The Ant and the Contact Lens

The Ant and the Contact Lens

A True Story by Josh and Karen Zarandona

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing. Although she was very scared, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took hold of the rope, and started up the face of that rock.

Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.

Well, here she is, on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there.

Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff.

She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it on it's back.

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

When Christ Dwells Within

"When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love,

with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten.

Love to Christ will be the spring of action.

Those who feel the constraining love of God, do not ask how little may be given to meet the requirements of God; they do not ask for the lowest standard, but aim at perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer.

With earnest desire they yield all and manifest an interest proportionate to the value of the object which they seek.

A profession of Christ without this deep love is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery."

"Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide
with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee."

Ellen White "Steps to Christ"

Angelus

A small prayer for Christmas

My child's tears can be dried with kisses.

My child's pain can be soothed with a song.

My child's sleep is found between warm blankets.

My child's saddness is softened with a smile,

My child does not know of a hunger that can hurt.

My child does not know of walking barefoot in the dirt,

When my child is afraid, I put a light on in the dark.

When my child falls, I open out my arms.

By the grace of God there goes my child.

Lord,

Awaken my spirit, to suffering I so often choose to close my eyes to.

Lord, Open my heart to give beyond what is easy for me to give.

Christmas belongs to you Jesus.

You live within the poor, the needy, the homeless, the hungry, the oppressed and the persecuted.

For you are all who are broken and alone in the world.

And every child belongs to you.

http://www.greatgifts.org/?adid=wvxmas08hom2

http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/index.asp

http://www.presentaid.org/page/home&source=A003837?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Paid%2BSearch&utm_term=Brand&utm_campaign=Present%2BAid%2BChristmas%2B07&gclid=COT4iPj0uY8CFQwdEgodz2YQcw

gOD bLESS THE LITTLE BOY AND HIS SISTER IN THE PICTURE

aND ALL THE OTHER CHILDREN IN THE WORLD

SILENCE

Silence

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You and I,

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these words,

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this paper –

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Blossoms and tendrils

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on the vine of silence

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Bruce Gardiner

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Ecclesiatstes

Ecclesiastes

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“Cast your bread upon the waters,
For after many days you will find it again.”

Lord, May I give of myself abundantly, freely, recklessly, joyfully.

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“So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body.”

Lord, may I look to your kingdom first. Help me take the shackles from my hands and feet that keep me bound to the fears rooted in the soil of this world.

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“He seldom reflects on the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”

Lord, let me see your reflection in each moment. Set my sight upon you alone.
Till I hardly notice the passing of time. Only the distance between YOU and I.

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“The sleep of a labourer is sweet, whether he eats little or much
But the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.”

Lord, help me to find a path of service. Let me find a way to kneel at your feet each day in the things you call me to do.

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“ God gives a man wealth, possessions and honour so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them.”

Lord, I know that all want beyond my portion is unsatiable. Make me long for nothing but YOU.

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“That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil, this is a gift from God.”

Lord, may I live a life of simplicity. May I find Joy in the ordinary and the Sacred in the everyday.
Lord help me to do all I am given to do with grace. Lord, help me to recieve anything at all I am given in the spirit of your grace.

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“ The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one Shepard.
Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the mind.”

Lord, remind me not to become distracted. Keep my feet upon the small straight path toward the narrow gate. All I need is your word to guide me. All I need is your grace to feed me.

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“The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round it goes ever returning on it’s course. All streams flow into the sea yet the sea is never full.”

Lord, I know nothing can be satisfied in stillness, silence and solitude without you. Even the sun, the wind and the waters are restless to reach YOU Lord.
All effort is pointless if not done for YOUR sake.
All my life is meaningless if not given unto YOU Lord.

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Take a walk in the woods with me...

My husbands parents have come over to visit and see our new baby.

We took a walk in the woods last weekend and I couldn't resist sharing a few pics!

Having a Mary heart and a Martha Mind

Having a Mary Heart and a Martha Mind

Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I’ve no time to be A saint by doing lovely things, or watching late with Thee,

Or dreaming in the dawn-light, or storming Heaven’s gates,

Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.

Although I must have Martha’s hands,

I have a Mary mind,

And when I black the boots and shoes,

Thy sandals, Lord, I find.

I think of how they trod the earth, what time I scrub the floor:

Accept this meditation, Lord, I haven’t time for more.

Warm all the kitchen with Thy love, and light it with Thy peace;

Forgive me all my worrying, and make my grumbling cease.

