I Am Not Afraid

I am not afraid To tell you I prefer to be alone rather than with people

I am not afraid To admit that I love tea...sweetened

I am not afraid Of big grassy fields to run in

I am not afraid To embrace femininity to its fullest.

I am not afraid To walk bare foot.( I know, I stole this one from
Eldarwen, but I liked to much to pass it up.)


I am not afraid Of having the wind in my hair. I don't care if it gets
tangled!

I am not afraid To tell you I love fairy folk, however unreal
they may be

I am not afraid To tell you I am afraid of the wild ocean. I would hate
to swim there.Creeps me out. A lot.

I am not afraid Of reading my Bible (I stole this one too. Sorry Eldarwen!)

I am not afraid To run in the rain


I am not afraid To tell you am actually not as much of a bookworm
anda bit of a slower reader than my sisters...I still LOVE books though!

I am not afraid Of sand in between my toes

I am not afraid To tell you I'm very self conscious

I am not afraid To say I love Forget-me-nots



I am not afraid To say I'd love to dance wildly in the woods

Now I challenge all my followers to find fifteen things they are not afraid to admit
In Christ
Jillian

Gloriously Wasteful

Gloriously wasteful, O my Lord art Thou! ~ George MacDonald

Immortal, invisible,
God only wise,
In light inaccessible
hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious,
the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious,
Thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting,
and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting,
Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice, like mountains,
high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains
of goodness and love.

To all, life Thou givest,
to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest,
the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish
as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish--
but naught changeth Thee.

Great Father of glory,
pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee,
all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render;
O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor
of light hideth Thee.

Who We Pray To

I read this poem the other day that had a helpful reminder to me.

Not in my fancy now I search to find thee;

Not in its loftiest forms would shape and bind thee;

I cry to one whom I can never know,

Filling me with an infinite overflow;

Not to a shape that dwells within my heart,

Clothed in perfections love and truth assign thee,

But to the God thou knowest that thou art.

~George MacDonald

When we pray there is a tendency to create an a idea of the "who" we pray to. We tend to visualize something that our finite minds can grasp: grandfather in the sky, light, empty space, clouds, etc. I am reminded of what Screwtape tells Wormwood in C. S. Lewis's book "The Screwtape Letters."

"If you examine the object to which he[the Christian] is praying you will find it is a composite object containing many quite ridiculous ingredients. I[Screwtape] have known cases where what the [man] called his 'God' was actually located - to the corner of the bedroom ceiling or inside his head. But whatever the nature of the object, keep him[the Christian] praying to it - the thing he has made not the Person who has made him."

Another quote: "May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou who I speak to."

Our finite minds long for something concrete to pray to. But reality is more than fallen man can handle. Another poem I like says,

Eternal light! Eternal light!

How pure the soul must be

When, placed within Thy searching sight,

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live and look on Thee!

Oh how shall I whose native sphere

Is dark,whose mind is dim,

Before the Ineffable appear,

And on my naked spirit bear

That uncreated beam?

~Thomas Binney excerpt from "Eternal Light"

What do we want to know of God? Asking will be difficult and change all preconceived notions. But I would rather pray to the true God than to an image or notion I invent. Because when I pray to who He really is, then I am more effective in promoting His kingdom on earth.

Praying for you all,

Caitlin

I Love This...

"A woman's heart should be so lost in God,
that a man must seek Him in order to find her."

I found this such a great reminder to me.
Isn't it wonderful? Bye for now,
In Christ alone,

Jillian

Movies: Again

For Discussions Abound we will be talking about movies just as in this post that I did a few weeks ago. This time I will be focusing on just one movie, you guessed, it's one from a Charles Dickens Novel! :)
This one is called Little Dorrit,it is a lot like Bleak House with a mystery and all that. Well, it is a mystery, one that kept us all confused till the end.

.

Little Dorrit was born in a debtors prison, and the story starts when she is 21. She is allowed out of prison in the day time, and goes out to look for work to pay for daily survival for her and her father, who is not allowed out of prison. A mysterious lady finds out about her and hires her part time to sew.

