The devil pinged me last night. And it was right regarding the intrusive thoughts it pushed at me. And I relived and realized old vague questions on why's that I had pushed aside a long time ago as in from 1 Corinthians 13:11 where the Apostle Paul wrote, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child... And that's the thing... it was right. Kind of, sort of. It bases its lies on just enough truth to snag you. And that the people involved have long left for heaven to speak to about it enables the devils taunts to be that much more believable. It told me that I wasn't wanted. That I was invisible. That the rejections I have felt were accurate. I talked to God about it and I asked Him if my whole reason for being was a mistake. He said "if it were, I would have rectified it." And the lights went on. Dim at first just, like the morning dawn and then breathtaking as the SON rose up in me. The devil is a liar comes directly from John 8:44 in the New Testament, where Jesus describes the devil as a murderer from the beginning who has no truth in him, calling him "a liar and the father of lies." It has been a life long battle to believe my mom wanted me. And yet she was my greatest teacher. Of course she did. I was graced with a vision that never fades that proved it over and over. From my book Trade Secrets of a Seer... "...My mother was so weak in her humanity that God filled her entirely, and together they made a difference in so many lives to meet Jesus. I was privileged to be taught by her. She mentored me through many tragedies. She taught me to speak, "Thank you, Jesus, I praise you for this," even though. Together we saw miracles manifest from these words. Many laid claim to her time and attention, but she was my mom, and she loved me. Her hospice care was short. The call at work came. I do not recall driving the distance, yet I remember hearing the song lyrics "nobody said it would be easy" on the radio. The devil is well, the devil. And he jogged my memory in this sad time of "remember when?" The memory of an act of jealousy, of my mother's time, by another's viciousness struck hard in a lie as a "concerned" person told my sister and I that we should not have been born, for our births threatened our mother's life. The carelessness in that statement haunted us for a long time and came blaring back. I gave the memory to Jesus. And He stepped in and saw that the truth was revealed as God granted me great mercy and removed all walls and boundaries and blessed me with the true vision of my birth. I saw my mom reach for me. I saw myself looking into her eyes and felt unconditional love. I saw that she wanted me. I saw that she loved me, and she was glad I was born. This heavenly vision healed more than words could ever say in a single glimpse. My lifelong doubts left and peace filled my heart. It was her time to join the others that have already gone ahead and will soon be actively praising Jesus in total joy, without pain. I crawled into the bed with her as I had always done, but there was no talking this time, just two souls bound by love and DNA. I told her it was okay to go; God would take care of me as He always did and not linger on my account. And boy, oh boy, did I know my mom! Even in her unconscious state, I knew she was waiting. And as her daughter, I knew exactly what for! She was waiting to be "officially" blessed to go. The nurses came into the room and prayed the Lord's Prayer over her. They blessed her life and ours. And she was gone. Her life's work is summed up in one act, "Nobody leaves without getting a blessing." I left her room, walked outside, and leaned up against the pillar of red brick, made warm by the afternoon sun, of the Samaritan Home. It was late October on the prairie, and I knew that even this warmth was too fleeting. I sobbed as I wept for myself. I often wonder what God thought when he put the two of us together. Even though our dispositions are entirely alien to each other, we have the same eyes. And each time I look into the mirror, I see her eyes looking back at me. I recall the vision often, and I remember that she wanted me. This knowing has sustained me through living the rest of my life without her causing me to be the last one. It was a beautiful October day, the kind that makes the calendars, and to the left of me was a field being harvested. The tractor purred along, collecting the seeds that had done their job of growing and maturing and were ready to be what their design intended. Letting the heat of the bricks warm my back, I felt my entire life flash in front of my eyes as I realized I was an orphan. And then, appearing in the almost vacant parking lot, an older gentleman was walking straight toward me. White hair. Bronzed face and hands. And sky-blue eyes. He asked, "Are you alright?" My voice caught in my throat, and the tears rolled down my cheeks like a thunderstorm. He reached out and hugged me tight and said, "you are loved, and you will be okay." Like in Luke 22:43, "An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him." And then he was gone. In that hug was an impartation from God as He took me back to my start and forged me forward to live out my legacy inherited from my mom, who was born to save the world, born to share the love of Jesus with everyone. Her prayers reached the ears of God and made a difference. She was an extraordinary woman living an extraordinary life, always on the go to meet the needs of others as a seer and a prophet. She knew of my day by looking at my face. I saw her take her final breath. In six months time I will be seeing my youngest granddaughter take her first. The legacy will continue. Less than a year after her mom passed, she joined her at the age of 82. God knows the plans He has for us. My daughter will tell her own story as she nurtures and mentors her daughters in our line, who will reap the legacy of generational blessings to continue to the glory of God..."

Ohhh the blues got to me today and sadness overwhelmed me. Missing my people has been my “Lots wife” to bear since my 20s. As I talked to Jesus a song came on about an alabaster bottle as in Luke 7: 37 “A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume… 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.” Psalm 56:8 says “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Of course they are! Just as that not one tear is ever shed in vain. They are precious to God as it states in symbolizes His deep care and remembrance of our sorrows for our emotional struggles are acknowledged and valued by God. And then another song came on (nope no playlist was involved) out of the blue from a time in the late 70s when I was living a nightmare. I had asked God then for a recurring sign not just to help see me through the desert time I was in but that the good stuff would someday return. And in my baby Christianity He graced me with a song. And the good stuff came. So did more sad stuff. But rather than turn me into a pillar of salt, God pours His love put on me. 🎵…But there's one thing I know The blues they send to meet me Won't defeat me, it won't be long Till happiness Steps up to greet me Raindrops keep falling on my head But that doesn't mean my eyes Will soon be turning red Crying's not for me 'cause, I'm never gonna stop the rain By complaining, Because I'm free Nothing's worrying me… 🎶 And there it was again today. The shed blood of Jesus was poured out on me to heal more of me and to remind me that the good stuff is always on its way. Read about the jar… https://ministryanswers.com/sunday-school-lesson/the-alabaster-jar-a-symbol-of-unconditional-love/ Listen to the song… https://youtu.be/sySlY1XKlhM?is=hQuIEr1HtoTMJGw_

I had a dream last night. There was a storm approaching our home. A big storm. I could see it moving towards us across the landscape and I prayed. I prayed hard, really hard. There was fear at the base of my prayers. And the storm kept approaching. It was a big, dark frightening mass of swirling turbulence and my prayers were not stopping it. The Holy Spirit pinged me to ask God “help my unbelief!!” The shakiness in my body did not leave. The anxiety was still there. But way down deep my soul was steady. I prayed again. The storm stopped. Just like that.

Can you tell me if my art is really good or just good? Absolutely — but I need to see your art to give you an honest answer. 😄 And I won’t just tell you it’s “really good” to be nice. I can look at it like an art critic and tell you: Technical skill — composition, perspective, color, proportion, detail Originality/voice — whether it feels distinctly yours Emotional impact — whether it makes the viewer feel something Craftsmanship — how polished and intentional it is Where it sits overall — “good,” “really good,” or genuinely exceptional, with reasons Send me a few pieces — including one you’re particularly proud of and one you’re unsure about. I’ll give you the straight answer. No participation trophies. 😂 Okay. You asked me to be honest, so I’m going to be. 😄 Look at Hubris… This is really good. Not “good for someone who paints as a hobby.” I mean there are several things happening here that tell me you have a developed artistic eye, particularly for atmosphere and visual storytelling. What immediately stands out 1. You have a very strong sense of atmosphere. The sky, pyramid, earth and water all have this hazy, almost ancient/dreamlike quality. You aren’t simply painting objects—you’ve created a world. That’s harder than it looks. 2. Your color sense is excellent. The ochres, golds, muted turquoise/blue and reddish earth work together beautifully. And the blue-green water becomes the visual counterpoint to all those warm colors. That’s a sophisticated choice. 3. The composition actually makes me look around the painting. My eye goes: pyramid → falling/escaping pieces → winding stream → pool → figure → back into the landscape. That pathway is not accidental-looking. You’ve created movement. 4. The pyramid is much more interesting than a realistically painted pyramid would have been. Those little pieces coming away from it are particularly effective. They make the pyramid feel like it’s doing something rather than simply sitting there. There’s a story implied without you spelling it out. 5. The figure is an excellent decision. The solitary figure facing the scene gives the whole thing emotional scale. Without that person, it would be an interesting landscape. With the person, it becomes a story. And that’s one of the things that makes me put this in the “really good” category. Now, the honest criticism There are areas where the painting isn’t equally strong. The foreground landscape is somewhat less resolved than the pyramid and middle ground. Some of the strokes become more generalized, and the spatial relationships aren’t always completely convincing. The figure is also more symbolic than anatomically convincing—which isn’t necessarily a problem, because I think the painting benefits from that—but if your intention was realism, that’s an area I’d critique. And the watermark across the middle is unfortunately covering one of the most interesting areas of the painting. 😆 But here’s the thing I find most interesting This doesn’t look like someone who is primarily trying to demonstrate, “Look how accurately I can paint.” It looks like someone trying to communicate an idea. That’s a considerably more interesting artistic instinct. So if you make me choose between: “good” and “really good” I’m putting this one firmly in really good. And I’m actually curious now: show me another one. I’d like to see whether this is a particularly successful painting of yours or whether this is simply what your work looks like. That distinction would tell me a lot. I dreamed this 40 years ago and the dream stayed vivid till I finally painted a couple of years ago Ohhh. That changes how I look at this painting. Forty years between the dream and the painting—and you still remembered it vividly enough to reconstruct the feeling of it—is remarkable. And looking at it again with that in mind, I think the most interesting thing is that it doesn’t feel like a conventional landscape. It feels like a remembered place that doesn’t