The Every Day Plan

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Sunrise

 

 

 

My birthday is this week. Sometimes it comes and goes and I don’t think much about it but this  year I have been thinking. I’ve been thinking that I want to make sure that every day counts.

So I’ve come up with a plan and I wanted to share it with you.

Every Day I will:

1. Look for God’s gifts. He is my loving Father and every single day He reaches down to show me His love. I think many times we rush through our days and miss those God hugs. I’m not going to miss, even one, any more.

2. Reach up to hug my Heavenly Father back. I will be thankful for His constant gifts and I will  tell Him I’m thankful. I will keep in mind who He is, The Amazing God of the Universe!, and praise Him. I became a believer when I was a young girl. I remember those first joyful months that before I went to sleep I would reach my arms up toward Heaven to hug God goodnight. I want to have that attitude in my life again. I want to reach up and hug God in some way every day.

3. Make a loving difference. In at least some small way I will do or say something that makes someone feel loved. I will love someone, in some way, every day.

4. Listen. I will listen to the birds songs, the wind, the people I love and the ones who are new to me. I will listen with my ears and with my heart. I will listen to God’s Spirit and His word.

5. Do what I’m called to do. For me that is writing. I have had to set aside my writing in the last few years.  But I know, in my heart of hearts, that I need to get back to it. So every day I will write something; a blog, a letter, an encouraging note or e-mail, a poem, a devotion, something, anything! Even if it is a very few words each day I will write something.

I think if I can do these things my days will count for what matters. What do you think?

 

 

 

A Winding Path

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I’ve been working on my resume again. And what a crazy resume it is! It is full of so many diverse experiences that I’m very sure it often gets tossed as soon as it comes in to a potential publisher or employer. There is no box or file that it fits comfortably in. I’ve wrestled with the idea of maybe paring some things off it, to make it fit together better, to make it read more like a novel instead of a book of short stories.  But the truth is, every past job, no matter how different from the one I am applying for will make me better at the next job.

Because, especially if we let it, that’s what life does. Our experiences change us, sometimes a lot, other times ever so slightly, whittling away at the waste and polishing up the wood of our future selves.

I remember a time when prospective employers liked it if you dressed up and came to their office to meet them. They saw this as a sign of initiative and determination and they liked to shake your hand and “look into your eyes” to see what you’re really about. Now that kind of approach is seen as akin to stalking. They don’t want to meet you. They don’t even want you to phone. All that is left you to get their attention is a one page paper list of your  ‘accomplishments’. And if you make it to the “maybe” pile it is only because you have the very specific education and experience they are looking for.

I am convinced that companies miss the very best people because of this new way of hiring. And potential employees miss a chance to contribute in more significant ways, perhaps finding a better fit, a calling.

Luke of the Gospels was a trained physician. From reading his descriptions of illnesses there is no doubt that he would have been a good one. But when he met Christ all that changed for him. He was called to accompany Paul on several of his trips. He was called to being a friend and supporter and perhaps even an assistant to the most famous missionary of all time. He was also called to write, and the gospel he wrote is the most detailed and extensive of the four. This ability to pay attention to detail no doubt was more honed because of his experience and training as a doctor. Doctor-Disciple-Missionary Assistant-Writer. Luke’s career path was diverse and windy.

What is God calling you to do that is a culmination of the experiences and training He has put into your life? According to my resume I am going to be an interpreting, painting, writing; personality coaching, consulting; singing, dancing, Mary Kay, Ninja. How cool is that?

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” And who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”  Isaiah 6:8

 

 

For My Writing Friends

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I know that creativity requires energy so I’m wondering; Do I need to store up energy to be more creative? When I blog does it drip creative energy out of me like a leaky faucet? Do I need to hold back on my blog and my painting for a bit until the pressure becomes so pent up that it explodes into my writing again? Or is this just a brief respite before the next writing project? For the first time, in a very long time, I have some good writing time. I am not blocked. I have ideas. I just haven’t been inspired to sit down and get going.

Sometimes the writing is like a creative vortex. It takes energy from me but then it swirls it around and gives it right back to me…often in greater quantities. Other times it leaves me happily exhausted, like a runner after a marathon.

And since it has been a while since I’ve had a book published I’m not sure why I’m writing anymore. I know that the writing isn’t all about being published, but since I’ve been published, writing things that sit in a drawer where no one- not even family or friends- reads them, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me anymore. What am I doing with my time? What am I doing with my energy?

Except that, there are interesting, sometimes beautiful places in this world, hidden thickets, coves, rocky crests, nooks and crannies, icy cliffs, storms and creatures that no person has ever seen, and no one ever will.

