Hope Is A Thing With Feathers

Hope     

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson’s HOPE is one of my favorite written pieces, second only to God’s found in Psalm 62:5

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from HIM.”

I am learning.

That things which I crave to grow within myself come more readily when I allow my hope and faith to exceed my doubt and fear.

I wonder why it is that we seem to naturally gravitate to the negative, scary, and fearful when God would have us run to the positive, peaceful and fearless?

What is it about this earthly life that keeps us nailed down to the dark?

And, what does it take to be loosened to the light?

I believe it is HOPE.

A feeling or expectation that something will happen…

And, authentic Hope can truly be found in one place.

Or, with one person.

The creator of Hope…which comes from HIM.

In my forty-nine years, I have experienced and witnessed examples of hope that changed me.

My prayer for a sister when I was young and my mother not so much

My daughter’s prayer for twin brothers

Precious friends faithful prayers for the healing of their daughter

A brother and sister who gave over their family to God’s provision, and which God blessed immeasurably through adoption

 A mother’s faith that God would win the heart of her wayward daughter

Committed prayer to the baptism of a parent

There is no end to the hope I have witnessed.

Hope is more than a simple plea from the soul of a person to our creator

Hope is the commitment to belief

And, not that things will go “our way” but rather, that things will go His Way, and knowing that that will be the best way

Hope is a thing with feathers…that perches on the soul

For it is at our soul’s foundation that we can rest in the nest of God’s love where Hope and Faith and Love are laid…

Blessings and Hope,

Lesa

Faith In Our Leaders of Tomorrow

Faith in our leaders of tomorrow….

When someone shares with you an experience which causes you to pause …..and think…that is a good thing.

When someone causes you to pause…and think….and they are younger than eighteen… that is a very good thing.

I had the opportunity last week to experience not only a “GHOST OUT” with our local high school, I had the privilege of witnessing several of our young Scott County High School leaders doing just that…

Leading.

For those of you like me, who are unclear what a Ghost Out is….

A Ghost out is where you have a student dressed as the GRIM REAPER go to the first am class of a cross-section of your school’s students and “lead the chosen students  from class…to death”.  For example, Our Grim Reaper went to the first period class of fifteen (15) of Scott County’s students and used his authority to draw them out of class, placing an X on the seat where that student normally sits.

Having allowed one of my sons to participate in this event, I can tell you….it was GRIM.

Watching Mr. Reaper as he went  from classroom to classroom gathering up “dead” students was a parent’s worst nightmare.

But, it was powerful.

Grim…placed an X at fifteen different seats for each of the student’s six classes that day…

The purpose of this was to let the “dead” student’s presence be felt in each class by the “X marks the spot where _________ sat” reminder.

Grim.

But, it didn’t end there.

At a school assembly, these same 15 students were walked into the school gym….one by one….candle of life in their hand…until the Grim Reaper came to lay them to rest….literally…on the floor. 

As each student “walked to their death”, their obituary was read.  Each student’s “death story” was explained…this one died from a drug overdose, that one died from getting hit by a drunk driver.

It was painful to watch, the loss-representation of fifteen of our youth…laid out on the gym- floor/morgue.

It was painful to see some of Scott County’s finest, its brightest, its most athletic, its most musical, most talented, most kind, most generous, most courageous

Dead

On   the   floor   of    our   gym

Powerfully dead

A poem was read….explaining how one student died unnecessarily at the foolishness of another person’s hand

And, the Grim Reaper looked on…

As it came my son’s time to “lay it all down”, I could barely watch, and yet, I had to….

My whole life’s energy has been spent on raising a Godly, strong and courageous son.

And, he was gone

Covered by a sheet

On the floor

I had to look away, as any mother would.

The loss of one single of our Scott County’s students is unacceptable to me.

Is it to you?                                                                                                                      

Watching the gym-morgue grow as each student “died” was painful.

Many of these kids I knew and loved.

Many I didn’t know, but now want to.

Our greatest asset….our greatest treasure….our greatest source of joy in this life

Lay dead on the floor of our gym….

