Is Someone Paying Attention?

The confusion and turmoil of [Earth] do not signify that the paradise Rulers lack either interest or ability to manage affairs differently. The Creators are possessed of full power to make [Earth]a veritable paradise, but such an Eden would not contribute to the development of those strong, noble, and experienced characters which the Gods are so surely forging out on your world between the anvils of necessity and the hammers of anguish. Your anxieties and sorrows, your trials and disappointments, are just as much a part of the divine plan on your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and infinite adaptation of all things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of the central and perfect universe. [258:4]

Lacking Wisdom?

I couldn't resist, it's one of my favorite scriptures...

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men, generously, without reproach, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)

Even though I rarely find anything by the particular artist, on the right, that I like, it's eye catching. I'm far more partcial to the charcoal on the left.

Love

This was a little more "religiousy" than I think I'm willing to admit....perhaps I should rethink whether or not I post it. Well, here goes.

"Religious insight possesses the power of turning defeat into higher desires and new determinations. Love is the highest motivation which man may utilize in his universe ascent. But love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception. Love must always be redefined on successive levels of morontia and spirit progression.
Art results from man's attempt to escape from the lack of beauty in his material environment; it is a gesture toward the morontia level. Science is man's effort to solve the apparent riddles of the material universe. Philosophy is man's attempt at the unification of human experience. Religion is man's supreme gesture, his magnificent reach for final reality, his determination to find God and to be like him.
In the realm of religious experience, spiritual possibility is potential reality. Man's forward spiritual urge is not a psychic illusion. All of man's universe romancing may not be fact, but much, very much, is truth.
Some men's lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness.
Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail."

Friendship, Again

Did you ever encounter someone that you wanted to know? Someone who impressed you. Who inspired you. Did you ever have the desire to be friendly with them, yet lack the courage to attempt an interaction?

I did. I wonder, how do you make friends?

Religious Musing

I am, by no stretch of the imagination, a perfect person. This is just a place that I can put my religious thought on "paper".

People are critical of what they don't know, of what seems new or strange to them. And I am certainly not immune to or innocent of criticism. I have my days. Generally when I am frustrated or angry with an idea, a group of people, or a situation. Today, it's an individual.

I have a wonderful neighbor who comes to visit once a month. She brings a companion with her and we chat for an hour or so and then they share their religious thoughts and go home. I am not on the same religious page as they are, but I think that the more important part of my interaction is to find what we have in common.

This month, with the observant Christian holiday, it was Jesus. Apropos. And I can agree with much of what they share. I think we fail to do that where I make my habitat. We spend so much time trying to prove our own point of view, we fail to see what we share. In this case, Jesus. One of my heros.

I enjoyed the visit and I look forward to the next visit. They should feel comfortable sharing with me without the fear of ridicule or sidling. I only wish that it were the same in all similar situations. Arrogance, pretension, disdain and disgust are difficult things to disguise. I've yet to encounter someone who is good at hiding conceit to an others idea or belief when they refuse to find what is common. And it's a terrible, degrading feeling to be benefactor of such behavior.

My religion was recently criticized, albeit wrapped and encircled in articulate and fancy verbiage. Critical none the less. It was unfortunate criticism. Delivered without the least bit of understanding or prior knowledge. It was, criticism at its worst. Given with sting, bite and without solution or reason. It was a judgement without any understanding, without any knowing of my religion. It was a back door indictment, delivered with a smug toss of the nose.
I choose not to be in the company of such individuals. Bitter, doesn't taste good. And you, your religion, your religious beliefs, your situation, your intelligence....are not better than me. We are, all of us, a work in progress. If you can't dig dirt like the rest of us, we don't need your help. Well, I think I feel better.