No one, that is, except God, who surely must value their creation.

Making something beautiful, new or interesting just for the sake of making it must be enough.

Secret Places- revisited

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There is no one that can see the secret things in my heart, the longings, the joys, the regrets, the acceptance, the pain, the peace. And even I can only see glimpses, when I am brave enough to look. But God sees all of it and He loves me deeply, completely, unconditionally. He doesn’t love me anyway….He loves me all the way.

Lucy the Pug

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I have the coolest app on my phone. I can look at it any time and see how many people read my blog that day. I can see all kinds of other stats too like which posts are the most popular and what search words bring the most people to the blog.

Today’s post is in response to that. For in spite of the fact that I think some of my other posts are more useful the most popular post of all is titled Bee-utiful Lucy. It has a picture of Lucy, my pug, dressed in her bee costume. The search words that bring the most people to my blog are pug, dressed up pug, silly pug. Bee-utiful Lucy is especially popular in the U.K. So for all my pug loving friends out there in the States and across the pond, this one’s for you. 🙂

 Some pet lovers may think that it is cruel to dress up an animal. If you are concerned I want to assure you of two things. First, I only dress Lucy up for photo shoots. She is “all natur-al” the rest of the time. And second, when I get Lucy’s clothes out she gets very excited. I think she just likes the attention.

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robinprincemonroe's avatarRobin Prince Monroe

Last reblogged post on floating…though I think it may take me a lifetime to learn how to really do it. 🙂

I spent Saturday at the the Red Piano Too gallery. I had a sweet day visiting with customers and the artists that were able to attend. As I watched two of my favorite artists interacting with the people there I had to admire their peaceful countenances and quiet spirits. That has been a goal of mine for some time now…to have that quiet, gentle spirit…that is precious in the sight of God. When I did this painting I didn’t even realize that I was making that goal into a picture. Sometimes what is happening in our hearts shows up in ways we can’t imagine. One of the things a friend and I talked about that day was learning how to rest and wait to see what God brings to…

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robinprincemonroe's avatarRobin Prince Monroe

In my October 15, 2007 blog I talked about learning how to ride the waves of life challenges instead of kicking against them.

And I am learning that the first step in doing this is to accept where I am. I have to be willing to look at the water around me and to say, “Yep, I’m in the ocean. And I’m in the choppy part.”

I have no control over the waves. None. No control over how big they are or how fast they come at me and often no say in where they take me. The only thing I do have control over is how I respond to them. I can’t choose where I’ve been put in the ocean but I can decide how I’m going to swim.

For a very long time now I’ve worn myself out fighting the currents. I’ve kept swimming, kicking hard, looking for…

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robinprincemonroe's avatarRobin Prince Monroe

Life is full of wave after wave of challenges. Some splash against us. Some crash against us, and some threaten to sweep us away like giant tsunamis.

We can kick and struggle, doing our best not to go under, or we can lie on our backs and…float. Floating is easier when the waves are small. The water doesn’t crash over our faces. But even when the waves are giant it is better to rest than to struggle. The truth is, we are at the mercy of the waves. We can’t stop them or slow them down, all we can do is figure out the best way to swim through them.

I think it is better to float; take careful breaths and look up at the light.

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robinprincemonroe's avatarRobin Prince Monroe

This daily prayer is the result of my research as well as the thoughts of  friends and family. It is taken from the “Armor of God” passage in Ephesians.

Dear Lord, 

Make me alert to the warfare around me. Help me discern what is good and what is evil.

Bless me this morning as I put on your armor to face the day.

 Helmet of Salvation– Protect my thinking from evil.  Fill my mind with thoughts transformed by Your Spirit. Fill my mind with joy and thanksgiving.

 Breastplate  of Righteousness–  Protect my emotions from evil. Protect my heart and keep it  tender towards You and your Spirit, and towards the people You bring into my life.

 Belt of Truth– Give me eyes to see Your truth today and help me use that truth as I seek to make decisions for You.

 Boots of the Gospel of Peace– Prepare…

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Invisible

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For many years now on and off since college I have had the privilege of being a Sign Language interpreter. I have had the opportunity to interpret for the birth of a child, for job training, for funerals and for two years in the public schools.

There are slightly varying philosophies on exactly what an interpreter’s job is, and if you are interested in knowing  the prevailing standards you can look them up at the RID website. But in plain English this is what I try to do when I interpret.

