to produce a result one deems as positive and productive.  Does the world need such baseless, pointless, unhelpful words?  I guess in the minds of some.  But not for me, I find myself praying all the harder for such clay vessels of hardened animosity.

May kindness and the true love of Christ penetrate their spirit.  May grace surround their souls and goodness pierce their hearts.  May wisdom break its rod against the drumbeat of their minds and produce a rhythm of thought-filled worthy prose and psalms to calm the spirit of man.  And may their tongues lose their taste for perverseness and find words to soothe the minds of children who drink milk instead of chewing meat.  May the Life of Christ pour forth in humility, abundance and grace.

A more charitable prayer I cannot think to pray. Can you? selahV

IMPRINTS OF LOVE ON MY MIND

An imprint.  A sign, an indelible mark of something impressed upon another thing.  Imprints tell us lots of things.  Here we have a shovel left on the ground from where I'd dug up some iris bulbs for a friend I have.  I thought she could probably get them put in her flower bed early enough to bloom for Spring.  I hope so.  The shovel reminded me that I had put the bulbs in my car and they needed to go in a box and to the post office so they'd make it to her in time for Valentine's Day.  She got them yesterday.  How exciting to know they arrived in time.  Now, next Spring and for years to come, those irises will bloom, and multiply and remind her of the love I have for her. Love does the unexpected.

I know she didn't expect them.

Love sees Spring in the dead of Winter.  Love remembers good things another does.  So many things this friend has done for me.  She's often sent me little gifts in the mail and kept on giving when I, in my neglect, procrastinated and did not send what the Lord had laid on my heart to send her.  But I remember all those things she's done for me, even though I fail to follow through on my intentions.  Love keeps count of all the kindness and generosity it receives.

Sometimes folks say things they wish they had kept to themselves.  Sometimes they leave imprints in another's heart with impressions they wish they could erase, or recall.  Sometimes those impressions must be dug up, unearthed, and replaced with new soil, new seeds of love.  And when a person is blessed with love, they know love forgets when it is wronged.  Love is conscious of another's desires and delights in meeting those desires and sacrifices its own.

Last October my grandsons came over to clean up our back yard and haul stuff to the dump.    They grabbed old buckets, a broken wheelbarrow, and wicker baskets that had long over-stayed their welcome. My overly eager grandsons just wanted to get the job done. They latched onto the lattice pictured in this photo.  I was sick with the flu-bug, and didn't feel like directing the dismantling of my country-dressed yard.  They saw no purpose for various metal posts sticking in the ground that once supported my heavy sunflowers and 8-foot foxglove plants.  Every item they saw was junk.  Only I had personal attachments to various trellis-work and wrought iron I strategically placed in my flowerbeds.  I rescued my bedframes, then gave up.  I was too weak and feverish to stand guard over all the items I wanted to keep.  It didn't matter.  I knew my husband would rather it "be-gone", anyway.

Three days later I made my way out to the yard to survey the uprooted pieces that survived Fall clean-up.  There sat my lattice.  I wanted to lean it up against my litte metal shed and let vines grow over it this summer so it will make a tent of shade for my granddaughters to use as a play house retreat.  When I snapped the picture in the snow, that lattice reminded me once again of the love imprinted upon my husband's heart for me and my quirks.  He knew my desires; he sacrificed his own desire to have a pristine yard, free of mowing encumberments, and my decorating madness.  Why?  To delight me.  And he succeeded.  Love comes in many forms, is spoken in many languages.  We just need to know how to decipher the signs, and interpret the language.  When we look for the best in others, we will find imprints of love no matter the season.    selahV

Will You Be My Valentine?

Valentine's Day is just around the bend.  And for those who are interested I plan to use one of these three pictures for my Valentine's Day post here at SelahV Today.  I'm gonna let you, my readers, choose which picture I write about.  For the record, I have not written a word about any of the photos.  Yet I have a story to tell with each.  So, it's up to you which I talk about.  Just leave a comment and make your pick.  For larger viewing, just click on the photos.  SCROLL DOWN TO PERUSE MY VALENTINES AND MAKE A CHOICE TODAY.  selahV

  

SELAHV'S MINISTRY TO CHILDREN, 4 the Light-Hearted

I am signed up for Tony Kummer's newsletter with his MINISTRY TO CHILDREN blogsite.  Last week I watched a video he linked to showing how to make a Heart-pocket for a Sunday School project.  Well, I don't have a children's Sunday School class to teach.  But I have two very eager project-loving granddaughters who flat-out love it when I sit and make something--anything--with them.  So....Wednesday night our electricity went out again due to our ice-storm, and I ended up spending Thursday with the girls.  They don't have electricity either.  But, they do have a fireplace to keep us toasty warm.  While their mother did office-work for her hubby's construction business, (and later ran errands), Haylee, Kinsey and I made heart-pockets.  They turned out really cute and we had a blast making them.  We did a few extra things with ours that the video didn't show, but to see a great step-by-step instructional presentation, just go HERE.   MORE PHOTOS OF OUR CREATIONS BELOW:

 

Kinsey learns to punch holes.  We used the cutouts to decorate her pocket.  Kinsey pats her hearts on hearts to make them stick good with the glue stick she just used.

We stuck magnetic strip to the back of the heart pockets and put them on the fridge.  Now, we will write Bible verses on hearts and stick them inside the pockets.

SUCH FUN when you don't have electricity.  Don't forget to check out Tony's site above... and articles below.

CREATING NEW LIFE CRAFT  /link

All ya need is Coffee Filters, Clothespins, Colored Markers and Kiddos.

Related articles

MOMMY MAGNETS 4 Mother's Day in 4 Easy Steps

Conversation About Aging

A SIMPLE GOSPEL: "The Light is where Jesus Is"

Let Me Love You, Will Ya?

 
Sometimes we wanna love someone whether they like it or not.  We push ourselves upon them and squeeze their necks and crush them with our love till they cry "uncle".  No wonder folks resist us....sometimes.  selahV