Loving One Another

Posts tagged ‘peace’

Each Man as My Brother


Each man as my brother,
Each woman as my sister
Each one as my friend
We need one another…

When I was in college back in the late 50s and early 60s, we sang this song in the A Cappella choir at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. I loved it then. I love it even more now. We need it!!

We need one another
So I will defend
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.

Each woman as my sister,
Each one as my friend.

Lord, heal our nation.
Almighty God, step in and heal our divisions.
Help us understand our Oneness.
Help us just LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!

Lie down, my friends.
Put your feet up.
Fold your hands.
Click that arrow up there –
And pray this as a prayer with me
As we sing that song together,

“No man is an island…
No man stands alone,
Each man’s joy is joy to me
Each man’s grief is my own.
We need one another,
So I will defend
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.”
Each woman as my sister,
With love that knows no end.

Beth Guckenberger,
from her book, Reckless Faith: Let Go and Be Led,

“Hope is reborn in the form of faith,
faith that God will take over,
even if you can’t see how.”

Rest in that thought!!

You are in my thoughts,
in my prayers,
in my heart.
Bee well.
Just love!

See ya later,
JanBeek

Category:

Belief, Bible Lessons, Faith, friendship, God, Life's Challenges, Living in Christ's Family, Living in Harmony, Love, music, peace, pets, Poetry, prayer, relationships

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For the Joy of Human Love


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:

It Does Not Matter If You Are Good

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,

Love is power within us all –
Do not let it be silent!

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

Work together for peace.
Pray together for unity.


Love ya lots, my brothers and sisters,
JanBeek

See ya tomorrow.

Category:

Belief, blessings, Faith, friendship, God, Gratitude, Jesus, Life's Challenges, Living in Christ's Family, Living in Harmony, Love, music, peace, Poetry, prayer, relationships, respect, Sharing

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Ignorance Comes in All Colors


My friend, Janet, posted that picture up there.
It prompted the following from me.


Let Your Love Be Felt

It’s generalizations that create prejudices

It’s ignorance that fuels racism

It’s anger that creates frustration and violence

Let’s replace generalizations with truth and facts

Let’s replace ignorance with intelligence

Let’s recognize righteous anger and find healthy outlets, meaningful and effective expressions

Let’s pray for divine intervention and resolutions to injustices

Let’s get on our knees

Lord, help us; heal us; bind us in love

❤️ Let your voice be heard, my friends, and let your love be felt. ❤️

Category:

Love

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Let Us Pray for Help


praying man looking up

Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com

Let Us Pray

Holy Spirit of God, come upon us on this Pentecostal Sunday as You came upon the disciples of old.  We need Your help! Anoint our minds and spirits with boldness, that we may join our efforts to Yours for achieving peace in this world.

Touch our hearts with compassion, that we may see more clearly those who are struggling with anger over the injustice in our nation and world; show us how we can be instruments of peace and equality for all. 

Enable us to be Channels of Your Peace in these changing times.  Show us how to worship You together in safe and meaningful ways as we prepare to come together once again as a Body of Christ.

Visit our wills, O God, with the fire of Your Spirit that we may strive with boldness for what is right and just for the poor, the underprivileged, and the disenfranchised. 

Let us not be content merely to have what we have and not share it with others, merely to enjoy what was given to us and not realize it was intended for all.

Infuse us with the zeal and dedication that were in Christ Jesus our Lord, that we may not merely take for granted the life and freedom and opportunities that are ours.

Lift up those who have fallen victim to COVID-19, and those who are grieving the loss of loved ones.  Though we are thankful for the health we have enjoyed, help us not to become blind to the suffering of those who have found themselves on the frontlines of the pandemic.  Lift up the fallen, heal the sick, comfort the bereaved.

Give us strength in our weakness, illumination in our darkness, and hope in our despondency.  Empower us to be all You created us to be.

In Jesus name we pray,

Amen

 

Category:

Faith, God, Jesus, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, peace, prayer

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Wired for Connection


You know I need you.
We’re wired for connection,
Love and belonging.

Me (Jan) with Lexi, Bernie & Suz

Birthday girl needs love.
Friends need connectivity.
We crave relations.

We’re in the same nest.
We’re born in this together.
But don’t smother me!

I rise with the sun
Into a brand new morning
Facing a new day.

Connected to God.
Learning to live cautiously,
Leaning on my Lord.

Proverbs 27:17

“As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another.”

When is it Time?

If baby robin #4 in that nest up there doesn’t sharpen her will, poke her beak up with the rest, and open up, she will be doomed to the nest forever!

So, we who need one another are asking ourselves, “When it it time to open up? When it it time to let our courage and our natural need for connections take hold? When can we do it safely?”

