Words of Life

I've been having a lot of early morning conversations with my Heavenly Dad this week. I have been reminded several times lately about the power that words have in our lives - the power of life and death. Since these quotes are some of the most recent "life" quotes I've been saturating in, I thought I should record them publically. Maybe you need to receive one of these messages too:

"I have plans for you, Dani, they're good plans. Stop worrying. Stop worrying."

"Hope, wait, dream in me, precious daughter."

"You are more precious than the stars to me."

"I would empty the oceans for you."

"Find me in other people. Declare what I have seen in them and want for them. Bless and honor MY work in them."



"I am the way

I am the truth

I am the light

I am who enlightens you

I am your greatest desire

I am your lover

I am your treasure."




I am who was with Leah in her loneliness.

I am who watched over Jacob as he slept.

I am who called Abram to leave his home.

I am who walked with David in the wilderness.

I am who travels around the world with you.

I am who guides your hands every day.

I am who feels your pain.

I am who cries with you in the dark of the night.

(I catch your tears)

I am who rejoices in your joys.

I am who loves you for you.
I am yours."

"My passion for you is inexhaustable.
My faithfulness to you is flawless.
My desire for you is unquenchable.
My plans for you are unequal.
My delight of you is depthless.
My yearning for you is enduring.
My power is incomparable.
I choose you as mine. I'm not giving up.
Come to me. Seek me. Choose me. Love me."

5 years

I am rather surprised tonight by how the past 5 years have changed my perspective and opinions on a number of things. A woman that has watched me grow up said to my parents 5 years ago - as I stood on the cusp of making a decision that would have changed my life significantly - that she thought the next 5 years would bring me to a very different place, and that I would feel differently about many things.

I had no idea how right she was.

Five years ago, I had a very clear picture of what my "ideal" would be in one area of life. I had a plan that I would have liked to have play out in steps exactly how I envisioned them. I had many specific details figured out to astounding complexity.

I wasn't ever presented with the exact option I was waiting for. I had some other options, but I chose to not pursue them extensively.

Now - 5 years later - I suddenly realized today that I've recently been presented with that ideal - I mean, down to ASTONISHING details!! - and I chose to not accept the ideal, because it's no longer what I want.

I've changed in the last 5 years, and I think it's really fascinating that, had I been given the option back THEN of what I was recently offered, I would have taken it without a 2nd thought. It would have been a dream come true. But NOW, 5 years later, I had the chance to choose the very thing I used to want, and I no longer want it.

How strange. God obviously had different things in mind for me than MY ideal. I think it was His grace that preserved me from being given the option 5 years ago, and this realization today is a demonstration of how He has purposefully worked to grow and mature me in different ways than I thought I would grow and mature.

He really, really does know what He's doing. I am awed by Him. Yesterday I had some time to myself and was starting to get stressed from how my thoughts were fragmented and running in a million different directions. But then I recognized the fact that I didn't want to be thinking about this stressful stuff. So I told God, "Lord, I don't want to think about this stuff, but I cannot seem to keep my own mind off of it. What do YOU want me to think about?"

And His answer, in His typical loving, gentle, kind way, was simply, "Me, Dani. I want you to think about me."

I laughed. Of course! Why would He NOT want me to think about Him? He's seriously the best thing to think about - His love for me is overwhelming... unfathomable... generous... kind... patient... How good He is to me!

In Verse

ONE:

I am but one

Small bud in a field

Small thorn on a rose bush

Small fleck on a clock

I have but one

moment in time

breath left to spill

self to give

I strive for none but one

goal: to love

life: to live

thought: to praise

I have

two hands to move

two ears to tune

two eyes to weigh

I desire just one:

blink to endure

God to serve

love to hold as mine:

Jesus.

THE VOICE:

The voice I'm learning to decipher

Amidst the wind and rain

Is the voice I long to hear

Comfort my world-wearied soul today.

I hope for strength and patience

As I pass where I can't see His face

May His tenderest touch

Fill my heart with the rush

To step through my sludge to His gate.

SURRENDER:

My heart and its feelings

of sadness and woe and

hope. Surrender.

My dreams and the fuel

that pressed me

onward to go.

My words and my deeds

must be given to Thee

if this act is complete.

But to learn to love

well, and to hold

well myself, I

Surrender to be

more like You and

much, much less

like me.

TO LOVE:

Oh the trials the soul must face

When a heart desires to give, not take

Against every instinct it must fight

When reason and hope seem out of sight

The battle must be won

Strength given from the Son

But death comes in the night

before the rising of Love.

Constitution:

,
dictionary.com defines constitution as: "the aggregate of a person's physical and psychological characteristics." ("aggregate" means the combination or sum total)

I watched "Emma" (or the latter part of it anyhow) with some ladies on Saturday night, and at the end of the movie, Mr. Knightley tells Emma he's willing to live at her Father's home after they are married so they can keep her fretful father happy, and they can be together. Emma says, "You would do that? for me?" and Mr. Knightley responds, "Well, I might still walk [to my home] several times a day, just for my constitution."

We, the viewers, were pondering that fantastic word: constitution. It seems a bit out-dated in present vernacular. Too bad.

Too bad, because I'm about to use it: I have concluded that going to the beach by oneself is excellent for one's constitution.

Yesterday was gorgeous. Yesterday I also didn't have anything too pressing. So I took off for the beach in Poppy, with no music, a cell phone that I'd turned off, my bible, my notebook, and my camera.

I stopped along the coast and snapped this shot as the sun was setting, then found a fancy little bistro in Astoria that served a lot of vegan food, and I ate and journaled and read and tried to unpack Genesis 24. I decided there's a lot there.

I didn't get home until late, and didn't sleep until later, because I wanted to practice on my ghee-tar, because I always feel cool when I play on it, but I slept in until almost ELEVEN today, and now need to be productive. [Sidenote: this is why I really don't like sleeping in all that much. It messes up my whole day's timelines.]

What have you done lately that's been good for your constitution?

Love. Loving. Lovingly

After spending some time yesterday on this website, browsing from blog to blog, I've decided that it would be a good exercise in communication for me to write a blog every day for the next month. Maybe then I can practice writing SHORT blogs.

To go along with this decision, I've decided to add a picture every day along with my blog post, for the next month. March 10th will mark the end of my daily blogging attempts... Can I do it? Yet to be seen. Check back in a month!

Today at church my friend Jason spoke since Pastor Dave is in the US. Considering that Valentine's day is just around the corner, he spoke on love. Loving by faith. I was quite convicted - I think something that especially hit me was a letter he read dating back from about 100 AD. The letter was about Christians - who they are and how they act. Christians, according to this author, are characterized by a real and true love. They love all men. And the people who hate them are UNABLE to give any real reason for their hatred. That is the way love should be shown. That is the way Christians should live - loving people. I'm always surprised at how Jesus was really taken advantage of during his public ministry, contrasted to how I hate to be taken advantage of. But that's not really loving, is it?

Anyhow, thanks for showing ME love by reading these little musings!

On a completely unrelated topic, here's a picture of me wearing my new H&M dress!