they say (whoever they may be?) that into every life a little rain must fall.  Now I know that this is true, and I prefer my rain to fall in the front yard or the back yard or even the driveway, although nothing is growing there.  But I do not want the rain to fall in my basement.  Yet this is precisely what it has done; fallen there and settled there.  This is not good.

What is good is that I don’t store up treasure in my basement, only junk (which as you know from earlier posts, dear readers, is apparently no one’s treasure).  So now I am the proud collector (we savers prefer the term collector to hoarder as the latter has such negative connotations) of wet junk.  A dubious distinction at best.

I know the rain will continue to fall, I just wish it would stay out of my basement! Fortunately, my true riches, my dearest treasures, are securely stored somewhere else, somewhere safe — so I can rest easy.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”  (Romans 11:33)

“My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  (Colossians 2:2-3)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:19-21)

sincerely,      Grace Day

ever play that game where you are asked a series of questions like ” if you could be a car would you be a . . . or a . . . ?  if you could be an animal would you be a . . . or a . . . ?  Well, if you had to choose between being a skyscraper or being a bridge, what would you choose?  Skyscrapers stand out and get a lot of attention.  They are noticed and they are named.  They become famous landmarks of the land they tower over.  People even travel great distances just to see them and to take their picture.  Skyscrapers are nothing new or modern.  We have been building skyscrapers since the days after Noah and his family survived the flood. Remember the tower of Babel?  And why were the people building this tower?  to make a name for themselves.  Just like the skyscraper they were building, they wanted to be famous.  That is the nature of a skyscraper.  Ironically, our quest to search out skyscrapers usually involves travel over bridges of some kind at some point.

So what about bridges you ask?  Some of them are famous and some of them have names as well.  I like the definition of bridge that reads, “something that is intended to reconcile or form a connection between two things”.  I found this Hindi definition of bridge to be quite telling; it states, “something that fills in the gap between two people or things, acts as a connection between them, makes it easier for the differences or disagreements between them to be reduced or overcome.”

A noble purpose for sure.  We’ve all heard the expression, “bridging the gap.”  And there are certainly a lot of gaps in my life and in the life of the culture that we live our daily lives in that need bridging — big time.  Bridges enable us to get from point A to point B; they provide the necessary connection.  Some distances that need “bridging” are greater than others; some are physical distances, while some are distances of the heart, resulting in distances in my relationships with others with whom I long to be connected.  But all bridges are vital to those that depend on them. Would I want to be a bridge?  Bridges get walked on and worn out.

Skyscrapers get admired.  They stand out and make a name for themselves.  They compete with each other for the honor of being the tallest.  Sure they sometimes block out the sun (and also the sunrise and sunset) obstructing our view of the horizon, but does that matter?  We have to navigate our way around them, they are an obstruction in our path.  A bridge, on the other hand, provides a path for us, connecting us to where we want to be.

So I can’t avoid the fact that I’m called to be a bridge.  To stand in the gap, or more accurately to lay down in the gap, in order to provide a way of connection.  To be a bridge is to lay down not to rise up.  When I elevate myself, I become a barrier when what is needed is a bridge.  We are in need of bridges everywhere.  Bridges are needed in my workplace, my church, my neighborhood, my family . . .  there are too many barriers and not nearly enough bridges as it stands now.

This means every morning when I rise up, I have to purposefully lay my life back down again lest I become a barrier instead of a bridge.  The world tells me to stand up, to stand up for myself, to make a name for myself.  But I think of John the Baptist’s words in John 3:30, “He (Jesus) must become greater; I must become less.”

Jesus is the ultimate, eternal bridge for me and for you for all time.  “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ”  (John 14:6)  Jesus came to provide me with the way to God that I sought but could not find.  The tallest skyscraper man can build (even the tower of Babel, which they wanted to reach the heavens) cannot get me close enough to reach heaven or to know God.

As it turns out, I don’t need a skyscraper to reach heaven or to know God, I need a bridge; something or someone to provide me with the connection that I seek.  Jesus is my connection, He is my bridge.  He is the One who reconciles me to my Creator. Just like in the Hindi definition of bridge, Jesus has overcome the differences and disagreements between a sinful me and a Holy God.  And He is still actively bridging the gap for me!  ” . . . Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)  He is daily pleading my case for me with God!

