{ Love is Like Water }

Love is like water

Flowing free

Or scarce —

Sourced in Someone.

Gushing past you

Sometimes sprinkling its spray

On passers-by.

Ignore it —

Or drink up,

Bottle and

Redistribute.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

--I John 4:10

Photo credit: didin emelu

{ God’s Valentine }

But now thus says the Lord,
He who created you, O Jacob,
    He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine!

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:1-3

photo credits:

rapids:James Mertz

fire:Matt Howard

hearts:Renee Fisher

{ Tending Life’s Garden }

Picture and poem by Beatrix Potter

 

We have a little garden

A garden of our own

And every day we water there

The seeds that we have sown.

We love our little garden,

And tend it with such care,

You will not find a faded leaf

Or blighted blossom there.

 

When I sow pumpkin seeds, I harvest pumpkins.  When I cover the garden with dandelion-infested mulch, I find lots of dandelions growing later in July.

We know this about gardens, but sometimes forget about the law of sowing and reaping in life. When I sow bad seeds, I will reap bad fruit:

1. When I gorge on chocolates, I will reap extra pounds.
2. When I harbor bitterness against someone, I will reap an injured relationship and stifle forgiveness.
3. When I allow my children to read or watch foolish things, we will reap more foolishness.

And then there are weeds….

• Weeds grow faster than anything else.  Pull, uproot and destroy before they get so big you need an ax to chop them down.
• Weeds are tricky.  They can grow and network underground where you can’t see them.  Little sins in the thoughts left unchecked turn into big problems later.
• Weeds rob the good stuff.  Weeds in a relationship drain us.  We cannot enjoy each other when the annoying, prickly weeds of bad habits are bugging us.

 

Gracious God,
We want to have good soil in our souls,
show us how to tend to our spiritual gardens.
Thank you for the Master Gardener!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

“Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds.  The harvest will bring either flowers or weeds.”

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” –Robert Louis Stevenson

Prayer from http://www.flowingfaith.com/2013/03/tending-your-spiritual-garden.html

 

 

{ My Bio }

I am collecting information on how to write a creative, professional bio.

I thought I’d start by writing my own…

Lisa Luciano is a wife, mother of eleven and licensed educator.

Besides the obvious, she has spent the last 30 years learning how to cook, craft, and juggle words with her ears.

Her first journal was a five-year diary.  Here she chronicled her numerous daily snacks and boy crushes.

Though she still snacks often, Lisa now prefers penning witty poems and thoughtful devotionals.

Lisa says, “I became inspired to write poetry when a family friend invited me to collaborate on a book of limericks. It didn’t get published, but the process was exciting.”

Lisa’s talented younger sister, Sara Matson, has also inspired her to pursue freelance writing.

“Sara and I work as unofficial members of the apostrophe police.  We snap photos of misplaced apostrophes and send them to each other.”

A graduate of Wheaton College, Lisa holds a B.A. in elementary education.  This has taken her to an Asian refugee camp, the St. Paul Public Schools, and back home again. As a homeschool educator, she is finally learning world history and can locate Qatar on a map.  She enjoys creating her own unit studies, spelling lists and worksheets.

Among other things, Lisa writes blog posts, rewrites articles, and adapts stories for young readers.

“A writer is just someone who writes.  I am learning what I can do. I may never master certain types of writing, but I just want to enjoy writing and keep learning.”

 

 

 

 

{ Brave Listener }

Like a tightrope walker,

I slide on a narrow line–

Listening,

Balancing…

Now here’s a quick move:

squeezinginawordortwo — TADAH!

As a chronic listener,

It feels dangerous —

Everyone is waiting

And watching.

Will I utter words that simply fall and crash?

Or will there be

Someone to catch my words

And care?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/bewildered/

{ Creatures Shout! }

God has made Himself known

He’s sovereign and sits on the throne

Tiny atoms, bright flowers

Shout out all His powers

Even snowflakes, they haven’t a clone.

~ ~ ~

Are you teenaged…or aged and gray?

Live in Tampa, Tegau, or Taipei?

If you look with your eyes,

And ignore Big Bang lies,

You’ll see God in creation today.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.  For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Romans 1:20-23

Photo credits:

Tavin Dotson — flower

Rodion Kutsaev — leaf

Krzysztof Niewolny–moth

James Lee–sea creatures