Soaking
January 8, 2013
I’ll soak in your thoughts
Remember the things you say
Write them on my heart
Please light the flame in my soul
Let it burn for you today
I will enter your throne room
In quiet and wait for you
I am so slow to hear you
You words are simple
I’ll act on your words
Reflect, only you are God
I’ll light the candle of hope
Receive your mercy
Accept your peace in the storm
Receive your gentle presence
Gratitude fills me
I choose to believe the truth
He’s stored life for me
In the sight of all mankind
My cup overflows with love
“The words I speak are Spirit”
His words are light to my soul
I believe them like a son
Holding Father’s hand
Going out not knowing
Trusting He will lead the way
~
My Utmost for His Higest – January 3
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young – January 3
Psalm 31:19-20; John 6:33, 16:33; Psalm 97:2,3,20,11
“When a man gets to God, it is by most simple ways—words.” Oswald Chambers
Living with the Unseen
September 20, 2012
Mark Your Life
December 18, 2011
“Never, never, never give up!” Winston Churchill
“Nothing in the World is as Important as a Human Being.” Landon Saunders
Awake with Awareness
November 20, 2011
I don’t want to change the world
I want to be changed by You
The darkness in me is great
Your light exposes
When I see Your face
And I know that You see mine
Your love cuts through me
My shame and guilt are removed
I’m overwhelmed by Your love
As long as I’m in the flesh
I awake with awareness
My humanity can rule
If I allow it
I have a choice to be loved
To accept his forgiveness
To face the truth about me
The truth about God
I am changed by His story
His teachings have saved my life
I want to know Your love more
Live by Your Spirit
Looking back I see failure
My ignorance grieves my soul
To begin each day with love
Is my only hope
I will look forward
Eyes fixed on the Beloved
Hungry to know Him better
Eager to obey
The one who loves without end
My friend, my Savior, my Lord
I come this morning
Purify my heart, dear Lord
Open my eyes to see You
I cannot fathom
How near and dear Your love is
The Real Secret
June 5, 2011
The Unseen Gift
May 2, 2011
Hope
April 23, 2011
To read the true story this poem is based on click here.
~
Mary and Martha
Their hope did not come
When they wanted Him to come
They were grieving and broken
~
Jesus disappointed them
He did not come when they called
He did come with a surprise
With power and love
~
He came to them right on time
To teach them new things of God
They knew He was their good friend
They knew He was God
~
“Your brother will rise to life”
His presence revealed this truth
He wept when He saw Mary
He knew her name well
~
Yes, He knows your name
He also weeps for you now
He knows your story and your grief
He is here for you
~
He asked for Mary
She heard Martha whispering
“The teacher is calling you”
To come and see Him
~
He is calling you
Do you hear His whispering
His voice can be heard
Use both heart and mind
And focus on His story
Dedicated to our special family friend Michelle.
First posted on my daughter Sara’s blog “A Spacious Place”.
Handprints
March 16, 2011
An Unspoken Dream and A Christmas Story
December 24, 2010
~
An unspoken dream
That is in everyone
A longing within
This dream articulated
In universal language
~
I had a dream as a child
I wanted a home with peace
An atmosphere of loving care
To celebrate life
~
Moments of oneness
I remember them so well
Laughter and playing
Learning a rhythm of joy
Experienced in the child
~
I got a glimpse of it
The first seven years of life
Playing ball with the neighbors
Being held with love
~
Children need a holding place
Of personal tender care
Where they feel safe and secure
Untouched by trouble
~
The home is the place
Where joy is at the center
Laughter the result
Forgiveness reigns all around
The freedom to discover
~
I will tell the world
That peace is within their reach
What you need first is desire
Then a clear vision
If it is there you will find it
Relationships that flourish
~
I’ll never give up
Living peace and sharing it
It is my great joy
~
Those who want to know
Who are searching with their heart
Will certainly find
It will take your best thinking
Then faith and courage to act
~
It is in practicing
The things that you know are true
You’ll discover more
~
There are daily practices
I’ve discovered on the way
That are essential to me
For living in joy
~
I awoke from a dream this morning, with my heart going out to the children who long to be held, and to experience home as a safe place. I felt that safety as a little child, although my parents as teenagers did not know how to provide it. There was extended family, (and neighbors) who provided this safety until my family unit fell apart. I believe there is a longing in everyone to find a place of peace where joy sits at the center. I want to be a part of pointing the way to this authentic life that is available to all. These reflections came out of my dream last night, and after meditating on Proverbs 20 and John 15.
© Terry S. Smith
*****************************************************
The following article and picture appeared on the front page of the Burlington Daily Times on December 24, 1985, in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts.
A Christmas Story – December 24, 1985
A man painfully remembers: years of confusion, guilt, and learning to survive in a world where hate and fear consumed his childhood.
When he was seven years old, his mother stood on the hood of the car, kicked the windshield in and cursed the boy’s father to hell.
When the boy was eight, divorce and alcoholism robbed him of his mother. The parent’s failure, anger, and hate tore the relationship apart and another family unit fragmented.
This is a story about a mother and son coming together after eighteen years, and about the One who stirred their hearts into a love that brought healing and hope to a once broken relationship.
~
~
I had always wondered about her. She was beautiful, but many of my memories were painful, reinforced by my father’s hatred for her. While I was growing up, he cut me off from anyone who cared about her.