Should we wear a mask or not? Should we join the protestors or not? When it is time to believe COVID-19 is safely at bay?

Each Person is Different

Not only is each person different, but each area of our world is different, too. Here in Montana, I could join my friends for a small birthday gathering outside (only 7 of us) and feel safe. I realize everyone in the world does not have that luxury.

But while we each are different, so are we all alike in many ways. We all crave genuine connection.

Matthew Lieberman, a Harvard-trained psychologist wrote,

“The human brain is wired to be social. Love and belonging might seem like a convenience we can live without, but our biology is built to thirst for connection because it is linked to our most basic survival needs.”

Birds of a feather
Flock together, connecting
Love and harmony.

Likewise, we humans
Crave times to touch each other.
Isolation hurts!

Photo by Yogendra Singh on Pexels.com

Pray for Opportunities

We need connection.
Pray for opportunities
To safely gather.

I pray for your health.
I pray for our world’s return
To safe gatherings.

I pray for world peace,
For racial equality,
God’s intervention.

Lord, help us all to
Turn to You for our guidance.
Lift us safely up.

Open every beak
To receive life’s sustenance
And sing Your glory.

Have a Hallelujah Day, my friends.
I feel your presence…

See ya tomorrow.
Jan Beekman

Category:

Animals, Belief, Bible Lessons, Faith, friendship, God, Haiku, health, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, mental health, music, peace, Poetry, prayer, relationships

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Free to Do, Free to Bee…


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.

Free to Live and Build

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 see that wall to the north of my dining room table. The window there leads to our bedroom.
I watched Rita and Robbie, the robin duo, build the nest and lay the eggs. Fifteen days later, they hatched!
Now Rita Robin brings worms to the babies.
They are hungry little robins, begging for more.
Rita Robin leaves… and Robbie Robin comes to feed them next! Robins mate for life. It is such fun to watch them take turns caring for the nest. Rarely is it left uncovered like this these days.

Free to Bee… Free to Recover…

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.


Free to Marvel

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.

De & Laina

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!!

The pristine Madison River in Madison County, Montana

What are you free to do today?
Tell me about it.
And what are you most grateful for?

Bee grateful
You are free…
Free to
Bee silly…
Free to just Bee!

See ya tomorrow.
Have a Meaningful, Peaceful Monday.

Category:

Animals, blessings, children, contentment, Family, Fishing, friendship, Gratitude, happiness, holidays, Living in Harmony, Love, Montana, nature, peace, relationships, Serving One Another

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Must We Die for Freedom?


History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is an American holiday. This Memorial Day weekend feels very different from years past. Even though we are not having lock-down, stay-at-home orders in Montana, still most of us don’t feel free to have a large gathering with a picnic potluck as we usually do. We need to find new ways of honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

Memorial Day is this Monday, May 25th, a day for us in the USA to honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Military. It was originally known as Decoration Day after the tradition of decorating soldiers’ graves with flowers. Women in Pennsylvania began this practice as early as 1864 following the end of the Civil War. Soon other states and cities did the same.

Waterloo, New York, held an annual community-wide event beginning in 1866. This led the town to be recognized as the birthplace of Memorial Day by the federal government in 1966. Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971. In 2000, Congress passed a resolution, urging Americans to set aside 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day “to observe a national moment of remembrance to honor the men and women of the United States military who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace.” 

Thank you, Shutterstock, for this image.

Do You?

Do you celebrate Memorial Day? If so, how are my fellow Americans planning on celebrating Memorial Day this year?

I’m curious: How do those of you in other countries remember the people in your nation who have served in your military (or do you)?

Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com

Wonderful Dream

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful dream-come-true to have us all just love one another? No fences, no walls, no borders, no nation against nation… just one world, unified, working in tandem for a better life for everyone?

Wouldn’t it be a dream-come-true if we all felt a sense of freedom without anyone having to die to maintain it?

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful dream if everyone stopped hoarding and just shared generously? Share toilet paper! Share the Good News! Share LOVE!

… a pet, and toilet paper
and a lotta LOVE!

Our military generously give their ALL.
The least we can do is give them a day of Gratitude for their service…
and a dream that one day we will all live as ONE,
end all wars, and live in PEACE!

God bless you, my dear Blogging family.
I pray that you have a peace-filled weekend.
I’ll see you tomorrow.

Hugs, JanBeek

Wait, don’t leave until you comment!!
Tell me about how you honor your military
or tell me about your dreams for ONE WORLD of LOVE!

Category:

Giving, Gratitude, holidays, Life and Death, Living in Harmony, Love, peace, prayer, relationships, Serving One Another

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