Last week my husband and I braved the NYC train and subway monsters and traveled to the Sheen Center in Greenwich Village to see a play titled, “The Journals of Adam and Eve.” It was roughly based on Mark Twain’s short story, The Diaries of Adam and Eve.
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This bit of claymation was from a TV show that we watched back in the 90s.

When we left the house we kinda knew where we were going; up to Hoboken to take the Path to Penn Station in Manhattan.  He was looking for a certain parking building that we used before but when he found a different one, we opted for the one in hand, as opposed to the one in the bush we were unable to locate.

We bought our Metro Cards and started our journey to Penn Station. Half way there I got a feeling that if I had looked closer we would have found that one of the earlier stops of the train would have saved us a lot time. But the fare was the same no matter where we got off, so we stayed the course and kept going. Once at Penn Station we then had to find the F train in the subway that would take us back down the line! Ah well!

Did I mention how gritty and awful the air quality was? The humidity was so bad that by the time we got to the Sheen Center we were soaked in sweat! And I bet my face was bright red.

Thank you Jesus, when we got there the door was open and they were selling bottled water and small bags of chips, we were soaked in sweat and I unceremoniously dropped down on the steps leading up to the box office window and started to cool. There was a counter selling water and small bags of chips. I was saved!! A manager appeared to tell me that sitting on the steps was a fire hazard and I would have to move. Ah well. I found spot to prop up the wall and waited for orchestra doors to open.

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There were plenty of laughs, especially when Eve was listing off the things that Adam did that ticked her off, like when he chewed his food loudly, his snoring and picking food out of his teeth with little bits of wood. I looked over at him and he gave me a sheepish glance.
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Then Adam had the nerve to call her bossy!

The show was 90 minutes long. There was a 2nd part that we probably would have loved. It was an interview between two authentic Jewish rabbis and Hal and Marilu.  We had to leave early. Getting onto the street on 6th Ave and Bleeker St we decided to hail a cab. We got one right away, and yay! It took us right to Penn Station.  

Getting into a taxi in Manhattan is like getting into an armored  tank! The bullet proof window between the driver and us was so thick that we couldn’t hear a word of what he said to us. When he drooped us at Penn Station he finally turned around and we could read his lips.

We made it back to the parking garage at 9:45, 15 minutes to spare and we were the last car there, He attendant was annoyed. I’m sure he would have left early if we’d come back sooner. Oh well.

Overall, it was an adventure I was glad we’d taken, even with the terrible humidity, the stolen bag of chips, missing the last part and the show and the strain on his face because he was worried about getting back to the car before they locked the gate and we would have needed to find a hotel. And we were home before by midnight!

But I have to say it, Mark Twain's book was better.

Before I begin my blog post proper, I want to tell you something that the Lord did for me as I was preparing this post.

I've been really struggling with the fact that our dog is on her way to heaven. She hasn't left us yet, but it's coming pretty close. And as many can testify to, it's a real hard thing to go through.

Now! having said that, in my quiet time this morning, I told Jesus that I was pressing into Him and needed to press in harder, until I have pressed myself right into Him. I told Him I was lacking joy.

I have decided to share the first book I ever wrote. It's my own personal story of  "Who I Was" and "Who I Have Become." And when I started looking through the book, I was overcome with tenderness! The Lord was pointing out things I hadn't thought about in ages and I was suddenly filled with joy!

Jesus is such a good friend!
And now.... Here's my blog post!

 This is what I used to believe: when I was a little child, I used to believe that Jesus was God, that he came to die for my sins, and that he was resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven. I still believe this.

But I also believe that, although he loved me, he could be ashamed of me. I could do things that would make him really sad and maybe even frustrated with me. It was as if I could feel Jesus frowning down on me when I lied to my parents, yelled at my kids or didn't do some thing I said I would. I would bear that shame and feel awful about it. I figured this was part of the Christian experience, that, as I grew in Christ, I would hopefully make fewer and fewer of these mistakes. But even if I didn't, I was assured of a place in heaven, where I would never send again.

