Spreading love, joy, peace, faith & unity

Archive for October, 2025

6 Sentence Blog Post

GirlieOnTheEdge invites us every week to “Write 6 Sentences.
No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.”

Today’s prompt word is “Trick.”
Here goes:

The innocence of young children captivates my heart.
Halloween is a time when a test on the innocence might start.
When children are introduced to “Trick or Treat,” treats are expected.
Some years ago tricks were handed out – no innocence respected.
There were apples with a razor inside, or popcorn balls with poison inserted.
Many children have had to stop the door-to-door so danger was skirted.

Let’s just love, shall we?
Protect the innocence.
Love,
JanBeek

Category:

blogging, children, Heartache, Life's Challenges, Love, Poetry

Tagged with:

Ain’t Love Grand?

My youngest grandson has had a long-distance relationship
with a girl from Colombia for more than 4 years.
With the help of FaceTime
and occasional visits to/from Switzerland,
they have kept love alive.

Now she’s visiting him in the flesh. Ain’t love grand? God bless ‘em!

When Bob & I were dating
and when we were engaged
(back in the early 1960’s),
he was in the army,
stationed in Germany.
We went two weeks between communication
– one letter at a time.

Ain’t technology grand?
Now we have instant communication!

What was your dating experience
with your loved one?
Was it also way back when?
I’d love to hear about
your “Grand Love”
experience!

Hugs,
JanBeek

1959
1960
(his sister’s wedding)

1962
Ain’t love grand?

63 years later…
Yes,
Love is Grand!!

Category:

Family, happiness, Living in Harmony, Love, Memories, relationships

Tagged with:

Finishing Well

Run the race with grace
So you know you’re finishing well
Goal: the finish line!

Today’s sermon at church was titled, “Running the Race”
But the main topic of interest was “Finishing Well.”
So my sermon notes today reflect that focus.
Come and read the highlights as I heard and recorded them:

2nd Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
“6 As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing… 16 At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Why do people run? Pain, elation,
Personal challenge, delirium…
Concentrate on how far you’ve come
Rather than on where you’ve been.

Feeling stiff and in pain, but knowing
I have the ability to endure hard things
Gives me the ability to show up for myself
So I can therefore show up for others.

Let’s end our journey with peace in our hearts
Knowing we have run the race well.
The Lord stood by us, gave us strength
And gave us perseverance as we served with trust.

Serving in faith, fighting the good fight
For mercy, for love… We often stand alone.
Feeling lonely and isolated in life’s race,
We reach out in ministry to others.

Christ calls us to run the race in faith.
Faith transforms us in our disappointments
Into opportunities of grace and hope.
So finish the race with faithfulness.

See through the things we’ve started
With integrity, keeping the faith through change.
The glory of your finish will last forever.
Run the race… and finish well.

Amen?

Love to you – and best wishes for a race well done!
JanBeek

Category:

Bible Lessons, Faith, Life's Challenges, Living in Christ's Family, Love, Poetry, sermon notes, Serving One Another, writing

Tagged with:

Beautiful Morning

Yes, I hope you enjoyed yur day… and I wish you days filled with sunshine and love.

Hugs,
JanBeek

Category:

Love

A Tanka: Open Book

One of my blogging friends today wrote this message,
“Wrote a tanka today to get into the rhythm
of saying more with less.
It’s a japanese short form poetry system
with 5-7-5-7-7 syllable scheme.
Give it a try!”

So I decided to do just that.
How about you?
You wanna give it a try, too?

I’m an open book
Filled with whimsy and color
Easy to be read
Very hard to be ignored
Noisy and provocative

God bless you, my friends.
Have a Super Saturday.
It’s “No Kings Day” here
No, not “Hate America!”
Protect our Constitution!

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Aging Gracefully, blogging, books, Haiku, Living in Harmony, Love, mental health, peace, Poetry, self-acceptance, self-esteem, writing

Tagged with:

Six Sentence Story

I discovered a new challenge. From inlinkz, there is a weekly invitation to write a “Six Sentence Story.” Each week the word prompt that must be included changes. This week it is the word NEED.

Here is my 6 sentences to go to the “Blog Hop” –

Take my hand, I’m a stranger in Paradise.
I’m lost in a Wonderland.
It’s just being with you.
Tell me everything will be alright.
I need to know that’s true!

