We Measure What We Value

Think of one thing that you measure because you value it. It's true, you know, we measure that which we value. Some things are harder to measure than others. Moses asked Father God to teach the people to "number their days." That's Psalm 90:12. He asked that so that they could present a "heart of wisdom." I thought about my life and what my values were. What do I measure?

Time is measured by the clock but do I make it count? I couldn't resist that pun. Since we are on a thoughtful topic, can we just do a little elementary math? Okay, here is what we all have:

24 hrs. of which an average of 8 hrs is slept away in la-la land.

16  --four sets of four-- waking hours left to do something with?
1.5 hours average bathroom time per day (hygiene, primping, squatting,bathing)
1    hour eating (actually chewing and swallowing a plate before you)
.5 hours waking up from sleep, planning, or reading your Bible?

Twelve shows up in an awesome way and it appears that we have roughly 12 hours to govern how we spend today. Read all about how twelve is the "perfect number" here: Twelve in the Bible and Its Meaning

So HOW do we get our values into those hours? Can I first just paint a background thought?

 Jesus said to live in the Today and let tomorrow take care of itself in Matthew 6. He also said not to worry about the laundry and what you will eat and drink and gave Martha (workhorse) a loving scold that she was "worried about so many things when only a few are nescessary--really only one. This sounds like a fairytale to mothers, but if we were not so worldy, perhaps this type of freedom is possible. What do I mean? Someone told me fruit was the original fast food. See it? Okay for those of you that do not read my mind, we eat unhealthy because we do not have time to eat properly and/or we do not have the money for the snob appeal of organic sections in the store. God made ready to eat food that is actually REAL food. What a bargain for a time saver and high quality food--an apple.

First we have to find out what we value, or even better--what God values and build a day that worships Him so that we are not standing in church on Sunday only thinking that is a life of worship (because we sang to Him in church). I am of the opinion that the singing is the celebrating of all that was done for, with, and through Him all the week long.

Twelve hours can be three sets of four or four sets of three. 4X3=12  3X4=12  2X6=12 6X2=12
Two sets of six  or 6 sets of two. Your calendar could be a combination of it all--not just one form.

I see calendars with morning, afternoon, evening, and night time chunks of three highlighted in an attempt to get me to fill them out all nice and easy like measuring flour in a cup. Hmmm...
You can only get involved with an event on your calendar as long as you have the three of four hours to accomplish that. It depends on how busy you are and how your values are placed. The thing I learn from that is not to plan too much all at once in a chunk of time OR know my goals and values BEFORE I attempt to manage something as abstract and hard to handle as time.

My favorite professional organizer in this world is Julie Morgenstern and she is the one that helped me "see" time like the clutter in a closet. You only have so much available space to stick things/appts. events. Too many things in the small space does not work! She helps you to identify your values, needs, and goals so that your life isn't, well, spoiled by little foxes that ruin the vine.

Before I provide a handy link to her book, I would like to add one other thought. We are to put God first and He likes ten percent I am guessing. What is ten percent of your 12? It works out to one hour and 12 minutes! He multiplies our efforts when we glorify Him. You want your efforts multiplied--so invest in time with Him!  One of Julie's many Living Books!

P.S. I was not asked not compensated for referring you to her--it is an honor to do it.

Dad I Just Discovered

You and I
My love for you Daddy, runs deep
an eternity within my soul
where the tender thoughts of you and I
dwell to fill me whole
Everyday we spend apart
prolongs the emptiness inside
I long to know PURE MANLY LOVE
that loneliness doesn't confide
Ponder the mystery of our days entwined
searching in your songs I measure
the distance between your heart and mine
across a world of buried treasure
I looked for you in strangers
I wrote to you in art
despite the songs of bitterness
that tried to break my heart.
I found you in the Lord.
By: Melanie Sue Lynch (17 yrs. old)

Writer Beware ® Blogs!: Victoria Strauss -- Lulu Acquires Poetry.com

Writer Beware ® Blogs!: Victoria Strauss -- Lulu Acquires Poetry.com

Research on the way to respond at the end times

First Christian martyr, Stephen, suffered the same spirit of AntiChrist--look at what is recorded
and apply it to your response to persecution...

