VIEW FROM MY BALCONY

The perfect ending to a day filled with promise and hope.

FACE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--FACE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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This week's prompt made me think of the chorus of an old song by the Gaithers, Because He Lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, 

Because He lives, all fear is gone; 

Because I know He holds the future, 

And life is worth the living, 

Just because He lives!

A good reminder when I am tempted to feel anxious about certain situations in my life that seem overwhelming. That, plus a couple of Scriptures I came face to face with recently that I've probably read a zillion times, but that suddenly came alive . 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34, BSB).

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?  (Luke 12:25-26, BSB)

Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time, and I have intentionally been training mine to stay focused on the present moment and what I can do right now, since there is no way I can face tomorrow until tomorrow becomes today. 

I have also been intentional about trusting in God's timing and plan, which always turn out to be so much better than mine, instead of second-guessing Him when prayers don't get answered when and how I think they should or turn out the way I expected, and trying to help Him out and rush things along. 

So many things we worry about never even come to pass, and while we are busy worrying about them, we miss the blessings and opportunities right under our nose. I wonder if that's where the idiom "Take time to smell the roses," comes from.

My five minutes is up and there's so much more I want to say, and it won't necessarily fit with the prompt, so I will start over and rewrite this on my other blog, At The Foot Of The Cross.

CIRCLE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--CIRCLE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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Today is the first day of summer. The seasons have come full circle since summer 2024. This weekend the temperature is supposed to be in the 90s.

When the temperature gets that hot, I am super grateful for my air conditioner and have no desire to leave the house, but I have been told that wildflowers love the heat. And so, I put the window box of tiny wildflower sprouts that had been germinating on my windowsill on the balcony, as well as the flowering kalanchoe plant in the circular pot. 

Not even an hour later, the beautiful blue sky turned an angry gray and before I could make up my mind whether  to leave the plants outside or bring them back in, we had a storm to end all storms. The rain was torrential, and the thunder loud. I felt terrible about having  transported those plants from their safe, sunny windowsill to the middle of a severe thunderstorm. 

I said a quick prayer that they would survive, and was amazed that they did.

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An unrelated thought, but something triggered as I was writing about my quick prayer at the end of my post, was Mark Batterson's devotional, "Draw the Circle." I'm adding it here for anyone who may be interested, since it fits this week's word prompt so perfectly. It's a 40-day prayer challenge I've worked my way through many times, and that maybe it's time for me to work my way through again. Each day has a devotional containing a true, faith-building story of God's answer to prayer, a Scripture, and some prayer prompts. Anyone want to go through it with me?

PANIC

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PANIC

Five minutes to free-write about it

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My plan was to skip this week's challenge, but this morning I was feeling grateful for toilets and that we don't have to squat over a hole in the ground as some folks in other parts of the world have to do. 

And then I started feeling grateful for toilet paper, and my thoughts wandered from there to the 2020 COVID pandemic which led people to panic-buy toilet paper, of all things. Practically overnight, it had been grabbed up and hoarded by panic-stricken buyers, and there was not a roll to be found.

What a lesson in not taking anything for granted--not even the availability of a commodity as common as that.

One of my friends was thrilled to find some online (I can't remember if it was on Amazon or where), but it was a six-pack, and it had cost a pretty penny. No matter. She was just excited to have been able to order it and couldn't wait for it to arrive. When it finally did--all the way from China--what a surprise it turned out to be

I wish I had a picture of it that I could have posted here. The rolls were so tiny that the whole six-pack easily fit into her mailbox.

Now we look back and laigh, but it was no laughing matter then.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

ANYMORE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--ANYMORE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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At first, when I saw this week's prompt, all I could think of were the many people and things that are not in my life anymore, and the many things I cannot do anymore. I even lamented that the beautiful little plant in the picture does not flower anymore. It hasn't in several years--not even when I put it out on the balcony in the summer.

But then, when I searched my mind for something positive I could associate with the word, two things surfaced. This morning I was surprised by a text from someone who had been an important part of my life and who I wasn't expecting to hear from anymore, and even better than that, and the greatest positive anymore possible, was the thought that "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NIV. What can be better than that?

P.S.

 

For those of you who asked--no, not Norman Rockwell. Box says Susan Brabeau.

(Love, love, love the expressions on the faces--including the dog's, haha.)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

PERSEVERE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PERSEVERE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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...they were at their wits' end. Then they

cried out to the LORD in their trouble, 

and he brought them out of their distress. 

(Psalm 107:27b-28, NIV)

It's been a couple of weeks since I last participated in the FMF challenge, and probably this doesn't really count as participating either, since the words are not my own. It's a poem I came upon during my quiet time, as I pondered what to write, that seems to say it all. 

I'm sharing it in hopes that it will encourage someone else, as it did me, to persevere and keep on keeping on as we make our way down the path we are currently trudging along.

Are you standing at "Wits' End Corner,"

      Christian, with troubled brow?

Are you thinking of what is before you,

      And all you are bearing now?

Does all the world seem against you,

      And you in the battle alone?

Remember--at "Wits' End Corner"

      Is just where God's power is shown.

Are you standing at "Wits' End Corner,"

      Blinded with wearying pain,

Feeling you cannot endure it,

      You cannot bear the strain,

Bruised through the constant suffering,

      Dizzy and dazed and numb?

Remember--at "Wits' End Corner"

      Is where Jesus loves to come.

Are you standing at "Wits' End Corner"?

      Your work before you spread,

All lying begun, unfinished,

      And pressing on heart and head,

Longing for strength to do it,

      Stretching out trembling hands?

Remember--at "Wits' End Corner"

      The Burden-Bearer stands,

Are you standing at "Wits' End Corner"?

      Then you're just in the very spot

To learn the wondrous resources

      Of Him who fails you not:

No doubt to a brighter pathway

      Your footsteps will soon be moved,

But only at "Wits' End Corner"

      Is the "God who is able" proved. -- Antoinette Wilson

(Taken from Streams in the Desert, May 23 and available on Amazon.)

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY