A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

poetry

Cucumbers Are Green

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What does one do when a word prompt leaves one feeling flat?  Like honestly… what does a person do with the word green? I’m actually sitting here feeling rather vexed about this simple word green.   I wanted something easier to do!  

Walking away, chatting with my hubby as he got home from work, I started to tidy up the dehydrating I did today.  I did up some carrots, apples and cucumbers.  

Did you know the cucumbers are green?

Cucumbers are Green

Cucumbers are Green

Cucumbers are green
or so I’ve been told.
Mini, english, field
the green is so bold.

From flower end starting
til ripened full well.
The green of the cucumber
has that cucumber smell.

But one thing I’ve learned
as I yearly growing my own,
that leave them too long
and that green doesn’t stay.

It changes it’s hue
The fields they turn yellow,
The English get wrinkly
and then a mould starts to grow.

So cucumbers are green
When eaten they should be.
Avoid all the rest
It is best for thee.

cucumbers are green

I do have to admit that one year I grew a rather odd ball cucumber.  They ripened to a very pale green, so not a normal cucumber colour.   They had a sweet taste, unlike any cuc I have had before.  It’s one of the things I like to do when gardening, try new produce. 

Even though this poem feels very silly to me, it was actually kinda fun to write.  I’m glad I didn’t give up!  🙂 Change my perspective and before you know it I had a poem!  🙂   How often isn’t that true in life.  When you change what your perspective is, things get better.  Happens all the time. 🙂 

How best to Enable

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Enable, that’s the word of the week provided for us by Miss Kate. To enable is to give (someone or something) the authority or means to do something.  My question today is, how best to enable?  What can we do to enable others to get or have or become whatever it is needed?

How best to enable

How best to enable

It’s but a moment
Takes just a couple of seconds,
Help me.

But in that help me
Might come some baggage.

A help me always
Requires a giving
A showing of need.

Sometimes, just sometimes
That’s a very hard thing to do.

I had a friend
Years past, Who lived
Close to the pocketbook.

Things were hard, but
Asking for help, harder.

I never understood this
This reticence to
Ask for help.

Until, older age and pain
Crept in, and asking for help. Hard.

That admitting of weakness.
That internal feeling of
Shame, and regret, and sorrow.

So I ponder
How do we enable
the asking of help?

While ensuring the
Continuation of dignity?

I admittedly have
No solid answer, but
I’m learning.

That conversations matter,
The taking time to listen.

Or even the taking time
To explain the why,
Or even to not explain.

Sometimes, the offer made
is all that is needful.

Without the expectation
that only you,
Can meet a need.

Sometimes the best way
to enable.

Is while listening
just lend a hand
without explanation.

And perhaps we will learn
how best to enable.

How best to enable

Scriptural basis

Exodus 17:12

When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

Galatians 6:2

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Matthew 5:16

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

What does it mean to be Observant

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Miss Kate has once again given us a word prompt for the week.   Observant has a couple of different meanings.   First to be quick to notice things.  Second is adhering strictly to the rules of a particular religion, especially Judaism.  To be an observant believer could also be described as being a devout believer.  These two definitions fit well with each other don’t you think?   What does it mean to be observant?

What does it mean to be observant

What does it mean to be observant?

The question is asked.
An eyebrow raised in expectation.
What does it mean to be observant?

To be observant is
Noticing the details.
Not just the large, but
Also the small. It is to
Pay attention.

But not only to pay attention
but to consider what
such an observation means.

A filled laundry basket
at the bottom of the stairs.
Noticed.
But it is truly observed
if it’s simply left there?

A neighbour sighs
Long and deep
Noticed.
But it is truly observed
If you don’t query why?

The 10 commandments
written down.
Noticed.
but if you ponder them not
Are they truly observed?

A group of children
circled round a singleton
Noticed.
Is observation truly seen
if you don’t watch for a few minutes?

A baby bunny
huddled in a corner.
Noticed.
But if you don’t look it over carefully
Are you being observant?

How many times in life
do you see, but
don’t truly observe?
Observation acts.
It doesn’t merely notice.
Think you not?

What does it mean to be observant?

What does it mean to be observant

Scriptural Insight

James 1:16-27

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Exodus 34:11-12

11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. 

Proverbs 23:26

My son, give me your heart,
    and let your eyes observe my ways.

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Once Per Week

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Miss Kate was listed this week’s Five Minute Friday word prompt.  The word?  Once.   This is a welcoming encouraging community and I urge you to come join it.  Write, once per week, for five minutes, not worrying about perfection, just writing for the sheer joy of it.  🙂  Come won’t you?

Once Per week, text over pen writing

Once per week
Gathered round
Miss Kate posts
A word she’s found.

Coming in from
Round the world
What to say
What message unfurled?

Men and women
Faith is shows
In every word
Poetry and prose.

Encouragement flows
With every word
Hearts poured out
Rarely absurd.

Then before you know it
A comment made
And that is how
The Foundation is laid.

Growing, showing
Sometimes grieving
Rarely seeing
Anyone Leaving.

So once per week
Come and see,
What your words
Mean to me.

Scriptural Inspiration

The bible is full of verses that speak to how we as a body of believers need to be a source of encouragement for each other.  Today I share but a few of them.  This is the heart of the Five Minute Friday community.  Our ability to read the words of our fellows and then offer them encouragement. 