I Peter 3--submission to government...and contrast that to a time for war, to hate...
the verse also on if they sue you, let them have your coat as well--
Jesus like a lamb to slaughter even though He didn't have to--He did not rail back--
"My Kingdom is not of this World" He did not fight them for "this Kingdom"


Our lives are "hid" with Christ in Christ.  Christ hid from his captors, a resistor or was it that He had a spiritual timeline to keep, and the devil was fast after Him. It's probably why the Father sent Jesus through a virgin--to deter from the Devil trying to kill him even as an infant--but that's just a supposition. I mean, who would look for the Christ in a virgin??

In the end times, He will give us what to say--He said not to even think beforehand...?? Study to show thyself approved before God and man? Maybe it will be so crazy there is no logical preparation of the mind but just of the heart and spirit??

Conspiracy theory (Gun Control or shall I say ammo control, Fusion Centers, HAARP and weather control, FEMA camps here in the US for YOUR family, our govt. turning on us if we were in Marshall Law and Obama pulling in all the new "Americans" in a struggling economy and giving them double portions of food stamps etc basically destroying our once struggling economy) is a huge waste of time searching info we can do nothing about Have you used that much energy to seek God and His Word? Have you used that same fervor to advance the Kingdom of God to seek His people? The trappings of this world is a great distraction from the Lord and our Walk after the Spirit...It terrorizes the soul--Stay away from the Conspriacy Stuff, addicting as it is.

Will we be victorious in Christ? Will we walk worthy of Him? "They overcome by the Word of their testimony and that they did not love their own lives to death...." Google it in Revelations...

If you cannot love someone that does not love you (Oh husband and wife but we ARE called to peace)....(then you have missed Christ's main point). Why in the world would we not die to ourselves to love the spouse (a powerful influence on our own children) that does not love us--what a mockery that we took a vow--from the seriousness in the depth of our being--and do not honor our own committment. The devil laughs.

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention that 5 in one house shall be divided against one another over the Lord ("over the Lord") is a paraphrase. I believe this is the context of the end times. I am theorizing that some will be "resistors" to the tyranny and persecution that I fear is coming into a free world we have always taken for granted. It is in the natural heart of every Christian to resist the one world beastlike government "globalization" but what does the Word say and what does Christ model in similar scenarios of threat and death against the Spirit of antiChrist that has been here from old? It is a leap from the natural to the supernatural to believe the Word of God in the Holy Bible to NOT resist...it will separate loyalty within a family. It's a theory, right now in my heart, at this time I would shoot the enemy! http://bible.cc/luke/12-52.htm

The Easter Egg Surprise

I copied this and carried it forever off of an Easter card I received

and I do not know to whom I should give credit.

   "What's the matter, Henny?" said the turkey to the hen,

    "Are you just a little lonely clucking in that pen?"

     "I'm not lonely," said Henny, "just feeling sad and blue--

 just want to lay some fancy eggs like Easter chickens do."

"When the farmer comes each day, he never looks at mine, just gathers

rainbow colored eggs from the next hen down the line. I'm tired of laying plain white eggs--I think you would be too--when other happy chickens lay eggs that are yellow, pink, and blue."

Her nest soon filled with many eggs, a dozen so or more, but none

of them were pink or blue, just white ones--what a bore!

Then on Easter morning, when the sun was shining bright; the hen

heard "peep, peep, peep, peep" from eggs that were plain white.

The children in the farm yard ran to see what made this sound.

They looked inside her cozy nest and this is what they found--

At least a dozen yellow chicks were loudly peeping, peeping.

It seemed they hatched that very night while all the world was sleeping.

The children smiled and laughed to see the little hen looking most suprised of all
of what was in her pen. Twelve little yellow peeping chicks

all huddled in the nest; of all the Easter eggs that day, hers were the VERY Best.

This poem reminds me of the joy of the Lord when the 12 tribes of Israel will be gathered under His wing. The angels will be like the children in the farmyard rejoicing. Do not grow weary in well doing for you will reap a harvest if you remain steadfast. Remember also that Jesus says the last will be first and the first shall be last. This is not my poem and not my photo(s). I just like it.

