Archive | August 2017

Think on These Things

Aug12

by Rita Klundt

 

My goal from last week was to gaze at something beautiful before I decided on a topic for my next acrostic poem. So, I’ve done a lot of gazing over the past week. Philippians 4:8 provided a list of things to get me started: true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and virtuous. Pondering any of those things leads me into an attitude of praise. Thoughts outside those categories steal my time, energy, and so much more.

My acrostic may or may not be a poem, depending on what you’ve been taught about poetry. Myself, I still prefer a good rhyme. But here is my short list of things I find true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous. They cause me to praise God:

 

Think On These Things

Tight friendships and loose pajamas
Highways, long and smooth, that bring loved ones home
Invited guests who don’t mind a little dust
Noisy, happy children
Kind words from a stranger

Ocean waves that sway melancholy toward contentment
Notes that run from the black and white of a musical score to dance in my head for a day

Tears born of laughter
Helping hands when the load is heavy or the work is dull
Evergreens in winter
Salty people who season my world
Early mornings with a blank to-do list

Tender kisses
Hearts moved to compassion
Intellect garnished with integrity
Never out of God’s care
Grace – God’s grace
Souls who’ve widened a narrow path and passed the torch that lights my way.

 

Use the same phrase, or use one of the good things found in Philippians 4:8, to create an acrostic. Send it to me as a comment to this post or to my email (ritaklundt@ymail.com). I don’t care if it rhymes!

Deceitfulness

Aug2

by Rita Klundt

 

This afternoon, I accepted a challenge to write a poem using an acrostic format.  The words love and beauty came to my mind, but those two words were crowded out because of some difficult circumstances. Avoidable circumstances. Someone told a lie. A big fat lie. So, here is my answer to the acrostic challenge:

Deceitfulness

Do not lie
Everyone tempted – Everyone warned
Calamity only deferred
Embellishment becomes necessity
Integrity blemished then redefined
Trust destroyed
Facts omitted or misaligned
Unscrupulous souls enjoy
Love exploited
Niceness tooled for betrayal
Everyone loses
Soiled legacy
Sin. Because to call deceitfulness by any other name would be a lie.

 

And this evening, I was still spewing anger because of that same lie. Adding self-righteousness to anger didn’t help. My stomach still churned. A passage I read from my Bible did help. 1 John 4:7 tells us to “love one another: for Love is of God.”

The person who told the big fat lie today probably knows about God, but doesn’t know Him. That could explain a lot!

My goal: To gaze at something beautiful before I decide on a topic for my next acrostic poem, and to remember what it says in 1 John 4:11. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”