"Beauty is dangerous." Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

"Beauty will save the world." Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

Beauty invites, beauty nourishes.

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters... Listen, listen to me, eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Isa 55:1-2

God created beauty, everything we take as beautiful from flowers to love, to babies, to poetry, God is author of it all. Our broken world speaks of Gods heart, a heart of love.

 

"The beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us... Beauty captivates the senses in order to obtain permission to pass straight through the soul... The soul's inclination to love beauty is the trap Go most frequently uses in order to win it." Simone Weil

 

If our God is beautiful, how does that affect the way we live?

If God is beautiful, then beauty is a good, sacred thing. It means that we need to understand that as part of God’s creation, even more than that, as having been made in the image of God we as humans are beautiful.

Not in the straight nose, nice teeth, high cheek bones sort of way, though some of us have that. But that we have a soul, a soul that we are to invite others to know, so that they can heal their hearts. We need to be tender to every person we meet, because they have a delicate soul hand crafted by God.

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God forgave you.”  Eph 4:32

It means we are to look past the fallen depravity of people and to call out what God has made them to be.

“To possess true beauty, we must be willing to suffer… If Christ himself was perfected through his sufferings, why would I believe God would not want the same with me? Women who are stunningly beautiful are women who have had their hearts enlarged by suffering. By saying “ Yes” when the world says “No.’ By paying the high price of loving truly and honestly without demanding that they be loved in return. And by refusing to numb their pain in the myriad of ways available. They have come to know that when everyone and everything has left them, God is there… Living in true beauty can require much waiting, much time, much tenacity of spirit. We must constantly direct our gazes toward the face of God, even in the presence of longing and sorrow. It is in waiting that our hearts are enlarged.”  Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge



Love Quippy

A wasted life

This post comes directly from two blogs from wonderful Christian young women.
http://desiringgodsdesires.blogspot.com/2012/06/to-surrender-precious-dream.html
http://god-sdaughter.blogspot.com/

From these two ladies I learned of a fellow saint, close to my age. A blogger, photographer and passionate Christ follower.

In May,this young man was killed tragically after falling into rapids.

Though his soul is no longer here, it is resting in perfect peace, but he did leave something.
Something greater than stores of wealth or material goods, a beautiful legacy.

A legacy of surrendering all to God, so that He can have all glory and power and praise.


"Many are the plans of man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." pr 19:21



"But, as it is written,
No eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has planned for those who love Him" 1 Cor 2:9



"But He knows the ways that I take,
When He has tried me I shall come out as gold.
My foot has held fast to His steps,
I have kept His way and have not turned aside." Job 23:10,11




Shortly before the Lord called Him, our fellow saint wrote a blog post.

He was on the top of a mountain, taking in a breath taking sunset. Filled with wonder, in complete awe of God.
Yet he was filled with longing for his 'one day true love'. Wanting to take in the beauty, to share the experience. He felt alone.

The post was called To Surrender a Precious Dream.
H wrote of how in this life, we are promised nothing, we are called to live our lives to bring FULL glory and praise to God.

His gave his precious dream to God. Allowing our Heavenly Father to become the center of his love. With no promise of his desire in return.

His last paragraph was this.

" To surrender a precious dream is fearful thing, but to pursue anything but the full measure of Gods glory is a life wasted."

http://joshyeddy.blogspot.com/2012/04/to-surrender-precious-dream.html


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There has been a challenge posted by Gods Daughter, to surrender all of our sweetest desires and dreams to our Father. So that we may be filled by Him, so that we may give our totally, whole selves, to God for HIS glory.

I am taking this challenge.

I ask you consider you to do the same as well.

Precious Dreams

> To marry a man on fire for God

> To have a home in the country

> To travel
> To have a home filled with children

> To make every one around my feel loved

> To raise godly Children

> To watch sunsets with my love

> To hold all my grandchildren

> To live heroically


> To live an unexpected life


> To have my children rise up and call me blessed

> To have a home where there are never any strangers

> To die in the arms of my love


In Christ alone, my hope is found. He is my life, my strength, my all. This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest draught and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, when striving cease.
My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I'll stand.

Rambly

A little artistic change to the blog in honor of summer. I don't know about you all, but I have been feeling quite a bit rambly.

Quippy Dictionary
Rambly- The longing to hop in a car, fill up the tank, and drive down a country road, with the windows down and music going, and never stop. (expect for like bathroom breaks and to move turtles out of the road.) (turtles love roads.)

Very rambly indeed.

I even have board now on pinterest devoted to places I would love to go!
http://pinterest.com/everydaycrusade/the-one-day-adventures/

Some I could drive to

Some not so much.... This is in Slovenia

I'm going to assume that your geographical knowledge of southern Europe is much like mine. Which can best be described as If-it-wasn't-involved-in-the-renaissance-I-don't-know-it, because that's pretty much the biggest thing that's ever happened there right? Excluding the recent economic struggles..... I'm kidding, but I didn't know much of it.. so here ya' go. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia?vm=r&s=1


I would love to travel. Anywhere, preferably some place with fields. Like Nebraska, I love Nebraska, I think that if I wasn't a Texan I would be a Nebraskan. But I digress.




I think I would also love to go camping. Some where near a lake, where you can just be in Gods wildness. Where there is enough room for the soul and clean fingernails are not required.....
That would be lovely.

Until I can find away to fufill these summer desires I shall practise contentment in whatever situation I am in.


Something to make your summer a little better.

Books: I just finished re-reading Captivating and Wild at Heart by the Eldredges. Absolutely life changing books, I highly suggest them for teens and adults seeking to understand Gods plan for there lives and to better understand themselves.

http://www.amazon.com/Captivating-Unveiling-Mystery-Womans-Soul/dp/0785264698?vm=r&s=1

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Heart-Revised-Updated-Discovering/dp/1400200393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339170401&sr=1-1


Music: Make the Most of Me. Marie Miller.
 Holding out for a Hero. Ella Mae Bowen. 
Wonderful, beautiful songs.


Happy Summer Ya'll
 

"THIS is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

The day you are in now is the only day that you have now. This sounds silly but think about it; yesterday is gone and there is no way you can ever get it back and there is no guarantee that tomorrow will ever come or that you will get to see it. But today, today, is what we have, it is all we have. However this one day that we have was made by the Lord. Our great and wonderful father who has loved us sense before the stars were flung into the sky, created this very day. Therefore we should be glad to be in it. Because this day we have hundreds of moments and opportunities to share and show Gods love and grace to the world.
Let us not confuse joy or rejoicing with happiness.

hap·py

   /ˈhæpi/ Show Spelled[hap-ee] 

adjective, hap·pi·er, hap·pi·est.

1.

delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing: to be happy to see a person.

 

Happiness is an emotion over an event or situation. However joy is a rational response to a situation.

 

When God gives you a less than ideal situation, you have a choice in how to respond. What God asks of us is not to be happy is hard time but to think of it as joy. "Because we know that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, us because God has poured out his love to us through the Holy Spirit whom has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5

 

So today whatever day this is, consider your challenges a joy.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

This is not a promise that things will work out today. Its a promise for a future glory when we are united with God and made perfect and whole. But until then my friends