A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

poetry

planned spontaneity

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Ah, the day is almost at a close and I’ve stayed up WAY too late!  But I had stuff that needed doing after a busy day moving dirt and caring for critters.  It gave me time to consider the five minute Friday word prompt of spontaneous.   The end result was planned spontaneity, perhaps it might resonant with you.

planned spontaneity

planned spontaneity

I like to plan
my spontaneity!
It’s weird I know
to think to plan it out
to have a day where
anything can go.

Camping is spontaneous
with walks, fishing, kayaking,
and so much more.

But just dropping things
and going?
Now that my lad is
big and grown
that spontaneity, well,
honestly, even while young
I had days that I planned
that anything could go.

Just not doing?
I dunno…

but then again
I recall friends
when the lad was young
commending my spontaneity.
Because I learned
early on.. that
just because I planned a
day… didn’t mean my plans
would come to fruition.

That going with
how the day played out
was more beneficial
to the family as a whole
than fretting over not
accomplishing what I planned.

But PLANNING a day
where anything can happen,
suits just being spontaneous
and makes the day even
better because literally
anything could happen.

AND THAT… that
planned total spontaneity
is the fun of it all.
To know that we might go
to the park, we might
bake cookies, or we could even
hit the beach and have
ice cream for lunch!

We might be
unplanned as we’ve learned
to go with the flow.
but going with the
flow brings it’s own
anxieties.
But having a day
completely free… oh my!
That planned spontaneity
is so much fun… and
it is so very very good.

planned spontaneity

Speaking

Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It’s something I need to keep in mind you know?  How I can make my plans, and whatnot, that rolling with how the day goes is a God’s plan as well.   He knows better than I what should be done in the course of one of my days.  🙂   And, though I can’t definitely say that planned spontaneity is in his will… I am positive he delights in our joy in fellowship with each other.  It’s good to have fun together no? 

Ways to be Generous

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Miss Kate has posted this week’s five minute Friday word prompt.  And honestly, this word simply isn’t resonating with me today.  Putting off writing my post today, hoping that inspiration would strike.  I can’t really say it has but at least I have a title to work from!  Ways to be Generous. 

ways to be generous

Poem: Ways to be Generous

Ways to be generous
the question is asked
or perhaps not but
it should be.

How do we be
generous with each other?
Is it just a matter of
paying it forward?

Making sure that
we occasionally make
life easier for others
around us through the
things that we do?

Perhaps generosity stems
from more than the things
that we do, but is just more
easily seen that way.

I picture the mom
with the revolving door
of children hers and more
running in and out
feeling welcome with things to do.

I see letters written
to the folks in prison that
isn’t heralded and often
not cared about heralding
Christ and his mercy.

The quietness of sending
bulletins and messages to
students off the college
for the first time.

A friend meeting for
coffee (or tea) at a moment’s
notice just because she was
nudged by the Spirit of need.

The prayer left on
a blog post because
T’was a needful thing
more than known perhaps.

Perhaps ways to be generous
doesn’t have to be flashy
or obvious but just a
quiet, generous spending
of the hours and minutes allotted.

ways to be generous

God Talks to Us

Psalm 112:5

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
who conduct their affairs with justice.

2 Corinthians 8:12

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Roots Laid Down

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So, it’s been a long, rather tiring day.   I worked hard at my job today with lots of product to move, and I had a dog to walk before and after work as well.  A neighbour is away for a short holiday, so I’m helping him out with Boone.   Such a NICE dog.  🙂 Anyways, I sit here and ponder (while resting my aching feet) the word ROOT.  A word prompt provided by Miss Kate.   And I come up with roots laid down.

AND OOPS, I fell asleep!  So starting again this morning Friday.  Looking out my window at a sunshiny day with a light breeze. 

Roots laid down

Roots Laid Down

Sunshine, Lollipops and rainbows…
I don’t know why
when I think of root
this pops into my brain
running through my dreams
as I slept the night
away, awoken only by the
sudden closing of a door as
my lad heads off to work
at 6 a.m.

I fret over my boy
it seems all the day long.
I don’t mean to,
and I don’t want to,
but it’s a constant thing
in my head.
About how he doesn’t
know for a certainty
that the bible is true
and that God is real
just because some stupid
website told him so.

It’s like he’d rather
believe someone with a
vested interest against God
than believe what he was
taught growing up.

