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 |    I will be adding stories & reflections as time marches on. Take a gander today! |
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Contest Entries: "The Contest Challenge"  Participant"I Write in 2018" Participant"I Write in 2019" Participant"I Write in 2020" Participant2021: Independent Writing 2122: "I Write: Enter the Second Decade" Participant2123: "Twenty-three in Eleven " ParticipantThis mixed collection contains fiction, non-fiction, prose, and poetry. Entries vary in length from very short to one that is over 3000 words. 53 entries written in 2018: ▼ 53 entries written in 2019: ▼ 43 entries written in 2020 ▼ 2 entries written in 2021 ▼ Entries written in 2022 ▼ NOTE: All Titles with ~ ~ are either non-fiction or based on a true story. |
| Recently, my eldest daughter talked to me about a quote in the fourth chapter of Revelations: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, He who was, who is and who is to come. We then said those words together. The part of the quote that blessed me the most was "who is to come". Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulations but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." There is my hope. Jesus overcame the world. He was, He is and He is to come. In the worst of times on this earth, in this life, I remind myself and others that there is more to come. Life everlasting with a new heavens and a new earth. Jesus is on the throne and the day will come when His Kingdom will be completely manifested. As an old song says, "The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. The song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. My hope, our hope, is found in those words. As we turn my eyes upon Jesus, our problems or struggles fade into the background and we have the opportunity to experience His peace and His Presence and become enveloped in His Spirit. The sense of His Spirit today gives us a foretaste of what is to come when Jesus returns and gathers us to Him in glory. As my daughter and I continued our discussion the other day, we both acknowledged that there is no better experience on this earth than being filled and immersed in the Presence of God. This life has nothing better to offer us and yet, this is but a foretaste of what is to come as we join those before His throne who ceaselessly declare: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, He who was, who is and who is to come. In that we can find hope: Hope in the forgiveness of our sins. Hope in being empowered by His Spirit to follow Him. Hope in the eternal life we share with Him, because He died for us. Because He died for us, we have hope. Written for "Share Your Faith" Prompt: What gives you hope? How do you give hope to others? Word Count: 370 Words. ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
~ Is This What The Future Holds? ~ In the Bible, in the book of James, it says: "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.” You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil." The bottom line is that we do not know what the future holds. This became painfully clear to me the year my mother died. In the last months of her life, she was living with my brother. He and I were estranged but she had let him know that it was important to her to stay in touch with me. I lived in Oklahoma and they were living in Georgia at that time. He had made a rule that I could talk to her on the phone while he was at work. We consistently followed his rule. It was December 23, 2014. Mommy and I were talking on the phone. I did not know what my brother's work schedule would be over the holidays so I decided this would be our last conversation for the year. I explained my decision to her. I did not want to upset my brother and risk losing the privilege of having regular phone conversations with my mother. I explained that since neither of us knew my brother's schedule for the next week, I would call her after the holidays. "After the holidays" would be after New Year's Day. I told Mommy, "I will talk to you next year!" I thought I was being clever but I was really being foolish. I did not know what the future held. I should have said, "Lord-willing, I will talk to you next year." My mother died on New Year's Eve. That phone conversation on December 23, 2014 would be not only our last conversation of the year, it was our last conversation this side of heaven. I have talked to her many times since then but it is no longer a two way conversation. These days, I am very mindful of the fact that I do not know what the future holds. Written for "Write An Essay About..." Prompt: Write an essay about what the future holds... Word Count: 405 Words ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
~Daddy's Tree~  He planted a twig. The tree grew wild and crazy. Daddy loved that tree. Click on the photo for: the rest of the story... ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
My number one goal as I enter the next chapter of my life is to regain the intimacy I've lost in my relationship with GOD. I hunger for that sense of intimacy I once had. I want to know God—to know Him as He knows me. Intimacy with God What is intimacy with God? The Bible tells us eternal life is knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ. How can we know Him? The Bible promises that we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart. Where do we start? Worship The psalmist said, "I will enter your gates with thanksgiving in my heart and come into your courts with praise." That's where we start. We worship Him by sincerely thanking Him for all He has done and praising Him for all that He is. A thankful heart—a heart filled with awe at the thought of God—is key to experiencing His Presence. Priority Is my relationship with God the most important thing in my life? Yes, it is. Do I always act like it is? No, sadly, other things crowd in. Life is full of distractions and there are times I feel too tired to do anything. If my relationship with God is not given priority, it can get lost in the shuffle we call life. Time Time, that's what life is, isn't it? It ticks by minute by minute, day by day, year by year. Before we know it, it's gone. One of the most important things we can give God is our time. For any relationship to flourish, we must invest our time in it—any relationship—even one with the Most High God. To know God, we must spend time with Him. Ask, Seek, Knock “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Worship, thanksgiving, priority, time, how do we give God what we need to give Him to have that intimacy we desire? We ask Him for it. He is the author and finisher of our faith. We can not do it in our own strength. Only He can do it for us. Our relationship with Him is a gift, a gift we can not earn but a gift we can receive. Ask. ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| ~ Confidence Course ~ I am writing this for "HONORING OUR VETERANS " , a contest for stories or poems related to the military. My story is going to be one of my basic training memories.I entered the United States Air Force as a thirty year old woman. I tell a bit about it in an earlier entry: "~ Basic Training ~" .Today, I am going to share another tidbit: my experience with the Air Force "Confidence Course". As I prepared to write this entry, I found this: The original obstacle course, which was built in November 1942, was about a mile to a mile and a half long depending on what obstacles were open. Of the 14 obstacles, the two water obstacles would close seasonally affecting the course length.1 I could not remember how many total obstacles there were in the course and until reading this article, I did not know the two water obstacles were sometimes closed. They were open when I ran the course in 1982. They are the only two obstacles I clearly remember. They are ones I want to tell you about today. To graduate from Basic Training, we had to successfully complete this obstacle course. Passing meant making it through at least twelve of the fourteen challenges. The last two challenges of the day were our two "water challenges". As I approached the first water challenge, my body had already been pushed close to my limits. I stood on the edge of a small rectangular pool and the muscles in my legs were twitching from the exertions of the first twelve obstacles. Those twelve had taken everything I could muster but the good news was I had passed them all. The good news was that I had already passed the course. There were only two more obstacles and even if I failed them, I already had my 12/14. I stood on the side of the pool, legs trembling, and did NOT have confidence that I would be able to meet this first water challenge. The leaders were at the far end of this pool. They would swing a rope to me and I had to grab the rope and swing across to the other side. One problem: the rope did not reach all the way to my side. They would swing the rope to me and I would have to jump out and catch the rope in the air. If I missed, I would fall into the pool below and fail the challenge. If I managed to catch the rope, I had to quickly jump off on the other side. I did not expect to be able to catch the rope but I was wrong. I sprung through the air and successfully had that rope tightly grasped. I was half-way to success. One problem: I was so surprised, I neglected to jump off on the other side. I missed the one opportunity I had to successfully disembark and, as the rope and I swung back, I found myself hanging over the middle of the pool with no where to go but into the water: splash. One down and one to go. I walked through the sparkling clean water and climbed out on the other side. I was drenched. The only thing dry was the top of my head as I approached the final obstacle. I was confident I would easily pass this one—or so I thought. This last challenge was like a very long ladder that went over a dirty, slimy, nasty, yucky waterway. Our task was simply to go rung over rung to the other side. My grandfather had built us a swing set when I was young. The sides and top of the swing set were like ladders. I had gone rung to rung across that swing set many, many times. I was prepared for the piece-of-cake challenge. As we approached this obstacle, there was an airman standing there offering a towel to dry our hands with. Sadly, most of the flight had, like me, fallen into the crystal clear pool and, like me, they were drenched. There was only one towel. By the time it was my turn to dry my hand, the towel was dripping wet. The thought of trying to move rung to rung with wet hands was a bit disconcerting. Then I had an idea. The hair on the top of my head was dry. As I prepared to grab a rung and step off, I dried my palms the best I could by rubbing them on that bit of dry hair. Yay! It worked. I began easily moving forward. I got all the way to this center when I encountered an unexpected difficulty. The girl in front of me had STOPPED. I had no choice but to stop and wait for her. Everyone was yelling at her to move on or drop. Everybody but me. I was focusing on holding on for dear life but it seems that her ability to hold on was greater than mine. I made a decision to try and pass her. Unfortunately, the side rails were too big around for me to grasp and that led to another splash—into the dirty, slimy, nasty, yucky water. Suddenly, everyone was yelling at me—I was swimming in the wrong direction! When I got closer to the bank I realized my mistake and my flight was glad when I turned around. I actually think there was applause when I finally climbed up on the bank. I had dramatically failed the second water challenge but, thankfully, I had passed the Confidence Course. I didn't feel a burst of confidence though. All I felt was relief it was over.  Word Count: 966 words ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ Footnotes |
Jesus, be with me today. In this world, I will have tribulations But I can rejoice Because YOU have overcome This world. Let me be mindful of that today. Let me be mindful of YOU today. Jesus be with me today. Let me rest in Your peace. Let me rest in You. I will rest in You today. I will rest... Written for: "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest" Prompt: A Freestyle Poem on any subject. Line Count: 13 Lines ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| ~ The Golden Years ~ Whoever said that these are our "Golden Years"? They certainly don't feel very golden to most of us. Old age has brought aches and pains galore. We get knees and hips replaced—shoulder surgery—cataract surgery. Are these golden? Many of us leak urine. Some of us leak stool. None of this fits in with my idea of "Golden Years". Who started this expression? Where did it come from? I turn to Google for answers and discover the phrase was first put forth to advertise Sun City! What is Sun City? "Sun City is an entire community dedicated to leisure and recreation for the active, retired adult." How many older adults get to stay active? Most of the folks around here either sit home alone or join us for cards and a hot meal at the Senior Center. What is the Senior Center? Well, it's the place where we are fighting lonely and wondering where the gold is as we wander into our sunset years... A golden sunset, perhaps, as we fight loneliness... Contest: "Invalid Item" Prompt: "We are fighting lonely." Word Count: 173 Words ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
| Haggai Jezebel in Kings Daniel Lions Den Joseph Esther Jeremiah 22 ~ ~ ~ JESUS is LORD! ~ ~ ~ |
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