Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Give Thanks Review

Last Thursday, September 21 I challenged you to give thanks to God, especially when awful things your imagination and fears created as possible outcomes did not happen. How did you do? Did you notice how many times you prayed, asked for an outcome, worried and then when it was resolved turned back to give thanks that your worst possible imagination never happened.

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life,

most of which never happened.”

-Mark Twain

What I was referring to is deeper than Mark Twain, though I agree he is on to something! In our relationship with the LORD do we acknowledge when our worst imaginings never come to pass. Often it is by His hand that those things are averted.

Have you every had a child or grandchild you decided to bless, just because you love them? You were not necessarily looking for a thank you in return. There are usually two possible outcomes to this. Either they thank you and you are delighted with their gratitude, or they go on their way with no recognition of your grace and you think ‘What an ungrateful brat.’ In the eyes of my Father and my Savior I do not want to be the ungrateful brat.

In the painting Ten Lepers by James C. Christensen, I want to be the one young man who turned back to give thanks. Jesus did not take away the cleansing of the other nine, as far as we know. Just imagine the affirmation of healing that the one young man received by going back to the Lord and saying thank you! That is relationship! And that is what my faith calls for. Relationship with the indwelling Christ through the Spirit of God.

Are you in relationship with the Risen Lord? Regardless of church attendance or activity, do you know Him? Have you spoken with Him lately? I was meeting with a friend recently and we agreed that the gold star for church attendance or pats on the back for activity participation is not what our hearts long for. We want relationship with Him and friends who can challenge us to deepen that relationship. There is nothing wrong with church attendance and participation, but without that deep relationship with Jesus there is not much to keep us going on the journey. The challenges are huge and the cost is enormous. The Lord will not rest until we give Him all of ourselves.

As I go deeper and deeper into relationship with the Trinity the forgiveness I am offered and the immense love disarms me. I want to give my entire life and attention to this eternal cause. If you are flummoxed about where to begin I suggest you approach the throne room of grace with the same candor that you bring to a best friend.

Brandon Lake and Thomas Rhett have ideas for you here. “There’s no wrong way to do it. No bad time to start…”

Posted on in Aging, Art, Cooking, Faith, Family, Humor, Thanks

Giant 53rd Anniversary and Birthdays Party

For several years Bob has taken the family out to celebrate at this time of year. In October he turns 75, our son turned 45 and our son-in-law turned 55. Our wedding anniversary September 26 marked 53 years. Yes! We have so much to celebrate. Turns out Lizzie’s flatmate turned 25 but we said he would have to wait until next year for the wingding celebration as reservations were already made. We went to a special restaurant called Nicola’s in the Over the Rhine area of downtown Cincinnati, complete with valet parking.

Bread sticks and bread “basket”

All the bread was ‘house made.’ I thought bread sticks and soft wheat rolls were best. Others liked the rolls topped with onion slice, tomato or zucchini. Focaccia looked spicy! Knowing I was having pasta I did not taste every bread, though it was tempting!!

The manager graced us with flutes of champagne.

I ordered Nicola’s Eggplant parmigiana for antipasti and split it with Emily.

I could not avoid the shadows on photos

Once we cut into it share it oozed with cheese and little eggplant was in evidence. I ate the basil leaf with mine.

A lavish party celebrating 175 combined years of living. Several of us ordered the Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese. The meat sauce was made with veal and beef. So rich, so yummy. Came with an unremarkable Caesar salad.

I could not finish my portion. Especially knowing dessert was to arrive! Nice leftover meal!

The gentlemen all got to order dessert of their choice in honor of their birthday. I asked for the chocolate cake with hazelnuts. By then, I had forgotten about taking photos. My slice of cake was very small but so very rich! Yep, I ate it all!

A special festivity over 53 years of marriage. Have I told you how very much I love my husband of 53 years? He is so sweet to me, caring and generous. He goes out of his way to be gentle and caring even with others. Besides, as I joke, “It is too late to train a new one!” Neither of us ever dreamed about the wonderful life we have shared. We are so very blessed.

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Traveling, Yield

Amy Carmichael and Faithfulness lyric

This is from the writings of Amy Carmichael in Edges of His Ways.

Deuteronomy 2:3: Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
It would take too long to tell what this word has said to me. I will only say it spoke about a mountain of thought around which I have walked rather often. It is time to stop compassing that mountain.
After settling that matter, I remembered one who for two whole years has been walking around a certain Mountain of Desire. When the desired thing was not given at the expected time, there was great disappointment. Perhaps the Lord is saying to that one and to others who are constantly praying about something personally desired, “Leave the matter to Me: you have prayed enough about it. You have compassed that mountain long enough.”
I know another who always seems to be walking around a mountain of rubble. Self and the feelings of self, doubts and questions, grumblings, little piled-up ingratitudes, what are these but rubble? Is it not very dull to keep on compassing so dull a mountain? Hear the heartening word of the Lord, ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. “Rise ye up, take your journey” (v. 24), “fight the good fight of faith,” begin to possess your possessions.

