Monday, March 12, 2018

A Sweet Fragrance {Bible Art Journaling, This I Know}

Bible Art Fragrance 2Cor 2 15-16

“For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
2 Corinthians 2:15 (CSB)

I wish I could always leave behind me the sweet fragrance of Christ.

That is one of my life goals—and one of the hardest to attain. By nature I am critical, harsh, and always ready with a response that may or may not be loving. So I have to go against what is my nature in order to be sweet and kind. But, that’s my desire.

Bible Art 2 Cor 2 15-16 Fragrance

When I was a young woman, our pastor asked, “You young ladies out there—do you want to know how to be a sweet old woman? … Be a sweet young woman.”

That’s one of my Life Lessons right there.

I want to be the sweet fragrance of Christ, “an aroma of life
leading to life.”

#BibleArtJournaling #WatercolorinmyBible #SweetFragrance #LifeLessons #ThisIKnow #IllustratedFaith #FaithArt #ScriptureArt

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Blessing Upon Blessing Upon Blessing{HeartStrings; My Family, My Heart}

Our first great grandchild, Leeland Carl Ford, was born at 6:07 PM (PST), March 10, 2018, in Vancouver, Washington, to our grandson Conner and his wife Caroline. Leeland’s paternal grandparents are our son Mark and his wife Kristy.

Stats: 6 pounds, 2 ounces, 19 1/2 inches

These pictures, from Mark and Kristy, are from Leeland’s first day. (We will be able to see him later this month…Washington is a long way from Missouri…sigh.)

Little Adorable Snuggle Bug

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (1)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (3)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (4)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (5)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (7)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (10)

03-10-2018 Leeland's First Day (9)

As the keeper of the family history records, yesterday I input Leeland’s birth information into my family tree software. As I clicked on Mark and Kristy's record, and then next clicked on Conner and Caroline's record, and then clicked on "Add a son" under the record for Conner and Caroline Ford, that's when the obvious hit me.

In my family, Leeland is the first of a new generation.

He will always be our first great grandchild. He will always be Mark and Kristy's first grandchild. He will always be Conner and Caroline's firstborn.

Legacy is such a special thing.

We are blessed through these layers God has given us: our son and his wife, their son and his wife, and now their son. I think of the old hymn, “There Shall be Showers of Blessing.” For me, it is, “There Shall be LAYERS of Blessing.”

Welcome to our family, Precious One, Son of My Son's Son.

His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
Luke 1:50 (NIV)

#FamilyLove #Legacy #LayersofBlessing #GreatGrandson #JesusLovesMe

Friday, March 9, 2018

This I Know {This I Know}

(photo taken out our kitchen window a couple of months ago)

“…but those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31 (CSB)

I have been thinking lately about the messages I want to share through my blog. Although most folks just do not comment on blogs these days, I do know that I have at least some visitors (about 2,000/month), and maybe someone who visits needs to hear some little something I share.

Perhaps I am at the “season of life” (a term over-used by me here lately…hmmm…) when I want to feel like I have made a difference in some way. I don’t view that as a bad thing, as long as I allow God to direct me in the ways I should do that.

Oh, that wonderful verse about soaring like eagles, running and not being weary, walking and not being faint! I love the idea of soaring, even though I can’t physically fly, running without being tired (just as unlikely for me as flying, frankly), and I can personally relate to walking (hello Fitbit) without being “faint.”

I want to finish well.

My trust IS in the Lord.

So, that promise is mine!

I’m grabbing on to it!!

Members in our very special small group a few years ago commented to me that they appreciated the life lessons I often shared with them during our time together. It helped me realize that having lived a full (okay, a “long”) life as a Christ-follower has resulted in a storehouse of lessons learned.

Sometimes those lessons were learned from seeing others’ mistakes. Sometimes the lessons were directly taught to me by a spiritual mentor. But sometimes those lessons were learned the hard way—by personal experience, maybe even through heartache, pain and sorrow.

No matter the source of the lesson learned, I am realizing that I have a series of mini-sermons stored up (from those experiences), and I feel safe to share some of those here, because, after all, it is MY blog, and it is not required reading (ha).

A new category for my blog is now “This I Know.” I will use that “tag” when I post one of those “mini-sermons.”

#ThisIKnow #LessonsLearned #LifeLessons #GodistheBestTeacher #SharindMyHeart

Monday, March 5, 2018

Plurals, Possessives, and the Almighty Apostrophe {My Red Pen}

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I am a self-confessed compulsive editor. I simply cannot help it. I do try to keep my mouth shut and only offer my suggested edits, corrections, and re-writes if/when asked.

