Is My Quiet Time Quiet?

This was originally posted on 08/28/2008.

 

I recently read a devotional in "Our Daily Bread" called Quiet Times.
This is how it began:

 

My friend Mary told me that she had always valued the time she spent fishing with her dad. Not being a fishing aficionado myself,
I was curious about what she found so enjoyable.

“I just like being with my dad,” she said. “So you just fish and talk?” I asked her.

“Oh, no, we don’t really talk,” she said. “We just fish.”
It wasn’t the conversation—it was the company.

 

Then this was contrasted with our quiet time, our time with God, our time in prayer. It got me thinking.....am I hindering the development of a close relationship with God because of all the noise in my quiet times ~ am I enjoying His company?

I pray ~ I praise God, I thank Him, I ask Him for things ~ in other words, I talk and talk and talk! I read the Bible or a devotional or ponder (and even sing) the words of a hymn ~ but I never stop. I'm never still, my mind is always full.

My quiet time isn't! Quiet that is!

 

I don't listen....I don't pause....I don't ponder. How can I hear an answer or instruction if I'm never still? "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10) ~ I don't think this means stop moving ~ I think it means just stop!

I have a picture in my head of the Lord standing next to me with His arm around me
and His hand gently covering my mouth.
He's saying "quiet, slow-down, stop, rest, listen and hear". I'm going to try real hard to do that ~ because I truly want to hear Him.

 

 



Spun By Me

This was originally posted on 10/20/2009.
 

I don't spin yarn ~ that's not why my blog is called "spun by me".

To "spin a yarn" is to tell a tale. It's the act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events....it's keeping a blog!

So I don't spin yarn but I do spin a yarn or two......

In the past women used to spin yarn on spinning wheels, frequently gathering in groups while doing this. To pass the time, they often told each other stories. In time the words came to mean the production of the stories themselves rather than the actual work they were doing. Hence, while spinning yarn they spun some yarns too.

Anyway I thought I would like to put a spinning wheel on my blog. Maybe in the header ~ maybe in a sidebar ~ maybe wherever!

I "googled" spinning wheel and came up with several. So far this one is my favorite!

 

Kinda looks like she's wearing a spindle on her head!

 

 

Happiness Comes In Fractions - Revisited

This was originally posted on 08/28/2008.

 

Have you ever had a perfectly wonderful day? You know the kind where you wake up happy and everything falls into place and nobody rubs you wrong and it's smooth sailing and the sun is shining, and your grass is greener than the neighbor's, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure I've had some, but more often than not something happens that breaks the happy mood....sometimes before it even begins! Usually nothing of any real consequence....just little bummers along the way.

 

I woke up late for work on Tuesday ~ really late ~ I woke up almost an hour after I should have been there! My laptop was giving me fits Tuesday evening. I am oftentimes computer challenged and it was one of those times. I cut my thumb last night. It was pretty deep and bleeding a lot. Bummer, bummer, bummer. But each little bummer was followed up by burst of nice, a tiny glimmer of hope, a little fraction of happiness. My boss and my co-workers knew why I overslept and they were sympathetic and compassionate with regard to my tardiness. My son (the computer geek I've mentioned) was able to fix my computer glitch and then provided even more help (thanks Kevin). As for the bloody thumb ~ Bill, his Dad & Mandy were all concerned, each showing it in their own way.

 

 

 

 

You want a perfectly wonderful day? Good luck with that. They don't generally just happen. But we can do our part to make sure each one ends up that way. Don't focus on the whole. Look for those "fractions of happiness" along the way.

The smile of a stranger you pass in the store; the car that gives you "cuts in line"; the sun shining or the rain falling ~ we need both you know. The mail coming on time; finding the gas station with the cheap gas; hearing I love you; having your work caught up at the end of the day and coming home to dinner on the table (that in itself makes me happy ~ thanks Mandy). Not having to wait at the doctor's office; a really good sale on anything; prayers with your children ~ more "fractions of happiness" that all add up to a "perfectly wonderful day"!

 

I think that tomorrow when I'm going to work and the big, yellow, school bus ends up in front of me, instead of feeling a little impatient at all the stopping and going, I'll spend that time praying for the driver, the students and the teachers they'll have throughout the day. Talking to the Lord equals a big "fraction of happiness"!

This is the day the LORD has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24



Random Monday Memories ~ Revisited

This is such a busy time of the year for so many of us, and while I like to post on my blog Monday through Friday, my brain is just not coming up with anything new.  It's too full of "to-do" lists!  So, for a week or two, I'm going to share some of my early (2008 & 2009) posts again. No real purpose to which ones I pick...just whichever strikes my fancy.

 

This one was originally posted on 10/6/2008.

 

 

When I was growing up in Detroit, Michigan there were photographers who came into the neighborhoods with ponies and cowboy costumes.

The photographers would "tempt" the children with the great costumes and the children would beg their parents for a chance to sit on the ponies. Once the mamas saw how cute their little tikes looked on those ponies they just had to purchase the photos.

This is me ~ the photo was taken in the late fifties in front of my grandmother's house. It brings back many different memories. First of all the pony ride/pose ~ I obviously loved it! Then there's that porch and those beautiful hydrangeas ~ I fell from the porch into the middle of the flowers. I was fine ~ the hydrangeas took a beating! Do you see the "edging" in front of the flower bed? It's actually cement curbing and it edged all the flower beds around the house and it also edged the lawn in the back yard. My dad did all the cement work. We (the cousins) used to have races along the curbs.....from one end to the other. It was great fun!

 

 

This picture also reminds me of my grandmother, Emma. She passed away when I was seven. But that was enough time to make some sweet memories. Like "slabs of butter". Sometimes, when she was cooking, she would give my brother and I a slab of butter to eat. We'd hold it in our chubby little hands and then gobble it up. Yum then ~ Yuck now! My grandmother would also give each of her grandchildren a pack of JuicyFruit gum and a quarter when we visited her. Those were the days!