The Prince of Peace

A title I was tempted to ignore… to unrealistic or something.

Until, I saw…

the peace of God rest on a couple previously tempted to abandon one another

the peace of God in a mothers eyes who lost a child to death

the peace of God change a restless heart into a directed heart

the peace of God help a recently blinded man and his wife accept his new condition

the peace of God in the eyes of a woman called to “ insurmountable problems” in inner city Phoenix.

There are many people who hope for world peace at this time of the year. We long for peace to reign. One day we are promised that He, The Prince of Peace, will on all occasions and in every circumstance reign.

Today, I just keep looking for signs of His peace in one life, one story at a time.

One thought leads to another...

Seems like my facebook time is killing my blog time.

For some one over 40 that seems like a really funny statement. I'm in some kind of twightlight zone. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it just different? Can you believe what we spend our time doing? And that in some strange undefineable way its actully useful and even relational.. While sometimes it is distracting and escapist its also fun, enlightening and meaningful.

I had no idea how important that typing class in highschool was going to be...

The other day I said to my husband, "Is it wrong to love your phone?"

I can email, text and oh yeah occasionally actually talk to people on it.

So far I largely use it as a tool for efficently setting up face time with people...

Even that expression "face time", when I see those words it makes me think of when we lived in California. While I was very grateful for things like unlimited long distance phone minutes I also hated being on the phone and longing to just see my friends eyes light up or their smiles in real time. I didn't want to imagine it. I wanted to see it. I hope "face time" always remains important to me.

I think its one of the reasons I love facebook so much. Friends around the country who I would have no chance to see are "seeable" via their various albums each and every day. We get to enjoy much more than the annual Christmas letter.

Maybe the Christmas letter will die soon. Is that good? Is that bad? My bet the vote on that is that it's good.

I just have to get all my friends to sign up for Facebook and then I can journey guilt free through late November and early December without the stress of what on earth to put in the Christmas Letter.

Let the recruiting begin...

Gentleness

God keeps bringing this up lately...

I do not have a gentle and quiet spirit. If you think you see that in me I can tell you for 100% sure what your seeing is God.

Since I've sensed this is an area that I need to learn more about I've had way to many opportunities to trust God for gentleness.

As always if I'm walking in tune with Lord it goes well. If not, I'm not gentle but instead harsh. Actually I think all that has happened is that the Lord just keeps showing me the habits of harshness I've always had. It's not pretty. I don't want to be harsh anymore. I really want to have a strong, trusting and gentle heart.

One of the verses that's helping me recently is 1 Timothy 6:11:

But you , man of God (daughter of God), flee from this (evil, rebellion)and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love and gentleness.

What I love about gentleness is that it really is about loving the other person. And, I'm very appreciative that the Lord chooses to interact with me in gentleness.

Does anyone else ever get tired of the fact that there is always something more to work through? Sigh...