SLEEP BABY SLEEP

My friend's grand baby died this week and it has been a tremendously heart wrenching experience. So, in honor of little 2 1/2 month old Miley Chea' I wrote this before the graveside service today.

SLEEP BABY SLEEP

I held you once

So soft and sweet

I look at you today

So quiet and faraway

Sleep baby sleep

There are flowers everywhere

And tears in every eye

So quickly you left

No time for good-byes

Sleep baby sleep

Empty arms

And broken hearts

Dreams over before begun

You’re so tiny and still

Sleep baby sleep

Cradled in Jesus’ arms

Heaven’s nursery is now your home

We’ll miss you always

Awake to Heaven’s glory

Sleep baby sleep

"Thinking of You"

THINKING OF YOU

As autumn shrouds the parks and grounds of play

As leaves fall silently covering all

As the winds of winter begin to blow

I think, my friend, of you

The winds in blustery force assail

As you walk head bent across the span of lawn

As the chill of damp is in the air

I think, my friend, of you

School children calling out in shrill voices

As they kick through the fallen leaves

As teachers call them to return to class

I think, my friend, of you

I think, my friend, of you

As you gather your children in your embrace

As you kiss your spouse in joy

I think, my friend, of you

I joy in knowing you are loved

As autumn ends with winter’s shove

As a new year comes with abounding love

I think, my friend, of you.

11/20/07 Amanda Rankin

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Dear Children, do not let anyone lead you astray.” I John 3:7

What an awesome admonition!

Too often we allow the influences in our lives to cloud the direction we know that we should be headed. Other paths become ‘prettier’, or more ‘interesting’, or that’s where our ‘friends’ are. It is so easy to get sidetracked.

It is hard to watch as others walk down their path of life, without screaming and crying, when you see them turn down what you perceive as the wrong road for their life. It’s hard to know whether it is the path their life MUST take to get them to where God has destined them to be or if the Enemy of their soul is leading them astray.

Maybe the detours we see our life take or the detour that others’ take are God’s way of getting us into position for greatness. Take Joseph…had he not been a little braggadocios snot to his brothers they wouldn’t have felt the need to get rid of the punk. How else would he have ever gotten on the path to being 2^nd in command of Egypt and in a position to save his family? Joseph never forgot to live upright before God even in his adversity. That is probably the key. Joseph in his time in the pit, during his tenure as a slave, and then during his incarceration in prison, never forgot God’s promises and never forgot God. He remained faithful.

Can we live as faithfully given those circumstances? Could those influences (hateful family members, sexual temptation, being lied about and/or unjustly imprisoned) make us choose a path away from God and His purpose for our life?

No doubt the people in our life have impact. We also have impact on the lives around us. Are you leading or are you being led?

Bloggette

I blogged away the stress today
Posted all my joys and woes
I felt so much better
Out from under all that load

When next I checked
I found to my amaze'
All my friends had written
In response to me this day

Now I'll be blogging back
To each and every one
To let them know I read
To acknowledge what they said

Here I am..joining this world of bloggers

The pressure has been on for quite a while to join this world of blogging mania. Not too sure what will come of it. I have so much to say and no one to hear it seems ... so...we will see what happens.

I hope to use this space to post the poems I have written and those that are waiting behind my finger tips to be written. They range from spiritual in nature to just thoughts on life.

I'll be back,