Joining with Emily today on Imperfect Prose on Thursdays, I'm sharing with you my quite imperfect experiment with egg tempera painting. The illustration is meaningful to me because it expresses how I feel about praying. PRAYER means going to war, doing battle in the heavenlies, standing in the gap, depopulating hell. And our Father who art in heaven bends His ear and listens. I know because I wouldn't be alive if it weren't true. I am still here because someone prayed. And so I pray...the beat goes on.Also sharing with you one of my favorite Greek words - hupomone.
"Hupomone is the quality which makes a man able, not simply to suffer things, but to vanquish them. The effect of testing rightly borne is strength to bear still more and to conquer in still harder battles."
William Barclay
24 comments:
oh, i LOVE this... it haunts and thrills. and i love your word. i have shivers... i am learning so much already from this community. thank you for joining, sweet jodi. xo
your painting is beautiful. your prayers are wonderful. I just LOVE you!
beautiful. I need to work on prayer.
The definition of that beautiful new word you shared is something I must work on.
I pray to be able to vanquish suffering and overcome the testing and trials.
I have a way to go.
Thank you for sharing :)
That quote is going to stick with me today, and the visual reminder, too!
Thank you for introducing me to a new word. So powerful.
I think your painting is beautiful. I really love that word! Jodi, your awesome!
I like your painting - and I agree - sometimes praying is like going to war - and sometimes, it's like whispering streams of love into the ear of our savior...
Claudia
We battle not with flesh and blood... such imagery! Fabulous, as always Jodi. :)
This is great! I will be adding the word hupomone to my vocabulary which will probably cause some peculiar looks lol, no really I will be adding it to my prayer vocabulary! Thank~You Jodi.
love love this.
so looking forward to "knowing" you more here.
It is like a beautiful stained glass window. It is just stunning.
I love your word too - and the quote. I am always astounded at the power of prayer.
How beautiful...just beautiful !
Ditto on how you feel about prayer!
So glad I'm back...I really missed you!!!
hi jodi...don't you love this community forming? beautiful painting, and thanks for introducing me to a new word ...
xo
What a great painting, with so much spirit and feeling! And beautiful thoughts, Jodi. Thank you.
Jodi,
It's gorgeous!
Well Done!
Beautiful quote. I have never heard of the word Hupomone. Can't wait to look up William Barclay.
Thank you!
Very inspiring to see your image of such lifegiving, worthwhile battling.
Wow, gorgeous painting. Reminds me of a medieval literature class I once took. Really beautiful quote. Sometimes we forget that our faith is not one of weakness and passivity.
Stunning painting, and love the word you chose "Hupomone" interesting read.
Joanny
Love it! Reminds me of 2 Chronicles 20:22. "As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush..." Fighting with praise. And paint!
"They sang while they fought." YES!!!
Thank you everyone for your encouragement. It's been wonderful to meet so so many creative souls out there in bloggetyland. I realized that in my post I omitted the word "intercessory" prayer, which is what I was referring to :) But then, doesn't that make my prose more imperfect? :)
So, I and the Little Miss were in the discount book store building her baby library, cause what baby doesn't have her own library before age 1? (We got 2 Little Golden Books with pretty pictures, the original/not Disney Winnie-the-Pooh stories collection, and the complete original Beatrix Potter collection with 4 previously unpublished works; in excellent condition, all for under $30.)
And on the way out of the store, I was looking at the greeting cards and there was an illustrated Jewish marriage contract. I thought of you because anything Jewish reminds me of you, and Zac...and then I thought of this blog post, because the contract looked illuminated, like your painting (it may have been). Pretty, pretty.
Niamh, oxo
Last comment for today, but I'm catching up, here. I wouldn't be alive if someone hadn't prayed either. In fact, prayer is still what is keeping me going.
I love the medieval image and words. "They sang while they fought."
And I just finished copying Barclay's quote into my personal journal.
Post a Comment