Faith Reflections Musings, copyright 2007

Pick a verse, any verse.

2007-06-26T07:03:00.001-07:00

Have you ever closed your eyes then opened the bible and pointed to a verse, hoping for divine inspiration? I highly recommend it. Today I am gearing up for the first day of Vacation Church School, I am leading the "science" department so I am feeling a little stressed.

Today I chose the "random" verse... Psalm 55:22 "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." Great News!

Peace ,

Julie

Jesus, The Great Shepherd

2007-06-24T19:30:00.001-07:00

Every year my preschool charges and I end the school year with a special communal prayer service. Each child is invited to bring his or her favorite catechesis work to the prayer corner and share something about it. This year a four year old of African-American descent brought a black sheep from the Good Shepherd material. He said that he liked that sheep "because he is black." I responded that the Good Shepherd loves all the different sheep in his flock. Smiling widely, eyes shining and head nodding the boy agreed saying "Yep, he is a Great Shepherd."

Amen.

Julie

2007-06-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

The following quote got me thinking not only about attaching the label "christian" to a business venture but also the commitment we make to God and the world when we give ourselves this label. The entire article cited below is really inspiring, we hope you enjoy it.

"I've always been a little bit leery of putting 'Christian' as a tagline for anything. If you're going to attach the name of Christ onto something, then you'd better have thought about it for a long time and really feel like that particular product, whether it's a CD or a church or whatever, is worthy of that name."

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot as quoted in christianitytoday.com
http://http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2006/switchfoot-1106.html

Running late....

2007-05-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I was not thrilled that my son was running a little late. I was less thrilled that the bus came early which meant I had to drive him to school. Cranky mommy.

Getting on with my morning chores and errands was further delayed by the traffic which accompanies student drop off time. I waited pretty patiently for a young woman to turn towards me so I could take her place on the busy street and wait my turn to merge. Just as she was turning towards me I caught a glimpse of a boy speeding on his bike about to cross in front of me. I could see the other driver was not looking his way. In the split second it took for him to jump the curb and get to her front bumper I had time to only mutter a prayer and honk. Thank God she stopped immediately at the sound and the boy was able to swerve around her car instead of being hit and flying over her hood.

Next time you are running late and feeling frazzled take a breath and consider the possibility that your tardiness may be serving a higher purpose. Oh, and make sure your kids wear their helmets.

Making chores fun...

2007-05-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

Today we faced the dreaded task of doing a thorough weekly cleaning and preparing for a trip out of town. This tends to make me cranky and like many mothers I pass my crankiness on to the children. Well after a snappy morning I prayed for inspiration and afterwards I was bound and determined to make our chores fun.

The result? I dressed up as "the clean room fairy" and announced that the children's mother had left the premises and invited me to help them get the house organized and pack. The hours that followed were pleasant and dare I say...fun.

Life sometimes calls us to be someone we don't feel like being... someone who likes cleaning, someone who can squeeze an extra hour into an already packed day to make dinner for a sick co-worker or someone who can make it through a day without judging others. Next time you feel that way pray for your own inspiration and the Lord will show you a new way to be human.

flying lessons

2007-05-03T21:53:00.000-07:00

While walking in the woods at our neighborhood dog park I noticed that the birds were chirping particularly loud that day. Actually it was more like a frantic cry and I commented on the fact to my Australian Shepherd. He ignored my observation and ran ahead into the trees where I lost sight of him. I soon learned his location when he began barking deeply and urgently which is rare for him. I found him, nose to the ground, his barking increasing in urgency and his eyes darting, looking to see if I was joining him. There just out of reach of his clumsy paws was a baby bird, uninjured, attempting to fly. It got as high as my dog's head and then flittered back down. At this point the birds in the trees were no longer satisfied with making a racket and had begun dive bombing my pet who I convinced to leave the scene.

We had interrupted a flying lesson. The thought occurs to me that we are often like that little bird doing a great job in our life flying lessons with God as our teacher. But then there are interruptions. Some interruptions are as innocent as my puppy, others are more threatening, and all the while God, like that family of birds, is there calling to us, encouraging us and warding away evil until we are ready to rejoin him.

Welcome to our new authors and a daily musing.

2007-05-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to introduce you to our contributing authors Leah, Jerry, and Patti. Check out their works on our main page, weekly essay and weekly poem pages. We are happy to be able to share their work with you.

Your feedback is important to us so please let us know what you think at readerresponse@faithreflections.com.

Daily musing:

In Sunday school I mentioned the bishop while describing chrism oil. One of my first grade students exclaimed "like the bishop in chess!" "Yes" I agreed and then posed the question "Why do you think the bishop is so close to the king and queen in chess?" He said "because the bishop is their servant." "Ah" I answered "and of God too"! We pondered this theology of chess for a while before moving on.

Who is closest to you and is he/she part of God's plan for you? We would love to read your thoughts in our forum or better yet in an essay, poetry, devotion or short story submission.

Peace,

Julie

Thanks for all your support!

2007-04-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who visited our website in April, our first month in existence. We would especially like to thank our daily visitors of which we have many. We are thrilled to have readership in the United States, Canada, England and Australia!

Thanks also to those of you who have submitted essays, poetry, stories and devotions. We really enjoy reading them and hope you will continue to send us your work. You never know when it might appear on Faith Reflections.

Now for the news...

Right now!: Check out our Faith Reflections Forum to comment on literature from our website or just share your thoughts with other readers and writers.

May 6-13: Faith Reflections will be honoring Mothers. Be sure to visit.