WHAT EACH DAY HOLDS

We wake up each day facing the next 24 hours with decisions to be made. What we choose to do or not to do, changes our lives and the lives of those around us. We can drape our day in fine linen or we can cover it with soiled cloth. It is a choice, it is several choices over the course of that time. In a mere 24 hours, we can lift a life, including our own...or we can crush one. This is what I believe we were all born to do every morning--throw the covers off, put our feet on the floor and decide--with hearts full of hope and faith--that today we'll make choices that will raise us up individually or raise someone else, to that place where love and happiness are waiting.  L.L.G. ~ 2010

Believe in yourself :: Believe in others :: Believe that goodness wins. 
Photo LRG 2010 copyright.

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Words For The Week

September 28, 2010

Love and Hate. They are two of the most powerful words in our language. Both simple to spell and easy to pronounce, yet each with the ability to bring beauty or to cause chaos. One is a light to the world and the other is a darkness that tries to dowse the brilliance. Try this experiment. Look at yourself in the mirror and say the word, “love”. It will bring a tenderness to your features, a shine to your eyes and may even make you smile. Now say the word, “hate”. It will wipe away the grace that love brought and replace it with a look far less appealing. What those two words do to our facial expressions, they will also do to our hearts and to the hearts of those around us. Love and Hate. One wraps a golden bow  around this world. And the other ties a ragged one. Let us look in the mirror this week, and for all the weeks to come, and see reflected there the glimmer of that golden bow. 


October 5th, 2010

In our lives, we’ll all face times that will do their best to make us forget that we are blessed. We’ll all carry burdens that cut into our shoulders, inflicting wounds that make us weak, make us fall. When this happens, we must remember this---There is no suffering on this Earth that love and faith cannot conquer. They will not only climb a mountain of despair and sorrow, they will dance a jig on the top of it once there. I know this because I’ve cut the rug at that altitude a few times in my life and you have too, my friends. And you know what? We’ve got moves Fred and Ginger would smile at.

October 13th, 2010

I've been in mansions adorned in great splendor and I've been in cottages that boasted less of material things but were filled with splendor as well. And I've come to understand this: A house is built with wood, concrete, stones and steel but a home--a true one--requires far better building materials. A real home is created with peace, hope, respect, trust, humor and strength. But most of all, it has as its' foundation LOVE and FAITH. A home built on those things is the 
most beautiful and welcoming of them all. A home 

constructed like that will never fall.

 October 20th, 2010

Don't be overly concerned with the opinions of too many others for they have their own sins to carry and their own successes to celebrate. Do be concerned with what you think of yourself; what Heaven, your family, close friends and all those who truly love you think of you. Those are the only opinions that matter in the end.

October 28th, 2010 

When a child is born, the doctor doesn’t inject the little one with a shot called Manners and Morals. Those two doses of goodness are given by the parents---by their own example and with what seems like constant reminders of “Say please, say thank you, say excuse me….” But it’s worth it, in the end, if our children remember our lessons. If they hold the door open for the next person or give their seat to someone who needs it more. This world is often crude and rude. But those two negative elements cannot stand long in the face of manners and morals. In the battle to raise our children, it's of great importance that parents lead well with our words and actions. Being nice is a strength. Being unkind is a weakness. Which will we give our children?

 

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I've discovered that people generally do not reach out to help others because they have perfect lives and lots of money to use for good causes. It is, in fact, the opposite. People show compassion and kindness because at some point in their own lives, someone showed them the very same two gifts. It is when we are down ourselves, when that road called life gets treacherous, that we learn valuable lessons. One of them is that we don't know our own strength until its' called for. And another is that all around us are those who will reach down with gentle hands to help us stand again. It is that particular lesson that prompts us to help those who need us, because we've been there--we know what it is to fall and to feel

love and hope picking us up.

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December 5th, 2010

Long ago, in a barn on a cold winter night, a child came into this world to show us all what love is. He was placed, not in a jewel encrusted golden crib with a lace veil over it, but rather in a trough where animals feed from. He was dressed, not in elegant linen and rare silk but instead it was plain, ordinary material that wrapped His little body. He did not begin His life and enter ours with great fanfare but what He came to give us shines in a way that angels are in awe of even though they see Heaven every day. In that barn, God gave each of us a baby boy in whom we can find hope in, find peace in, but most of all we can discover the true meaning of love. When you're thinking of what the Christmas season is all about, think of that child, for He still reaches up to you from that trough He was laid in. My wish for you is that you'll feel a slight pressure on your fingers many times during this holiday season. And when you do, I hope you know that it's not arthritis setting in or that your hands are tired from stirring cookie batter and wrapping presents. I pray that you believe that the pressure you are feeling on your hand is the small fingers of that baby boy born all those years ago. In that grasp of His, is the finest gift to be given and received. In that gentle hold, is love.


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There cannot be enough emphasis on the value of a hug. It's a simple premise, really. You open up your arms and wrap them around someone. You hold them for a few seconds or longer, depending on the reason or occasion. A quick hug is like a "hello!" hug. And a long hug is the one that says, "Oh, how I love you or I am so sorry for your loss..." I've given a lot of hugs over the years and I've been blessed with many moments of being held in one. In this world that is often rushed and chaotic, wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to add a hug or two to each day? To reach out and pull someone in, to hold them for as long as it takes to give the message of love and friendship.