Mornings I Dream Of

It's Friday evening. The last Friday of August 2013! Where did the SUMMER go? I've got a meat loaf in the oven, potatoes boiling on the stove, and some green beans "marinating" in some garlic. 

 

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I haven't been coming here to share my thoughts or pictures, but I have been taking the pictures and writing the words. It's been good to just go back. Back to the simple place where the words and memories are just mine. Still, I've missed this and I know I'll miss the fact that I don't have pretty posts to look back on. 

 

So, this morning, I did what I've been doing. I grabbed some paper and a pen and I wrote until I didn't have anything to write....

 

 

 **************

 

 I'm on the back patio. The sun is up and just barely beginning to take the chill out of the air. The sky is becoming a deep blue, fading slighting to a lighter shade at the horizon. It's not even eight o'clock yet, but the birds are chirping, dogs are barking, and I've heard trucks and planes heading off to do the day's work. 

 

 

I had one simple thought this morning- I've been up for several hours and yet I stayed in my room waiting for this hour to come. When things were still upstairs, I came up and began a familiar ritual of gathering and starting laundry. I love doing that "first thing". And so, doing what I love and knowing that I love it, I began to dream up my favorite mornings....

 

I dream of mornings where the house is quiet and still. A place of peace and joy awaits anyone who will rise to have it as their own.

 

 

 I dream of mornings where there is coffee to brew and some sort of breakfast ready to be warmed. I made a breakfast casserole Tuesday night and I've loved eating it here and there throughout the week. I think I've had it at breakfast time only this morning - but I love that it's there. 

 

Some mornings, I dream of baking. On Wednesday morning, that's just what I did. I made cinnamon rolls by myself for the first time. I took my time and had them ready just as my brother and sister began to stir for the day.

 

 

I dream of mornings where it's cool enough and warm enough and dry enough to begin them out on the patio. Perhaps with a book, a Bible, my breakfast, or even some paper and a pen, like today. 

 

And these morning that I dream of aren't about being alone - they are about being surrounded. They are  about feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit and basking in the delights that God has placed around me in this earth that He created. 

 

As the breeze picks up I am reminded that the quiet mornings and a quiet heart hold a peace and joy that can be shared. 

The best part about these mornings that I dream of, is that I simply have to show up. These are God's mornings and my dream is really just to join Him. 

 

 

Frankly Friday: Don't Give Up

You know the feeling when you've basically been doing SOMETHING all day...Really, it was more like one thing after another with a break thrown in here and there? That's a good feeling! But then, there's that feeling followed by looking around and realizing that you've still got a MAJOR MESS on your hands. 
I really don't like that feeling. 
I'll be HONEST. I had that feeling yesterday. When the day was over I just felt like I was covered in FILTH from head to toe, but I didn't even feel like taking a shower. I couldn't really relax because everything was a mess. Stuff...Stuff...Stuff!!!
Eventually, I ate some food, I took a shower, and I ignored the stuff and did some relaxing. Some friends came over for banana splits and then I ended up falling asleep watching "Always a Bride".
As Christians, we can get this way. We TRY so hard. We WANT to be fixed on God. We LOOK for the areas that we're coming up short. And then, we find ourselves TIRED. Certain we're a HOPELESS mess. 
We're a mess alright, but never HOPELESS. 
Over the last few weeks, one verse keeps coming up. I really need to sit down and read the CONTEXT, but for now, I'll share it with you. I printed it off along with some other words so that I could look at it. The verse goes like this: "...If you're not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." Isaiah 7:9. 
That simple sentence says so MUCH! Words I need to hear. I can't remember if I shared my thoughts here, but I journaled up a storm...God is faithful and His call on my life can pretty much be summed up in the fact that He calls me to be FAITHFUL. 
Here me - we definitely need to be CONCERNED and working out our salvation. And yet, we also need to TRUST in the God who is behind it all. 
I don't have the balance figured out. I can't even leave you with some nice, neat sentence that sums it all up. Frankly, the mess surrounds me, I am my own mess, and I know that God is at work. 
There's just one thing left for me to do: DRINK. I need God's Word, God's people, and my weakest area: to PRAY. 
Don't give up! 

