Chantel

A wishful writer who only knows how to scribble, loves old books, real letters, keeping house and growing gardens and looking at pretty things. Happily married to my very best friend.
Author Archive | Chantel
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Tomorrow

I sat alone in the moonlight,
And thought me of today-
Of the joys and the sorrows
That had come along the way…

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this new year

I don’t really know what Twenty-Twelve is going to look like. Sometimes that both thrills me and terrifies me a little. But now, in the dawning of this new year, these are the kinds of things things I want to choose. I can’t change circumstances, but I can choose to find beauty and to trust Him with the future. This is where I want my focus.

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While Shepherds Watched

Cool and clear was the night
That shepherds watched their sheep;
Up in fields on yonder hills,
While in the valley Bethlehem lay asleep…

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Painting by Gordon Johnson

here we come a-caroling

Winter was never my favorite of the seasons, but my family and I eagerly looked forward to the days after Thanksgiving when we would fill our long evenings with baking banana bread and packing up little bags of cheer to share with our neighbors near and far at Christmas time.

The nights were often windy and the cold was good at finding any little crack to creep into, even if you dressed up like a snowman with parkas and mittens and scarves.

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Great Things and Giving Thanks

It is the golden days and cool nights that speak of endings — and of new beginnings yet to be seen — that make me stop and look back as I look forward. It is in looking back that I find…

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quietly, consistently living and loving

I want to be a sermon in shoes. It matters less what I say, what I write, than how I live. I believe that there is little as powerful to influence a non-believer as quietly, consistently living my life according to my convictions, and to love, when it doesn’t make sense to love. So I try to live, and love and pray, and to never be too ashamed of who I am in Christ to speak or be silent as He so often quietly impresses my heart.

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“Great Things He Has Done…”

There’s a little tradition that happens each November, and I think you should know about it too. It is called GreaThings and it is one of my favorite parts of blogging in November! For the two weeks preceding American Thanksgiving day, a small group of friends join together to take a look over the year…

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photo by Jennifer Pinkerton

the one purpose behind all our passions

There is nothing more satisfying than the feeling that I get when I do the things that God created me to do. I feel alive, and the fears that often keep me back fade away in the confidence that He gives in doing, in being. These are the passions that make us who we are. This is the feeling of being where we belong, of doing what we were made for. But it is finding purpose within our passion that keeps us going in the right direction.

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finding little treasures

For as long as I can remember, I have found nothing soothes the heart and relaxes the mind like slipping away into a quiet place, surrounded by nature. There I can listen, and let the cares that burden the heart slip away with the wind. It is my hiding place, where I feel close to…

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photo by Jennifer Pinkerton

Purpose in Ordinary Days

It is not for us to measure the success of our lives by the standard of another woman’s life work. We cannot compare our work with theirs for God has made each one of us for a purpose all our own. Even the most humble, obscure and quietly lived life, has beautiful purpose.

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