speaking truth in loveliness
I saw You in the lilies
and I saw You in the waves,
and I saw You in the smile that
stretched across my sister’s face,
but I can’t find You in the bloodstains;
I can’t feel You through the scars…
and I remember that You wore them both
to heal this aching heart.
This is the slightly revised version of the poem I shared last Friday on Instagram. I needed this reminder, and I hope it can bless you, too! Brokenness has never been the end of God’s story. ❤
(That really is all.:))
peace…
not an absence of pain or a
life full of sunbeams and clear
moonlit nights…
but a confidence that,
though the storms only swell,
my hand is in Yours…
with my soul it is well.
Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
Hello, friends!
Today’s poem is actually from a few years ago…but I wanted to dig it out of the depths of the blog because I really enjoy the rhythm and the message it holds. Hope you enjoy!
two natures fight within me,
clawing for complete control
and the evil one is winning –
its dark reign I can’t o’erthrow,
for its grasp about my mind
has left an imprint stiff as stone,
and its chains about my heart
into my flesh o’er time have grown.
and I can’t break from these shackles
that hold all my habits tight,
for the rust of time has locked them
and I cry into the night
as I see the one You crafted
to be swift and strong for You
melted to the mess I am –
how could my heart be so untrue?
yet the dawn is breaking now,
and in the early morning rays
I see the promise of the future
and new mercies with new days.
and I see the power of Calvary
making chains and shackles null
as Your faithfulness transforms me
and my shell falls, dead and dull
as new life is pulsing through me –
though I’ve stumbled and I’ve failed,
still You tell me that renewal
is one humble step away.
Photo by Federico Respini on Unsplash
And we leave September in the dust…
(Actually, we’re leaving it in splashes of mud. LOTS of mud. After a very dry summer, we spent a week in mud that made reminded me of London as portrayed in Bleak House.)
When you think of what you are, and despair; think also of what He is, and take heart.
C.H. Spurgeion
There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.
elisabeth elliot
Southpaw – Tabby RH
Garrison leaned his forearms against the island and bowed his head, letting the wooden countertop take his weight. The High King was still in the business of redemption.
This book!!! There are so many elements of the plot and characters that I want to emulate in my own novels, and it was an absolute joy to read. If you love involved plots with elements of mystery and memorable characters, you’d better get your hands on a copy!
The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer
Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.
I’ve been in a bit of a non-fiction reading slump, but I so appreciated this book a couple years back and I’m determined to appreciate it again.:)
The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
It was generally agreed that the joke was in very bad taste, and more food and drink were needed to cure the guests of shock and annoyance.
I’ve decided to finally read through this trilogy for the first time this autumn, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
Psalm 4:7
Lord, don’t let my fear overcome my desire for what is good and righteous. I just want to want Your ways completely.
Don’t let me choose tasks based on ease, but on Your heart.
Lord, help me to whole-heartedly love Your will, even when it comes at a great cost to myself.
Lay down your life FOR GOOD on the altar of truest love. If you are nothing else, be a clear channel of the love of Christ.
What are you taking away from this September?
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Hello, friends!
I dug out some of my old poetry the other day and found so many poems I’d forgotten…I touched one up and decided to share it with you here. I hope it blesses you like it did me.❤
oh, My child…
I see the pain in the way
you hold your head so high –
stiff, afraid of being weak,
vulnerable, for you feel that
another scar would be a thousand too many.
I see you, love,
when you’ve crawled to a secret place
to let out the grief
when the sobs rise without bidding,
and you trap the muffled wails deep in your throat.
even when you weep, you’re guarded…
but I see you.
I want you to know that
you can stop tracing the scars,
running your fingers through the pains in your past
as if they were pearls.
I want you to look up…
see Me, love.
aren’t I more to you than your broken dreams?
will you risk it all just to sail with Me?
I need you to trust Me when I say
this does not need to be your last chapter.
I promise…one day you will smile again
without brushing the ghost of this sorrow.
I’m wanting to read some more cozy poetry this autumn…do you have any favorite poets/collections you would recommend? Please drop any ideas in the comments!
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash
Hullo, friends!