Religious Musings

This profound experience of the reality of the divine indwelling forever transcends the crude materialistic technique of the physical sciences. You cannot put spiritual joy under a microscope; you cannot weigh love in a balance; you cannot measure moral values; neither can you estimate the quality of spiritual worship.
The Hebrews had a religion of moral sublimity; the Greeks evolved a religion of beauty; Paul and his conferees founded a religion of faith, hope, and charity. Jesus revealed and exemplified a religion of love: security in the Father's love, with joy and satisfaction consequent upon sharing this love in the service of the human brotherhood.
Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total objectivity--the universe and its Maker.
The exquisite and transcendent experience of loving and being loved is not just a psychic illusion because it is so purely subjective. The one truly divine and objective reality that is associated with mortal beings, the Thought Adjuster, functions to human observation apparently as an exclusively subjective phenomenon. Man's contact with the highest objective reality, God, is only through the purely subjective experience of knowing him, of worshiping him, of realizing sonship with him.
True religious worship is not a futile monologue of self-deception. Worship is a personal communion with that which is divinely real, with that which is the very source of reality. Man aspires by worship to be better and thereby eventually attains the best.
The idealization and attempted service of truth, beauty, and goodness is not a substitute for genuine religious experience--spiritual reality. Psychology and idealism are not the equivalent of religious reality. The projections of the human intellect may indeed originate false gods--gods in man's image--but the true God-consciousness does not have such an origin. The God-consciousness is resident in the indwelling spirit. Many of the religious systems of man come from the formulations of the human intellect, but the God-consciousness is not necessarily a part of these grotesque systems of religious slavery.
God is not the mere invention of man's idealism; he is the very source of all such superanimal insights and values. God is not a hypothesis formulated to unify the human concepts of truth, beauty,

Fact, Truth, Religion

In close analysis of ancient and modern modes of religion, I often wonder about the bold proclamations of truth. Ancient truths, modern truths, and who really possess it. Or, do they?

"Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind."

Perhaps in the perpetual quest to "know" it, truth that is, we find ourselves lost amid the clamor and claim of our religions and deaf to the truth. An insightful friend poignantly illuminated a flaw in the religion that surrounds me. She compared it to the best of theories, they work beautifully on paper, but never in reality. And why is that? Because, we are human, and we are fallible. A wonder compilation of imperfect wonder.

We would all like to believe that our religious choice is THE religious choice. The one true religion on the earth. But, it can't be. Each has something special and unique. But none is so perfect that any and all flock to it. Our resistance to do so leads me to believe that no what the mecca, the history, divine restoration, revelation or the keys one claims to posses, your personal revelation is not my prophetic epiphany. Your religious leader does not hold the divine answer to all that is. Religion is, at the end of the day, a choice. If you choose to believe it is your personal reality. I respect and honor that. I just wonder, why is the respect never returned?

Wealth

This was part of what I read this morning in scripture...It made me think. I thought I would share.

When Matadormus heard this, his countenance fell. He arose and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. This wealthy young Pharisee had been raised to believe that wealth was the token of God's favor. Jesus knew that he was not free from the love of himself and his riches. The Master wanted to deliver him from the love of wealth, not necessarily from the wealth. While the disciples of Jesus did not part with all their worldly goods, the apostles and the seventy did. Matadormus desired to be one of the seventy new messengers, and that was the reason for Jesus' requiring him to part with all of his temporal possessions.
Almost every human being has some one thing which is held on to as a pet evil, and which the entrance into the kingdom of heaven requires as a part of the price of admission. If Matadormus had parted with his wealth, it probably would have been put right back into his hands for administration as treasurer of the seventy. For later on, after the establishment of the church at Jerusalem, he did obey the Master's injunction, although it was then too late to enjoy membership in the seventy, and he became the treasurer of the Jerusalem church, of which James the Lord's brother in the flesh was the head.
Thus always it was and forever will be: Men must arrive at their own decisions. There is a certain range of the freedom of choice which mortals may exercise. The forces of the spiritual world will not coerce man; they allow him to go the way of his own choosing.
Jesus foresaw that Matadormus, with his riches, could not possibly become an ordained associate of men who had forsaken all for the gospel; at the same time, he saw that, without his riches, he would become the ultimate leader of all of them. But, like Jesus' own brethren, he never became great in the kingdom
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because he deprived himself of that intimate and personal association with the Master which might have been his experience had he been willing to do at this time the very thing which Jesus asked, and which, several years subsequently, he actually did.
Riches have nothing directly to do with entrance into the kingdom of heaven, but the love of wealth does. The spiritual loyalties of the kingdom are incompatible with servility to materialistic mammon. Man may not share his supreme loyalty to a spiritual ideal with a material devotion.
Jesus never taught that it was wrong to have wealth. He required only the twelve and the seventy to dedicate all of their worldly possessions to the common cause. Even then, he provided for the profitable liquidation of their property, as in the case of the Apostle Matthew. Jesus many times advised his well-to-do disciples as he taught the rich man of Rome. The Master regarded the wise investment of excess earnings as a legitimate form of insurance against future and unavoidable adversity. When the apostolic treasury was overflowing, Judas put funds on deposit to be used subsequently when they might suffer greatly from a diminution of income. This Judas did after consultation with Andrew. Jesus never personally had anything to do with the apostolic finances except in the disbursement of alms. But there was one economic abuse which he many times condemned, and that was the unfair exploitation of the weak, unlearned, and less fortunate of men by their strong, keen, and more intelligent fellows. Jesus declared that such inhuman treatment of men, women, and children was incompatible with the ideals of the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven.

