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Julie sent an email a few days ago and said, “This poem made me tear up. Thought I’d share it with you all [sisters], since you have boys, too.”

The Castle Builder
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks,
A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,
A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,
And towers that touch imaginary skies.
A fearless rider on his father’s knee,
An eager listener unto stories told
At the Round Table of the nursery,
Of heroes and adventures manifold.
There will be other towers for thee to build;
There will be other steeds for thee to ride;
There will be other legends, and all filled
With greater marvels and more glorified.
Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,
Rising and reaching upward to the skies;
Listen to voices in the upper air,
Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

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Mom sent me this reflection on Psalm 86:5. It goes so well with the Beth Moore Bible study on James that my sister-in-law and I (and many other women across the country) are doing at church. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

When I read my Bible this morning, I was overwhelmed, then very teary.

Psalm 86:5
You, Lord, are forgiving and good,
abounding in love to all who call to you.

I know it’s so everybody’s-heard-this-a-thousand-times, but the truth of it hit me today, and I had to visit Strong’s Bible Concordance to see what all is there. (Where Strong’s didn’t have something, I put in my own.) After I read the definitions, I reread the verse. Wow!

Psalm 86:5 Revisited

You are kind, loving, beautiful, desirable, pleasing, joyful, even merry! You are prepared, ready, eagerly waiting for us to ask You to forgive us, so You can send our sins away forever (gosh, I’m getting choked up again, just typing this), as far as the east is from the west (so cool — you can arrive at “north,” you can arrive at “south,” but you can never arrive at “east” or “west”); they’re gone and even You forget them! Your unfailing love and mercy (often based on a prior relationship, especially a covenant relationship — thank You, Jesus, for our covenant relationship!) is abundant, exceedingly huge, plenteous to all (who does that leave out?) who call on You.

…who call on You. That’s our part. Somewhere this past week I read, and I think it was in Psalms or Proverbs, that there is a difference between just wailing and actually asking God to help you. Anyone can just wail into space, but only someone who believes or hopes that there is a listening God out there will actually ask Him for help.

This goes for us Christians, too. Sometimes I just wail instead of, with my words, asking Him. By asking, too, it helps by clarifying in my own mind what the problem is and what I want Him to do. If I listen for how to pray, sometimes that in itself helps to solve the problem, usually by changing me!

Then His answer will draw us to Him. This is His heart, and I’m finding it all over the Bible. “Draw near to me and I will draw near to you.” This is what He wants — His kids tucked into Him, trusting, asking, rejoicing in Him. And He wants to take care of us and fix us and make us new and free and abundantly joyful, because He loves us so much!!

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Meet Casper – as in, Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

This is Casper, the Friendly Puppy.

Casper is staying with us for a couple months for training. We think he (more…)

Wow, it’s been days since I posted. So much for posting every day in January! In my defense, we are training a puppy for a couple months for someone. The yelpyelpyelpyelpyelpyelpyelping has made it harder than normal to string two thoughts together.

I’ll be back soon. Cheers!

A really quick post today, just to say that Letters From the Loft has a Facebook page. Click here to go there.

After you go to the page, if you click “like,” some of the recent posts will start showing up on your Facebook newsfeed. I’m not adding every post to the Facebook page, just some of the more substantial ones.

You do not need to do this if the email or RSS feed is working fine for you!

(Tip: Near the top right of the Facebook page, click “Everyone: Most Recent” to see all the posts. I was confused when I couldn’t find something that someone had written, and that’s where it was.)

I’ve had a Facebook page for a while, but I was so surprised a few days ago when someone commented on the wall! I had never (more…)

My husband is on a 15-day juice fast. Last week we watched the first half of “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.” It’s a documentary about a man who juice-fasted his way across the U.S.A. to save his own life, interviewing people about their diets as he went.

It affected my husband so much that he is feeding green juice to our kids (who are very excited about this) and to me (not so excited).

I am trying to do the juice fast with him.

So far, this is not fun. I am as up and down as a roller coaster. I woke up yesterday morning feeling more energetic than I have in a long time. Then I was shivering with cold all day, and I randomly burst into tears in the evening. I think my husband’s enthusiasm for the juice wavered slightly at that point.

I can’t remember where I heard this, but the first few days are supposed to be the hardest, while the body detoxifies. That thought is what is making me stick with it a few days longer.

In case anyone thinks this might be noble, you know, fasting and all… if you put a doughnut in front of me right now, I would eat it, no apologies.

(…please??!)
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Check out this picture.

It’s a famous composite photograph, titled “The Pale Blue Dot,” taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The speck of dust in the beam of light is the Earth.

We are tinier than specks of dust. (more…)

I introduced one of my husband’s younger sisters a week or so ago. We don’t know how long she’ll stay with us, but we’re glad for whatever time we have.

One time, shortly after she came, she said, “Debbie, I don’t know how you handle all these little kids without help.” I don’t know, either.

She’s really good with our kids, fixing them sandwiches, motivating them to pick up toys, and tolerating their constant requests. She’s really good at loading the dishwasher in the mornings, too, and I’ve never asked her to do it. She wants to help.

Having her here has made me realize something: It’s much easier to understand receiving after choosing to give.

Maybe that’s why people have kids. I give and give to them. They have so little to give in return, (more…)

I’ve been clearing space on my computer, which means I’ve run across a lot of old scrapbook layouts. “Old” is a relative term. These were from two or three years ago, when I was getting into digital scrapbooking, experimenting with free trial downloads of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

This was the first layout I put on the blog: (more…)