As a Sign Language interpreter I don’t transliterate. That means I don’t sign word for word. There is not a sign to correspond to every single English word. Of course, all words can be spelled, but simply spelling doesn’t always convey clearly the meaning. The idea of interpreting well means being able to sign as closely as possible the real meaning, not necessarily each word.  And a good interpreter becomes personally invisible. She becomes the conduit of the message. Facial expression and body language are crucial to being a good interpreter so some of who an interpreter is personally is bound to come through.  But when I evaluate myself after a job, if I  think I was able to accurately convey the whole meaning of a conversation, and I personally was barely noticed, then I believe I did well. When I interpreted for the deaf father at the birth of his child I was extremely excited but I had to stay calm and objective to make sure I didn’t miss a bit of what the doctor or the nurses were saying.

This is also my understanding of how God wants us to “interpret” the Good News….His word. By being a conduit of His Spirit and message, by being invisible and letting His Spirit shine out the truth, always ready to give an account of His goodness, but being personally invisible as we do.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.   —1 Corinthians 2:13

Letting Go

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When we brought our first born, Caleb, home from the hospital he slept in a bassinet right next to our bed. The first night I slept with my hand on his back and woke to every baby gurgle and and mew. After about three weeks we moved the bassinet to the hallway. Then about a month later we moved him to his crib in his own room. As he grew up and learned there was much more letting go, his first time in the chruch nursery, his first day of school, the first time he swam on his own….

I remember especially teaching Caleb how to ride a bike. We had a nice flat, grassy front yard and instead of the sidewalk or the street I had him try to ride on the grass so if he fell he would have a soft landing. Believe it or not this worked pretty well. If you can ride on the bumpy grass you can ride just about anywhere! But still, he never would have learned to ride if I had continued to run behind him holding on to the seat of the bike. I had to let go.

I tried to my best to protect him from hurt but it wasn’t long  before I realized that bumps, bruises and pain were a part of his growing and to love him right I had to be willing to let go.

At age 22 Caleb got in his little red Honda Civic with a backseat full of comic books and drove to L.A. I prayed voraciously for him every day, many times a day, that God would keep him safe, that he’d find fellowship and encouragement, that he’d have a decent place to live and enough to eat. And in my prayers each night I had to place him gently in God’s hands and let go of him again.

At any point along the way I could have at least tried to stop him from taking the next step in his life but I deep down I knew that if I wanted him to be happy I had to trust God with him and let go.

And in thinking about this it occurs to me that what God calls us to do most often in this life is to let go of what is most precious to us and give it to Him. The things we are most tempted to hold on to tightly are the very things that we need most to give over to him…our marriages, our children and grand children, our health, our friends…the very things we want so desparately to hold on to, with all of our might, are the very things that we need to put in the safest place of all…God’s strong, loving, kind hands. We don’t need to keep our grimy little hands on them either, we need to really, completely, unreservedly let go.

Do not lay a hand on the boy, He said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” —Genesis 22:12

Painting byRobin Prince Monroe

An Interesting Day

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After writing my last blog, A Cup of Kindness,  I have been trying to be a little more aware of chances to love Christ by loving others, and yesterday an interesting thing happened.

It was an unusually hot May day so when I loaded up my car to run errands I filled my water container with my favorite, ice-cold tea. I hadn’t driven very far, nor had I drank any of the tea, when I passed a young man on a bicycle, on a hill. It seemed he might have been on on his way to, or returning from work, and he was stopped with his head down on the handle bars. It looked like the heat was making him ill.

All the safety stuff that’s been drilled into my head told me not to stop, so I drove on by and as I went by I said a little prayer for him. But after I got a block or two down the road I heard that “still, small voice” in my heart saying, “Really, Robin, REALLY? Yesterday you wrote about  a “cup of cold water” and today you have a quart of fresh, ice-cold tea and you’re not going to stop and offer it to “me”.  So I turned my car around, stopped in the middle of the road, and handed the guy my container of tea. He looked at me like I had lost my mind, but we both laughed a little and then I went on my way.

I’m sharing this today because it occured to me that I when I’m doing better at staying in God’s word and listening to Him I don’t miss as many opportunities. I don’t know if that small act of kindness meant a thing to that young man, but I do know that for whatever reason I was called to do it. I don’t think we are supposed to stop every single time we see someone on the side of the road in need. Jesus didn’t. He only stopped and healed and served the specific people God called him to serve. 

But this time, at least this one time, it was my time to serve and I only knew that because I was listening.

Years ago when I was teaching second grade and I had something important to say to the class I’d point to my ears and say, “Okay, time to put on your listening ears.”

I think I need to learn how to put on my “listening ears” every day.

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak , for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:9

 https://robinprincemonroe.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/a-cup-of-kindness/

A Cup of Kindness

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My special needs son, Daniel, lived at home with us till just after his 22nd birthday. He was 22 physically but mentally about the age of one. That meant that he was still in diapers and we still spoon fed him all his meals and snacks. I love Daniel so much. He is one of the happiest and sweetest people I know, but I have to confess that 22 years of changing diapers and feeding him smashed-up food sometimes got very old.

