Gayl Wright

For a child will be born for us,  a son will be given to us,  and the government will be on his shoulders.  He will be named  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 ADVENT - A TIME OF STILLNESS December has begun and with it the season of Advent, a time of waiting expectantly. Advent calls us to take time for stillness to contemplate the birth of Jesus and what it means for us. It is also a time to look forward to Jesus' return.  Make no mistake - He will return, though we don't know when. After the prophecies of His first coming, centuries went by before the angel appeared to Mary, announcing that she would be the one to bear the Messiah. I'm sure people had grown tired of waiting. Many people probably forgot about the promise of a Messiah. When He did come, He was not recognized. The religious leaders were against Him and sought to kill Him. They even incited the crowd to ask Pilate to release Barabbas, a ...

TIME FOR STILLNESS Stillness is hard to come by these days. It seems there is always something to think about or attend to. Things have happened that try to disrupt my peace and have somewhat succeeded when I dwelt on them. Yet, when I turned my focus back to God and what Jesus went through for me, my trials didn’t seem so bad after all. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy to deal with some of these issues, but I believe what this scripture tells us: We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ( Romans 8:28 ). We may think we don't have time for stillness because of pressing issues. In an earlier post , I talked about finding stillness in different ways. In that post, I said, “I believe we can have a sense of calmness and tranquility  without  silence and with movement.” Of course, that doesn’t discount the fact that sometimes it does mean being still and quiet.  In our #oneword2024 Facebo...

PIPEDREAM OR REALITY We all have ideas of what we’d like our “someday” to be – getting that book published, finding our dream job, having an organized home with no clutter, etc. Someday is the word prompt for #FiveMinuteFriday . (I’m sure I took longer than 5 minutes). One of the first things that came to mind was a song from a Disney movie – Someday My Prince Will Come. Well, we all know there is no such thing on earth as a prince that will fulfill all our dreams. With a human being, it is not possible. We are all flawed, and when we look to other humans to satisfy our longings we will always be disappointed. Sure, we may be able to encourage and lift each other, but we can never fulfill all the needs of one another. Only God can fulfill our every need. He will never fail, and His love will never end. Because He loves us and knows what is best for us, He doesn’t always give us what we think we want. Yet, He always does what is best for us even if we don’t understand it at the ti...

photo taken April 2024 at Redington Shores, Florida SOME OR ALL? The word some is the #FiveMinuteFriday prompt. Some is a simple word but can be paired with other words like – somewhere, somehow, someone, sometime, something, and probably many more. The word some does not include all. That means when we choose one thing, we are not choosing other things.     We may choose some people to be our close friends and others remain acquaintances. Yet, whether close friends, acquaintances, or strangers - we can treat them all with kindness. Every person is created in the image of God and therefore has worth.    Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith. Galatians 6:9-10   a portion of an art journal page We may be tempted sometimes to treat peopl...

CREATIVELY ENGAGING WITH MY #ONEWORD My heart is moved by a noble theme as I recite my verses to the king; Psalm 45:1a In the #oneword2024 Facebook group, Lisa Burgess reminds us to engage creatively with our chosen words. She gives a variety of suggestions to help us. One suggestion was to write poetry in different styles. Since I wrote an acrostic in my last post, I wanted to pursue other poetry styles. In this post, I will share three different kinds of poetry – limerick, haiku, and a blessing/prayer. LIMERICK One of the suggestions was to write a limerick. Now, most limericks I’ve heard are silly or humorous, so to write one about stillness was quite challenging. I would write a few lines and then scrap it. Nothing seemed to sound quite right. Finally, I came up with one that also reflects some of my thoughts about stillness in the post, A New Look at Stillness . When searching for stillness I found That noises and chaos abound What a joy to find Stillness of a kind That ...

ARE YOU LONELY? The prompt word for Five Minute Friday this week is lonely . I first tried to write a poem, but I saw it would take more than five minutes. So, I decided to save it to share at the end of the post and just write some thoughts that came to mind as I pondered the word. I'm also scattering a few sunset photos from the evening of April 18, 2024, at Redington Shores, Florida.   What does it mean to be lonely? Sometimes being alone is nice, but that is not the same as being lonely. We were not meant to be loners or completely independent, as illustrated in Ecclesiastes 4:-12 :   Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. ...