Thou who didst love to give men food, in room or by the sea,

Accept this service that I do -— I do it unto Thee.—

Cecily Rosemary Hallack (1898-1938)

Building Bridges

But the world sees nothing of that inward, heartfelt devotion which makes all these actions pleasant and easy.

Watch a bee hovering over the mountain thyme;—the juices it gathers are bitter, but the bee turns them all to honey,—and so tells the worldling, that though the devout soul finds bitter herbs along its path of devotion, they are all turned to sweetness and pleasantness as it treads;

(An excerpt taken from "A Devout Life" St. Francis de Sales.)

The prayers, yearnings, stinging tears, grace filled joys, overflowing cups, trembling frailty, aching anxieties, gentle awakenings and precious moments of motherhood.


Can be captured well within the excerpt above.


Where there is "bitterness" in the world a mother trys to turn it into "sweetness" for her child.


Motherhood is all about turning, moulding, shaping and reconstructing the internal debris of ourselves into something other than ourselves.

Something more than ourselves.

Like a small candle which trembles in the air. May I be brought to life by the breath of God.

Like sunlight on the ripples of water. Shimmering in the beauty and love of God's reflection. May I shine this light into the lives of those I love. Those I know. And those I have yet to meet along the way home.


As we walk the road to calvery, one step, one moment, one choice, one thought, one prayer at a time.

We often find


An inward journey reflects and rebounds upon each step we take.

I am borrowing an idea from the excellent http://mulledvine.blogspot.com/

This is an interesting personality test based upon the Myers Briggs original.

The results seem to be pretty spot on for most people. Although I think that it is fair to say in critisism of tests like these they tend to be somewhat generalised.

I turned out to be an INFJ ( click on the link here:-http://typelogic.com/infj.html for more info on this type)

To find out your own personality type according to this test click on the link below :0)

http://www.kisa.ca/personality/

I think this just proves that despite the many differences bettween people we must look above and beyond the defence mechanisms, the habits, the conditioned responses and opinions of others and try to see the child in everyone. The part inside each one of us, that is closest to God.

ALL I ASK

I do not ask that I may steer
My peaceful bark by peaceful shores alone,
Nor that I linger, harbor-bound,
And sail no stormy seas unknown;
I only ask this boon of Thee:
Be ever in the ship with me.

I do not ask that I may dwell
From din of battle far removed,
Nor ever feel temptation's force,
Nor ever know mine armor proved;
I only ask, through Life's long fight,
Grant me the power of Thy might.

I do not ask, that I may walk
Only on smoothly trodden grass,
Nor ever climb the mountain's height
And trembling, through its dangers pass;
I only ask, on rocks or sand,
The sure upholding of Thy hand.

I dare not pray for any gift
Upon my pilgrim path to Heaven;
I only ask one thing of Thee:
Give Thou Thyself and all is given.
I am not strong not brave nor wise;
Be Thou with me - it shall suffice.

-Annie Johnson Flint

(borrowed from the wonderful and inspirational http://holyexperience.blogspot.com/

QUOTATIONS

LIFE
"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers,at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."
sT Augustine ~

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PEACE
"Peace we achieve When we do not expect anything from the world, but only give, give, and give Unconditionally what we have and what we are."
sRI cHINMOY ~

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HOPE
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
- Martin lUTHER kING jUNIOR ~~

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LOVE
“Your task is not to seek for love,but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
rUMI ~

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POSSIBILITY
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
sT. fRANCIS OF aSSISI ~

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BELIEF
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."

C. S lEWIS~

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A Way through the Darkness

There is a Power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast--
The desert and illimitable air--
Lone wandering, but not lost.

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He who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.

William Cullen Bryant

Broken shadows of day's best forgotten.

My husband was born in communist Albania 27 years ago.

He remembers queuing with his father at 4 o' clock in the morning for meat, frozen in strorage months before and other essential goods of various kinds. Most mornings he had to queue for something.

People were muted and numbed by the constant background noise of fear. The sounds of which imprisioned people from the inside, with the barb wire of whispers and threats. Much as they were imprisoned on the outside by walls and weapons.

Roads were empty and silent at night.

Even the slate coloured sky seemed to be closing in at times.

Once communisim collapsed the country went into chaos. The economy disolved. The weapons of oppression were handed out to children and men, young and old. Gunshot punctuated the days and nights, turning the sky grey whatever the hour. The people were still not free.

My husband's family lived in the North, near the Kosovan border. Kosovo was largley populated by ethnic Albanians and they had some cousins who lived there so they decided to move away from the violence.