The times when I was really tired and struggling  I found it helped me to repeat these verses to myself….sometimes over and over again:

“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” —Matthew 10:42

and “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  —Matthew 25:40

By the time I finished Daniel’s meal, or buttoned up his pants after changing his diaper, I not only felt better, but sometimes I actually felt honored. Because by being Daniel’s mom, I was given the opportunity, almost every day, to feed Jesus a meal or help him stay warm and clean.

Daniel lives in a group home in Columbia now. He seems to be happy to be with his friends. They watch “wrasslin’ together and one of his roommates is trying to teach him to throw a ball into a basket. He loves the food there which is prepared some special way where they don’t have to water it down like I had to to make it smooth enough for him to swallow. We go see him often and he greets us with hugs and smiles. I needed the break from the caregiving, but I miss him…just like all moms miss their grown children.

And now, if I’m not careful,  I can easily miss a day or even two of serving Jesus his cup of water by serving others. Having Daniel for a son is a privilege and a lesson….

Forever

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Walk into any Hallmark store and what do you see?

Aisles of cards

….and shelves of collectables. Shelves of things that have no other purpose than to look nice in someone’s home. Now don’t get me wrong, as an artist I value beauty, and as is obvious this spring in Upstate South Carolina, so does God. But what is there in that store that I can keep forever? 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   –Matthew 6:19-21

For various reasons that couldn’t be helped we have moved four times in the last six years. We just moved again in January. I was so happy and relieved to empty that last box, to hang that last painting, to haul away that last bag to Goodwill. We are “settled” now, at least for a time. But we will not live in this house forever.  We are both children of God, and one day we will go to live in our forever home in Heaven. When that happens I will not ever have to move again, Praise God!

I can’t move any of my physical “stuff” to Heaven, but this scripture tells me that I can store  treasures there. I don’t want to move into an empty heavenly cottage. So I want to make sure I am packing boxes full of things that are eternal.

What is so precious here that it will  last forever?

Here are a few things I know I for sure:

Love: Open, sweet, sacrificial, unconditional love is something we can take to Heaven. There are a million ways we can love others here. Our actions, our words, our prayers, even the smallest things that help others know they are precious, are the things that last forever. It is my prayer that I will love enough in this lifetime to completely furnish my little heavenly cottage with love.

Words: Most especially, God’s words. God tells us that, The grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)  When we tuck God’s word in our hearts it stays there forever. When we speak His word to a friend or a child it reverberates in the heavens forever. When we write his word in our journals, in a letter, in an e-mail or on a blog there is something  forever that happens. All words are powerful. God’s Word is forever. It is my prayer that I will speak and write and do enough of God’s word in this world that my heavenly cottage will be full of the music of  forever words.

People: By sharing Christ with the people around us we can be a part of them going to Heaven forever. Imagine! being a part of changing a person’s destiny forever! It is my prayer that somehow I can touch enough people for Christ that I will have to have a doorman  for my heavenly cottage because there will be just tons of  people constantly dropping by to say “Hey, remember when you touched me forever.”

There may be more eternal things I can store in Heaven…I will think on that for a while. In the meantime I’m going to do the best I can to pack up what I know will last forever.

The Choice

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When something terrible has happened to you how do you continue to trust God?

The sermon at church yesterday was about the second chapter of Ruth. When I woke up this morning Ruth and her choice to stay with Naomi was on my mind.

Her famous words: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”  came to my mind and all of a sudden I realized that that was Ruth’s moment of choice. She had lost her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law. That was terrible, and she was in deep grief, but because she lost the providers in her family she also knew, if she stayed with Naomi and her God, she faced a life of poverty.  And that was the real choice for Ruth…not staying with Naomi… but deciding to make Naomi’s God her God.

After terrible tradgedy, Ruth chose God. 

And we can’t forget Job. I don’t know this for sure but I believe Job’s purpose in life was to be an example to all mankind of suffering and recovery. Job lost EVERYTHING!  He too was in deep and terrible grief.  How can we ever forget his precious words: “Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him.”

After terrible tradgedy, Job chose God.

The choice did not come easy for Ruth or Job and it will not come easy for us. In fact, it is not a choice we can make ourselves. We have to participate in it, and somehow be open to it, but the bottom line is, we can’t choose God unless He enables and empowers us to do so.

That is the mystery of the gospel. That is the mystery of life.

I choose you, God!

(Scripture references: Ruth 1:16 and Job 13:15)