31 Days: Purple

Purple. 

I think of purple wildflowers by the roadside. Purple pansies by the houseside. African violets in my grandmas windowsill. Purple pottery mugs filled with coffee for that early morning time. Purple streaking the sky sunset and sunrise. Purple in my sisters jacket and my favorite sweater.

 Purple majesty. 

Bright, bold, beautiful. 

Subtle, soft, alluring. 

Splashes of color.  God painting this universe with his majesty. 

31 Days: Storm

Storm. 

 I think of thunderstorms. Wild and free the thunder rolls over my hearing. The beauty of sitting wrapped in a blanket on my porch to watch. Smell the fresh and clean scent the rain brings.... Feel the coolness of the air. Feel as if all my worries and fears wash away. See the lightning strike in flashes of light cutting through the air. No pattern. To try and capture, freeze it on camera is impossible. So I watch. Soak it in like the ground soaks in the rain. And the color. The color of the sky is changed. It's a masterpiece of God's wildly glorious beauty. 

31 Days: Love

I see the word Love and I think of a Father's love.
 I think of how a daddy is the first man in a girls life.
 I think of an infant girl wrapping her tiny, little hands around her daddy's finger.
how she'll grow and her hand will tuck into his... how he'll be the one to teach her how to ride her bike. put the worm on her hook and take her fishing in grandpa's pond.
be the first to call her his princess. and smile proudly thru the years.
how he'll hold her tight, take his turn soothing the nightmares away in the dark.
how he'll be flabbergasted when it's suddenly a woman in front of him and he's at loss and yet, she's really still his little girl. looking for his love. his reassurance. his pride in her accomplishments. his protection when she feels uncertain or threatened. how she really just wants her daddy's hand and know it's ok cause he loves her.

31 Days: Home

Home is where the heart is, right?
home is a safe place. its not just where you live, though that makes up part of it, its where you are at rest. where walls come down and you are with the people who see you best. where you do not have to be on the defensive, but rather carry in your weariness, your troubles from the outside, and drop them.
it's where you are all of you and extend the same to those you live with...blood family or adopted. or friends. its where you can place your mark uniquely. the colors of the walls and the pictures that are framed and the flower pot in the windowsill,pillows on the couch...or not, are all accents, they add the flavor, feel of you, your family, your roomies, to this space. home is you carving out a sacred and safe place. its a place you reach from and extend your hands to those who dont know home.

31 Days: Embrace

embrace.
I think of hard things. things that are uncomfortable.
things that push at my comfortable boundaries.
things I don't want to do. things that stretch, transform, change how you think or do.
I go into them with great trepidation. not wanting to embrace the moment. to see its potential. to see how the hard things can transform.
can beautify a life when that hard thing has been entrusted to God's hands, is a part of His Blessing of His Will.
I dont want to hold it close, acknowledge its hardness, its roughness, its comfortable to embrace something rough and sharp to the touch.
But what if  I don't?
those hard things we see in the world, in our town, our backyard. where ever they be.
these children who are lost. wanting, needing family, cause they are gone, or broken down into chaos. children, women, men, hungry, dying on streets. the wars, the bombings, sudden destruction of lives.
the lonely, the one everyone passes by who is dying to be noticed and loved.. the kid picked on mercilessly for looking different. That same, thankless job every day that is hard work that leaves you feeling defeated. the grieving.
what if whatever one God calls us to notice, we respond?
we embrace that moment that has us swallowing the fear and stepping out in faith.
What then?

31 Days: Family

Family. Family is raw. its an unveiling. its people seeing you at your best and your worst. its close quarters, no holds barred. we fight amongst our selves, but don't ANY of you touch my sibling: I will eat you alive. We are each others best friends and worst enemies. we learn everything there is to know about each other cause let's face it: we are all in the same small house.
Or not. we are constantly surprising each other. there might even be something you dont know in spite of living together because we are always changing, growing. but we are family. God grafted us into a place specifically. we're hard wired to love each other even when things fail. even when they dont turn out like we hoped or planned. we keep on loving and forgiving athousand faults because we're family. we've been bonded together by shared memories, shared trial, shared experience, shared love. a life completely unique to us.

linking up with Kate Motaung

31 Days: Calling

Calling.
As I think about the word Calling, what jumps to mind is the sermon series we just started at church. 40 days of fellowship.
I think of God calling. 
God calling to us, inviting us to be with him and with our our fellow saints and sinners.
Our brethren. this group of believers we call family.
Calling us to spend time with him on mor than just our sundays and our wednesday night prayer meeting because even though they're very nice, He wants more. God calling to each and every heart and yes, calling it with a purpose. and placing  A CALLING, a way of life, something we are to do.
But first i think of the call to be together as believers with him.
I admit, He has been steadily drawing on my heart lately.
That God wants to be with me?
Priceless.
God is calling so sweetly.