ADVENT 2018

Candle lighting to follow....beginning the time of preparation.

 FIRST ADVENT DECEMBER 2, 2018!

AND SO IT BEGINS..............

AND SO IT BEGINS...............Christmas Season 2018.

Lunch with friends. Christmas music and message....

,,,,my favorite Christmas carol, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" 

sung by choir carolers at "Miss Ann's" table.

"Glory to the New Born King!"

Here's a Great Christmas..

From Beginning to end,

I got a terrific "beginning" present--

----lunch with Ann, my sweet friend!* (Proverbs 27:9)

What a great jumpstart for this special season. 

*Thanks to Judy B. for making it possible.

NAMESAKES

Davenport is my mother's maiden name.

Cousin Carl (William Carl) is the remaining bearer of the surname Davenport. He also bears the middle name of his grandfather, Robert William Davenport, as his first name.
Mother named her youngest child (Robert Davenport Adams) for her dad, Robert William Davenport. 

ROBERT DAVENPORT ADAMS---polite even when he was too weak to lift his arms after his recent quadruple bypass.

Two of her grandchildren included their "Gigi's" nee in the name of their sons, her great grandsons, Caleb Davenport Liles and Owen Davenport Kennedy. What a tribute! I'm sure she would have been honored to have two namesakes. Mother died in 2001 and never knew any of her great grandsons.

CALEB DAVENPORT LILES--turns 13 today and is entering  young adulthood wearing the  Davenport name proudly

OWEN DAVENPORT KENNEDY--carrying the name into the Kennedy family with grace

A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. (Proverbs 22:1, KJV)

DESIRES OR YEARNINGS

For Wordsmith Wednesday, I was drawn to the connotation evoked by similar words.
Desires & yearnings---nouns with similar definitions. Both words can be used as nouns in function but delete the plural and both easily become verbs in their usage.

How does scripture use these terms? As synonyms?

Still musing or mulling it over...going deeper than I ever imagined..........Check out the references listed in the labels.

At this point, I'm seeing yearning, at least in the biblical sense, as going hand in hand with seeking with ones' heart and so far have found it used more often in the Old Testament of the Bible (8) than the New Testament.   (1) Yearning has a depth connotation to me. Deep as stated in Genesis 43:30---Joseph's yearning from his bowels with weeping for his brother and he found sanctuary in his chamber as he wept.

Desire - A heart's desire.
Yearn - A desire that is taken to the depths of one's soul.

Seek the Lord and His strength and yearn for and seek His face and to be in His presence continually. (1 Chronicles 16:11)

TUESDAY TRUTHS

Showing up in the lives of children is everything. 
Kindness is the only strength there is.
Those two truths were quotes from Bob Goff's, Everybody Always.

Goff also states......

• If there is a fundamental challenge in theses stories, it is to change these lurking suspicions that some lives matter less than other lives.
• “Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.” 

Forgiveness is needed if one exercises "sanctimonious" service to others....as if we are the only one with something to give! One must allow others to share & give to you---it's two-way!
It helps them retain their dignity. (Gregory J. Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion)

Treat everyone you meet with dignity. (1Peter 2:17. MSG)

FRIDAY IN FLORIDA: A RECAP OF BLESSINGS

From sunrise.........

.........To sunset,

Time with family is worth the drive! (Proverbs 22:6)

THANKSGIVINGS TO REMEMBER!

There are some things familiar about Thanksgiving Day....

..............from the Macy's Parade.....

to sumptuous food...

Whenever in doubt,.....
choose"All the above" like on high school tests when you did not know the answer.
FYI key lime, pecan, cheesecake & carrot cake all got votes from the "sweet tooth queen" at our table.

Somethings don't change. It's been a day of giving thanks in our country side 1789. Thanks for the blessings of the harvest and the blessings of the previous year as congress & Washington proclaimed.

"Thank you God prayers" (1 Thessalonians 5:18) are abundant for our family this year as well!!

DIVERSI-TEA: A FLAVORFUL CUPPA

Diversi-TEA is a colorful, flavorful cuppa!

Yet, in some areas, as folks try to serve it, it somehow gets jostled and spills all over the place.

This display at sculptress, Heidi Walter's, said it all! 

Heidi says, "God speaks to my heart. My art speaks of my heart."

Love = diversity. It's modeled in scripture as our Lord shows no partiality. (Deuteronomy 10:17)

Continue to serve it up in Memphis. One cuppa diversi-TEA at a time! 

SNIT, TWIT, OR WRONG SIDE OF THE BED

Have you ever started a day feeling off-kilter. At 2211, in my early years, Mother would say, "Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Lysa TerKeurest said, "I woke up one morning in a twit." Embraced devotional (p. 259)  I, too, as Terkheurst says, am not even sure what a twit is unless one adds a "ter" to it. These day everyone knows what twitter is. 

TerKhurst describes a twit as "all twisted up with irritation sprinkled on top."

To me, that's a snit. I can wake up in a snit. Even a slight traffic delay, computer snafu or 45 minute hold on the phone can throw me into one. 

Regardless of the word choice for irritation/agitation, there's a real "choice" to be made! 

Choose to focus on God and not the "bum circumstance." Pause--inhale, exhale! Then choose.

 

His presence can unleash peace--enough peace for any snit, twit or wrong side of the bed! (Philippians 4:7)

SATURDAY SNIPPETS

Snippets are pithy grabbers of sorts . Bits and pieces. Concise. Big thoughts with few words. Poetry found in prose. Those are my definitions.

Merriam-Webster has its own. 

Definition of snippet 

: a small part, piece, or thing,  especially  : a brief quotable passage

We agree on the brief quotable passages. That's what this entry is to become---a repository for personal snippets that speak to me from books I read.

• In answer to her daughter Annie's question, "Why didn't I feel this before?", Lorraine said, 
• "Because we embrace out scars more than our healing." (Albom, M. the next person you meet in heaven, (p.149)
• Victor the stutterer---"True courage is having the strength to do the things that terrify you." (Vawter, V. Paperboy, CD chapter 1)
• But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:15) Meddler jumped off the "evil" list and still has my attention!
• Sometimes bad people mess things up for the good people doing good. (Duncan, A. Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop, Sanitation Strike of 1968, 2018, unpaged)

Even a snippet from a child's picture book can have me pause to ponder.