Win or Lose!

This picture makes my heart glad and gives me hope for the future of America--two precious teams and their cheering squads praying together--one with a great victory, one with a crushing defeat.

Taking the initiative themselves without adult intervention, they lay aside their earthly disappointments for a couple of minutes and give thanks and praise to our Great Creator. Praise God!

P.S.  Should say that one is a private Christian high school and one a public school--the public school kids initiated the prayer.

Good Morning!

I'm not usually one to wish my life away but as you can tell by my header I am getting just a little anxious for spring. How about you--wanting more winter or ready for some warm, sunny days? It is supposed to be 70 degrees here today.


Look to the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face always. Psalm 105:4

Good morning, Lord. Here I am again asking, seeking, knocking for my children, my descendants, my seed.

O God I pray that each one of them would look only to Your strength today--that they would seek Your face always. There is no other who has every answer they need. Your strength and yours alone is all that will save them--Bring situations into their lives that would cause them to see their extreme and desperate need of You and Your strength.

Lord, there is one partiuclar situation I am praying for right now. You know what it is--please help us not to be guilty of judging another's motives no matter how evident those motives might seem to be. We know that you are not the author of confusion, but the great creator and orchestrator. I pray that you will bring order and peace out of this situation--bring good to all involved. Let Your will be done.

I pray in Jesus' name. Amen

Always loving you my friend,
Dianne
2011-the year of beyond

Weekend Worship at First Presbyterian, Little Rock, Arkansas

My lover spoke and said to me,

"Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.

See!  The winter is past;  the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;  the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves is heard in our land,

The fig tree forms its early fruit;  the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;  my beautiful one, come with me."

See!  The winter is past;  the rains are over and gone.
From Song of Solomon 2

The juxtaposition of this particular scripture with this church photographed in the dead of winter last year, gives us reason to understand more fully why many across our frozen country are crying out for the winter to be over and gone.  It appears that Arkansas will get into the sixties this next week.

But no matter where you are and no matter whether your coming days are forecast to be cold or hot, I pray that you will find warmth in your heart and spirit by choosing to worship with someone you love.

Whether it is the lowliest of worship centers, the most majestic of cathedrals or in the shelter of your own home, I pray that you and at least one other will have the opportunity to give back to the Lover of your soul.

Have a blessed weekend of joyful worship,
Dianne
2011-the year of beyond

Arkansas Winter

Before last winter, I had gone five years without seeing any snow in Arkansas. We lived in northern Oklahoma for thirty years and got at least a couple of good snows almost every year. This year we have had more than our share in Arkansas and especially the northwest part of the state where my good friend, Nava, lives.

She has taken some incredible pictures of the birds in her backyard. Just wanted to take this chance to share a few of them with you. Hope you enjoy!

This is Nava's front yard.  Forecast was 2-4" and they got 21" this week.  It was -15 degrees there last night.  I think this is record setting cold for Arkansas.

We got 6" in the Little Rock area yesterday after two inches late last week and about five or six a few days before that.

 Hope you are staying safe and warm wherever you are.

Love,
Dianne
2011-the year of beyond

Dear Men of Renewal Ranch,

How do I begin? How do I begin to tell you how you made my heart feel? As if it would burst? That is not a very good description for something that is stretched and pulled taut to a capacity that seems to rival impossibility! How do I describe the thirty miles back home, thirty miles of mist draining down? Of joy unspeakable and full of glory? How do I tell you of a mind blown to smithereens with the love and appreciation you displayed to me yesterday?

When I asked you to envision your lives five years down the road and you looked at me with this written across the eyes of your soul :

"Hope is the dream of a soul awake."--a French proverb

Yes, you laid yourself out all vulnerable. You who have only been here a week--living with people who were strangers to you a little more than seven days ago and now you are laying your insides out in front of everyone, taking a chance, taking a risk--you who have been to hell and back more times than I want to enumerate.

Yes, you looked at me with hope. Hope from one who was reared without a father, with a mother who left you alone to fend for yourself, with no one to really care for you. Hope from one who suffered the effects of Hurricane Katrina, even the horrors of the Superdome?

How does that not awake the dream in my own soul--the dream of serving Jesus by serving my fellow man?

And when you looked at me with resolve and sincerity and responded, "I hope I am helping someone." I knew that Christ had opened the dream eyes of your soul--only through the love of Christ can we respond in that manner.

And when you said to me, "Ms. Dianne," I don't feel that I am struggling with reading but my brain is just not cooperating. Can you help me with some study skills?" Oh, how I wanted to be the "study skills" expert of the universe--to be able to give you a list of things to do that would make your brain cooperate. You whose brain has been ravaged by the abuse of alcohol and drugs. I wanted to do more than just encourage you to give your brain a chance to catch up, to tell you that each day it will become stronger--.

And when you said to the group, "I am admitting all my faults--I was told that I am reading on a second grade level,"--I admired you so that you were man enough to admit to all of us that your life had been fraught with mistakes, your learning taking the brunt of your decisions.

And when you said to me, "Ms. Dianne, I don't know if you noticed or not, but the other day when you came out to the 'smoke hole' to talk to me, I got tears in my eyes because I had never been shown love like that before."

All I did was walk a few feet to talk to you and that meant the world to you? Oh my, how many days do I let go by that I make no attempt to walk a few feet to talk to someone who needs to feel Your Love, Lord?

So many tears--so many tears for these opportunities, for lost opportunities, for a love that I can only wish to be able to describe in this humanly tool of communication made with a simple twenty-six letters? How can I possibly put those twenty-six characters together well enough to exalt a love the likes that only angels can translate?

And when you said to me, "When are you coming back?" and came up and gave me not one but two hugs, I was back home again. Seven years I've been retired from the classroom--and the pay this time far exceeds what I made before.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24

You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. Psalms 65:5

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:5

This writing is in response to a "tutoring session" I was supposed to have with three of the men. Eight men and God showed up. Wow!

To those of you who were praying for these men, I can never thank you enough.

Love,
Dianne
2011-the year of beyond