Category Archives: Love

Rise Above the Clouds

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Take a close look at this photograph taken at Silver Strand beach in Ireland. Let your gaze focus upward. The yellow flowers growing in stone, the sheep grazing above the dangerous precipice?

There are challenging situations all around the flowers and the sheep, but they have moved past them, above them, through them.

Think of an airplane approaching an angry storm, dark lightning-filled clouds. If at all possible, the plane gains altitude and flies above the clouds. It sets its path beyond or around the storm and does not fly through it.

In my life, there are many scary precipices, stony rocks, dark storm clouds. But I do not want to focus on that. I do not want to fly through them anymore. I want to rise above the clouds. I want to soar with wings like eagles. I want to fix my eyes on Jesus Christ, my Savior, my peace.

Life races by at a breakneck pace. Days turn into years at an alarming rate. I want to fly, to grow beautiful flowers, to eat delicious food. I want to laugh, to smile, to love with my whole heart, to see new things, to appreciate the old. I want to live with the best attitude that God can give me. I want to enjoy this beautiful God-given life.

Lord, let me rise above the clouds. Love, Lisa

Upside Down

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The little girl sometimes liked being upside down, but only for a little while. She swung so high on the rope tree swing that her daddy made. Her feet would go way above her head for a moment. Feeling upside down even though she wasn’t, almost touching the oak leaves with her bare feet. But the relief of being feet planted on the solid earth, right side up, was grounding and safe.

She learned to do a head stand up against the basement wall, her head firmly set in a soft pillow. The blood rushed furiously into her pounding ears. The room looked bizarre and unsettling. She could only take a few seconds of this, and then would plummet back into right side up reality.

One day, she got up and everything was upside down in the world. Everything. The grownups talked about a virus. She didn’t really understand. She tried and tried, but she couldn’t get things right side up. People looked and sounded weird, upside down. She felt unsettled all the time, as she tried to make sense of this new world.

But then, suddenly, the thing that had caused the upside-downness, the bad virus, went away. The world tipped back the right way. She was more than happy. She was peaceful, grounded, safe, normal. She smiled, and the whole world saw that smile.

Love, Lisa

*For all the children who need normal to return.*

The Miracle of Life

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You have something to say.

You have great worth.

You are precious in the eyes of the One who created you.

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful…..

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand.” -Psalm 139: 13-14, 17-18

God in Heaven has known you since the beginning, and He will know you at the end. He loves you so much, and yes, He cares about everything you say and do.

Be encouraged. Love, Lisa

A Tale of Two Encouragers

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The Scene: 5th Grade

The Characters: A music teacher, a mom, and an insecure 10 year old

The Setting: Small town Virginia, 1970s

In fifth grade, a very exciting and unusual thing occurred. Our young, beautiful music teacher announced that she was having auditions for a big musical, “Oklahoma,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Yes, the original Broadway version of the musical, edited of course for 5th grade appropriateness. Live music and everything.

We were all beside ourselves with excitement and nervousness. I went home and announced the news to my mom after school. She was a wonderful musician herself, and promptly ordered the “Oklahoma” album so that I could learn and practice the songs to get ready for the auditions. She calmed my many anxieties and steadily encouraged me that I could do this.

Auditions came and went, and lo and behold…..Ado Annie came my way. After a brief disappointment that I didn’t get Laurey (which, by the way, was much too high for my singing voice and not right for me), I dived into the role and thrived under my music teacher’s encouragement and direction.

Somehow, that group of untrained, untried fifth graders pulled off the musical, and we gained confidence and memories that would last a lifetime.

So thank you, Mom. Thank you, Debbie Greeley. You made a huge difference with your love and encouragement. Love, Lisa

P.S. If any of you reading happen to know this song, it will do wonders for your mood to sing along with it this morning. By the end, you will be singing your head off and loving it! 🙂

P.S.S. If any of you would like to share stories of someone who encouraged you along the way, I would love to hear them in the comments below. 🙂

P.S.S.S. Cathy Liles Sweeney….you better be singing along! LOL