Five Minute Friday - Nothing

OH, Friday, My favorite time of the week.  Lisa Jo's is the place where once a week we take the chance to just write, and not worry if it’s just right or not.

For five minutes flat.

Here’s how the game works: you simply stop, drop and write. Set your words free. Don’t edit them, don’t fret over them, don’t try to make them perfect.

Come take the Five Minute Friday challenge.

1. Write for only five minutes.
2. Link back over at Lisa Jo's and invite others to play along.
3. Go high five the word artist who linked up before you with an awesome comment.

It’s liberating; give it a a try and see.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:

Nothing….

START

Nothing
by Patricia A. Pitterle

I am not nothing and I know it,
Though it's sometimes hard to see.
I've been taught that there is value
In blessings He has given me.

I am a child of Heavenly Father
And my spirit is divine.
I seek to follow in His ways
By doing good and being kind.

I see my faults so clearly
All the darkness, all the sin.
I want to cast them all aside,
Open my heart and let Him in.

I can't seem to find perfection
No matter how I try,
I can't erase what has been done,
Though I wish and hope and cry.

And now, at last, I come to Him
With tears upon my face.
He takes my hand, walks with me
And heals my past disgrace.

I am not nothing, with Him by my side,
He fills my heart with peace.
He teaches me that I have worth
His love will never cease.

I am not nothing, for I know I'm His,
Someday my eyes will see His face.
The past mistakes that I have made
Become as nothing, through His grace.

Stop

Ok, now it is your turn.  What few words can you write in your own five minutes?
Don't forget to come back over to Lisa Jo's and link up with the rest of us so that we can see them.

The Wounds We Give

No one Heals themselves
by wounding another.

We all cry.  Life can be scary or painful or just plain miserable, but at one point or another, we all get hurt.  It is easy to want to lash out at someone else, to want to hurt them like you have been hurt.  I have found in my life, that the more I try and hurt someone else, the more miserable I am.  The friends that become enemies, the tears in the night, the ache in my heart, have all taught me that I will never heal myself by hurting anyone else.  
I love the story of the Prodigal Son.  I love the fact that the father had TWO sons.   Both needed forgiveness and blessings.  One experienced poverty, deprivation and despair.  The other experienced jealousy and envy.  Both received the blessings and love that we needed.  
This life is not about a competition.  If I make it to heaven, it doesn't mean that you won't.  If you make it, it doesn't mean that I can't.  Our Heavenly Father loves us all.  He wants us to return to him.  He cares for us individually.  He knows our hearts, and our pain.  He has "engraven you upon the palms of His hands".  

 "Brothers and sisters, I testify that no one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. I testify that He loves each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. He doesn’t measure our talents or our looks; He doesn’t measure our professions or our possessions. He cheers on every runner, calling out that the race is against sin, not against each other. I know that if we will be faithful, there is a perfectly tailored robe of righteousness ready and waiting for everyone, “robes … made … white in the blood of the Lamb.” Jeffery R. Holland

Wordless Wednesday - Here's Look'in At You!

A single photo 

– no words –

capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment

I want to pause, savor and remember.

A moment

that brings a smile to my lips, 

and joy to my heart.

The Light in the Fridge

If we are not supposed to have midnight snacks,

Why is there a light in the refrigerator?

I must admit, I love to snack.  I could feast on Oreo cookies and chocolate cake several times a day.  I would look like it too!  But I am not sure if the way I would look would completely stop me from doing it.  I do know, that the way I would feel keeps me from eating sweets more than every once in a while.  (As long as I don't buy the packages of Oreo cookies!)

I taught a lesson a week ago on the scriptures and how they are supposed to be a feast for us.  How the Lord never intending them to be something that we turn to every once in a while.  I talked with the girls about what they think of when they think of a feast.  I talked with them about Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays and even Easter.  How, when we think about those meals, we can even smell them in our minds.  We look forward to them with anticipation and with excitement.  We put together the dinners and desserts with love and joy.
The scriptures are very much like a compass or a map or even a GPS.  They will guide us on the path we should go if we will only use them.  Too many of us treat the scriptures like they might be a snack, something we eat every once in a while.  Something that we take out and nibble at from time to time.  But to really feast on them means that we look forward to the light that is in them . We look for that light, we search it, we embrace it, we welcome it.
It becomes the light that leads us home.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.  Psalms 119:105

Insignificant

Never think

That what you have to offer

is insignificant.

There will always be

Someone out there

that needs

what you have to give.

