Deep Peace I wish you.
Deep Peace flowing out to you
From love of children.
Deep Peace they bring us
With their angelic voices.
Let us sing along.
Deep Peace from Christ’s light
Shining on the earth’s beauty –
Music pours it out.
For the earth’s beauty,
For the purity of song,
I thank You, O Lord.
Have a blessed Friday night, my friends,
and a lovely, peace-filled weekend.
I hope this music blessed you.
It did me!
I’ll see you tomorrow.
Love,
JanBeek
It is time to pause
Received blessings, expressed thanks
Now stop and absorb
It is time to pause
Today is a “Selah Day”
Psalm 61:4
“I long to dwell in your tent forever and take shelter in the refuge of your wings.”
Selah (Pause)
Have a restful Saturday.
What are your plans?
I’m just gonna “cool it!”
Sending love and gratitude,
JanBeek
Yup, June was bustin’ out all over… and I’m glad it is behind us! My hernia is gone. I’m on the road to recovery. I appreciate all your prayers and good wishes.
The surgery that was scheduled for 12:45 yesterday ended up not happening until 4:30, so they kept me overnight. I was so glad they did! The nurses and assistants at Deaconess Hospital in Bozeman were so kind and efficient. I really needed that extra time of TLC before returning home… and Bob needed a good night’s sleep before driving that hour up and hour back to get me.
Now that June is behind us – and I am on the way to healing, let’s pray that our world can put the last 4 or 5 months behind it, too… and we ALL can heal. Find a vaccine for COVID-19, learn to love one another unconditionally, appreciate our uniqueness, live each day with a prayer and a song, and put the One God back into the center of our being!
Yup, June was quite the month… June was not “a love song sweetly sung” as this Rogers and Hammerstein suggested. It was a BUST from my perspective! But I tried to keep my attitude positive anyway. Upbeat music like this was one way to do it. Another way to stay positive in the midst of turmoil was to be sure to go up to my sanctuary every morning, spend time reading my Bible and devotionals, and listen for God’s voice to tell me how best to spend each day.
If you have followed my blog for a while, you know I read and am inspired by a book with spirit-lifting devotionals, Daily Guideposts, every day. Each day the devotional starts out with a scripture. Then one of about 50 writers is assigned to write a reflection on it and then end with a prayer. I meditate on the message and write a “Take Away” on the page. It’s a thought I carry with me that day. I record them at the end of each month’s pages where there are two pages with a blank line for each day.
Here are my June pages. Read the Take Aways and see one of the sources for my ability to remain positive in the midst of this pandemic, this social unrest, protests, riots, and my anticipated surgery. These are the thoughts I carried around each day:
Wherever you are, you have reasons to be grateful.
Just look around you. You can see!
Breathe deeply. You’re alive!
Soak in the beauty. You can feel!
Relax and sing. You have a voice!
Grab a snack. You have food!
Thank God.
I had the prettiest room in the hospital! A corner room with a view of the sunset last night and the sunrise this morning. No need to concentrate on the pain when I can concentrate on the view instead, right?
Bob came and got me at 10: this morning. I was grateful for my expedited release. There was a major storm predicted, and we had a one hour drive to get home. We were safely inside before the rain came down and the thunder clapped. And now, the sun is out again!
So, as this day comes to a close, I want to thank you again for your love and prayers. I will take it easy for a while and let Bob and our friends and neighbors pamper me. I hope you feel my love being returned to you. Thank you for being my friend here on WordPress. You mean a lot to me.
Have a great rest of your week. If you’re in the USA, you know this weekend is our Independence Day. We usually have parades and barbecues and family here to celebrate with us. Not this year. This has been a different year, hasn’t it?
Keep your spirits up. Maybe you can use one of those “Take Aways” each day to help you.
Thanks for visiting.
See ya tomorrow.
Love, JanBeek
For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:
CHORUS:
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise
Pray with me:
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our voice of righteous rage.
Hear our anguish, hear our pleas.
See us down on bended knees.
We are angered and hurting now
By the lack of love that somehow
Has made life unfair for our brothers,
Made life a nightmare for too many mothers.