It is Jesus who takes away my desire to be a skyscraper and gives me the ability to be a bridge.  He shows me how to lay down my life each day and be a bridge because He did it first.  Jesus said,  “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from My Father.”  (John 10:17-18)

My culture tells me, “don’t be a doormat, don’t let people walk all over you!”  well, in John 10:9 Jesus says, “I am the door; if any one enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”  So if in order to enter in at “the Door” that leads to eternal life, people have to walk on me to access the door, (after all, that’s the purpose of a doormat, isn’t it?) then I have served God’s higher purpose for me by laying down rather than rising up.

Lord, let me be a bridge that leads people to You.  Bridges get walked on, that is their sole purpose.  May I lay down in the gap and allow souls to find You by being the bridge along their broken road, the connection over their chasm, which separates them from You and Your love for them.  Every day when I rise, help me to lay down my life in Your service.

sincerely,       Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t say whether it was because the road was closed and I had been forced to take an unexpected detour or because when I arrived the shop was a totally different color, even the door, than when I had seen it last, making me doubt for a second whether I was in the right place or not.  But whatever the reason, I entered without even glancing at the one hundred fifty gallon tank just inside the door.  This was out of character for me because normally I greeted the occupant of the tank before engaging with anyone else.

Had I bothered to look, I would have seen that the tank was empty.  I would have known in that moment that Edmond was gone.   But I didn’t look and so I proceeded to make conversation with the beauty shop owner as if nothing was amiss, as if nothing was changed in our ordinary day to day world.  The empty fish tank however, silently told a different story.

Now Edmond was a real people person (well except for the fact that he was a fish). Edmond had personality plus, poise, pizzazz; he was a real people pleaser if you will (again except for the fact of him being a fish).  Edmond got along great with people but not so much with other fish.  Actually, Edmond ate other fish.  Now you understand why he had the one hundred fifty gallon tank all to himself, don’t you?  So Edmond lived alone but he wasn’t lonely at all.

Edmond was the shop’s official mascot and greeter.  Everyone paid their respects to him as they entered and exited the shop.  He was also quite the topic of conversation and provided entertainment of sorts to waiting customers.  Edmond fulfilled his many duties faithfully each day as only he could.

Edmond was far from his original home.  He was a Red Devil Cichlid from Africa. His most distinguishing feature and my favorite, was the large knot or hump on the top of his head.  This gave him the appearance of being a thinker, of being deep in thought at all times, kind of a furrowed brow thing going on.  Personally, Edmond reminded me of Winston Churchill.  He just needed glasses and a bow tie.

I never thought that I was particularly attached to Edmond until the day he wasn’t there to greet me and to bid me farewell.  Edmond is the only fish I have ever known.  All my pets have been of the four-legged, furry variety, able to be held and petted and played with.  Turns out Edmond could do two out of those three.  He would swim up to the surface so his owner could pet him and he would follow my finger back and forth along the glass side of the tank.

I always felt Edmond understood me.  Again, probably because of that large knot on his forehead, giving him the look of the super intelligent.  It was like he had an oversized brain.  And in his wisdom, Edmond was a fish who kept his own counsel. He was privy to all the secrets shared daily in the beauty shop between cutter and customer.  Yet we could know that our secrets were safe with Edmond.  (after all, he lived alone in that big tank — who was he going to tell them to anyway?)

So I guess Edmond has taken my secrets with him to his grave.  I miss him.  Of all the fish in all the oceans, and all the lakes and all the rivers of the world; I had the privilege of knowing a fish named Edmond.  And Edmond had the honor of being known by name to many humans.  How many fish can put that on their resume? Before I met Edmond, I never knew there was such a thing as a Red Devil Cichlid fish.  Edmond stands (swam) as a testament to the infinite diversity and creativity of his Creator which surrounds us here on earth.  We just have to open our eyes to behold and to witness the beauty in all that He has made.  And when we do, we see that it is good!

“And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures,’  . . .  So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, . . .  And God saw that it was good.”  (Genesis 1:20-21)

“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”  Cecil Frances Alexander

Edmond, you were both wise and wonderful!  I will miss you.

sincerely,       Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

eternity is in every moment of my everydays because God is in every moment of my everyday and He is eternal — He is eternity

” ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’ ”  (Revelation 1:8)

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.”  (Acts 17:28)

“Does He not see my ways and count my every step?”  (Job 31:4)

“O Lord, You have searched me and You know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise;  You perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; You  are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.  You hem me in — behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”  (Psalm 139:1-6)

 

yes, I continue my recently acquired relationship with this new, oddly named sport and it is growing on me.  I mean, with a name like pickleball how high could my expectations be, anyway?  This sport does involve a ball but the ball is not shaped like a pickle (that would be awkward).  It is a green color however, so maybe that is the inspiration for the name.  Although a tennis ball is the same green color and tennis wasn’t called pickleball.  Maybe this is just one of those mysteries of the universe better left unsolved.

