Your Mother Might Tell You

Be thankful for your body
Be thankful for your brain
               and . . .
Exercise your body, exercise your brain !

Can you still yodel or sing ?
Were you ever musical on an instrumental thing ?

It’s fun to talk, fun to think !
Write stuff down with pencil or ink.

Growing older one day at a time
Give a try to write things in rhyme !

You are special, you are unique, too.
Be thankful today for what you can do !

by Elaine Hardt ©2020

Is It Nothing?

We plunge into prayer, as if it’s

nothing.

We sing in our churches, as if it’s

nothing.

We use His name, as if it’s

nothing.

We read the Bible once in awhile, as if it’s

nothing.

Our attitude,

our worship and devotion,

our concern for others,

is it nothing?

Is God a mere man we can snub

or sweet-talk,

depending upon our mood?

Is He

nothing?

By Elaine Hardt ©2004

Did You Hear This Song?

Have you heard any 12 year-old kid sing a solo in church recently?  When I sang there was no applause, no standing ovation, no hugs at the door.  I don’t remember any compliments, either, although there might have been.  But I will not forget the words of that tremendous song.  

I hope hearing those words was a blessing to everyone that day, and I’m sure that over the years many singers have lent their voices to share the words and melody of “The Love of God.”  

The writer of two of the verses and the chorus was Frederick M. Lehman in 1917.  http://www.tanbible.com/tol_sng/sng_theloveofgod.htm   He writes about that mysterious third verse as being written nearly one thousand years earlier by a Jewish songwriter.  The website says that the 3^rd stanza had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum. Does that ever stretch the mind to try to comprehend!

Listen to the song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEi463LcxxA   Maybe you’ve heard other singers perform this song.  Did it speak to your heart?  Have you considered the love of God?

Since it was 67 years ago when I sang that first solo I’m sure that now my voice cannot do it justice.  But the words are in my heart, and what I now share with other people are words I write,  not sung with a sweet soprano voice in a church in Phoenix, Arizona.  

A Little Bird Alone in Winter

Pretty little bird, sparrow hawk bird,
     Go ahead and sing your song,
       Although you seem to be all alone
          In a stark white-frozen world.

Without anticipation or worry or fear

     You do what God created you for,
        Reminding us of the beauty
           And resiliency of life:
              His magnificent creation.
                     Sometimes I, too, feel alone
                            Surrounded by icy delusion,
                               The world stiff and numb with pride, 
                                   Hearts solidified in serious confusion.  

Summer Travel Possibilities?

Carol’s Travel Plans:

My idea of a good time is

getting in a car and driving to explore our great country.

For whatever reasons,

I have defined relaxation as driving

long distances in short segments;

freedom is associated with a steering wheel in my hands

and a new section of America somewhere out past the windshield

where the yellow center line dips over the horizon.

Elaine asks:

Next year can we all go with you,

Linda, Susan, Margie, Alice, and me?

It could be a sisters’ singing group!

I hear us now, “Amazing Grace” can be our intro,

And “How Great Thou Art” a finale.

If not a possibility, can it at least be a dream?

First Stanza by Carol Anderson, photo by Carol Anderson @2011

double click to enlarge Carol's photo from Wyoming

Last Stanza by Elaine