written by Melinda Pound “Thou that hast given so much to me give me one thing more, a grateful heart: not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days, but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.” George Herbert A Grateful Heart toward God Lord, give me a heart…
Archive | November, 2009
Of Blessings and In-Laws
The old adage that “you don’t just marry a person, you marry a family” is never more evident than during the holiday season. Even if you don’t literally go “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house”, the months of November and December are almost always filled with lots of family visits. I…
From Whom All Blessings Flow
It’s the day before Thanksgiving. One of my very favorite days in the whole year. My kitchen, like so many others across the country (and around the world—I have friends in England, France and Sarajevo celebrating this year) is a scene of happy industry, the loved and familiar scents of sweet potatoes and simmering cranberry…
Thanksgivings Past
If you were to meet me, live with me for a while, and watch how I live, you’d probably not think me the most traditional of girls, but deep in my heart I hold tightly to the Traditions of yesterdays. While nearly everything in my world is different than it was five years ago when…
What True Love Is
Falling in Love is amazing. It is a great smile-increaser. It can make the heart flutter when that certain someone walks into the room, when you hear their name or see their face. And when you hear those three most beautiful words for the first time, for a moment the world seems to stand still….
Afraid to Blink
I’ve been going through pictures tonight. My camera card was full, and as I emptied it onto my computer, I began scrolling back through older pictures. Pictures of the past few weeks and months. I saw one of John and Merritt just before John left and was struck by how little Merritt was then. Two…
All Things New
Once upon a time, there was a girl whose name ought to have been “I Can’t.” She began walking when she was about seven months old, an experiment she quickly nixed for several more months, due to some phenomenon called gravity that kept getting in the way. She began learning to ride a bike when…
The Iraq Journey
And then… he came home. Military wives know there are times we can feel so very alone, whether or not our husbands are deployed. Since it is always helpful to me to talk with or read about other women who “get it”, we put all the deployment-related posts from my blog during the time John…
Strength That Is Not My Own
The following was written and published at Heart and Home in March 2008, just six weeks after my Marine deployed to Iraq. Listen. Do you hear that? Stillness. Complete quiet. Both my boys are sound asleep. The first soft notes of an old Amy Grant song I loved as a little girl are beginning to…
Hanging In There
Some of you may remember when my husband, my Marine, deployed to Iraq in early 2008. Our boys were 21 months and seven weeks old, respectively, and we’d been stationed at a new base in southern California for six months. It was our first deployment and, at that time, the hardest thing we’d endured as…
