May 15, 2012
Since I’m on this blog-improvement kick, I figure it would be a good idea to actually complete the pages I started so long ago, so I just finished updating my Tenfold Page: Ten Bible Verses I Try to Live By.
I’d had four listed there previously. Err, rather, the cites. Tonight I not only posted the cites of my ten favorite Bible verses, but I typed out the verses themselves.
I was reminded all over again of exactly why those particular verses are so special to me. And in the coming weeks, I hope to share in depth with you my take on these verses, how they apply to my life, and how God has used them to get to me even when I didn’t want to be reached.
Whatever your faith, I hope these stories will inspire you and fill you with hope. For God is always in control. And He is always filled with love.
1 Corinthians 13:13~
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.”
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Dec 27, 2011
I come from a long line of readers and writers. I know, I know: big shocker, there.
So it’s also not a shocker that I was gifted three wonderful books for Christmas.
In my family, books are more than paper and binding. Books are entire worlds. Explanations to this one, doors to others. They hold the past, present and future; they hold wishes and dreams and everything real and imagined. Where some people say a picture is worth a thousand words, I’d rather have the words thankyouverymuch. Books are manna in my family.
The first book is my Pastor’s “Route 66 Journal”. One of our main roads out here is the old Route 66. There are 66 books in the Bible. My Pastor’s great at making connections like that, things people will remember. In 2012, Pastor Tom is going to lead us to read the entire Bible from cover to cover. He designed a very simple reading plan to do so, and the journal has a daily entry with simple parts for each daily reading: 1. What does it say? 2. What does it mean? 3. How does it apply? I figure if I want God to continue to bless me and my family the least I can do is give Him half an hour of each day to read and write just for Him. I’m excited about what we’ll learn and how it will change my life. I fully expect it to. Maybe not dramatically; maybe not overnight. But I do expect a good change, and that excites me.
The second book I received is Stephen J. Cannell’s “Vigilante”. It’s the last in his Shane Scully series, finished shortly before he died. If you’ve been around me or my blog, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of SJC. In 2007 I sent him an email and over the course of three-plus years he became a great mentor and encouraged me to keep writing. I finally had the chance to meet him in person six months before he passed. When he died, I thought it was a joke. I kept waiting for someone to say his Facebook page had been hacked or something. But then the news sites reported it. And later that day came the email. I have the first six books in the Shane Scully series, and now I have the last. I’ll quickly collect the three I’m missing, and those ten books are on my reading list for 2012.
But the best book of all, the one I never expected, the one that I am almost afraid of opening for fear of creasing the pages or smudging the cover… a hardcover collection of the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s beautiful. It’s inspirational. It’s magical. The spare room in my house is called the Narnia Room. It’s designed around a painting of a path into a forest. The walls are painted Mountain Sage Green. I have a brown park bench inside, a fake tree, and flowers, and just walking into the room evokes the magic of stepping through the Wardrobe. The book will have a special, prominent, secure place in the room. At the top of the bookshelf. There’s seven more books for the reading list.
I also need to finish my Louis L’Amour. I want to read “Little Women”, the “Left Behind” series. I only have the first 12 of these, as the last four were added after the series was supposedly finished. So I’m only planning to read the first 12 (at least for now). At some point I’ll get the remaining four and read those as well.
I have Anne Rice’s Songs of the Seraphim series, two books so far. I picked them up when I stayed at the Mission Inn in Riverside last spring. She wrote the books while staying there, and it figures greatly into the plot.
I’m also very intent on reading my Sherlock Holmes collection (the complete collection in two volumes). My favorite Uncle sent me the collection nearly 18 years ago. He was also a writer, and had the most amazing handwriting. I still love reading the letters he sent me before he died. When I was not quite two years old, he wrote a book for our families, a Christmas story that we read every year. So when in passing I mentioned to him that I wanted to read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, four weeks later I was stunned to receive a package containing just that. He was a most amazing man, friend, Uncle and supporter. Reading Sherlock Holmes seems like such a small way to keep him around. I miss our weekly donut dates and only hope he’s looking down with pride at my writing.
That’s 36 books. Now, if I read as fast as my mom does, I’d have them done by the end of February. Unfortunately, I don’t read that fast. So I’m giving myself the entire year. That’s three books a month. And if I add any more to my shelves (which I’m fairly certain I will)… well, for me, that’s a whole lotta reading. But as my Mom keeps reminding me, to be a good writer, I also need to be a good reader.
I think I’ll get a headstart and pick up a book tonight.
Now I just need to figure out where to begin…
Apr 19, 2011 |
by Molly Jo Realy @MollyJoRealy
Anyone who knows me, knows I’ve recently rediscovered my affinity for the Backstreet Boys.
I fully admit, I have always been one of those girls who dreams of the fairy tale rescue and swoons over love lyrics sung by boy bands. It’s not so much the love stuff as it is, I’ve just always liked bubble gum music. To be honest, I’m sure they could sing about cow patties and I’d find it extremely wonderful.
And on a day when I felt like a cow patty, it was the Backstreet Boys and God who made me feel better.
Have you ever had one of those days where you just don’t know what’s going on? A day where you feel troubled, lonely, sad, or just mellow? A day when everyone else seems content and you seem… left out?
I had a day like that. Friday, February 18, 2011. There was no reason for it. I wasn’t harassed or bothered by anyone. In fact, nobody even noticed. I think that was the point. And in my loneliness, I started thinking about past relationships. I quickly found myself noting the good qualities I missed, and glossing over the bad traits that I’d left. Isn’t that what loneliness does to us? Takes away reality and leaves us with false memories through rose-colored glasses?
I turned to the greatest Love Letter ever written: the Bible. Since it was the 18th, I read Proverbs 18. And came upon verse 10: “The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” I had a beautiful vision of running away from the men of my past, running from their hurts and their intentions, the broken pieces of me that they kept chipping away… and I ran, instead to the arms of my Beloved, my Savior. As I called upon the name of My LORD, He opened his arms. With one arm He scooped me, curled and ashamed, into His protection; with the other, He drew His shield of protection to cover me, us; and thwarted any attacks meant to hurt me. I was safe. Safe in His arms. I breathed in His heavenly scent and relaxed.
I kept that feeling of protection, of worthiness, with me throughout the day. A few hours later I needed to get a few things from the local Target, and as I was passing by the cd’s, I saw it. The Backstreet Boys’ playlist cd. Fourteen of their greatest hits at a discount price. It called me. It called me loudly!
The weather in February is always fickle. I was lucky enough to have one of our first warm days of the year, and a moon-roof in my car that begged to be opened. I put the cd in and was transported back to summer days, long nights, giggling girls, college dates … more emotion than memory. I felt… happy.
The second song began to play. I found myself driving detours back to work just to make it last. My Proverbs Experience came to the forefront, and I was drowned in these words, sung by a boy band; placed in my heart by The Man. I’ll never listen to it the same way ever again.
Truly, no matter where I go, or what I do… I am loved. By the One who loves me back.
Go ahead. Google the lyrics to “As Long As You Love Me.” You’ll see exactly what I mean.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