I had to get up and walk away.  It was too painful.

The most painful part….

What was I doing to help prevent this unnecessary loss?

What was Lesa personally doing to help prevent a SINGLE loss of our future generations?

And then, to my great relief, the assembly ended.

And, the fifteen came back to “life”.

I will never forget my son walking up to me post-death and hugging me.

And, I was grateful…

For his hug

For his life

For the life of his sister and brother

For this day

For the pain I felt watching this assembly

For my first exposure to GHOST OUT

For Morgan

For Morgan and her group of friends who so faithfully and purposefully put on such a display of the realities of what life, drugs, alcohol, foolishness can do

For Morgan and her group of friends who put on such a powerful event because their care for their fellow students was greater than their fear of being made fun of.

For a body of students who were BOLD

But, Bold in powerful ways rather than in foolishness

I am not sure who all was touched by GHOST OUT, Scott County High School, Friday, September 30^, 2011, But I was.

I was touched by the assembly, by the students who were willing to participate, by the students who chose to witness Ghost Out by paying attention.

I was touched by the adults who came to participate, by the school leadership who assisted Morgan and her team in organizing such an event.

I was not only touched, but I was grateful….

At Scott County High School, our future is made secure by the talent of those who were brave, strong and organized in their effort to steer other fellow-students from those things which can kill…

Morgan told me early on (I hope this is okay to share) that each year as her group prepared for Red Ribbon Week (our week-long anti-drug campaign) that her fellow students would laugh at their anti-drug message.

In her face

With reckless abandon

And yet, Morgan looked me in the eye and said, “but, I don’t care.  I know something that they have yet to figure out.  Life is precious.  Friendship is precious.  Drugs and alcohol can destroy what years of living tries to grow”.   “I take this stand in the face of ridicule….because I/we care about our Scott County students.”

I am not her mother, but I could not be more proud.

That, in a dark Grim-Reaper world, we have shining lights like Morgan and her friends leading their peers to better choices, better living, better decision making.

I am forever changed by Ghost Out

Had you been blessed by attending, you would have been too.

Blessings on your day,

Lesa

Bible in Hand....

My husband comes to our bedroom Bible in hand and asks to share a few minutes with me.  I know it is important.  He lays his Bible gently in front of me and says his words…thoughts he has had on his mind for a few days.  I sense this is more than just important, it is paramount to his life that I listen.

He directs me to a passage and waits.

He waits for me to read and then re-read what only God can say to me but that which my husband wants me to understand he feels as well.

It is a powerful passage….it speaks of my and Ian’s journey.

It speaks of how we are to live the balance of our days.

It conveys a message...important words

Which carry weight because of their author…..God.

I have lived on the milk of God’s word for too long, far too long.

I am called to live on the meat instead, but it is a difficult thing to do.

Simple it is to do what a person’s heart wants to do and hard it is to do what the heart of God would require.

A sibling told me recently that “God does not promise us happiness, Sissy, in our life”….and, he was right.  I agreed with him right there and then.  I knew already.

I still know that God does not promise us happiness.  Nor does God call us to happiness…He calls us to Holiness.

But, how does one know Holiness when one sees it?  It is tangible?  Can you grow it?

satan delights in blinding us with our fears. It is his great joy to pull us into a venue where we rely on self and not on HIM.  It is satan’s job to grow doubt, and fatigue and worthlessness.  satan beats us to the point we are desperate and yet do not know for what.

That is why laying down your Bible in front of yourself is vital.

That is why sharing your Bible with your wife is important.

That is why seeking HIS will in the word is crucial.

It is the only way to shield yourself from growing away from what is Holy.

I am grateful for a husband who challenges me to grow as a Christian. 

When I think over my life and my mistakes and my failures…as wife, as mother, as daughter, as sister…there is much I have to learn, much I would re-do…forks in the road I would take differently.

 I fully relate to that portion in the movie “Live, Eat, Pray” where Julia Roberts kneels on the floor, tears streaming down her face and begging God to tell her what to do.  “I’ll do whatever it is you want me to do, just TELL me.” 

