By: Jean Matthew Hall,
on 6/6/2010
Thank you ALL for your prayers and your kind remarks. God is healing her. When we arrived it appeared to all of us (including physicians) that Judy had been without oxygen for an extended time and that she had serious brain damage. But God isn't bound by appearances. Judy has only minimal brain damage, no measureable heart damage, and minimal pneumonia. She is conscious, cognative and aware of
By: Jean Matthew Hall,
on 4/26/2010
One of the grandest things about writing is – writers. Those wonderful, generous people who share mutual enthusiasm for words; for books; for stories handed down from one generation to the next; for the power of story to break our hearts and lift our spirits and drive the truth home like a well-aimed arrow. Writers. One such angel-with-a-word-processor is my friend, Dee Dee Parker. Two weeks
I've been surprised by how many people come to my blog by googling the question, What does the Holy Spirit Feel like? I wrote about the kids take on what it feels like to feel the spirit here, but because so many people seem to be asking, I want to give you my take, as well.
The Spirit can manifest himself to people in different ways. I, myself, have felt his influence many times, and it isn't always the same experience. Most often, I will be praying or attending a religious meeting and feel an overwhelming peace. How can peace be overwhelming? It's a joy that is strong enough to fill my insides to bursting and sometimes bring tears to my eyes. It usually begins in my chest and grows from there.
When I prayed about marrying My Robby, the answer came in the form of a scripture verse and an accompanying sureness that it was right. I can't imagine having made that life-altering decision without prayer and the Spirit.
There was one time when I was warned that my son was in danger. I was warned through an image that came to me at night before I went to sleep. I can hardly express how important this little event was. I could have lost him, but God gave me the ability to protect him that night by warning me through the Holy Ghost.
Sometimes the Spirit helps me know I should do something by helping me feel happy and excited about it. That was how I knew I should go to BYU. I had a perfectly good community college in walking distance, but the whisperings of the Holy Ghost let me know that wasn't the right path for me.
When something isn't right, I feel empty or confused, and I feel a desire to keep looking for a different answer.
One of the main roles of the Holy Spirit is to comfort. The hardest thing I ever went through was when I miscarried at 11 weeks before I had any children. Through the comfort of the Holy Ghost, I felt Heavenly Father's love for me. I knew He was there and cared about me. The trial was difficult, no doubt about it, but looking back, I never felt so loved as I did during that time. He helps me know that I'm not alone.
I feel the Holy Spirit in my life on a daily basis. Sometimes it's a thought. Sometimes I'm not sure where the thought originated, whether it was my own or from the Spirit. At times, I find later that I was able to be the Lord's hands in answering someone's prayer. And other times, someone comes to answer mine.
I have felt his witness that my Heavenly Father cares about me and that my Savior, Jesus Christ cares. I know They are real.
If you care to share how the Spirit manifests himself to you, feel free.
Have a beautiful day.
XOXO
It's not often that I wax religious on the old blog, but I have been thinking about something. So, here it is...
Sometimes we are in the exact place someone needs us to be, and it's not a coincidence. And when that moment comes, we have a choice to make. We feel what we are supposed to do, but we still have to act. We choose to act on our impressions or not.
A while back, I saw one of my old Sunday School teachers at Costco. I felt like I should stop and say something, but I was afraid. I was afraid she wouldn't recognize me, that I wouldn't know what to say, that it would be awkward FOR ME. I wasn't thinking about her. I let the moment pass. Again, I saw her from a distance and let the moment pass. Guilt started to creep up my soul and I knew I had missed an opportunity that God had given me to help someone.
Fortunately the story doesn't end there.
My heart uttered a prayer as I continued my shopping. Father, I know I messed up. I know I need to be a more reliable servant to thee. If this was an important moment I missed, PLEASE give me another chance. If it is somehow important that I talk to her today, please let me come across her again.
I finished shopping and was in the car. I felt that I should drive around the parking lot. I saw my Sunday School teacher loading up her car. I pulled over, chatted a few minutes, gave her a hug, and left. I felt better, but I didn't feel that I had done anything spectacular or even important.
Months later, I received a letter from this sweet lady. The brief words shook me. She wrote, "You may never know what it meant to me that you stopped, when you were obviously busy, to talk."
I am trying to get over my fears. My silly fears of people. My silly fear that someone won't want to talk to me when, in fact, maybe they need to see a friendly face.
I am striving to be a reliable servant of the Lord.
By: amanda,
on 4/7/2009
Christian Northeast is work on book for D&Q on prayers he found on the internet! Should be out sometime this year.
Visit his blog, lunch tongue for news and inspiration.
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By: Cynthia Reeg,
on 3/21/2009
Another week of Lent has passed. We've had many chances to draw closer to Jesus. Have we taken the choices to do so? Or perhaps instead made choices which took us farther away?
By: Cynthia Reeg,
on 3/13/2009
We've almost finished the third week of Lent--half-way through. I made some intentions at the beginning of Lent. Some of them I'm doing better on than others. One of my intentions was to spend more time in prayer, but I'm not too sure I've been following through on that one as I should.
By: Lisa Alvarado,
on 3/20/2008
STORMING HEAVEN'S GATE -- photo by Graciela Iturbide
Creatively and personally, I needed to engage the Goddess in a Latin context. In doing so, I found freedom from restrictive ideas of female identity that have been Catholicism's and colonialism's legacy. It is precisely the idea of sin, of the inherent pollution of women’s bodies, that had to be broken through for me to fully claim my creative energy and direct it.
