A poem
is a praise
is a song
 is a psalm.

Hope to a Hungry Sparrow is a poetry collection where poetry is a prayer, is a praise, is a song, is a psalm. . . a list of God’s gracious dealings that need praising in the big and little of everyday ordinary living, remembering He is. . . in our past, in the courtship of the one our soul loves, in the building of home, in the daily of our motherhood, in the easy and hard, in the failings and the redeeming, the challenges and the wait of prayers sent out, in the prayers answered and the life beyond those answers. He is in the mustard-seed of our faith and the answer to our cry. He is. . . in the praise of muddy living like hope to a hungry sparrow.

Since Blue Cotton Memory: The Faith, Love and Politics of Raising Boys to Men launched Mother’s Day, 2009, it has evolved from chronicling mom-stories to chronicling God-in-the-stories. Learning to vintage God’s love letters in the daily turned my blog posts into love letters to Him.

Writing dreams started at age seven. We can only outline our dreams by the experiences we have. From age seven until age 47, writers were published in magazines, books, newspapers, journals. In hindsight, I see God planted a dream that would take decades – almost a half a century—for the dream’s niche to be invented.

My job in this dream was to continue forward one step at a time – the child poet, the essayist, the analyzer, the high school newspaper editor, the college reporter, the small-town newspaper journalist – and the life experience.

I began blogging in 2009 with four in the nest, the oldest just newly married making his own nest. After my youngest graduated high school in 2019, suddenly, my blog mission statement wasn’t applicable. There were no more boys to men – they were men. I was out of a hands-on job. The literalist in me needed to either be true to my mission or create a new one.

I am no longer the lead teacher in the classroom of their life. I can be invited to be a guest-lecturer, historian or even listener. It’s their story to write – I am still learning to trust God’s story development as I live on the sidelines watching beloved stories being written between my sons and their Savior.

In the letting go and letting God, my parenting mission statement became a life lived “to show my sons how to continue grow older loving the Lord.” I decided it was time to compile this writing journey for my own children, just in case they ever wondered.

Compiling this has been a journey. Creating the cover was another journey and lots of learning. Going through Ingram Sparks was another journey. . . and lots of learning. If you’ve done this, too, you know.

There’s many of you that I’ve written with during those 17 years–and, how I hope, you, too, will compile your work–to share with your families, for those you walk with in the daily, and for those with which you write. We may not be Lewis’ and Tolkien’s Inklings, but I believe we have been a writing group that has encouraged each other, allowed our skill-sets and faith to be sharpened through the work we have felt led by God to produce and share. No, we may not be as famous, but I do believe we have been just as important to each other in doing the work/writing to which God has called each of us.

I’ve been reading about the talents–those who took a risk and invested and those who buried out of fear of failure. That prompted me to keep going. Then came the push to release. I’m too much of a literalist to be a good sales person. That’s not my gifting. I can balk with the best of them, so I asked God, “Are you sure?”

My minister started preaching about those talents that were handed out in the bible. “The difference is not in what they were given,” Pastor Shane Warren said when talking about the men with their two, five, and ten talents. “The difference is what they did with it.”

God kept pressing me to stop hiding my talents (the work in which I’d invested my time). It’s risky business taking chances. It’s riskier not following God’s promptings. But I’m not taking a chance. I’m being obedient. If it goes into someone else’s hands, that’s God’s doing. If it goes nowhere, I was obedient, and that is all I was called to do.

Are there plans for more? I’m working on The Goose Girl Redeemed, a compilation of 17 years of prose, followed by The Elijah Series coming out in book form, too, and another children’s book, The Listening Trees, and, my husband’s favorite, Adam and the Animals.

Like you who write weekly, you and I are called to obedience – to write what He gives us, whether it is to encourage those outside of ourselves, or whether we write to encourage ourselves in the challenges, or we write just to praise what a good Father he is.

Hope to a Hungry Sparrow is an act of obedience, each word, each poem, each praise, each song, each psalm, each grappling to find grace in the daily, to hold on to Him in the challenge, in the heart awakening to love and save the broken and lost, in the hope of things not seen. . . like hope to a hungry sparrow.

Remember Me Monday: #166 Link-up

“I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings,
    all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God,
    his great goodness to the family of Israel—
Compassion lavished,
.    love extravagant.”
~ Isaiah 63:7, The Message

In the Old Testament, God repeatedly, quietly and loudly, tells his children, “You have forgotten me!”  (Jeremiah 3:32, Ezekiel 22:12, to name a few). It’s a heart cry from a father to a child who has forgotten all the love, all the saving, helping, little and big blessings – and it leaves me stunned when I realize our Father, the creator of the universe, who knows things I cannot begin to fathom, who authors storylines that leave me amazed, delights in all of us so much, He cries out, “Remember Me.”

While every day is a Remember God Day, I am inviting you to join me on Monday mornings to come by and remember what God has done for you, for your family. Maybe God sent a cardinal darting out in front of you, as if to tell you, “I’m here,” or broke a child’s fever after you laid it all down at His feet in a 2 a.m. bedside vigil. Maybe He stood with you in the wait of a prayer sent out, or brought someone you loved to Christ. Maybe He healed your broken heart, gave your courage, or you gave Him your dreams as a love offering only to have Him give them back in an unimaginable way. Maybe God helped you survive to bedtime after a crazy Monday, or forgive yourself for missing it with your kiddos –– Whatever it is, let’s Remember Him. . . in a “Remember Me Monday” love letter.

“My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
Of your salvation all the day long,
Though I know not its measure.
I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord”
~ Psalm 71:15-16.

Let us delight in Him by telling the  stories of what He’s done!  If you wrote a blog post remembering what He’s done for you, join the linky. If you didn’t but still want to praise Him for what He’s done – write it in the comment section. Then visit a comment before or after yours! One of the beautiful things about the blogging community is the relationships it builds!

Rules?  Write long or short, a list or a story, include photos or not. Just Remember Him and what He has done, and let the gratitude of your heart guide you. Let’s make Monday so Rejoice, that the goodness of God spills into the rest of the week! (Link opens Mondays at 6 a.m.)

Places I’m Linking at This Week:
  Instaencouragements, Legacy Link-Up, 
Let’s Have Coffee Wednesday 
Recharge Wednesday, Scripture & a Snapshot
Grace&Truth, Sweet Tea & Friends
The Good, The Random, The Fun