Author: Elizabeth W. Marshall

Always Remember To Call On Joy

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

Don’t forget to invite Joy to your next gathering.

You will be so glad you did.

She’ll bring her belly laughes, her love and outstretched arms.

She’ll brighten up the places which felt a little dark and sad.

She will shine friendship all over the room and sprinkle like confetti her glad heart.

Don’t forget to ask her to bring her friends Grace and Goodness.

They really light up the room with their gracious goodness.

“Proverbs 3:14 She’s worth far more than money in the bank; her friendship is better than a big salary.

Dd Do a  favor and win a friend forever; nothing can untie that bond — Provers 18:19

Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family. — Proverbs 18:24

And if you ask her to come you won’t regret it.

Not even one little bit.

She will roll out the red carpet and shower the day with her silly laughter. And delight will  rule the day.

Don’t be surprised if she brings gifts and radiant smiles and encouragement along for the ride.

And abundant, gracious hospitality will likely come with her.  That Joy.

She never disappoints.  She is a girls best friend when life bumps and bruises.

  She will bring Encouragement and Celebration along, if you will just graciously allow her some  room to spread out and spread her Glory.

Delight in her always.  She is a Joy to have around.

She’ll help you celebrate the life of friends, the gift of friends, and the precious goodness of life with friends.

And you’ll never want the party to end, once  she lights up the room , that Joy with her amazing power to heal and bring blessing.

Every bite of food and sip of drilnk will be enhanced by her presence.

And you will feel loved, cherished and embraced by the warmth of her sweet sweet spirit.

For more beauty and joy click on the link below for some Joy notes.

Wishing you a joyous week,

wynnegraceappears

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Three’s Company – A Momma, A Girl, and Our God

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 2 Comments

Psalm 19:1 – God’s Glory is on tour in the skies, God-crafted on exhibit across the horizon.”

Psalm 19:7-  The revelation of GOD is  whole and pulls our lives together.  The signposts of GOD are clear and point out the right road.

Psalm 98:1 – Sing to GOD a brand-new song.  He’s made a world of wonders! He rolled up his sleeves, He set things right.


We are traveling back from a short but action filled mother daughter time away.
Weary and in need of rest we hunger for home and all that is to us.
Comfort, nourishment, routine, fellowship, strength of my husband, the love of her dad.
These blessings are miles away but we are journey weary and fatigued. We feel far away from home and on empty.

I am in need of being awakened by Beauty.

So God infuses His wonder, His presence and a distinct double rainbow in the Heavens.

I am awakened by Beauty.

I am restored for the rest of the journey.

When God’s presence is so raw and real and felt, don’t we wake up in a new and fresh way.

What an amazing way of  speaking to us.

We laugh about that pot of gold at the end of this bow of beauty and name the irony of it being Saint Patricks Day.  We need rest and a beauty moment so we pull off the main road, down a chocolate brown country side road and get out and gaze over emerald green farm land. One mother, one daughter, and one amazing Creator God.

She records.  I record.

The single glorious bow of color and majesty whispered to us, wooed us, to turn off the road. To soak in this gift.  His gift.

And  then the double appeared.  She shouts, its a double rainbow.

Our tired tanks, depleted by life and travel are filled with His Glory.  He restores.

And He always does.  He knows us so well.  Our needs, our hearts desires, the cry of our spirit out to Him.

What started out as a journey home will now be tagged and labeled as the time we saw the double rainbow.  God marked and God painted moments owning the day.

What others have I missed, those days he marked with beauty that I didn’t catch or see or mark.

What other moments did he lay before me to minister into or speak into or be present in that I simply fell asleep at the wheel.

Grateful for this one.  Keenly looking for all that He has laid out like precious jewels in our path.  Simply, wondrously, colorfully speaking to us in Love and with Goodness all these days of our lives.

In my sanctified imagination this seemed like a moment for me so perfectly timed.  BUT he loves us all so much it had to be for His whole world, for all of creation, for all of His children to see and soak in.

My pictures are so lacking in His spectacular gift.  But sharing with you all amplifies the moment, and increases the beauty.

Thank you for reading.  You humble me.

Mark His Beauty all around.  To Him be praise and glory

Thanking him for  all that He gives and counting gifts (but not often as I should) with Ann Voskamp over at A Holy Experience, author of 1000 Gifts ( click on her link over to the right under Blogroll)

*Dreaming with my daughter of a prom dress that frames her beautiful spirit and is “just perfect”

*Thanking Him for the precious young man who asked her.  Praying God’s blessing on budding relationships.

*Thanking Him for fun in defeat, laughter in the face of fleeting victory.

*Home Sweet Sweet Home and Sunday worship, Sunday quiet, and Sunday family time

*Purple wisteria on slate gray vines dangling their bounty down country roads

*A double rainbow over an emerald green field.

