Embracing the Sensate Pathway.
The cross was rough.
By that, I mean literally rough. – I can’t imagine that they went to great pains to smooth out a cross intended to torture criminals.
So maybe Jesus got splinters from it.
Even down to the grain of the wood – nothing about Jesus’ crucifixion was ‘ideal’ (– I’ve been contemplating ideals lately).
This whole deal isn’t ideal! God gave us the ultimate “should have been” with Him in the Garden and we chose differently – threw it back at Him.
Then there’s the everyday: billions of people hundreds of times a day depart from the “supposed to be” and He knows how differently things could be and yet He has to just absorb it all, wait patiently and try to impart to us another way we should take.
That sounds hellish to me – like a constant ripping of ideals from your soul by the ones you’d love to share it with.
I don’t know why God made me a Sensate and I do want to throw it back at Him, but I’m sitting here rubbing this coarse cross from Israel (as suggested in this book) that was gifted to me years ago and thinking about the ways He can relate to my everyday heartbreaks and disappointments.
Read More»Jesus like That.
During our road trip to Ohio, I watched the Chronicles of Narnia. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it – (maybe since it first came out?) and I was interested to see if I had any different take aways this time. I did. My favorite part was when Aslan roared for the 1st time. I had to pause the film so I could cry.
I want a Jesus like that.
::
Our parents are a big deal. They shape our ideas and views of God more by who they are than what’s said by them. Their interactions with us create synapses in our brain that make it easy, or more difficult, for us to believe that God really is who He says He is.
Bible Reading for Dyslexics
- At March 30, 2016
- By Morgan Reid
- In Showing Up
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The following is taken from a recent post on my facebook page, however, I’m excited to expound on what I find on Bible reading with Dyslexia as well as Dyslexia in general in the future. Wanted to get this up right away in case it might help someone : )
Piggy-backing on my Highly Sensitive Person FB post, I wanted to share this:
I’ve tried to be honest about how while I love certain passages and learning all I can, I don’t love reading the Bible on my own.
While talking to an awesome woman at the #momheartconference last month, I learned some great suggestions for reading the Bible when dyslexia is an issue*. How had I never thought to look into that?!
There’s a cool version in the UK of the Psalms and Mark, but I wanted to find an entire Bible that I could use. Google, Amazon, and two book stores later, I am so stinkin’ thrilled.
Seek Find is on Amazon and the reviews are so heart-warming. It’s for any reading or English language related difficulty. I like it for it’s:
•Easy language, but not as whimsical as the Message version (strings of abstract words disrupt focus for concrete thinkers);
•Slightly off-white pages (cream colored is better, fyi);
•Text on the other side of the page barely shows through.
I read this morning without a furrowed brow and tense shoulders; Without having to go over a sentence or paragraph multiple times for comprehension, before getting into contemplation. After Nate woke up, I read aloud from Ecclesiastes and only switched words/stumbled every column (if that) instead of every paragraph.
What-what?! Hello, hope. : )
*I didn’t realize this ‘was a real thing’ until I was 21 and Nate picked up on it and researched it for me – I thought I just sucked at reading so, for the most part, I didn’t like to. I got good grades and left it at that. I also believed the common myth that dyslexia was limited to switching or jumbling letters around.#natershoutout
Morgan (Loves To) Reid
Showing Up
- At October 30, 2015
- By Morgan Reid
- In Changes, Quotes
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I’ve given way too much thought to my critics this week. My whole life, really. But this week, I’ve been in a tailspin trying to find a way to stop the movement and get grounded.
So much so, that at 3am today, after finally giving up on going back to sleep because of the thoughts in my head adding density to the pit growing in my stomach – I decided getting up and going on facebook or reading a Psalm would be healthier.
So glad I did.
I found this talk thought I wasn’t looking for it (while reading this). So impactful.
Brene talks about saying to our critics “I see you, I hear you . . . but I’m showing up anyway and this is what I’m doing. I’ve saved a seat for you, and you’re welcome to come – but I’m not interested in your feedback.” (My take on it, not her *exact* words).
She also says that our worse critics are ourselves (of course, right?) and reminded me that Nathan is my number one fan and supporter. (I really love him).
So while I still need to clarify my values, distinguish the good that I was blessed with in my family and growing up life (and release the negatives), and figure out how it is that I want to “show up” I’m just going to start. It’ll be messy and I’m positive there will be copious amonts of cringing in the future – I like the things I’m into. And I want to step into that place of vulnerability whether I feel “ready” or not.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” — FTR, Referenced by Brene
What a kick-ass quote.
Morgan (Loves To) REID.
The Joy of Knowing Jesus
- At August 17, 2015
- By Morgan Reid
- In Quotes
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I got this from verticallivingministries.com/, it was too good to risk losing!
