Day 4 of the Lenten Challenge

Blessings from the bower on Church St.

Happy February 29th!!

Yesterday normally would have been the last day of February, but we have an extra day in this Leap Year. Do you have something special planned? A party? Out to dinner, maybe? How will you spend your extra day?  I meant to mention it in my post yesterday and forgot. Welcome to being almost 65. Yeah. The brain function ain't what it used to be. lol.

I have a meeting early this morning in the next town. I think when I am done I will take the long way home and look for pictures for this challenge. There are lots of old barns and ranches along that way. Lots of open spaces, too. Could be a great place for gathering some unique photos.

Day 4 - Rethink Church Photo/Poetry Challenge WOTD is Serve.

The first thing that came to my mind was
Psalm 100:2
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing!

Besides a photo or poetry, you also have the choice of a simple thought. I think I'll keep this Psalm close to my heart today.

Maybe I'll just share a photo, too.

My Pastor serving the day I recently became a member of our church.

Gratitude:
1 An extra day for rejoicing
2. An extra day for giving thanks
3. Gathering with friends

Blessings,
Deborah

2Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves,
but our competence comes from God.

Day 3 of Lent 2020

Good morning from the bower on Church St.

Day 3 of Rethink Church's Lenten Photo/Poetry Challenge.

The word for today is command.  I immediately thought of the two great commandments Jesus gave us in Matthew to love the Lord your God with all you heart, mind, strength and soul and the second to love each other. This photo of my grandsons summed up "love one another" perfectly for me.

I'm also keeping track of this challenge in my little Lenten book I'm making with the cards I talked about on Day 1.

I'm really enjoying this journey as I write out the scripture for each day and add things that are meaningful to me, like the lyrics to the song, "The Summons" I shared yesterday.

You can click on each photo for a closer view.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I havent been gardening in a couple of years and I'm really feeling the dirt calling to me this year. I'd like to have a vegetable/flower garden. I want to grow things again. The force is strong in me to be one with the earth. I've always felt close to God when I work in the garden. Life began in a garden way back when. There really is nothing like eating something you grew with your own two hands. Vine ripe tomatoes. I can almost taste their sweetness. Now, if I can just talk hubby into helping me....

Gratitude:
1. Dirt
2. Flowers
3. Fruit and veggies

Blessings,
Deborah

Genesis 1:29
Then God said, "I give you every seed- bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

Lenten Challenge

Blessings from the bower on Church St.

I didn't get a chance to come on here yesterday, so I will share Day 1 & 2 of Rethink Church's challenge. The challenge is to post a picture, poem or simple thought from the word they give you for the day.

Day 1 - Led - I wrote a poem

Led

An infant led to God by Mom.
A teenager confirmed.
A grownup led to Christ by Christ,
And finally feels at home.

(copywrite 2/2020 by Deborah Panos Meyer)

Day 2 - Wilderness

Family of ducks on a lake we camped by a few years ago.

Last Sunday we sang the song, "The Summons," at church and yesterday my Pastor said the words at our Ash Wednesday service. The song moves me very deeply. It is Jesus speaking to us. I hope it moves you as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o469PRLdbHU

Gratitude:
1. Wilderness
2. Inspiring music
3. Being led to Jesus

Blessings,
Deborah

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.

Lent Equals Waiting

Welcome from the bower on Church St.

My favorite quote for today:
   " Thanksgiving is the evidence that we are staying in love with God."
                                                             (by Steve Harper)

Lent is coming tomorrow! I'm getting ready. I have a few things planned and one of them is to study The Lord's Prayer using a kit I got from Illustrated Faith. I love this company! The kit is called, "Thy Kingdom Come," and includes over 40 little cards, a free printable and printables you can buy to go with the set. You can use these in many different ways and this how I chose to use them.

They've broken the prayer into ten stanzas and spend four days on each stanza studying companion scriptures and being creative with the cards. There are blank cards for journaling decorated with pretty florals and some with sayings.
I chose to add them to a small spiral bound notebook. I'll add the cards as I go along, using pages in between for journaling and art.
I'm also planning on doing the challenge I shared the other day and I also purchased another kit I'll share tomorrow.
I haven't been creative with art in this way for over a year and it feels wonderful to be inspired to take this up again.
Stay tuned. :)

Gratitude:
1. Creative inspiration
2. Time with the Lord
3. Bible classes today!

Blessings,
Deborah

Psalm 18:36
You enlarge my steps under me,
And my feet have not slipped.

Fasting

Blessings from the bower on Church St.

