Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbor, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger, we shall find comfort and peace. –St. Basil of Caesarea

Greetings, beloved.

The motivation for beginning this blog is a simple desire to pass on to my family the lessons I have/am learning in the great exchange of living into my identity as a beloved daughter of the Most High God. “LORD”, is the name I speak in my daily conversation in this divine intimacy. Why? It invokes the sacred response I desire to live as a daughter of the KING of kings. This place you have found or even stumbled upon is an offering of my thoughts and prayers to my family in my desire for the LORD–to know Him and to become one with Him. The long passage of time, 63 years to be exact, “has been a long obedience in the right direction” that is slowly and steadily steering me to the quiet harbor of peace. This is the inheritance I want to leave my family, nothing I own is more valuable to me than this.

I am a woman, a beloved daughter of the LORD

….endowed by our Creator for such a time as this. We all are! I can’t unpack your endowment, only the LORD can do that for you. I’ve learned this truth through shiploads of experiences that ride the tides of my life. I have hope and encouragement to share

….endowed with a creative imagination that is the blessing and bane of my existence. I have a few thoughts to share.

….endowed with a zeal for the fullness of The Faith that consumes me. The journey that began in climbing a fig tree when I was four still leads me to sacred ground where I hear the whisper of my Beloved to come away and meditate on His Word and learn from the Salvation History that is my inheritance. Ever fresh, ever calling, ever wooing me upward and onward. I have many thoughts to share.

….endowed with a melancholy and introspective spirit that desires to see beyond the scrim of this world’s reality into the heart of God. In truth, I have been climbing fig trees all my life. The view is bewildering sometimes to me yet it is always a panorama shrouded with the holy, I have many thoughts to share.

….who battles over-weaning pride. The besetting sin of my life is the thorn in my flesh, but for the most part, the “thorn” is an instrument that the Holy Spirit re-fashions to humble me and transform my flesh into more of Christ and less of me. I have bundles of hard lessons to share.

….who is still carrying baggage from my past. I believe we all do. I can only offload the content of the bags as I live life. In the past I had often been told I’m too much or I’m not enough–that pretty well sums up what’s in the bags. It’s taking a lifetime to empty the bags. I’m becoming lighter as I travel, but that is only through the power of the LORD’s healing remedy; because of this I am able to consistently discard from my life the power of the voices that spoke those lies to me I have batches of thoughts to share.

I am a wife–

I have been married to Jeff for 44 years (1978). Those 44 years of living with and loving the one human who knows me best has been an incubator of sorts for nurturing in me a better me that I could have never become without the grace and balance that Jeff has modeled to me. I have many thoughts to share.

I am a mother–

Together we raised 3 children and I marvel how the LORD has used my vocation as “mother” to teach me the beauties of Him as my Father. And now, at this stage of life, our children and their spouses are teaching me in their own ways the grace, mercy, and humility that I so very much need. I have many thoughts to share.

I am a grandmother–

To date, we have 16 grandchildren between our three families. Some of the most beautiful glimpses of eternity and the LORD’s great love for me have come through them. I have many thoughts to share.