Sometimes, it is hard to be a mom.  At least, I have found it so.  Our society today, wants to know what we are, who we are, who we have become.  We get our pride from our accomplishments in life.  We get our sense of self.  Mostly, those accomplishments are based on what the world thinks are good, and bright, and smart and beautiful.  They are not based on what we find within ourselves.  

For a very long time, I thought that motherhood was somehow not living up to my potential.  I always wanted to be a doctor.  I always wanted to help others.  Instead, I married and helped my husband.  I had many children, I worked at pretty mundane jobs.  I have struggled to find the good in myself.  To realize that I am not insignificant to the world.  

I have learned that motherhood is my most important calling on earth.  I have had the experience of touching the souls of God's children.  Of loving them through their trials. Of teaching them that He loves them.  I have learned, that of all my tasks, this one lasts the longest and means the most.  My heart is full as I watch my grandchildren come into this world one at a time.  It is even more full as I watch my children step up and become amazing mothers and fathers.  

I have learned that there are those in life who need exactly what I have to give.  I have never been insignificant.  

“MOTHERS ARE ENDOWED WITH A LOVE THAT IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER LOVE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.”  Marjorie Pay Hinckley 

You are a child of God who He entrusted to your mother’s care, her hands substituted for God’s as she bandaged a skinned knee or wiped away your tears. Her words of love and wisdom guided you through rough patches, instilling in you the confidence to succeed. The things she taught you became the lessons you now teach to your own children. 

Being a mother is so much more than a biological process. It’s a heavenly job created by God before this life. In heaven, all of us who live now and all who have ever lived on earth lived with God as His spirit sons and daughters. God has a plan that allows all of us to come to earth, acquire physical bodies, and grow through life’s experiences, eventually returning to Him again after we die.

And I leave with you one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon.  This is from the story of the 2000 stripling warriors who were taught by their mothers. No matter how much we might think that what we say does not matter, it does. Our children will remember us.  We will never be insignificant.   

Alma 57:21 Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them.

Stories We Tell

Fears,

Are Stories

We Tell Ourselves.

We all do that, at least,  I think that many of us do.  I have been afraid of so many things in my life.  Afraid of the dark, afraid to try, afraid to succeed, afraid that I would not have any friends, afraid that my friends wouldn't like me.  If you really think about it, there is so very much to fear in our lives.
I am on a vacation with my new Grandson and grand daughter.  I am spending grammy time, without fear.  I am learning to love them and hold them and kiss them and squeeze them and call them both George.  For me, the fears are about being unwanted or unaccepted.  They are about plane crashes and car problems.  They take place fully in the magical realm that is called my imagination.  Part of overcoming the fear, is to beat it, on small step at a time.  It is not easy, but it is so very possible.  In the midst of all my stories of fear, I will try and write, but don't be surprised if we take a little break here.  Babies in my life are amazing things.  They remind me of God's love for each of his children.  They snuggle, they cry, the eat, the wet, all in all, they remember those parts of like that we need to be reminded of every once in a while.
I think babies remind me that they cannot conquer their fears on their own.  It takes a family to calm a child.  It takes a Grammy to hold Alexander and a dad to read Emma Bear her favorite stories.  It takes the mom to get everything ready and to hold hand tickle her precious daughter.
It takes us all to over come the stories of fear that we have told ourselves of why the best cant happen.  Of why we don't deserve this.  Of why it doesn't have the meaning that our hearts know it has.
Fear is what is inside us.  We choose to bury it there in the darkness, or bring it out into the little light and have a little more fun.
Use your imagination for all the good that surrounds us.  Figure out how you can change your own little corner of the world.  How can you share happiness instead of hurt and sorrow.  It is up to each of us to find  the imagination inside that will let us be free.
The dream is ours.  The stories are ours too.  What amazing work of art have you to share?
Make it a masterpiece.  Because when I look at this little man, I know that he is capable of so many more things than I could ever do.  He has not and will never be the fear.  The fear is that I won't know him as much as I want to.
As much as my heart aches to hold him, to whisper stories of his family, to remind him that he will always be loved.  I want fear to have no place in his heart, because his heart is already full of the stories for those who love him best.  Those stories will get him though.  Sometimes love is enough and then some.

Let It Go

-----Learn
-----to let things
-----you cannot control
-----go.

I have several children and grandchildren who love Disney.  We watch all things Disney in our home and probably own most of the movies.  The favorite this year has been the movie "Frozen".  Now, I have to tell you, that you have never seen the movie frozen until you have sat in a living room full of children all singing at the top their lungs (and just slightly off key), the words to the song "Let It Go".  I have grown to love it and it always makes me laugh.  

