Leaving A Trail of Beauty

I do NOT look strong. I am barely 5' tall even on my fluffiest hair day anymore. My image definitely ascribes to and lives out the following verse: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is  wasting   away , our inner self is being renewed day by day." 2 Corinthian 4:16 ESV However, the pictured verse is where I will choose to camp for a moment today: "I ask the Father in His great glory to give you the power to be strong INWARDLY through His Spirit." Ephesians 3:16 NCV  Though my outward appearance and my own perspective of myself may indicate I have no strength or power on my own, I can ask the Father for that power through His Spirit. I can ASK for it. Inward strength. I firmly believe our Father is delighted when we recognize we can't do it. We have no strength on our own. We finally lie down at His feet and seek Him and His power. We admit we can't do it. I know I can't. I am a veritable weakling in my own strengt

( a time to intentionally redirect my gaze and give testimony to the ways God blesses me) I spoke briefly last Thursday about the sacrifice of praise.  "Through him then let us continually  of fer up a  sacrifice of   praise  to God, that is, the fruit  of  lips that acknowledge his name." Hebrews 13:15 ESV I am keenly aware of the way I currently look on paper. How the numbers DO NOT add up. How my month is exceeding my wealth financially. I have gotten more "no's" than the one "yes" I have longed to hear. Yet in all this, I know that I know God is still Who He says He is. God can STILL do what He says He can do. I am still who He says I am. His Word is STILL alive and active in me, my life, and in that of those lives around me who believe in Him, too.  So, though at moments throughout ALL of the last few days, weeks, and yes, months now since I have been employed in a full time fashion, I have felt slayed, abandoned, is

REMEMBER We are called to remember. God considered the concept of remembering so important He referenced it no less than 150 times in the Old and New Testaments combined. The verse in question today turns the idea of "remembering" on its head and cautions us what NOT to remember. "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old." Isaiah 43:18 ESV I'm taking this one to mean don't dwell on the past. It's okay to remember it but don't stay there. Don't fixate on the things of old. Learn from it. Let it give you wisdom for your future self. The following quote struck me as I have been forcing myself to go back as far as I can remember, to get back to that little Pam who was unblemished by years of mistakes, missteps, and misremembering (I guess that really is a word!): "Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them." Richard L. Evans  I find

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) I would describe myself of "sound mind". Most days. Yet, when I wake up with thoughts scattered, ideas banging around in my head and my heart, and trying to capture them is akin to corralling a swarm of dragonflies -- I certainly wonder. Am I of "sound mind" as Paul would have described in sharing this with his beloved son, Timothy? I spend my time flitting back and forth between spiritual pursuits, training to be a profitable writer, painting my heart out, looking for sustainable employment, keeping my home from crawling up around me in clutter, . . . and untold hours scrolling social media to see what others are doing that is better, wiser, and more profitable than what I find myself doing. My mind is as cluttered as my news feed, and I tear myself away to hover over the next thing for a moment, only to find the beckoning loud enoug

I've been painting angels lately. My mind and my paintbrush have been consumed with them. I'm not sure if the increase in my thoughts about angels has been in tandem with the recent loneliness I've felt, but I have certainly stepped up my study of them in Scripture. Angels are among us. Scripture confirms this over and over. Sometimes they are named. Sometimes they are part of a "heavenly host." God sent His messages through an angel multiple times throughout both the Old and New Testaments. My paintings and my studies are certainly not the end-all, be-all representation of what a biblical angel might be, but they are what I have been inspired to scrawl out on canvas. When it came time for God to make His most important announcement ever, to begin the story of redemption for all of us, He chose to send the angel, Gabriel, to Mary. Let's take a moment and step back into that scene: " And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored o

Light and darkness. My favorite time of day on both ends of the spectrum is when those first slight streaks of daylight begin to break through the darkness, and the converse of it found in the very last moments of light left before the entire landscape is engulfed in velvety blackness. I love the hope found in light splitting through the darkness and awakening a new day. I admire all creation staying hushed until daybreak as well, instinctively knowing the signal comes along with that rhythmic rising of the sun. The end of the day has its charm in my heart, too. I find it endlessly satisfying to watch the sunset and see the stars emerge twinkling amidst the growing inkiness of the nighttime sky. Unique as the number of days in existence, the colors and display are ever-changing. Yet the cyclical nature of it brings comfort and peace. Both the light and the darkness find their home with God. He spoke and they did His bidding. Until He called light into existence, darkness cov

