Birds in My Mustard Tree

This week I celebrated a birthday--my spiritual birthday. It's been years, but it seems like yesterday when I accepted the grace of Jesus. It was then that my faith started as small as a mustard seed.

However, the Lord has slowly grown my faith. My faith increased through trials, temptations and tragedies. But it has also increased because of God's incredible blessings in my life.

As I review my spiritual life, I am grateful for each small seed, each strenuous step. I praise Him for the blessings of my family who has traveled this journey with me.

My faith began as a small mustard seed, but God has grown the faith seed into a full-fledged faith tree, so large that the birds of blessing have come home to roost.

Thank you, Lord for Your faithfulness.

If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
2 Timothy 2:13 (NIV)

Look, See, Clap!

I spent the last week in Minnesota. It happened to be the peak change for the leaves on the trees to change. It was breath taking--remember I live in the desert of Nevada.

For every brilliant tree I saw, I wanted to shout, "Look! Do you see the glory of God spilling forth?" Please don't take His beautiful artwork for granted. Look, see, and praise Him. Don't miss the beauty of this season--open your eyes and clap your hands for God's unique handiwork. .

The Gerunds of Life

In the world of creative writing authors should attempt to steer away from gerunds. What is a gerund? Well, a gerund is word that ends with "ing". Editors state that a "ing" word slows the reader down. So they prefer, if at all possible, the writer reword the sentence to elimante the gerund.

Now I was thinking about this as I was finishing my next book manuscript and I thought my whole life is INGs. Throughout any given day I am:

cleaning
writing
grandma--ing
excercising
eating
shopping
talking
emailing
texting

Do you see what I mean? Everyday is filled with the gerunds of life. These INGs of life do not slow us down, they keep us busy. There are certainly times I wish I could elinamte some of them from my day, but I don't think it would slow me down. I would just replace the missing ING with a differnt ING activity. Life is busy!

Thankfully, besides all the busyness we can add to our list of INGs, laughing, resting, napping. Life is good, let go through each day enjoying it. Let's not let the gerunds of life slow us dowm!


But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31