House of the Hidden Hammer

This is a story about living like a sort of animal that hoardes things
you may use or need from your children:

A hammer under my mattress just so I can find it.
So much for my Professional Organizing certification.

My children are not evil, though it crossed my mind, when they make the flow and balance of my home a mangled, miserable mess (feeling like Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest with the wire clothes hangers here), its just that their boy world is small, without much interaction from others and their individual natures want to play and connect with the environment and the earth. Like the baby that drops their cup over and over from the highchair just to see it and hear it fall so they can learn depth perception and about gravity.

They love to manipulate the environment with their hands and that is why I can predict that when I pass a styrofoam cup from Sonic to my middle son in the back seat, that he will tear it into 4,012 pieces when he is done with it because he likes the way it feels when he tears the pieces. Each thing mother has put in a place of its own as she has builds her nest is only a potential tool in waiting to be "ab-used" (Used in a way unintended for its purpose which increases damage to it). I do not know if I am doing him a service to allow this or a disservice to set up a bad habit.

Perhaps, it is the special "blessing" of having threee boys very close together? (Grinch's slow grin)

Perhaps, the only thing really missing besides my broom, or its nomadic sidekick (the dustpan), is my undivided attention. I did notice when I went to play with them in the woods and built a fort that we were resource poor and wanted to ab-use some things myself to get the job done.

If we could have the same projects....

Unhappy Marriage

Just want you to know
I know
I'm honest to my fall
Can't stand deception
Can't stand a brawl
And you
take what I say
twist it for another day
Se no greatness in me at all
My courageous honesty you take
with a grain of salt
all of our differences
are my fault

God give me passion
God, help me see Your vision
Scatter this strife
Protect us from Division.

by Melanie Lynch-Evans

Definition of Friendship

Anonymous

I had this and lost it completely. During the years I didn't have a friend near me, I came across this and remembered my old friends (this was before cell phones and internet was available in my house). I hung on to it and I am proud to say that I am this type of friend.

Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away.

Quest for Rest

1998 by Melanie Lynch Evans

I tried to sleep on the couch last night
but I just flopped, rolled, and flipped
You would have thought the kitchen faucet
was in stereo as it dripped
On a rageful stomp toward the noise
My tender feet found Lego toys
In sleep deprived haste
I dove back into my space
Nestled myself in, thinking
to get any rest must be a sin!

I threw the covers over my head
curled up into a ball
and silence gave way to a mouse
crunching through the wall
So up I went, to quiet the
stupid little pest
I hit the wall, fist and all
to stop his frenzied fest.
Tromping back to the couch
he started gnawing again
so I surrendered and
picked up the pen.

We lived in Creola, AL and those were hard days.

Old Love Song

Heard an old love song
and I wonder if you did too
Like an old record spinning through time
you haven't left the edges of my mind

For a couple of words or so
in some way we had been
two beating hearts togeher again

And just like the song,
all good things must come to an end~

Melanie Lynch (Evans)

A Thought Exhaled into the Night Air

Dawn comes too soon
Reality's lost to a fantastic moon
Darkness Steals busy sight
Calming the world by night

Seems as though the clock is still
As I breathe out from my window sill.

Melanie Lynch Evans 1996 (photo Scooter E. from 2012 Orange Beach)

I Wish I Could Go Back and DO the Little Things You Asked Me to

Anonymous

My hands were busy throughout the day
I didn't have much time to play
The little games you asked me to.
I didn't have much time for you....

I'd wash your clothes, I'd sew and cook,
But when you'd bring your picture book
And ask me please to share your fun,
I'd say: "A little later, son."

I'd tuck you in all safe an night
And hear your prayers, turn out the light,
Then tiptoe softly to the door...
I wished I'd stayed a minute more.

For time is short, the years rush past...
A little boy grows up so fast.
No longer is he at your side,
His precious secrets to confide.

The picture books are put away,
There are no longer games to play,
No goodnight kiss, no prayers to hear...
That all belongs to yesteryear.

My hands, once busy, now are still.
The days are long and hard to fill.
I wish I could go back and do
The little things you asked me to.