(Can you believe it? I’m actually getting back into my schedule of posting once a week! XD)
August in my corner of the world was full of life: good and hard and sweaty. (Man, was it ever sweaty.) Here are some of my favorite takeaways…
To every right there is attached a duty, and to every privilege there is tied an obligation.
peter marshall
Holiness: The Heart God Purifies – Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
In other words, we must make it our constant, conscious ambition and aim to be holy. We have to work at it, concentrate on it, as an athlete sets his sights on winning an Olympic gold medal: He focuses on his objective, he trains and strains to achieve his goal, he sacrifices for it, he endures pain for it, and he puts aside other pursuits for the sake of a higher pursuit.
Reading this while going through Leviticus has been extra convicting/challenging. I highly recommend it.
The Memories We Painted – Caitlin Miller
But wasn’t that what love looked like — loving and being afraid? Wanting the best for someone but afraid of what that meant, of letting go when everything in you still wanted to hold on?
It’s been a while since a piece of fiction has wrenched and strengthened my heart like this.
This slower, introspective read is beautiful, and while some of the dialogue seemed a bit too eloquent (and because of that, slightly unrealistic) for my liking, I loved the way the author expressed the reality of suffering in an honest and hopeful way and wove so many pieces of the story together so masterfully. The dual timeline was also done extremely well! It lent so much depth to the main characters.
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”
Oh, my goodness. I read most of this aloud to a sister, and half of the time was spent laughing. The humor, plot twists, and foreshadowing are all spot on, and I’ll definitely be reading this again when I need a good laugh.
Look for Yellow – Anna Barroso
I’ll never be a sparkling one
but I hope I’ll catch your eye
I’m dripping with mold instead of glitter
oh how I want to be beautiful
how I want to shine for you
I have mixed feelings about this book…I LOVED the gut-punches and “I feel seen” moments the author delivered in some of the poems, such as the one quoted above…you know, those words you want to roll around and savor in your mind for awhile.✨
Personally I feel that the poetry could have used a bit more clarity and proofreading, but it does contain some real gems for the ones who need to feel seen and known in the middle of grief/hard times.❤️
Their feet upon temptation,
Emily Dickinson
Their faces upon God.
I know You are enough — always will be — but I’m coming to realize that sometimes You show up for those You love by sending them someone who will show them Your love in a very tangible way. (Make me this kind of person.)
The FOMO is hitting hard today…oh, give me a very real sense of Your ability to use me everywhere.
(On the Passover in Exodus 12) I love how God asks them to celebrate this victory of His before it even comes fully to fruition…much as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in anticipation of the day when we will eat and drink with Christ in His kingdom.
Oh, Father! Keep my eyes and heart and hope fixed on You, not Your work or blessings.
What are you taking away from this August? Did you have a favorite read of the month?
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
July has been left in the dust for a week now, so let’s review it, shall we?
There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oswald chambers
Little is much when God is in it,
Kittie l. Suffield
Labor not for wealth or fame;
There’s a crown, and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
Wildflower Pages – Brittany Litster
practice giving your time and flowers // practice giving more than required // expecting nothing in return // it mimics the Father’s way of doing things
This was such a lovely collection of poetry that focuses on the simplicity and beauty of living each day with Christ. Some of the poems did seem to get a bit repetitive by the end, but it’s amazing and definitely a collection I’ll be referencing!
(It’s also the first book I’ve colored in since toddlerhood…see the pictures here!)
The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage – Carolyn Keene
The Dana girls had found the teacher’s car. But where was Miss Tisdale?
My teenage self would have loved this so much more than my current self did this summer. XD
Think Nancy Drew, but it’s two sisters at a boarding school instead with all of the fun no-gore mystery and adventure elements. It was a fun riveting read for a week and I’d hand it over to my little sisters with no qualms, but there’s no character development that would induce me to spend much more time on this series because my TBR is so long!
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
“I have, let me confess it in all humility, a pitiful human wish that someone should know just how clever I’ve been…”
I’m still not sure how I feel about this one…it’s an absolutely brilliant mystery, but due to the sheer number and type of murders, it felt extremely dark. It’s not really something on which I want to be dwelling.
