Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Way of Light Wreath: Come with Christ -- From the Cradle to the Cross....

Here's a lovely depiction of Advent, Lent and the journey between.

The Way of Light Wreath: Come with Christ -- From the Cradle to the Cross....: I n the dark before Christmas.... In the dark before Easter... There is a way to keep company with Jesus, A way to begin unforgett...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

When There's Love At Home



Love At Home
There is beauty all around, when there's love at home.
There is joy in every sound, when there's love at home.
Peace and plenty here abide, smiling sweet on every side,
Time doth softly sweetly glide, when there's love at home.
Chorus: Love at home, Love at home.
Time doth softly, sweetly glide, when there's love at home.

In the cottage there is joy, when there's love at home.
Hate and envy ne'er annoy, when there's love at home.
Roses blossom 'neath our feet all the earth's a garden sweet,
Making life a bliss complete, when there's love at home.
Chorus: Love at home, Love at home.
Making life a bliss complete, when there's love at home.


Kindly heaven smiles above, when there's love at home.
 All the earth is filled with love, when there's love at home.
Sweeter sings the brooklet by, brighter beams the azure sky,
There is One who smiles on high, when there's love at home.
Chorus: Love at home, Love at home.
There is One who smiles on high, when there's love at home.


Jesus, show Thy mercy mine, then there's love at home.
Sweetly whisper I am Thine, then there's love at home.
Source of love, Thy cheering light far exceeds the sun so bright,
Can dispel the gloom of night, then there's love at home.
Chorus: Love at home, Love at home.
Can dispel the gloom of night, then there's love at home. 


Another of the many songs dear to my heart, that I've known and sung with my family, on many occasions, since childhood. 
The melody has been going through my head all day, as I contemplate the second most important and influential love in my life (the first being the love of my Savior).  The love of family, love at home.
Oh the sweetness of love at home.
Though of course no family is perfect.  Why even today there were several heated discussions between siblings (from which I am not excluded).  But after everything cools and the tempers level, though hurt feelings may remain, there's that love, almost in the form of duty, that says; "Let's move on.  This is too small to waste time over."
So many different personalities, so many opinions - and, of course, every single one is the right one.  Love, that certain respect, though at times not very obvious, that looks at the situation and says; "Well my idea would work just as well but yours I think will work a bit better."
And there is love at home.
Though maybe far too often shown in very subtle ways, it is here.
It's what brought us together this evening after a long, hard, and for some of us, nearly exhausting day.  Together, with all our differences, our hearts connected with this loyal, deep, and sometimes hard to show, love.  It's what connects our hearts to the two who couldn't join us for supper tonight, as they are away from home.  It is all that has held us together through many a hard time.
Source of love, Thy cheering light far exceeds the sun so bright,
Can dispel the gloom of night, then there's love at home.
I not for the presence of the Author of Love, all hope for love at home would be for naut.
Only in Him is it possible to aside the differences and say "No!" to self.
To give up what we want in order to further the happiness of the other(s).


What if we all did part to sing so that there might be Love at Home?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The "C" Word


As the word rolls off, washing my tongue with soap seems necessary.
An almost overwhelming desire for it to be rid.
"It wouldn't be such an unappealing word,"  I've often thought, "if it wasn't accompanied so well by it's meaning."

{change - making or becoming different,  alteration or modification,  
      new experience; substitution of one thing for another}  

So many times I've wished that things would stay "just the way they are and never change."
But "oh Self how silly you are.  Don't you already know that you NEED change?
How would you ever grow and learn without it?
Yes it will hurt but how else will you ever find peace without first knowing pain?
How will you ever know true beauty if you have never seen the ashes?
How would you ever know the difference of when you where a child to where you are now,
if change didn't take it's course and do it's work?"

How much better I might learn these lessons and
my relationship with Father be ever more strengthened if only I'd learn
to look past this twisting hurricane, beyond the wreckage after and strain to get a glimpse of
the masterpiece in the making.

The clay is being shaped and molded.
Twisted and spun in circles.
And see, a shape is forming. . . . .