Son-bathing

My daughter and I laid out in the sun today.  It’s just what the doctored ordered, according to an article I read somewhere: 20 minutes of sun exposure a day for optimal health.

As we laid there baking away, my daughter told me that in Spanish, sun bathing literally means, “drinking in the sun.”

Hmmm, I thought. That’s just what we need for optimal spiritual health:  Drink in the Son for at least 20 minutes a day. 🙂

“Come to Me, all [you] who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  ~~ Matthew 11:28

click pic for source

Let’s Pray:

Father, thank you for sending Jesus, your one and only son, down here to earth to live, love, and die for us all.  

He’s the radiance of Your glory.  (Hebrews 1:3)

I want to radiate Your glory, too!  I want to look like someone who’s had lots of Son exposure!

 I want to “drink in” Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22) 

Show me how to accomplish this on a daily basis.  In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Ask yourself:  How much Son-exposure do I get each day?  Could/should I get more?

Better question:  How much time do I spend Facebooking, watching TV, web-surfing?  Hmmmm. Convicting!

 Would trading a few of those minutes for a few minutes reading the Bible and praying lead to more “optimal spiritual health”?  

I’m not a doctor, so I’m not ordering it, just suggesting it as a loving blogger.  We’re all in this together. 🙂

Do you know the Son?  His name is Jesus and He’d love to know you!  Click on the pic for a quick introduction:

"Sun Bathers" see below for source...

“Sun bathers” gratefully borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nehmzow/4209753101/

Bike Across America: Tumbleweed Faith

Biking the roadways in the southwest means heat, more heat, and dodging  LOTS of tumbleweeds.

Tumbleweeds  aren’t native to the southwest, ya know.  The prickly thistle is a Russian immigrant.  Da! (yes, in Russian)

The seeds were delivered to the west via the Transcontinental Railroad, attached to burlap bags from Russia.

Transcontinental Railroad, click pic for source

Well, no matter where they come from, I’ve decided I don’t want to have tumbleweed faith.  Nyet! (no!)

I don’t want my faith in God’s goodness to be bounced around by every wind of doubt and my ever-changing circumstances. Nyet, spotzeebo! (no, thank you!)

I don’t want a heart that follows God today

because everything’s going my way,

but, if tomorrow pain I feel?

says, “Move over, God, I’ll take the wheel!”

And do you know why the tumbleweed tumbles?

Well, after a short time of flowering:

click pic for source

the round, prickly plant develops a tough layer of cells at the base thus cutting itself off from the root, and off it goes…

Hmmmm…maybe that’s why my faith takes a tumble sometimes, too.

Maybe by skipping out on reading the Bible and forgetting to pray too often, my heart develops a tough outer layer and I cut myself off from the Root,

Jesus,

my heart’s REAL desire.

Then, off I go

tumbling about in the dust

snagging myself on barbed wire.

click pic for source

The Apostle Paul didn’t want his disciples in Ephesus to have Tumbleweed Faith, either, so he prayed this prayer for them…

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,

to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;

and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may be able to comprehend with all the saints

what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and to know the love of Christ

which surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14)

And did you see how big that root of love is?  (“How big is it?”, remember the old Johnny Carson show? :] )  It’s so big, we need help from God to “comprehend” the” breadth and length and height and depth” of it.  Now, that’s alotta love, and you and I HAVE to stay anchored to it, to Jesus, to grow.

Russian Thistles (Salsola Collina), before they become Tumbleweeds, click pic for source and to read more about the Tumbleweed from Blue Planet Biomes

Let’s pray:

Oh, Father in heaven, I want to know, know, know that love, that is beyond my ability to understand in my human fraility.

Fill me with ALL of your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. [the fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22]

In Jesus’ name, Amen!!!

Do you have an anchor for your soul? Click on the pic below to meet mine.  You’ll be glad you did.  You’ll say, “spat-zeebo” (thank you), and I’ll say, “Ne-za-chto” (don’t mention it.)

P.S. We’ve logged another 100 miles in New Mexico on our (virtual)  Bike Ride Across America (confetti, horns, hip-hip-hurrays!!!!)

The hot, dusty road brings us to the little town of Deming.

