The Barefoot Princess and Her Boys

Greetings Dear Reader,

I am not going to call out my friend by name.  I do want to use her choice as an example of the great good that can be done when someone puts love and faith ahead of ambition and plans.  I have known this person for twenty years.  Her choices did not surprise me.

Some time ago her family needed help.  Two young boys needed a safe and stable home.  The reasons do not matter as much as the response.  This intelligent single adult with a career path clearly marked for her set all that aside to take in these boys.  She has used her savings, limited her work options, and lost a relationship to assure that these young men are safe and loved.

As I consider the difficulties with which I struggle they fade when I think of the daily challenges she faces.  She has the education and skills to be the perfect nurturer for these boys.  Further she has the faith and courage to take it on and see it through. 

We all have these moments when we get to do something great for the lives of others.  I want to ask you all to look into your hearts and find a way to follow her example.  To rightly love others, we must be willing to risk great things.  We must put our agenda, our plans second to genuine need. 

Her nickname is Barefoot Princess because of her aversion to shoes and her life being spent as an example of a Daughter of the King.  I must learn from her example and risk everything to show love to others.  I must not put my plans in any situation ahead of love and kindness.  If I let the Father determine the agenda things will unfold as they should. Thank you, Barefoot Princess, for your love, grace, and wisdom.  It is an example to anyone willing to learn.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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Already and the not yet – Maybe Next Year

Greetings Dear Reader,

I realize we are several months away from resolutions and weight loss plans.  We are also on the back side of summer where we ponder the things we wanted to do but did not.  We vow we will do them next summer.  None of them happen if we do not do them.

One of the things we must do is to turn the not yet into already.  Some things take planning, funding, and execution.  Some things require that we begin them.  Summer plans must wait until summer but may need planning in the previous fall.  Some things require the moment.  It is the latter that we must never relegate “maybe next year.”

Part of embracing the already is using each moment to follow Christ more closely.  No matter the cost or pain we must abandon the things that hinder the journey.  No matter the challenge or difficulty we must be better today than yesterday.  I already need to do better but I am not there yet.

I can plan that vacation for next summer.  I can dream of things I want to do and become.  I can imagine and visualize.  None of that matters if I do not make the internal things already.  I must continually build on the progress I have already made to get to the place in following Christ that I have not yet achieved. 

Living in the already, even in changing what needs changing, means the I see and act on the now and never say maybe tomorrow, later, or next  year.  It means I live in the moment.  I live in the already to shape the not yet.

Magic Every Moment – Dan Fogelberg

I awoke this morning to a shattering sound

And I went downstairs and found these shards of glass strewn all around

There upon the floor I found this poor broken dove

And it made me realize how very fragile is this life that we so love

I came back up to bed and I held you so tight

And I prayed up to the Father, oh I prayed with all my might

That He'd always keep you with me, that He'd always keep you safe

And when I went downstairs I found that dove had somehow up and flown away

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

On a high and windy island I was gazing out to sea

When a long forgotten feeling came and took control of me

It was then the clouds burst open and the sun came pouring through

When it hit those dancing waters in an instant all eternity I knew

There's so much we take for granted--there's so much we never say

We get caught up in the motion of just a living day to day

We are fettered to the future, we are prisoners of the past

And we never seem to notice 'til our lives have finally

Slipped right through our grasp

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

You can see forever in a single drop of dew

You can see that same forever if you look down deep inside of you

There's a spark of the creator in every living thing

He respects me when I work but He so loves me when I sing

There's a magic every moment

There's a miracles each day

There's a magic every moment

Oh won't you let the music play

Oh won't you let the music play

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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