SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

The Candle of Faith

A poem by Helen Steiner Rice

In this sick world of hatred

And violence and sin,

Where men renounce morals

And reject discipline,

We stumble in "darkness"

Groping vainly for "light"

To distinguish the difference

Between wrong and right.

But dawn cannot follow

This night of despair

Unless faith lights a candle

In all hearts everywhere

And warmed by the glow

Our hate melts away

And love lights the path

To a peaceful, new day.

Jesus spoke again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.  --John 8:12

I hope you will visit our Spiritual Sundays blog to share with us there. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AWARD

When I visited Sarah this morning to read her Spiritual Sundays post, I saw that she had received this Circle of Friends Award and she was passing it on to her friends. Sarah has been participating in our Spiritual Sundays meme for quite some time now and I am always blessed by reading her blog. I hope you will go visit her at Gentle Recovery.

I have received this award previously but I say you can't have too many friends, so I accept it from Sarah. Just like so many of you, I have been amazed at the wonderful friends I have found in blogland. I never dreamed it would be this way. As Sarah did, I want to pass this award on to my blogging friends. I love and appreciate each and every one of you. So grab the award and know that you are special. I hope you will pass it along as well and we're supposed to list five things that we love to do. So here are my five things:

1. Worship God
2. Spend time with my family
3. Blog
4. Reunite with old friends
5. Shop

I hope you will visit my other blog, Charlotte's Weblog, to read my Spiritual Sundays post for this week.

Update: Cathy at Melodies & Hymnsongs has also awarded me with the Circle of Friends Award. Thank you so much, Cathy. If you don't know Cathy, you should get acquainted by visiting her beautiful blog.

Mary, Did You Know?

This has been one of my favorite Christmas songs since the first time I heard it.
You will need to turn off my music on the left sidebar before viewing the video.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We went to our daughter's home. She is a very good cook and we had a wonderful meal. However, she doesn't make pies, so I made pumpkin and pecan pies and took them to her house.

I know. Thanksgiving is barely over but I'm already looking forward to Christmas. I was not one, however, who got up in the wee hours of the morning to hit the stores for bargains. We've found that shopping online is the way to go. Although - I do like to go to the malls during Christmas time. It's just nice not to have to do a lot of actual shopping there. It takes the stress out of it.

BEING THANKFUL

For Spiritual Sundays this week I want to share a poem I found online written by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer. It's entitled "Thanksgiving". I have no idea when it was written but I suspect it was not written recently. 

THANKSGIVING

Let us give thanks to God above,
Thanks for expressions of His love,
Seen in the book of nature, grand
Taught by His love on every hand.

Let us be thankful in our hearts,
Thankful for all the truth imparts,
For the religion of our Lord,
All that is taught us in His word.

Let us be thankful for a land,
That will for such religion stand;
One that protects it by the law,
One that before it stands in awe.

Thankful for all things let us be,
Though there be woes and misery;
Lessons they bring us for our good-
Later 'twill all be understood.

Thankful for peace o'er land and sea,
Thankful for signs of liberty,
Thankful for homes, for life and health,
Pleasure and plenty, fame and wealth.

Thankful for friends and loved ones, too,
Thankful for all things, good and true,
Thankful for harvest in the fall,

Thankful to Him who gave it all.

I'm so thankful for all you wonderful people who share with us each week on Spiritual Sundays. Click here for links to posts that will inspire you and bless your life.

OUR LITTLE WORLD

I don't often recommend a post on another blog but I am today. Hubby's post today is entitled "My Little World." Of course his little world is also my little world and I wish I had written it. So, I want to share it with you if you click HERE you can read what he wrote today.

ANOTHER BLUE BIRTHDAY

Last month was our daughter's birthday and I did a Blue Monday post featuring her and the blue elephant cake I made for her birthday when she was a little girl. Click HERE if you missed it or if you would like to see it. Today (I'm posting this on Sunday evening) is our son's birthday and I decided to share his blue elephant cake this week. After I made the elephant cake for Carol, Allen wanted one for his birthday every year for many years after that. These pictures were taken a long time ago because he is 47 years old now. Doesn't seem possible. Those years sure flew by.

He also had a blue shirt and was wearing a blue shirt in an earlier birthday. Here's a picture of that birthday (pre-elephant cake birthday). LOL Also, there was some blue in the wallpaper in the above picture.

Here's a more recent picture of him at his favorite restaurant, Taco Bell, still wearing a blue shirt.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLEN

Click on the Blue Bird to go to Sally's blog for links to lots more BLUE.

SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

Psalm 107, 23-24
I was so pleased to see this scripture on the Fisherman's Memorial at Gloucester, Massachusetts. This memorial has been there for many years. I wonder if they were just now making it if they would include the scripture. I hope so. This is what Psalm 107, 23-24 says: "They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep."
Here are photos we took of the memorial. It's hard to see in this photo, but it appears at the bottom of the plaque. I think this is a wonderful scripture that needs no explanation.

Carol & Charlotte at Fisherman's Memorial - October 2009

Be sure to go to our Spiritual Sundays blog to find links to other posts. Of course we would love to have you participate by posting something spiritual or inspirational on your own blog and linking it there. You will find instructions on how to do that on the Spiritual Sundays blog.