EVERYONE IS TRYING TO BE SO IMPORTANT THAT WE WILL ALL DIE IN INSIGNIFICANCE.

The kids in your neighbourhood matter to God...

Luke 9:45-48
They didn't get what Jesus was saying. It was like he was speaking a foreign language and they couldn't make heads or tails of it. But they were embarrassed to ask him what he meant.

They started arguing over which of them would be most famous. When Jesus realized how much this mattered to them, he brought a child to his side. "Whoever accepts this child as if the child were me, accepts me," he said. "And whoever accepts me, accepts the One who sent me. You become great by accepting, not asserting. Your spirit, not your size, makes the difference."

Walk your neighbourhood

Stay home in your community & be available to each other.
There is a journey to connection.
Stop in the name of love to talk to people on the sidewalk, at the park, while they do yard work.
Quit being the leader of the Kingdom of the Couches.

Luke 9:62
Jesus said, "No procrastination. No backward looks. You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day."

Comfortable yet?

Matthew 25 RESV
For I was hungry, while you had all you needed.
I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water.
I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported.
I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes.
I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness.
I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved. (Richard E. Stearns Version)

O God, you have sown the seeds of love in my heart but I have not watered it with my tears — Lord forgive.

You have shown me hungry children and I have fed only my friends — Lord forgive.

You have shown me the homeless and I have cared only for my own home — Lord forgive.

You have shown me the naked but I have only clothed myself — Lord forgive.

You have shown me the wounded and I have been only concerned with my own pain — Lord forgive.

You have shown me the friendless and I have nurtured my own friendships — Lord forgive.

You have shown me the bereaved and I have sought out others to comfort me — Lord forgive.

You have shown me those who do not know your love and I have failed to share that which you have given me — Lord forgive and help me to obey. (Ethel Jenkins)

Simplify

Is it time to do some spring cleaning?

What do you want out of life?

May today there be peace within.
May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.
May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content with yourself just the way you are.
Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

Find the other followers in your neighbourhood...

"I was talking with a friend recently who said she had over 600 ‘friends’ on Facebook but didn’t know anyone in her neighborhood - what’s that about?” BBC Report, December 2009 (via Al Roxburgh)

Put the 'our' in neighbourhood!

How are you going to find each other?

“If there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality. It is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships to our fellow human beings.” HENRI NOUWEN

Why not have a party?!

Luke 5:27-39
After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, "Come along with me." And he did—walked away from everything and went with him.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. "What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and 'sinners'?"

Jesus heard about it and spoke up, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."

They asked him, "John's disciples are well-known for keeping fasts and saying prayers. Also the Pharisees. But you seem to spend most of your time at parties. Why?"

Jesus said, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but this isn't the time. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. When the groom is gone, the fasting can begin. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!

"No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don't put wine in old, cracked bottles; you get strong, clean bottles for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine."

No boundaries?

Know boundaries!

To live in community is to discover and love the secret of what is unique in ourselves. This is how we become free. Then we no longer live according to the desires of others, or by an image of ourselves; we become free, free to love others as they are and not as we would like them to be. Jean Vanier

Boundaries allow us to give more to others, not less. Boundaries do not exclude the other; in fact, if you become a person with actual boundaries, you are better able to give to other people because you do not feel diminished by them. Giving is a joy because you want to give, and not because someone has manipulated you and you gave in.

Galatians 6:1-6
Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

prepare yourself to change the world

acts 10:38
Jesus went about doing good.

Somebody has to do something… and it is just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia

On the road of life...

You can't
whine
all the
time.

1 Thessalonians 5:13-18
Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet.

Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other's nerves you don't snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

It is difficult to articulate a person's hidden agenda but it's impossible not to feel it. It sits in the room as if it had a chair of it's own.

or feels like a hammer to the side of your head!

Open your hands & let go of your petty agendas. Embrace God's...

1 Thessalonians 2:3-5,8,12
God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you we're not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we've been put through that battery of tests, you're guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas. We never used words to butter you up. No one knows that better than you. And God knows we never used words as a smoke screen to take advantage of you...

We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did...

With each of you we were like a father with his child, holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life.

fill that (w)hole.

Colossians 3:16-17
And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

There really is new world order

I followed rivers
I followed orders
I followed prophets
I followed leaders
I followed highways
I followed conscience
I followed dreamers
and I’ve finally arrived -

- at home in my neighbourhood.

Where we belong.

1 Thessalonians 3:11 - 4:12
May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.

One final word, friends. We ask you—urge is more like it—that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life.

Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God.

Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before. God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful—as beautiful on the inside as the outside.

If you disregard this advice, you're not offending your neighbors; you're rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.

Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don't need me to tell you what to do. You're God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! You're already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it.

Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You've heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

Emotional junk food

What brings you the highest amount of frustration or anger?
What is one thing that can change your mood in a second?

1 Thessalonians 3:3-5,8,11-13
Not that troubles should come as any surprise to you. You've always known that we're in for this kind of thing. It's part of our calling. When we were with you, we made it quite clear that there was trouble ahead.