As I continue to try to make new work, I have to reach out for connection in an ever-deepening way. My personal spirituality is being plumbed for imagery, for language, for a way to connect with something larger than myself.
Ironically, and in a way I can only begin to comprehend, this spiritual connection is plumbing me as well. What I mean here is that I can't forget that writing is my tether to something divine. Personal success, critical or audience acceptance needs to remain a secondary consideration, as much as care about those things. ‘What is being worked though me?’ is the question that I have to ask myself, the question that demands an answer at the end of the day.
In 'brothers, part 6,' Lucille Clifton cries out to a silent God who turns a deaf ear to suffering. She asks:
tell me why
in the confusion of a mountain
of babies stacked like cordwood...
tell me why You neither raised your hand
nor turned away...why You said nothing. (p.28)
Attend me, hold me in you muscular arms, protect me
from throwing any part of myself away. (p.67)
I’ll pray for you,” a friend says after she heard about a recent misfortune. People say that so many times it’s almost become a common courtesy.
But what does it mean?
For some people it means, “You’re in my thoughts.”
For others it means, “I hope your situation gets better.”
But the best meaning, the one I hope most of us mean, is quite literal. “I’ll take your concerns to God in my prayers and ask Him to help you.”
I never thought about this until tonight. My daughter, whom many of you may know by now had a liver disease and liver transplant, gets hit hard with the cold and flu season.
Tonight the worst for her were the stomach cramps. She tried to get some rest. It worked for a while, but it always came back - usually waking her from her much needed rest.
As her mother it was painful to watch. What could I do for her? Tylenol? No. She was afraid it would make her sick again. A drink? A medication? How could I make it stop?
My husband, who knew I was sick too, told me he’d take care of her and get some rest. But how? Her cries can pierce my dreams.
As I sat in bed, I realized there was one thing I didn’t do. Prayer. I talk to God every night before I go to sleep. Why hadn’t I thought of it before?
“Dear God,” I said. “Please relieve her of her agony. She needs her rest. Please help her.”
Like an instant miracle, I hadn’t heard her cries after that. She even was well enough to go to school today.
By: Laurel Gaylord,
on 11/30/2007
By: Kelly Herold,
on 5/24/2007
Whoever decided it would be a great idea to have well known children's writers tell their own stories 
in words and photographs is a genius. The concept behind the Meet the Authors series is sound: Children's writers know how to tell a story, and an autobiography--if told well--can be just as interesting as fiction.
I received three Meet the Authors titles--George Ancona: Self Portrait, Jim Arnosky: Whole Days Outdoors, and Janet S. Wong: Before it Wriggles Away. (The entire list is available here.) In just 32 pages, each author tells his or her life story for the K-5 reader.
George Ancona's life has been an international one--born in Mexico, he moved to New York as a child, then returned to Mexico City for art school. Now he works and lives in New Mexico. Ancona stresses his biculturalism and bilingualism when telling his story and how these aspects of life inform his work. Arnosky's autobiography focuses on his desire to live frugally, in nature, and on the back of a motorcycle. Janet S. Wong describes a happy, but normal, childhood, a suburban adulthood, and a life filled with travel as she loves "talking about my books" and "sharing my favorite books written by other authors."
Spouses, children, houses, and personal interests feature prominently in each autobiography, making their authors seem just like "normal people" who just happen to write books. This approach guarantees that children will see themselves while reading the story of an adult life.
Most central to each autobiography, however, is the creative process. Ancona goes into great detail about how he creates each new book, beginning with, "I'm curious about people and what they do. Whereever I go, I talk with them. What I learn I write down in my journal." Arnosky shares his journals and sketches, which are often composed outdoors: "Often when I'm afield, I'll abandon the camera and sit and write or sketch my impressions of where I am and what I am seeing. I carry a small pad in my shirt pocket for these scribbles and notes." These descriptions show a child how the creative process takes place all the time for writers--that they're always, in a sense, working.
To me, Janet S. Wong provides the best (and funniest example) of the writing process in this paragraph:
A large photo of Wong in the chair, mouth wide open while her teeth are being cleaned accompanies this text. A true and honest moment, though I am thankful she left the drill out of the picture.
The Meet the Authors series is intended for the grade school reader. I'd like to keep these beauties to myself, but I know of a grade school library who needs them more than I do. These are books should be enjoyed by as many children as possible as they comprise an accessible and welcoming introduction to the world of writing.
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By: Just One More Book!!,
on 4/21/2007
Author: Janet S. Wong
Illustrator: David Roberts
Published: 2007 Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763623806 Amazon.ca Amazon.com
Crawling with cockroaches, crankiness and whole lot of creativity, this imaginative story of community recycling makes saving the earth a cheeky adventure.
For information about MagazineLiteracy.org’s KinderHarvest magazine recycling initiative, click here.
Podcasts mentioned:
Tags:childrens book review, David Roberts, earth day, Janet S. Wong, Podcast, recycling, The Dumpster Diverchildrens book review, David Roberts, earth day, Janet S. Wong, Podcast, recycling, The Dumpster Diver
I'm praising Him with you and will continue to pray!<br /><br />I love you!
So glad to hear the good news! Still praying!
Praise the Lord! Glad to hear how well Judy is doing.
What great news Jean! I will continue to pray for your sister and those caring for her.<br /><br />Linda A.
Wonderful news! We had our own little miracle with Don's mom yesterday. Like your sis, she still has lots of issues & things could change at any time, but she surprised us all again yesterday. Praising God!