Opine

Everyone has an opinion. I don't know that I ever lacked one. I was just encouraged not to share it. I oft wonder if that was due to my gender, the religious expectations set upon me, or just that my Father wanted me withhold my effervescence. Could be a combination of all three.

I am, as of late, surrounded by quite the abundance of opinion. And, I've learned over the years, that keeping one's council is probably the best course of action. In polite conversation one does not engage another in certain topics. The current debates being just such types of topic.

While I was averse to lend my thoughts, it seemed that no one around me was thus. Everyone wanted to share what they thought and I found myself listening to some interesting conversations. My most frequent thought being, "Who told you this?"

We all seem to speak with such authority on matters that, in reality, we have no quality information on to begin with. We ascribe to unknown authority to shore up claims that we've only heard; from the neighbor, our clergy, a colleague or a magazine or news paper. Yet, none of us really knows. Not for certain. How you translate or interpret is not necessarily correct.

In such quandaries, I sometimes choose to consult a trusted friend. I know that responses are well thought, deliberate and not without research. Even if it includes the elusiveness of scripture. He may not be right, but his words are always food for thought. I am fond of repeating a line that he shared with me some fifteen years ago as we discussed our religions interpretation of a subject that was not shared by academia. He said, "It is often hard to admit, that your revelation, is not my prophecy." Difficult as it may seem, what is given to us in revelation by one deemed "prophet" is not always prophecy. Good advice is different from direct instruction.

To true. What is revealed to one, is not direction for me. A difficult thing to admit, especially when voting. Voting for laws, legislation or politicians who do not share a view point. What I believe is good for me, may not suit the masses. Armed with this idea I voted contrary to what many would have believed was best. I encouraged loved ones in other States to vote contrary to what they may believe. Because the Doctor was, and still is right. How you live your life, does not determine my path to salvation.

Do I like it? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. I've yet to find the wrong answer when led by God, though. It is thus, I don't think you should engage in relations outside of marriage. If you do, and you find yourself with an unwanted, unplanned pregnancy, then you are at liberty to terminate that pregnancy. I think that's wrong. But, just as God gave me the free-agency to choose, so he gave you. You will have to live with the consequences, not me. And I do not think, beyond counseling you to choose otherwise, that a governmental system is set in place to enforce my way of thinking.

There are many issues that we saw on ballots across the country that could be placed in just such a context. They make us sad, angry, uncomfortable, queasy. Again, bodily response may be your revelation, but it is not mine. Aristotle had it right, "The law is reason free from passion." And my savior said it best "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

In the days that followed some ballot decisions, the most poignant sound bite? "Get your church, out of my State." Hear, hear!!