Then during my last year of graduate school, I found where she lived, discovering that in a city of 600,000 people, I was driving past her house daily.
Should I go see her? What would she be like now? She would be forty-five years old. Could I understand this woman who left four young children, never again to be involved in their childhood?
She didn’t know who I was when my wife and I knocked on her door in October of 1968. But a new journey began.
Her story was hard. She had married at sixteen, had three children before age twenty-one. She married five times, was an alcoholic, and currently was living with a man who was not her husband.
She hated herself. She had attempted suicide by cutting her throat, jumping out of a car going eighty miles an hour, and by putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.
But, the gun misfired. It fell on the floor, blowing a hole in the wall. She lived!
The reunion with her son helped her to realize she could start over again. She began to fight! But it was like trying to climb a greased slide. My family — a wife and two babies — now included this woman, my mother, who, after wanting to die all these years, now had a desire to live.
The failure I experienced in my childhood caused me to pursue the field of counseling to learn how to live in relationships, and not make the same mistakes my parents made. There had to be a way to live in this world and not be victimized by failure, anger, insecurity and guilt.
People can come back together and healing can take place in relationships. But how? How could this woman ever have forgiven herself for leaving her children? How could the children have ever forgiven her for abandoning them?
As a family counselor in Burlington, I have chosen, for a model, one person in history who knew how to love and treat human beings. I find very few people who have read his life. Not many are willing to give and extend mercy toward those who hurt them. Not many are willing to say: “I am wrong!”; “I am sorry!”; “Forgive me!”
The little baby whose birthday the world celebrates at this time of the year grew up to be a man. He met a woman at the well who had been married five times and was living with a man not her husband. The man at the well treated the woman with dignity, respect, consideration, and compassion. It changed her life.
The angels announced at his birth that he has come to bring good tidings of great joy. The woman at the well experienced it the day she met him. I have tested it on the streets of the twentieth century and it holds today. My mother found hope, forgiveness, and new beginnings because this man’s evaluation of human worth represented by the heart of the God and Father of us all.
Our challenge at this season is to look past the commercialism of Christmas. To look beyond the religious ritual, and to sense the mystery of the One who came among us to demonstrate and to give a new quality of life.
I’ve just returned from a family wedding. It was the first time in thirty-five years the family was together. My mother flew back with us, and will celebrate her first New England Christmas with me and my family. We realize that we owe this reunion to the One whose perspective on life continues to bring into a dark world hope and light.
Our hearts are full of thanksgiving as we celebrate the reality of his presence.
**************************************************
My mother died in the year 2000, at the age seventy-seven. She experienced in her heart, soul, and mind, the joy of God’s peace.
~
Thankful with all my heart
November 25, 2010
~
What I seek with all my heart
Is what will control my life
I will decide what that is
What matters most
Relationship wins
What do I hide in my heart
Be aware of this
Secrets will rule under stress
The light of life brings healing
I will hide your words
At the center of my life
They are words of love and hope
Demonstrated well
By one compassionate life
Full of grace and forgiveness
No one can compare
I’ll meditate on what’s true
It is hidden to be found
Only those wanting
To find out the real thing
Will recognize God’s presence
I’ll open my eyes
Look carefully at what’s true
Decide to follow
A simple life speaks
His words are my treasured gifts
They breathe life in me
I memorize them
They are written on my heart
Unleash imaginations
Reveal the real world
When I examine His life
My soul rises to the joy
His teaching practiced
Has given me wings of joy
Soaring over circumstance
Of daily drama
Given by generations
Handed down through the darkness
A fish out of water
A bird put under water
Will soon die quickly
Water for the fish
Open air is for the birds
God’s word is for man
When out of their element
All will have trouble breathing
And will surely die
I have learned the joy
When I practice His teaching
I am captured by His love
I’m close to His heart
He came to me in despair
His story delights my soul
I run in my heart
My body is breaking down
My life is renewed
Internally I seek Him
The morning brings me great joy
His guidelines are giving life
In trust I seek to obey
I discover mystery
When I act on truth
I experience my God
As my friend and companion
When I let his words run deep
Meditate and act
An intimate connection
Takes place in the human soul
When I accept forgiveness
From my Creator
I love His guidelines
They have taken the load off
Today I run after them
They’ve set my heart free
To live in a present joy
© Terry S. Smith
November 25, 2010
Reflections written after meditating on parts of Psalm 119. To live in joy one must train on all three levels of personality – head, heart, and gut.
The body is a beautiful instrument of God, and we must practice the fundamental guidelines to discover the sound of joy that lives in the soul.
Because He loved me on the dark side of my soul, I am compelled by His love to seek to practice obeying and living in His presence each day.
~
my quest
September 6, 2010
Souls refined
June 22, 2010
Be still
January 8, 2010
Light
December 17, 2009
journey
October 31, 2009
~
I’ll never give up
Seeking to know what will work
To enhance this life
To make things better for all
Seeking how to live with joy
I’ll begin with me
I’ll learn to care for myself
In all dimensions
Then I will share with others
With those who want to listen
There are five things I need
Awareness of greater love
Food to eat and forgiveness
Leadership and hope
These I seek each day
I live in discovery
In each of these areas
Because I focus
My answers don’t satisfy
Those looking for a quick fix
But those who will choose to search
Will certainly find
Finding others who’re seeking
Working with the same questions
Makes the journey much lighter
Friendships develop
© Terry S. Smith
October 27, 2009
~