by thinkingfromhope | Aug 10, 2022 | 10x your Hope
By Jennifer Lindberg
Those back-to-school days we are juggling in these coming days and weeks need a beautiful prayer of hope. We hope so much for our kids during school days because most of us remember the joy of new crayons, the way new books smelled, and the expectation of seeing old friends and making some new ones.
Taking time to bless our kids is good practice — this is the prayer I use — your benediction may look different. I’ve learned praying over my kids becomes more natural for them and me the more I do it. It doesn’t have to be a big event. Sometimes, I just read this prayer to them and we go to the Scripture verse to see how I adapted it. What counts is that it’s full of hope for them.
The book of Isaiah is full of hope and I love using its verses to make all things new in my life.
Here you go:
pray hope into yoru childs life
by thinkingfromhope | Aug 10, 2022 | 10x your Hope
By Jennifer Lindberg
My surprise lilies surprised me this year — rocket-style hope on an elegant stem.
I forgot where I planted extra bulbs from a friend at a busy time when I was just trying to get them in the ground– unfussy — like my gardening style. I’ll plant things and let them grow giving them their free creativity and mine. It usually works. Other times I’m like what was I thinking? I was being free and barefoot with hands digging in the dirt because that’s some kind of fun for me. I seem to have never got the memo as a child that making mud pies on the sidewalk was not enjoyable.
The surprise lilies obeyed this free-range approach and arching their slim stalks started peeking out of my ornamental grass. The shade did not do them in. Instead, they grew longer like a rocket with a Fourth of July fountain head firework that would be seen.
I remember now my plan of glorious pink surrounding green but forgot to trim the verge –as they say–to fully hatch this plan. The lilies had a plan of their own and it still worked out as the flowers in the back provided fresh cuts for my dining room. Nature’s plans are always best. Hope is this elegant. It gives us surprises even when we forget where we planted it. We sometimes forget that kind word might matter months down the road. We forget the cultivation of peace we try to maintain actually might bloom someday in places unexpected.
A surprise lily reminded me of this. Oh, these beautiful lilies have many names — like resurrection lily– and remind many of pink flamingos hanging out. But the Ressurection of Christ was a surprise wasn’t it? Mary Magadelene didn’t expect Christ to show up outside a boulder-blocked tomb. It’s the kind of surprise that makes flower gardening glorious for an unfussy gardener like me. It’s those kinds of surprises that keep hope alive and well. Sometimes, hope isn’t neatly planted, but it’s always waiting to be found.
Recent Comments