Therapy Through Poetry: A Journey to Hope

"Dreaming"

Journey to Hope

Dare to hope
of what could be
of what could last.

Dare to dream
of things not seen.

Imagining a life
beyond these days.
Not allowing strife to seize
a moment's joy
from these present days.

A hope.  A dream.

A promise I'm not for sure.
But hoping maybe we could be
a family soon someday.

By Ruth Robbins

What Art is Teaching Me

"Wash Over Me"

Though my writing has taken a backseat to our hectic lives of raising 6 boys; my creative side has found an additional avenue in which to express myself.  Creativity comes in many forms.  We can express ourselves through cooking, writing, teaching, design, lego building, VBS decorating, music and that is not even thinking outside the box.  It comes out in many forms because we were created by a creative God.  His attributes come through in His creation albeit a distorted and imperfect version, but nonetheless His.  You and I have this built in desire to create something in the unique fashion of how we ourselves were designed.  Just take a look around you.  Notice your neighbors flower garden, the bridge you cross over to go to work, even the way your kids play or dress.  We all express our creativity in unique and interesting ways that speak to who we are.

And not only that, but art and the practice of making art is teaching me so much!

1.  I am braver than I realized
2.  Pushing through a rough patch is worth the result at the other end
3.  It's ok if I am the only one who likes it or appreciates it

2 Corinthians 4:6

4.  My creativity can only get better from here
5.  Beautiful things take time
6.  There are many many layers to a work and a life that is rich
7.  We can cover our less desirable parts while highlighting our most attractive
8.   It takes courage to create something new
9.  I can express my faith in what I do with color
10.  Art like words tells a story, my story

"Elijah's Mountain" 1Kings 19

"Summer"

I plan to share more of my art after I get a watermark.  Thanks for taking time to stop by today.  While your at, make something, take time to create and see what you learn.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

With love,

  

My Real Family: Being a Part of God's Forever Family

"Blended Family" by Ruth Robbins

"He replied to them, "Who are My mother and My brothers?"  
And looking about at those who were sitting in a circle around Him, 
He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!
  Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother." 
 Mark 3:33-35 (HCSB)

It has been heard around our house, especially in the early days, weeks and even months of a foster placement the term REAL used to clarify who is actually family.  For all intense and purposes foster parents and their kids are strangers.  Yes, we have trained and prepared.  Yes, we have waited.  Yes, we have prayed, but all of that is transparent to a child.  The idea of real to a child can also mean lasting.  A foster home is temporary.  Real also carries with it the weight of being blood related.  To both children and adults alike these definitions of real family run very deep in the conscience of how we think, act and relate to others.

Jesus takes this notion of real family and blows it up in Mark 3!  How stunned the crowd must have been in a society where your name and family were everything.  Think of his mother!  She had to have been crushed.  Some of his brothers may have been relieved to have Jesus, this quickly becoming black sheep of the family writing them off.  Stop here though.  Was he really writing them off, rejecting them as family or was he simply expanding the parameters?  He takes lots of our ideas and notions of how the world and life should work and turns them on their ears.
  

"Look at how great a love the Father has given us

 that we should be called God's children.  And we are!"  

1John 3:1a

It didn't take a court ruling or a marriage certificate to make us His, it was blood, His blood that made that bond.  It is a rich and REAL bond that all believers share.  We too live in an IF World and just as my foster sons struggle with the unknown and you and I wrestle with what is yet to be or could have been, we press forward with our feet firmly planted in a family that cannot be torn apart.  Rest in that peace today dear friend!

With love,