Jane Foard Thompson is an inspirational speaker and award winning author and poet. A former Montessori teacher in Texas and Utah, for eight years Jane and her husband were missionaries in Honduras, Central America. After working for the American Red Cross in Idaho, they now live in Florida, where she writes, leads music and women's Bible studies at their church, and enjoys nine grandchildren and her Golden Retriever, Lily.
Have you listed your goals for this year? Ways you want to improve? For many of us, this past year was tough. Challenges. Trials. Pain. Grief. And some of you are struggling right now. I always told my children when hard or frustrating things happened that trials build character. One of my daughters, who has had a particularly rough couple of years, asked, “Don’t I have enough character yet?” I know how she feels. For years, I struggled to try harder, live better, do more. My efforts mostly took me down a lot of dead ends. I’ve found the key to really living is not in how hard I work, but in who I am walking with. What I trust. How I am willing to open my heart.
Galapagos Islands
I can’t explain the hard stuff, but I think God wants far more for us than we seek. Our eyes looking way higher than our glances take us.
by Jack H Thompson
There is so much more life available with God than we ever reach out for. How do we go from trying hard to trusting much and receiving more?
My path changed when I began to listen to — really hear — the voice telling me I am loved.
Then I learned what we tirelessly teach our little ones – to say thank you. Giving thanks for what I have, seeing the blessing, however tiny, puts a new lens on my day.
Maui beautyCloud forest fern, Ecuadorbee in flower, Isabella, Galapagos
And the gratitude heart leads me to trust. My hard edges melt when I find the thanksgiving places.
Soaring by Jack H Thompson
Then I can relax into hands far stronger than mine, and more loving than any earthly hands could ever be.
My wish for you . . .As you receive the gift of this new year, one day at a time, one breath at a time, my wish for you is for beauty. Beauty of the soul, where you relax into the shape of who you are, created in the image of God and held by nail-scarred hands.
Sunset in Florida Keys
Beauty of the eye, seeing the splendor of what is above,
Bahama sky
What is around you, the exquisite very near,
butterfly on flowersuplifted coral, Isabella, GalapagosPenguin, Fernandina, Galapagos
And far,
sunset at Bartholomew, GalapagosStorm off Ft Jefferson, Dry TortugasSwiss Alps
And within,
Even your scars.
scarred tree trunk in Switzerland
All that you have lived
and suffered
and danced through
wraps up into you,
going forward today,
Sea Lion, Fernandina, Galapagosnewborn in NICUJ and Jane loading patient into ambulanceMom singing
only this day,
for we have no other.
I wish for you beauty of the skin, soft breezes or brisk winds
Windsurfing in Dry Tortugaskiss from Lady Pitkeithly
gentle rains or strong waves
Jane body surfing in Bahamas
And hugs.
Mommom love
Beauty for your ears, listening to the music of rustling leaves, crunching snow, crackling fire, to the hearts of those God brings to you
school children in SwitzerlandChristmas Eve 2014
And to your heart
heart-shaped shell, Sanibel Island, FL
And song. Always song.
Praise gives us life.
Where do you find the beauty in your life?
The photos and the video below, “Beautiful”, are best viewed on the website. (Click the title.)
All the ho ho ho-ing and season’s greetings, Christmas carols, crowded malls and grocery stores, packed restaurants and TV commercials promised happiness and warm fuzzy feelings, a Christmas of unsullied glee. Even the angel’s song, quoted in Luke, promised peace on earth. We had so much to look forward to as we decorated trees and hung wreaths, baked cookies and wrapped gifts. So what happened? Where is all the peace on earth?
Jeremy singing carols
Christmas morning
Why do we still have a world in which two police officers are murdered as they sit in their squad car? What do we say to their children when they open the last gifts they will ever receive from their father?
What about the families of the school children slaughtered in Pakistan to make a political statement?
The ones beheaded by crazed Isis militants for refusing to deny Jesus, the one whose birth was meant to bring peace?
The ones who have lost a child or spouse to disease or accident?
The ones whose children died too young, live with grave disabilities, or never lived at all?
The one who doesn’t even have someone to grieve?
The one whose family has been desecrated by joblessness, abuse, unfaithfulness or addiction?
What do we do with all the broken pieces of our world, and our lives?
cross
I can only see the manger as the portal to joy if I see the empty cross standing high above.
The child who began with a bed of straw became the man who ended with a crown of thorns.
It is a strange, seemingly twisted reality: He died to conquer the darkness.
He rose as king, opening the door for each of us to pass through the valley of the shadow of death into marvelous light.
Ft Jefferson, Dry Tortugas
My earthly heart still feels pain, and my earthly eyes still see darkness,
but my heart knows the wonder of the manger.
Beyond the stable, beyond the hills of Judea, and beyond that cross
Glimpse of Peace 