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.”

 
1 Thess 5:11
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
 
Hebrews 10:24-25
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
 

The Master’s Design

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The Five minute Friday word of the week provided by Miss Kate is Design.  Conversations with my 15 year are the impetus for this post.   My goal with my lad it to leave him with questions, not just my answers.  He’s a thinker, so questions are good no?  The end result?   The Master’s Design, a poem.

The Master's Design

The Master’s Design

Do you agree
That mercy killing
of animals
Can be used as a reason
for mercy killing in people?
The question asked.

Yes, but
not for me.
I can see others saying
sure
We’d do it for
our suffering dog,
we should do it for
Suffering grandpa.
The question answered.

Shouldn’t people
be able to make the
decision though
that they want to die?
That today,
Today they have had enough?
The question continued.

It’s hard to answer
if a person should
be able to
make that decision.
That ultimate
rejection of life
given. Despite the pain.

It depends on how
you view people.
If you have a high view
that they are different
definably so
from the animals around.

For animals
Ending pain a mercy.
For people
Enduring pain
Might be a way for
them to see need for God,
or to show God,
to learn their failings
and to become more.
Think you on this?

See lad
God made people
definably different
than the animals.
If you think
we came from animals
Then… kill anyone
you want.
It makes no difference.

But if people are
different than animals
consider this:
could it be
the master’s design?
And if so
is pain a defining
reason to end life?

The Master's Design

Scripture Reveals

Genesis 1:26-27

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:7

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 

Romans 1:24-25

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Some articles giving more information

Would you be interested in learning more about creation apologetics?  SchoolhouseTeachers.com currently has a sale!  $139/yr or $16/mth covering every subject, every grade, every student.   Even if you just took the apologetics course it would be worth it!  🙂 

Fix What is Not Broken

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A conversation I had with a friend the other day has been sitting on my mind.  I have no true answers for her beyond what I have been counselled myself.  Some of the thoughts I’ve been having spilled out in this poem as I pondered the Five minute Friday word Fix.   The question I ask myself is how does one fix what is not broken?

Fix what is not broken

Fix what is not broken

How does one fix it?
The thing that can’t be broken.
A tie that binds securely?
If it can’t be broken
How does one fix it?

A friend the other day
Mentioned troubles with a
Spouse.
About sometimes he didn’t
Come home to the house.

Marriage is forever
A bond twixt God and man
A man and woman
Forever will Hold
Each other hand.

So how does one fix it?
This thing unbroken is?
A tie securely binding
A woman and her man.

Through prayer and
Supplication.
And through a
fresh perspective see.

Making choice
on showing love
Even when one’s heart
is dour.
Shows the hand of God
‘Til it becomes a shower.

It’s difficult I know
When so easy all around
The unbroken is
Tossed and declared
to be unbound.

Bonds securely tie us.
Remembering sometimes pain.
Remembering too
I hope, the joy
that you had gained.

There are no easy answers.
In this dark world
we’re in.
Pain sometimes bids
us Sin.

Change thou
Your perspective.
Pray hard for
One’s spouse.

Pray too that you can
Show the love
That you once felt
And notice as you go
The love you have been dealt.

How to fix
What is not broken
is a difficult thing to do.
But through time,
God’s care, and work.
It is possible to do.’

Fix what is not broken

Scriptural Inspiration

Malachi 2:14-15

“But you say, ‘Why does he not?’ Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”

Song of Solomon 8:6-7

“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.”

Genesis 2:24

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Ecclesiastes 4:12

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Mark 10:9

“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

 

Fresh Perspective

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The Five-minute Friday word of the day is Fresh. Wow… what a challenge because what IMMEDIATELY comes to mind is perhaps not something I should write on. 🙂  So what can I write on instead?   That’s the challenge.  Ah, I know… Fresh Perspective… isn’t that an idea I can work with? 

Fresh Perspective

Fresh Perspective

A glass of milk
Fresh from the fridge.
I stop and pause
For just a smidge.

Fresh ideas this
morning poured.
Considering science
Not a moment bored.

The Cosmological
Argument
Proof indeed that
God exist.

Or consider how
Without God.
Life is meaningless
Nothing abound.

Apologetics
Searching hard.
Questions to ask
Come by the yard.

Can one see
The truth in this?
That Jesus really
Did exist?

The questions
race through my mind.
Which to share?
How to be kind?

Fresh perspective
Comes to me.
Ask it now
A bit softly.

Taking note
Not to hurt
A questing heart
Let’s not be curt.

And so my heart
Which still does ache.
Takes new breath
For goodness sake.

Hope restored
A brand new year,
Let’s see where
Fresh perspective veer.

Where Ideas Spring From

So one of the things I like with SchoolhouseTeachers.com is that it comes with a subscription to RightNowMedia.   It was funny, I also get a subscription through my church but it seems they are different.   I dunno though as I haven’t exhaustively researched.  All I know, when I look up apologetics with one account, I see different stuff with the other.   Go figure. 

Anyways, it’s an amazing resource and I’ve been going through their Apologetics courses and some of them are short and sweet, and their thoughts easily remembered.  This morning I was listening to Reasonable Faith Defenders. 13 lessons, about five minutes each.  With questions.  Simple to remember questions that help questing hearts think.  

fresh start