And, HE does. 

There is not a single question we have which God does not answer.

Which is why it is important to lay open the Word and read it.

That is why it is important to be the kind of person who not only reads for yourself, but who also shares with others…

Like my husband did for me.

And, for that, I am grateful.

Blessings on your day,

Lesa

I Love the Fall....Never Do I Feel More Close to God

I Love the Fall….

Never do I feel more close to God than as I watch him paint our world with colors come from heaven.  I don’t imagine He shares all of the available colors with us for I suspect we could not take in the depth of them.  I always consider that He shares just enough with us to birth in us a longing….

In me, He has succeeded.

Fall also wells up in my heart great gratitude…sheer thankfulness for all of the many earthly blessings He has given my family and me.  But, even moreso, I am made aware of His Heavenly Blessings, which is where lies our real home.

I think I love the Fall because, while in it, I am slowed down down long enough to appreciate in full splendor the glories of this world and the promised glories of His world yet to come.

It slows me down long enough to hear better…the wind in the trees, the whispers of my children, the freezing cold feet running to jump into bed.

It slows me down long enough to hold a hand a little longer, hug a little harder, whisper prayers a little longer.

I feel God’s presence in all seasons, but there is something about the Fall which draws my heart like no other does…

My senses are heightened as I watch the colors of Fall explode into all their splendor…reaching deep into my heart and pulling out the best of my thoughts…love, compassion, joy, tenderness, gentleness…peace, patience, and genuine desire to make a holy difference while here on earth.

A friend and I were talking last week about this world…its joys, its pains, it purpose.  She said she thought that God gave us beauty in this world to help us as we journey through to grow in us a hope for what is yet to come.  I like that thought.

God gives us the beauty of family, friendship and flowers to anchor our lives. He Gives those things to us which remind us of Him.  As we traveled this year as a family, we were blessed to see God’s handiwork frequently. He threaded the quiltwork of our lives with color, love, laughter.  He wove the patterns of our days with friendship, joy and compassion.  He let us soar with great joyfulness and he let us fall in great sorrow, always beside us, never leaving us and allowing us glimpses of His glory as we journeyed…using his soulful brush to paint for us a picture of hope and faith and trust that just as He promises, He will do.

For me, all of that becomes very clear in the canvas of the Fall.  I can see HIM in the colors which the wind blows all painted by the Master to remind me.  To remind us.

He is with us.  He is guiding us. He is loving us. He is preparing for us.

Blessings on your Fall Day,

Lesa Sheryl Young

I Love The Fall…

A Challenge by Ann Voscamp

  

 A challenge by Ann Voscamp….www.aholyexperience.com (author of One Thousand Gifts)

And, I, humble in spirit these past twenty-four months having walked a journey that only God can explain in His time….I accept her challenge and thank her for it.

To list daily one “gift from the heart”….in hopes that in the thanksgiving which comes from listing God’s daily blessings to me, I may draw closer to Him, kinder to you….

For the month of September, 2011

1)      Prayers before my feet hit the ground in the early morning’s light’

2)      Quiet blessings dropped down from heaven…sun’s rays, children’s laughter

3)      Homework at the family table

4)      Son’s dancing in the kitchen…and, he is quite good

5)      Husband bent over his Bible, reading glasses dancing on his head

6)      Joyful music as I work….The Prayer, Amazing Grace, Blessings

7)      A mother and father’s union joined 54 years

8)      Son changing the radio from secular rap to KLOVE without being asked

9)      Sons’ doing the right thing after a wrong thing

10)   Noble friend taking a stand on my behalf (PJA)

11)   Sunlight as I bathe washing me with golden joy

12)   Late night walk around the neighborhood with son…sweetness

13)   Amazing Grace…my chains are gone (CTomlin)

14)   Long talks with family at the kitchen table

15)   Friends holding one another’s hearts through child rearing (T&K)

16)   Husband and five children whom for my love knows no bounds

17)   Long talks with daughter at the kitchen table, on the front porch

18)   Yoga with sweet yoga friends

19)   Early morning phone calls with my mother

20)   The view out my window as I work…pink flowers, yellow leaves…

21)   Quiet night at home with kindness in our time

22)   Sweet Melissa….

