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Tag: love

Fit to be Tied

Fit to be Tied

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Fit to be tied-rope tied into a heart shapeMost of us have occasional fit-to-be-tied moments. We become:

  • Angry
  • Upset
  • Excited

We fly off the handle.

When fit to be tied, we get out of control.

Our emotions grow so great, we need someone to calm us down. No one actually ties us. However, they do try to:

  • Prevent anything we will regret
  • Keep us from hurting ourselves or someone else

We may grow fit to be tied for selfish reasons. 

  • When we don’t get our way
  • If our plans don’t work

We may also grow fit to be tied for unselfish reasons.

  • When someone abuses a child or older adult
  • If someone lies, steals, or hurts people in any other way

Little things often make us fit to be tied.

Some of us deal well with life’s big problems. Yet, we blow off steam when faced with small ones such as:

  • Slow traffic
  • Food spills on a clean floor
  • Noisy neighbors

God gave us emotions.

However, we want to use those emotions for good, not harm. How do we do that?

  • Recognize what upsets us.
  • Remember we can’t control everything.
  • Change what we can.
  • Ask for help when we need it.
  • Focus on what matters most.
  • Ask God to guide us and work through us.
  • Choose to love everyone, including those who make us fit to be tied.

“Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9 HCSB).

Thanks to Pat Stapp for the suggestion.

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Strike While the Iron Is Hot

Strike While the Iron Is Hot

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Strike While the Iron Is Hot-making a horseshoeA blacksmith must strike while the iron is hot. When fire makes iron soft, the blacksmith hits it with his hammer. Only then can he shape it.

If he waits too long, the iron cools. It becomes too hard to shape. He must act quickly – when the time is right.

We must also strike while the iron is hot.

Like farmers who make hay while the sun shines, we act while we have the opportunity. If we wait, we may be too late.

Some tasks wait with no problem (dusting furniture). Others demand immediate attention (hungry children).

Some opportunities come only once. For example, we see people in need we will never see again. With those, we must act quickly.

Relationships matter most.

We often delay caring for people, especially those closest to us.

  • Family
  • Friends
  • Neighbors

We think we have plenty of time. Therefore, we never take the time to keep those relationships strong. As a result, we may lose them.

Remember an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Better to build strong relationships now than have to mend fences later. Look for ways to:

  • Show love.
  • Help one another.
  • Spend time together.
  • Make good memories.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV).

Thanks to Shirley Redding Rice for the suggestion.

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From the Heart

From the Heart

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From the Heart-quilt on a rockerToday’s post comes from the heart. I share it with:

  • Deep feelings
  • Sincere emotions
  • Love for the families I mention

Foster parents share their homes and their hearts.

They care for children who need a temporary home. They help children and families pick up the pieces of their lives.

Foster parents serve from the heart.

They love their children during good times and bad. They celebrate when children do well. They choose to love when children:

  • Reject their love
  • Damage their home
  • Break their hearts with bad choices

Foster parents receive few rewards.

News reports usually tell only bad foster parent stories. They rarely mention the families who give good care. Yet, foster parents continue their labor of love anyway.

My parents provided foster care several years. I worked with foster families almost 30 years. I saw their love and shared their hurt.

When I retired, foster parents gave me this quilt from their hearts. I recently wrote about it for Kentucky Living magazine.

When you see foster parents, thank them from your heart for:

  • Caring
  • Sharing
  • Giving
  • Healing

Happy Valentine’s Day to families who make our world a better place.

“Love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22 NIV).

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Labor of Love

Labor of Love

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Labor of Love--university students around a dinner tableSome work we love. Some work we hate. Much work we do as a labor of love.

A labor of love means a job with no pay or bad pay.

Yet we do the work because we:

  • Want to help someone we love
  • Enjoy it

The job pays us in pleasure rather than money.

Labors of love for me include:

  • Cooking
  • Writing
  • Teaching Sunday school

I have never been paid to cook. Most people would not hire me. I cook because my family, friends, and I get hungry. For years I hated the job. Yet, I learned to like being chief cook and bottle washer. Now, watching people enjoy my meals gives me great pleasure. I want to follow in the footsteps of some of my favorite cooks.

 If I counted the hours I write, my pay would fall far below minimum wage. I occasionally write for no pay, if I believe in an organization’s work. I love writing better than I love eating chocolate. Believe me, that is amazing.

Teaching middle-school girls gives me more joy than receiving a paycheck. Most people do everything they can to avoid that age. Yet, I look forward to time with my girls every Sunday morning. I have known some of them since they were knee high to a grasshopper.

What about you? What are your labors of love? Please comment below.

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV).

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You Can’t Unscramble Eggs

You Can’t Unscramble Eggs

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You Can't Unscramble Eggs--Sue Davis PottsPlease welcome my friend Sue Davis Potts as today’s guest writer. Sue and I met at Kentucky Christian Writers Conference. She has been writing as long as she can remember. In addition to her two books, Sue writes for several magazines and anthologies.  Check out her website and blog, Potts Pages, for more details.

Sometimes we wish we could undo what we have done. However, not everything can be undone. Scrambled eggs are one of those things. No matter how much we want to, we can’t unscramble eggs.

You Can't Unscramble EggsSome things can’t be undone.

  • Broken egg shells can’t be put back together.
  • Mixed egg yolk and white can’t be unmixed.
  • Cooked eggs can’t be uncooked.

In cooking, scramble means mixed together. It also means to hurry. It doesn’t take long to scramble eggs that can’t be unscrambled.

When we hurry, sometimes we do things that can’t be undone.

  • Say angry words
  • Hurt feelings
  • Break trust

Our words can hurt people’s feelings. They may forgive us. Yet, they may feel sad or bad about themselves when they remember our words.

