A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

poetry

Replace, defined

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So I had a bit of a false start with this word prompt today.  I thought I could write easily about packing up the trailer to go camping today.  Lots of ways the word replace could be used.  Yet, God had something else in mind, so instead of replace in camping, I have replace, defined.  Hopefully you’ll find some truth hidden within.  🙂 

Replace, defined

Replace in camping

Packing up a trailer
Decisions being made
What to take and what will stay
and can I do this instead of that?

It’s not easy to decide
if the white dishpan will do the
job as well as the rather
beat up brown one. Size is smaller
but it fits the spot I have easier
and space in a trailer.. well,
premium real estate!

Well that’s not working the way I wanted it to.  So let me see if I can’t replace that poem with something that flows a bit better….

Replace, Defined

Replace, defined
take the place of.
Kinda like hmm…
Jesus took MY place on the cross.
A substitution took place
a fair few years back so that
instead of going to hell, my
final destination will the heaven.

Replace, Defined
fill the role of (someone or something) with a substitute.
Imagine this truth,
that when God sees us
instead of seeing dirty,
rather mucked up person.
He sees Christ. The pure, clean,
totally without sin, Saviour.

Replace, defined
put (something) back in a previous place or position.
Hmmm, I have a hard time here
trying to find a faith based idea with
the thought of putting something back into
position. Then I thought about how,
Jesus through his sacrifice, made it so
I could be right with God. He helped me
resume that position I was in BEFORE sin
entered the world.

In a Moment

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This morning before heading to work I read the Five minute Friday word prompt.  Moment.  It’s not the first time she’s chosen the word moment, and you can read about that here.  Anyways, immediately the expression, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye came to mind.  As I went through my dad I continued to ponder what in a moments I could come up with. 🙂 

For two years my lad has been NOT working on getting his G1 (like a beginners) … reasons like covid (and making appointments), no strong need to drive, and his “but I don’t know enough pass” thought processes.   So for him to finally get it and do well… it’s a lovely step in the right direction.  It’s one of those moments to savor you know? 

In A moment

In A Moment

Knowing this that in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye
Before you know it,
in a moment
life can change.

for instance
Christ could return
no more sorrow or pain
or uncertainty.
Just the glory of his
return and everything being made new.
I can’t really fathom it you know?
What will it mean to see everything
around me changed to reflect the true
glory of God himself?

In another moment,
Life can change.
An 18 year old can go from not
having his G1 to
having the joy of passing a test
he repeatedly thought he wasn’t
ready for and would never pass.

Or gather up another moment and
consider the disappointment of a
hoped for hire, who has instead taken
a position elsewhere….

Imagine if you would a moment,
a moment where you thought one
thing would be and then something else
completely different happened!
Like this very small moment of…
taking a break at work
and coming out expecting to restart
your job and then a Pineapple Sundae
from Dairy Queen awaits.

I learned today of the devastating hurt
it causes if a dad learns that the child
he thought was his own is the result of his
wife’s infidelity with some other man.
Two moments, well, perhaps three moments,
life changing…trust vs deception,
and innocence of a child loving a parent,
and yet Dad needs to figure how to handle it all.
Moments that change lives.

What might happen
in your next moment?

Today as I Leave

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Tonight the three furballs that share my house were doing their best to drive me to distraction.  The one who likes to nibble, more gently now then when she first arrived, on skin if we don’t quickly understand her desires.   The youngest, becoming a brat, jumping on the counter to score the salmon juice left unattended.  The middle one, staring out the window, and then bolting off with a game of “catch me if you can” with the youngest in full pursuit…. things go flying at these times.   It reminded me of earlier today, with middle furball was somewhat demanding, disliking it when I left.  “today as I leave” speaks into the disquiet of one determined cat. 

today as I leave

Today as I Leave

Blocked
I stand at the door
a brown, furry body meows.
A HARD demanding cry that
rings through the front hallway.