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

Your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast You save, O Lord.

How precious is Your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

     They feast on the abundance of Your house,

and You give them drink from the river of Your delights.

For with You is the fountain of life;

in Your light do we see light.

              Psalm 36:5-9

Where You Can Find Me

I know, I know...SILENCE and then TWO posts in one day? Terrible. 
A few weeks ago, I read a copy of Meg Moseley's book "Gone South" for WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers. I must have really liked it because it only took me a few days (remember what I said earlier? It usually takes me forever to finish a good one because I never want it to end). I was always looking for a place to sit...The couch with a blanket during rainy days, a shady spot on the front porch on HOT afternoons, and I even laid out a few times while I read this book. 

I liked "Gone South" because
1) It takes place in the south. Noble, Alabama to be exact. I'll be honest, I've never spent much time in Alabama, but with the south comes so many things that I LOVE. 
2) There was a bit of mystery surrounding family history. I'm always up for a mystery and one of my favorite subjects is the personal history book that every person happens to be. 
3) The story centered around a lady naive enough to lend a helping hand because it's right, PERIOD and no matter what. 
4) Moseley can write. I got inside the minds of several of the characters...I wondered about some things (I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin it for you)  right along with the main character, and I was caught wondering how far was too far in the whole lending a helping hand dilemma I mentioned . 
Get the book HERE. 
I've never even heard of Meg Moseley before, but I'll be keeping my eyes open for more of her books! 
I've moved on to "The Help". I know everyone else probably read it already, but I've been reading it since last Friday or so and it is just soooo good. On top of that, I've been making things like sweet tea, lemonade, BBQ,  corn bread, fried chicken, sweet milk gravy and mashed potatoes, and fried steak....
Now you're probably hungry, but at least you have some great books to check out if you're interested! Right? 

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and comments are my own. 

The Summer Stack

I've definitely become more of a reader over the last few years. I've always enjoyed reading...I just tend to be a tad picky about what I'll read and then I take my time through each book because I never want them to end! 
This summer, I've had a growing list of things to read. I decided to stack the books together to get a picture. Turns out I've already made pretty good progress over the last month. 

What I have is quite a mix: "good story" fiction, theology, mystery, and some older books that I haven't managed to read before. 
There are some books not pictured here because I'm going to have to get them from the library or a book sale. There is at least one book that is a re-read that I need to dig out. And I am SURE that there are other books that will be added to the pile. 
What's in your summer stack? 
What should be added to mine? 
Another confession? I'm saving a few of these for LATE summer. I'll be holding off on Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon and Platt's Follow Me until at least September. By then, I'll be saying goodbye to summer (maybe) and hello to fall. Fitzgerald's seems like a nice "goodbye" book because it isn't completed and it was the last book of Fitgerald's that was published. Platt's seems like a nice "hello" book because I am sure that it will speak life to my soul. 
So there you go. Hope you're getting some good reading in too! 

Promises

If there is ONE thing in my soul that needs to be worked on each day, it is this:
hope in God...
Hoping in God sustains us.
Hoping in God gives us joy and peace and contentment.
Hoping in God is our security.
Hoping in God gives us purpose. 
Hoping in God is ours in Jesus. 
Yet...I can at least speak for myself here...So often we worry (with or without God), question, fret, and a whole slew of other things that leave us as ships ready to be tossed by whatever wave happens to come our way next. 
I went to write out a verse in Lamentations about the mercies of God being new every morning. As I copied it down, I decided to read the verses around it. And that's when my mind turned right back to that familiar place: 
hope in God...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

Lamentations 3:22-24

 The steadfast love is with us, His mercy is always new, He is faithful, He is our portion...We have so many reasons to hope and when we have come to the end, to hope some more. 
Hope in God...You won't be disappointed!