And now that it's happened, you know what it's like. That's why I couldn't quit worrying; I had to know for myself how you were doing in the faith. I didn't want the Tempter getting to you and tearing down everything we had built up together...

In the middle of our trouble and hard times here, just knowing how you're doing keeps us going. Knowing that your faith is alive keeps us alive...

May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you.

May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.

Love thy neighbour is not advice - it's a command. Who is your neighbour?

You & I have been sent into our neighbourhoods by the Big Dog upstairs!

One of our elderly neighbours just lost his wife. What would Jesus do?

We have to roll up our sleeves & get to it...

Romans 10:11-15
"No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it." It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. "Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help."

But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it?

I've stepped in it a few times in my life...

Sometimes it hits the fan....

What do you do when trouble finds you?!

Psalm 34:3-8
Join me in spreading the news;
together let's get the word out.

God met me more than halfway,
he freed me from my anxious fears.

Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
Never hide your feelings from him.

When I was desperate, I called out,
and God got me out of a tight spot.

God's angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

Engage!

It only takes one person to start a community. (Just like a video game!)

Do you fail to engage with your neighborhood?

Do you passively wait for it to come to you?

Will you take a step to help create it?!

May you live all the days of your life. Jonathan Swift

Why I don't twitter...

I wouldn't know what to say, it would probably go something like this:

'My tummy is growling.'
'I like Girl Guide Cookies.'
'Facing temptation...'
'Willpower.'
'Quiet Mr. Tummy.'
'No more cookies to worry about...'

Here are some old Mother Theresa 'tweets' that are much more substantive to chew on than my little dilemma,

'Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.'

'Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.'

'If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.'

'When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.'

'A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.'

'When once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: "Mother, how do you manage your budget?" I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: "I felt an urge inside me." I said: other people like you come to see me and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr. A, as He sends Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Miss Z, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget. God sees to our needs, as Jesus promised." I accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope).'

1 Peter 4:8-13
Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

The Art of Gentle Revolution in Your Neighbourhood

God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our neighborhood.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution. (adapted from Michael Leunig)

1 John 3:18-24
My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

And friends, once that's taken care of and we're no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we're bold and free before God! We're able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we're doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God's command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

What's really happening around here?

Most people, even thought they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry asleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. (Anthony de Mello)

Life will pass you by unless you wake up and get with God's program...

Proverbs 4:3-19
"Take this to heart. Do what I tell you—live!
Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding!
Don't forget one word! Don't deviate an inch!
Never walk away from Wisdom—she guards your life;
love her—she keeps her eye on you.
Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Throw your arms around her—believe me, you won't regret it;
never let her go—she'll make your life glorious.
She'll garland your life with grace,
she'll festoon your days with beauty.

Dear friend, take my advice;
it will add years to your life.
I'm writing out clear directions to Wisdom Way,
I'm drawing a map to Righteous Road.
I don't want you ending up in blind alleys,
or wasting time making wrong turns.
Hold tight to good advice; don't relax your grip.
Guard it well—your life is at stake!
Don't take Wicked Bypass;
don't so much as set foot on that road.
Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth.
Make a detour and be on your way.

Evil people are restless
unless they're making trouble;
They can't get a good night's sleep
unless they've made life miserable for somebody.
Perversity is their food and drink,
violence their drug of choice.

The ways of right-living people glow with light;
the longer they live, the brighter they shine.
But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker—
travelers can't see a thing; they fall flat on their faces."

What's your brain look like?

What consumes your thoughts and feelings?
What motivates you to do the things you do?

Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

feeling all alone?

Job 23:1-7
I'm not letting up—I'm standing my ground.
My complaint is legitimate.
God has no right to treat me like this—
it isn't fair!
If I knew where on earth to find him,
I'd go straight to him.
I'd lay my case before him face-to-face,
give him all my arguments firsthand.
I'd find out exactly what he's thinking,
discover what's going on in his head.
Do you think he'd dismiss me or bully me?
No, he'd take me seriously.
He'd see a straight-living man standing before him;
my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

Trust more fear less.

Hebrews 13:5-6
Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you," we can boldly quote,

God is there, ready to help;
I'm fearless no matter what.
Who or what can get to me?

inspiring others to think about a deeper message. thats why i blog...

sometimes it just looks snotty.

Get rid of your own weapons of mass distractions.

Are you listening to me? Really listening?

Expect God to talk - God does talk - we hear His voice - we obey - God talks again - we change. Too often God talks and we are deaf or disobedient.

How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, 'We wanted to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always too busy.'

Repentance is hearing God. Just like "nothing" heard God's call and became creation. We hear and become a new creation.

"Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

We need faith to know and hear God. Does that appear to be a contradiction?

It is a little like playing a game where we taste foods without smelling or seeing them. We often don't know what we are tasting. We see, smell and then taste and know what we are eating. It is difficult to know it is God unless we have been told what God is like and how He speaks.

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." This leave us with a crisis of faith. Faith is to know His voice!

"The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Matthew 11)

What do you see?

2 Corinthians 1:8-11
We don't want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened.

Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he'll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don't want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.

Colossians 1:26-29
This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message.

We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That's what I'm working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.