The Memories We Painted – Caitlin Miller
But wasn’t that what love looked like — loving and being afraid? Wanting the best for someone but afraid of what that meant, of letting go when everything in you still wanted to hold on?
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for so long! I’m still at the beginning.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E.L. Konigsburg
Instead of oxygen and stress, Claudia thought now of hushed and quiet words: glide, fur, banana, peace.
I’ve been reading this one to my little sisters and skipping the unsavory parts. XD It’s been such a fun read with so much laughter.
“I know that You can do anything,
Job 42:2
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
The proof of the gospel isn’t in poetry or flimsy words; it’s lived out in a transformed life.
Oh, Lord, help me to remember that even my breath is Yours…Yours to recall whenever You so choose. Help me to live wisely in light of that! Show me where and how to spend my minutes.
and so I run…
barefoot, restless, reckless through the grass,
fingers splayed wide as they reach with expectance
for a warming horizon…
ready to catch the rays of the sun
as soon as they spill o’er
the edge of the world.
What were some of the highlights of your July?
❤ Laurel
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash
Hello, friends! I’m finally returning with one of my favorite poems from this summer…
Father, calm this raging soul…
speak peace above the whitecaps
lashing out upon the teeming shores.
hold fast this wandering heart;
bind it to Thy will in love, for
I’m tired
of telling myself the lie that
I’d be better off if only…
cut those bitter words off at the source:
this raging soul.
oh, speak peace above the whitecaps…
help me love the teeming shores.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Is it my prayer to be made comfortable, or to be made complete?
The topic of joy and trials linked together has been on my mind lately, and since I haven’t shared one of these “on my heart” kind of posts in a while (it’s been mostly poetry, life updates, and trying to convince you to buy my books! XD), I thought I’d try to gather my ramblings into a blog post.
Can trials seriously be an opportunity to rejoice?
In spite of having James 1:2-4 memorized for years, I’ve been reading/recalling it wrong this whole time. In case you aren’t familiar with it, here it is…
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
James 1:2-4
Honestly, whenever I read or recited this verse, most of the last part was drowned out by the first part: My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials… And to be honest, I pictured this joy as a “grin and bear it” sort of thing. A grimacing endurance of hard times because we know that good things are ahead for us as Christians (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
But in listening to this message and recent sermons and small group discussions, it finally hit me that joy isn’t just something that we’re supposed to cling to as we weather the storms of life. It’s something that can be found because of the storm.
“…count it all joy…knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
Sure, the trial itself isn’t any fun. At all. (Unless you love pain.) But we can rejoice in the fact that the trial will refine us, revealing to us our weaknesses and showing God’s strength through us, and ultimately conforming us more purely to His image.
“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
I mean, if that’s not encouraging…
And this we also pray, that you may be made complete.
2 Corinthians 13:9b
Then this verse popped up in my Bible time the other morning, and it made me ask myself how often I pray to be made more mature, more complete, and then come crying to God when the very trials that will give me maturity slip (and sometimes pour!) into my life.
Quite honestly, it’s often.
Very often.
But I want to stop living that way.
I want to get in the habit of embracing the struggles. Of choosing to see the end result instead of simply wailing about the current mess, while somehow managing to delight in the lovely moments of now instead of being lost in an eternal chasing of the future.
So there it is…a sort of brain dump of what I’ve been processing lately. It’s by no means an exhaustive essay, but I hope it gets some wheels turning in your head and pushes you deeper into Scripture and prayer like its doing for me.
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
Photo by Jonathan Ouimet on Unsplash
the sun slips behind a glowing horizon,
weary of casting light upon
the wicked deeds of man.
perhaps…
in the morning…
but over and over
the sun rises and sets
on a world that crowns wickedness
and spits in the face of righteousness.
one day…
I know…
a greater Son will rise and
fall no more,
casting light on a throng of faithful men
who treasured the light of this Son
while others basked only in the glory of
the one that slips now beneath a glowing horizon.
Will I ever stop writing poetry that a.) contains sunset imagery, and b.) looks forward to eternity?
I think not.
❤ Laurel
Laurel Luehmann 