Gospel
Photography
Joy In My Fathers World
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. Psalm 96: 11-12
This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forgetThat though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.I ope’ my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.
We recently had the privilege of driving around the back roads of Southern Virginia with a dear friend we met in Florida years ago. She is originally from Virginia and we spent a few days in her neck of the woods. She took us around the surrounding area, down lanes and across creeks and up wooded roads. We saw barns, cattle, fence posts, cemeteries, abandoned houses and mountains rising majestically in the near distance. It was a gloriously clear, blue sky day. We stopped for lots of pictures.
I shared a few pictures with you earlier in the week, but wanted to share some more. In thinking of the beauty captured in the photos, I was reminded of one of my favorite songs based on words written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock, This Is My Father’s World . You can go here to listen to a video production of this song by Fountainview Academy in British Columbia, Canada. 
It is so easy to become focused on the negative and all the ills of this world, but truly, this is our Father’s world and beauty abounds if we just open our eyes. He has promised to be faithful to us even to the end of the age. Instead of focusing on the evil and all that is wrong in the world, I want to focus on God and how he makes all things right in his time. I want to see the good, the beautiful. I want to “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)
As Christians, I believe we have to accept that there is evil, we have to abhor it and shun it. We need to pray for good to win. We don’t need to live in denial, but, we don’t need to wallow in the gutter of despair as if we have lost all hope either. We need to see with eyes that see Jesus, hearts that love others, arms that reach out to help, feet that walk alongside. We must delight in the beauty in our Father’s world.
“Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” That gives me great comfort and hope. Let us open our eyes and see.
Seeing in grace,
Teresa
Standing In Grace
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access through faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5 NIV
May we find God’s peace today for all our needs. The world may be swirling around us in all directions, but he is still our hope and his grace is sufficient for all that we need. He stands ready to pour all his love into our hearts.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your Grace. We rely on you today to meet our needs and to sustain us. You are our hope of glory.
Standing in Grace,
Teresa
Prompted By A Sunday Afternoon Drive
This is definitely my time of year. I can not soak up enough of the color that is in the air and on the trees. It has prompted me on a couple of occasions to wax poetic.
Still
“Winding Roads wrap around my soul like a scarf splashing orange and red Autumn.
Fiery hues consume me and lift me up to blue heaven.
I soak in the peace and am grateful for His art and how it hushes me.
Hope breathes still.”
TLH
I ask my husband every year to keep October as open as possible so we can bask in the glory of the season. He tries, but usually still books too heavily. Yet, we manage to squeeze in drives here and there.
This past Sunday, late afternoon, we made one last trek to gather up what was left of the color near Cave Run Lake. It was a gorgeous day and I snapped a few pictures as usual. I thought I would share them with you today.
My camera simply cannot capture the magnificence of God’s paintbrush, but it will give you an idea of the beauty that abounds in my neck of the woods!
Wrapping color in grace,
Teresa
For the complete Prompted to Write Series that is part of the Write 31 Days of October. click the button to the left.
Prompted By A Girl’s Day Out
I love getting together with friends for an outing. My friend, G, lives in Ohio about an hour from me, so once a month or so, we plan to meet halfway for lunch, shopping, but mostly talking!
We love to throw some words around and let them bounce off the walls and back in our faces. We can hold our own with the best of them. We talk about everything – food, religion, politics, teaching (we were both former teachers), former students, husbands (mostly ours), family – no topic is off limits. And we don’t have to agree. We are free to have our own opinions. But, if we can make the other see our point of view that’s okay too!
It is a beautiful friendship that began twenty-two years ago when we both started teaching at the same small private school. Being two of the three middle / high school teachers that year, we were together often (the other teacher was a man and put up with us). Naturally, we would meet at the end of the day to compare notes. Then, there was the conference that we attended where we were roommates along with my mother, who also taught at the same school that year.
On that trip we really bonded. It wasn’t long before we started getting together with our husbands for movie and pizza nights, or going out to dinner or shopping. We always talked up a storm while still keeping focused on the movies. We’d give our opinions and our husband’s would just shake their heads. Her husband started calling us Siskel and Ebert. I’m pretty sure we could have given them a run for their money. Siskal and Ebert that is, our husbands have no money.
We never tired of each other’s company and luckily for us, our husbands really liked hanging out together. It was sports that brought them together (UK Basketball and Cincinnati Reds). We have many happy memories of spending time at their place or ours.
Then, we had to move and break up a good thing. 
The friendship didn’t break, just the amount of time we could spend together. We’ve moved a lot, but over the years we managed to stay in touch. When we’d be home for Christmas or in the summer we’d do our best to find a time to go visit them. And, we always picked up right where we left off.
You can imagine our excitement when we knew we were moving back to my hometown in 2012. This meant we’d only be an hour away from them and could start having adventures again. They could come here and we could go there and we could meet halfway.
When we meet halfway we have progressive dinners. We meet at restaurant number one for dinner and stay as long as we dare without getting dirty looks from the waitress. This can be up to three hours. We make sure to tip well to make up for the extra time.
After dinner we may go shopping at the Dollar Tree, big spenders that we are, and then we’ll go to restaurant number two for dessert, where we’ll again stay as long as we dare. After which, depending on the time and our mood, we may move on to restaurant number three and have something to drink, or a snack if we’re up to it.
One time we hit Sonic around 10 pm for drinks and tater tots and we stayed until midnight. The guys made friends with the manager who seemed to enjoy our company and he didn’t mind at all that we were using his restaurant for a meeting place. So we were cool. Another time we went to their house fully intending to come back home the same evening. At two in the morning we were still talking and watching movies; we decided to stay and crash in their guest room.
We love this friendship because we can totally be who we are. There is no pretense or judgement. Just love and acceptance. I’m pretty sure they feel the same way. We thank God for them.
This past Saturday G and I met halfway for lunch at a sweet downtown restaurant on a brick-lined street with wonderful old buildings. The leaves were softly falling and made a satisfying crunch under foot.
We were early for the lunch crowd so had the place pretty much to ourselves for awhile. We talked and remembered and shared from our hearts. When the waitress asked if we wanted dessert (they sounded so yummy) we decided we’d walk around downtown, hit some shops and then come back for dessert.
Which we did. We found a wonderful quilt shop with beautiful fabric. No, we don’t quilt. She crochet’s and I write. We browsed through a wonderful little consignment shop and made a few purchases. We walked around and peeked in windows.
Once, as we were walking, I happened to look down and right there in the middle of Second Street was my husband staring back at me from a display window. Well, not my husband, but his picture. 
I did a double take. It was a display to announce a night of music in honor of volunteers, in which my husband is on the musical line-up. I can’t seem to go anywhere without him crashing my girl time. Just kidding, sort of. He did crash a girls night out one time with another friend which is another story. Anyway, back to the walk.
We walked around and I took pictures of buildings and streets and steeples, then we made our way back to the restaurant for dessert. Yes, it lived up to the expectation of yumminess. Turtle Cheesecake and Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie. We ate as much as we could, talked some more, then, we hugged goodbye and went home, all the better for having had a girl’s day out. Thanks, G, for being my friend and loving me in spite of me.
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds it’s morning and is refreshed. ~~Khalil Gibran
Loving my friends in grace,
Teresa
This is part of a 31 Days series, Prompted to Write, in which I write about the ebb and flow of life in my day to day living. Please click the banner below for the complete series in this series and for more information about the Write 31 Days and others who are writing as well.
Teresa L Hardymon 