Friendship

The enhanced defense against all evil. Personality association and mutual affection is an efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow, disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when borne alone. Association does not transmute evil into righteousness, but it does aid in greatly lessening the sting. Said your Master, "Happy are they who mourn"--if a friend is at hand to comfort. There is positive strength in the knowledge that you live for the welfare of others, and that these others likewise live for your welfare and advancement. Man languishes in isolation. Human beings unfailingly become discouraged when they view only the transitory transactions of time. The present, when divorced from the past and the future, becomes exasperatingly trivial. Only a glimpse of the circle of eternity can inspire man to do his best and can challenge the best in him to do its utmost. And when man is thus at his best, he lives most unselfishly for the good of others, his fellow sojourners in time and eternity.

Know Thyself

Do you really understand yourself? And in that exploration, do you come to the knowledge that what you are is an emulation of fabrication? We are social fabrications. Veneers of what we think everyone around us wants to see and believe. Insidious behavior if you really think about it. Essentially we are an intellectual and outward lie. I see myself surrounded by this. I find that I want to hide from it. I know where I can run....

"The more completely man understands himself and appreciates the personality values of his fellows, the more he will crave to know the Original Personality, and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human will strive to become like the Original Personality. You can argue over opinions about God, but experience with him and in him exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes his spiritual experiences, not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and mutual satisfaction of believers."

Successful Living

Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step in the solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, and frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that, when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them. Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails the reduction of our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of deep-seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of security. Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers.

Ever on a Learned Path

Though I may read the words, again and again, I've yet to grasp and fully

under-

stand, that which my Father would have me know.....

"The pride of unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner."

"The source of universe reality is the Infinite. The material things of finite creation are the time-space repercussions of the Paradise Pattern and the Universal Mind of the eternal God. Causation in the physical world, self-consciousness in the intellectual world, and progressing selfhood in the spirit world÷these realities, projected on a universal scale, combined in eternal relatedness, and experienced with perfection of quality and divinity of value÷constitute the reality of the Supreme. But in an ever-changing universe the Original Personality of causation, intelligence, and spirit experience is changeless, absolute. All things, even in an eternal universe of limitless values and divine qualities, may, and oftentimes do, change except the Absolutes and that which has attained the physical status, intellectual embrace, or spiritual identity which is absolute."

"Error (evil) is the penalty of imperfection. The qualities of imperfection or facts of misadaptation are disclosed on the material level by critical observation and by scientific analysis; on the moral level, by human experience. The presence of evil constitutes proof of the inaccuracies of mind and the immaturity of the evolving self. Evil is, therefore, also a measure of imperfection in universe interpretation. The possibility of making mistakes is inherent in the acquisition of wisdom, the scheme of progressing from the partial and temporal to the complete and eternal, from the relative and imperfect to the final and perfected. Error is the shadow of relative incompleteness which must of necessity fall across man's ascending universe path to Paradise perfection. Error (evil) is not an actual universe quality; it is simply the observation of a relativity in the relatedness of the imperfection of the incomplete finite to the ascending levels of the Supreme and Ultimate."

Tomorrow is another day. I will try again.

Growth

Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man may manufacture a machine, but its real value must be derived from human culture and personal appreciation. Man's sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality -- living faith.

Setting Sun

This evening was particularly beautiful, one that must be shared.

Favorite Read

One of my favorite books. It brings me a sense of peace and knowing of my Savior. Incomparable Jesus, by Grant Palmer.

Age and Wisdom

With age, comes wisdom. I contemplate that concept occasionally, most frequently as I near that date when I mark my birth. As I gain a year, one at time, I wait for that moment when I can feel that experience has granted me wisdom. But, this wisdom eludes me. I can not seem to get it right. What I perceive the world expects from me is the ability to get it right. And, to get it right the first time.

I observe the simple, genuine souls that occupy the pews each week in service, I listen to those that I socialize with, those that I converse with in my daily routines and I wonder about this idea, wisdom. I've encountered far more in my short life who age and never find wisdom, than those who seem to have acquired it.

