Fall Beauty

Can You Hear Me Now?

     Do you speak on behalf of those who do not have a voice?  Do you use your gifts generously to fulfill a need - expecting nothing back?  Do you want to make a difference in the life of a child? 

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.  Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.  ~Isaiah 1:17

     I imagine that I am the play phone pressed tightly to this little girl's soft cheek.
     Hello.  Can you hear me now?  I whisper into her ear, "Someone cares."  Someone cares for you.  You are precious and loved.
     Briiiing!  Briing!  Sweet little girl, hunger gnaws at your belly in the night, but there is hope.  From a land far away someone heard your cries.  They have been answered.
     A message of encouragement and joy has been left for you.  Grow strong little one.  Grow in hope.  Grow in love.  Grow in peace.

     During the month of September, Compassion reaches out through bloggers to find sponsors for 3,160 children living in poverty.  Won't you help?  Please go here.  There is a child who needs you.

Words

John 1:1-3   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.~Genesis 1:1-3, 2:7

     I want you to notice two things in the scriptures above.  The first is that God spoke everything in existence.  The second, that God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him.

     Before there was an Earth as we know it, there were words.  God spoke before we even drew a breath.  “And God said, “Let there be light.”  The third verse in the whole Bible.  God spoke and the world began.   When God spoke the moon was flung into space, the oceans were formed, fish swam in the sea, and elephants dipped their long trunks into the cool fresh water for a drink.  God spoke and the stars twinkled in the night sky, flowers burst into bloom, and Adam and Eve talked with God in the garden.

     God could have created any way He wanted.  He is God.  He could have thought things into place, or snapped His fingers.  He could have done a Genie blink and the first trees could have appeared.  He could have waved a baton like a cosmic conductor.  But instead, He did none of those things.   He chose to use words to create.

     There is power in God’s word.  Whenever God speaks in the Bible, things change.  Circumstances and lives, water to wine, the sick are healed, hearts are mended, and people are fed. 

     Adam was formed with God’s hand from the dust of the earth.  Eve fashioned by God from Adam’s rib.  God breathed life into them.  Being so close to someone that you can breathe their breath is intimate.  Sharing breath speaks of a closeness of body and spirit.  It’s as close as a kiss. 

     When God created us in His image, God also gave us the power of words.  

Proverbs 18:21  The tongue has the power of life and death.

     We can all think of times when someone has spoken to us and built us up, or sadly, torn us down.  Words can break our hearts.  As wives and husbands, parents, students and teachers, brother’s and sisters we have the power to speak into each other’s lives.  The mouth speaks from the overflow of our hearts.  Let us use our power for good and not evil as we go about our days.  Choose to speak life, to never let a compliment go unsaid, to build and not tear down.  Choose to not ever be the bully on the playground.  

     Speak every word in love.

     The ideas in this post are based on a wonderful book called, Speak Love:  Making Our Words Matter, by Annie Downs.  It is available at Amazon.

21 Graces: Week 7

     My list of 21 things that have blessed me this week.  I am so grateful for each of them.  You can read more about 21 Graces here.

1. Pumpkin Spice M & M's.
2. Sharing a bucket of popcorn in a dark movie theater.
3. Laughing with friends.
4. Spending a day screening preschoolers and kindergarteners for school.  They are so adorable.
5. Senior citizen discounts!
6. A loaves and fishes experience when two extra people showed up for dinner on a night we were eating light.
7. A school BBQ on a perfect fall evening.
8. Birthdays.  Every one is precious.
9. Homemade birthday cards.
10. Chocolate cake made be my daughter.
11. Family that cares enough to alert waitstaff that it's your birthday so that you can endure the humiliation of having them yell it to the whole world entire restaurant!
12. Friends.
13. Children's laughter.
14. A new classroom.  A better space for me and my students.
15. My ancient washer needs a new part.  It can be fixed and continue to serve us, faithfully washing enormous mountains of clothes.
16. The beautiful colors of fall beginning to appear on the trees.
17. Pumpkins.
18. My sons playing together quietly with lego's.
19. Talking to my older sons on the telephone.  How I love to hear their voices.
20. Coloring with the BIG box of crayons.
21. Listening to the sound of crickets at night through the open bedroom window.

New Every Morning

Replacing the Fabric on Dining Room Chairs

          You can update the look of your dining room chairs in an afternoon by recovering the cushion with a stylish new fabric..

      Our dining room chair seats were looking a little tired.  Not only was the fabric worn, but, Goldilocks would have agreed, the seats were too hard.  The time had come for action.
     I chose an upholstery grade fabric that is stain resistant.  It comes in long 54 inch rolls.  One yard will cover two cushions.  I always like to get extra fabric to make a runner for the table.  It's better to have too much fabric, than too little.  So get more than you think you might need.