I don't believe that anymore.

Now I understand that she is this is death and resurrection mean that my heavenly father doesn't see the times a screw up; if I lose my patience or fall short of my goal.

Because of Jesus, I am perfect in my father's eyes. When he looks at me, he sees the completed work of Jesus in my life! There is now NO CONDEMNATION. Not only am I not condemned, but I am acquitted of all my wrong actions and thoughts. I am found not guilty! Every single time! Nothing, NOTHING change the way, the father sees me.

THAT IS THE WORK OF THE CROSS! THAT IS THE WORK OF THE EMPTY TOMB!

Some may say, "So, if God doesn't see the simple things we do, what's the incentive to live a pure life? Why not continue to sin if the father never sees it? "

Here's my answer:
When I truly understood what scripture says about how the father sees me, I wanted to serve him even more! That the kind of love, that chooses to see the sacrifice of the perfect lamb. Instead of the times I screwup, leads me to want to be more and more perfect in my every day life. And the pressure is off! I will work hard at doing what is right, according to scripture, not because of how the father sees me, but because of how good the father is to me!

Two Corinthians 5:15: (New International Version)
And he died for all, that those who Live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them, and was raised again.
Verse 17 when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him, and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully, and be blameless.

What did god mean when he commanded Abram to walk faithfully and be blameless?

God had been walking with Abram and knew he was not a perfect man. He saw his struggles with right and wrong, and saw when he failed. So how could God command him to be blameless?
This covenant was made after Abrams, huge bungle in Egypt when he gave his wife away, saying she was his sister out of fear for his life. God had already promised him a great nation from his seed, but still, after such a flagrant lack of faith, God still sort covenant with him, and told him he would be seen as blameless. His sins were not held against him. He was completely forgiven, as if he had never sinned. Just like us!

This covenant was consecrated with blood. All covenants are, in one way or another. And through that consecration, God told Abram that he would be seen as blameless all the days of his life, as long as he walked in faithfulness. That's what the New Testament tells us about our relationship with God.

Were there times, when Abram made foolish mistakes, of course! But even in fear, driven wrong decision making, he never doubted God's goodness.

And there you have it; the first chapter of a book I published in 2019.

For a while, my posts will be chapters from the book.

I hope they bless you.

Let me tell you about my daughter.
Her name is Hannah Elizabeth Goddard Smith.
She was born in 1988.
She was married in 2014.

When Hannah was four years old we were told that she was blind in one eye, but it never stopped her from doing what she wants to do. She was able to get drivers license when she was 17.

Hannah has always been an incredible lover of people!  She’s always willing to give a person a second chance. ( and a third and a fourth…)

When we went to “back to school” night during her years in elementary and high school, we heard, over and over again, “Oh! You’re Hannah’s parents! We love Hannah!” And now, when she is an adult, when we meet friends of hers that we haven’t known before, we are still likely to hear, “I love Hannah!”

She feels very deeply. She’s extremely empathetic. And she’s loyal, sometimes to a fault.

She’s an artist. Her chosen medium is the written word. She spends hours and hours filling notebooks and computer files. And she’s good at it too!

When Hannah was a small child we discovered that she saw lying as a means to smooth over difficult things she had done or said.  It was just easier for her to lie than to deal with whatever issue it was that caused her to lie. Unfortunately, we never found the solution to this problem.  It wasn’t until after she was married that she was able to finally curb that awful habit.

She was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder when she was 18. She started a regimen of medications and finally, she found a way to deal with a world that she so often felt was out of control. In the early years she would be on them and then go off of them and so life with her was an up and down kind of existence. But when she fell in love with the man she would marry and announced that they were getting married, I told her future husband, right in front of her, that she was a liar and he needed to know that before they were married. 

And she stopped.

