Saw this quiz at The Jungle Hut:
Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.
Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe.
Once when using this spaghetti server, I noticed the little “face” in it. I think this looks like someone riding their bike against the wind:
And this is someone riding with the wind:
Psalm 16 (New King James Version)
1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you have said to the LORD,
“You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
3 As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.
5 O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.
7 I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16 is one of my favorites.
From his prayer for preservation and declaration of trust in the Lord in verse 1, David reminds himself that he has no goodness of his own to trust in or to base his appeal on. He declares his delight in the saints, those who follow God, and states by contrast that he will not follow after false gods. He knows enough of Israel’s history even at that point to know what happened when Israel forsook the one true God to follow false gods and the multiplied sorrows that followed them until they repented.
I love verses 5-6. It hearkens back to the time when Israel finally came to the promised land and every tribe received their inheritance, the “lot” that fell to each. Our inheritance, our lot, is the Lord Himself. Truly the lines fall fallen to us in pleasant places and we have, as the KJV puts it, a “goodly heritage.”
We can bless and thank the Lord for the counsel He gives us through His word and by directing our decisions as we pray. David often writes of meditating on God and His word at night. Many times in bed at night I’ve thought over a problem, prayed about it, and thought on God’s Word in relation to it. What better way to fall asleep — spending time quietly with Him without all the distractions of the day, committing our way to the Lord, and seeking His wisdom, resting in His care.
Verse 8, to me, seems to work in kind of a cycle: “I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” The way not to be moved off course is to set Him always before us. Therefore — because He is before us and will take care of us — our “hearts [are] glad, and our glory rejoices; our flesh also will rest in hope.” His care extends beyond the grave — some day He will resurrect us to a new body (though I know this is specifically talking about the coming Messiah whose flesh would not decay at all.)
I don’t have a “life verse” per se, but verse 11 would be one I would consider if I did. I put that verse on graduation cards because people are then seeking the “path of life” in which they should go at that time, but all of us need to follow along God’s path each step of the way. “In Your presence is fullness of joy.” Amen! What a glorious statement! There is a sense in which we are in His presence all the time, but it’s a different thing to consciously abide in His presence. And when people don’t want to give up the world’s pleasures, I wish they would remember the last line of this Psalm, that at His right hand there are pleasures forever more — pure, holy pleasures, more wonderful than they could imagine.
Thanks again to Erica at Butterfly Kisses for beginning and hosting Psalms Sunday.
I received this story a while back via e-mail and thought it was a good illustration of at least one reason why we have struggles in life: that we may grow and develop through them.
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly by taking a pair of scissors and snipping off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. We could never fly.
Of course, we can’t take the analogy too far — this doesn’t mean no one should ever help anyone through a struggle. The Bible teaches that there are some burdens people are meant to bear, but others that we’re supposed to help each other with. But at least one reason for some of our struggles is the growth and strength we will develop as a result.
Romans 5:3-5: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience
And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
(Photos taken by my husband, Jim at Callaway Gardens Butterfly Conservatory)
Theme: Rare | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll
I really thought I was going to have to sit this one out, because I just could not think of anything rare that I owned or had a picture of. Then I thought of this picture of my husband and I on our 25th wedding anniversary a year and a half ago. It’s rare because we don’t have many pictures of the two of us together, but what makes it more rare is that — this moment never actually happened. 🙂
We had gone to stay at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC for our anniversary and went to visit the Biltmore House. My husband had grabbed batteries for the camera as we were getting ready to go but discovered, as we were trying to set this picture up at the Biltmore House, that the batteries were in fact old, almost dead ones. We only had enough “juice” to take two pictures. In one I was looking away, in the other he was. So, when we got back, I asked my oldest son, proficient in all things related to the computer, if he could Photoshop the two images — and he did. Pretty cool, huh?
Kelli from There’s no place like home has begun a “Show and Tell Friday.” She says, “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, a new antique find, an old love letter. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better!
If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky.”
I thought it was a lovely idea! I decided to show my collection of heart-shaped things — I hope it is ok to show a collection rather than just one thing. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. These have been collected over the years: some were gifts, some were souvenirs, some were just found treasures.
I have a few shelves with pegs like this for heart-shaped ornaments to hang from. The one on the right is a souvenir from Charleston, SC.
Various heart-shaped things or things with hearts on them collected through the years, many of these from craft shows. The hanging ornament on the left is a souvenir from Charleston, SC.
The little wooden houses have hearts on them. I love the house shaped potholder with the heart in it — couldn’t use it for it’s designated purpose because it was too pretty for that! That design reminds me of Psalm 101:2b: “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.” That’s a very convicting verse, but so needed.
A button wreath I made.
A little heart-shaped vase, but it looks lovely without flowers.
Heart-shaped shelves from Home Interiors ages ago.
Little shabby chic planter from ebay.
Heart-shaped jewelry.
Heart-shaped serving platter.
Heart-shaped muffin pans.
A sample from the muffin pans. 🙂
Heart-shaped bowls in the Tea Rose pattern from Pfaltzgraf.
Little pillow from clearance section at the Hallmark store.
Visit Kelli’s for more “Show and Tell” and to share your treasures.
On Wednesday, May 2 I will be hosting an interview with Lynn Bowen Walker, author of Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker AND I will be giving away a copy of her book to a commenter on that particular post that day. You do not have to have a blog to enter — just comment on that post. I will draw names from among all the commenters on Thursday morning.
I had one friend who is a “super-homemaker” think this book was not for her since she didn’t feel uninspired or domestically challenged. Well, I think there are plenty of tips, thoughts, great quotes, and ideas that even super-homemakers would benefit from the book. 🙂
Hope to see you Wednesday!
1. Not everything you face can be changed, but everything you change must first be faced.
2. Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. — Dale Carnegie
3. Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless. — Thomas Edison<
4. You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.
5. If there’s no wind, row.
6. The best way to forget your own problems is to help someone else with theirs.
7. The best thing to do behind a friend’s back is to pat it. — Ruth Brillhart
8. Be kind. Every person you meet is fighting a hard battle.
9. Fall seven times. Stand up eight.
10. God gives and forgives. Man gets and forgets.
11. We don’t have to attend every argument we’re invited to.
12. The pain of self-discipline is less than the pain of regret.
13. Don’t believe everything you think.
Bonus: The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.
Bonus #2: How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong — because someday in life you will be all of these.
–George Washington Carver
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The question for today is:
No, I really don’t choose by books according to the season except I might read a book whose setting is Christmas around Christmastime if I happen to see one out around then that looks interesting. Otherwise I choose my reading based on what my favorite authors have out, what I have seen recommended by others, and what I just happen upon that looks interesting.
Join the Booking Through Thursday meme here.
Forgive me for being not-so-wordless today. 🙂 This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Jesse from about eleven years ago, and I just rediscovered it while looking for another picture a few days ago.
This may sound strange, but, even though I love the young man he is becoming, there are times I still miss this little guy.
See more Wordless Wednesday photos at 5 Minutes For Mom and the Wordless Wednesday Hub.
Stray Thoughts 
