Conviction

My expectations have gotten out of hand.  And my reactions to unmet expectations is ugly.

Why should I expect for my sarcasm and rudeness to bring others to a sudden realization that they’ve hurt me by what they’ve said or done? Even worse, why should I expect them to repent of said circumstances when I react in such an abrasive way?

Passive aggressive behavior does not yield a change of heart in the opposing party, nor does it allow me to be a properly functioning member of the Body of Christ.

Please pardon me while I learn how to talk to people in a manner worthy of the Lord.

what in the world?

Rivers (7 years old) shows up from his ENT doctors appointment today and this is the conversation we have:

Me:  Hey bud, how did your doctor’s visit go?

Rivers: It was fine.

Me:  Good to hear! So they aren’t going to have to cut off your head to get rid of your allergies?

Rivers:  Nope.  Actually, doctors don’t cut people’s heads off.  That’s not their job.  That’s what the Grim Reaper does.

Fact.

Solace

My hand is lonely for your clasping, dear;

My ear is tired waiting for your call.

I want your strength to help, your laugh to cheer;

Heart, soul and senses need you, one and all.

I droop without your full, frank sympathy;

We ought to be together–you and I;

We want each other so, to comprehend

The dream, the hope, things planned, or seen, or wrought.

As much as love asks love, does thought ask thought.

Life is so short, so fast the lone hours fly,

We ought to be together, you and I.

-Henry Alford

Copyright 1952.  60 years old. The Family Book of Best Loved Poems.

I found this on a day that seems harder than any day that has passed in these 7 months.

Page 20 folded over and underlined.

It’s so sweet to know that emotions are the same across generations, that longings are congruent in souls that are outside one another.  It’s refreshing to find that so many years after my great-grandmother’s passing, I can find things in common with her and that I can find solace in the same things she found solace in.