If we always hurry, we may not have time to keep our promises. This will make it hard for others to trust us.

God doesn’t want our lives to get so scrambled (in a hurry), that we hurt others.

He wants us to:

  • Take time to love others
  • Encourage others with our words

Then we won’t wish we could undo what we’ve done.

“Careless words stab like a sword, but wise words bring healing” (Proverbs 12:18 NCV).

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Knee High to a Grasshopper

Knee High to a Grasshopper

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Knee High to a GrasshopperMany of us love spending time with children who are knee high to a grasshopper. They are:

  • Small
  • Short
  • Still growing
  • So cute

We enjoy children’s smallness. Yet, we don’t like to feel small.

Most of us have moments we feel knee high to a grasshopper.

Because grasshoppers are so small, they appear unimportant. People pay little attention to them. Sometimes we feel unimportant. We think no one pays attention to us either. Other people appear:

  • Smarter
  • Better looking
  • More talented

We feel like low man on the totem pole.

We also feel small compared to the size of our world. How tiny we look compared to:

  • Mountains
  • Oceans
  • The sky

In addition, we feel small when we have done something wrong. We think we are:

  • Guilty
  • Worthless
  • Hopeless

Although small, both children and grasshoppers make a big difference.

 Children teach us to:

  • Have fun
  • Love
  • Trust
  • Learn

Grasshoppers destroy much we need or enjoy:

  • Gardens
  • Fields
  • Flowers

Regardless of our size, we all make a difference.

Therefore, what kind of difference will we make? Will we spread joy like children? Or will we destroy what we touch like grasshoppers?

God created our world and everything in it. Compared to God’s greatness, we all appear knee high to a grasshopper. Yet, God desires a personal relationship with each of us. How great is that?

“When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made, and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them?” (Psalm 8:3-4 NET)

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Poor as a Church Mouse

Poor as a Church Mouse

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Poor as a Church Mouse--mouse on a fenceIf we are poor as a church mouse, we are the poorest of the poor.

We own almost nothing.

Years ago, few churches had kitchens. Therefore, if a mouse lived in a church, it had little to eat. A child might drop crumbs from a snack. Yet, that would not last long. The poor mouse might starve.

We may have times poor as a church mouse. We may also have times rich as a king.

Our happiness does not depend on what we own.

We can be poor as church mice and happy. We make do.

We can also live high on the hog, and be unhappy.

Money matters little for true meaning in life.

We find real wealth in:

  • Peace in our souls
  • Purpose for living
  • Love for God and one another
  • Hope for the future
  • Joy for every day
  • Sharing what we have with those in need

We can’t take it with us when we die. So, why not put what we own to good use now?

“Better to be poor and honest than rich and a cheater” (Proverbs 28:6 TLB).

Thanks to Debbie Tapscott for the suggestion.

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Rain or Shine

Rain or Shine

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Rain or Shine: cloudy sky over Niagara FallsThe old song “Come Rain or Come Shine” promises love that lasts forever. Nothing will stop it.

That is the kind of love I want to receive. It is also the kind of love I want to give.

Puppy love is not enough

Rain or shine means we will do what we say:

Regardless of the weather:

  • Rain
  • Sunshine
  • Snow
  • Wind
  • Storms

Regardless of finances:

  • Rich
  • Poor
  • Everything in between

No matter what happens, we will be as good as our word.

Nothing will keep us from doing what we say we will do.

Sadly, we don’t always keep our commitments. Many of us keep commitments most of the time. A few of us almost never keep them.

However, if we place our trust in Jesus, we have a friend who will always do what He says He will do, rain or shine.

“Let us acknowledge the Lord … As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3 NIV).

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

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Heart of Gold

Heart of Gold

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Heart of Gold--a gold heartDo you know people who have a heart of gold? Why not honor them this Valentine’s Day?

I know most people think of romantic love on Valentine’s Day. So do I. Yet, why not show other kinds of love as well? I don’t know of any rule against that.

 People with a heart of gold give often.

They also give much. They are:

  • Kind
  • Friendly
  • Honest
  • Good natured

They give of themselves.

People with a heart of gold think of others before themselves.

They sometimes give away what they need, no strings attached. They love other people that much. Plus, they care for strangers as well as friends and family.

People with a heart of gold make good role models.

Think how wonderful the world would be if everyone showed that kind of love.

People value gold for its goodness.

Why not show caring people they are valued for their goodness too?

  • Thank them for their loving hearts.
  • Give them something they need or want
  • Give a gift to charity in their honor.
  • Hug them.
  • Take them to dinner.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 NIV).

Who do you know with a heart of gold?

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

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In a Nutshell

In a Nutshell

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In a Nutshell--a cluster of pecansNot much fits in a nutshell.

Look at the size of pecans, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, or any other nut. Little fits in the shell other than a nut.

Few written words would fit in a nutshell. Therefore, when we ask for information in a nutshell, we want that information:

  • Short
  • Simple
  • Easy to understand

In a Nutshell 3--shelled nutsWe find the most important part in a nutshell.

The shell is useful. Yet, most of us throw away an empty shell. We want the best – that little bit of nut inside.

The same is true for our words. Why use 50 words when we can say what matters most with five? We want the main point – the bottom line.

Too many words put us to sleep or make us tired. If we don’t need them, why use them?

Of course, we sometimes want more detail.

  • We read or talk for fun.
  • We need to learn all we can about a subject.
  • A small amount of information makes us desire more.

Jesus’ message to the world, in a nutshell, is:

  • Love God.
  • Love one another.

To learn more about that message, we read the Bible.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27 NIV).

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

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