When I say I am a Christian

I'm not shouting 'I am saved'
I'm whispering 'I get lost'
Which is why I chose this way.

When I say I am a Christian
I do not speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
And need someone to be my guide.

When I say I am a Christian
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need help to carry on.

When I say I am a Christian
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say I am a Christian
I'm not claiming to be perfect
My flaws are too visible
But God believes I'm worth it.

When I say I am a Christian
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
Which is why I seek His name.

When I say I am a Christian
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.

- Carol Wimmer
~~~

Won't You Step into my Garden?

I'm no green thumb but every winter I have this compulsion to get a few pots together and try to breed splashes of spring colours, usually petunias. Don't know why petunias especially but they're easy to grow and they don't seem to attract those horrible little furry things as much as other species. So early in December I got down and dirty and mucked around for a day, and mid Feb, hey presto, there's this glorious riot of colour to help ease winter's passage into summer...

I came across this via a friend today. And I'm going to make sure that I have it posted up on the bulletin board at work asap to provide some comfort to the good young girls that I teach. Just wish I'd had something like this to fall back on when I was younger and convinced that being a good girl was something very very bad. Of course, now I know better... being older and wiser.

Source: http://phocks.org/stumble/girlsarelike.php

Opportunities

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries..

- W. Shakespeare
Julius Caesar, IV, iii
~~~

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying :
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying...

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.

- Robert Herrick

~~~

(Photo by Joe Taruga @www.flickr.com)

Don't wait for what you

want
to come to
you.

Go after it with
all that you
are, knowing
that life
will
meet you
halfway.
~~~

(Photo by Sudhir Shivaram @www.thejunglelook.com)