(not really, just pretend.  we’re actually riding around our midwestern town, and up in Door County on our vacation, my husband and I, and we’re logging our miles on a Google map as if we were riding from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the south and southwest.  Click on the map below to read about our crazy adventure)

 Deming, NM(map from epodunk.com)

Lessons from the World Cup: “…please, do not blow your vuvuzelas.”

(source)

BZZZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

What was that annoying, please-swat-me, buzzing sound emanating from my TV when I tuned into the World Cup?!

Can you say, “vuvuzela”?  (voo voo ZAY luh)

What in the world cup is a vuvuzela?!  Watch and learn:

Forgive me for tooting my own horn here, but when we “have not love”, I think we’re being “vuvuzela Christians”.

See? —

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”  1 Corinthians 13:1

It’s all about love…

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

source

Let’s pray:

Oh, Father, you ARE love, the Bible says. (1 John 4:8b)

I want to be like you, so I’m trading in my clanging horn of selfishness for your  patience, kindness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

May my life be a “sweet, sweet sound in Your ears” (from song below).

In Jesus name, Amen!

Dieting

Dieting?  Join the club.  Wanna recipe for a yummy, healthy snack that feels like a splurge?

Mush together a whole banana, natural chunky peanut butter (check the ingredients to make sure it’s only peanuts, maybe some salt, but nothing else.), and plain yogurt.

Stir in a goodly handful of rolled oats (uncooked), organic cocoa powder to taste, and a smidge of raw honey.

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

Here’s a picture of it.

Peanut/Oat/Banana Mush

It came out looking a little bleh, but looks can be deceiving.

Take the Bible for instance —

At first glance, it might look a little bleh, too, especially compared to the latest movie, or the funnest TV show — think Glee, my daughter’s favorite.

But you need to look inside:

Alison's eye/Steve Young, photographer

And not just a quick glance…Sometimes you need to “look intently”.

See what I mean?

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.   For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

my daughter, Liz, in the mirror

for once he has looked at himself and gone away,  he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” ~~ James 1:22-25

Stop, Drop, and Pray!

I wanna be blessed.  Don’t you?  Let’s pray:

Let’s pray:

Oh, Father,  I wanna be blessed like the verse promised above.  Of course, to be blessed, I need to obey, the verse also says.

Did you ever notice “obey” is a 4-letter word?  I’m just sayin’….

And here’s another one — “hard”.  As in, it’s HARD to obey!

But, I know, Father, that the more time I spend with you, the more I want to do what You want me to do.

So, draw me to Your side, to Your table to eat, ’cause I know that’s where the healthy food is.

Thank you for all You do, and for all of Who You are.  Your not bleh, You’re glee!

In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

Do You know Him?  Click the pic below to be introduced:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" Galatians 5:22

Peony Faith

Peonies, Hidcote Garden, Cotswolds, Gloucestershire taken by UGArdener, a flickr photo

“But thou, O LORD, [art] a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.“ Psalm 3:3

“…thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.” Psalm 18:35

(You can open the following link in a new tab/window to hear Fernando Ortega sing  Give Me Jesus while your read…)

A sad sight caught my eye as I left my neighborhood this morning.  It tugged at my heart-strings.  All along the road the beautiful blooms on my neighbors’ peonies  had been smacked down to the ground by yesterday’s driving rains, like the peony in the photo above.

The gardener in me wanted to stop the car, run over and lift up their pretty pink and yellow faces.  I wanted gently shake the water off, and restore their dignity, poor things.

Often the driving rains of life smack me face-down into the mud, too.  Just when I’m in full bloom and the weather’s fine, along comes a downpour.

That’s when I need a little help, ’cause, no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to lift myself back up again.

I have to call for the Gardener to save me.

And when, in particularly desperate times, I add fasting to my pleas, it seems to hurry him up.

He lifts me up, shakes off the rain, restores my dignity.

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 1 Peter 5:6

Let’s pray:

Oh, Father in Heaven, I’m so glad to be one of the flowers in your garden.  You are the Master Gardener.  You provide all I need to grow  — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. ( Galatians 5:22)

Take over today, Father.  May I be a bright, beautiful flower that brings You and the people around me pleasure to be around.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

P.S. Know any flowers you wish were in God’s Garden?  Take a moment to pray for them. 🙂

P.S.S. Click on the fasting links to the right for lots of tips and encouragement to get growing!