trees

The trees are dead. The leaves are gone. Their golden joy lies wrinkled and browning on the ground, and barren arms reach up to the colorless sky. The few leaves that cling are practically sneering, taunting us to remember what happiness was there, how good life had been. But all happiness falls like dying leaves and ebbs away until the only monument to the memory stands grey and brown, a stark reminder of what we no longer have.

What if we realized that those two leaves that cling desperately to the branch, that cleave to the vine, they are beautiful. In this stripped wood, their true beauty is more apparent. We appreciate more when we have less.

So maybe, just maybe, all this loss, all the leaves on the ground? Maybe that is the blessing. Maybe that is His plan. To be stripped of much and learn to be grateful, because it isn’t about how much you have, but how much you appreciate what you have. So let go of the leaves that have fallen, and see the beauty of the remaining two. 

Writing today for Five Minute Friday: http://lisajobaker.com/2013/11/five-minute-friday-tree/

hard honesty

Hi... 

I hope this gives you a moment to slow down and have a cup of tea or a cookie with me. And not just the mask of me, but the real me. That is what this is all about, right?

Here we go...

Read the rest on Eyes of Faith, where I guest blogged this week.  Her challenge to herself and to all of us is to be real, honest, and courageous in those things, so I wrote at her request these thoughts.  

I encourage checking out the rest of Court's blog as well. She has blessed me in innumerable ways, and her blog is full of God's wisdom, comfort and challenge.

Have a blessed day!

grace

Five minutes of Grace: http://lisajobaker.com/2013/11/five-minute-friday-grace/

Grace. I think instantly of the quote I found " Grace is the biggest kind of Brave." Jessica Leigh Hoover

Why is Grace brave?

I don't know what kind of grace Jessica Hoover meant, but God's grace is brave.

Grace is for the undeserving, the ones who let down, who mess up, who need mercy, who cling to pride. Grace is given for no price to those who receive. Gift. Grace is gift.

Gifts are brave. The best gifts are, anyway. A brave gift--not what the person had on their birthday or Christmas list, not something they knew they wanted, but something the Giver knows they need.

We need Grace. Most of us didn't know we wanted it. Had we been asked before, we might have declined, hoping instead for a nice book or a new computer. But oh, once it is had, once we have tasted of Grace? there is no turning back from its delights.

True Grace experienced is Grace unequaled.