A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Poetry

Can Five be found?

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So I’m sitting here tonight pondering this word five and thinking… what?   What do I do with this word five.  

Shall I talk about five things about myself?

Five things I’m learning from God?

Five homeschooling questions?

It’s a tough word.   Can five be found?

Can five be found?

Can five be found?

Five,
It’s a rather tough word.
Nothing comes to mind with this middle number five.
Can Five be found?   Hmm… Five….
Smack in the middle twixt one and ten.
Well, actually if I think about it 5.5 is smack in the middle. 🙂

Today to The Learning House
My son and I went.
To talk latin, math and French.
Away with ideas we left talking much.
Considering tests, talking gaps,
And shipping to The States.

Did you know I have five siblings?
Two boys, three girls and one boy followed.
Guess where I was in the mix?
Like number five (or rather 5.5)
I was smack in the middle!
Not the easiest place to be.

Tonight with mom a conversation had
Talking about the growth in my lad
I mentioned his help I needed this morn.
Checking a bunny one was five who was born
Three in the litter are growing just fine
But one dead, and one struggling truth must be mine.

Five pets to recall in my life.
Rascal – a cocker cross a fun little dog. Childhood pup.
Jack – Domestic short-hair black cat… Smart as a whip
TORS – Gave cat away when marriage came along. Some day I will replace him.
Lady – Fun dog, defender of my life.
Sassy – All mine, looked only to me, she had my heart. Broke it in two.

Considering God some truths to remember.
Consider him first.
Remember his Sacrifice.
See his unrelenting love.
Take note of God’s unwavering Holiness.
This highest of calling he places on our lives.

can five be found?

I guess in the end, five can be found.  Family, bunnies, schooling, pets and faith.  Five is a search, and I suppose not quite the middle.  🙂 

What five things can you tell me about?

Distant Places

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I sit here ruminating over a word
Distant.
Every week a group of people unconnected
gather.

Some from the United States
Others from Canada,
The United Kingdom,
and from all over the world.

Distant places
yet
in common we have
One word.

Five minutes given
write!
Speed along with careful
Thought.

No editing
No rewriting
Just careful blasts of words
Filling the page.

I love it.
I really do.
Seeing how one word
One time limit
Brings people together
Writers together
From all over the world.

Encouragement
Experiences
Enlightenment
Different perspectives

Now tell me
What do YOU see
In the word
Distant?

distant places

Willing I Wait

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I was talking with my lad the other day, about how when I was on my way home last weekend I cried most of the way home.  I’ve not been in a good place mentally and spiritually lately.  One of the goals for this overnight trip was to play music I loved and could sing to have a happy time.  I wasn’t expecting the tears, but I’m glad that God stopped me for a while.  Reminding me of WHO he was, and WHOSE I was.   I needed that reminder dearly. 

Anyways, what was my point?  

My son asked why I cried most the way home.  I told him about how God used words of songs and lines to remind of things I needed to remember.  Things like if I call myself a Christian, yet I don’t seek after God, what am I really saying?   I need to seek after God and I need to get my house in order because that is who he has called me to be.

But it will take time.

The question is: how willing am I to wait?

Willing I Wait

Willing I Wait

In a hard spot
I sit
I feel alone. 
Bereft without a friend
Doubt sets in

All alone
No one cares
Dishes wait
Laundry done
Doesn’t anyone see?
I’m all alone,
just trudging through…

Doubt takes root
If no one sees?
Perhaps it’s true
God is make believe
Doesn’t care
Doesn’t want.
And so deeper, depression sets.

Til one day
A chance it comes
Get away girl
Just run run run.
Take along some tunes to sing
The boys are not there
No complaints can bring.

All the way there I just talked and sang
Music rang long and deep
So much fun I had
The weather hot
Oh my a burn!
Since window down
No air-conditioning.

Then hugs and laughter
Good soul friends to chat
We talked family
And work and who knows what.
But laughter rang out
Long and clear.
Such a good night
with souls so dear.

An overnight since
Sleepiness and travel do not combine.
On the way
Misdirected I was
Lovely man, started me off again
Take 94 all the way home,
Straight to the border
Port Huron… Then home!