“I want out!” his body demands
eyes peering out, voice piercing the quiet,
tension rippling through his body
as he prepares to zip through my legs.

Nine months old
determination seen in
those steady eyes, watching
for one small moments lack of attention.

and then POUNCE
he’ll be off, threatening
to spill over the body
through whose legs he speeds through
the goal, the underneath of the truck!
or if really lucky and fast, the
neighbour’s group of trees!

But today as I leave
I swing a door behind me
as a bag blocks all view of that
space between my legs.

Foiled, as I return to work,
after a brief stop at home to
feed said fuzzy beast and his
two companions, I see
two eyes, watching from the window.

Next seems the promise
next time that hole I’ll seize.

Today as I leave

I suppose if I would try hard enough I could find a parallel between my Benji cat and his desperation to be outside.  A place where we’d rather he not go as he’s very frightened of everything and tends to bolt without looking.  We’re on a busy road so traffic and a bolting cat aren’t the best combination. 

I suppose it’s kinda like me and my relationship with God.  I know in my heart he minds me and watches o’er my actions, because like a cat bolting into trouble happens!  He watches that I don’t, and places guards around me to help me to not be “a cat” with a curiousity to get myself into trouble.  Cause indeed my curiousity can lead me places it shouldn’t, and then I can get frightened, and well… you know… bolting happens!  But unlike my boy Benji…. I know exactly where to run back to!  🙂 

I guess perhaps the question I should ask…. is do YOU know where to bolt to when you are frightened? 

Watching a Blue Jays Game

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I’ve missed the last couple of five minute Friday posts.   One week I was on holiday and this past weekend I just could not get it together.   Life happens right?   I didn’t even find the time to read the post that others wrote…. Busy body I’ve been lately.   But tonight as I sit watching a Blue Jays game with my hubby I have time to consider a post. 

watching a blue jays game

Watching a Blue Jays Game

Watching a Blue Jays Game
I consider a word
Miss Kate has provided a
Friday word prompt
Watch.

I considered the phrase
Watch and wait, for
indeed the Lord will return.
We just need to watch for signs, and
be ready for him imminent return.

Thinking also of conversations
of the day. A gal with baby
fever ponders questions about
babies and more. She’s watching
those around her, thinking of the day.

A co-worker who watches those
around her at work, offering
“Good job” when she sees good
work ethic at play. A quiet girl
with a soft-caring heart.

A gal who gave me a hard
stare, that caused me a double-take,
seeing her stuffing items into
a shopping bag. Watching as she
made her way around the store
observing the going to the cash and
paying for what she placed therein.
Without the hard stare I would have
left her be.

Across the street
a long brown body waits,
poking up her head when she
hears my front door open.
A wag, a whine, and then a
soft bark if I take too long
getting the mail before scratching
a dachshund’s tummy.

All this I remember as I sit
Watching a Blue Jays Game, with
the man I love most, and
above all, watch the most.
His love for me amazes me and
exemplifies God’s love for his people.

Watching a blue jays game

God’s word

James 5:7-8

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Eph 5:25-30

5 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.

Work It

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It’s five minute Friday time (Well, actually it’s Saturday evening) but hey…. let’s not quibble on the details today eh?  Miss Kate has given us the word prompt of work.  I think about my job and how we encourage each other to do a good job or to have a good attitude toward our jobs.  This active encouragement spills out into other areas of life including faith.  Work It seeks to showcase that encouraging factor. 

work it

Poem: Work It

Work it baby, work it
I heard at my job this week
A gal with an encouragers heart
Smiling as I moved to the music
While I shifted ice cream from
A skid to a cart.
As she spoke she shimmied
herself across the floor.
Laughter ensued. 🙂

“I hope they work it out”
the statement I heard
more than once this week
as my lad books medical
appointments, updating me
along the way. The progress
seems mind-numblingly slow as
appointments seem so far away, and
the urgency in getting him help
seems to be ignored.