For a sweet breath of month's life seemed good.

Yet their peace did not last.

Soon war would fragment and scatter a familliar pattern of sorrow and loss.

The Kosovan war with Serbia devastated the land and the people who had lived on it.

My husband saw many atrocities as a child.

Old men standing over the bodies of their only children. Shot. In front of them.

Houses burned down with families trapped inside, the sound of screaming rendered almost inaudible by the horror.

Children left without parents or home. Lost, abandoned, laying on dirt.

My husband came to Britain as a refugee not long after.

He came alone. Children were granted asylum quickly in those days.

His parents now live in Albania once more, and their life, though poor is thankfully free from violence and bloodshed.

Many people my husband knew were killed, and there is much he dosen't talk about. Blank spaces, best filled with the future rather than the past.

War, involves children. It is an inescapable fact.

I look at my little girls, Laying peacefully in their beds, and my heart breaks for those children whose childhood's have been brutally torn from them. The children who's parents have been killed and who have no loving arms to console them in the darkness. The children who have been recruited to kill. To become soldiers in a war they are the victims, not the perpetraters of.

I look into the clear blue pools of light that are my 1 year old's eyes. And I pray that know child's eyes should see the red stain of blood. Just the sunlight and the green grass and the water on their toes.

A Prayer for Peace

I'm joining Ginny and Marie

@ http://viewfromthepews.blogspot.com/

In their prayer for peace.

A few little pictures

The Little Flower

She had a childlike faith. Her beautiful and simple love for God has always inspired me.

She is known as "The little Flower" is France, her country of birth. Her devoted and contemplative life as a Carmilte nun has inspired many. To learn more about her life click on the links here http://www.littleflower.org/learn/littleflower.asp

Here are a few wonderful words from Saint Therese of Lisieux.

"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul."

"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."

"Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our father's love — difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs — everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness — Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events — to the heart that loves, all is well."

"Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises, in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles in the way and a host of illusions round about it, my poor little mind soon grows weary, I close the learned book, which leaves my head splitting and my heart parched, and I take the Holy Scriptures. Then all seems luminous, a single word opens up infinite horizons to my soul, perfection seems easy; I see that it is enough to realize one's nothingness, and give oneself wholly, like a child, into the arms of the good God. Leaving to great souls, great minds, the fine books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'."

"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy; in a word, something noble, supernatural, which enlarges my soul and unites it to God.... I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do as a child who has not learned to read, I just tell our Lord all that I want and he understands."

"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."

Prayer of a Child

http://www.spiritualart.com/Fine_Art/PrayerOfaChildSM.jpg

Raised in His Love

"Leaving your baby to cry alone between 4 hour feeding slots, encourages a sense of security to develop by means of a routine.

By relating to and responding to your baby's individual needs you will nurture, her confidence and build a flexible routine that suits both the child and it's parents.

Anthropological study's have revealed that babywearing and co-sleeping is what the human baby expects. To ignore this fact could compromise your child's emotional development."

There are many manuals, many books and much information on the subject of raising children. There are facts, figures and statistics.

There are correlations and contradictions.

But there always seems to be something missing.

Why are we still searching for the best way to raise our children?

It can be so easy to become numb to an overload of information. Besides having four little ones means that there is little time for to much reading anyways.

Probably that is a good thing.

During the times of dischord and anxiety it is all I can do to cling to God in the way that a child clings to a parent. When I am weak he is strong indeed.

I read His word for insight so that I may understand this calling of mine, to be a mummy to four little souls belonging to Him and brought into my life by Him, with more clarity and purpose.

In replacement for my life... the hours and moments of my days, sometimes so fragile, frail and falible there is the sweetest kind of grace. It touches the edges of the quivering morning light, that aches within and embraces all the tears that sting tierd eyes. .

I try to learn from He who is Father to us all.

I pray.

I make so many mistakes. I hold my hands up so many times in error. How can I be responsible for such precious little lives?

But the truth is that these little lives were God's before they were mine.

The way I raise them shouldn't come from books or even my own perspective.

There is a simplicity behind the complexity of ideas, theories and words I think.

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."-JAMES 3:17 (niv)

"Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray."~ Proverbs 22:6

"And, parents, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."~ Ephesians 6:4

"People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."~ Luke 18:15-17

My children teach me to see God's majesty through their wonder filled eyes. A small lense can relflect great things you know.

The miracles of the every day. The sacred moments. The tiny details filled with grace.

Step by step we learn to walk together. We bring eachother toward Him.