The hymn says we are supposed to have
Love “from our birth.” We need a salve
To spread that love to ALL our kin.
We all are one – and we all live in sin.
It is the sin of overlooking
The hatred and the needless booking,
The deaths and harassment many face,
The fear and hatred in this place.
Take away our bent toward sinning.
Take away our need to be winning
An upperhand when we all are ONE,
ONE in Christ, Your Saving Son.
Check out this heart-wrenching account of what it means to be a black man in today’s divided, prejudice-filled society. God bless R. Eric Thomas and all those who feel the injustice he experiences:
On Omar Jimenez, George Floyd, Christian Cooper and the myth of being non-threatening by R. Eric Thomas
R Eric Thomas is a Senior Staff Writer at ELLE.com,
For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light:
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our voice of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to to sound and sight:
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our song of grateful praise.
Look at the earth and all our blessings.
Let us thank God:
“All things come of Thee…
Help us, Lord, to be grateful
And to share our love and joy freely
With ALL God’s children.”
Amen
Love ya lots, my brothers and sisters,
JanBeek
See ya tomorrow.
Expand your peripheral vision
To see blessings in unexpected places.
How could Jonah in the whale do so
While he was down under – sleeping?
Reading the first chapter of Jonah,
I discovered Jonah sleeping below deck.
The sailors found him there, too.
They found he was the cause of the storm.
They tried to save the ship and him
By aggressively rowing toward shore,
But God turned up the turbulence.
Finally, they had to throw him overboard.
The storm ceased. The seas calmed.
God sent a whale to swallow Jonah.
Inside the big fish, his vision widened!
Jonah was able to see the big picture.
You can’t hop a ship to get away
From the tasks God puts before you.
You have to stay and face the storm.
He sends turbulence to teach us.
We are in the midst of a storm today.
There is no end in sight for this virus.
God needs us to grow spiritually, and
Learn to rely on Him for our rescue.
Take comfort in knowing He’s in control
Of every storm that comes our way.
His mighty power and unfailing love
Governs whatever comes your way.
1 Timothy 4:4 helps us realize the truth:
“For everything God created is good,
And nothing is to be rejected
If it is received with thanksgiving.”
Are we to understand that this storm,
This COVID-19 is sent by God? No!
No, I do not believe God wills evil.
I believe He uses it to teach us lessons.
I do not understand the reasons why
Bad things happen to good people
Or why death rains down on our world.
But, I know God’s love surrounds me.
I know if He can send a whale
To swallow up Jonah and save the crew,
He can send a vaccine to cure this virus.
That’s how much He cares for me and You.
Expand your peripheral vison.
Look around you, don’t focus on what was.
Look to see the ways God is at work today.
Focus on what we have, not what we’ve lost.
Thank God today for all your many blessings.
Thank Him for the people who step up,
The courageous ones who make lives better.
Don’t get caught down under – sleeping!
It’s not the “Dog Days of Summer!”
Wake up to a new day –
A new chance to live and serve Him.
See ya tomorrow.
JanBeek
Thank you, Guideposts, for your inspirational daily messages. On this Memorial Day that is so different from those past, I am grateful for the men and women who sacrificed for our freedom.
I am grateful for the freedom to live in this beautiful place in Montana where the robins sing, build their nests, lay their eggs, and feed their babies right outside my dining room window! I’m free to just bee… free to do nothing but sit and watch today… if that’s my choice!
I found this beautiful, stunned bird sitting on the front porch this morning. Is it a wren? It’s really tiny. Even when TazE (our Boston Terrier) went out to sniff at it, it didn’t move. It was free to just bee… bee still for a while. A half hour later, it was recovered – and thankfully flew away. Free to recover. Free to fly.
As I sit here and watch the robins take turns in the nest, I am eternally grateful to those service men and women who gave their lives that I might enjoy the peace I have today. Peace to sit here and marvel at nature. Free to enjoy the peace, and to FaceTime with my daughters across the continent and across the Atlantic.
Peace to watch Bob head off with a neighbor to fish the Madison today.