Pop-pop frequently tells me, "the wisest man at the table, is often the quietest." Daddy tells me that "If you've nothing kind to say, then hold your tongue." And, I believe that it is true, "A wise man keeps his own counsel." The Lord tells me, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, who give to all men, generously without reproaching, and it will be given him." James 1:5

I'm asking....maybe I lack the ability to hear His words. “7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. " Matthew 7: 7-8. My knuckles are bloody and swollen, my knees worn out. I think I'm doing it wrong....

God Country

Attitude of gratitude. I give thanks everyday for what I am blessed with. I pass this farm every morning when I go running. Some days I lack the adage, the verbiage, the semantic skills to express what this sight does for my spirit. Thus, I can only say, thank-you.

Faith and Belief

John asked Jesus, "Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus answered: "The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God -- to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation."

Trust

We place a tremendous amount of trust in those around us. And sometimes we place trust in those that we find, only to late, should never have been granted such a precious thing.

I often include the men and women who help our little ward to function, in my prayers, that they will have the strength and wisdom to make it through each struggle or challenge they may face in positions of leadership they agree to perform. Especially when they must maintain decorum that can at times, be so very stressful and diffucult to keep to themselves.

I am grateful to those in these positions that I can confide in most of them without worry. My trust was recently violated by one that has been in and out of such positions in church. I ask the Lord to help me understand the lesson He has for me today, knowing that information I allowed this individual to have, was inappropriately shared and discussed with whomever seemed willing to listen. And in this persons haste to share, rumors and gossip have negatively impacted me, my children and so many others.

I look to the Lord, my knees worn out with prayer, what is the lesson? How do I amend, repair, soothe those affected by the damage?

Family

It is one of our "motto's" so to speak. Families are Forever. And there are times when that thought brings such peace and comfort to me. Especially on such trying days as today.

I could not make it without the unconditional, non judgemental love and acceptance of family. Today, as I say my prayers, I thank the Lord for those in my life that are family. My tears of frustration and bewilderment overcame me and the children hugged me, my dear husband soothed my fears and God gave me a gentle reminder that he could see the intentions of my heart. Family is, the most important thing that we have been gifted on this earth. I only hope that I can be a true help to my own family first, and to those that need help keeping their families together.

Inspiration

Sunrise never ceases to amaze me, especially from my own window.

A Living Prayer

One of my favorite songs....

My Quiet Prayer

Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, and in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I wish that I could post the music, it calms me and reminds me daily what my focus should be.

The Adversary's Plan

Growing up can be confusing. I watch my little ones and hope that the obstacles I faced will not be similar obstacles in their own lives. I hope they pick new obstacles, for none of us can really hope to grow without conflict.

"And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet— "D&C 29:39

"In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him." Ecclesiastes 7:14

I was privileged to enjoy an afternoon with a good friend. She shared with me the happenings in her life; the good, the bad, the ugly. The argument with her sister seem to give her the most trouble and concern. This prompted a discussion about the challenges we face as our children grow and become adolescents and adults. She expressed concern that her sister was holding on to tight, increasing her "grip", as her teens entered into early adulthood. I wondered aloud if this could be her sisters fear of letting go. She responded that she felt it was more than that, she felt that her sister wanted control over her kids and that she justified it by saying that their eternal salvation was at stake.

That's a hard one to discuss with a parent. I didn't have an answer. I offered that we could venture back to college and ask our favorite professor....(she and I met in college and have the same degree.) She smiled. She knows this gentleman in her personal life. Fortuitous thing. He is in the Stake Presidency and in fact, she had inquired of him if he had any advice. He is a tremendous, insightful individual and he is a therapist and a teaches at the University level.

I was curious what he had to say and she relayed this story. He was working with a couple some years ago in private practice. This couple was having problems with one of their teenage sons. They had taken very invasive action. They restricted his coming and going, monitored his friends, supervised many of his activities and didn't allow him a lot of unsupervised time. I commented at this point in the story and said it sounded more like a steel straight jacket. My friend laughed and said that I needed to hear what the therapist/professor suggested. These parents, like many of us, were concerned for this child's eternal salvation. He ask them to consider one thing, what would the adversary do? What was the adversary's plan?