23)   The ability to read…and, us passing on TV to do so

24)   Little visit on the phone with my sweet Daddy…

25)   Sharing in disappointments with my husband and having faith in God’s great providence

26)   The blessings of travel…

27)   Family laughter…dancing in the kitchen…

28)   Wonderful day learning about being motivated with our good friends (TK&A)

29)   Photos which bring such great joy and remembrance

30)   Our journey….this life…this is not our home…..

I keep the list out handy so that I can reflect…on the time God has given me…

I am grateful…

Blessings,

Lesa Sheryl Young

My Son Has Eyes that Window to His Precious Soul

My son has eyes that window to his precious soul…

I have always loved the quotes “the eyes are the windows to the soul”…..”the eyes mirror the heart of the self”….”the eyes speak truth when there are not words…”

My son has those kinds of eyes….

They sing blue when you look into them, the sweetest blue which is found in the promises of God, like rainbows, the ocean, the heavens….

Like my son’s eyes…

My son is a gentle soul, perhaps the gentlest soul I know.  Even at birth.  He is a twin and came first.  I remember quite clearly them laying him in the little isolate and his quiet,  when what I needed to hear was his loud-birth cry telling the world of his entry…but, I waited and there was no such cry.  I could barely see him…but, what I could was my son’s little head looking around as if for something…or someone..maybe his Mom? His brother?   I panicked and asked the doctor to please tell me what was wrong with my baby and I will never forget Dr. Hager’s words..

“Mom…he is perfectly fine.  He is waiting for you.  He knows your work is not yet done and awaits the arrival of his brother very patiently.  Once his brother is here, and he hears his cry, then your son will speak his own.”

And, he was right.

The moment his brother entered this world, my son raised his own voice in celebration!

He is a gentle soul.  Perhaps the gentlest soul I know.

Yet, he is not weak, in fact, if anything, he is strong…very strong.

Perhaps the strongest soul I know.

His is the kind of strength which comes from deep inside, where manhood is found.  His spirit took root in his heart very young…enabling him to see things which others miss…the value of being kind, coming to the rescue of a brother, sharing the secrets of a sister, telling the truth to his mother, standing tall with his father ….

I think God truly enjoys hearts like that of my son.

And, I think God uses those hearts like my son’s to remind us of His great love and compassion…..and call for all of us.

When I look at the eyes of my son, I see so many things I treasure..

I see dreams, aspirations…

I see a writer

I see a pilot

I see quiet strength

I see manly integrity

I see a courageous and brave warrior

I see a dependable brother

I see a precious son….

I see Jesus when I look into the eyes of my son

And, in that, I am blessed.

To be able to see how God uses the eyes to the soul of my son….is one of my most precious…

………Blessings,

Lesa

The Hands of My Son are Large....

The hands of my son are large….

God knitted those hands large from the beginning….he entered earth with hands made large for a purpose. 

At first, the hands of my son gave smallish pleasures

    Blowing kisses to mommy

            Playing peek a boo with sister

                        Driving trucks with brother

                                    Tossing small balls with daddy

As he grew, the purpose of his hands grew as well….

            Holding the arm of Grammy as they walked to the church doors

                        Patting the back of Poppy as he hugged him hello

                                    Stopping to pick up a dropped paper for a sweet neighbor

                                                Serving the homeless at the HOPE center

I have gone to my son’s room at night as he lay sleeping…to pray

And there, I have watched those hands grow from tiny little hands full of sticky surprises into the hands of my son, the young man…

The nails are large, wide and strong, the fingers long and thick….the palms are wide and manly…

These hands that I love so much touch a place in my mother’s soul that cannot be touched by any other hands…they reach that spot which carries only his name…

And, when those hands surround me with a hug, there is no greater joy.