When she in her late 20s she was diagnosed with a very large tumor on one of her ovaries. The tumor was removed along with that ovary.

Hannah has a strong faith in Jesus. As she has increased in years her love of God has grown and grown.

One of her favorite things to do is sit outside on the chase lounge and experience nature and write.
🌸. 🌸. 🌸. 🌸. 🌸
Now, let me tell you about mother.
Her name was Janet Katheryn Orth Russell.
She was born in 1924 and was married in 1943.

When my mother was a toddler, her mother was told that Janet was blind in one eye. She was never comfortable driving a car and so never got her drivers license.

Janet was an incredible lover of people! She was always willing to be friends with anyone who needed a friend.

She was a deep feeler, extremely empathetic.

My mother was an artist, even with limited eyesight she could draw and paint and when she was a teenager it was suggested that she apply to Parsons School of Design. But it was during the depression, so that opportunity was never realized.

As a youngster, Janet had a highly developed sense of humor. She loved pulling pranks on people; sometimes seemingly cruel and tasteless.

She was never diagnosed with bi-polar disorder because in those days, as she put it, “You don’t go the doctor unless you’re dying or you broke your leg.” 

It was the cruelest of diseases that left her highly anxious all the days of her life. She would go from brilliant highs to unutterable lows using alcohol to medicate herself. 

When she in her early 30s she was diagnosed with a very large tumor on one of her ovaries. The tumor was removed along with that ovary.
She was told that she couldn’t have any more children. Two years later I was born.

One of her favorite things to do was to sit outside on the chase lounge and work on crossword puzzles.

My mother died when she was 68 years old, from alcohol poisoning.

So, why am I telling you these things?

Over the years I’ve noticed incredible similarities between my daughter and my mother, you have been able to see by reading this.

They both were/are blind in one eye. They both were/are lovers of people.
They both were/are highly empathetic. They were/are both artists. They both had ovarian tumors removed. They both loved to sit quietly in the sun They both suffered from bi-polar disorder.

But as I look back on my mother’s life, it was so often bitter and sad, but my daughter’s life, though sometimes filled with tragedy, has been one of overcoming her mental illness and striving to be an example of how the Lord uses everything we go through.

As I was coming out of the house a couple of days ago, I saw Hannah sitting in the sun and I marveled again at how similar she is to my mom. But then I had a thought that Hannah, her life, and the example she sets, is like seeing my mother if she had chosen to be treated for her mental illness. But it wasn’t a sad thought. My mom’s in heaven now. I can’t be sad about that. But seeing Hannah in that chase lounge filled me with happiness because the curse of bi-polar disorder has been broken in my daughter! She is free indeed, because she knows the love of the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now, when I see my daughter and she reminds me of my mom, I’m happy. It’s almost like she’s my mom all over again, living the best life she could have lived.

How amazing it is it when the Lord sends you a very specific blessing that involves others in a marvelous and supernatural way?

Several weeks ago I received an email from someone who had visited my website. His name is Reverend Barnabas Sprinkle. (I kid you not!) He is the lead pastor at Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church in upstate NJ.

In his email he mentioned that he noticed I am a prophetic painter and would I be interested in coming to his church for his annual Maundy Thursday evening service and make a painting.

Well, of course, I was overjoyed!

I began thinking right away, wondering what the Lord would show me. At first I thought of a really elaborate painting that represents the days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter morning. But I knew that wasn’t right. There wouldn’t be time.

True to form, the week before Holy Week came and the Lord gave me the picture.  It was a fountain; a large, lovely fountain sending out glittering streams of water.

I wanted to represent how it feels to be drenched by God.
During times of worship I often feel like I’m being drenched in cool refreshing water. I hoped the painting would make the congregants of Liberty Corners Presbyterian Church long for experiences like that!

I found this hymn a couple of days before the service. It was written by A. B. Simpson. I wrote it down on a piece of paper and tucked in the back of the canvas.