A Letter from A Soldier to His Son

by G.S. Vigor

My son, I fear you're becoming a man
And I am not there to guide your hand
May God damn this accursed war,
but I know what I'm fighting for

My son, I want you to know I love you dearly
And, even in this hell, I want you
and your mother near me
Fret not, my son, for your dear ol' dad
Though I know my absence has made you sad

Do not hate and do not fear
those are the traits that brought me here
Listen, son; hear me well
This war I'm in is a living hell
But I'll fight on to keep us free

I'm fighting, my son, for you and me.

Myself (Edgar Guest)

Myself
by Edgar Guest

I have to live with myself, and so,
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
 

 

I want to go out with my head erect

I want to deserve all men's respect;

I don't want to hide on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Being bluster, bluff and empty show 

I never can hide myself from me,

I see what others may never see,

What kind of man I really am;
I don't want to dress myself in sham.

I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself -- and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

You Learn (Anonymous)

Poems are for the reader's interpretation. I have had this for a long time and it does help a young person "step into themselves" if they have been leaning too much on others to validate them.

“After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn…
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.
So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure…
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth…
And you learn and learn…
With every good-bye you learn.”

I'm Writing Another Man Today

I'm writing another man today
Tired of what you still don't say
I'm going to see Him soon
In my prayer closet this afternoon.
He will ease the void you leave
For another week, where I can breathe
In this house we call a home
Where we're all together, all alone

I'm going to tell him my heart is broken
and He will say what you leave unspoken
He will actually listen to my heart's desire
He'll fill me with HIS PASSIONFIRE.

You look, but He sees
My hard heart soften on my knees
You touch, but do not feel
a false reality in a hope that's real

He loves me in ways your unaware
To let me know Someone cares
Sometimes I wonder if you see Him there
and catch glimpses of my love affair

But for now, I wait, pen in hand,
for you to become another man.

Melanie Sue Evans 2007

Living water saturate my thirsty soul.....(photo not mine)

Playing House

So much passion without a place
I'm getting older in the face
House is decked with empty frames
dusted with tradition's empty games
Playing by the rules of "love's" charade
a waterfall of words that never cascade
blue birds of happiness with nothing to say
we're just playing house day by day.
Inside we are so alive
buried in this fearful disguise
and Denial makes her wishes
while you work, and I, the dishes.
Love on purpose don't stay in the past
When you work a life, it will last
Lonely if it's only one of two
but the Creator, He will stand with you.
~And there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Melanie Lynch-Evans

Playing House came from the irony of empty family frames on my shelves.
I was also "Waiting to exhale" or "holding my breath" for things to get better
or take form instead of taking responsibility spiritually in faith to MAKE things healthy and happen. I only looked to my husband for my worthwhen it really came from God. I punished him for not validating my worth (He did hurt it though) when I chose to marry him.

1989 Poem for my Dad

You and I
My love for you Daddy, runs deep
an eternity within my soul
where the tender thoughts of you and I
dwell to fill me whole
Everyday we spend apart
prolongs the emptiness inside
I long to know PURE MANLY LOVE
that loneliness doesn't confide
Ponder the mystery of our days entwined
searching in your songs I measure
the distance between your heart and mine
across a world of buried treasure
I looked for you in strangers
I wrote to you in art
despite the songs of bitterness
that tried to break my heart.
I found you in the Lord.
By: Melanie  Lynch Evans (17 yrs. old)

Little Thoughts of Mine

The greatest difficulty is an effective simplicity. (Studying Jesus)

"It's not true," the Indian within me stated, "that many moons will heal your wounds."
Time is only anesthesia --not a healer.

I am not to control my fate or destiny! I am to control myself one day at a time. For then and  only then will I arrive in my destiny!

Tis a marvel that one come into the world crying, and leave it laughing.

The heart remembers what the mind forgets.

I don't believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder becaue they keep looking past my shoulder.

He tells me he loves me and its warm like sunshine.......that burns.

I slipped on a kiss and fell in love.

You haven't noticed the differences we share. Am I so good an actress or don't you care?

Funny how some places hold a memory for you.

You protect yourself with words unspoken
but the silence leaves my heart broken.

My lips are the instruments that play the songs of my heart.

No one could take your place
but I weep silently beneath a smiling face
Your arms were like the strongest foundations
where I grew roots and wings
Your heart like the deepest sea
where I found the most beautful things


I know you send me on a chore when I sit down by you.

