When you took me on, you received a gloriously adventuresome life. You know you are my child and that along with your brothers and sisters in Christ you will inherit everything I have. I help you to be ready for anything whether so-called bad times or good times.
Believe Me when I tell you that We of the Trinity are praying in you, through you, and for you at all times. My Spirit will always make something good come from the seemingly bad. We will always guide you through your mind and your intuition. Don’t panic or jump to conclusions. Wait, ask for wisdom to think things through. When you turn to us you can tell the difference between your thoughts and ours. Ours bring peace, yours bring illusions.
The way to handle suffering is to know that it will not last forever. Inner change is inevitable no matter what you are going through.
Quotation: “The life of a Christian is a sometimes confusing combination of joy and sadness, contentment and restlessness, comfort, and pain.” Kenneth C. Haugk, Don’t Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart
“For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us! Romans 8:18 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Review for Faces in the Crowd, by Mary Harwell Sayler
By DiVoran Lites
I met Mary Harwell Sayler at a Christian Writer’s Conference in Titusville, Florida. She was speaking about writing novels and poetry and I was fascinated. She had so much experience and, as I discovered, so much expertize as a writer that I wanted to know more of what she knew
A kind of funny thing happened that in a small way started an ongoing student/teacher relationship as well as a personal friendship. Mary mentioned from the speaker’s podium that she had left her watch at home, so I stopped by our big store and got one that cost very little. Mary was gracious, as she always is, and made me feel as if I had given her something wonderful.
From there I discovered that she would take me as a private student and so many years I drove to DeLand once a month, where she lived. We talked and talked and got to know and care for each other. She quickly became my favorite teacher as well as my favorite poet. I haven’t missed one of her publications, and I appreciate them all.
I particularly enjoy Mary’s newest book of poetry, Faces in the Crowd,I identify with every line. The poems are full of humor, understanding, and pathos. They let me feel and apprehend what she is talking about. I identify with each one as if Mary had been looking into my life, and yet I believe every poem comes from a place of empathy and experience in Mary’s life, too. Her poems showed me how connected we humans are and how much we have in common with each other.
One thing I love about poetry is the insight, or epiphany that should come with every poem. Mary excels at making words pictures as well as at drawing deep meaning from every one. I’m so happy to be able to read her work and I’ll be reading Faces in the Crowd over and over again for a long time to come.
Mary is one of the featured authors on Rebekah Lyn Books.
Lately I’m seeing how much God wants me to let my spirit meld into his. I’m seeing that he won’t punish me, hurt me, or give me more than I can handle. I’m seeing that His will is my true will and my true will is His will. God is love, nothing else, nothing less.
It hasn’t always been like this. At one time, I so wanted to impress God, and other people, with my spirituality that I became a one-person counseling machine. I was a stay-at-home mom. The phone rang so many times during the day while the kids were at school and Bill was at work, that I couldn’t do much else than keep up with the household, talk on the phone, and answer the doorbell. Here’s a sample of my projects at the time. There was the woman whose husband beat her, another was a married woman who wanted to have an affair, then I felt responsible to talk a woman out of killing her aged husband because he was driving her nuts. Of course such “clients,” often threaten either directly or indirectly to kill themselves. I stayed available because I certainly didn’t want that to happen on my watch. It was so bad I couldn’t even go for a walk without taking a backpack of other people problems onto the trail with me.
One day, I was tired of fighting it and asked for help. The Spirit of Christ brought ideas and people to my aid. I got an answering machine and when people learned I wasn’t available at the exact moment of an emotional crisis, they stopped calling. In the book, When Helping You is Hurting Me, Rene Berry says, “They’ll find another fool, they found you, didn’t they?” Yes to both. My “clients” moved on and so did I.
Most of my life, I’ve known I was called to be a writer. Now I began to write for myself. That meant giving up doing the writing other people asked me to do for them. I started living a more normal life. I told the Lord he was in charge of all my personal contacts. I began to wait for him to lead instead of selecting my own purgatory. Soon I slowed down from an unnecessary and counter-productive pace. I’ve discovered that God makes and presents wonderful plans.
Sweet invitations and delightful conversations happen in which our Lord takes His part. He gives me love pats every day. Love pats are good things that happen, which otherwise might be called coincidences. I’m getting more writing and painting done than I ever have, but I’m not a recluse or a hermit. All that counseling without qualifications did me good though. I learned a lot. What could have been better for a budding writer? He was guiding me through all that to get me to go where He really wanted me to go.
Here’s a paraphrase of Matthew 11:30 personalized (taken from The Message)
Beloved,
Walk with Me and watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with Me, and you’ll learn how to live freely and lightly.
