Angels and Stuff

On October 4, 2018October 4, 2018 By runnergirl02In Biblical Reflections, MusicLeave a comment

Yesterday was the Feast of the Guardian Angels. If you grew up Catholic, you likely know the Guardian Angel Prayer…

“Angel of God, My Guardian Dear to Whom God’s Love entrust me here, Ever this day be at my side to light, and guard to rule and guide.”

We were reading about Angels last night and we found this interesting reference in Tobit. If you aren’t Catholic you don’t have the book of Tobit in your bible. I believe it is the only place in the bible that the Arch Angel Raphael is referenced.

“Raphael called the two of them aside privately and said to them: “Bless God and give him thanks before all the living for the good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Proclaim before all with due honor the deeds of God, and do not be slack in thanking him.^*“Since my blog is supposed to be about giving thanks I really liked what Raphael was telling Tobit and Tobiah.

Our pastor has a Pastor’s Corner that is published every Sunday in our church bulletin. He’s on Part 7 of a series on Holiness. *This week he talked about Prayer of the Heart. He said that he likes to start his day focusing on blessings in four categories:

*1)the glories of creation 2)my life, family and friends 3)redemption through the sacrificial love of Jesus 4)the last 24 hours.

The idea is to spend a few minutes in each of these areas thinking about and giving thanks for the blessings we have in each category. I tried it today by focusing on just the first one. Running and Hiking have taken us to many beautiful places. I love being outside, spending time in God’s creation, so this was an easy place for me to start.

I can report that Father John was right. It is a nice way to start my day. I have to admit I didn’t spend a lot of time on 2-4, guess my road to Holiness will take a bit longer. It was hard to be in a sour mood after contemplating all the amazing things God has created for us and how ALL of creation bends to His will. I had help with a song by Hillsong United called, So Will I…if you are looking for a good way to start your day, you can’t go wrong with this song and time with Jesus.

I definitely feel that I’m getting a clear message from Jesus about Thankfulness and its importance in my life…

So for today, God’s Creation, Guardian Angels, and a call to Holiness…I Give Thanks!

KOR

*Father John Warburton, O.S.J., Pastor, Pastors Corner, September 30th Bulletin, St. Joachim Catholic Church

Here’s the song if you want to give it a listen:

Bullet Proof

On October 1, 2018October 1, 2018 By runnergirl02In Music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have some thoughts about truth rolling around in my head lately. How do you know the truth? What is the truth? Who’s telling the truth? I don’t have time to put that all together tonight so instead I just want to share a fun thankful moment from today…

My mom and I were washing dishes after Sunday family breakfast. We usually meet at our house after church for breakfast most Sundays. Today everyone was here, some Sundays there’s only one of my siblings but today was nice because they were both here. Always makes me happy.

Anyway, the song Bullet Proof came on and I was dancing around and my mom said, “ok, you want to dance? Let’s dance.” So, my mom and I danced around in the kitchen for a few minutes. Somewhere in there my God-Daughter wandered in, she’s 1, and the most adorable thing ever. She came to me after I coaxed her over and so my mom, my God-Daughter and I danced around the kitchen to Bullet Proof by Citizen Way.

Another one of those moments that don’t cost anything and that you know you’ll treasure.

So for today…for my mom, dancing, Bullet Proof, dishwashing, and family breakfasts, also for the amazing sunrise I saw on our Saturday long run this weekend…I Give Thanks!

KOR

Here’s the song if you want to give it a listen:

Here’s the sunrise…

Harvest Moon

On September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 By runnergirl02In Music, UncategorizedLeave a comment

There’s a tradition in China and other Asian countries to celebrate something called The Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s a time to spend with family, chat, visit. There are many celebrations that go on during this time. We have celebrated the Harvest Moon ever since our daughter joined our family. We aren’t Chinese so we don’t do things, I’m sure, like a Chinese family would but we try to celebrate things that she might have grown up with, had she stayed living in China.

Our family tradition involves going to a Chinese restaurant or buying Chinese food, enjoying dinner with each other and then going outside to sit under the moonlight and enjoy the Harvest Moon. We buy moon cakes and drink green tea and my husband reads the story of Chang e and Hou Yi. You can read that story here: http://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/learn/article/read/item/fX4pKuyhEqw/the-goddess-of-the-moon-change-and-hou-yi.html

We celebrated the Harvest Moon this year, one day late. It was actually on Monday, September 24th, but Monday was not a good day for me for many reasons. We moved our celebration to Tuesday and sat under the moon light, drank green tea and shared a moon cake. Buying moon cakes this year was an adventure in itself! We need to remember to buy them early next year! We are a music loving family so we decided to listen to songs about the moon. You might be amazed how many different songs reference the moon.

We enjoyed listening to:

Moon River -Andy Williams

Bad Moon Rising-CCR

Fly Me to the Moon-Frank Sinatra

Heavenly-Harry Connic Jr

That’s Amore-Dean Martin

and lastly my favorite of the evening and appropriately named…

Harvest Moon – Neil Young

My husband can be quite the romantic at times and so when he offered to dance with me in our front yard under the moonlight to this song…of course, I accepted.

While we danced, our daughter played with our kitten and it was one of those moments in life that are just beautiful and you know you will hold in your heart forever. These moments that don’t cost money, don’t cross off a bucket list item, aren’t extraordinary in anyway, except that they are…

So today…I’m grateful to our Father in heaven for The Harvest Moon, Dancing, Memories, Moon Cakes, Green Tea, My Husband and the daughter that brought this celebration to our lives…

I Give Thanks!

KOR

P.S. If you know a song about the moon that we missed please leave it for us in the comments…

Here’s a pic of our moon cakes!