Leaving Quite An Impression

May 7, 2012 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

Counting gifts with Ann over at a holy experience dot com. This is a beautiful way to start a Monday. A day of new mercies. Before counting gifts, and there are many, I want to express my gratitude to readers. Thank you that you are here. Thank you for your encouragement. You bless me with your feedback. I look over my shoulder and see and hear you there, on this journey. I am praying for each of you, may His grace mark your day with a deep groove of the holy on this day in the midst of May. May the landscape of your life be touched by His Mercy, in the joy, in the hard, in the soft, and in the muck. In the mundane middles, in the fresh new starts, and in crossing the finish lines.

Looking down the bridge of this nose on this face and counting the right smack here gifts in this very messy living. This life. The one with the bumps and the bruises, the turns and twists, the highs and the lows, the peaks and valleys and the ebbs and flows. The gifts are underfoot and might even get stepped on if we don’t step lightly and walk softly through the very messy living.

Counting the multitudes on monday:

middle son’s weight loss, still amazed and impressed by his determination(90 pounds is a lot to register on this momma’s heart)

sweet unexpected surprise in my comment box from my daughter, love in the words, love in her heart

kayak’s and how they offer a way to quietly see life, slow paddling with The Patient One and sitting for hours in solitude while the kiddos took the SAT

Our favorite worship song in church yesterday led by beautiful voices and an elbow in the rib from sweet girl of mine, followed by her singing loudly her praises….grace IS an ocean…..

Going to take home communion yesterday as a trainee –shifting the lense of life and seeing the bread and the wine bless one who is bound by a wheelchair.

My Head In The Clouds

May 6, 2012 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 2 Comments

I had my head in the clouds this weekend. Resting in quiet. Resting in light. Resting under the clouds and studying their beauty.

I, student of art under white moving design. Gallery of blue backdrop, moving exhibit of puffy perfection. Creation on display. He, Creator God, designer of beauty. Loving presenter of beauty. I watch them move and drift, change and delight. I grateful. I throw out a line of love to catch the light, catch a piece of heaven’s rays, heaven’s brilliance.

The Patient one fishes. I study. We rest. Under a blanket of heaven. Grateful for all that He gives, graciously, lovingly, gratefully.

Place your head in the clouds, and rest in Him. Rest in His love. Rest in His beauty. Rest in His loving arms this day.

His new Mercies wait around the corner on the morning after this evening. Gift. Bowed up in love.

Seek. See. Thank.

What Grace. What Love. What a gallery of perfection all puffy and floating we see when we look up into the light.

Up On The Tightrope Wire

May 4, 2012May 4, 2012 ~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 17 Comments

“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life” –William Arthur Ward

I may have lost it. My sense of humor that is. Do you know the guards at Buckingham Palace. The ones who stand guard like concrete statues.The ones you cannot get to flinch, to smile, to giggle, to break their poker face icey stares. That is me. If this mothering gig doesn’t work out I have a great chance of signing on at Buckingham Palace as the first female guard. You cannot break this stone-face stare.

I stand guard at the threshold of my home. These teenagers and occassionally our adult child have to pass through my icey stare and answer all the questions. How was this? How was that? Fun right. And I don’t blink. This job of mine has such dire consequences, if I stumble and fall, they ALL fall down.

Or so I believe. What if the first thing they see is a smile? Will they reflect joy. What if the first thing they are met with is a warm embrace. Will they reflect compassion. What if I warmly insert humor in my third degree line of questioning.

I am bone-tired of standing like a soldier, guarding my chicks like a stoic mother-hen. Wait can a hen be stoic. What if a grade slips, or a curfew isn’t met, or an errand isn’t completed on time. Or sunscreen isn’t worn, or a pill isn’t taken, or youth-group is missed to go support a friends soccer match. What if. What is the worst thing that can happen.

“A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.”- Proverbs 17:22

I need to cheer-up this disposition of mine. I need a spirit of cheerfulness and light-heartedness. Pronto.

To remind myself that I had not lost my sense of humor I went and found a picture of myself smiling. Gosh it is so old. It may have been taken before Mayberry went into re-reuns.

I am going to find a recent one of me laughing so I know there is potential there.

This tightrope act. This thing we call balance. It is just plain hard. When to speak and when to listen. When to reprimand, when to remain silent. When to speak words of praise, encouragement, discipline,challenge,love, hope and pride. When to rein in. When to loose the grip, the grasp on these children we love so, and when to tighten and cinch in the boundaries.

When to press in on standards and conformity, and when to let loose to allow and even encourage creativity and individuality to flow freely.

I love what they are becoming and who they are becoming. In Christ.

But as it says in the Proverbs, “gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.” It is time for a season of laughter. Of joy. Of smiling and letting little things just lie.

I need humor to walk this tightrope of life. I may stumble and I may fall. I may slip up and fail. No, I will stumble, I will fall, I will fail, but I want to go down with a smile on my face. I want my children to see joy and laughter in my contenance.

I want them to experience Grace when they are in my presence. I want it to wear a smile.

And I don’t want to move to London this close to Mother’s Day.