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Okay, so I don’t always succeed at that keeping-my-mouth-shut thing.

Communication on mobile devices has spread so rapidly that many things heretofore considered improper usage are now considered acceptable.

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However, at least for now, there ARE some “rules” still in place.

(And, by the way, I’m the first to say I do not follow all the guidelines, especially those for formal writing--in my blog, for example. Sometimes formal writing can seem stilted and off-putting. So, you would absolutely be able to use YOUR red pen on much of my writing, I’m sure.)

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You can find many references to correct usage on the internet. But, off the top of my head, here are a few of my thoughts on this topic.

A standard joke among English teachers is, “I wish I had a quarter for every apostrophe or incorrectly-used comma I have seen this week…” or today, even…

If I had to choose to be a written/typed “character,” I would choose to be the apostrophe. I say that because it is apparently the most-loved and certainly the most-used of all the characters, save the boring end punctuation marks. From my observation, so much that is written these days seems to be absolutely laced with apostrophes.

Basically, apostrophes should be used either (1) to show possession or (2) to represent a missing letter in a contraction. They are not to be used simply to indicate a plural (more than one).

It gets tricky when you have a plural and you want to also show possession:

Correct: “We are going over to the Fords’ house tonight.”

(“Fords” is plural, describing the Ford family, and the apostrophe is added after the plural “s” to show possession; the house belongs to the Fords.)

Also correct: “We are going over the Fords’ tonight.”

(“House” is implied, so this is implied possession.)

Not correct: “We are going over to the Ford’s tonight.”

Not correct: “We are going over to the Fords tonight.”

Correct: “We are going to invite the Fords over for dinner.”

A common incorrect usage is when a word that is intended as a plural is spelled with an apostrophe, such as “story’s” instead of “stories.” So, it is correct to say, “the story’s beginning” (meaning the beginning that belongs to the story), and it is correct to say, “I love reading your stories,” but it is not correct to say, “I love reading your story’s.”

A possessive pronoun already shows possession, by definition. Possessive pronouns are words like his, hers, yours, ours, theirs, its. The pronoun “its” already shows possession.

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Following is my biggest pet peeve. It is without a doubt the usage error that I see the most often. And, strangely, the rule for correct usage on this one is the easiest to remember, because, unlike most “rules” of the English language, this one is set in concrete:

The only time the word “its” should contain an apostrophe is when used as a contraction of “it is.”

Hard and fast rule. Easy to remember.

So, one way to check yourself on this one: When you have finished your writing, do a search for it’s. Every time it’s comes up, it should be as a contraction for “it is.”

Repeating my disclaimer: My writing is not error-free; in fact, it is sometimes intentionally casual. Okay, maybe it is usually intentionally casual.

But I just see so much incorrect use of the language that sometimes I can relate to this:

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(Note: Obviously these images were all obtained from the internet, and they are clearly labeled with the original source. However, since my blog is in no way a commercial enterprise, I am thinking I am not infringing.)

#EnglishUsage #EnglishTeacherForever #CompulsiveEditor #CannotReadWithoutEditing #MyRedPen

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Joy in the Lord {In the Word, Bible Art Journaling}

Bible Art Neh 8-10 Joy of the Lord

This is one of my favorite verses, but in honesty, the reason I love the verse is because it puts JOY and LORD and STRENGTH all in one powerful sentence. The actual meaning of the sentence itself is a little hard for me to put into words. I think of it more like “my joy in the Lord gives me strength” (that’s this verse according to Barbara—which has absolutely no authority).

I have been praying lately for more joy in my life. So, following my own explanation, that would imply that I need more of God in my life—that is, If I want more joy, I need to give priority to God’s place in my daily life. My joy comes from God. And because it comes from Him, it strengthens me.

Reading some commentaries on this passage, I found this: “This beautiful sentence is, literally, ‘delight in Jehovah is a strong refuge’.”

I like that.

This page is in my She Reads Truth CSB, and I prepped the page with clear gesso to keep the markers and the InkTense blocks (that I use as watercolor with a water brush) from bleeding through.

#BibleArtJournaling #BibleArt #BibleJournaling #InktenseBlocks #WaterColorinmyBible #IllustratedFaith  #FaithArt #JoyoftheLord #Joy #SheReadsTruthBible