Sermon: The Joy of Jesus by Dr. Timothy Keller
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit—The Character of Christ—May 3, 1998 on John 16:19–24
I’m going to read from John 16:19–24.
Read More»Tethered: Though I Fail
- At February 15, 2015
- By Morgan Reid
- In Reflections
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{My thoughts after reading Chapter 3 of Tim Keller’s King’s Cross}
Keller shared a story from C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustance, a little boy who is turned into a dragon by his greed and meanness needs the help of Alsan, the Lion, to turn into a boy again:
Read More»What I’m Reading: Desperate
- At November 08, 2014
- By Morgan Reid
- In Motherhood
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“I can’t and will not give you a formula for dealing with your little ones, the ones who sometimes make you feel crazy or leave you crying on the hallway floor. But I can offer suggestions, some things that greatly helped me as I’ve learned how to slow down and figure out my children.
Love them. Hug them, kiss them, cuddle with them, spend more time rubbing their heads and holding their hands. Give yourself to them without rush. Pray with them, and let them twirl your hair in their little fingers. Look them in the eye when you talk to them.
Give words of affirmation. Tell them, whether you feel it or not, that you delight in them, that they are a delight (if they don’t feel like a delight, ask God to give you those feelings). Tell them, “You are beautiful and smart and God loves you. I’m so glad you’re my child’ Tell them that they can never lose your love, no matter what. And mean it.”
-Sarah Mae, Desperate, Hope for the Mom who Needs to Breathe
On Becoming a Homesteader
I was standing at the library’s front desk, applying for a card and waiting to checkout books for Autumn and Nate. I turned and saw Nate strolling towards me (Autumn under one arm, facing outward with legs dangling) with that familiar slight-smile on his face: o boy, what’s he up to?
“I got this book for you. I think you’ll like it.” Says the man who more often than not worries he doesn’t know what I really like and that I’ll just say “thank you” for so I won’t hurt his feelings.
I read the title. The Dirty Life? Hmmm. . . .
I open to the inserts. Now I’m the one smiling.
What I’m Reading: Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller, 1
- At August 02, 2014
- By Morgan Reid
- In Quotes
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Somedays I feel like God put Tim Keller on this earth just for me. I’m self-absorbed like that : ) I can’t get over how he puts things:
“Imagine you’re a billionaire, and you have three ten-dollar bills in your wallet. You get out of a cab, and you hand the driver one of the bills for an $8 fair. Later in the day you say, “either I dropped a ten-dollar bill somewhere, or I gave the taxi driver two bills.” What are you going to do? Are you going to get all upset? Are you going to disrupt the rest of your day? Are you going to police and demand they search the city for the cabdriver? No, you are going to shrug. You’re a billionaire. You lost ten dollars. So what? You are too rich to be concerned about that kind of loss.
This week, somebody criticized you. Something you bought or invested in turned out to be less valuable than you thought. Something you wanted to happen didn’t go the way you wanted it to. Someone you counted on let you down. These are real losses – of you reputation, of your material wealth, of your hopes. But what are you going to do, if you’re a Christian? Will this setback disrupt your contentment with life? Will you shake your fist at God? Toss and turn at night? If so, I submit it’s because you don’t know how truly rich you are. You are not listening to the second Advocate (the Holy Spirit) about your first Advocate (Jesus). You are not living in you. You are forgetting that the only eyes in the universe that matter see you not as the “phony little fake” you have sometimes been, but as a person of captivating beauty. If you’re upset about your status with people, if you’re constantly lashing out at people for hurting your feelings, you might call it a lack of self-control, or a lack of self-esteem, and it is. But more fundamentally, you have totally lost touch with your identity. As a Christian, you’re a spiritual billionaire and you’re wringing your hands over ten dollars.
It’s the job of the second Advocate to argue with you in the court of your heart, to make the case about who you are in Christ, to show you that you’re rich. And it’s your job to listen.”
&
“I once heard the story of an 18th century Welsh preacher who, when he was just a teenager, was standing with his family around the deathbed of one of his aunts. His aunt had been a strong Christian, but now she was slipping away. Everyone thought she was unconscious and someone said out loud, ‘It’s a shame; she had such a hard life. She’s seen two husbands die, and she’s often been sick, and on top of it all, she has died poor.’ Suddenly she opened her eyes, looked around and said
‘Who calls me poor? I am rich, rich! And I will soon stand before Him bold as a lion.’ And then she died.
Understandably, that had quite an effect on the young man. This woman had the peace that Jesus spoke of because she had listened to the Advocate [Holy Spirit]. She was saying, ‘I’ve got the only husband who can’t die. I’ve got the only wealth that can never go away. And my Savior dealt long ago with sin – the only disease that can really and truly kill me. How can you call me poor?’ The second Advocate told her about the first Advocate, so she could say in the face of great loss, as the hymn writer did, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”