And yet, God,
yes God… keeps saying
that he minds me full well
that he understands my fretting.
And yet, he calls for me
to trust him.
To understand that
he is not finished with my lad.

So can I just trust him?
Can I believe that the
roots laid down for my lad
will have their say in the end?
Can I believe the words
he has written?
About how you train up
a child in the way
they should go…
how that training doesn’t
leave them?

Can I trust him?
Will I let my heart
Stop fretting so?
Will I choose to
follow the roots
laid down for me?

Today I say yes,
Yes, Lord. You the
one who bore the result
of ALL the sin of the
world laid down.
Yes, today I will choose to
honour that and I
Will CHOOSE this day
to trust you.

Will I have to make
that same choice tomorrow?
Most definitely.
It will be a work
in progress to
continually make that
choice. To
honour sacrifice,
to live by what has been
planted in my over
my now 57 years.

What choices will
you make this day?
what roots have been laid
down in your life?

And So God Speaks

Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (ESV)

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Job 14: 14-17 (ESV)

If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
16 For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.

Showing Up

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So guess what happened today? A friend came over with the thought of helping us with the shed.  Jim was having a hard morning so instead, he helped me with trimming back our maple tree.   In some ways, it was kinda funny.  He’d trim something, notice a dead branch and cut it off.  He’d think he was all done and then would look around and go “Oh, I didn’t see that dead one there, let me see how I can get to it”.    This happened so often I started to inwardly chuckle about it, but outwardly I’d help him, holding the ladder, and carrying away branches for him.  We had a thoroughly productive morning and he taught me a lot about caring for trees. Then the lad helped load up the truck for a trip to the dump so all those branches are gone!  Utterly fantastic!  Anyways, it made me think about the word prompt this week and how nicely this friend was about showing up.

Showing Up

Showing Up

Showing up is not
just a fling.
It’s a gift a time,
a meaningful thing.

A helpful moment,
often God-made,
to meet a need
it should be obeyed.

In my email often found
ways to show others
your faith in God
reaching out to brothers.

Sometimes it’s fancy
ways of evangelism, or
programs to put on, or
methods of catechism.

But what I’m learning
works is simply
and plainly showing up
even if you’re pimply!

Just showing up matters.
Teaching, praying,
studying, helping,
working and playing

Be that Sunday School helper,
and lender of tools.
Be the mover, the idea-giver,
and the setter of stools.

Mow a lawn, walk a dog,
read a book, write a letter,
pay it forward, and create a smile
Do what you can to make it better.

And when people ask
why you are showing up?
Tell them the truth,
God makes you look up!

God is the reason for
the things that you do
I’m finding my way to
make him relevant to you!

Yup, me, still talking

I don’t often do rhyming couplets in a very “poetry-ish” style, and boy, it can be a challenge!  🙂   Anyways, God is good and walks me through eh?  But seriously, show up with your faith.  Be out and about in your community making an impact and try not to be shy about your reasons for doing so.  Otherwise, how will people know? 

James 2:18-26 (ESV)

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Remembers not our sin

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Today has been a bit busier than I planned.   The dentist was planned.  The running around getting a health card, waiting for a prescription, getting the lad onto our plan??  WHY wasn’t he on our plan???   Glitches in systems sometimes frustrate in this day and age of instant computer/online access.   Anyways, I’m taking a bit of time to squeeze in this poem for the word prompt forget.   Remembers not our sin was predicated by my lad’s “BUT MOM.. why can’t you remember?”

Remembers not our sin

Remembers not our sin

the lad is chipmunked
today.
swollen cheeks
difficulty speaking
this happens when
four wise teeth are
extracted.

I vaguely remember
getting mine done
and what I most remember
is not the pain
but the anger
or perhaps frustration
of the dentist.
A rough man with
no patience for
his patients.

My fear of him
took a long time
to abate, and my
current dentist is
kind and not
in any way rough.

But lad has questions
how long must I do
soft.
How long til I can
work.
and so the questions fly…
“MOM! Why don’t you remember?”
That touch of exasperation.

I don’t remember
because
time happens and
wounds heal
so it doesn’t seem important.

I was considering as
I thought about my son’s
disapproval of my
lack of memory.

God remembers not our sin
It doesn’t say
that God forgets
out sin. But
that he
will remember [our] sins no more.

You’ll find the verse
in Hebrews 8.
Written for our hearts
to know that God
chooses to not
recall that pain
we caused him.