All the way home
the songs they rolled
Then a line caught my mind
and the tears down they rolled.
I cried as God told me
o’er and o’er
HE is Lord of all

He watches
And is the one who sees
He provides all.
He minds me full well
I shouldn’t FORGET!
HE MINDS ME.

And so I remembered
This God with his Son
Who claimed me his own
One who gave ME!?!?  Full rights
A child of his own.

And so tears of sorrow
A repentant heart
So I determined
A New way, let’s start
Let’s stop playing mind games
Remember now what’s true

A remembering all
the tears slowly ceased
Reminded I am
That is his way is peace
the path won’t be easy
but the heart follows true
Who he is, and whose I am
Willing I wait

Willing I wait

Okay, now you’ve read mine, and hopefully you’ve glimpsed the God who Sees.  I urge you to head over to Miss Kate’s.  Write or tell your own prompting on today’s word Willing.  Then encourage someone, it’s the heart of our community. 

The World Continues

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My five minutes are written, you’ll see them below.  Room from some preamble I think. 

This week the word we have been given is World.  A friend popped out a few additional words to stimulate my thinking, which helped.   

This week my world was filled with arguing with people over the word genocide. I thought the word was being used incorrectly and said so.  This apparently means I’m uncaring and cold. I’m not, really.  Though I do think word use is important. 

Today my world also included saying goodbye to my international student.  Our two worlds collided over the past five months.  I think we both learned a thing or two.  But I often had to tell him THINK, think it through my boy.  He was, and I think always will be, a feelings led boy, but hopefully he remembers to THINK, think it through my boy!  🙂

The World Continues

The World Continues

All through the ages
The world continues.
Battles fought
Armies dismantled.
Pain and suffering.

Some battles were fought
Without a battle cry
No official announcement
And yet, land was lost
A people shuttled off.

Today they would say
Amends we must make!
The past so horrid
And today, it continues.
I have to ask.. does it?

This makes me seem
Cold and uncaring
Yet that is not the intent.
The intent is to question
And say the right words.

To convey that an apology
Is an apology.
It is not the fixing of wrong.
It’s an acknowledgement.
We can’t go back.

Learn an historical language?
Become a people overcome?
Is that the intent?
We cannot.
If we go back to our roots.
Who do we displace in turn?

This feelings based culture
It’s a hard one to navigate
It’s a world apart
From the one I was raised.
My lad helps me see a different perspective.
BUT… is it right?
That struggle HE will have to make.

It’s wrong that
A culture was lied to.
It’s wrong that
Women of that culture disappear.
But you know what.
Women of all cultures disappear.
It’s a sad and horrible thing.
Is it genocide OR
Are the perpetrators just better at hiding?
Or does the legal system need adjusting?

I don’t know.
But I know that it matters
The words that we use.
As we try to navigate a world
That doesn’t really want to listen.
Because… Feelings trump all.
And they shouldn’t.

My world says talk
And my world says reason it out.
My world says USE YOUR BRAIN
Think, Think it calls
But my world…
I wonder…
Is it disappearing into a cloud?

Yet the world Continues

Five minute Friday is a weekly link-up led by Miss Kate.  Write for five minutes immersed in a single word prompt. Then Link up and share encouraging words with those who have gone on before. 

The God Who Sees

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So I just finished reading a book called Heart Changer.  It’s a fictionalized account of the slave girl to Naaman.  He had leprosy and had to wash in the river Jordan.  You can find his story in 2 Kings 5. 

A quote that caught my attention runs as follows:

Even though I do not believe in your God, Miriam, I can sense that He is watching you.  That his hand is upon you.  And he has plans for you.  I never thought I could say that about a god, but your God is not one made of wood or stone.  He is one who hears and cares deeply.  He is one who sees.

I got to thinking about that.  God who sees.  What does that really mean?

The God Who Sees

Question asked:
What does it mean
That God is a God who sees?

Does it mean that when a sparrow falls
He actually cares?
Or is he a distant God just noting
The event without concern?

Does it mean when I weep in despair
while washing the dishes, that it matters to him?
Or does he again, just note it
and go on about his affairs?

