WHOLE-HEARTED

Synonym Survey of wholehearted on this Wordsmith Wednesday!

(wholehearted (Allen Bible Church graphic)

• abiding.
• ardent.
• authentic.
• bona fide.
• candid.
• committed.
• complete.
• dedicated.

My focus verses this year deal with the love of one's heart. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind and with all all your strength. The second is  this: 'Love your neighbor as yoursel'. There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)

I like the Weymouth New Testament version that uses "whole" as the descriptor....and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, thy whole soul, thy whole mind, thy whole strength and thy fellow man as much as thyself). (Luke 10:27 WNT, emphasis mine)

It keeps wholehearted ringing in my ears with the whole of its synonyms.

PONDER!

Obsession seems to be a part of my framework---at least the themes of my blog. 

Choose. Dance. Please God. Tea. Alliterative phrases and palindromic words. Alphabetical order.

On Wednesdays, I am often all about words. This past week started out with "ponder" as seen in a text from a friend.

What do I ponder? Why? Who knows? Reasons vary.

How do I ponder? Awareness  of the word. Sometimes it pops out in a scripture or on a sign.

"Ponder resources"---Old school Merriam Webster used---you know the hard copy that has resided bedside since college days--- my first was a high school graduation gift from my Aunt Dot Seay. Pretty obvious I am her namesake! 

Parts of speech are usually first in my pursuit. Inflections, ponders, pondering pondered, i.e. verb tenses. are same as inflections-- Verb, intransitive. 

Library book found......I saw it on the title of a book, as if used as an adjective. Then I started the book and Ponder was a noun. The Ponders were a family in Eudora Welty's novella, The Ponder Heart (I'm only beginning to read this because, of course, the title intrigued me.) Already I have seen ponders used as an adjective as it describes the generous heart of Daniel Ponder.

Defintions--appraise, think about, weigh in the mind.

On-line dictionary used when ease of "pasting " is needed.

Word search followed. Synonyms to expand my understanding, i.e. are there degrees of pondering?

Synonyms pasted Synonyms for ponder

chew over, 

cogitate, 

consider, 

contemplate, 

debate, 

deliberate, 

entertain, 

eye, 

kick around, 

meditate, 

mull (over), 

perpend, 

pore (over), 

question, 

revolve, 

ruminate, 

study, 

think (about or over), 

turn, 

weigh, 

wrestle (with)

Scripture search ensued....6 found in NIV  concordance--explorations of different versions later. 

One verse stood out.  Psalm 107:43 (NIV w/ ESV additions)

Whoever is wise, let him heed (attend to ) these things, and (let them consider) ponder the loving deeds n( steadfast love of the LORD. (Yahweh)

More musing and reflecting---which sent me down a rabbit hole of soul stillness--the connection between my soul pondering and God's steadfast love. (Steadfast is My One Word for 2021) But that's pondering for another time!