When you come to the kitchen and hug me, I feel like you took the hug instead of giving it.

Love in the Gray

I kiss you but my lips are numb
My heart sings no more song
Has the love story ended
that has played for so long?
My hand in yours
but I can't feel you there
I never really see you
even though you're there
When I look into your eyes
the colors aren't as fair
They used to be vivid
I lost myself in the stare
I penned you  poems
wove my love into rhyme
but now, the song has stopped
and no words come to mind.

August 16th 1989 by Melanie Lynch Evans
(My first love)

The Weekend Fight

Well, we had the weekend fight
Now, it's alright 'till next Fri. night.
I want to go have fun
after all the work I've done
You will want to rest and
Blame me for my PMS
Mon. thru Fri. It's all good
or its just misunderstood
Really on trial
and in denial
More hurt to file
in that folder in my head
as you touch my shoulder
in the bed.

A Man's Tears

A tear's purpose is to mend
A tear is a gentle friend
It's blood from your soul's veins
They comfort in pain

Hardened hearts, clinched eyes
Smother the tender cries
from the child forever within
chained beneath cold blood and skin
Warmth streams down the salty stain
Dousing that inner flame
that blackened mental skies
erupting from a flame of pride

Just as rain lifts a flower from gravity strong
Your tears are not weak nor wrong.

There is nothing as tender or precious as the tears of a calloused heart.

Melanie Lynch-Evans

Love is not Time's Fool

He stole himself from me.
He sold himself to her. What began as magic
has twisted quite tragic.
Time...like the sun
evaporated our "love"
My heart became a lifeless desert.
Like a refreshing rain, he first
quenched all needs drowning me with "love" but Reality (the Sun)
came and dried it all up leaving it drier and more cracked than it was before.
It was Shakespeare that said it best: "Love is not time's fool."

Melanie Lynch Evans 1994

Freedom Has Its Prisons

Voids of intimacy
   Fill my flesh
Leaving me full
    Of emptiness.
Freedom has it's prisons.

Melanie Lynch (Evans) 1993

Android Addict

Dim lighting features a glow on your face, I wish it was about me;
but instead, it's about android technology.
Motorola Blur is a new fancy name for "Her."
She has your mind
She has your sight
She holds both your hands
It just isn't right!
Across the love seat your toes wiggle atop the chair
a flag of hope there is life ,still, in your downward stare.
Only room for one
beside the technozombie you've become.
Like look'n at you in another dimension
I can't remember your undivided attention.
She has Facebook as bait
and seductive apps I now hate
He admires her GPS system to track
but when I ask "where you been", he gives me flack!
SO, I propose a new app, the app called SLAP
Seriously Losing Android People
and it should come with a MAP
so you can hit them on the head with it
O.K. it's late and I am getting silly now. Meow.

By Melanie Lynch Evans 2011
(GEtting a little "SIC" myself)

A Family of Phones

Family of phones without the time
I can't hear you beween the lines
Wireless hearts, disconnected
Distraction and distance have corrected
A thousand times,
Our silent crimes
Of not reaching out and touching someone.

Oh, I've got your number!
I know how you really don't feel
We just pay diplomatic "respects"
And the telephone bill.

A Family of Phonies
Says, Love you, gotta go
And spend time with strangers
That they will never know.

Melanie Lynch (Evans) revised 2012

Hinder Me

Help me be blind if I hide a wicked mind
Hinder me from singing if it's a fool's rhyme
Help me close my eyes unlike the anxious child
Hinder me from arrogant victory keeping me mild

Help to cripple my dancing in the darkness of fools
Hinder my searching for the "Light" of Satan's "jewels"
Help me fail to teach hollow and deceptive trends
Hinder me from hurting the things You would mend

Help me become sick in my double- minded ways
Hinder me from praying the way a hypocrite "prays"

Help me not to decorate with fleshly desperation
Hinder me so I might illustrate Heaven's inspiration. 