Now I must confess to you that pickleball really isn’t all that perilous, I just said that for dramatic effect.  In fact, pickleball has far more pleasures than perils or pitfalls, which is probably why it is so popular.  A combination of tennis, ping-pong and badminton- pickleball has something for everyone.  I think it is the ball that is the ‘pitfall’.  The pickleball seems to have a mind of its own and doesn’t always go where I think it is going to go.  It seems to delight in making me look foolish as I swing and miss it entirely.

But at this point I have another confession to make to you, dear readers.  When I play pickleball I don’t wear my glasses!  (and I don’t wear contacts)  Neither my teammates nor my opponents are aware of this little known fact.  Lately I have begin to ponder the question of just how much might my playing of pickleball improve if my vision was suddenly improved by simply wearing my glasses? Maybe it’s not the fickleness of the pickleball after all?  Maybe it’s my lack of clear vision that has been clouding my perception and impacting my ability to play the game?

Kind of hard to hit a ball that I am not seeing clearly!  No wonder my on court reactions to the approaching pickleball are off.  Too slow, too quick, hit too hard, not hard enough, always off in some aspect.  How could I have been so blind to this obvious fact?  Not unlike my off the pickleball court experience with the situations and the people in my everyday life.  I need to have clear vision in order to truly see circumstances and people as they are and interact with them based on this accurate assessment.

Now I am reminded of Matthew 7:3-5, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Some translations call the “plank” a beam or a log.  But whatever it is called, the meaning is the same and it is not lost on me.  I am playing pickleball with less than perfect vision and I am living my life with less than perfect vision as well.  I view my current circumstances from my limited, earthly perspective because I do not have my Heavenly Father’s unlimited, eternal perspective from which to view them.  I view those around me from an outward perspective rather than as 1 Samuel 16:7 tells me God sees them.  “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

My co-workers, friends, family have nothing to worry about.  I will never see any specks that might or might not be in their eyes because I will never be “plank free” in my own eyes.  I do however want to learn to see them as God sees them, His cherished children, created in His image.  I want to learn to see with my heart.  (It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Antoine de Saint Exupery)

I want my heart to see clearly and in so doing to see the hearts of others, not just their outward appearance.  My physical vision will get worse with age.  But that doesn’t have to be the case for my faith’s vision.  The eyes of my God given faith can get clearer and clearer the longer and the closer I walk in the ways of my Heavenly Father.   So even as the one grows cloudy the other grows more clear.

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.”  (Psalm 119:18)

“Once more Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes.  Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”  (Mark 8:25)

“The Lord gives sight to the blind,”  (Psalm 146:8)

Lord, give me eyes of faith, to see what You would show me and to follow where You would lead me.    amen

sincerely,      Grace Day

 

 

 

 

I am broken.  Sometimes I’m more aware of it than at other times, but I am broken nonetheless.  There was the time I broke my foot, the time I broke my wrist and was in a cast for what seemed such a long time.  Those injuries along with lots of others have healed over time although there is always the possibility of new injuries taking their place.  But living with broken bones is a piece of cake compared to living with a broken heart.

I wish I could protect my heart but I haven’t figured out how yet.  Even hard hearts shatter, breaking into a million pieces.  Only a loving Heavenly Father can restore such a heart.  But living in this broken, sinful world, it seems a broken heart is unavoidable.  So I am living my life with a broken heart.  Broken dreams, broken relationships, brokenness over my own sin and broken by the sin of others, I am walking wounded in this world.  Broken over love lost, broken by injustice, cruelty and the suffering that surrounds, broken by careless words and by my own inability to heal another’s pain; these  all ensure a constant state of brokenness from which I must live this life.

Jesus said it is the sick who need a doctor, sinners who need a Savior and that’s why He came (Mark 2:17).  Jesus came to enter into our brokenness and restore us, not so much physically, although He often did that, but to restore us spiritually. When I realize again just how broken I am, I don’t feel very beautiful or very valuable or very useful.  Then I have to learn all over again that it is precisely my brokenness that allows me to be used by Jesus for His purposes.

Our culture doesn’t value brokenness, but Jesus does.  “But He (the Lord) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ ” (2 Corinthians 12:9)  This means He can use me in my broken state, which is a good thing because that seems to be the only state I know and live in.

