A Father's Wise Instruction

1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

3 For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.

12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. — Proverbs 4 | King James Version (KJV) The King James Version Bible is in the public domain Cross References: Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 11:21; Deuteronomy 32:2; 1 Samuel 2:30; 1 Samuel 12:23; 2 Samuel 22;37; 1 Chronicles 22:5; Psalm 1:1; Psalm 34:11; Psalm 36:4; Proverbs 1:2; Proverbs 1:9; Proverbs 2:2; Proverbs 2:11; Proverbs 3:1; Proverbs 3:8; Proverbs 3:21; Proverbs 8:23; Proverbs 13:2; Proverbs 19:1; Matthew 5:14; Luke 6:45; John 6:63; John 11:10; Ephesians 6:4; Hebrews 12:13

The simple mindset that brings light

The simple mindset that brings light

Believers have been set apart to witness to the truth of God in this world. Luke 11:34-35: “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness. “ One of the strengths of the Hebraic worldview is that it always paints things…

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PROVERBS S.O.A.P. ~ CHAPTER 4

Thursday, 2/16/23

SCRIPTURE:

My children, listen when your father corrects you.  Pay attention and learn good judgment, ... Don’t get sidetracked;  keep your feet from following evil.  ~ Proverbs 4:1, 27

OBSERVATION:

"...listen when [my] Father corrects me."

Sidetracked:

distracted from an immediate or important issue,

direct a train to branch line or siding (a low-speed, "dead-end" track section distinct from a running line or through route) -

leaving the main path

How often do I leave the mainline and wander down some side trail?

Evil - anything now in God's will and plan -

Even my "minor disobedience" is evil in His sight...

APPLICATION:

Listen...

Take correction...

Pay attention...

Learn good judgement...

Don't get sidetracked... (Stay on the - His - mainline...)

Don't follow evil...  

PRAYER:

Holy, correcting Father God - Once again, I ask that You forgive my evilness...May Your Holy Spirit continue to guide and direct me to and back to Your good and perfect will, to using good and holy judgement instead of relying on myself and anyone other than You... Thank You that Jesus lived and showed Your wisdom in all His actions and words, and may I, like Him, surrender all I want to Your will and providing grace... In His Name, and for Your honor and glory and praise and worship...

For Him, for you, for yours...

g

<))><

Proverbs 4:1-9 – Pay Attention to Wisdom

Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs as a sage woman and a discerning counselor for whom we must hear and heed her advice. 

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.Because I hereby give you good instruction,do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son to my father,a tender, only child before my mother,he taught me, and he said to me:“Let your heart lay hold of my words;keep my commands so that you will live.Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding;do not forget and…

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The Way of the Wise

The Way of the Wise

20 My son, be attentive to my words;     incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight;     keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them,     and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,     for from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech,     and put devious talk far from you. 25 Let your…

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Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

(Proverbs 4:23, ESV)

Proverbs 22:4 (ESV) - The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

my queue was supposed to run out tonight (11/19) - i'm nothing if not someone who clings to dates and anniversaries, and exactly a month ago, i realized i had enough posts stowed in it to last until today. of all the days. kismet. you know when it's time to go. but i ended up adding some posts from my (still copious) drafts, and no matter how i finagled it, it was impossible to make them all fit by the time today ended. so it gets a little bit of extra time. maybe, in honor of this blog's existence, that's fitting.

you all know this, i've said it, typically in gratitude, many times already. this blog was never meant to last. i came back in november 2020 expecting a couple of months, maybe to be here until the new year. i told very few people, anticipating the goodbye, not wanting to cause anyone undue anguish when i had to vanish again. something i didn't expect was the sheer (admittedly devasting) emotion that would tie itself to those two weeks when i started interacting again, nor that it would have any outreach or impact, but somehow it did. then time kept spinning on, extending itself, gossamer threads unfurling each day. my following kept growing, far beyond what i could have anticipated, greater than i'd ever established on any of my previous blogs. moving around is unfortunately a pattern at this point, every time for reasons that felt quietly catastrophic. not being able to pay bills for a while. angel's death and the ensuing difficult circumstances. so here, i kept anxiously imagining why i'd eventually have to leave, how to plan for it. poverty issues. the homelessness we were facing through the entirety of a couple of years until last august (and my dad having to be the saving grace). worsening health issues. i never knew, i couldn't predict it, i just worried about it. often tried to brace for it. maybe i got too comfortable this year, because this was when i started to think it wouldn't happen, that i really could stay. little did i know. and the reasons...are not reasons i ever fathomed, why would i have? how could i have? i wish it weren't so. (i wish a lot of things.)

i thought sometimes about the words i would leave you with, none of which are suitable now. i almost wrote nothing, yet found that feeling wrong, couldn't leave without something about parting.

thus it turns out i'm leaving before it's strictly necessary, before it's the fear of personal catastrophe coming to fruition, not knowing what i'll do or where i'll metaphorically go, as that is the downside of chronic illness and isolation narrowing this to my sole outlet. (lyrics keep running through my mind, there are always lyrics stuck in my head. no matter where i go, there'll be memories that tug at my sleeve, but there will also be more to question, yet more to believe...teach me to be more adaptive...help me say goodbye). my body is in such a fragile state right now (my mind not far behind) that maybe what i need to do is rest. just rest for a while.

