On the Move

Yesterday was probably one of the longest days I have ever had. The family piled in the car at 4 AM and took off. Our destination? Dallas, Texas.

18 hours later we arrived.

I will never do that again. EVER. Except for the ride home.

There were blessings in the trip though. We got to see an enormous amount of God's beautiful Creation as we drove through Missouri and Oklahoma. Illinois and Texas were cloaked in darkness, however we did get to experience God's power in an intense thunderstorm as we approached St. Louis.

His hand was clearly on the entire thing as none of the kids killed each other, got sick on the ride or was (majorly) injured. There were no problems with the van and we were given fabulous directions by several different people. We made it, even in the dark, through the (to us) insane Dallas traffic.

I am hoping that being in a hotel, even with three kids, for 3 days while my husband is off doing his work will give me a chance to write some. I had planned to schedule poems for this week on Monday as we were originally to be here tomorrow, but the plan changed so I did not get the chance to schedule anything. I am going to do that today and everything should be back to normal next week.

I hope you all have a great week. We'd appreciate your prayers on Saturday as we travel home. God bless you all!

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I would appreciate it if you would fill out this short survey about various things surrounding my poetry - http://bit.ly/cOTyj4 ... Thanks!

Glorious Return

"Glorious Return" expresses the world that we are living in, and the world we will be living in until Jesus comes back. There will be suffering and persecution, but we are to count ourselves blessed for those things. We are following in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior.

I am very pleased to report that I am still writing, despite a slow down, as I penned two new poems last week. One of them is for Christmas, so you won't see it for a bit. The other should be in the rotation before too long.

The interesting thing though is what happened when I went to write. Our daughter had a practice for the puppet ministry she is involved with, so I went to the library for some peace and quiet. I sat down and a little girl immediately sat down with me and began to talk to me. She asked what I was going to be doing, so I told her I was going to write. I explained that I write poems about God and Jesus, and we spoke for a while about Him and how she wanted to build a rocket to go see Him someday. I found out that she was 4 years old and it floored me. God had placed me there to witness to a 4 year old little girl before I wrote. If I hadn't gone with the flow of His Spirit, I wouldn't have been there.

I am making a slight change to how I post poems and blogs. My schedule has shifted a bit, so I am going to post them Tuesday through Saturday, giving me Monday to set everything up and take a bit of the pressure off my Sundays.

I hope you all have a blessed week and He shines the light of His face upon each and every moment. Come, Lord Jesus!

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I would appreciate it if you would fill out this short survey about various things surrounding my poetry - http://bit.ly/cOTyj4 ... Thanks!

Influential Music

My life has almost always been built around music. My parents raised me to 60's, 70's and 80's music on vinyl records and radio stations. Events in my life are recalled by a song that was playing when they happened. I don't ever remember not having music around, and now when there is no music on, I feel kind of empty.

As expected, music is a huge influence on my poetry. I thought you might be interested in what's engaging me right now, and where many of my ideas are flowing from. Here is a list of music I'm using to get me writing these days:

• "2000 Decembers Ago" by Joy Williams
• "What Child is This?" by Mercy Me
• "I Want to Be with You" by Cory Asbury and Team (KC-IHOP)
• "Jesus Is" by Hillsong Church London
• "Rend the Heavens" by Isa Couvertier
• "Samuel's Awakening" by Jason Upton
• "A Lion Has Roared" by Jeremy Horn
• "Soul Cry" by Misty Edwards
• "Revelation 4-5" by Justin Rizzo and Team (KC-IHOP)

Christmas music? Yeah, I'm writing for Christmas right now. I have one called "This Child" and I am hoping for at least one more before the end. The others I have found to be very good at stirring my heart and my emotions as I write, bringing me closer to His ideas for the poems.

A lot of it is likely unknown to many of you because it comes from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. Every two months we get a Limited Edition MP3 download of the "highlights" of the Global Prayer Room there, and every time we have found at least one song that touches us. It is an amazing place and an amazing resource for pure, heartfelt worship music.

Before I go, I need to ask for your help. It won't take long but I have a ten question survey that I need as many people as possible to fill out. It will really help me shape how I get the poetry to you, if you're interested in products or a book, and let me know how you're finding things.

Have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon. God bless!

Change of Pace

All summer long, I worked pretty hard to keep churning out new poems and blog posts, spending time on Twitter and Facebook scheduling posts. I hope that it has been great for you all, blessing each of you in a deep way.

Now that fall has arrived, though, I can feel a change coming. It happened last year, and I can see it on the horizon now as well. These cold months seem to signal a slowdown for me, a break I guess in my pace. I have not written a new poem in several weeks, and while I have ideas, nothing is flowing very easily. I am going to keep trying and I am sure that some things will coalesce, but I want to be honest about what you can expect at the moment.

I will continue to post a poem every weekday on both Twitter and Facebook, some you've seen recently and others from farther back in the archives. I am going to do my best to write a blog post every week as well.

Finally, I would greatly appreciate you filling a short, ten question survey about several things surrounding the poetry. It will help me get an idea for where people are finding the poetry, what you think of the postings, and if you'd like to see some things that have been in mind for a while now.

Thank you for all your support and following me down this ever changing road. May God bless every one of you as we all walk out this path called life, until the return of our King, Jesus.