Melanie Lynch-Evans Jan 29, 1992 revised 2012

Find Joy Today and Not Tomorrow

December wont seem quite as merry

And January's clock will not tarry

Time blows clouds on across the sky

February's future will be forgotten

as time's ticking by~

March, marching on like an autograph

April washes weeks away from a bird's bath

May marks a memory made

Soon to be forgotten in summer sleeper's shade

Though summer's leaf be green

What's taking the Lord so longis reflected

 but unseen

Even though I 'd like to stop a leaf

from turning brown, stop Fall from falling down,

Fruit must do its dying before coming aground

So, nature brings and takes her gifts

Season spirits come and take their shifts

The twig of time, in the beak of the bird of borrow,

breaks with hearts of those that put off loving until tomorrow.

1991 Melanie Lynch-Evans

My Garden Sign

Garden of Love

Let Love be a garden

where the soil of heart not harden

both rain and shine

take turns in time

feeding the soul in prosperity

and wisdom blooms in charity.

Melanie Lynch (Evans) revised 2012

A Moment I Remember

I found God's Love in the palm of my hands.

Waiting and Watching

Waiting on the wind to blow
Coolness across my being
Watching for the Son to glow
Some Light into my seeing
Waiting on the day to know
Love and mankind agreeing
Watching for the time to show
Freedom is finished pleaing

Waiting on the peace man bound
between the stars of the sky
Watching for the selfless found
that the selfish passed on by
Waiting on the trumpet sound
while the wicked wonder why
Watching for the oppressed crowned
So my Spirit can F..L..Y

1993  Melanie Lynch (Evans)

Bleeding Pen

I release my pain
through my pen
ink bleeds
from sorrow within.

1990 Melanie Lynch (Evans)

A Teenager's Cry

Trapped by fears
Choking on tears
My eyes see dreams
washed away by esteems

I feel locked out
Where do I fit in
Family is broken
so what is a friend

I need to belong
I've been alone too long
Well, except for when
I risked protection for a "friend"

So when I am betrayed
People do not see
I have only me and
that's not security

No one really, that understands
human shoulders with no heart
I wonder why I must be
set so far apart

Locked in loneliness
Tears of stone
I wear pretty clothing
hiding wounds to the bone

I wish you could hear....

Melanie Lynch-Evans 1993

If Only

If only he knew,
If only they could see,
If only will never be.....

by Melanie Lynch Evans

Glacier

From a geological study of glaciers at the University of Mobile
under the professor Mimi Fearn (best teacher ever).

May 3, 1995

Loneliness is the glaciation of the heart
Where warmth once did flow
But everything now is cold
And time glides by so slow.

The glaciers strong and silent prison
Beyond the surface deep below
Contains the remains the heart envisioned
That once had the life to grow.

The painful erosion of time and scope
Between the mountains of my mind
Cut chunks out of established valleys of hope
Leaving deeper scars behind

Lying beneath this icy sheet
Melting on a bed of rock
My moraine of ink at its retreat
Is all that I have got.

Melanie Lynch (Evans)

Mels, an Emergent Writer

at Hoppa's house in the dining room

Poetics 1451b

Aristotle said, "Poetry is more philosophic than history since it's statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars."

The scripture and the world meet

Ecclesiastes 5:19

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁹ As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 6:1

New King James Version (NKJV)

6 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

² A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.

Here is a blast from MY past in the 80's and few people remember this song, but I remember it sittting in the sun bathing by the pool at Cretia's house:

Ode to the Roaches

(from the original author in the USA in its first form before the Poetry Winner scam)

by Melanie S. Evans

Scuttle, Scuttle, little roach
How you run when I approach!
Up above the pantry shelf
hastening to secrete yourself.
In the garbage heap they leave
Do you browse among the cheese?
Does your long antennae whisk its
Gentle tips across the biscuits?
How delightful to suspect
All the places you have trekked
Under the fridge, above the door,
Must you produce 10,000 more?

My Boys in War

If my kids ever go to war
I hope they know what it's for
Wearing a uniform is but a part
of winning with knowledge and of heart
Live and die with all Christ's might
Freedom is the ability to DO what's right.

by Melanie Lynch-Evans  (I looked for  a pic off the movie Pearl Harbor/Ben Afflek (spell?) that has soldier boots next to a child's bare feet both kneeling and praying before Dad does to war...but I could not find it after an hour of searching).

