This poem is inspired by a favorite hymn of many, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
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Living weak in character
Laying at the Cross, past torts
Jesus, always our friend
Hearing our troubling reports
Stepping humbly to our Lord
Dumping these tribulations
Jesus, always through His love
Building our life’s foundation
Facing polarizing darkness
Bearing pain, feeling alone
Jesus waits, always trusting
Welcoming us to His own
Taking us, lifting us up
Rescuing us from sin’s shame
Jesus, always rebuilds faith
Saving through His Father’s name
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From 1 Peter 1:21: “Through Him you have come to trust in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.”
A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks.
The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.
Richard Bach (born 1936) is an American writer, who is well-known for his literary masterpieces from the 1970s. One of his biggest sellers has been JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL (1977).
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.
Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought.
To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.
American writer and novelist, Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), spent much of her early life in China as a missionary. She was widely heralded for her book, THE GOOD EARTH, which was published in 1931. She garnered the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and later the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938.
From Colossians 3:1-2: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.”
From Colossians 3:12-13: “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
From 1939, a scene of downtown Billings, Montana. This is the eventual home for a young couple moving to Billings about 20 years earlier. (courtesy of Pinterest)
Grandparents Herman and Annie experienced a most unusual courtship. Little did they know where life planned to take them in the years to come.
Herman was born in 1890 in Brainerd, Minnesota. He moved to North Dakota in 1911, then to Forsyth in eastern Montana. In 1916, as Europe filled with the winds of war, he arrived in Billings, Montana. He had been hired to be a mail carrier.
Annie was born in 1895 on a small farm in Harlon County, Nebraska. Not even a blizzard dared to delay her birth. Her early schooling was spent in a sod school house. In 1915, her family moved to Leavenworth, Washington where she finished high school, worked in a photo shop, and was employed as a staff operator by the Great Northern Railroad.
Both of their unassuming lives intersected along the railroad tracks of the Great Northern. Herman was traveling to Fort Lewis outside of Seattle on a troop train. He was being trained to serve in the American army which was shipping troops to Europe during World War I.
Along the rail line, many young ladies passed out slips of paper with their name and address. Herman received one from Annie. Later, he sent her a card, and thus began a courtship by correspondence.
The two of them met briefly at Fort Lewis before Herman shipped out to France. Upon returning safely from the war, Herman met up with Annie to be married in 1919.
They moved to Billings where Herman still found his mail carrier job waiting. Together they raised a large family of six sons and two daughters. Ultimately, the siblings witnessed the blessing of 32 grandchildren.
Taken from the front of the house along Jackson Street, the family home (built in 1920) as it looks today. Nearly all of the large trees have been removed. (courtesy of Pinterest)
This story recalled the start of my father’s family. Being the youngest child (born in 1935), Jim started a family of his own with the birth of his first child in 1956 (Richard). Eventually the family would number five sons and one daughter. My youngest brother became the final grandchild when he was born in 1967.
From 1 John 4:8-9: “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 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.”
Big Sky Buckeye 