The message to the song is interesting.  I think that it is partly about pretending to be something you are not, and also about leaving everything behind.  Nether one of those things works for any of us.  We all have things in our lives that we wish didn't happen.  We all wish would could "let it go".  Unfortunately, it never completely goes away.  We learn to move on, we learn to not dwell on it.  We hopefully learn the lesson that we needed.  When we try too hard to pretend to be what we are not, eventually, we are going to not be able to keep it in.  Something has got to give, and usually, that something is us.  

There can be so much hurt in our lives, but there can also be so much sharing and giving and loving, if we will only open our hearts and let it in.  For me, that is the message of frozen, not to let it go, but to let it in.  

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, Let it go
Turn my back and slam the door.

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen.
A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in
Heaven knows I tried.

Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always had to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well now they know.

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn my back and slam the door
And here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let it go, let it go
The cold never bothered me anyway.

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all
Up here in the cold thin air I finally can breathe
I know I left a life behind but I'm too relieved to grieve.

Let it go, Let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, Let it go,
Turn my back and slam the door
And here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let it go, let it go
The cold never bothered me anyway.

Standing - frozen in the life I've chosen
You won't find me, the past is so behind me
Buried in the snow.

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go,
Turn my back and slam the door
And here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let it go, let it go
The cold never bothered me anyway...

Sunday Scribblings - Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not always easy.

At times, it feels more painful

than the wound we suffered,

to forgive the one who inflicted it.

And yet,

there is no peace without forgiveness.

Marianne Williamson

The picture above was of one of my daughters who discovered at the aquarium where we were visiting, that when you put your hands in this fish tank, the fish immediately swim to your fingers and start lightly nibbling.  She loved it once she worked her courage up to try, but no matter how much she told the other girls that it did not hurt, not a single one was willing to put their hand in there for the fishes to taste.  

In this case, there was no wound for her, except for the unbelief of those around her. The peace comes in doing our own individual best, not in convincing anyone else that they need to be just like us.  She had her own amazing experience because she wasn't afraid.  One of my all time favorite scriptures reminds me to trust the Savior in all my fears.  I love this one.  

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

Peace is Better

Be selective in your battles

for sometimes,

Peace is better

than being right. 

Ahh, we have a couple of extra dogs up this weekend.  The biggest one that you see there is Madden.  He is 11 weeks old.  As you can see, he is pretty big already and going to get a lot bigger in a very short period of time.  The little angry dog with teeth is our Yorkie, Yoda.  He is not happy at all with a new bigger dog visiting our house.  He runs around growling and showing his teeth a lot.  Obvioursly, he has not learned when and with whom to pick his battles.  

In his case, it is easy to see how Yoda needs to be a little more selective in his battles.  The rather large puppy might not hurt him now, (although those teeth are sharp as my shoes can now attest!) but Yoda ought to be forming a friendship and not a case of mortal enemies!  Sometimes, peace really is better.

We all have experiences like my little seven pound dog.  We want to be right.  We want to know the answers.  We want to protect our own territories.  We want our kids to not be picked on.  But sometimes, it is better for us to find a way to have peace in our lives rather than always being right.  We learn more by forgiving rather than holding grudges.  Every single one of us make mistakes.  Every single one of us has sinned and every single one of us need the peace of the Saviors love.  

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Misunderstanding

The worst distance between two people

Is misunderstanding.

I am definitely getting older.  When my older children were young, we experienced lots of misunderstandings.  Someone would mutter under their breath, someone else would hear, someone would push or shove or take.  Someone would use words that were not nice.  They could and would make each other cry.  One of my most used expressions at the time was, "if it makes someone else cry, it is not fun or funny!"  I know that they got tired of hearing it, and it took many, many years for them to finally understand (I hope) that teasing is mean.  It is tremendously hard on people to be mad fun of.  It hurts their hearts and their spirits.  We have learned together that the worst distance ever between us is always a misunderstanding.  

In this crazy age of technology, it is easier than ever to develop misunderstandings.  The way we write, the punctuation that we leave out.  The shortcuts we take all lead to misunderstandings.  As I try to teach the young women I am working with at church this principle, I know they think I am old fashioned.  I know that sometimes they tease on purpose.  They MEAN to hurt each other.  That can be the hardest to bear of all.  So I work on teaching them that no matter how angry or hurt they think they are, it is never, ever all right to treat anyone in a way you would not want to be treated.  Even if they treat you that way.  

