Grace

God's hand of favor on us....undeserved.

Zinnias

My devotional this morning was about violets and zinnias. A very simple and interesting comparison for our daily spiritual lives. Flowers are beautiful and brighten our yards and homes and are a wonderful uplifting sight in the spring and summer. Violets must be constantly encouraged though. Roses tend to bruise easily, azaleas have to have just the right conditions, and gladiolas will break.

The zinnia, however, is brightly colored, pretty, and needs no special attention. It blooms day after day after day without any encouragement, pampering, or special care.

Am I like the zinnia in my spiritual and physical and emotional daily life? Depending only on God and rooted in Him and just taking one day at a time? That's a new goal for me...to be like the zinnia and not like the violet that must be constantly encouraged.

Life Has Loveliness to Sell...

A portion of one of my favorite poems....

BARTER
by Sara Teasdale

Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,
Music like the curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Riding in a Vette at 9 Months Pregnant (A Memory)

Seeing an old friend this week brought back several memories of seminary days and pregnancy days. I had two babies during our three years of seminary in New Orleans. My friend, Lucy, and I were pregnant at the same time and actually were due just a week apart. Back in those days we didn't find out the sex of the baby. Not done at all. But it was quite nice for both of us as we ended up having boys about a week apart.

Now, let me tell you, being pregnant in New Orleans in the summertime is hard work and miserable. For the most part I felt good but I had to get in the shower several times a day with totally cold water...no hot at all added to it. It was refreshing and gave me a little break.

Lucy and I loved going to the pool on the campus because, even though we were SO big, we could float in that pool in the smooth cool water and feel like we weighed only 100 lbs. NOT 150 lbs. Haha. One day we had to use her husband's car...it happened to be a Corvette, of course a convertible. We drove up to the pool and all anyone could see was two 20-something girls with long red hair (Lucy is a redhead also). There was no view of our huge pregnant tummies. Oh I wish I had a video of that moment when we huffed and puffed and pulled ourselves out of that low-sitting car. The men's faces were quite funny...not what they expected to see. We waddled over to the pool and got in (making quite a big wave in the water) and sighed with relief. One bad-mannered seminarian chose to say at that moment something about "whale on the beach" as if in warning everyone else.

Ah well, fond memories. Lucy and I babysat for each other and spent much mommy time together and then even proceeded to get pregnant again at the same time and have our second children just a month apart...she had another boy and I had my girl. That little boy is getting married this weekend. Hard to believe 23 years have passed so quickly.
Here we are at not quite our biggest point...but big enough!!