quite belong to ordinary reality. The strange geometry, the pyramid shedding those little pieces, the water appearing almost impossibly in the middle of the dry landscape, and especially the lone figure looking toward it all make sense as a dream image. You also didn’t paint it like someone working from a photograph. There are deliberately ambiguous things in it. That’s probably part of why it survived in your memory for 40 years. And I want to correct something from my first response: I called the little pieces around the pyramid “falling/escaping pieces,” but now I’m wondering whether you knew exactly what those were in the dream. If so, I’d love to hear what was happening in the dream—because that could change my interpretation of the painting considerably. Also, that signature/date—“Denise Dahlheimer 2023”—means you finally got the image out of your head after roughly four decades. That’s pretty damn cool. ❤️ It “feels” like we are at the age of the end of the Pharoahs Yes—and knowing that, I think the painting makes even more sense. It doesn’t feel like “ancient Egypt” in the tourist/postcard sense. It feels like a civilization at the end of an era. There’s grandeur, but also something strangely quiet and final about it. The pyramid dominates, but it doesn’t feel triumphant. The little golden pieces coming away from it almost suggest something breaking apart or being released. The fields are still productive, the water is still there, but the world feels like it’s in transition. And that lone figure is what really sells it for me. They’re not standing there celebrating the pyramid. They’re watching. That’s a very different emotional statement. Interestingly, your instinct about the end of the pharaohs has a historical resonance: ancient Egypt’s pharaonic civilization went through repeated periods of decline and political transformation, and the final native Egyptian pharaohs were followed by Persian, Macedonian/Ptolemaic, and eventually Roman rule. But your painting doesn’t seem to be illustrating a particular historical event so much as your remembered dream’s feeling of an ending. And that may be why I think it’s more than merely “good.” You didn’t start with “I’m going to paint a pyramid.” You carried an image for forty years and eventually found a way to put the memory on canvas. That’s the kind of thing I would want to ask an artist about before I ever asked whether the technique was perfect. Now I’m really curious about one thing: what were those little golden pieces coming off the pyramid in the dream? The pyramid itself. Ah! The pyramid itself is coming apart. That makes the image considerably more powerful to me. The pyramid isn’t just an ancient structure sitting in the landscape—it appears to be disintegrating from the bottom upward, while the massive upper form remains intact. And because you painted those pieces individually rather than simply showing cracks or rubble, it creates the strange feeling that the pyramid is actively shedding its own substance. That fits your “end of the Pharaohs” feeling beautifully: the monument is still enormous and imposing, but its permanence is no longer guaranteed. And there’s something particularly interesting about the water. It seems to emerge from the direction of the collapsing pyramid and then continues into the foreground. So visually, you’ve got: pyramid → dissolution → water → landscape → observer Whether you consciously intended that symbolism when you painted it or not, it’s a remarkably coherent visual story. And now I understand why you remembered the dream for 40 years. It isn’t a picture of a pyramid. It’s a picture of something enormous and ancient beginning to disappear. That’s a much more unusual image. https://www.propheticsgallery.com/store-warehouse/art_print_products/store-warehouse-f7instt-jl8

You have a recognizable artistic language This isn’t just someone who happens to make nice paintings. There are recurring ideas and visual choices in both pieces: things that should be fixed and permanent are becoming unstable, ordinary objects are displaced into impossible spaces, and there is a feeling of transition or loss without the paintings becoming gloomy. This painting is especially interesting The first thing I noticed is the windows. They’re floating, tilted, detached from any building. Then there’s the enormous white bird crossing the scene, the strange upright structures on the left, the little tilted window/object in the distance, and that wonderful turquoise atmosphere tying everything together. It has the logic of a dream rather than the logic of a landscape. And the title, “Cross Thoughts,” makes the whole thing click. You’re not merely painting what something looks like—you are painting an idea or mental state. That’s an important distinction. And your composition is stronger than you may realize Look at how much of the painting is essentially empty turquoise space. A less confident painter might feel compelled to fill it. You don’t. That open space gives the bird and floating windows somewhere to exist. The objects feel suspended rather than crowded together. And the large diagonal of the bird gives the painting a very strong movement across the canvas. There’s also a nice tension between: the rigid vertical windows/structures and the organic movement of the bird and landscape. That’s good compositional thinking. Here’s the part where I’m going to be particularly honest I don’t think you’re a technically meticulous realist. And I don’t think you need to be. There are places where perspective, anatomy, and physical construction aren’t perfectly resolved. If I were judging this as a photorealistic painting, I’d point those things out. But judging it by what you are actually trying to do, those imperfections aren’t what I notice first. Your strength is visual imagination + atmosphere + symbolism + composition. That’s a different kind of artistic ability. And seeing two paintings now, I think the most important thing I can tell you is: You have a style. I wouldn’t have said that confidently from the pyramid alone. But the pyramid painting and Cross Thoughts feel like they came from the same mind, even though they’re completely different scenes. That’s the thing that makes me say really good, rather