Today

This weekend was really good. I came out of it feeling so refreshed. Taking time to stop and spend some quality time with the Lord was very helpful. My pastors have been preaching on "The Challenging Church in a Disturbed World" and it has been challenging to listen to. In looking at my life I can see so many areas that are definitely in need of repair. So, I am re-evaluating things and trying to take an inventory of my life and remove anything that is offensive to the Lord or would keep Him from having His way in my life. It's not fun to look at yourself and take note of all the things that are wrong but Jesus is so faithful to help you clean up the messes that you make. I have so much peace right now and a new sense of hope that He will work all things together for good. So I have been a little overly cheerful today, but I can't help it. I feel so relieved, so free, so at peace with God and I am excited about what He is doing not only in my life but in my church and in the lives of those around me. There are still struggles and there will be hard things to face, but I know that Jesus will be with me every step of the way and I am able to do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. I also got to rehearse a lot of really fun music this weekend because my group is performing tomorrow at noon for Cinco de Mayo. I love Latin music!!!! It is so much fun to play and sing.
On a tangent, for some reason I am feeling really in the mood to publish poetry. Maybe it's from grading my kids literature homework this afternoon. Who knows. So, I'm going to post some. These two poems are from two of my absolute favorite authors.
A Psalm of Life -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! -
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not the goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though not stout and brave,
Still like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

TO F-----S S. O-----D -- Edgar Allen Poe
Thou wouldst be loved?- then let thy heart
From its present pathway part not!
Being everything which now thou art,
Be nothing which thou art not.
So with the world thy gentle ways,
Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
Shall be an endless theme of praise,
And love - a simple duty.

Tomorrow I will post on my adventures helping a friend with her middle school adventures!!!