2 Corinthians 4:7 reminds me that ” . . . we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not  from us.”  (me)  This “treasure” of God’s Holy Spirit living in me (I am the jar of clay or the earthen vessel) is both light and life to me.  If I am broken His light can shine out through all my cracks and holes to reveal His love to others.

It’s like the battle Gideon and his men fought with only trumpets and clay jars with torches in them.  When the jars were broken, the light contained and hidden in each jar was suddenly revealed and God’s purposes for that battle were accomplished.  The usefulness of the jars was in their brokenness, not in their strength or in their wholeness.

Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  . . . apart from Me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5)  But Jesus says if we remain in Him, He can use us, we will bear much fruit.  He also says, “On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”  (John 14:20)  Connection – that’s the key. Even as a broken branch, as long as I remain attached to the Vine, His light and life will flow through me, no matter how battered, how bruised or how broken I am.   That’s the beauty of a broken branch – Christ in me, my hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

If my heart holds God’s Holy Spirit, then my broken heart is necessary to let His light shine out through all the broken pieces that my Redeemer will one day put back together for good.  But for now broken is better.  Broken is beautiful.  Broken is what lets the light out instead of holding it in where no one can see it and benefit from it.  The beauty of a broken branch is that it can be used by God.

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why , for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

sincerely,          Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

I continue to be reminded that God leaves no doubt.  He left no doubt in His dealings with mankind in the past and He continues to leave no doubt today.  Two such instances I recently recounted in past posts, “while the world watched” (about the boys’ soccer team rescue from the cave) and “full circle-a glimpse beyond the glass” (which tells the story of a jacket’s travels orchestrated by God).

The common denominator in all the stories is God.  God eliminates all other possible explanations, leaving no doubt that it is His will prevailing and His power bringing the events to pass necessary to the accomplishing of His perfect will. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”  (Proverbs 19:21)

God left no doubt that it was He who gave Abraham and Sarah their son, Isaac. What was remarkable about Isaac’s birth?  Pretty much everything!  Abraham and his wife, Sarah, though married for years, had no children.  Very unusual for that time and in that culture.  But Sarah was barren, unable to conceive and bear a child, a cause for shame and sorrow that she had lived with all her married years.  But now God was telling Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, with descendants too numerous to count?  This couldn’t have made any sense to the childless Abraham.

But — “Abram (name hadn’t been changed yet) believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”  (Genesis 15:6)  Abraham believed God when God said to him, ” . . . a son coming from your own body will be your heir.   . . . Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.  . . . So shall your offspring be.”  (Genesis 15:4-5)  Now Genesis 18:11 tells us, “Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.”

In order for this promise to come true, Sarah, both barren and beyond her childbearing years, would have to conceive and bear a son.   It would require a miracle of God.  There was no other possible way this could happen.  Sure enough, Genesis 21:1-2 tells us, ” . . . and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.”  Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born and Sarah was ninety.  God left no doubt that Isaac, was the child of His promise to Abraham, the fulfillment of His covenant.

No less miraculous is the story of what happened to Daniel’s three friends when they were tried for treason by the king of Babylon and found guilty.  Their act of treason was refusing to bow down to and to worship an image of gold that the king had made.  Their punishment?  “But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.  Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”  (Daniel 3:15)  Well, the king was about to find out.

“He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual . . . The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers  who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.”  (Daniel 3:19-23)  But when the king saw the three of them walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed, and a fourth figure like a son of the gods walking with them, he ordered them to come out.

“So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and . . .  They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.”  (Daniel 3:26-27) I smell like wood smoke if I just roast marshmallows around a campfire and my clothes smell like smoke as well.  And I am just near the fire, not in it!  But these three men didn’t just barely escape with their lives — no they emerged from the furnace better off than they were when they entered into it.  They entered in firmly bound and they emerged fully free.  God does, “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,”  (Ephesians 3:20)

Yes, God left no doubt who delivered these three faithful men.  (a furnace seven times hotter than normal and the king’s own soldiers killed by its’ flames) And the king got the message.  “Then Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent His angel and rescued His servants!  . . .  for no other god can save in this way.’ ”  (Daniel 3:28-29)

David killing Goliath did not seem likely to happen given the circumstances; and yet it did happen.  Goliath was a Philistine champion over nine feet tall.  “He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels, (about 125 pounds) on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.”  (1 Samuel 17:5-6)  There’s more, but you get the idea — this guy was one invincible, bad dude.