this blog was never meant to grow the way it did, to take asks and have conversations like i did, that was a somewhat new (sometimes scary! often fun) experience for me. it's one that will never be replicated. to my loyal and lovely anons, i'm so sorry that i had to cut you off unexpectedly and couldn't reinstate communication - i know that you weren't able to reach out to me as soon as i did that, and that certainly wasn't your fault, it was a response to the tenor of this website. i apologize for the hundreds of messages i never had the chance to answer. i'm appreciative of the things you shared with me and all the times we got to talk.

i sincerely hope some of you learn to be kinder and wiser and less reactionary and more willing to learn and to listen rather than to attack those who have never wronged you and who do not deserve that. i'm being too nice, but i hope you learn that misusing your supposed social justice to do harm and foment hatred and stew in ignorant cruelty makes any principles you purport to have utterly void. my hope for that is low at the moment, but it's still got to be there. waiting to be found.

to those of you who have never been anything but kind, you are true treasures, the lights in the darkness, the loving and compassionate embodiment of human spirit. some of you have (quite literally) helped keep my mom and me alive, and i can never repay that or do enough in this life to quantify it. some of you have been here for me every single day, to listen and laugh and cry and understand. i don't think i would've bothered to fight through these past three years had i not had your presences in my life. i wouldn't have had as much of a reason. there are times when i still haven't felt like i had a reason, i struggle through so many varied griefs, but then i continued to wake up, and would come on here and find something joyful or beautiful or affirming that someone had sent or posted, and it gave me an anchor. there are passions and interests i shared or discovered here that were so uplifting and enlightening, and i will carry them in my heart always. being here to find those was such a blessing. being here with you to indulge in them was such a blessing. thank you. i pray your continued paths have more of that ahead. look at all the things you've done for me. there are certain things that once you have no time can wear away.

you know that line from the wizard of oz?: hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable. maybe that isn't true, maybe our hearts being broken is proof of something. there are people who hurt me on such a profound level who i know weren't affected by it at all, but i refuse to define my sensitivity as a negative. my softness (too soft for all of it, indeed) does not quite provide me with a weapon, but it doesn't crumple. hearts can be broken repeatedly and still beat, which i've thought about a lot lately. shattered souls just make a new mosaic. it's a different picture than it was before, but the color and light persists. and in the remains of that, a handful of people have shown me depths of caring and resilience that i wouldn't have gotten to hold onto otherwise, which is an extraordinary thing. the precious rarities have to mean something more, don't they? i would think so. i believe it. or i'm trying. i keep trying with all my might.

maybe i stayed too long at the fair. maybe this is a consequence of overplaying my hand, gambling a little too much with time to where it had to teach me something. maybe i needed the reminder that sometimes we have to fight to retain our spirits, and other times we have to retreat. maybe i needed a reminder that all that extra time was a miracle. i don't take it for granted.

whether we've spoken directly, be that consistently or in scattered flurries, whether we've interacted in very personal ways or simply in liked hearts on the dash, i hope there was goodness and light in it. i hope there's a memory i leave here that's sweet. (as long as i'm borrowing phrases, i hope you'll think of me fondly sometimes.) i hope there was something warm and enriching here. i hope you know what you've been and meant to me. i said so many times that this blog was my cozy haunted house - the ghosts will linger here forever, and i know they'll never mind if you want to step in and visit.

with all my heart, i love so many of you so dearly. i am so lucky to have your friendships. please move gently through life. please hold onto the things that illuminate it for you, and provide that where you can. please do your best to repair even the smallest of tears in the world. you are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

there must be lights burning brighter somewhere.

something yet remains. i remain. and i do my best to be brave.

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4

1. “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body.” —Proverbs 16:24 (AMPC)

2. “Kind words are like honey— they cheer you up and make you feel strong.” —Proverbs 16:24 (CEV)

3. “Nothing is more appealing than speaking beautiful, life-giving words. For they release sweetness to our souls and inner healing to our spirits.” —Proverbs 16:24 (TPT)

4. “Let your speech at all times be gracious (pleasant and winsome), seasoned [as it were] with salt, [so that you may never be at a loss] to know how you ought to answer anyone [who puts a question to you].” —Colossians 4:6 (AMPC)

Amen. 🙏🕊️🙌

The requirement of blessing haters

The requirement of blessing haters

Today we will be looking at the topic of forgiveness, especially in the context of speaking well of those who are haters because, according to Yeshua, the words we speak always come from the overflow of the heart. Understanding who we have become in Messiah allows us the privilege of blessing all others. Luke 6:28 – “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” Our words are…

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Eyes Forward

25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil. — Proverbs 4:25-27 | Majority Standard Bible (MSB) The Majority Standard Bible is in the public domain. Cross References: Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 28:14; Psalm 119:5; Proverbs 1:15; Proverbs 4:24; Proverbs 5:6; Proverbs 5:21; Isaiah 1:16; Hebrews 12:13

March, coming in with a Lion.....

"It is I, His IMPerial Majesty, Ruler of ALL the Things and the Lion of Winter March. I did not bringed these snows, so it is not my fault if you got too many. I like being a lion, I looks FEERCE and besides my head is warmer!"

Silken Windhound, the Imp

A Godly Inheritance

1 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,     and be attentive, that you may gain insight, 2 for I give you good precepts;     do not forsake my teaching. 3 When I was a son with my father,     tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, 4 he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words;     keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom; get insight;     do not forget, and do not…

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