For Such A Worm As I

  I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary Christian music, yet there are some songs I hear from time to time that stir something within me beyond what I can put into cognitive phrases.  "The Proof of Your Love" is one of those songs.    Performed by the band For King and Country, it is the song-form of the well-known "love passage" of 1 Corinthians 13.  It impacted me when I first heard it, but days and years have a way of making me forgetful.  I find that that song has taken its place among hundreds of beloved songs I wish I could remember all the time, but which sadly are waiting for me to unearth them from the complicated filing system of my brain.      Today, something or Someone (my Lord, Who does best at reminding me of important things), made me think of this song, so I looked it up on youtube to see what I could find.    King and Country's official video of the song dramatically portrays the power of love.  I pulle...

   "I'll get all the ingredients together and then when Kyrie gets in, we can stir it up together."    My Mother began rummaging in her deep chest freezer for the candied fruit stored there.  Even though I can barely make heads or tails of it sometimes, she usually has the deep freeze all figured out in her mind. She has a system, she knows where things are in her realms, not just in her food storage, but in her desk and dresser drawers, her closet, and the under-bed storage containers.  "A place for everything and everything in its place" my Grandfather used to say.  I guess she got it from him.  It was passed down to Kyrie, too.  If I ask to borrow anything from her, be it shirt or stapler, she can tell me exactly where whatever it is should be.  "Top right-hand drawer in my desk on the left-hand side at the back" she might say and there it will be.  She has the gift of organization, definitely.  I guess that's why she's such...

{Start.} It was almost raining as I headed down my driveway.  I say almost, it actually had been raining off and on all day, but now the rain had paused again and I was heading out into the grayness for a lovely walk down our gravel lane.  I used to dislike rain, but due to Kyrie's love of it, I have grown to like it as well.     The sky was overcast and wonderful and I watched a new calf scampering in the windiness across the pasture.  It stopped in surprise as a flash of lightning snaked down the sky a few miles away.     I didn't know how long I had before the clouds would open up again, but I was enjoying the walk.  I turned around at my grandparent's house.  I had to get something from inside and when I was ready to leave I could hear a downpour.  I debated whether to stay inside 'til it slacked up a little, but I decided since it was so warm to just enjoy it and run home.  Besides, I had my umbrella.    I c...

{Start.}   When I was a child, oatmeal was "weekday breakfast fare" and on Saturdays, Mother fixed a "special breakfast."  One of the "special foods" was bacon which, somewhere along the line, creative Kyrie or myself decided we would pretend was scorpion.  Was this because of the imaginative play that my Mother inspired through the crafts and play things she would provide?  Or was it because novel ideas, far away places, and exotic foods were part of our growing up and our heritage?     My grandparents were missionaries in three South American countries for about 34 years all told.  Missionary blood is in my veins, and bacon, with it's well-done curling "endpoints" looked a whole lot like the tails of the scorpions on the traveling shows we would watch on Sunday evenings after church with my Dad.  My mother grew up on the mission field, she would read missionary stories to Ky and myself as we were growing up, "the world" was at our...

{Start.}   My family and I live about 45 minutes from the sea.  Yes, I mean the ocean, that gigantic body of water that surrounds every single continent on this earth and if I was to get in a boat I could (hypothetically) travel to any people group or place on this planet.  (It's a pretty astounding thought to me.)   Today, my Mother and I traveled to a certain coastal town to attend a funeral and later to do some shopping.  While we were shopping I found myself coming into contact with four unrelated, physically disabled people.     Most people who know me, know that I am currently pursuing a degree as a physical therapist assistant.  Disabilities draw me and I found myself longing to go up to those people and tell them how much they are valued, how special they are in the eyes of their Creator, how much I would love to get to know them as a friend and unique individual.  But instead, I stood in my spot in the checkout line, wishing, wo...

  Lamentations 3:18-21, "And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:  Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.  My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.  This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope ."   Lamentations 3:24, "The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."     Lamentations 3:26, "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD."  {Start.} Hope.  We use the word so much in American English. "I hope I don't get stuck in traffic."  "I hope my family gets to make it for Christmas." "I hope my dinner isn't burned when I get home."  The words here in Lamentations penned by Jeremiah (the Weeping Prophet) aren't the same, though.  In Jeremiah's case, he knew that God was One in Whom he could trust, one that never fails nor lets His people down.     When we put our hope in...

{Start.}   As a young, single woman, I was not very comfortable with seeing the word for the day, but instead of trying to conjure up some kind of made-up thoughts about it, here I go:   With every New Years' Eve, with every birthday eve, with every "just because" moment that comes randomly, I face this word, this idea: Perhaps.  Perhaps this will be the year I get married, perhaps this will be the time that I meet the man I will marry, perhaps, perhaps, on and on.    This "perhaps-ing" can be emotionally exhausting and can leave a heart raw and desperate.  It is not my God's will that this be the case with me.  Yes, I desire marriage one day, when He is ready, but for today, I am His to serve Him with courage and fervor.    Marriage is not the fix-all cure for what ails a girl.  I used to think it was.  Jesus Christ is the Only Fix-All and with Him as my Guide, I can face and move forward with the life He has for me Today, Now....