Love from
JanBeek

Category:

blogging, friendship, kindness, Love, optimism, relationships, writing

Tagged with:

Are You Crispy?

I’m just crispy!

Yes, I am not old
No, I am not young either
Except in my heart

Mentally, I’m young
Every day I learn something
Something new each day

My day’s not wasted
If, at the end of the day
Something new’s added

So, what have you learned
That is new for you today?
Crispy is an age!

And extra crispy
Is an advanced age for you!
So, please enjoy it!

Hah! Enjoy your day!

Love,
JanBeek

Category:

Aging Gracefully, blogging, Haiku, humor, Life's Challenges, Love, mental health, peace

Tagged with:

Turn Back with Gratitude

My sermon notes try to capture the essence of what I hear each Sunday. Our pastor, Brian Conklin, delivered this inspiring message last Sunday:

Issues of faith, leprosy, and other skin troubles
Are the topics we are looking at today.
God is whispering to us to pay attention,
Live with humility, and show our gratitude.

Naaman, the man in 2Kings 5, was a man of great wealth
Whose skin disease stripped away his power.
A small, captured servant girl told Naaman
There was a man in Israel, Elisha, who could heal him.

Naaman went to Elisha’s house and was greeted
By a servant who told him to go to the Jordan river
And dip himself seven time for healing,
He does go, after anger and reluctance, and was healed.

It was his listening and obeying God in humility
That was his true source of healing.
Then, (in Luke 17) there were ten lepers who were healed
And only one turned back in gratitude, and was made whole.

Ten were healed, but only one was transformed.
Faith is about trusting in the next step,
Even in transition, fatigue, illness, and reluctance.
Healing is about the restoration of relationship.

God meets us in our obedience, humility, and gratitude.
Trust enough to step forward – then healing begins.
When you are blessed, do you turn back?
Do you stop, remember, and reflect in an
Attitude of Gratitude?

Give thanks always, knowing our faithful God
Will make you whole in your transformation.
Sometimes the solution seems too simple –
But if it takes seven dips in the river, do it!

And then, don’t forget to turn back to God
And express your heartfelt gratitude
For the ways He is faithful and always
Answers your prayers with His mercy and compassion.

Amen?
Amen!

What answered prayer are you especially grateful for today?

Love ya,
JanBeek

Category:

Belief, Bible Lessons, blessings, Faith, God, Gratitude, Life's Challenges, sermon notes, writing

Tagged with:

I Can Pick a Fight

I can pick a fight

No, it won’t be that kind of fight!

I’m picking to fight for more
love
unity
and respect
in this world!

With gentleness and respect
I choose to fight for
a better world

Fight to
replace controversies
and arguments
with more
love and joy.

Love,
JanBeek

ben Alexander (David)
from the Skeptic’s Kaddish blog
https://skepticskaddish.com/
invited us to write a poem or prose
with exactly 49 words today.
So, the blog above does that.
Thank you, David, for the challenge.

Category:

blogging, kindness, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, optimism, peace, writing

Tagged with:

I Can Embrace Whimsey

In his book, Catching Whimsey, Bob Goff told about the time he and his wife, “Sweet Maria,” bought his father-in-law’s decrepit old wooden wagon. They bought it so they could restore it to mint condition. I related to Bob Goff’s story because I have friends who have an old wooden wagon in their yard. It has been a part of their family for two or three generations. They treasure it and have restored it to mint condition.

But, in the case of Bob & Maria Goff, after buying sandpaper and paint and nuts and bolts and the tools needed to get started on their immense reconstruction project, there was a huge storm. A hundred-foot tree fell on the wagon. Bob Goff wrote, “We had plenty of firewood that winter, about a hundred feet of tree and one priceless wagon’s worth.”

So what does this have to do with WHIMSEY? Well, ya gotta know Bob Goff! Whimsey is his favorite word!! And in his “Faith Step” at the bottom of the page, he cautions us, “Don’t let today’s challenges break you, and don’t live in fear that a tree might fall on you. Live a life so full of love and whimsey people will think you are made of the stuff.”

Hah!
Are you made of the stuff??

I can embrace whimsey.
Can you?

Love ya,
JanBeek

Category:

Aging Gracefully, happiness, humor, Life's Challenges, optimism, trees

Tagged with: