Influence

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It has been a long while since I have posted anything here. I have been busy completing three years toward my B.A. in English and my senior year is underway. My current class (Creative Writing) has finally given me the space to take off the tight harness of academic writing rules, and it feels SO GOOD!! After reading my first assignment, Mom and Daddy gave it their thumbs up and suggested I make it a blog post, so here it is. It is my story and their story. It's a little longer than my usual posts, but as with everything I have ever posted here, I pray it encourages you to run "up the sunbeam to the sun" (C. S. Lewis). "Follow my example,  as I follow the example of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV I sat above them on the stairs. Looking down through the window-like openings in the partition between the living room and the stairway, I listened to the basketball players, football players, baseball players, wrestlers, track athletes, both the lettermen ...

Words that Ring On

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"It's your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words.
 . . . Words are powerful; take them seriously."
Sitting in the library, I work.  I study.  I stretch my ideas out, smoothing out wrinkles and unfolding them to see what they are.

There, surrounded by syllables, I can feel the thrum of thoughts, all those thoughts in all those books.  In the quiet I can hear clanking swords . . . and tender declarations of love . . . and the roar of cheering crowds as I feel the unseen motion of the countless pulsing stories.

Oh the stories that ride on words!

Real and imagined, the good ones are ALL true stories.

I plunge in . . . in to the flow of word-smithing and I pursue my King who is the Word.  He is the origin of all human desire to make known the thoughts we think.  He desired to communicate, and we as His image-bearers, desire to communicate too.  It is evidence of our likeness to Him that we want to sculpt and play and work in words.

Other things ride on words too . . .

. . . ideas . . . history . . . emotion . . . creation . . . salvation . . . instruction . . . humor . . . wisdom . . . praise . . . healing . . . reconciliation . . . dreams . . . hope . . . LOVE . . . can you add to the list I can't seem to end?

With the limitless possibilities, both good and bad, how well do I choose my words?  Is there eternity in my words here on my blog? to my husband? to my children? to friends? to people who rub me the wrong way? to God?

I think, for as much as we know about using words to convey our thoughts from our minds out into the wide world, there is more that we don't know about how truly powerful words can be for good or for evil.  Hero Husband wrote in his blog Leadership Perspectives today about the impact of four small words uttered by Martin Luther King whose life we celebrate on this holiday Monday--"I have a dream."  Those four small words are small no more!  Even when you read those words silently to yourself, you can't help hearing the ECHO of historic import ringing, ringing, ringing from where they were spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial--they have been continuously ringing for more than four and a half decades and they ring on! WORDS!!

Oh to write words that ring on and on and on! Words that could live in a library for someone to read decades from now!  My fervent prayer is for God's power to infuse my words . . . your words . . . what we write, what we say, how we speak and the thoughts our words convey . . . with His love.  Our time needs us and our God-ridden words like 1963 needed Martin Luther King and his impossibly possible dream!

If God were to make an "I have a dream" speech, what would He say?  He already did!! And who could improve upon words that ring on like this:

"I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people."

What stories is God weaving in your heart?
 What does it mean to you to be able to work in words?
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Joining Ann Voskamp for her Multitude Monday
I hope you'll join in if you haven't already!

In the counting of the endless gifts I say with C. S. Lewis,
"This also is Thou!"
#236-250

236. That Mom & Daddy's package finally arrived!!
237. Getting to hear how much they loved the presents inside!!
238. A foggy photo-rific morning where the sun and the fog were dancing together
239. Ice crystals that covered EVERYthing that morning
240. Mistletoe, its long history and its very current lesson for me
241. A photography book that is not only full of great tips, but that MAKES ME LAUGH! 
242. A good meeting with the PE teacher who had constructive ideas and encouragement for She So Sweet
243. The fun of Drummer Boy's stories when he gets home from work
244. Laughing so hard we could barely catch our breath
245. The chance to go out for dinner (a real treat these days) with the whole family because of my brother's generous gift
246. How good something tastes when you haven't had it for a long time--Elephant Bar's
Pan Braised Rock Sugar Beef With Pappardelle Noodles--hadn't had beef in ages and it's one of my favorite things!
247. That my computer is storing so many pictures I can't find the one I want (I'm choosing to see it as a good problem to have)
248. Humbling, uplifting words from precious souls who have been touched by my word offerings--I offer their comments up to You Lord, the glory is all Yours.
249. Sweet-smelling perfume
250. Knowing that You go ahead of us into this new week


Also joining L.L. Barkat for:

 On In Around button

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