life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “kindness”

speaking with love

Growing into the Truth We Speak

Can we only speak when we are fully living what we are saying?  If all our words had to cover all our actions, we would be doomed to permanent silence!  Sometimes we are called to proclaim God’s love even when we are not yet fully able to live it.  Does that mean we are hypocrites?  Only when our own words no longer call us to conversion.  Nobody completely lives up to his or her own ideals and visions.  But by proclaiming our ideals and visions with great conviction and great humility, we may gradually grow into the truth we speak.  As long as we know that our lives always will speak louder than our words, we can trust that our words will remain humble.

– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

words are very powerful and important

Words Colour Our Behaviour.

Words! They are all around me! I see them. I use them. Harsh words, soothing words, biting words; words that give pain and sorrow; words that give joy and pleasure. They are vital to communication. When words are spoken there are reactions, negative or positive. Either thoughts are triggered or emotions fired or actions performed. Words colour our behaviour. And how lovely it is to hear words that are calm and free from rancour and aggression. To hear words that lift the soul and leave it with renewed vigour. Such words come from always seeing the best in people and situations.

– Unknown

living from the heart of christ

How does the Spirit of God manifest itself through us?  Often we think that to witness means to speak up in defense of God.  This idea can make us very self-conscious.  We wonder where and how we can make God the topic of our conversations and how to convince our families, friends, neighbors, and colleagues of God’s presence in their lives.  But this explicit missionary endeavour often comes from an insecure heart and, therefore, easily creates divisions.

The way God’s Spirit manifests itself most convincingly is through its fruits:  “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).  These fruits speak for themselves.  It is therefore always better to raise the question “How can I grow in the Spirit?”  than the question  “How can I make others believe in the Spirit?”

– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

 

You are loved just as you are…

you gotta find your truth!

Ok, this cracked me up – and made me a think! So true for most of us! Yes, I have ‘the need to please others’ so ingrained into my thinking, it seems I battle it every day!

I watched an unconventional wedding video a few minutes ago of my eldest daughter, Krista, who turned 25 yesterday. She is a beautiful, smart, incredibly talented and giving woman – who is very blessed to have a relationship which has given her something she has always been searching for – unconditional love and friendship.  This has been my prayer for her for so many years – that she would be truly loved by someone for who she is. That is all. Unconditional love is the key to living.

Her lifestyle is not what I would have chosen for her – she is in a world which can be dangerous and I worry about her and where her choices can lead. I want only good for her. However, it is her life and her choice to live how she has chosen. I wish her, and my new son-in-law and grandchild, only happiness and I was moved to tears by the words they spoke to each other, the healing which this love has brought to her. I know the depth of her emotion. I know how much she cares and loves. I know how badly she has been hurt by life, by my own actions as her mother – when I made choices no mother should have to make and she got caught in my choices, in my pain and her own – as a child she had no way to understand, nothing but pain and hurt from age 10 on. She was in a world which she did not understand and which did not understand her.

I am so grateful and happy for this place in her journey and how much this love is restoring to her. I am hopeful that I can be a part of her living, of her joy and her future – the love, heartaches and blessings and hard times.

Yesterday, as I thought about the day she came into the world – the most beautiful baby ever born up to that minute (ok, I’m a little biased on that one – haha), I was so overwhelmed by those feelings I had as I looked in her face for the first time and prayed that I might keep her safe and be a good mother to her. It has been an incredibly tough journey and I have failed her in so many ways, yet, I have loved her, and her brother and sister with a love which is bigger than I can ever put into words. My mothers’ heart has placed these children in God’s hands and I am so blessed, more than she may ever know, that she is my daughter.

There are no accidents and I trust God has plans I cannot see. I do not have all the answers – I believe unconditional love is always right and the way to healing. All I know is – I am so blessed and so thankful in this moment. I know for sure that life is good – we are good. God has declared it and it is so!

 

 

our world is shaped by our words – use the power wisely

These seeds have far reaching benefits!

Why walking in faith is our calling

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I believe God wants you to know…

…that everything is falling together perfectly, even

though it looks as if some things are falling apart.

Trust in the process you are now experiencing. Life

is on your side. It is showing that to you now, though

you may not be able to see it clearly at this time.

You have made your wishes and dreams known to

God. Now comes the time for faith. Faith that all

is right, right now. Tomorrow will reveal itself exactly

as it should.

–       Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=Home

Kindness Matters

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We are the body – use all your gifts!!!

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.                                                                – I Peter 4:10  NIV

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