David on the other hand, was a young shepherd boy.  He was the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, not old enough to join his brothers in Israel’s army and fight against the Philistines.  One day he was delivering grain, bread and cheese to his brothers at the battle front.  He heard how Goliath defied the armies of the living God and how they all were afraid to fight him.  So David determined to fight him. David declined to wear King Saul’s armor but “he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.”  (1 Samuel 17:40)

A small, unarmed shepherd boy against a large, fully outfitted for battle, trained fighting man?  We know what outcome we should reasonably expect.  BUT GOD . . . had other plans.  “David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  . . . So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.”  (1 Samuel 17:45,50)  God left no doubt.

God left no doubt that the battle was His and it was His purpose that prevailed. God was at work in the world then just as He is at work in the world today.  But, ” ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’  declares the Lord.”  (Isaiah 55:8)  God does things in His own way and in His perfect timing. As we have seen from these stories, God often uses the unlikely, the least likely, the unliked or the overlooked to accomplish His purposes. And His purposes are always good.

When we face overwhelming situations and circumstances, dear readers, we need not lose heart.  “Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’ ” (Luke 18:27)  We need to remember that.  With God, babies get born to barren women, battles are won against impossible odds, walls tumble down, waters part, hungry people get fed, fire doesn’t burn (the bush or the people), sick people get well, the lame walk, the blind see, the prisoners are set free, sins are forgiven, the temple curtain is torn in two and the dead are brought back to life!   Our God is the God of the impossible and He leaves no doubt!

“Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘I am the Lord, the God of all mankind.  Is anything too hard for Me?’ ”  (Jeremiah 32:26-27)

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men.”  (Psalm 107:21)

sincerely,        Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

my mountain turned into a molehill today

all because . . .

a friend showed up and walked my way

mercy was the miracle that shrunk my mountain’s size

when all I had was a mustard seed — a miracle before my eyes

I turn molehills into mountains but faith moves mountains into the sea

yes, my mustard seed of faith moves both mountain and mulberry tree!

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  (Luke 17:6)

” . . . if you have faith and do not doubt, . . .  you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.”  (Matthew 21:21)

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Galatians 6:2)

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”  (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”  (Proverbs 17:17)

a quote from Sirach says, “a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter, whoever finds one finds a treasure.”

friends are one of God’s good gifts, one of His best gifts to us ever

sincerely,  Grace Day

in a previous post I stated that “kind words are duct tape for the soul.”   well, there is no shortage of holey souls in need of binding up, (they are better known as the “walking wounded”,  whom I wrote about in a previous post by that title) but there does seem to be a shortage of “duct tape” perhaps due to the abundance of heated, harsh, hurtful, careless rhetoric in today’s culture.  Our words are our weapons and we don’t care who we wound.

so go out there and patch some holes in some souls today.  be the duct tape as it were. this world needs more duct tape.  may this be my own personal mission of mercy to those hurting (and holey) people in my world, those that are walking wounded through this life, in desperate need of some duct tape.  let me dispense it freely, heeding not my own holes; for in healing another’s hurt, my own is quite forgotten

this, then, is my mission of mercy — kind words for souls with holes.

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”  (Proverbs 16:24)

“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”  (Proverbs 12:18)

“The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”  (Proverbs 15:4)

“The tongue has the power of life and death,”  (Proverbs 18:21)

“The lips of the righteous nourish many, . . . ”  (Proverbs 10:21)

“A man finds joy in giving an apt reply– and how good is a timely word!”

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”  (Ephesians 4:29)

sincerely,    Grace Day

 

it all started the day my car’s tire light came on  . . . so

I gave my car a tire, a brand new tire (didn’t really have a choice as flat ones don’t roll well)

then my car wanted another new tire to match the first one

then she wanted and got a tire rotation

next she asked for and got an alignment

then my car’s oil light came on, so I gave her an oil change,  . . . but

while her oil light was still on, her gas light came on, so I filled her up  (she wanted the super silver premium, “gourmet gas” — she got regular; I have my limits)

then she wanted a wash to look her best (don’t know who she was trying to impress?)

then she asked for a “works wash” with tire shine added (must be wanting to show off her new tires?)

and all because I gave my car a new tire . . .

my car is most definitely “high maintenance”

moral?  never, ever, ever dear readers, give your car a new tire —  unless of course you have no choice –but then be prepared for what will follow . . .

“give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

“Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;  His love endures forever.” (Psalm 106:1)

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men.”  (Psalm 107:21)

Lord, thank You that I have transportation and thank You that my tire didn’t blow, but let her air out real, real slow and got me where I needed to go.

sincerely,      Grace Day