It hurts my heart when they are unkind to each other.  It is so hard for them to understand that every single moment can help to encourage someone else.  You can literally be the reason that their day changed for the better.  

I found a good scripture for this one in the New Testament.  I hope that it touches you as it has touched me.  May the words we speak always bring happiness to the Lord.  

Colossians 8:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Wordless Wednesday - Dr. E and Baby Brother

 A single photo 

– no words –

capturing a moment from our lives.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment

I want to pause, savor and remember.

A moment

that brings a smile to my lips, 

and joy to my heart.

Building Faith

If the blessings were immediate,

Choosing the right,

Would not build faith.  

This was my daughter last summer learning to boulder.  I can't tell you how many times she fell in the pool.  It was trail and error all evening.  But she tried.  The goal was to climb out of the water and, using her hands and feet, make it over to the other side.  It was so much harder than she thought it would be.  It looked easy, but it really wasn't.  She did not give up, and she actually made it pretty far before the evening was over.   

Now, she believed when she started that it was an easy task.  The blessing of making it to the other side would be immediate.  She wanted to show us that she was strong enough to do something that was that "easy".  She found out that what appeared easy was not easy at all.  The blessing that she was looking for was not to be found.  Yet, she found the tenacity to keep trying.  She had to struggle to get out of the water.  She had to use strength she did not know that she had in order to move fingertip by fingertip across the rock.  

She might not have succeeded quite the way she imagined, but she learned that she could try hard things.  She learned not to give up.  I love that she had the faith in herself to try.

One of my very favorite scriptures comes from the Book of Mormon.  I love it because it reminds me that faith is not knowledge.  It is hope and belief.  It is being willing to do our best even when it is hard.  It is being willing to keep trying even when we fail.  The blessings come after the trials and often in ways we never imagined.  

Ether 12:6   And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

A Piece of Cake

As I've grown older I've learned: 

that pleasing everyone is impossible, 

but making them mad is a piece of cake!

I have a knack for doing things to annoy others. I suppose that is something that we can all say to one degree or another. I always wanted everyone to be happy, to like me, to want to be around me. I suppose that you could say that I wanted to be "popular". I have learned as I have gotten older, that it is not my job to make others happy. It is not my job to be popular. I am however, supposed to be the best that I am capable of being.  One of my favorite scriptures can be found in John, in the New Testament:

John 16:22   And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

 I take this as a promise from the Lord, that although we have sorrow here upon the earth, there will come a day when we will rejoice, when we will have joy.  We all, each of us, go through times of sorrow.  We cannot escape them.  Those times will mold us and shape us and help us to appreciate all the blessings that we are really given.  I find that those times help me to keep everything in the proper perspective.
None of us want sorrow or pain.  Most of us don't like change.  Many times we only see the here and now and not the bigger picture that is our life.  But, if I am honest with myself, I know that those trials are just as important in my development as are the joys.  I just don't like them as much!  So today, I am going to be grateful for the silly, happy, crazy times.  I am going to be grateful for the love of family and the shelter of home.  I am join to be grateful that I can't please everyone, because I know that I really can please Him.
And in that joy, my heart is full.

Those beautiful moments

Live for the moments

You can't put into words.

Enjoy the music.  This is one of my amazing daughters.  She has had so many struggles in her short life, and overcome so very much.  We are indeed blessed with the moments that we have.  

To Make a Difference

To make a difference in someone's life, 

you don't have to be brilliant, rich, 

beautiful, or perfect; 

you just have to care.

Today is my favorite day of the week!  It is Five Minute Friday!  That is where a group of us (a really big group!) get together over at Lisa Jo's place to share five minutes on the same prompt. It is a chance to write your heart out for five minutes without worrying whether it is just right or not.  So, take a few moments and join us.  

This weeks prompt is:

Gratitude

START

There are so many things that I am grateful for, so many opportunities for gratitude in my life.  I used to have a hard time finding positive things to focus on.  It seemed as if so much of my life was negative.  Gradually, I found the negative overwhelmingly pushed away the positive.  I never felt good.  I found myself being critical and constantly judging myself.  I honestly believed that I had no worth.  That nothing I did mattered.  I crawled onto my bed, hid under to covers and waited desperately to die.  

Realizing that I was not in a good place, I forced myself to go and get help.  It was a long road back.  It twists and turns back in on itself from time to time.  Sometimes I am healthy, and sometimes I am overwhelmed with depression.  The one major skill I have learned on this journey is that it is essential to find things in my life to have gratitude for.  They can be small or large, they can be friends or family, they can be beauty or health.  But in finding the small everyday things to be grateful for, my focus has gradually changed.  