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him." Job 13:15 (NKJV) I only put the first half of this verse on my image. Isn't that how we all want to remember it? We want to remember and BE remembered for trusting. We want to survive the slaying an come out on the other side as the one who faithfully trusted, who soared above her circumstances and saw it through to the other side. Job said more in this verse, and I follow his lead as well. Here it is in the ESV: "Yet, I will argue my ways to His face." vs. 15b He goes on to say in verse 18: "Behold, I have prepared my case; I know that I shall be in the right." Does God shirk away from our arguments? Is He afraid of our shaking fists or well-crafted "case"? Does He stifle our voices and tell us we can't come before Him with questions? In each case, I believe the unwavering answer is "NO". Unfortunately, I don&#

God gets my attention through repetition. How about you? What I am continuing to discover in my almost four-decade "expotition" with my friend Jesus is He knows I don't usually get His lessons for me the first go-round. He repeats. He puts out virtual road signs.  Sometimes He puts out literal road signs to garner my attention and my gaze. He has specific Scripture rise to the surface again and again. He puts a word in my path and writes it in all capital letters EVERYWHERE so I can't possibly miss it. Silence has been the most recent. Jesus gave me almost a month of an empty nest to foster an atmosphere of solitude and silence. He has brought any number of lessons across my path to reinforce His message for this season.  My life has been filled with noise outside my head for decades and self-imposed noise for far longer. How do I avoid silence? How do you? Music Television Internet surfing Reaching out to others rather

I wake up most mornings with a song in my head. This morning it was this one . I struggle with starting out on the positive side of things. I have to intentionally make a choice. As I turn to Philippians I find Paul makes a repetitive command throughout. As a matter of fact, Paul used "joy" or some form of it 16 times in this letter. Choosing to rejoice is an act of the will. I can wallow in my circumstances, my shortcomings, the things I can't control right now . . . or I can choose to rejoice. Today I rejoice in: God's provision for me. I am not going hungry, and I have a roof over my head. The vibrant, colorful creation all around me. He is the consummate artist, and His color palette astonishes and delights me every day. I paint, because He inspires it. The assurance that He knows what's next for me. The God winks in each day. He surprises me, and when I am attuned to what's going on around me I find I am always on His mind. His W

"For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." John 1:16 (ESV) From His fullness. God gives out of His abundance. We receive grace upon grace. Unmerited favor. I don't deserve it and neither do you. I can't do anything for it. I can't be enough, do enough, give enough, or offer Him anything, because He doesn't need anything. God is not losing anything to give to me out of His abundance. He has no lack. As He gives, there is no less of Him to offer. He is pleased to give to me, His beloved. My job? To receive. To accept the "grace upon grace" He so freely offers from the very fullness of what He always is. My Jesus is always the same. Scripture affirms this: "Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 That sounds easy in theory. He offers freely. Freely I receive it. In other areas of my life a free thing is as uncomplicated as finding cash lying on the sidewalk. Would I ever just pass by

Any morning people out there? You know the type. They bounce out of bed with eager anticipation of what lies ahead, a smile already on their lips, words quick to follow. Coherent phrases, goals assembled, an agenda to be conquered. Or maybe you're more like this: you set the alarms on your phone . . . for 6:00, 6:05, 6:15, 6:20, 6:30, 7:00, then you hit the snooze on that last one until you absolutely have to stumble out of the bed, drag yourself to the coffee pot, and hope today you remembered to put the coffee beans in the grinder before dropping them directly into your favorite coffee mug. I fall somewhere in the middle of that second shot. I inherently am NOT a morning person. I admit I've missed all too many sunrises in favor of few more minutes communing with my pillow. I have made the mistake of putting unground coffee beans in the coffee maker, only to realize my morning brew has far less appeal if I'm expected to chew it. However, all joking aside, I am fi

So yesterday's verse was about calling on the Lord. (Psalm 145:18) I mentioned at the end of my short post that it's a conversation. A little fact I routinely forget when it comes to my relationship with Jesus.  Let's trek back a few years to my initial call out to Him. I was drawn to the Lord listening to a guest speaker at youth group retreat a couple of weeks after my 14th birthday. I managed to hear God's tender whisper in the midst of playing goofy games like "Sardines", singing the likes of  "Pass It On" and an early Amy Grant favorite  "My Father's Eyes" , and stuffing ourselves with the first of many batches of  peanut butter "retreat" fudge my mom made for more than ten years of such events. If I'm really honest, I don't think I fully got the picture of what I had done until much later. I took some tiny baby steps. I started reading my Bible. I went to youth group, church, choir, bell choir, and e