Challenges
Embrace them
Fearless, with courage
Taste life’s treasured gifts
Blessings
Maturing
Home alone
World grows smaller
Embrace family and friends
Love
Embers
Burning low
Embracing more hope
Blazing back to life
Rekindled
This series of poems (written in the German-inspired style of Elfchen or Elevenie) shares a total of eleven words in each poem, with a sequence by line of one, two, three, four, and one words.
From Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is He that made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”
Child learning of God’s kindness
Unaware of its vastness
Praise His eternal goodwill
Laboring with steadfastness
Goodness, perfect and Holy
From righteousness, living water
Worship always with gladness
Crafting hands, grace-filled potter
God’s blessings, never-ending
His mercy flows from above
Lives rescued with divine hand
Transforming with endless love
Lost sheep, needing daily grace
Good Shepherd’s assisting hand
Heaven’s gate, darkness scattered
Lifting eyes to God’s homeland
From the words of American pastor and Christian teacher, Charles Stanley: “At times when we’re struggling to trust God, we should remember all the ways He is good to us.”
Winds of peace
Whispering at night
Singing with calmest voice
With lasting newness
Winds of storm
Blowing from dark skies
Bearing down once again
With coldness of heart
Winds of heart
Crossing west to east
Warming thoughts open doors
With attitude’s change
Winds of will
Bringing challenges
Stumbling from daily mistakes
With lessons to learn
Winds of change
Bringing smile to heart
Dancing with endless joy
With fresh perspective
Walking through life’s fire
Never to blindly stumble—
God always walks close
Darkness testing faith
Patiently trusting Father—
Accepting His plan
Holy Spirit seeks
Guiding tongues in bringing forth—
Pure and blessed speech
Lying awake in bed, feeling ready to write
Morning light feeling much too bright
Searching in my head for ideas to write about
Will today’s words offer and deliver much clout?
Sitting, thinking, and sitting . . . nothing!
Why can’t my mind create something?
Perhaps more coffee will warm up my mind
Hoping that possible ideas may soon be mine
Do all writers usually feel this way?
With little or nothing to really say
Hunger offers quick, necessary break
Nutritious breakfast, now I will make
Finished eating and returning to my writing table
Satisfied appetite doesn’t make me anymore able
Struggling through another writer’s block
Tired eyes continue watching the ticking clock
Wow! This short poem I now create
Finally, fulfilling my writer’s fate
From Zephaniah 3:14-15: “Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, He has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.”
Looking inward, changing selves
Repenting, reversing course
Searching for life’s cherished peace
Joy spreads from Bethlehem’s source
Reading, praying, reflecting
Preparing our minds and hearts
Beaming starlight in dark times
Joy brightens, world seeks restart
Rejoicing always, Lord is near
Restoring fortunes, Prince of Peace
Renewing tomorrow’s hope
Joy transcends Father’s new lease
Trusting in God’s promises
Waiting with welcoming grace
Singing praises, justice calls
Joy blossoms in this birthplace
Proclaiming mercy-filled peace
Glowing, rising midnight sun
Igniting life’s dormant faith
Joy worships birth of God’s Son
You are invited to join in prayer: Lord God, your love and mercy promise hope, joy, and peace. During this season of Advent, open our hearts in preparation to receive our Savior. Amen.
“Joy to the World” is frequently sung during the Advent and Christmas season. Written in 1719 by English minister and hymn writer, Isaac Watts, this hymn has been a favorite for well over 100 years in North America.
Blessed
Living water
Grace and forgiveness
Walking to eternal life
Jesus
Sinfulness
Seeking redemption
Looking to Jesus
Integrity and character sidetracked
Repentance
Remembering
Every morning
Our baptismal waters
Salvation found in Christ
Promises
Clouds of war, envelope life
Humanity’s endless strife
Fog of war, shrouding landscape
Breathing despair, no escape
Darkness of war, days collapse
Lost in night’s maze, without maps
Scars of war, covering earth
Global peace missing its berth
Children of war, empty hope
Tender hands without faith’s rope
Wounds of war, shall never heal
Hope travels on broken wheels
Horrors of war, drained faces
Exhausted lives, gloom races
Refugees of war, wonder
Dreams, hopes, and lives plowed under
Terror of war, raging on
Tomorrow’s forgotten dawn
Faces of war, children grieve
Life robbed by battlefield’s thieves
Future of war, never ends
Talks of peace, no dividends
Hopelessness of war, cries out
When will blossoms of peace sprout?
From 1 John 4:9-10: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Father reigns from above
Revealing divine love
Heaven’s whispering dove
God’s love never changes
Spanning earth’s vast ranges
Blessed interchanges
Mankind living in sin
Loving Christ, life begins
Cross becomes faith’s linchpin
Lasting love, none greater
Needing no translator
Grace shines, from Creator
Love’s divine foundation
Nurturing salvation
Life’s eternal station
From the words of American pastor and Christian teacher, Charles Stanley: “We didn’t earn the love God has for us, and that’s why we can never lose it.”
Friday night dinner
Mom’s day off in the kitchen—
Bucket of chicken
Teenager’s first drive
Seatbelt fastened and secure—
Still parked in driveway
Open for business
Fridge full of tasty morsels—
Door always unlocked
Big Sky Buckeye 