The more I focus on gratitude, the more I find to be grateful for.  The more beauty I see, the more I find hiding along the way.  A little bit of thankfulness, breeds even more; until I look at the world around me with entirely new eyes.  I know that I don't have to be perfect.  I only have to be myself and allow Him to use me where He wills.  

Through it all, I have learned that gratitude is not only a blessing, it is a gift that we give ourselves.  It teaches us to really see the world around us.  Gratitude gives us new hearts and new eyes and new understanding.  

I am enough.  He has placed me here and for that, my heart is filled with gratitude.  

STOP

Now it is your turn.  Tell us in five minutes what gratitude means to you.  Don't forget to join us back over at Lisa Jo's to link up your thoughts.  

The Perfect Mother

There is no one perfect way

to be a good mother.

Each situation is unique.

Each mother has different challenges,

different skills and abilities,

and certainly, different children....

What matters most is that a mother

loves

her children

deeply.

Elder M. Russel Ballard

For a few days, I want to talk about real mothering.  Not the kind that you think you ought to do, but really, the kind that we all manage to do.  We live in a society that is filled with photoshopped perfection.  Things that seem real but aren't.  Songs that are sung over and over with bits taken here and there until we have what seems like a perfect whole.  

Being a mother is hard.  It is work.  It is joy.  It is rewarding.  It is still so very, very hard.  

There is the fussy times, the whining time, the tantrum times, the teenage times, the moody times, the joyous times, the laughter, the fun, the picnics, the hikes, the playing, the chores, the cleaning, the family.  

Being a perfect mother is a job that lives in our dreams.  We compare ourselves to this woman so much, that we start to believe more and more, how much we are lacking.  The perfect mother is in our heads, and we really need her to step out of there for awhile.  

I am not perfect.  I tried really hard for a long time and failed miserably, but the one area that I think I have succeeded in is that my children know they are loved.  Every single one of them.  They might not understand how much, or what I am willing to go through for them.  They might not know what I have given up and what I have gained because of them.  But every single one of the has no doubt that they have always been loved.  

I remember the moment when they were each put in my arms and I held them and looked into their sweet baby eyes and smelled their hair and counted their fingers and toes.  I remember how much that small little miracle meant to me.  They have grown since them and many have their own miracles.  I love how your heart just opens up to include them right inside.  I love how part of you is always, always with them, even if they don't know it.  

I love my children, in all the amazing, miraculous moments; through all the trials and heartache and the hurt and sad.  We walk together into the love; and that has always been enough for me.  

The Wrong Turns

So many times, 

I have wished I could have lived my life

without any wrong turns.  

In reality, that path doesn't exist.  

We fall, we get lost, we make mistakes,

We get up and live!

These are a few of my little testaments to living.  They remind me that I am loved, even when I don't feel lovable.  I tend to be very hard on myself.  I remember the mistakes I make.  I would give anything to be able to go back and change them, yet I know, that they have led me to this place with all these little people who remind me that it is okay to not be perfect.  They love me anyway.  

You can see how much fun they are having (and how little attention they are paying to the photographer, who is me!)  They laugh, they giggle, they play, they run, they want to come to my house and be in the woods and spend time together.  They want to help Papa with the fire and the chickens, they want to drink hot chocolate and eat brownies and most of all, they want to snuggle into any lap that can hold them.   My lap expands to hold those children.  My love grows a little more each and every time a new one is born.  

When I look into those faces, I see that no matter how many wrong turns I have taken, those turns have led me right to them.  Right to this single wonderful and beautiful moment.  I was a mother first, then a grandmother.  I made mistakes, but I also taught my children what love really is.  I taught them what being a family means.  I taught them that they are worth so very much.  They, in turn taught their children those things which were most important of all.  It comes right back to me with little hearts and sticky kisses.  I have been so very blessed.  

They teach me to get up and live!!

Step Outside

Sometimes, you need to step outside,

Get some air and remind yourself

Of who you are and who you want to be.

We all have moments when we need to remember who we are.  We need to forget what the world tells us.  We need to put aside the labels and names that others have given us.  We need to find ourselves, no matter who we are.  This beautiful picture is my grand daughter.  She knows exactly who she is, in all her pink princess glory.  She knows where she has been, and where she is going.  She knows that she is a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves her mightily.  

