CHOOSE: PITHY

Tweets are pithy. 'Cept I don't tweet. 
I get all atwitter just thinking about it. 
Blogging can be pithy, tho often mine are not----at least I can "choose pithy" as I blog today.

Pithy is often so much harder than wordiness! All wordsmith's recognize that writing hazard. Saying the most with the fewest words is more appropriate for today's hurried lifestyles.

Scripture itself supports the use of fewer, yet meaningful, words. In Job 16:3, the question is asked, "Is there no limit to windy words?" 
That's what superfluous words are like---hot air. 

More words can lead to confusion. Ecclesiastics 6:11 states, "For there are many words which increase futility."

Possibly if I choose to blog pithy entires, blog readers will be joyful!

"The teakettle is "tweeting you." (Family Circus,)

Was this one pithy enough? It took me about as long to type this as it did for my cuppa to steep.

CHOOSE: MY ONE WORD

"CHOOSE: MY ONE WORD." This entry title says it all for me. Literally.

My One Word, as Franklin Graham calls it, "is a refreshing approach to NewYear's Resolutions..."
Kyle Idleman calls it, a lens that can change every area of your life....more than a to-do list....more than a New Year's resolution.

It was a book that I had never even heard of until last Friday---a gift from visiting friend, Angie.
A book I have since devoured although the recommended approach is a slow one.
The premise is choosing one-word for your year's focus. Just one. The choosing occurs after prayerful consideration over a period of time. Friend and blog reader, Margie H, leaned over and said, "I bet your word is going to be joy." Actually that came to my mind as well.
After all, I blogged on January 1, "In 2017 may I choose joy!"

But God....obviously had a different word in  mind. It all started as I looked back at that very first entry. The fact that I even had continued blogging in 2017, is still somewhat of a mystery to me.
Being as OCD as I am, I began reading in order all the titles of "dotsydetails" entries since January 1. There was one word consistent in all 37 entries and it wasn't joy. The word was choose.
So many of my responses in life, even in my thought life, are of my own choosing. Though I'm not sure where all this word choice will take me as I begin to focus but the Lord has already provided a good foundation. Two verses will begin my "choose" project. The first is from Joshua 24:15, "Choose this day whom you will serve...."
The second verse is "Seek ye first the kingdom of God...."(Matthew 6:33) Though "choose" is not stated in the verse, to me, it is "understood." One must choose to seek. Seeking Him is a choice. God showed me that choosing to seek is a volitional concept of an intended action. In other words, by an act of my will, I make daily choices----whether of not I choose to seek Him first or to serve Him, the choice is always up to me. The ball of "choice" is in my court! I hope to share throughout the year what God teaches me as I focus on my single word choice!

Choose is "my one word." That word says it all for me for 2017.

migh-TEA BIG cuppa

Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6, NIV)

Why blog? 

Maybe because it will have lasting value for my grandchildren. Tweets, Instagram and even FB seem more ephemeral. Tweets evaporate almost instantly and Instagram and FB too follow into an almost black hole within a month. I want my "grands" and great grands to know of my faith---after I'm long gone. A faith that anchors my soul.

Why blog daily? 

Certainly not to add more cobwebs to the "blogosphere." But God seemed to "compel me" to daily blogging this year.

Is blogging hard work? 

Yes......Though it's not as hard as building a temple would have been for Zerubbabel in the above verse, it's beyond my own strength. If my blogging is not Spirit led, it is rubbish with no lasting value. Often, I wonder if the time to quit is drawing nigh, especially when I don't "feel" His power and and the writing seems "toilsome." (Ecclesiastes 2:26) 

How does one know if her blogging pleases God?

The other day I asked myself the same question. And tho the "drop and plop" method is not spiritual, recently I did just that---finding 1 Corinthians 10:13 and a Harriet Beecher Stowe quote that I hope explains my purpose.

I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did His dictation.

Stowe's writing coupled with God's word would be a "migh-TEA BIG cuppa to digest....but hopefully even my small blog is sincerely written in wholehearted service to the Lord in order to glorify Him.

Fluid Motion

9/3/10 FAT BLOG VERSION

Writing and Dancing. Both are at their peak as fluid motion. In the verb form, both require action. This morning I’m a little sluggish on the “action” aspect of life and there is certainly no “fluid” in my motion. I’m drained dry. Of course, Zyrtec exacerbates the “dry” part.

Writing, for me, tends to be a vent for suppressed/repressed emotions. Just the act of writing is freeing. Even the smooth flowing of an ink pen can help enhance the experience. (I still have a pen from the 60s that takes a cartridge.) Dancing on the other hand provides an outlet for pent up muscles and “stove-up” joints---or any other “crunked up” (friend Pam’s word) parts of this aging carcass. Not sure how graceful or fluid the movements are at this season of life.

I’m sure there is an exact scientific definition for fluid motion somewhere out in cyber space but for me it’s just my way of connecting writing and dancing. Writing is like dancing---alike at the point when “grace” in the action becomes smoother and more flowing---a result of practice. Practice = action. Movement. Words just seem to float around in my brain but when I let them out through my fingertips, there comes for me a focus---a pared down focus that helps me shape and clarify truth. That’s why I blog. It’s really for me. Readers just get to peek over my shoulder---a partial read, of sorts.

There are bloggers galore and who’s got time for all their words? Therefore, though writing is therapeutic for me, I’m working on paring down blog entries. There’s a skill in that---like poetry--- saying the most with fewest words. I teach that skill to HHS students but am having trouble following my own instructions.

Even scripture had to be pared down---more affirmation that I should follow suit. In John 21:25 we’re told not only of all the many things that Christ did well but…..

“If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

Signing off for today---trying not to crowd cyberspace---

SKINNY BLOG VERSION

Trying to make blog entries pithier while still allowing for fluid motion. It’s hard work. I need to practice, practice, practice.