Work it out, in fear and
trembling, recognizing
always that my faith is weak and
that without God’s constant
invention my hold on the truth
would be less tenuous than it is.
Spending time with God
in his word and thinking more
on approaching his word with an
attitude of prayer.

work it

God speaks to us

Romans 15:5

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had.

Philippians 2:12-13

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

What’s the Impulse?

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So this was actually a harder word to write on than I expected.  I thought Impulse…that will be easy.  But as I’ve gone throughout my day, yesterday and today, I couldn’t find something to write on.  Then, as my family has gone to bed, and I listen to a horse story on TV as I fight joining my family in their “Z’s” suddenly I recalled a co-workers impulse this week and how it had an end result different than intended. The hurt felt was hard to witness, and harder still, to talk it through.  It’s hard to understand sometimes why gifts can be angrily rejected.  

What's the impulse

What’s the impulse?

What’s the impulse
Can you say?
Is it obvious to you
or do you need to search
your heart and soul?

Perhaps your intentions
are easy to discern
a desire to help, to
perhaps bring some healing
to another soul?

But sometimes, even
when our intentions are good,
the person receiving them
sees the impulse, or the
intention differently than
what was meant!

Even our intentions,
our impulses to do good,
are fractured by the evil that
resides so deeply within.
God’s word tells us that
people are evil all the time.

Nothing we do, even when
we are well-intentioned,
is seen, in the eyes of God
as good, unless he sees
the veil of Christ over us.

It doesn’t really change
though the hurt one feels
when the impulse to do good
is rejected by the receiver
of such action.

How do we understand
the why of such rejection
without taking it
deeply to heart and realizing
the rejection tells us about the
receiver NOT the giftee?

I think it encourages us
to look deeply within
to see if perhaps, somehow
in the giving, we suggested
something other than intended, or
perhaps, that examination,
will give a clue to why
the receivee became a rejectee.

That further gives a chance
to add that person to our
prayer list that God would
continue to mind them full-well
and that perhaps you can
be guided to something kind
that will suit better.

But I don’t know, 

what do you think? 

What's the impulse

God’s word speaks

Romans 7:13-19

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Music Sung Badly

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I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like to listen to music sung badly, and really prefer that I am not the one doing the bad singing.  If someone is trying hard to sing (not in a in front of people way) but as part of a group praising the Lord, or perhaps singing the national anthem as part of a crowd, I don’t mind. That’s more of a “they are trying hard” and I find that acceptable!   I’m meandering a bit.  What I’m trying to say is I don’t care to listen to people sing off-tune professionally, but someone just singing… even if they do it badly… I don’t much care.  🙂   Life happens eh?

Music is there to be sung, whether you do it well, or perhaps, like me… often not well.  🙂   Singing with me means one of two things.  Either I’m bored and I’m entertaining myself, or I’m happy/Praising God.   The assumption is that it’s the same for others.  What is singing for you? 

Music sung badly

Music Sung Badly

Today I did it
Smoke in the air
Life crazy busy at work
A sick boy to worry on
Stepping outside to call
the doctor AGAIN trying to
get a today appointment.

Smoke makes my throat
tighten up and get
scratchy-sore, but FINALLY,
FINALLY I got through and
got an appointment for my lad.

But finally the appointment,
relief flooded this worried momma’s
heart and so, when a song
came on the radio that I not only
kinda know the lyrics too, but that
I liked… I sang along.

A co-worker, who loves music,
Stopped and stared at me
And I stopped and realized why
I was singing somewhat “off” today
Not my normal voice with music
and thusly, that coworker, who
loves music too… was startled.

Me who, honestly, isn’t the best
singer in the world,
today openly
Sung music badly,
and despite startling my
co-worker, today I didn’t care. 🙂

This afternoon, I was
simply too delighted that
my lad is going in to see
the doctor tonight and perhaps,
just perhaps, we’ll start to
get him the care that he needs.

We’ll get him healthy and eating again
and not coughing so harshly,
and not looking
so very very thin.
And this momma’s heart,
just perhaps, can stop worrying
over this her boy.