Being diabetic, I'm not supposed to do a full day's fast. It is a suggestion in "The Lord's Table," to fast for 9 different days out of the 60. But, I can do a partial fast. So, every 3 days I am fasting from chocolate. Partial fasts are okay with God. Daniel did in the Book of Daniel eating only vegetables and water. It must have pleased the Lord as Daniel and his friends grew stronger than any others. I don't expect to gain any physical strength from abstaining from chocolate, but I do feel stronger spiritually. I'm putting my focus on the Lord for strength to get me through the cravings and it seems to be working. I usually give up chocolate and/or sweets for Lent and will probably do so again this year.

Speaking of Lent, I've been looking for things to do during Lent this year and have found a few things I may try. Here is one that has me really intrigued:

Hmmm. The server won't upload the picture. Interesting. Anyway, it is a "Photo a Day" challenge from Rethink Church that gives a topic each day. Sounds interesting and I think I'd like to take that challenge. And if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know how I love a good challenge! I rarely can say no! lol

Here is the link to the challenge if you are interested in reading about it. You will be able to download the picture there.

https://www.umc.org/en/content/lent-photo-a-day-2020?fbclid=IwAR23uaLfIR_oziBpLYZnS_VyyyN6G01YXOWGhEjpZSJUo2pRTewRB-2IH8o

                                                       (click on photo for larger view.)


There's the picture! Had to do it another way.
Leave me a comment to let me know if you'd like to join me in this creative way to journey through Lent.

Gratitude:
1. New ways to make this journey
2. Beautiful, sunny February day
3. Time spent with God

Blessings,
Deborah

Psalm 34:8
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

Dieting and Other Stuff

Good morning from the bower on Church St.

I receive a Word of the Day in my email each morning. A while back "bower" was the word for that particular day. It means a ladies private apartment in a castle. I fell in love with the word and started including the above message at the end of all my emails. My house is far from likeness to any castle I know, but the old saying about your home being your castle just sits well with me, so I grabbed onto the word bower and hugged it tight. I have a love for words and keep a long list of my favorites.

In the dieting department, I was given an early birthday present from my SIL. A book called, "The Lord's Table," by Mike Cleveland. Oh, my. Just what I needed. It is filled with scripture and questions to guide you on your journey to substitute your cravings for food to the love of Jesus. It is filling me up spiritually and taking me to new places on this journey. Like I said, just what I needed. Something different and something focused on God. It's a win/win. Here is one nugget of goodness that filled my heart: "No food will satisfy my heart nor fill the emptiness in my soul. That is what Jesus Christ is for. He is "real meat" and the "bread of life" and I am to feed on Him." Now there is something to think about. I eat out of loneliness sometimes, but I can fill myself up with reading my Bible or other spiritual books instead of reaching for chocolate. I'm just skimming the surface here. The book goes much deeper than this. I highly recommend it if you're like me and have tried diet after diet with some success, but not the results you really want. I'm not getting any compensation for this review. Just wanted to share a good find.

Gratitude:
1. Help with dieting
2. Spiritual deepening
3. You, dear reader

Blessings,
Deborah

1Corinthians 10:31
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God.

New Book Release

My sister has a new book out. You can get it for free on your Kindle or download it for you PC.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082XHMN6J

It's called, "Buried Secrets," by J. E. Grace.

Blessings,
Deborah

It's One of Those

Good morning and welcome to my little corner!

I read an article this morning by Ann Voskamp that gave me that little flick to the forehead and maybe even gobsmacked me at times. She is so darn good at that! It was one of those articles.

She talks about our thoughts and introduces a book written by Jennie Allen called "Get Out of Your Head," subtitled "Stop the spiral of toxic thoughts." Man, I have been there. I've worked very hard this past year to stop sinning through my toxic thoughts, so this article drew me right in.

https://annvoskamp.com/2020/01/you-have-a-choice/ 

One thing Ann didn't talk about, but maybe it is addressed in the book (which I have ordered) is that the thoughts are usually lies planted by you-know-who! At least I have realized that is true for me.

You can get the link for the book in Ann's article if it looks like something that might appeal to you. I'm not pushing the book. I haven't read it yet, but I loved the title. I'll let you know what I think.

This sweet cat, Dusty, is one of our 8 ferals we care for. They have all been spayed/neutered and live outside. Their choice not ours. We would gladly share our home with them, but they are too afraid to come in. Miss Dusty loves to grab one of the beds, drag it off the porch to the patio, turn it upside down and then lay in it. Yes, she is a strange cat indeed.
Here is her brother, Chen.  Gorgeous boy! He's weird, too. lol

Gratitude
1. Cats of all kinds
2. Dogs of all kinds
3. All animals we share this earth with

Enjoy your day!
Blessings,
Deborah

Psalm 73:25-26
...God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.