Questions sometimes hit
When you think about a God who sees.
What does it really mean?
Does one who sees care?

The thought implies that he does.
What’s the point of seeing if it’s just
another point to make a note of?
Seeing implies that he really sees.

That he sees the depths of confusion and hurt.
That he notes the hunger of the sparrow
The pain on a brow
All the signals that something isn’t right.

So what happens then?
What happens when a God sees?
Does he act?
Does he do anything to show he sees?

I don’t always know it
Sometimes I do
Like when we read about how God
Gives us something tangible to show the intangible.

Using something that we know well
Like taste, texture, sight, smell
An action of giving
and then receiving.

To remind us of the bigger picture
HIS SON DIED.

So when I pause to really think
what it means to have a
God that sees.
It does matter.

It mattered before the moment
that those tears fell
When a heart wept
When a bird stopped singing.

God saw it then
He sees it now
And he’s already done it.

The question now is
Do I make the choice to see him?
To know the one
Who saw me first?

The God Who Sees

Names Matter

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So I’ve been watching this intriguing show lately.  It’s called The Imposters.   The basic premise is a young lady who marries people under an assumed name and then leaves them after taking all their money.   She’s known as Eva, Alice, CeCe and Saffron.. and who knows how many other names before then.  To the person affected the names used mattered.

I found myself feeling sorry for the people that she’s conned.  Imaging myself falling in love and then having that love betray me. Not a good thing at all. 

Over the course of the series, I am starting to feel sorry for this young lady of many names. Caught in a game that cons people out of their hard-earned money.  Pretending to love them in order to do so. BUT NOW… she’s in love and having to treat that love just like any other mark.  She wants to get out of the game but finds that she can’t.  Her very life will be at risk… and I feel sorry for her. 

I shouldn’t.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense.  A con-man is a con-man (or con-woman). And yet…there I am, rooting for her to find a way.  To find a way to get past this constant change in name and decide to settle on her own name and an honest way of living. 

As I ponder this incongruity I think about how God has tons of names, when the lad was younger we studied the different names of God.  We made a double sided plaque for the wall with all the names we found. 

The thing is… God’s names mean something.  

Names Matter

Jehovah-Jireh : My Provider El Shaddai : Lord God Almighty Jehovah-Nissi :mThe Lord my Banner El-Elyon : The Most High God Jehovah-Raah : The Lord my Shephrd El-Olam : The Everlasting God The list could go on and on Showing us who Christ is, in the names he bears. Showing us who God is, in the names he bears Showing us who the Holy Spirit is, In the names he bears. Names matter. The name of God matters. Elohim, Redeemer, Saviour, Spirit of Wisdom. No Con Just names that describe. Names show
Names matter Names help us glorify God.

Come join us won’t you?   Miss Kate‘s weekly word prompt is fun and helps you meet new people. This week the word prompt was name. 

Divergent Culture

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It’s another five minute Friday word prompt! Do join in won’t you? Miss Kate has chosen the word Culture this week.

Divergent Culture

Day by Day I see it
The people walking by
Day by day I read it
The stories, oh they fly.

Right now it seems that Facebook
Is full of anger see
My thought is right, Yours is wrong
Why can’t you let it be!

Trump is horrid
Trump is good
Trudeau is silly
Trudeau does what he could.

Pro-choice is the only way
Women’s lives to meet.
Pro-life is what is good and right
It’s what makes life so sweet!

Christians are bad
Their mindset is wrong
Care for the orphans
OH they cannot belong!

Their faith a reason
The orphans to care
Sometimes the rejection
Seems too much to bear.

Opinions run rampant
In this culture you see
Divergent opinions
Disagreements must be.

How do we meet
Is there a middle ground
I really don’t think there is
There isn’t one to be found.

So how do we show grace to those
Who fervently can’t see
That God indeed has a better plan
Which he can guarantee.

There’s not an easy way I know
When so easy tempers flare
Digging in “mine’s the way!”
Many do not see the care.

But try we must to show
That there’s another way
To hold our faith, and steadfast be
And face another day.