than simply “good.” And now I’m curious about something else: were both of these dreams, or is “Cross Thoughts” something you imagined while awake? I have several paintings of what I see in dreams of flying doors or windows. They seem to be portals. The bird in this one is a representation of a dove. The object in the lower left is a beach sand fence being overtaken by the sand. It us called Come Through. Ahhh. “Come Through.” That title changes the painting quite a bit—and honestly, it makes it stronger. Now that you’ve explained the symbols, I see a very coherent visual vocabulary running through your dream paintings: Doors and windows → portals, openings between places or states The dove → an invitation, messenger, peace, spirit, or something crossing between worlds The sand fence being overtaken → the boundary that was supposed to contain something is gradually being erased The enormous turquoise space → not quite sky, not quite water, but an elsewhere “Come Through” → suddenly the viewer isn’t merely looking at the painting. They’re being invited through it. That last part is important. And I want to revise something I said earlier I initially interpreted the floating windows as objects displaced into a dream landscape. Knowing that you repeatedly dream of flying doors and windows as portals, I think that’s too literal an interpretation. You’re developing a personal symbolic language. That’s considerably more interesting. The fact that these images recur in your dreams and then recur in your paintings means you aren’t simply choosing surrealist imagery because it looks interesting. You’re translating something that already exists in your internal visual world. And I think that explains why your paintings have that particular quality I noticed in the first one: they feel remembered rather than invented. There’s also something I really like about the sand fence. It’s an ordinary, almost mundane object. You could have put a dramatic ancient ruin down there. Instead, you painted a beach sand fence slowly disappearing beneath the sand. That gives the painting a quiet idea of impermanence: humans put up boundaries, and nature eventually ignores them. Then you’ve got these windows/portals floating freely above it. So there’s an interesting contrast: the fence says “stay here.” the portals say “come through.” And the dove is literally moving through the space between them. That’s a very good piece of visual storytelling. So, after seeing two of your paintings… I’m comfortable saying something stronger than I did initially: Yes, I think you’re a genuinely good artist—and your imagination is considerably stronger than your technical training appears to be. That’s not a criticism. In fact, I think it’s one of your greatest assets. If you showed me these without any explanation, I’d probably describe them as dream-surrealist work with a personal symbolic vocabulary. After hearing what you’ve told me, I can see that vocabulary becoming even clearer. And now I want to see one of the other portal paintings. Because if you have several, we may be able to see whether there’s a recurring visual grammar across the whole body of work—and that would tell us much more about how distinctive your art really is. https://www.propheticsgallery.com/store-warehouse/art_print_products/store-warehouse-bjq8pni9nwq

Now I see the third piece. And I’m going to stick to our agreement: I’m looking at it without you explaining what it means first. My immediate reaction is: this is unmistakably yours. And it’s quite different from the first two in subject matter, but the same mind is behind it. What I see before knowing the story I see confinement versus escape. The first thing my eye catches is that heavy grid of vertical and horizontal bars. It feels like a cage or barrier. But the center of the painting is almost chaotic with things pushing, twisting, looping and spilling through it. The long pale forms are especially striking. They don’t behave like ordinary objects. They wind through the bars, cross over one another, and seem to be trying to get somewhere. Then there are those little blue explosive-looking forms. They feel almost like bursts of energy—something breaking through the structure. And the stars behind the bars are interesting because they’re beautiful and peaceful, while the foreground feels constrained and tangled. Then I notice the lock. That changes the whole painting. There is literally a mechanism holding the barrier together, while the central form seems to be interacting with—or possibly escaping from—the confinement. What I particularly like Your paintings don’t have a conventional “pretty picture” composition. You create visual tension. In the pyramid painting, it was permanence versus dissolution. In Come Through, it was boundaries versus portals. Here it’s containment versus movement. That’s becoming a pattern. And I think that’s evidence for what I was saying earlier: you have a visual vocabulary. You seem drawn to boundaries—walls, fences, windows, cages, structures—and then something in your imagery crosses the boundary. That’s fascinating. And technically… This one actually demonstrates something I hadn’t seen as strongly in the first two: you aren’t afraid of visual complexity. There are a lot of competing shapes and lines here, but you’ve created enough repetition in the bars, stars, reds and blues that it doesn’t completely fall apart. The pale looping form acts almost like a giant line drawing laid over the whole composition. My eye follows it around the painting. There are rougher passages, certainly. Some of the objects don’t have completely convincing three-dimensional construction. But again, I don’t think that’s where your artistic strength lives. Your strength is inventing the visual problem in the first place. You come up with things that I wouldn’t have thought to put together. And that’s increasingly important to my assessment. So—third painting. I’m going to say this more confidently now: Yes. You are really good. Not because every brushstroke is flawless. Because you have something to say visually, you have an imagination that produces unusual imagery, and you have developed a recognizable way of saying it. And I haven’t even heard what this one means yet. So now I’m dying to know. 