I have come to the Fountain of Life,
A fountain that flows from above;
I have passed from the waters of strife
And come to the Elim of love;
I have drunk of the heavenly well,
In the depths of my being it springs.
No mortal can measure or tell
The gladness the Comforter brings.

We arrived right on time and and set up was quick and easy. I shared the stage with the worship band. I painted with my back to the congregation so they could watch my progress. And I finished up right at the perfect moment!

If you want to know how Jesus can knock your socks off AND be an amazing giver of God’s good gifts, 

Learn to be a Prophetic Artist!  
Learn to deal with the anxiety that comes with revealing yourself in a real and vulnerable way.  
Learn to put the joy of the Lord into every stroke of your paintbrush/pencil.

Take a look at my website page:
https://www.judygoddardart.com/intimacywithjesus.html

My retreat: Intimacy With Jesus Through Prophetic Art
is tailor made for you!

www.judygoddardart.com/intimacywithjesus.htmlIf you want to know how Jesus can knock your socks off AND be an amazing giver of God’s good gifts, 

Learn to be a Prophetic Artist!  
Learn to deal with the anxiety that comes with revealing yourself in a real and vulnerable way.  
Learn to put the joy of the Lord into every stroke of your paintbrush/pencil.

Take a look at my website page:
https://www.judygoddardart.com/intimacywithjesus.html

My retreat: Intimacy With Jesus Through Prophetic Art
is tailor made for you!

First let me say, on rare occasions I do become offended. But when that happens I almost always recognize it and immediately repent.

Having gotten that of the way,

How do I stay unoffendable?

Maybe my ability to handle offenses comes from a childhood full of them.

What I knew about myself when I was growing up was that  I was ugly and stupid and nothing I did would ever work out right.

After I gave my life to Jesus and the healing of how I saw myself had begun,  I would see others behaving in shameful ways, and  the first thoughts that would pop into my mind was/is “What happened to them, to make them like that? What did they go through as children, that they would think that kind of behavior is acceptable?”

I know why I acted out as a child. I needed attention. I craved attention and when I didn’t get the attention at home, I would behave badly at school or girl scouts or any other occasion I was in that wasn’t at home. If I couldn’t get attention from being good, I would get attention from being a problem. Back then I knew I was a trouble maker but I felt that I was never given the chance to shine in a good way.

Fast forward to me being 50+ years old.

I’ve learned from hard lessons and tender teachings that I am more valuable to the Lord than I could ever imagine!  In His eyes I can do no wrong!  I am beautiful, really smart and there are many things that  I do really well.

When I understood that, I gained more patience and tenderness toward those around me, especially in the church. I remind myself that Jesus loves each and every difficult person just as much as He loves me and if my goal is to emulate Him, then I need to Love them too. I so often recognize my old self in their behaviors.

Heidi Baker, church builder in Mozambique, Africa, has a standard she lives by and now I do too.

“Stop for the one.”

I am to look into the eyes of the person in front of me, no matter who they are, no matter what they look like or even what they smell like and love them the same way Jesus loves me. And I am to honor them by being friendly and respectful to them.

Easier said than done, huh? But the more you practice it, the easier it becomes.

“So,” you might ask, “what about people who go against everything I stand for? What if the person in front of me isn’t a Christian? What if that person is Jewish or Buddhist or Hindu or Wiccan? What if they’re an atheist? What if they’re pro-choice? Anti family? Gay or trans or bisexual? How do I love them?”

Don Fransisco, a Christian singer songwriter wrote the lyrics, “Love is not a feeling, it’s an act of your will.” That has stuck with me since the first time I heard it. So, to act in charity towards others doesn’t depend on how you feel. You are free to love others even if you don’t like them.

When I deal with difficult people outside my faith, I tell myself, “What if I’m the only Christian who treats them  with honor and respect? What if no one emulates Christ for them? I might be the only one. If I’m the only one, then I better do a good job!

So I love them.