Loneliness Haiku (a la carte)

Carving your name on the wall
      Your memory's ghost
    in the prison of my heart

by Melanie Lynch-Evans

The Cursing "Prophet" Haiku (a la carte)

"Growing older, you will see!"
Long you will have heard me.
   ~ Self-fulfilling prophecy~

by: Melanie Lynch-Evans

Truth Haiku (a la carte)

Truth, a gift you discover
     in quiet delight
   unfolds in a paradox.

by Melanie Lynch-Evans

Nature's Origami :)

Love Haiku (a la carte)

Love, a tumbled fleshless dance
            two butterflies
       Carrying His energy

by Melanie Lynch-Evans

Don't Hate the Puppets

Double minded people
allegiance unaligned
Spirits play puppets
with people they find

Against flesh and blood
we war not
but lies and fears
and pride we've got

On goes the drama
it's all about me
cut the strings
in Christ we're free

Free to love
behind the scences
trusting Him
in all means.

Melanie Lynch-Evans  2001

Red Carpet Moment

A lonely concrete walk through the city
Numb to hope, inundated with self pity
Her fragrant debut caressed his face
On a red carpet in a world of grays

Spun him around on the tips of his woes
Against his will, the desire rose
Imprinting her red sunkissed hair
with an accidental invitation to stare

Entranced with desire
warmth igniting to fire
in a quiet scream he stood
too far from the taxi's hood

That moment when ordinary is sublime
It leaves as fast as it comes in time
And all the love that's found alone
returns from what's not been known

Another time, again, they'd never meet
the red carpet ran out from beneath their feet.

Melanie Lynch Evans age 17 revised in 2012

80's Rainbow Geek

I used to be a rainbow geek
crazy sock colors wrapped my feet
Every shadow sparkled on my lids
fun fingernail polishes and Carebear vids

In the 80's I gobbled up many a stare
Toothbrushing food color in my freaky hair
Dying Easter eggs, what a delight,
And I colored like I was Rainbow Bright

Summer time popsicle madness, "I wannnnt reddd!"
"Why does everyone want THAT ONE", I said
Sunday School stories of Joseph's many colors
I will reflect the Light and save my brothers!

Get out of the rain as lightning shoots!
"but Mom, I'm in  rubber rainbow boots!"
My Lucky Charms umbrella twirly defied
as I watched me shine in mother's eyes

I must be somewhere over the rainbow now
my childhood has stopped and taken a bow
and the colorful joys of which I speak
have sought and found other rainbow geeks

Not too sad, a smile and a wink
In a dull gray world, I'm now hot pink
Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red
I've a spectrum of grandchildren ahead!

by Melanie Sue Lynch Evans  2011

My Grown Up Baby

I was a child when she was born
There were roads I had not worn
It's no excuse, but I had reason
And my love didn't bloom in season

It's not money, but love I send
May Christ heal what could've been
And my prayers to bury
the burden we carry

My grown up baby
she looks like me
Has my eyes and I cannot see
Where I fit in the hole in her heart.

Melanie Evans 2001

Spending "Your" Life

Unloading the dishwasher against my will yet again; I had a momentous thought. This is how I am "spending" myself. What am I buying with my time, my physical energy, my attention? Surely I am of more value than this busy work. A line of my poetry came in to haunt me: "A golden mind overworked vainly by time..." But here is a true thought: My life is not my own because I was bought with His blood. So, I am spending the Life (as Jesus said,  "I am the Way, the Truth, and The Life"). Another scripture floods my mind as the plates are clinking... that "in Him, I live and move and have my being." (ACTS 17:28) I am reminded that depression means NOT living IN HIM but in MYSELF. My breath is His; it is borrowed. My coordination is His; somehow mathematically he balanced my body to walk upright and straight. Some people want to clean up their home, long to, but must pay someone else to do it as close to how they want it done as possible.  They work and long to stay home and do it because it is a gift one gives to themselves--a clean, smelling good home.  I guess I am fortunate that I can load the dishwasher; however, I was fantasizing having an outhouse...be patient with me, my flesh dies very slowly...