I have spent most of my life learning what this beautiful girl seems to know innately.  We are all, each and every one, children of God, and He loves us.  He wants us to return to His presence.  He wants to bless us.  He wants to nurture us.  He wants us to return to Him.  Sometimes, I get so involved in what I am doing, earning a living, taking care of the kids, running here and there, watching my favorite programs and even blogging, that I forget who I am supposed to be.  I forget who He made me to be.  

"As daughters of God we are each unique and different in our circumstances and experiences. And yet our part matters—because wematter. Our daily contributions of nurturing, teaching, and caring for others may seem mundane, diminished, difficult, and demeaning at times, and yet as we remember that first line in the Young Women theme—“We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us”—it will make all the difference in our relationships and our responses".  Elaine Dalton

Sabbath Day Scribblings - The Sins of Others

Counting other people's sins,
does not make you a saint.

In a BYU devotional address, Professor Catherine Corman Parry gave a memorable scriptural illustration of the consequences of judging by the wrong standards. The scripture is familiar. Martha received Jesus into her house and worked to provide for Him while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His words.

“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

“And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:40–42).

Professor Parry said: “The Lord acknowledges Martha’s care: ‘Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things’ (Luke 10:41). Then he delivers the gentle but clear rebuke. But the rebuke would not have come had Martha not prompted it. The Lord did not go into the kitchen and tell Martha to stop cooking and come listen. Apparently he was content to let her serve him however she cared to, until she judged another person’s service: ‘Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me’ (Luke 10:40). Martha’s self-importance, expressed through her judgment of her sister, occasioned the Lord’s rebuke, not her busyness with the meal” (“‘Simon, I Have Somewhat to Say unto Thee’: Judgment and Condemnation in the Parables of Jesus,” in Brigham Young University 1990–91 Devotional and Fireside Speeches [1991], 116).

Five Minute Friday - Messy

There is no need to be perfect to inspire others.  Let others be inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.  

Oh, it is Friday again and today is the day that I get to post with others over at Lisa Jo's site for five minute Friday.  This is the day we get to clap and cheer for everyone else.  Don't forget to visit the person who posted before you (or two or three) and encourage them in their writing.  

Todays topic is:

MESSY

GO 

My life has been full of messy.  You can't escape it if you have been a mom.  You can't put it aside if you have had to be a single parent (or even a regular parent).  You can't begin to find organization if you have had to work outside the home.  

I had to learn, long ago, that I can't do everything.  I had to decide what to let go of.  For me, it was the mess.

There are many messes in my life.  Some are messes that I caused myself.  Sometimes, I say the wrong words or make a mistake.  I do something I shouldn't.  I forget something I should.  I create, I spill, I develop, I find, messy.

Some are messes that are caused by others.  Our children throw, or play, or make their own mistakes.  The drip, or smear, or get sticky.  Someone at work is sick.  Someone crashes into the car.  The boys have a popcorn fight in the front room.  

Some messes are just life.  We are learning and growing and living.  We are developing faith and trust and hope.  In the midst of life, there are messes.  Having babies, getting sick, getting well, living.  Hugging, kissing, squishing, molding, loving; they all involve some kind of messiness.  And that is perfectly imperfect.  

I look at the world around me and I see wonder in all the messy.  I find love in the chaos.  I am content with the place that God has placed me in.  

Life is good.  Even when it is imperfect, crazy and even a little bit messy.   

STOP

Now it is your turn.  Don't forget to join the rest of us over at Lisa Jo's place.

LIGHT AND DARK

Light and Dark

By Patricia A Pitterle

The sun is waking up.

We see small

Fingers of light

Reaching into the darkness,

Stretching ever upward

As the sun peeks quietly

Over the horizon.

Brightening the world

Around us with

One thin finger,

One spiraling strand,

One magnificent breath, 

Of color and light. 

Soon, the trees

Stand in shadows of twilight

As the sun chases 

The dark away.

The morning glow 

Clothed in beauty 

Becomes a promise 

That the darkness

Will not last forever,

And that the sun 

Cometh in the morning.

Life can be just like

The dawn reminds us of 

The darkest of nights,

As we struggle with trials 

And temptations.

We lose our hopes,

Not seeing past the dark

To the possibility of light;  

Not knowing that rescue is just 

Beyond the horizon.

We are in darkness

For our own moments

Before the dawn.

The Savior sends

Small miracles that become

Light in our lives.

We open our eyes to see,

Our minds to recognize,

And our hearts to bask 

In the light of His love.  

The darkness 

Will not last forever,

And we are promised that joy

Cometh in the morning.