Trekking in Rubble

This morning after reading Amy Carmichael I kept hearing ‘strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.’ I had to find the source of that line. It is from Great is Thy Faithfulness, by Thomas O Chisholm, verse 3.

Vs. 1 Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Vs. 2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Vs. 3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

What mountain are you trekking around? In the Old Testament God told the Israelites to “take another lap around the mountain.” They were ungrateful and unbelieving.

10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,

They shall never enter my rest.

Psalm 95:10-11 NIV

I think the New Testament has brought us hope and a challenge to put down our ungrateful hearts and enter into His rest through the shed blood of Jesus. Will we embrace His faithfulness today and marry it with our own? Our faithfulness comes from the faithfulness of Jesus.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3 NIV

Jesus can help us live a godly life and stop trekking about the same mountain ’round and around and around. Are we willing to stop and listen for His direction off the path of endless repetition and futile thinking? He gives us strength for today. There have been days I thought I would never get through. Yet, He gives me strength. Sufficient strength for today.

Bob and I find that as we age (seemingly faster and faster) God gives us strength for each day. Just as the Israelites could not store manna for the next day, but needed to gather it each day, we draw our strength from Him one day at a time. He gives us faith and if we are willing to look for it, joy, too.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 NIV

I pray this blog helps you to stop walking in the same old ruts, around and around. Stop and ask the Lord of your faith to help you as Amy Carmichael wrote, “Hear the heartening word of the Lord, ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. “Rise ye up, take your journey” (v. 24), “fight the good fight of faith,” begin to possess your possessions.“

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Nature, Poetry, Thanks

You had Me At The Title “God’s Worship”

I have always loved cello music. Try this one!

Worship in God’s service. I love it!

I have been reading You are Here by David Steindl-Rast. In Chapter 6 called The It he quotes Martin Buber, St. Augustine and Robert Frost to name a few.

What I ultimately encounter in any You, I can also encounter in any tree: Mystery. This happens, as Buber says, “through decision and grace.” Both are necessary. I must decide to open my heart wide for this experience and receive it as a gift. “All is grace,” said St. Augustine, all is Life’s gift. And Life is the story of our adventurous encounters with that “Secret,” of which, so far, we only know from Robert Frost that is “sits in the middle and knows, while “we dance in a ring and suppose.” Draw out the line of relationship into infinity and it will lead to that “Secret” – the Mystery, which we encounter in and through all that exists.

-Brother David Steindl-Rast

He ends the chapter with this comment. “What we need to relearn is to ‘kneel and admire’ in reverence and amazement.”

My body SO protests kneeling in the sense of next to my bed for prayer or at the altar for communion, but the Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha helps me with the line in verse eleven: “And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness.” The Prayer of Manasseh is a part of the Apocrypha, accepted by some as biblical though not necessarily accepted by all persons as biblical. I personally love this prayer.

So I bend the knee of my heart in admiration, reverence and amazement towards the creation of the Father. This is one of the chapters I was reading while sitting on the porch recently when observations and poems seemed to pour forth out of me.

Imagine if we would approach each person as mystery. We are so prone to make judgements and stereotype people this could bring a radical change in our every encounter! Instead of being exhausted by people the introvert might see meeting as an adventure? Instead of thriving off others, the extrovert might see meeting another as an unknown treasure. Just thinking on the page here.

I hope this blog helps move you towards the decision and grace to move towards life with your eyes wide open and your heart seeking Mystery. May you be blessed with abundant life.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Art, Challenge, Humor, Listen, Nature, Poetry

Poetry

Waiting for Autumn ©Molly Lin Dutina 

Neighbors yard is filled from
First tree to drop her gown
likely Yellow Poplar
We have a few buttons
And ribbons in our lot from other
Ladies preparing to drop their gowns

Cicadas still sing afternoon melody
Sun shines brightly
Some maple branches turning
getting ready to disrobe
Mostly green on our horizon
Autumn waits at the corner

So humor from proof reading blog. Must have thought I had deaf cicadas in our yard because I wrote “Cicadas still sign afternoon melody.” Oh Molly, bad humor.

One cicada was so loud last evening, for a moment Bob thought it might have gotten into the house. Saw a huge one on the sidewalk when I walked Lucky this morning. Not dead, but certainly slowing down. Was this who we heard last evening?

Posted on in Faith, Just do it, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Yield

Have You Turned to Give Thanks

So easy to pray and ask, but thanks after the event?

Each of us have thousands of thoughts daily. When bad news comes we sometimes project the worst possible outcomes. When those worst things never come to pass do you give thanks?