I know that the Lord has given me a special gift in my ability to become friends with all kinds of people others might not want to befriend. I notice the quirky in them. (That’s because I’m quirky too.)
I find it easy to talk to quirky people. We recognize something in each other and when they realize that I’m reaching out to them they fall easily into conversation.

I’m not saying that befriending people with issues is easy but I can say that it yields great rewards!

I consider myself to be an eccentric. Other eccentrics seem drawn to me and I have found that they are a wealth of ideas and concepts, who easily join the circle of people I have around me. 

When someone says something strange or uncouth or just wrong in front of me, I remember how precious they are to Jesus and I accept that they may not be able to be different and if they are, berating them won’t help.

But I do stand my ground. A few months ago I was visiting a friend in a nursing home and one of the other residents starting talking badly about a certain ethnic group. I told him he needed to stop but he kept right on, even through the warnings I gave him. After the third warning, I told him I would have to leave if he continued and I stood up. He stopped. When I saw him on later visits, I would smile and say hi.

What does it mean to be unoffendable?

1. Take into consideration why a person says what they do.
Recognize the Lord loves EVERYONE.
2. Set aside differences. Their morals might be completely different from yours but they are still a human being and because Jesus says so, they are worthy of respect.
3. Think about their eternal future and tell yourself you might be
 the only Christian they’ll ever meet.
4.You can learn a lot from a quirky person. Take the time to get to know them.
5. Allow yourself to be affected for good in the way an eccentric person relates to you.

Trudie was an older woman who sometimes attended our church.
She was small and frail, using a walker to get around.  She had lived a long life with many ups and downs, but which seemed from the outside, to be mostly downs. Her daughter Natalie, was a regular attender.

Natalie became a great friend of mine, sharing a love of making prophetic art. She went with me to Israel in 2016. A lovely, delicate flower of a woman who seemed be having as much trouble in her adulthood as her mother did.

But where Trudie had floundered in her faith, her daughter had clung tenaciously to Jesus because she sensed that to lose her relationship with Him would have made her life much, much more painful. Simply put, Natalie trusted Him.

Trudie had made a confession of faith years ago but the trauma of her  life and the inability to surrender her pain to Jesus meant that she often questioned her faith and how the Lord fit into her life.

Trudie passed away last month. Finally able to slip her bonds of pain and trauma, she rests with Jesus now. Her last name was Winters, and she was born on Christmas Day.


Last month our church had its usual third Sunday “Prophetic Art” Sunday and I had planned to paint. In our church, two or three artists sit or stand in the front of the church. Our easels and paints are set up and while the worship team creates an atmosphere of warm connection, we paint. Then we give the paintings away to whoever we sense the Lord is asking us to give them to.

The week before a Prophetic Art Sunday I start to ask the Lord what he wants me to paint. I keep an open mind and He tells me, pretty pointedly, what He wants me to paint. I may not know until that Sunday who the Lord wants me to give it to.

So, a few days before, Jesus told me to paint someone ice skating, with their back to the observer, skating off toward the horizon with trees to one side and a bright sunrise in the sky. But as it turned out, I was sick that morning and didn’t get to participate. I thought I knew who it would be for, though. (I was wrong!)
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Monday morning I woke up feeling fine and the Lord asked me to please finish the painting. It would have been finished in church the day before it I hadn’t been sick. So I finished it. And when I was just about ready to call it finished, I found out that Natalie’s mom had suddenly stopped breathing, suffered cardiac arrest and was not expected to live. And suddenly I knew that the painting was for Natalie! Trudie passed away on Wednesday. She was the person skating away on the frozen lake in the bright red jacket. (As red as the blood shed for her.) I called the painting, “Trudie’s Home Going.”


Right now the painting is hanging in the church, in our special spot to hang prophetic art, but when the time comes to change out the paintings, Natalie knows that one’s for her.