I smiled at this point, I knew the end of the story. The parents finally understood that they needed to allow the walls to come down. They needed to be more flexible, for the adversary's plan in the pre-exsistence was to make all the choices and decisions for us. "Leave all the glory to me", he said. The Lord saw different, "let them decide, and leave all the glory to them."

I can't anticipate what troubles my children will face, but I pray that I can be strong and flexible and be their lighthouse. I know they will make decisions that I do not like. Some may even frighten and worry me, but I have to believe that I have lead them well and given them the right tools to make the best decisions. The Lord has given us free agency, I have to trust Him.

I'll keep praying. And, I try to remember that backseat driver....

The Lord's Plan

What a wonderful weekend to celebrate our countries birthday. We spent the morning in services. Today is fast Sunday, so Sacrament Meeting was filled with heartfelt expressions gratitude from the ward.

After church we met at Great Gran's for afternoon dinner. At 94, she gets to choose the location of our gathering. Being that Rose, her ever present neighbor, is out of town, she can't drive herself, so we drive to her. The valley is so green this year and the weather has been so mild. We are all thankful that the combination has made growing conditions perfect. It seemed that as we celebrated Friday night, the relief could be felt throughout the crowd, and it makes the drive to Parker just gorgeous.

We got into a heartfelt discussion about how lucky we all are, after dinner. Robert ask Gran what she was most grateful for at 94. In her spitfire fashion she said, "A whole lot, but most especially that I can still get to the bathroom in the morning." We all love Gran. You never wonder what she's thinking. She just says it out loud. But, after we all settled down she piped up again, "Robert," she said "today I'm grateful for the Lord's plan for me. And I'm glad it isn't your plan." Robert laughed and said that he didn't think he could be as insightful as the Lord. Gran looked at him and said, "No, Robert. What I mean is, your plan is different from my plan. And mine is different from Sarah's. In his wisdom, He's made each of us unique. And each of our earthly plans unique. He doesn't make mistakes, Robert." I patted her hand and said, "Gran, I wish He'd write them down for us." She chuckled and talked for a few more minutes and then we got into stories of growing up. But, I can't help thinking, my Great Gran is the smartest woman I know.

Line Upon Line

A perfect plan. It's what we know that Lord has for us when we begin our journeys here on earth. But what brings us to our different places and circumstances? Given the opportunity to "choose", why are some of us gifted with a wealth of opportunity and good fortune, while others seem to be set into worlds of inequity?
The human experience is a strange accumulation of what we are born with and what the world presents to us. It is what we do with all of this that determines many of our outcomes. Societies, cultures and family units provide us with schema that then determine our interpretations of reality. If you don't know what something is, can you miss it? If something or someone was never apart of you world, is your life 'lacking'?

It's been almost 20 years since I sat in wheel chair with the boy in that picture at my side. I sang the prophetic words in the song "Line Upon Line", with all my heart. But I had to grow up to understand what the words meant. Oh so true,

"Your problem is that, you want all the answers at once. Excuse the
example, but, Sir Galahad didn't find the Holy Grail in one
afternoon...

Line upon line, precept on precept
That is how He lifts us
That is how He teaches His children.

Line upon line, precept on precept
Like a summer shower
Giving us each hour His wisdom.
If we are patient we shall see
How the pieces fit together in harmony.
We'll know who we are in this big universe
And then we'll live with Him forever!

Line upon line, precept on precept
That is how He lifts us
That is how He teaches His children.
Line upon line, precept on precept
Like a summer shower
Giving us each hour His wisdom.

It's like, watching the stars
appear at night. First, just one little light
shines over there in the
western sky. And, then another, and another, until
finally...Well look for
yourself Jimmy. A whole, wonderful, blazing universe. And it began with just one
little star.

I still have a problem with that patience thing.