When those hands hold my own….it is a precious day.

When those hands lay still at rest…when they are busy playing ball…when they are actively juggling….

I smile with a grateful heart…

I understand that touch is one of God’s greatest gifts.

And,  I believe.

The hands of my son are large…

And, it is my mothers’ sweetest privilege to live watching him grow into them as God lays out before my son HIS plan for their use…

I see compassion in his hands…and love…

I see him lift children high in play and watch him hold toddler girl as he rocks away her fears..

I see the love of Christ in my son’s hands…

It is my fervent prayer that what God intended when he knitted together these two hands is lived out in the life of my son.

And, as only his mother can,

I believe.

The Value of the Gift of the Lists......

One Thousand Gifts…..( by Ann Voskamp)

I have had the sweet blessing of rubbing hearts with the blog of Ann Voskamp….www.aholyexperience.com.  She speaks often things deep in my heart but never put to my pen…but, through hers, I find release….and slices of joy…and, even at times, tears.

I not only love the way her words fit to paper…but, I most love the way her heart sees this life God has given us….A Holy Experience.

Her failings and fears,  which she so valiantly and frankly shares,  draw me in…she, too, has wonderings of her purpose here on earth but has chosen to see things “cup half full” rather than “life mourned sad”.

Her writings make me want to walk closer to God….head on His shoulder…hand on his arm…barefooted…so, Ann, I thank you.

I am very appreciative of her challenge to make a “list” of my ONE THOUSAND BLESSINGS….for, having taken up the challenge, I have been blessed.  It does as she says…causes you to view the love of God in the small details of our daily breaths…

I challenge each of you reading this to likewise take up the challenge (she even provides lovely lists on which to write).

If not for this challenge, I would have missed…

“son dancing in kitchen”

“husband’s whispered, Do you know the depth to which I love you?”

“daughter’s call to thank me for taking care of a matter for her..Thank you Mom”

“son’s asking, “Mom, can I have a hug?”

I knew these little blessings were gifts from God to make life more precious, but there is something tenderly sweet when you write them on a list you can review…it draws me to my knees in thanksgiving….

God’s gentlest love, in the details of my life makes it make sense….the “whys” of my life…

We walk not alone…but with one another in this journey…because next to God, the only thing that really matters are not “things” but our relationships, shared happy, shared sad, shared.

Shared.

Using the gifts God knitted inside us at birth to help our “others” walk this life…

I think of some friends who knew long ago their gifts…and, who use them to His Glory!

My Mother- loving….unconditionally as only my mother can love

My Sister, Frankie – being a beacon of light to students in a Godless world

Mrs. Melissa L.– Faithful, loving, tender friend

Ms. Laura – lifeline to managing life and broken hearts

Miss Patty – tending the hearts of wee ones year after year after year

Mrs. Helen – listening to those who are searching, lost and needy with compassion and non-judgment,  friendship sweet

Mrs. Suzanne – blessing you at just the moment you need a blessing

Mrs. Dianne J. – prayer warrior…wise advisor…faithful friend

Dr. Jackie – using God’s tools to heal and comfort the sick

Ms. Katie – living her gratefulness and faith in growing her babies

Mrs. Kris – Godly example of selflessness on a daily basis…and, with a joyful heart

Mrs. Cheryl – Godly mother I was blessed to watch out my kitchen window as she loved her babies

Mrs. Melissa B – who uses her gift of compassion and love to encourage and ‘flip the dog” of our lives

Mrs. Tammy –who pens her pain and joy in such a way as to bless us and challenge us

Beth….my first friend to find heaven’s gate…who daily reminds me of how precious is this life

And, the list could go on and on..

And, it does,

Because I have started as well, a List of THOSE who have blessed me in my walk here on earth…

And, by doing so, have been amazed at heart, at soul,  at the angels God has placed in my 49 years, six months, without whom, I could not have survived…

Or thrived

Or seen so sweetly the face of God…

~Sweet Blessings,

lesa sheryl young,