Ephesians 1:16-19
I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

Live with the eyes of God. Nothing is impossible!!

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Do you have petty dreams?

“Is the work God called me to do finished? Or is there something more? And if we don’t have some larger context than just the dreary day-to-day facts of life, negative feelings take over our lives, and that will eventually lead to some kind of crash.

I think that you could empirically verify the causation flowing from the hopelessness and the disappointment to many of the physical effects you see in people in their later years.

I think the critical difference between success and significance is that success has more to do with outcomes I’m in charge of, while significance has more to do with outcomes I’m not in charge of.

The beautiful thing about significance is that we resign the outcomes to God, and we let a power beyond ourselves take care of them. Success is focused on my action, my control, my outcomes, whereas significance is found in a much larger context. I’m not running that, and the step of surrender is crucial because surrender allows me to release all that outcome stuff.” Bob Buford

Complacency is not an option.

Forward motion

Matthew 6:14-15
If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Looking for adventure?

What if life’s best adventure was waiting for us right under our noses, right where we live?

It takes a place to create a community & a community to create a place. Lets put the 'our' in neighbourhood.

Sink roots. Plant gardens. Have kids. Love your neighbourhood.

This is where you’re supposed to be… God has put you there.

Move from just living, to being invested in your community. From merely tolerating it to being willing to take a bullet for her.

Are we be willing to be mindful of God’s bigger plan, and not just our own personal welfare & thrill-seeking?

This is where we’re supposed to be. This is where God has put us.

God’s mission is much smaller than we might think.

Your neighborhood – God’s mission!

Your community, what an adventure!!

There are many people who think they want to be matadors, only to find themselves in the ring with 2,000 pounds of bull bearing down on them, and then discover that what they really wanted was to wear the tight pants and hear the crowd roar. Terry Pearce

Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat, word for word, what you shouldn’t have said. Or do what you shouldn't have done...

Last year in the play-offs Marty Brodeur blew a gasket after he was interfered with which led to the game winning-goal against Carolina.

While he was 'jobbed' by the ref's his conduct after the goal was scored was not justified. The next day his daughter confronted him, "I saw what you did last night, Daddy."

When his daughter refused to tell him what she had seen him do, Marty simply apologized. Good plan.

A couple weeks back while I was driving Mali heard me say something he wasn't accustomed to hearing me say. He grew quiet & after we got home said, 'Why did you say that word?'

Busted!

I apologized.

What are saying when your kids are around? How are you behaving? What are you going to do about it?

I can't hear what you say because I see your life.

Proverbs 10:32-35
Don't walk around with a chip on your shoulder,
always spoiling for a fight.
Don't try to be like those who shoulder their way through life.
Why be a bully?
"Why not?" you say. Because God can't stand twisted souls.
It's the straightforward who get his respect.

Gods curse blights the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the home of the righteous.
He gives proud skeptics a cold shoulder,
but if you're down on your luck, he's right there to help.
Wise living gets rewarded with honor;
stupid living gets the booby prize.

Growing up is the move from passion to compassion.

Whether the community is gathered or scattered, the mandate to be Christ's witnesses defines every dimension of the community's life. This is what is meant by incarnational witness: demonstrating concretely the reality of God's love in the ways the community functions.

The relationships among the members of the community are intended to incarnate the powerful and transforming love of the gospel. The compassion with which the community cares for its own as well as for its neighbours incarnates the gospel.

The dependence of God's forgiveness is incarnated in the way that the community forgives, practices tolerance, bears one another's burdens. (Darrell Guder)

live the let-go life

How to build community in your neighborhood

When you focus on place you do everything differently.

Turn off your TV.
Leave your house.
Meet your neighbors.
Look up when you are walking.
Sit on your front step & greet people as they go by.
Plant flowers.
Play together.
Buy from local merchants.
Share what you have with your neighbors.
Take children to the park.
Garden together.
Support neighborhood schools.
Have pot lucks.
Pick up garbage.
Dance in the street.
Talk to your mail carrier.
Help carry something heavy.
Hire young neighbors for odd jobs.
Organize a block party.
Bake extra goodies and share them.
Ask for help when you need it.
Open your drapes & blinds.
Sing together.
Share your skills.
Take back the night.
Turn up the music.
Turn down the music.
Listen before you react to anger.
Mediate a conflict.
Seek to understand.
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles.
Know that no one is silent although many are not heard. Work to change this.
Find the widowers & help them out.

Everything in the Gospel is livable & our task is to get it lived. It is not enough that we announce the gospel, explain it or whip up enthusiasm for it.

It must be lived - lived in detail, lived in the streets and on the job, lived in the bedrooms and kitchens, lived through cancer and divorce, lived with children and marriage.

Along the way I found that this also meant living it out myself & that proved to be a more formidable task. Eugene Peterson

Joy is the best make-up

A woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man needs to seek Him in order to find her.

Proverbs 31:30
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.

Paint your faith

Go ahead. Paint outside the lines. Mix the colors. Love your neighbors in unique ways...

"If you want to paint beautiful pictures you have to use some dark colors." God

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created...

And we aren't supposed to stop!

Above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art. You're not a machine. Abraham Heschel