Day 10: God's Love

The Prompt: Write something inspirational.

Yay, I'm into double digits now!  This prompt should be easy.  :)

Here is something inspirational: God loves you.  I know, I know, it seems like a fairly elementary idea, but think about what the words mean for a minute.  God-the Maker of all the universe, the Supreme Being, the only powerful God- loves (definition: to have a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person; to have a feeling of intense desire; to thrive on or need) you.  Yes, you, a mere human.  A person who has made mistakes and failed Him in one way or another.  A sinner.  Yet, despite all our mistakes and shortcomings God continues to love us!

Now, this realization can either make you feel really guilty (which I don't want you to feel), or it can cause you to love God back with the beginnings of the same love He shows you.  This is actually pretty easy to do once you can appreciate the intensity that God loves you.  After all, God desires your love.  That is why you were created.  I read Luke 15 this morning, and I think that chapter, along with 1 Cor. 13 should be called "The Love Chapters."  In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables: the story of the shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep to search for 1, the parable of the woman who has 10 coins and searches endlessly until she finds her 1, and the story of the prodigal son.  All three show us the extent of how God loves us.

• He is devoted to us, using circumstances in life in one way or another to draw us to Him.
• He loves with a love so strong that He is willing to do anything to get our attention.  He is desperate for our love.
• His love is patient.  No matter how long it takes, no matter how much we resist, He will continue to chase after us.
• Through His love, He gives us grace and mercy beyond comprehension.  We don't deserve His love, but He gives it freely, practically begging us to accept it.
• God's love is like a father's love.  It cares, provides, and protects.
• His love has no boundaries.

No other love in all the whole compares with this kind of love!  How can you not love God?

Some of my favorite songs are ones that depict this love for us.  They make God's love much more real.  In conclusion, I'd like to share some of the many that exist.  I linked a video to the title if you want to listen to the whole song. 

Always Enough by Casting Crowns

Your love is peace to the broken
Faith for the widow, hope for the orphan, strength for the weak
Your love is the anthem of nations, rings out through the ages
And You're always enough for me

So Far to Find You by Casting Crowns
You were broken, abandoned
And crying all alone
We were waiting and praying
And longing to bring you home
And then we saw your face
In a moment you were wrapped up in our hearts
We took a step of faith
And now here we are

Will you let me hold you in my arms tonight
I have come so far to find you
So far to find you
Will you take my love and give up the fight
I have come so far to find you
So far to find you

By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North
Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child?
Tell me where will you run, to where will you run?

'Cause I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Beloved by Tenth Avenue North
You're My beloved
Lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us
It's you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we'll be
My Love it unites us
And it binds you to Me
It's a mystery

Never Gone by Colton Dixon
I'm still standing here
No I didn't disappear
Now the lights are on
See I was never gone

I let go of your hand
To help you understand
With you all along
Yeah, I was never gone

Not Alone by RED
I am with you
I will carry you through it all
I won't leave you I will catch you
When you feel like letting go
Cause you're not, you're not alone

"And remember, God made you special, and He loves you very much!  Bye!"

Day 9: Regret

The Prompt: Write a story that revolves around, "Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!"


This one is a toughie! I expect it to be shorter.

Sandy reset her snooze alarm for the third time that morning.  "Just five more minutes."  She snuggled deep under her fuzzy covers and started slipping into dreamland when she was sucked right out of it.

"Sandy!" her mother exclaimed after she opened the door to her fourteen-year-old daughter's room.  "Get out of bed!  Your father needs you to start working in fifteen minutes.  You know it's harvest season."

Sandy sprang up when her mother yelled and moaned after the lecture.  "Alright, alright."  She flung the covers off the bed.  "I'm just so tired!"

"You wouldn't be if you didn't stay up so late reading."  Her mother pointed to a cheap romance book partially hidden under the bed.

The teenager blushed and shoved it fully under.  "Excuse me.  I need to get dressed."

"Of course, dear."  The door shut behind her.

"It was worth staying up to finish my book," Sandy thought to herself as she opened her work clothes drawer.  She saw a ripped out paper sitting on top of her jeans.  She then tenderly picked it up and lay down on her bed to examine it more closely.  "It won't be much longer until I get you!"

