SelahV Today by hariette petersen

Snippets, Snaps, and Saturday

Saturdays are great.  Hubby is home and we eat breakfast TOGETHER!!  Woo-hoo!  I think I'll make Chocolate Gravy and biscuits.  Mmmmm, Mmmmn, Good!

Sometimes, when I feel up to it, we go somewhere like Lowe's, or Wal-Mart.  I use to love to go junkin'.  No more.  Got enough junk.  And walking isn't worth the pain.  However, if it ever cools down in Oklahoma, I plan to take a walk every day and take photos as I go.

For the "Snippets and Snaps" in my post title, I invite you click on my little collection of thumbnail photos (below), and read the little snippets I write beneath each snapshot.  Click on the photo and it will enlarge for you.  I'm by no means a professional, or as good a photographer as my granddaughter, Bethany.  However, I do have a discerning eye for visualizing the extraordinary in an ordinary moment.

So, grab a cup of java and go visit SelahV's Pics and see if you agree.  After all, it's Saturday.  If my hammock looked like this, I might be tempted to take an afternoon nap. 

THIRTY-NINE YEARS LATER, I still remember

It was 2:00 a.m. when my water broke and began the most amazing, gratifying, joy-filled, gut-wrenching, heart-rending 33 years, 5 months, 13 days and 2 hours of my life.  My son, Chad, was born this day, August 25th and I so miss the sparks, flames, and warmth that his life kindled in my heart.  I cannot begin to write what I truly feel.  I just know that though the world keeps turning, the moon keeps shining, the sun keeps rising, and his two little girls keep changing shoe sizes each year, I still remember how vital he was to my life.  How much I miss his hugs--of seeing the joy he grabbed from every moment of life.

I long to be with him in glory.  I long to see his face once more.  Occasionally, the Lord gives me dreams of him--such sweet moments in the stillness of my nights.  Sometimes I recall a particular phrase he eternalized in my mind.  And I smile.  I remember one in particular that he coined from some movie, I've been told.  But when I felt defeated and thought I just couldn't go on anymore with a situation, challenge or task, he would change his voice and say, "You can dooooo it, Momma."  And it gave me the energy to tackle life with his spiritual wind at my back.

That tad of encouragement has often come to me in moments when grief seems too much to bear.  When seeing his girls grow up without him.  When I need to be a part of something that he should have been in attendance for--my heart wants to run.  But I hear his voice--"You can doooo it, Momma."  And by the grace of God, and through Christ who strengthens me, he is right.

"Happy Birthday, my son.  Tell Jesus thank you for making it possible for us to see one another again when my days on earth have come to a close."  Love ya, bunches and bunches, and until then I'll just keep on "remembering the good times".  Momma

April Fool's Day Came Early in Oklahoma

We could call it a fluke.

Today it's 31 degrees and snowing on the first day of Spring in southern Oklahoma.

Amazing.  Simply amazing.

Just two days ago it was 72 degrees and my granddaughters were marveling at ladybugs and racing to find plastic eggs you now see buried in the snow.

Such is life.  So unpredictable.  Isn't it wonderful to know that God is in control?   selahV

COMMUNICATION BREAKTHROUGH

Ever have an impasse in communicating?  Ever find yourself totally incoherent to the public at large?  If you're anything like me, you may wonder if your problem is due to all the time you've been spending with children.  Perhaps your vocabulary skills have taken a beating, turned your mind into mush, and your conversations into gibberish.  Needless to say, communication is an art.  With folks who do not want to hear, no amount of paint will a portrait make.  Etchings, maybe--but not a complete picture of two individuals' seeking to talk to one another, instead of pass one another.

Today, I stumbled upon a quote I archived months ago.  I think it may be a part of the reason for an impasse--especially if the object or your imperfection is a close friend and their typical abruptly takes on characteristics that are untypical in your relationship.  Tell ya what, read Cyle's quote; and I'll meet you at its end.

"I listen more, but hear less from people. The reason I hear less from them is because I’m intentionally trying to hear more from God. I find that God speaks to me through many people, people who have many different lines drawn in the sand. I listen to them, but all the time I’m listening for God. He’s the only one who can clarify the lines. So, I spend more and more time trying to understand His Word. I spend more and more time trying to hear Him, not just to listen to Him or them."  Cyle Clayton

So here's my take on times I find myself fruitless to communicate my thoughts to someone I count dear and precious.  They are like my friend Cyle from Louisiana.  They are seeking a higher plain on which to dwell.  They are going where I cannot.  They are resting by waters I cannot still.  They are feasting at a table I cannot set.  They are more interested in what God has to say to them than what I have to say.  And that, my friends, is a good thing.  In fact, it is a communication breakthrough.  Don't you think?

When we give another Christian brother or sister the benefit of the doubt, we draw closer and closer to the heart of God.  If we can't, can there be integrity, at all?  anywhere?  with anyone?  Can loyalty be owned, or trust increased, when one or both give up, or gather fan clubs for support?  I don't know.  I'm just asking.  And who am I to say?  selahV 

A FEW THINGS I HATE

COMPUTER PROBLEMS  In reality, it's my inability to understand what to do to solve the problems that I loathe.

PHOTOS STUCK IN THE COMPUTER  They're in there.  I can see them in Windows Gallery.  I just can't retrieve them for my posts or to my "paint" program to edit them.  Drives me nuts.

VISTA  I think this is the culprit of all my computer woes.  Maybe not, but it's definitely part of my woes. 

LIES  You know.  When people say one thing but cloak their words so cunningly that the lie is widely accepted as a truth.  This is probably highest on my list.  I have enough trouble trying to understand truth without having to figure out if what someone is saying is a lie clothed in half-truths.

ABORTION  It just ain't right.  And to hear someone like Whoopi Goldberg say she is for it, about drives me wacko.  How can anyone be "FOR" abortion?  God have mercy.

These are just a few things.  What do you hate?  selahV