How does a young woman find her way in this culture? I can't think of a time in human history when it was more difficult, and for young men as well. But I trust God will lead them where they need to be. But I'm sure of this, it will not be my mother's reality. New wine, for a new world: I'm sure Jesus has the path laid out, the way clear, and I see young women finding the path. I cling to His promise that He will not leave them as orphans!

  I know so many movie stars do wrong, but when I see pictures of them it saddens me so. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to be rocketed into the public eye, lavished with praise and wealth, and to hold on to who you are... 

I've talked to so many who have had profound experiences with Christ when just a child. But should I doubt that? Not for a second; He draws the pure in heart. 

 I think, for the good of the world, Jesus designed us in such a way that when we are around those in great need and we do something to help them, anything: it profoundly affects us and draws us closer to Christ and to humanity. 

Isaiah 58:6-12 explains it in depth. 

 I love the look of intensity in this photo. This young gymnast reaching with all her might for a success in her sport. It rang out in my spirit: how am  doing? Am I reaching for something better? Something beyond my reach? The call of Jesus echoes this sentiment. 

 "For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes advantage of you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone hits you in the face." 2Cor. 11:20

 There are many forces in this world that will seek to do all of the above; our minds may go first to the domestic arena, but these hazards lie in all of life including religion. 

"Be wise as a serpent." 

 "Lord, it is on my sea that you walk; it is on the billows of my soul that You draw near. The first proof of Your presence is inward storm. It is by the rolling of the waves of conscience that I know You to be nigh. 
When You were absent from my heart there was no  wind, there were no waves; the sea was a great calm. But when Your feet touched the waters my storm arose - the storm of my conscience. The thing which yesterday looked harmless became fraught with peril. The deeds on which yesterday I gazed with complacency, spread blackness in my soul. The valleys became mountains, the trifles loomed as deadly crimes, and I beat upon my breast and cried, "Lord, be merciful unto me! That was my hour of communion with You O God." George Matheson. 

"The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth." Proverbs 11:31


  Lord, wherever my spirit may dwell hereafter, the recompense I seek for my present deed is that the earth may be blessed in it. 

  I gave a coin yesterday to a tattered woman, and she invoked all Your chariots of blessing to descend upon me. She thought she was drawing profusely on Your stores; what she asked of You seemed inadequate. It was not treasure from above that I wanted from You; it was treasure from below. I wished some day to find that my coin had been a turning point in this woman's fortune -- that it had given her new hope, new comfort, new courage, new belief in man, new confidence in You. 
For any good I do, O God, it is earth that I should like to be recompensed." George Matheson, photo by Cedric Hayes Portland Oregon. 

  "In South Africa I remember an experience which I had not known since my childhood: moments, even hours, of intense exhilaration, when one seemed to be a happy part of a friendly universe.

I have had the same experience much later in life, and they came usually in the early morning or at sunset. I seemed to acquire a wonderful clearness of mind and to find harmony in discords and unity in diversity, but to find these things not as conclusions of thought, but in a sudden revelation, as in a poetry or music. For a few moments beauty peeped from the most unlikely wrappings and everything had a secret purpose or joy. It was the mood for poetry had I been anything of a poet. Looking back I especially remember a time that stands out. I rose after a supperless night and I bathed in one of the icy cold pools, and then basked in the early sunshine while breakfast was cooking. The water made a pleasant music, and near by was a covert of willows filled with singing birds. Then and there came on me and hour of revelation, when, though savagely hungry, I forgot about breakfast. Scents, sights, and sounds blended into a harmony so perfect that it transcended human expression, even human thought. It was like a glimpse of the peace of eternity.

There are no more comfortable words in the language than Peace and Joy. Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown. But Joy is a positive thing; in Joy one does not only feel secure, but something goes out from oneself to the universe, a warm, possessive effluence of love. There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness. It was Happiness that I knew in those rare moments. The world was a place of inexhaustible beauty, but still more it was the husk of something infinite, ineffable, and immortal, in very truth the garment of God." John Buchan.

"To touch the cup with eager lips and taste, not drain it; 
To woo and tempt and court a bliss--and not attain it;
To fondle and caress a joy, yet hold it lightly;
Lest it become necessity and cling too tightly;
To watch the sun set in the west without regretting; 
To hail its advent in the east -- the night forgetting;
To smother care in happiness and grief in laughter;
To hold the present close -- not questioning hereafter;
To have enough to share -- to know the joy of giving;
To thrill with all the sweets of life -- is living." 
Anonymous. 

  "If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time." 
Josh Billings.

 "The work of my salvation is not a solitary process. I cannot build up the virtues of my heart if I am thinking only of God. Would I be humble; mine must be a humility before man. Anyone could be humble before God. It does not need a redeemed soul to shrink into nothingness beneath the stars of night. But to sink my interests before a brother, to refrain from self-display in the presence of an inferior-- that is humility! Would I be meek; it must be before man. I dare not answer God; all flesh is silent in His presence. But to be gentle with an equal, to be soft with a dependent, to be lenient with a fallen soul-- that is meekness! Would I be charitable; it must be before man. God needs not my silver nor my gold; they would add no drop to His ocean. But, to clothe a brother's rags, to soothe a sister’s pain, to give the children bread, to help the orphan's cry, to bind the broken heart and comfort the wounded conscience -- that is to aid God, that is charity!" George Matheson.  

  "Sarah only knew that life within her could, and sometimes did, blossom into moments of unimaginable, incredible loveliness, glimpses of the Eternal in time: rare moments which came and went, which could not be sought or asked for, but by which one steered one's course, wholly alive while they lasted." Marry Ellen Chase.

  I find when I'm in the forest I have moments like these. Shall we not carry these moments into our way of living in some small way? Why can we not take a part of our yard and create a little corner of it and plant a sliver of forest? If we have no yard, we can buy a houseplant and put it by the window. If we have no window we can buy an artificial plant, and if we have no money we can ask a neighbor for a daisy.  

Shall we sit idly down and say

The night hath come; it is no longer day? 

The night hath not yet come, we are not quite

Cut off from labor by the failing light; 

Something remains for us to do or dare; 

Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear.

Santa Filomena

When'er a noble deed is wrought,

When'er is spoken a noble thought, 

Our hearts in glad surprise

To higher levels rise. 

The tidal wave of deeper souls

Into our inmost being rolls, 

And lifts us unawares

Out of all meaner cares. 

Honor to those whose words or deeds

Thus help us in our daily needs, 

And by their overflow

Raise us from what is low!