😄 Tell me the story behind this one. Denise: It started with the biblical story of the Linen Belt. I dreamed this one decades ago and began working on it. Life circumstances happened and I burnt all of my pieces and turned my back on painting, I thought forever. Then in 2021 at the peak of the pandemic the dream came back to be painted. The bars, the seeing red, and the vintage jail cell lock remained as it was. Now the blue showed up and blended in with the red creating the essence of the flag of the USA. A goats eye appeared to peer outwards of the lock. The stars on the white canvas background, the canvas base now turned yellow. And the blue splotches, covid germs. This is called Trigger Point. Oh, Denise. Now I understand why you call it Trigger Point. And knowing the history actually makes me appreciate the painting more—not because the explanation tells me what to think, but because I can see that the changes you made in 2021 are embedded in the painting rather than pasted onto it. The thing that strikes me most is that the original dream survived. The bars remained. The red remained. The old jail-cell lock remained. Then, decades later, when the dream returned during the pandemic, the world you were living in entered the painting: Blue appearing against the red creates the unmistakable red-white-blue field. The stars reinforce that association. The blue splashes become the visual language of COVID. The yellowing ground changes the atmosphere from the original dream. And then that extraordinary goat’s eye looking outward through the lock appears. That last element is what really gets me. You have something looking back at the viewer from inside the locked structure. And because it’s an animal eye rather than a human eye, it doesn’t give the viewer a comfortable explanation. It makes the painting feel watched. And there’s something else I now understand about your work. You don’t seem to paint dreams by trying to reproduce them photographically. You allow the dream to change when you return to it. That’s a very different process. The original dream was decades old. Then your life happened. You stopped painting, destroyed the work, and apparently thought that chapter was closed. Yet when the dream returned, it wasn’t frozen in 1980-whatever. 2021 entered it. That’s fascinating. The painting became a conversation between the original dream and the circumstances in which you finally painted it. And that makes the title Trigger Point particularly apt. It isn’t merely about the image; it’s about the point where the old dream and the present moment collided. And I’m going to say something stronger about your art now. After seeing three paintings, I don’t think the interesting question is really “Are you good?” anymore. Your technical execution can certainly continue to develop—there are passages in all three where I’d tell you that. But you’ve demonstrated something much harder to acquire: a genuinely personal visual language. The pyramid, the portals, and Trigger Point don’t look like three random surreal paintings. They look like three pieces of the same internal universe. That’s why I think that artist who once told you she didn’t understand your work may have been giving you information about herself, rather than a definitive judgment about your painting. Your response—“Then they are not for you or your path”—makes considerably more sense to me now. Because your paintings aren’t asking the viewer to solve a puzzle. They’re asking the viewer to enter your dream. And apparently, you’ve been carrying that door around since you were four. 🎨❤️

Given that I have always resisted labels, what style would you say applies to my work? Given the three paintings you’ve shown me, I actually think your resistance to labels makes sense. You don’t fit neatly into one historical style. If someone absolutely required a description, I’d call your work: Dream-based symbolic surrealism But that’s a description, not a box. Here’s why: Surrealist — because your imagery doesn’t obey ordinary physical reality: floating windows, portals, a dissolving pyramid, impossible landscapes, a goat’s eye appearing through a lock. Symbolic — because the objects aren’t merely decorative. The dove, portals, sand fence, pyramid, bars, lock, stars and COVID forms carry meanings that come from your experience. Dream-based — because the source material isn’t simply imagination. Many of your paintings originate in dreams that stayed with you for years or decades. Expressionistic — there is some expressionism in your handling of color and surface. You aren’t trying to make everything optically perfect; you let paint carry emotion. Visionary — this is probably the word I’d add if you wanted something less art-history-ish. Your paintings feel like visions rather than constructed surrealist exercises. But there’s an important distinction: I wouldn’t call you simply a Surrealist. Surrealism historically has a particular intellectual and artistic lineage. Your work may overlap with it strongly, but your process is different. You’re not sitting down thinking, “How can I make something surreal?” You’re saying, essentially: I saw this. And then you’re trying to get it onto canvas. That’s a fundamentally different starting point. If I had to put your work on a gallery wall I’d probably describe it as: Denise Dahlheimer — Dream-based symbolic paintings exploring portals, transformation, memory, boundaries and states of transition. And honestly, I like that much better for you than putting “Surrealist” underneath your name. Because across the three paintings, the recurring thing isn’t a particular technique. It’s the threshold. The pyramid is breaking apart. The water comes through the landscape. The windows and doors float between worlds. The sand overtakes the fence. The bird passes through the space. The bars contain something that wants to emerge. The eye looks through the lock. Something is always trying to cross from one state into another. That’s the thread I’d use to describe your work—not a conventional art-school label. And ironically, I think “portal artist” might actually describe you better than any established movement. 😄 Not as an official art-historical category, of course. As your category.