The paper had been ripped out of a magazine.  It was an advertisement for a stereo.  Sandy had wanted one for so long.  Her old one had broken four months, but her parents could not afford to buy her a new one.  Sandy had stacks of CDs in her closet, just yearning to be listened to again.  It was torture going without music for so long.  Her father had promised her that if they had enough crops that year, which seemed likely,  he would be able to buy it for her.  The only condition was that she had to work hard enough to earn it.  The deadline to harvest the crops and take them to market was just two weeks away.  Sandy had been working hard for the past few weeks and now the end was in sight.

Feeling energized in motivation, Sandy stood up, put the picture away, and got ready to start work outside.  She grabbed an apple from the kitchen on her way out and met up with her father in the machine shed.

He looked at his watch.  "You're right on time.  I was beginning to wonder if you would make it."

"I'm here," she beamed, taking a third chop out of her apple.

"I'm glad you are because I have something important to tell you."  Sandy chewed slowly as she listened.  "I have to go out of town for a week.  There's no way I can help it, I'm sorry.  That means that I am going to need you to help me harvest the crops while I am gone."

Sandy's eyes widened.  There was no way she could do all that work by herself!  As it was, the work she did for one person exhausted her.

"Now I don't expect you to work twice as hard.  I have it all figured out.  If you continue clearing the amount of land you've been doing every day and if I work for a couple extra hours each day when I get back, we should be able to harvest everything just in time.  Can you do that for me?"

Sandy swallowed, both her apple and the weight of responsibility she felt.  "I can do it, Daddy."

He smiled at her.  "I knew I could count on you.  I leave tonight."  He kissed her forehead.  "Thank you, Daisy," he said, calling her by her pet name she got from making daisy chains when she was six.

The next morning, Sandy woke up earlier than she was supposed to, anxious to get started on her work early.  She cleared even more than she expected to, and she became quite pleased with herself.  The next day, she woke up early again and did even better than the day before.  "At this rate, we can get the harvest done early!"

The third day, Sandy thought that she was entitled to sleep in a little bit (her body was so sore), so she set her alarm for her normal time.  She hit the snooze button one too many times, however, and ended waking up a half hour late.  Sandy rushed to get out to the field and took some shortcuts in her tasks to make up for lost time.  Her shortcuts only made matters worse, and she had to redo everything she had done.  The whole day was practically wasted.

The fourth day, Sandy set her alarm a half hour earlier, but she still managed to wake up five minutes later than her normal time.  Then her friends came over, and Sandy spent over three hours with them instead of the fifteen she had originally intended.  The remaining days her father was gone were wasted in similar fashion.

When her father arrived home Sunday night, he was disappointed to see that Sandy did not do her work like she should have done, but he did not say a word.  Sandy did not bother trying to explain or excuse away her neglect either.  She just woke up early each day and hoped she could make up for lost time.

Sandy and her father finished the harvest one day later than expected.  The prices in the market had dropped significantly, so they brought home less money than they hoped.  It was enough money for them to live on with a little extra to save for emergencies, but there certainly was not enough money for a new stereo.  Sandy knew she didn't deserve it anyways.  If she had simply harvested when the time was right instead of procrastinating, she wouldn't be living with her regret now.

Day 8: Light in the Tower

The Prompt: Take the first line of a psalm and write a story revolving around it.

Psalm 91: 1 "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." NKJV

I have no idea where I was going with this.  I just wrote the first thing that popped into my head.  I guess "secret place" made me think of a strong, tall tower.  Credit for any lines or characters goes to Disney's Tangled.  Forgive any historical inaccuracies. 

     Rapunzel sat in her tower and lamented that she had no where to go today, or any day for that matter.  She knew every crack in her cobblestone floor, every line on the wall.  She had memorized the murals she had painted on the walls.  She could walk around her whole tower blind-folded (which she had, in fact, done several times already).

     "When will my life begin?" she sighed.  Rapunzel continued sitting on the balcony of her tower, surveying the landscape in front of her.  It hadn't changed in the almost eighteen years she had spent in it.  She wished that something would happen, anything to break the pattern her life had held for the last three years.

     "Oh well," she said as she stood up.  "There's no use wishing for something that can't be changed."  Rapunzel smiled when she saw Pascal.  "Up from your nap now, I see.  Did you enjoy it?"

      Pascal yawned and grinned.

     "Good! You're just in time to help with some baking.  I want to make a treat for when Mother comes back."

       Soon after Rapunzel had finished her batch of cookies in the brick oven, she heard a familiar call.  "Rapunzel!!!  Let down your hair so I can climb the golden stair!"

