Category: Twelve Days of Christmas

Desire: Strong Intention or Aim

 
On the seventh day of Christmas my True Love gave to me,
seven synonyms for Desire.
 
 
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17 NIV)


Choosing one word for the year to inform my path. Others came up with the idea and so I wanted to try it this year. Here’s a link that gives tips on how to choose your word. It will be interesting to see how one word informs a year full of living and choosing and believing and breathing God’s word.

Desire (v): to long or hope for.
Seven Synonyms: Crave, Hunger, Long,
Thirst, Want, Wish, Yearn



Desire. That’s my one word. It comes from the Latin, “de-” (from) plus “sider, sidus” (heavenly body). From those roots, I reach out to the Maker of the heavenly lights, rooting my desire in Him. Asking that my desires this year be imbued with His perfection and goodness, knowing full well that my human desires may be tainted by selfishness and pain.
 
Desire. Disguised want. I wanted to choose “want” for my focal word, but it didn’t look or sound as nice as desire. Want defined comes out a little more on the half empty side; it has various nuances like to be needy or destitute or to be in need of. Lack would be a good synonym.
 
Desire. Want. Lack. What do these words have in common? An outside source that fulfills. Invitation to live with less than, to embrace my own neediness, to confess my destitute state, these truths compel me to stay near the Shepherd, who is good and promises me that I shall not be in want.
 

Linking up with: One Word 365 Community

and

Only A Breath

 
 
 
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Sing Praise!

On the sixth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me
six reasons to sing praise!
 
 
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and
bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
(Isaiah 55:10-12 NIV)
 
 
1. Snow: We’re going to have a white
New Year’s Eve!
 
 
2. Bread: Making homemade bagels, a snow day tradition!
 
 
 
3. Word: Going to hide God’s word in my heart in 2013 using the 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart app and Kindle e-book!
 
Screenshot
100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart by Robert J. Morgan
Photo credit:
B&H Publishing Group
 
 
4. Joy: Christmas is forever!
 
 
 
5. Desire: Word of the year! Thanks to Melanie from Only a Breath for designing my free button! Check out her Bible reading printables and other fun stuff on her blog. I look forward to following her in 2013 for creative and spiritual encouragement!
 
 
 
 
 
desire fulfilled is a tree of life
(Proverbs 13:12b)
 
 
6. Peace: Forgiven!
 
 


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True Love

 
 
 
On the fourth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me,
four calls to love.

Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and
with all your soul and
with all your mind and
with all your strength.
(Mark 12:30 NIV)
 
 
On the fifth day of Christmas my True Love gave to me,
five golden rules.
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
(1 John 3:11 NIV)

 
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
(1 John 3:23-24 NIV)


Dear friends, let us love one another , for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
(1 John 4:7 NIV)


Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another , God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:11-12 NIV)

Love your neighbor as yourself.
(Mark 12:31 NIV)
 


Linking up with:
 
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Three French Words

On the third day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me
three French words: Joie de vivre!
 
  
You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.
(Psalm 16:11 NLT)
 
 
Today finds me curled up on the couch, nursing a cold. Not feeling much joie de vivre. The common cold doesn’t provide much joy of living. But joy doesn’t always means happiness or health. I accepted my cold (which I am thankful came now, instead of last weekend). I settled into reading and then watching some films that I had on my Christmas wish list.
 
I watched The Nativity, which I hadn’t viewed in a long time. The setting and narrative action gives the sense of being there. The writer of the screenplay opens with Herod’s edict to kill all children under the age of two. A horrific portrait of power mongering fueled by pride and paranoia.
 
This tragedy is juxtaposed with scenes leading up to the birth of Jesus. The action takes place with hints of the gospel parables. Vineyards, wind blowing the leaves, figs and grapes and wheat harvest. Chaff blowing in the wind.
 
And the people of the story. Elizabeth and Zechariah stunned by the joy of a son in their old age. Mary scared, but willing to believe the impossible. Joseph who wavers with his own fears, but believes the good news of the angel.
 
“A son will be born to her, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 NLT)
 
 
This is the real joy. The joy of God’s salvation. This is cause for joie de vivre!
 
 

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The Candidates

On the second day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me,
words wrapped in books, silently sitting beside me
 like two turtledoves of peace.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
(Proverbs 3:3 ESV)

 
 
As I gleaned my shelf for a devotional, I also gathered the various books on writing that I have collected over the years. I stacked them on the couch along with a few other books that are on my “reading” list.
 
I like looking at the stack and thinking I may really read some of these books this year. I will read bits and pieces, and I almost always read the introductions. Some of the best inspiration comes to me from reading the preface or the introduction of a book.
 
My desire to include, A Pen and a Path, on the list, started that way. The author, Sarah Stockton, compares writing to building a nest:
 
“Just as the bird builds a nest with grass and twigs and mud as a container for new life, so the woman creates with words a container to hold and sustain her own life. Asking God to be present as she writes, she weaves her dreams, her intentions, her fears, her sorrows, and her greatest joys into a home for her overflowing spirit. The raw materials of her life become a nest, and the nest becomes both a container for her life so far, and a place from which to continue the journey forward.”
 
 
 
I consider this stack of books my potential coaches and cheerleaders to keep me at the craft. I am looking to stretch my writing abilities, to explore new territories beyond journaling and blogging. I want to try my hand at fiction or memoir. I look forward to calling myself a novelist or freelance writer. Just some dreams woven with intention.
 
Below are my candidates: 
 
The Art of Fiction by John Garner
Leaving a Trace by Alexandra Johnson
The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray
A Pen and A Path by Sarah Stockton
Freelance Writing by Marcia Yudkin
Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg
Writing Life Stories by Bill Roorbach
One Year to a Writing Life By Susan M. Tiberghien
The Soul Tells a Story by Vinita Hampton Wright
 
 
Some I will chat with by browsing their contents, others I will get into deep conversation with by reading from cover to cover. And hopefully one or two will become my mentors, who give me exercises to improve my writing. 
 
Linking up with:
 
 
 
 
 
 
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