Graced with Grace

  You’re a captive; You’re a prisoner; Put in jail by yourself By thoughts that torture, But thoughts that you allow. You hold to your pitiful hurts That weren’t meant for you to keep, Holding on to lies you create . Stuck in your own head. Tortured with your own tortures. No one is doing it to you. You do it to yourself. You keep yourself from living And block out life and joy, Because life and Joy Is found in Christ alone, Not in self. The truth will set you free, But you live in a lie. The truth is the gospel, But you take a lie over truth. And you live in the lie, And bask in that lie, And feed that lie, And make it big and ugly, And beautifully destructive. You love your lie, But you hate your life. Because of the lie you live, You’re a captive to yourself. You serve yourself And live to self And can’t let go of self. You are a prisoner to yourself, Imprisoned by yourself. But….. This isn’t the way ...

She seeks to write What cannot be described In words alone, But a picture fails to do it justice too.   She leaves her camera behind   And writes these words in poem form.   Looking down upon the railroad tracks. No train passes by, But she pauses in her day to meditate. What makes her stop in think so hard? It’s only the tracks of a train, But somehow it stirs her heart to ponder, To travel to a distant land. She stares into the distance, but sees no farther. Life is somehow like that train track.   Or how does she describe that lone red tree Surrounded by white Burch and greenery. Something in the sight of it causes her to pause, To stare. That loneliness is her sometimes. She feels different, too, And a little out of place, She stands out from all the rest, But beautiful nonetheless. It’s a sight worth capturing, but not with a camera. It would only blur one’s vision and distort the...

Caught red handed Staring at the wall, Seeing down the hall, Searching his eyes, Striving for the skies. Caught red handed Contemplating life, Considering all the strife, Craving for the dream, Creating a new theme. Caught red handed Wandering through, Watching for the new, Waiting on his will, Willing to be still. Caught red handed Looking to the wind, Loving what life sends, Living in his grace, Leaning on his embrace. Caught red handed She sits over there, See her stare. Shamelessly she ponders Here her thought wanders.

Its hard to say Simple things sometimes. I can't seem to find The word that fits my thought.   And so I stumble and stutter And I pause And I try this word and that But some how Its still not my thought.   Its hard to speak sometimes Because my words Are not my thoughts And my thoughts don't have words.   And I wonder Will you ever Hear my thoughts Behind the words...   Because that is what I really meant to say In all that jumble.  

  The summer is quickly coming to an end. Surprisingly I am actually more excited than nervous or panicked. Often I find the close of a summer somewhat scary for me. I don’t usually look forward to starting up school again. It means moving again, meeting new freshmen and making new friends, and more papers to write before long and all these things tend to sometimes freak me out. Then winter comes and I’ve never been a fan of winter. But this year I am kind of excited. Not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that I have a friend getting married at the end of this school year and it gives me something to look forward to at the end. Or maybe it’s the fact I can call myself a senior this year. Or maybe it’s simply because I am starting off part-time instead of full time and so I am not scared to death that I will fail every single one of my classes and have no life at all. Maybe simply knowing that my homework load will be doable makes me eager or at least ready to start a...

There comes a time When words can’t write it. You thought it and felt it, But words couldn’t write it.   There comes a time when The language of the heart, Speaks a different language Then the human tongue.   There comes a time when, The heart cries, But the eyes can’t produce tears. Or there is joy, That can’t be expressed with a smile.   There is an expression Of the heart and soul That sings a different song, Dances a different dance, Writes a different language, That only the heart can understand.   There comes a time, When the writer’s pen is silenced, When words cease to flow, When the writer could not write it.   There comes a time, When the writer couldn’t write Because the heart spoke A different tongue, And the writer couldn’t translate.   So, dear reader, when you look   Upon a blank page,   Understand that the heart was spe...

I am by no means a pro on knowing what kind of man to marry, but I believe I have an advantage to some extent, in that I am not dating or married and never have been, so I can’t be biased, but have instead gotten to observe much. Being single for almost 23 years now has given me lots of opportunities for watching the young men folk in my life and seeing pros and cons. Sometimes, I say “No way! I could never marry a man like that!” and sometimes I say “That is a beautiful characteristic and something to keep in mind for a future spouse.” Coming from a Christian perspective, there are some of the obvious things that a girl should look for in a spouse, but I want to mention some of the other things, assuming my readers already desire a godly spouse. 1.      In all my observations, one thing on the top of my list of approved men are the ones who help with the dishes or other mundane tasks, whether married, dating, or single. Yes, seriously! It seems...