For me, the greatest part of this prophetic gift was telling Natalie about it. I was able to show her how much Jesus loves her and her mother and how Trudie skated away to be ever present with the Lord.

When we remember who we are and who’s we are, we allow ourselves to be used by the Lord in amazing ways!

Peter and I have known each other for more than forty years.
The thing that drew us together was folk music. I remember back in 1982, I went to my first Hoot-in-nanny and there he was with his parents.

Peter and I were born in the same year.  He lives in a nursing home near where I live.
He has cerebral palsy and a learning disability. He lived with his parents all of his life, until about 12 years ago when They moved into an assisted living facility. Then he got an apartment through the state.
He’s never had a girl friend. For that matter he’s hardly ever had a friend. His family were his whole world. They were cultural Jews, not often participating in religious services, they celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, Passover and Easter. 

Peter is an eccentric, and a genius! 
He’s also a poet.  
For as long as I’ve known him he’s carried spiral notebooks filled with his words. Actually, they’re more like lyrics. Because of his love for sea shanties, he often writes lyrics to the Cadence of sea shanties.

He has his favorite performers, like Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett and Bill Staines. He often hums the songs he heard them sing.

Peter became a born again Christian in the 1990s. I remember the “Hoot” I attended and him proudly showing me his Star of David with the cross in the center.  He hasn’t always understood everything that being a Christian means, but he knows what’s most important; Jesus is real. Jesus died for his sins and someday Jesus is coming back. He comes to church with us about once a month and enjoys the Bible studies that happen at the nursing home.

Peter’s parents both escaped Europe during WW11. His father arrived  from Germany right before events like Kristallnacht occurred. Peter’s mom arrived in 1942, after having escaped a concentration camp in France. Considering how insanely difficult the quota system was that allowed some Jews in, It’s a miracle they got in!

Once here they set themselves up as chicken farmers in rural NJ. They brought their love of folk music with them and there  because of their leaning towards communism, they rubbed elbows with such people as Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger. 

Once here they set themselves up as chicken farmers in rural NJ. They brought their love of folk music with them and their  because of their leaning towards communism, they rubbed elbows with such people as Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

More good and kind hearted people have never existed!
I was blessed to be friends with almost eveyone in the family.  
Mike was a great singer and player of many instruments. He also wrote songs about living in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

Kenny lived in New Hampshire with his family. I met him at family gatherings my husband and I were invited to but I never got to know him.

Jackie, the only sister, lives in PA. She loves sheltie dogs and enjoys folk music but doesn’t participate in making music.

And then there’s Peter, the baby of the family, born two months premature.

Very sadly, both Mike and Kenny passed away from cancer.

Peter didn’t do too well living by himself. He’s a diabetic and wasn’t taking care of himself or taking the medication he needed to keep him alive and a few years ago he nearly died. That’s why he lives in the nursing home at the age of 64.

It is my privilege to spend time with him every week. We talk about folk music and what he gleans from the sitcoms he watches.  Who knew that the “King of Queens” and “Everybody Love Raymond” were such wells of wisdom!

At the end of each visit I give him a big hug and I know that’s what he’s really been waiting for. 

Have you heard the song written and performed by John Prine: “Hello In There?” Do yourself a favor, It’s gorgeous, and might make you shed a tear. 

Allentown, PA is about a two hour drive from our home  Down the Shore. Debbie, a dear friend from high school lives there with her husband, Peter. He’s a Scot. He’s a real Scot, bred and born.

Several years ago I noticed that on Debbie’s FB page she’d mentioned being a member of the “Scottish Society of the Lehigh Valley” and that they were throwing a “Robert Burns” dinner at the end of January.

Robert Burns was a poet who lived in Scotland back in the 1700s. 
He was a formidable talent as well as a formidable rake. (Look it up!)

He wrote hundreds of poems about love and what a wonderful place Scotland was and he was famous for having done so.  But, for all that, he and his wife and children lived mostly in poverty.