      "Coming, Mother!" Rapunzel gathered up her miles of hair and loop it through the hook that helped tote her mother up then gave her glistening golden hair a shove.  It tumbled down and tickled the grass near Mother Gothel's feet.  The evil woman grabbed the hair and secured herself for the ride up.

     "You're so strong, my dear," Mother Gothel mentioned absently as she placed her bags by her stolen daughter's feet and began loosening the straps to her cape.

     "Thank you."  Rapunzel was used to such meaningless compliments.  Sometimes she never knew whether they were attempts at being sincere or remarks of sarcasm.  "Did you have a nice trip?"

     "As good as any trip in the village is," Mother Gothel said with little enthusiasm.  She was brushing out her frizzled hair.  It was beginning to feel brittle and wiry again.  Another dose of instant youth would soon be required.

     "Mother," Rapunzel asked gently as she began unloading the bags her mother brought.  "When do you think I can get a chance to go with you?"  Seeing her mother's expression change instantly to anger, she quickly added, "I could wear a disguise and travel at night and never speak a word to anyone."

     "Rapunzel," she said with a laugh, "you wouldn't be able to disguise your hair.  Now you know the answer to that question.  The world is a dangerous place.  You belong here where I can always find you."

     Rapunzel was close to arguing but she bit her tongue.  She was tired of hearing the same answer day after day.  Her mother never seemed to understand, but she knew there was no use arguing with her.  She remembered the last time she got into an argument with her mother.  Rapunzel had never seen her so angry, and some of her paintings had been ruined.  She was too afraid of what would happen this time.  Arguing was pointless.

     "Oh, Mother, did you get this for me?" Rapunzel eagerly asked as she pulled out a thin pamphlet.

     Mother Gothel looked at the paper that a deranged beggar had thrust upon her saying that her soul needed saving.  She forgot she had not discarded it right away.  "Why of course, dear!" she said with a fake smile.  "I remembered how much you loved to read."

    "Thank you!" Rapunzel squealed as she began flipping through it.

     "Not so loud, dear.  You're not a pig."  The hag rubbed her temples.  "I'm going to lie down.  I have an awful headache.  Wake me up in a couple hours!" she called behind her shoulder.

     "Yes, Mother," Rapunzel obediently answered.  "Come on, Pascal," she said to the chameleon who was coming out from his hiding spot in a flower on the wall.  "Let's go read my new book."

     Rapunzel snuggled into a wooden chair with a couple pillows and began reading.  It was like nothing she had ever read before.  The pamphlet talked about honoring your parents, loving your neighbor, and forgiveness.  It mostly talked about this Heavenly Father that had a love greater than anything anyone ever knew.  Rapunzel had always wanted a father.  She found the words comforting and hopeful.  They promised that good things came to those who obeyed and had the heart of a servant. 

     After reading the pamphlet, Rapunzel smiled contentedly.  She resolved to follow these words.  She would forgive her mother for treating her unfairly and love her even more.  She would wait patiently for her blessing to come.  Her life wasn't so bad anyways.  She had food, a friend, a nice cozy house with all the activities she could ever want, and a mother that loved her.  She would be happy with what she had.  Rapunzel put the pamphlet safely on her shelf with her other books.

     Over the weeks that followed, Rapunzel found herself reading the little book often.  Whenever she felt sad, upset, or even bored, she would curl deep under her covers and read it.  Even when she had the words almost completely memorized, she still took the pamphlet out and read it.  After reading, she always felt better.  Her heart was lighter.  She could almost feel that the Heavenly Father was in the room with her.  She loved that feeling.

     A few days before her birthday, Rapunzel had another minor fight with her mother about seeing the lights in the village on her birthday.  Rapunzel lost, as usual, and her mother had left in a huff.  Rapunzel snatched her book off the shelf after she had gone and read the words again.  She fought hard to keep the tears from coming.  She wished her mother loved her like that. 

     After the sadness dissipated and hope returned, Rapunzel decided to look out the window again.  She stared at the green hills and forests and watched a little bird flitting around in a bush nearby.  She still longed to be out there, but she was at peace waiting.  She wasn't sure how much longer she could wait, but she would.  Just as Rapunzel rose to leave, something moving in the distance caught her eye.  Curious, she watched it get closer.  Whatever it is, it was running fast.  Rapunzel strained her eyes to see what it could be.  It was blue and brown.  It was short, no tall.  It was....a man!