But this lady has a secret to do with Little Dorrit.

And sweet "little" Amy Dorrit did not know a thing.

The mystery lady's son, Andrew, fresh back from several years in China, feels
compelled to help the Dorrits. But he has no idea about the secret either.

(I couldn't find any good pictures of him, this one
does not do him justice at all.)His father died in China, and left him
an odd clue that there is even a secret in the first place, a gold watch with
a compartment in the back that
holds a little piece of fabric that says: Do not forget.
Of course, there is a villain, and he is nasty.


Believe me when I say he is the worst villain I have ever seen. And
that is pretty bad. At least I can say he did a good job at acting his part ( this is
the guy who plays Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. Weird, isn't it?)
In the end it plays out an amazing unfolding of secrets with multiple
characters that I have not introduced. Aside from Little Dorrit and Andrew,
my favorite character is good old (rather young) faithful John.
He is so nice! I could only find this tiny picture of him though:


It makes his ears stick out.
A fantastic 7 1/2 hour mini series, we all loved this one, but it is kind of dark
and sometimes gory, the youngest had to close her eyes a couple
of times. It is rather graphic, so I would not recommend for 12 and under.
Well, that is all, so I hope you enjoy this and see the movie soon!
In Christ,
Jillian

Discussions Abound

I'm really sorry that I missed the last two Discussions Abound sessions. I actually have them all written out, but they are just in our draft folder, I have not posted them yet.
This week it is about friendship, I have to go somewhere in 15 minutes so this will be really short. My fingers are typing really fast. :)
I decided to focus this week on something called two faced friends, if you get what I mean by that. I have had a few problems in the past with friends who pretend to be friends but really, they don't want to be around me. I was hurt very much by that, so I would advise never doing it, I'm trying not to sound bossy at all. I have also been a two faced person to a girl who needed a friend, but I really did not like her at all, so I pretended to be nice, and I even called us best friends.

She was so happy.

I was so miserable.

It was really hard going to her afterwards and telling her the truth. She cried, I cried, but I knew I had to do it for her. This was when I was ten or eleven, and I'll try not to do it again. But there are going to be people out there who you will not like. And it will be hard.
I have to get a couple things done before I leave, sorry it was so short. I will post about my awards soon.
In Christ,

Jillian

Stop

Stop. Take a deep breath. Smile. Even giggle. Now don't you feel so much happier?

After a crazy weekend and a 7 mile bike ride this morning, and loads of laundry
to do afterward, this remedy popped into my tired mind, and what do you know...it worked! So I encourage you to try it, even if your life hasn't been hectic lately. Have a nice rest of the day, I know I will! :)

Jillian


"Happiness quite unshared
can scarcely be called happiness;
it has no taste." -
Charlotte Brontë


“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet,
simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
- Laura Ingalls Wilder


"If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery:
if people fret me and the little things of life set me on
edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know
nothing of Calvary's love." ~ Amy Carmichael

Proverbs 17:22
"A Joyful heart is good medicine
But a broken spirit dries up the bones."

The Proper Behavior of a Young Lady

Here is a short list I found and thought it was so good I just had to share it:

The Proper Behavior of a Young Lady

1: In everything she says she must know what she is saying and why.
Proverbs 10:19

2: She must not be afraid to be looked down upon by the world if she knows what she is doing is right.
1 Peter 3:14

3: When she is interacting with those of the opposite gender she should be reserved. Friendly but not flirtatious. Kind but not showing any particular attention.
1 Timothy 5:1-2

4: The music she listens to, the movies she watches, and the books she reads should have some purpose beyond keeping her entertained.
Philippians 4:8

5: She should prepare herself in every way to be a mother and wife, both in the skills she undertakes to learn, and in the guarding of her heart.
Titus 2:5

6: When children are the occupants of her attention she should be good natured, patient, and happy. She should follow their whims, play the games they want to play, and do the things they want to do. Even if they tire her, she must not tire them.
Matthew 19:14

7: When she is alone she must turn her thoughts to God. She must strive to be the young lady who is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. There is no greater goal than this.
Psalm 139:23-24




Jillian