I hope he is free to catch a big one, like my friend Susan Phillips did this week… and then free to catch and release so someone else can be free to have the thrill of catching this beauty! Our Madison River has a “Catch & Release” policy because the trout all are natives… no “planting” allowed. It’s a world-class fly-fishing mecca!!
What are you free to do today?
Tell me about it.
And what are you most grateful for?
See ya tomorrow.
Have a Meaningful, Peaceful Monday.
Yup. you is so smart –
And you is intelligent –
You make a difference!
You is courageous –
And you is adventuresome –
You is goin’ places!
You is not perfect
But you know perfect moments,
And you make them count!
So now bee grateful
For all that you know you is –
And go change the world!
You is gonna tell
How is you gonna do that…
Tell me one thing NOW!!
Your mind is like a radio –
You can tune it as you like:
Rap or blues, talk or news,
Sadness of a virus spike.
Your mind has endless channels.
It’s a miraculous machine.
It can distort the truth and scare you,
Or explain what “Do Love” can mean.
Our Bible feeds our radio
With thoughts from God above.
He tells us to tune carefully
To the stations that spread love.
Philippians 9:8
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable,
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,
think about such things.”
This verse in Philippians got me to thinking.
What are the things that I would consider in these categories?
Think about them… add your thoughts after each word.
Where do these words take you? What is:
Lift your thoughts to the highest peak.
Let your mind’s radio tune in to the thoughts that are
uplifting and worthy of consideration.
I tried that this morning.
Here is what I came up with.
I encourage you to come up with your own.
How are your thoughts different from mine?
Your mind is like a radio –
You can tune it to what’s good.
Find the Philippians 9:8 channel
And think of love. You should!
Thanks for tuning in to JanBeek.
Tell me about your uplifting thoughts
based on Phil. 9:8
See ya tomorrow.
It’s a crappy day
A gray and cloudy Tuesday
There’s no place to go
California’s far
For a one day drive in car
And flying is out
Switzerland’s too far
To drive, fly, or even swim
It’s a crappy time
I want to hug them
I want to see my grandkids
One has a birthday
This week is her day
To celebrate twenty-six
No, I can’t be there
Are you feeling it?
Is your separation tough?
Is your day crappy?
We just want to love –
Love one another right here
Is there a good way?
Thank God for the Net
Thank God for phones and e-cards
Thank God for your life
Gratitude’s the key
For changing crappy to good
Do you feel thankful?
Thank God you’re alive
Thank Him for your daily bread
Reach out to your friends
Write a card today
Put it in the mailbox
Brighten someone’s mood
Personalize it
With a special note from you
Let shared love cheer you
And if you live close,
You might deliver a piece
Of your berry pie
Or the cinnamon
Sticks you learned to make from Mom
Who never wasted
The left-over dough
Does that memory bring smiles?
It does that for me!
Day’s not so crappy
When you reach out with a smile;
So, try it yourself!
Don’t think of crappy
Think of happiness instead
You are what you think!
Thanks for visiting
JanBeek
and sharing below a little bit
about what you did
to change
crappy to happy
for you and your loved ones today.
Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine,
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine.
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
‘Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, today
I’ll be a dandy and I’ll be a rover
You’ll know who I am by the song that I sing.
I’ll feast at your table, I’ll sleep in your clover,
Who cares what tomorrow shall bring.
I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glory.
I can’t live on promises winter to spring.
Today is my moment, now is my story;
I’ll laugh and I’ll cry and I’ll sing.
Play it again… sing along… think about the little things.
Rejoice in the JOYS that are yours today.
And don’t forget to thank God for all your blessings.
I’m praying for your health and safety,
and asking God to watch over you and your loved ones.
What “little things” can you add to that list
of things for which you are grateful?
Have a Wonderful Wednesday.
Thanks for visiting JanBeek
Share our site with your friends who need a lift!
See ya tomorrow.
Hugs to You !!
Inspire to Love
Let the SonShine!
You inspire me to respond
Learning to Live; Living to Learn; Learning to Love; Living in Love