*The first words from my 17 year old when I walked in the door.  Precious and full of love. A true gift.

*Watching his eyes as he listened to the sermon today, listening to him praying The Lord’s Prayer

Enjoy this beautiful film.  Creator God is worthy of Praise.

blur of beauty

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 2 Comments

Wrapped in covering, wrapped in warmth, weary.

So weary with Day all spent,  little left, like lent covered coin in pocket corner.

The all thats left, all that remains is worn and small.

So fragile with fatigue.  Fragile with the blur of day.

We sit at headboard posts like guards to the castle, like judge to his court.

Needing wisdom of Solomon. For him.

Moments for teaching arrive at going on the midnight hour.

So pressing, so looming so in need of Creator God. For him.

We speak what we know, we temper and cool the emotions that cry out.

And we hear blurs of beauty, faint whispers of beauty. From him.

Parent ears know the sound.

Count the small victory in the heat of battle.

The rest we now take, not on laurels but on His Grace.

And sweet sleep comes and restores a bit, but not in full.

So much life pours into parenting bedside at night. Battle weary we.

Talk of charachter and patience and the right thing and all such.

Morning comes with fresh beauty, freshly brewed grace.

Always the surprise, the element of, no plot designer can out design His hand on lives.

She texts her JOY from school.  It megaphone screams restoration and awesome wonder.

I tell her my spirit cries with happiness and shared joy.  I have no tears, fatigue has

stolen my happy tears for now.  Sapped and drained from late night chapters on life,

studied and crammed and tested.  Weary student, weary teacher.

I am the student.  Learning, still learning.

Approaching mid night, she asks please steam the wrinkles.

Heat and steam press out on cloth.

This love symbol, this love language for us, the pressing out of the wrinkles. Weary gift.

The making beautiful and crisp.

Wobbly-legged me and steamer give what there is.

Heat and steam blur.  Eyes blur.  Heart cries out for horizontal rest.

These seventeenth and eighteenth years of life cross paths, intersect.

One becoming woman.

One becoming man.

And I am student.

 

Waking Up The Dormant

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ Leave a comment

Dormant-1.Lying asleep or as if asleep: inactive.2.Latent but capable of being activated. 3. In a condition of biological rest or inactivity.

In awe of the new.

Amazed by the spring green sprouts of life, plants, relationships, talents. God at work.

Eyes wide open.  Seeing the glory in the new birth.  New beginnings.

Fresh, fragrant aromas of potential.  Sweet smells of sleeping now awake.

And water and love and tender care are required for these fragile young shoots of life.

The gentle hand of care and nurture are called to pour out merciful love.

I have been given a new old friend.  Several, more acurately.

New grace.  New opportunity.

Through God’s unfailing love and circumstances the soil of my life has been tilled with fresh offerings.  Fertilized with nutrient richness.

What I allowed to sleep, I will wake up in love.  These latent gifts, like unwrapped packages brushed off to the side in those weeks between Christmas and New Years.  Lost in abundance.  Maybe. More likely, lost in blindness and blur of self.

Like the red solo cup in the music video which follows (click on the link to view), God calls out in amazing ways.  Beautiful ways.  Uniquely wooing us to Himself.

1John 3:1 What marvelous love the Father has extended to us!  Just look at it–we’re called children of God!

This couples Lenten Bible Study pours out and holds to account.  And in just showing up how He loves us.  How he teaches and strengthens and woos. What undergirding and pouring out He can do and longs to do when we show up. What lavish, extravagant love.

Today I get a chance to spend time with my new old friend.  What extravagance.  To have a friend.  To share with a mothers heart the raising and training up and pouring into young men.

What amazing love and amazing gift that its not a solo journey across the Atlantic.  That we get to do it in community.

When we activate the gifts God gives, we anticipate the Joy.

When we fertilize the relationships and nurture the dormant gifts allowing them to grow to their fullest potential, we see glimpses of good. Investing in, spending time with, listenting to, reaching out for those people in my world. Those  God created for me.

Thats where I am called  today.  To live fully and see fully. To receive and then pour it back out in love to those in need.

To be present.

Walking through the green, measuring the new.  Spying the lush gifts which sprung up overnight.  There are precious tender gifts flung afresh by His extravagant love.  Last years latent, dormant plants and herbs are back.

They shout we are here for you to enjoy.  They whisper we were always here.  You just didn’t have the eyes to see.

And like all the new I am gazing on in this world, I am grateful.  So grateful.

Its all Grace and its all good.

And as the lyrics of this song so beautifully say, He is calling us all by name.

I don’t want to be asleep at the wheel.  I don’t want to miss a thing he has in store. His love like a dormant volcano with extravagant love can erupt any moment.

Click on the link below to enjoy this beautiful music video.  I did.

wynnegraceappears

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