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)

HOPE NOTES

Hope fulfilled shows in one's countenance. (Psalm 15:13)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick. (Proverbs 13:12)

Who is your hope? What do you hope? Why do you hope? 

Therefore, consider what you hope for and put your trust in the One who is your eternal hope, regardless of the current outcome!

SOUL SEARCHING

Years ago I learned that one's soul is comprised of the mind, the will and the emotions.
On my own, I began to see how God's love encapsulates my soul. Holding it tightly.
Or maybe it's vice versa----maybe my soul, as a believer is a vessel for His love.

Recent reads have offered other definitions of one's soul. Roger Rosenblatt, in his book, Boy Detective, speaks of taking his "two souls on a walk"---one for the senses and one for the mind. I disagree that they never connect but that might just be a point of semantics. According to him, the mind's soul is the point of deepest thinking and our heart's soul, the point of deepest feeling.
Certainly his lyrical allegory of "two souls leading parallel lives, though never meeting, yet connected---move side by side as they move into eternity, like legs on a walk." was an interesting, albeit different, perspective. (Rosenblatt, p.8)

Gregory Boyle also added knew depth to my "soul searching" in his book, Tattoos on the Heart The Power of Boundless Compassion. Boyle's experiences (and successes) as the head of a ministry to gangs in LA is beyond my wildest imaginations. I have no point of reference other than "breaking news" segments on TV. However, I gained many jewels from this eye-opening book. An easy read of case studies, of sorts.

• Choice is not to focus on the narrow but to narrow our focus. (p.3 1) 
• Kinship is not serving the other, but being one with the other. Jesus was not a man for others; He was one with them. (p. 188)
• As we belong to one another, we let others feel their worth! (p.196)

My favorite reminder was from the lyrics of "O Holy Night"---"Long lay the world in sin and error pining----til He appeared and the soul felt its worth."
Soul-ful words worth searching for and remembering as  one soul reaches out to another.