 that I wouldn't have to clean (except with a water hose) or deal with a bathroom in the house at all--before you think I am a weirdo, let me tell you, I have three teen boys that share one bathroom. I think an outhouse is in order. And before you think I should have trained them right, know this is a mother that googled the disgusting bathroom issue and implemented a point system with Cheerios target practice in a bowl on the back of the toilet. It didn't have staying power and food in the bathroom is not the best idea. I sewed elastic hooks on the sides of color coded  towels to see who was responsible for the wet towels on the floor, etc. Let me get on to the momentous idea:

The Parable of the Talents in the Bible I have understood superficially. My momentous thought that loading the dishwasher WAS investing my worth into my family added a 2-D view of the parable. Actually doing these service acts makes the Word 3-D. The wicked servant buried what God gave Him to serve with. He had no Kingdom vision or faith. He didn't "spend" himself. As a result, God called him lazy, wicked. He gives us a "talent" or a "value" and what we do with what we have is our gift back to Him. I guess pride (self preservation gone too far) is at the heart of the issue. Am I telling you washing the dishes is a gift to the Lord? Yes. I am. You are serving your own family...something you would long to do if you had to look on them but couldn't help. I mean if you were barred from it by court order, divorce, health issues or as a spirit looking on them from Heaven.

"ummm, I don't know where she learned that stuff..."

• To the Mom with little kids that can't get off the phone (because it is her "sanity" or escape)
• To the spouse that refuses to make themselves "miserable" by being a companion in   an activity your spouse is passionate about
• To the wife complaining what about me, I, my 
• To the parents living for what they want with the money instead of giving your children a chance and choices...

I once argued aloud "I DE-SERVE some ME time." While balance is a key issue in all this, a lot of parents DE-serve their families when they take their ME time in the wrong way or at the wrong time. I mean, I had ME time but I didn't feel refreshed afterwards--just resented having to go back home and felt it wasn't enough. I was missing the order that God gives when we rely on Him.
$PEND YOUR$ELF on who matters while you have them. They are worth it! He is worthy to be praised (with what we have to work with) and He doesn't like grumbling and complaining--it's faithless and wicked--OUCH!
Father in Jesus Name,

Please forgive me for my blind ungratefulness. Thank you for my family and all the things I have at my disposal to make a difference. I know there are women out there that would knock me out of the way to have what I have. Please give me vision for my family and not one of my own dreaming lest when the kids turn out to be teens, they shock and devastate "my" expectations. Help me to see that what I do does matter to You and will eventually to them. Please tell your Holy Spirit to teach me as I work mindless, boring duties to serve my family and to value the time I have to spend in this way. I know this is temporary but it seems endless. Give me prayers and discernment about my children  as I fold my children's clothing. As I pick up their room again, stop my eye-roll midways and keep it on You.  I ask for your presence in their rooms and for no evil to approach them as they sleep in their beds. Help me model to them what discipline is without the wickedness of grumbling and complaining. Help me get it in my own heart and behavior before I berate them, yell and scream character insults at them for not doing it. Help me not punish them for pointing out how my own room is an awful mess while I have been cooking, washing and paying bills. Help me declutter and have wisdom so I do not have to maintain so much! In Jesus Name, Amen~

Maiden Flowers

Inspired by the Parable of the Sower
(Matthew 13:1-23)

A lovelit flower maiden sprinkled the prayed-over flowers from her blessing basket down the aisle for a happy, hopeful bride. These were no ordinary flowers; they were anointed with powerful blessings from true Love.  Depending on the real condition of the Bride’s heart, the prayer blessings could take root and grow within her, her groom, and any children they had, transforming them into Love’s most beautiful form.  A bride is the heart and the groom is the head of a family.

 If the Bride’s heart wasn’t prepared, the flowers could turn into ordinary bird seed the very next day. For the blind but open heart, there were light, white flowers that would serve to illuminate the darkness of a heart unaware with wisdom and for respect. It is important to honor a husband and the Lord and this does not always happen by feelings. The vibrant purple flowers, held as if by magic, were for the fruit of faithfulness that would work endurance when trouble twisted its way into time. Without this blessing, many brides stumble and sometimes fall into a more difficult walk. The red flowers were the prettiest, perhaps for what they did. Lifting gratitude over vanity in the heart, they seeded within her satisfaction and happiness that money could not buy. For contentment with godliness is great gain according to 1 Tim. 6:6.