Chasing Your God-sized Dream with the Focus of an Olympian.

Do you have a dream that calls to you in the quiet hours? That something that God has planted in your heart that only you can do in your unique way?

To pursue that dream that is bigger than anything you are capable of today will require herculean effort. It will take living with purpose, passion and perseverance. Expect to make sacrifices, always believing that with God’s help anything is possible. He is the Giver of Dreams, as well as the Helper and the Strength to see that what he has begun in you will be finished.

Go for the prize more precious than gold — the destiny God has planned for you and the joy of knowing you have accomplished his will for your life.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (NIV)

The Key to Failure

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

Bill Cosby

Aunt & Uncle Day

Remembering all my aunts and uncles today. Wish you were all here for two more family gathering.
A summer clam bake with Daddy’s brothers and their wives.
A Christmas party with Mommy’s sisters and their husbands.
Life was good back then even if the face I’m making says otherwise. (WHY am I wearing my Girl Scout uniform to the party?? I didn’t even like Girl Scouts. Maybe that’s why I’m making the face….)

A Geranium Card

Summer is half over! Doesn’t seem possible. The days are flying by. Whatever happened to the ‘lazy days of summer’? I think they disappeared with childhood. After a busy morning of catch-up, I decided to take a break and spend some time at my ‘card’ table and play with my rubber stamps and ink. I used older stamps to make this card.

The background stamp is by Hero Arts (2002) and titled Delicate Vine Background.
I love the spicy scent of geraniums. The potted geranium on this card is actually two stamps from a 1994 Stampin’ Up set titled Little By Little.
For the die cut, I used Sizzix #657911 Fancy Tags. The shape gives this simple card a little pizzaz.

A warm soft breeze is coming in through the open window and the cicadas are buzzing in the afternoon heat. Perhaps for just a few hours this afternoon, I’ll relax and rediscover that ‘lazy day’ feeling.

The Sky is Falling!

I subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog and this post arrived in my in-box last week. He touched on the prevalence in mass media to amplify fear.

With the continual hawking of impending danger and risk, watching the news on television makes me anxious.

The always-urgent, life-is-hazardous coverage presents news in a way that makes the story personal to every person listening. So even though I’m not the one experiencing the horrific event, I feel the threat lurking close by.

Worry is fear pretending to be of use. C. Winsor

I’m listening less and less to the national news, trying to be neither the oblivious ostrich or a fearful Henny Penny. It’s hard to master the balance. Especially when people are hurting and in need of prayer.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Bad Prayer Days

We’ve all had them. Days when the roof over our head feels like a concrete slab that nothing will penetrate. We feel as though our prayers are a gray cloud floating above our head, never reaching God’s ear. Isn’t the evidence all around us? God hasn’t heard. Nothing has changed. We are dealing with the same trials today that we dealt with yesterday.

Life is messy.

Messy relationships. Messy houses. Messy office politics. Messy desks. Messy creative spaces where the muse refuses to come out and play for fear of being tainted by our messy life.

Life is hard.

Photo source: Wikipedia

Jobs lost.
Homes consumed by fire or flood.
People we love hurting… ill… taken from this earth to early….

We’re tired. Worn out. Unheard.

Our lament is like that of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. Lamentations 3:8

It’s so hard to remember that these feelings have nothing to do with reality. No matter how thick the ceiling or heavy the cloud above us, God hears. God is at work.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

We can’t comprehend God’s logic or timing. He is God. And we are not.

This one week. Two dads. Two diagnoses. Too many questions. Too many uncertainties. For me. But not for my God.

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:21-26 

Waiting.
Hoping.
Seeking.

Praying. Even when praying is hard.
Because I can’t find the words.
Because the words I have are painful and colored with fear and anger.
Towards Him – my omnipotent, unchanging God.
Who is big enough to take my anger and offer me life-giving love in return.
My Abba Father – who sees my bad prayer days and instead of a temporary fix,
offers me his Son and all eternity.