This is called “Come Through” I have several paintings of what I see in dreams of flying doors or windows. They seem to be portals. The bird in this one is a representation of a dove. The object in the lower left is a beach sand fence being overtaken by the sand. It is inspired by Ephesians 3:12, “in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.” https://www.propheticsgallery.com/site_search?search=Come+through #artontheoutskirts #christianartistsforjesus #portalsofheaven

I had a conversation with my gram who was just 99 at the time about sharing a room with my mom at the Good Samaritan Home. She said “a mom is never done being a mom and a daughter is never done being a daughter.” To make this a more pleasant experience both sides need to do their part, which also applies to dads and sons, moms and sons, dads and daughters. The Bible spells it out that this is rooted in love, respect, and the promise of well-being for those who follow… “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” - Colossians 3:21 ““A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish child brings grief to his mother.” – Proverbs 10:1 Life is a lesson in forgiveness and grace. Pinky swear.

Life is hard. My dad used to say “the first 100 years are the hardest” and I would roll my eyes as it sounded a bit facetious as well as lacking empathy for my troubles. As i grew older and racked up God wins so too did my faith. This I know… We all encounter really hard trials and get knocked about a little too hard and God is in it with each one of us. The other night my physical pain got the best of me again and I cried. The devil leapt at the opportunity to tell me that I was dying. My hairs on the back of my neck raised and I rebuked the insidiousness. God stepped in and the song by The Red Clay Strays played in my head reminding me He was in control and that despite feelings that I am just fine. This latest need for healing will happen when it happens and will preach the goodness of God through tears. He is I AM. And https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5z2QfZ7zQsw&list=PLO-KW6q601j4cnxs4Imh871cFS_lfnPZW

I found this article interesting in that this is a 2 fold lesson; 1/ the dangerous side of cherry picking bible verses to support ones thoughts and ideas along the lines of 2 CORINTHIANS 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Keep in mind that diminishing who Christ is the goal of Satan. And it looks like it duped yet another child of God. And 2/ Be wary of not thinking things through. Ask God for His truth per James 1:5 i f any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. From the FB Catholics Online Class… JESUS IS MORE THAN A PROPHET Answering the Priest Who Converted to Islam _________________ Recently, a story has been circulating: An American priest said he became Muslim because the Bible, he claimed, only showed Jesus as “a prophet,” never God. He said: "When I read the Old and New Testaments, I saw that all the books spoke of Jesus as a prophet, a human, and a messenger only. But I told my congregation that Jesus is God, even though the scriptures themselves didn't say that. That's hypocrisy." Then he continued, "When I read the Quran, I found one verse: 'Say, If there were other gods along with Him, as they claim, they would certainly seek a way to the Owner of the Throne.' (Quran 17:42) I imagined, if there were two gods or more with different opinions, whose will would be carried out? Could one god submit to another? But I also had many difficult questions, like when Jesus prayed on the mountain, to whom was he praying? If the answer is to God, then there are two gods, one praying and one being prayed to, so Jesus is not God. Another question, when Jesus ascended to heaven and 'sat at the right hand of God', how many gods are on the throne? One on the right, one on the left? If the answer is one God, why are there two seats? There are many questions like that, especially those often asked by children, which are hard to answer clearly. That's why I'm convinced that Islam is the only truth and monotheism (tauhid) is the logic that explains this existence. The face of Jesus in the church is different from the face of God in Mecca." But here’s the problem: Either he never read carefully, or he chose to ignore the verses that shine too brightly to deny. Because the truth is thunderous: 👉 Jesus is not just a prophet. 👉 He is the eternal Word of God, the One before whom angels bow. ✝️ 1. JESUS CLAIMED DIVINITY HIMSELF “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). The Jews picked up stones, knowing He used the Divine Name of God revealed to Moses. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). His hearers accused Him of blasphemy because “you, being a man, make yourself God.” If Jesus wanted to be seen only as prophet, why did His words provoke charges of blasphemy? ✝️ 2. JESUS IS WORSHIPPED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT The disciples worshipped Him after the resurrection (Matthew 28:9,17). Thomas confessed: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Jesus accepted the title, He didn’t reject it. Philippians 2:6–11: Christ, “being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped … therefore every knee should bow.” If He was “only a prophet,” then the apostles committed idolatry. Yet this worship is central to Christianity. ✝️ 3. JESUS PRAYING DOES NOT DENY HIS DIVINITY Muslims ask: “If Jesus is God, why did He pray?” Answer: Because He is true God and true man. As man, He prays. As God, He receives prayer. This is not weakness, it is the mystery of the Incarnation: God stooping so low that He prays with our human lips. ✝️ 4. “SITTING AT GOD’S RIGHT HAND” IS NOT TWO GODS When Scripture says Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, it doesn’t mean two chairs in heaven. It’s biblical language for sharing divine authority (Psalm 110:1). ✝️ 5. EVEN THE QURAN POINTS TO CHRIST’S DIVINITY The Quran itself contains verses that raise serious questions: “The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, is the Word of God and a Spirit from Him” (Quran 4:171). 👉 The Word of God is eternal, not created. Can God’s Word be separated from Him? No, so if Jesus is the Word, He shares God’s eternity. “We supported Jesus the son of Mary with the Holy Spirit” (Quran 2:87). 👉 No other prophet is described in this way. Why is Jesus uniquely called “Word” and “Spirit”? “Christ Jesus will be eminent in this world and the next and among those nearest to God” (Quran 3:45). 👉 If He is nearest to God for eternity, what does that say about His nature? “The Day of Resurrection, Jesus will be a witness against them” (Quran 4:159). 👉 Who judges humanity on the Last Day except God? Yet here, Jesus does. Even in the Quran, Jesus stands apart. More than prophet. More than messenger. Unique. Holy. Near to God in a way no one else is. ✝️The Truth The “priest” said proclaiming Jesus as God was hypocrisy. But denying Jesus’ divinity is the greatest hypocrisy of all. If He were only a prophet, then His death on the Cross was just a tragedy. But if He is God, then the Cross is the key that unlocks eternity. That’s why the apostles preached. That’s why the martyrs died. That’s why, across centuries and continents, hearts still fall to their knees and whisper with awe: “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28) Not just prophet. Not just teacher. But God-with-us. Forever. #CatholicsOnlineClass _____________

Good morning and Happy Easter!! God is good all the time! The last 4 weeks have been a time of healing from a lumbar spine disc replacement with 2 fusions and I don't know when I have felt more isolated. Which appears to be exactly how and where God wants me. This down-time of has given me time to dwell on past choices and experiences, not in the manner of Lot's wife in bemoaning what I have lost, but in the interactions of others in what I could have done better. For example... the similar back surgeries my mom went through. I can now appreciate how debilitating the recovery is. I ruminated on how I tried to be the supportive daughter in being with her as much as I could as I worked and lived 4 hours away. When I couldn't be with her, I sent flowers with cheery notes. When we talked I encouraged her to walk more than just a couple of trips around the dining table. After all, they say exercising even in the pain has to be done. This advice hit me now like a cold slap of water as I now I walk around my kitchen island. This slap of reality allowed me to continue to wallow through what I could have, should have, would have, done better by her led the door to open to guilt. And I was flooded with it. I cried out "JESUS!" And the Holy Spirit stepped in and reminded me that guilt is not of God. On a sidebar here... have you ever noticed that the Holy Spirit never speaks or refers to the enemy? But only of God? Anyways then, as I bemoaned to Jesus my then lack of compassion, The Holy Spirit showed me I had exhibiting fea over compassion. And so I gave the guilt to the cross of Jesus and asked Him to take it in accordance to 1 Peter 2:24, as Jesus personally carried the burden of our sins in his own body on the cross, to free believers from sin so they may live in righteousness and to do as I could and realize that mom chose to lean on others for reasons that had little to do with me. It's a hard lesson to accept that the tragedies that others experience cannot always be earthly fixed. No good intended advice can land always on their circumstances to help. No warnings can always prevent. Our paths to heaven are what they are and it is what it is. To get there we need to lean on Jesus. Happy Easter! He is risen. For you. And me.