     I found a four pack of foam for seat cushions at Walmart.   I was upholstering five chairs, so I needed two packs.  I also used a light duty stapler, a tape measure, and an electric drill.  My stapler is old, but you can find a similar one at Amazon.

     Turn the seat over and look at the bottom.  The seat is attached by one screw in each of the four corners.  Use the electric drill in reverse to remove the screws.  Save those screws!  You will use them to reattach the seat.  The seat will lift off of the chair.

     Using a screwdriver and my considerable strength, I pried the old staples off the back and removed the old fabric.  If your seats have not been recovered before, you can skip this step.
     I cut a piece of the replacement fabric about three inches larger than the chair seat.  Note:  Pay attention to the pattern of the fabric so that it is consistent and facing in the direction you want it to be in on the chair.  I placed that top side down on the table.   My chair seats were tapered.  I used one of the extra foam cushions to cut a long triangle to place on either side of the seat.  These were set on the fabric and finally the seat frame was added.  I wrapped the fabric around the layers rather like a present.  The material needs to be pulled taunt while it is being stapled in place.  I started by putting a staple in the center of each side.  Then a staple for each of the corners.  Pay attention to the front corners to keep them neat.  Continue to pull the fabric tight and work your way around the seat.   Extra material can be trimmed away by following the staple line.
     Place the chair on the now cushioned seat and replace the original screws.

     Turn the chair right side up and give it the Goldilocks test!  Our cat, Luna, was the first to try out the new cushions.

Redeemed

  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
  His love endures forever.
  Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— 

      those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 

      those he gathered from the lands, 

      from east and west, from north and south.  ~Psalm 107

     There are moments in your life that change you forever.  Sometimes you can almost feel the earth shift under your feet.  Other times it happens so quietly that you don’t realize the significance of what has happened until you look back for that moment that made everything different.
     I was out with some girlfriends at a dance hall when a dashing young man came over to our table and asked me to dance.  I can still see him.  His blue eyes flashed at me under his dark brown hair, a combination that had always made my heart beat faster.  He had on a white button down shirt and brown corduroy pants.  We danced late into the night and I have been dancing with that man ever since.
     Pat and I had been dating almost a year when the company he worked for hired another young man by the name of Steve.  Steve had recently moved to the area with his wife and daughter.  Steve was short, going prematurely bald, and carried a pocket sized Bible.  He began to talk to Pat about having a relationship with Jesus.  He and Pat would have long debates on how a relationship was different from a religion.  I lived at school about an hour away during the week and went home on weekends to see my family and Pat.  Pat would call me during the week, long distance - when long distance cost an exorbitant amount of money.  Pat told me about his conversations with Steve.  He wanted me to provide him with ammunition against the things that Steve was saying.  The problem was that Steve made a whole lot of sense.
     On Saturday evenings, I went to a Catholic church with my Mom.  We always left right after communion.  Going to church made me thirsty to experience more of God.  The God I had learned about had a whole lot of rules, and seemed to become very angry with those who did not follow them.  I had studied Jesus in the New Testament before dropping out of catechism class, but I couldn’t connect the stern Father and His miracle working Son.
     One night after hanging up the phone with Pat, I prayed, “God, if Pat decides to get baptized then I will know that You are in this.”  Now where that came from I am not sure, because we hadn’t even talked about baptism.  Both of us had already been baptized as infants.
     The next weekend, Pat was about three hours late to pick me up.  He claimed that he had been busy.  What he didn’t say was that the night before he had been given a dream.  In his dream he saw hell all around him.  It was utterly dark and full of emptiness and despair and then he sensed God’s hand cover him and everything changed into joy, happiness, and love.   It was in a phone call in the middle of the next week that Pat confessed that he had gone with Steve to be baptized in a nearby creek.
     The next weekend I was also baptized in the same creek.  I remember feeling so fresh, clean and new after coming up out of that water.   My life was forever changed.
     I have to admit, neither Pat nor I prayed long eloquent prayers asking Jesus to come into our heart.  We didn’t know enough to.  God drew us to Him in His unfailing kindness with an everlasting love.
     Pat and I immediately looked for a church to learn and serve in.  We married about six months later.

 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— 
   those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 
 those he gathered from the lands, 
from east and west, from north and south.  Some wandered in desert wastelands, 
finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, 
and their lives ebbed away. 
 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,  and he delivered them from their distress.  He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. 
 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love  and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 
 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.  Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love 
 ~Psalm 107

     Sometimes, you meet a  stranger who asks you to dance and your life changes.  But anytime God asks you to dance, your life will always be changed.

     What has God done for you?