Not talking pumpkin spiced thanks. Every season of every year! Not talking Turkey and pie here – daily thanks. “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.” But do we? I first Thessalonians chapter 5 Paul writes a list of things we are to do in our walk. “Be at peace, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, rejoice, pray, hold fast to what is good”, etc. This was set to music when my kids were little. It was a great way to learn the passage. If you want to look it up on You Tube it is usually entitled “Rejoice Evermore.”

in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

I love this painting. For me it says so very much! Ten lepers were cleansed. Only one thought to turn and give thanks.

Ten Lepers by James C. Christensen

Have you tried it? Turning back and giving thanks. Spend one week with this as your focus. When you don’t get the thing you were fearing or ‘awfulizing’ about do you give thanks? Will post about same subject a week from now. New habits can be difficult to initiate, but so rewarding when you find it is a practice! Notice how you do!

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:11-19 NIV

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Luke 18:8b NIV
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Nature, Poetry, Prayer

Bachelor Buttons©Molly Lin Dutina

Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor buttons I sink down. 
I take the encompassing blue with me. Down. 

I drop my shoulders 
Down I breathe the blue petals. 

Knowing the blue from the petals will fade. Down.
For now they wrap me in stillness. Down.

Wash me in the blue brightness I pray. Down.
Not Mrs. Stewart’s bluing agent. Down.

But the true blue of fresh flower. Down.
Peculiar petals, Down.

Not like tea rose. Down.

To where I am nestled inside the flower.
Down.

Beyond the pollen gathering bees. Down.

Sitting still in the Blues
And restored.

As you can tell I have been riding a wave of poetry. The book Every Day is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin has helped to challenge and inspire me. Uncertain how long this wave will last. Hope you are enjoying it!

I was frustrated as I have 4 photos of the flowers that I wanted to intersperse with the verses. Word Press was having none of that. I suppose if I spent enough time changing blocks and formatting I might get it. Hopefully, you grasped the idea, even without all the photos!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Poetry, Traveling

iPhone into the Sky

I am not by any means a climatologist but I was amazed by the heavens this recent afternoon.

Afternoon Grandeur ©Molly Lin Dutina 

I shot the iPhone
Into the sky
Not truly able to focus
Hoping to capture
Afternoon grandeur
And there it is!
Great white fluffy clouds
In brilliant blue sky.
Glory!

Wonder of wonders
It seems the clouds 
form jigsaw puzzle pieces
One edge of cumulus takes the shape
Of other cumulus edge
They drift closer and closer
Then join as if
They were always one
Amazed I cannot hear them 
click into place!

Bright blue sky
Great big puffy clouds
Were you torn in two
Or are your edges trying to
Match the other one?

Ah! Yes, I see you are matching 
each other’s edges
How did I never sit still before 
To watch this? 
Then as a larger cloud you move 
towards another and shape 
your edges to link - 
that is absolutely amazing!

How did I never observe this before?
Sitting still in late summer
Multitudes of blessings appear
Molly keep looking
For treasures in plain sight!
2:52
2:57
3:02

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

Revelation 1:7 NIV

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Matthew 17:5 NIV

The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals.

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/cloud/
Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Art, Challenge, Faith, Thanks

Quote from Another Writer

When we are open to beauty, it is more likely to appear to us. When we share that gift by pointing it out to others, we find we have even more of it to celebrate.

Trebbe Johnson

When I looked up who is Trebbe Johnson on the internet I found her website https://trebbejohnson.com/about/ and learned some about her. You might want to look into her work more deeply?

I certainly agree with the quote above from her. Many times when we are out and about, Bob with his camera and me with my iPhone, I will point something out that I think would make a great photo. He is so good at capturing those ideas! He is very good snapping photos on his own, too! Imagine that!

Every year we try to get to the Moler race track at least once during the summer. It is a quarter mile clay oval racetrack. We call it ‘eating dirt’ since the dirt flies over the fences and often into the stands. Helps us get in touch with the amusements of our country neighbors. This year I spotted this fellow dressed for an evening at the track. I like his hat with buttons, his hair pulled into a ponytail, his overalls and food for the next race.

At racetrack by r m dutina

Then my Wish-I-was-her image.

Hope she is always this confident! r m dutina

This was amazing. Duckweed, frog and leaf shadow. How does he capture these so nicely?

r m dutina

The busy bees!

r m dutina

“You planted these, here, just for me?” asked the goldfinch.

r m dutina just out our front door
Glory bee by m l dutina

Keep watching for treasures in plain sight! And always give thanks.

always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:20 NIV
Posted on in Aging, Faith, Family, Humor, Listen

Elders Humor

At our house, most of the humor among old folks occurs during late evening talks.

One evening I wondered aloud, “Is there ‘method to your madness’ or are you just nuts?”

Another evening he says I am “Anciently.” I tell him that is not even a word. He says, “Yes it is! I just said it.”

This is part of how to stay married for almost 53 years. Keep laughing out there!