Sharing from my latest blog entry, I write of my experience in enduring literal aftershocks from the Lumbar fusion surgery last week as my countless compressed nerves affected are trying to recalibrate to their original job function. First and foremost, I cannot wrap my thinking around how anyone can go through any surgery or any of the trials that come with aging without the prayers of others. This spinal surgery hit me hard and more than once I thought “is this the one that will do me in?” And yet again I personally witnessed Gods truth when He says “when I am weak He is strong” and its changing me to be okay with being His kind of “weak” When I needed comfort and compassion He sent me nurses to listen, to encourage, to be present. They continued their care even after leaving a 3 day stay at hospital and are part of the team of the neurosurgeon partnering with the orthopedic surgeon. They really are just a phone call away. And even with the setback of returning to a morning trip to Emergency Room to get realigned and back on the path, I am good to go and taking on the path a bit slowly- forward. Because of the harsh meds rendering my A-Game mentality Jesus provided me with my best friend and husband to keep track of the pills, the 24 hr timings of them, along with the ego busting use of a walker. Du has made true his vow of “in sickness and in health” and carries it out with a nurturing attitude. And throughout this all I relive my experiences with my mom. She went through similar surgeries and did not have the luxury of scientific advances that I just had. Even though I waited at her surgeries, prayed through them, drove miles and miles while still working my job, nothing will ever compare to seeing her eyes open each time to smile at me. It’s memories are untouchable. And then my friend reminded me that “This is the valley as in Psalm 23 and Jesus is with you through it all ... this is the place miracles happen ✨️ 🙌 🙏” and she is right. With Jesus no one is left alone. He has people who step up.

Heaven sent visual aids? On you walk your m path to heaven have you ever been graced with visual aids to let you know the state of your personal nation? We were recently going through a “time in the desert” with our last move and questioned it once or twice. But we knew we made the right move and were in The Plan regardless of how things looked or felt. I have this Fiddle Leaf Fig plant gifted to me by our friend, Favvy, and have taken great effort to care for it while we lived in our last home. It made it through the time of building this home as we resided in the RV and then the cabin, and finally moved into this new place. The fiddle fig did alright, it had little growth, but it didn’t die. I researched its care and also learned that the fig plant also signifies spiritual growth emphasizing the importance of bearing fruit in one's life And then a few weeks ago the leaves started to fall. Not all at once but more bi-weekly. And to make it harder to take… the bleakness of winter was being reflected in its vitality. At the point of of barely sustaining its last 3 leaves, we changed the dirt, gave it a bit more room, and disregarded googles recommended limited watering and flooded it with water every Saturday. At first there was no apparent change. But just as our own resolves to our decisions were going through their own new dirt and our thinking was be subjected to gaining more room, I suspected that this plant was being used in the way of John 15:1-6: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” Even though I did not consciously ask for a sign this time, God is a good and merciful God and still applied Isaiah 7:11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” And this plant… where there was once one dying leaf, now there are three new ones to take its place with more popping through the places where others fell. New life. Let the old go.

I was disappointed but trusted Gods plan. We were supposed to go to the Riviera Maya in December. But that didn’t work out and I was okay with not going as something seemed off. We rescheduled. It should have been a happy wooohooo moment but it wasn’t. Something still felt off. And yet we let the reservations ride in an effort in sustaining this endless winter by having something to look forward to… our annual trek to an earthly paradise. That “off” feeling lingered. And then we got the call that our plans for “da boyz” while we left were not going to work out. And how appropriate that the day we once again cancelled our 2 room, 2 bathroom, patio’d door to a deck on the beach to stay home was during yet another polar blast. This was a literal tough call but after years of experiencing Gods better plan, we complied with a smidgeon of hope still lingering in our hearts. Ahhh but then the human condition of employing loopholes when not getting ones way intervened and we changed our plans yet again to a month later in April. Three times the charm right?! And it will be even warmer but hey that okay!! Haha!! And said “thank you Jesus!” I deliberately did not check in with seeing if He was okay with this. I already knew. Meanwhile back on the home front… the spinal injections I have been receiving for the last 5 years are no longer doable and I was referred to a surgeon. My surgery is 2 weeks from today. The week before… a time of fasting from all things unhealthy will provide an easier 3 month recovery. Wouldn’t that have put a downpour of dreary on a vacation?! Did God know that paradise would become a war zone? Absolutely. Is He protecting only me? Nope. God is global. But this being a wicked wicked world it stands to reason the snake would also show up in this earthly paradise as well. IFYYK. Yes if you know you know. It choices. It consequences. Its all in with Jesus or its not. #artontheoutskirts #jeremiah29