It’s like when
someone hurts you
and asks you to forgive
them. Do you hold
onto that hurt?
OR
Do you choose to
no longer recall it to mind?

Sometimes our
“forgetting” is an
active choice.
Sometimes, our
forgetting is
a factor of age,
healing, or just
other things being
more important.

It’s rather cool
don’t you think that
God chooses to not remember
the sins of his children?
That he considers
relationship through
his son to be more important
than the pain we have caused him?

what do you choose
to no longer remember?
Why?

Remembers not our sin

Still talking! 🙂

For more thoughts on the passage Remembers not our sin, you might want to check out the desiring god post I found intriguing. 

Hebrews 8: 12 (ESV) For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,     and I will remember their sins no more.”

God’s mercy continues to blow me away.  Considering more deeply what it means that God doesn’t bring our sin to his attention anymore.  Just… I don’t know, reminds me more deeply of his goodness.   Be reminded always of God’s goodness eh?  

Joined Together

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So I started this week’s poem thinking I’d do it one way, and before I knew it, things morphed! I have no other way of explaining it.  Joined Together drew out thoughts I wasn’t really wanting to express today, but, what is, is.  Do you ever have that?  When you are part of a conversation that you think will go one way and then somehow it changes?   If so, you get it then eh? 

Anyways, I’ve been doing Five Minute Friday for a rather long time, more than 8 years as I was part of this community before Kate took over.  She reminded us today that she’s been hosting FMF for 8 years!  Amazing isn’t it? 

Joined Together

Joined Together

Together,
it’s a call you see
a call to no longer
be alone.

Joined,
part of something
bigger what was
expected.

United,
love is the glue
the holds this unit
conjoined.

Can you believe it?
It’s true.
Love calls.
Mercy holds.
Grace abounds in ways
hitherto unimagined!

At one fell swoop
I learned the softness
of God, Saviour
For me.

More than a best friend,
more than a creator,
the only one who
minds me full well.

It blows me away,
and yet at the same
time, this constant fear
abides.

What if somehow,
somehow I am just
fooling myself?

That this love,
and mercy, and emotion
of being fully cared for
is all just pretend.

And then God’s word
says this
Seek me, find me.

That the very act,
of continuing to seek,
of wanting to know more,
means faith.

And that faith is seen
in what one does, and
how one trusts,
and how one declares
God’s worthiness.

And so even in my fear
and my worry
I am gentled by God
reminded that
I am his, and
nothing will stop that
from being.

For together,
I am in God’s heart
and he is in mind
and we are family.

A family way bigger
then I can even
comprehend. Filled
with others with their own
concerns and fears and joined
together by love.

Joined Together

And so God’s word speaks

1 Chronicles 7:14

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Hebrews 11:6

 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Proverbs 8:17

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

Learn to Be

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I know, I know, I’m a bit late to the FMFparty but I’m here and because it works for me I’m post-dating this post.  This way I can sandwich it between two reviews!  (and yes, I still have the second review to get written as well!)  Vacations, I tell you, they mess up a schedule!!!  How does one Learn to be?  I think that’s what I’m pondering for this week’s prompt using the word Be. 

Learn to be

Learn To Be

Learn to be
emanates through my mind
pondering a word prompt
Difficult I find.

Life has been busy
I haven’t found my groove
Hubby and I chatted
this week a new move.

Four years it’s been
just the boy and me
We had our own routine
Now a man joins us see?

He’s hungry at six
I don’t eat till late
the boy calls me in
When there’s food to be ate!

The hubby’s not like me
working on the fly
A planner, then doer
He’s that kind of guy.

Learn to be together
again, more difficult than thought
planning around food and activities
at times a bit fraught.

Summertime busyness
is no help at all!
It will be easier
when does come the fall!

For now we will think
and talk out our lives
finding connection as
our marriage thrives.

Learn to be

Chatting a bit more 🙂

Can you imagine how hard it is to reconnect after four years of different routines?  We went away this past week for four days.  During that time we chatted a bit about how “I” am struggling with figuring out how to make it work again.   I want to just learn to be a part of a whole family again.

I want to have meals together again, and family game nights, but summertime busyness and everyone’s work schedules makes it more difficult to do eh?   But just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it isn’t doable!   🙂  I just need to remember we are a family here and can work this out together. 

Proverbs 31:15-17

15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.
16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.  17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
 
Ephesians 4:16
 
From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.