About 9 years after he passed away, a group of friends got “into their cups” and were reminiscing about their friend and they decided to have a dinner in his honor. And low and behold, people who love Robert Burn’s poetry continue to honor him.

The dinner began with a cash bar and moved on to the main event, the presenting of the haggis. Burns wrote a long and vivid poem about haggis. Here it is:
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Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang ‘s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut ye up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
Bethankit hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll make it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle.
Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!
For those of you who are uninitiated, haggis is an old and revered dish created for hearty people who worked hard and couldn’t afford better.
​

Here’s the recipe:
Take one sheep stomach, well rinsed.                                                                                                Fill it with oatmeal mixed with organ meats from the above sheep, like heart, lungs, liver kidneys and such.                                
Tie up the incision tightly with twine and place in a boiling pot of water and turn it down to a simmer.     Watch the pot so that it doesn’t boil or the sheep stomach might burst open and ruin the haggis.                                                                                                      For a 2 lb. Haggis, simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Put it on an attractive plate and have your Scotland Laddie recite the Address to a Haggis! Spoon it up and see what all the fuss is about!

 I learned a valuable lesson this past weekend.
Stay true to yourself

 I have been told that one of my greatest gifts is that I am me.
No matter where I am, no matter whom I’m with, what you see is what you get. I do not don masks.  And I love that about me.
​
Let’s play “Find all the mistakes!” How many can you spot?

This is the project I worked on for 18 hours this weekend. ​It measures approximately 12 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches tall.

I was invited to a sewing weekend with a group of ladies, most of whom I know from church. Our goal was to complete a wall hanging, that was supposed to be 12x12 inches square, a tote bag and contribute to a quilt that would sold to benefit a local charity.

I never did get started on the tote bag.

For me, it seemed like Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday until noon were a great way to make a mess. It was a lesson in futility. Some of the time my sewing machine worked just fine. But there were long stretches where I wanted to pull my hair out because it stopped working well and I couldn’t figure out why.

The fact of the matter is, I'm not a quilter. I do, on occasion use my sewing machine but I've never enjoyed quilting and even though I've tried several times in the past to enjoy it I just haven't.

But I did have good times. I knew almost all of the women there. And now I know the women that I didn't know when I got there. There was a lot of love In the room.
On Sunday morning we had worship music from Ann, Valerie danced her worship and Chrissy sang a song. 

What really attracted me to the weekend, beside the fellowship of likeminded, loving  women, was the redwood sauna. America's Keswick has a recreation building that houses gym space for sports and a swimming pool with a redwood sauna next to it. 

Now, having my own redwood sauna is 2nd to the top of the list of my aspirations in life!

There is nothing more soothing and relaxing to me that a long lay down in dry room heated to 105*+ and a dip in tepid water afterwards. And I got to enjoy that pleasure two evenings in a row.

I hope I get to go to the sewing weekend next year. When I do, I'll bring a special knitting project to work on while the other ladies sew. That's being true to myself and it's also being true and loving to those around me. I'll be much more comfortable as I include myself into a wonderful weekend of creating.
 

https://www.judygoddardart.com/intimacy-with-jesus.html 
Do you love the outdoors? Do you love places that seem wild and woodsy?  
Does the Lord's creation fill you with wonder?  Do you love to create?
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​In March, 2023 I took a huge leap of faith and signed up for an online course that is teaching me how to be a  Destination Retreat Leader.
I’ve learned how to create an avatar; a person I imagine that needs exactly what I’ve got to share. The idea is to market to people who share those attributes. People who are in love with God but want to build deeper intimacy with Him. People who are creative and want to include Jesus in their artistic process. People who want to step out in faith and share their gifts with others.
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I knew when I took this on that it would be challenging, and it has been. But I feel like the time is right.
I have things I want to share with others, things that I think are vitally important. I’ve been saving up knowledge for years. Some of you know that I speak openly about there being No Guilt and No Shame in the Kingdom of God.  
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​So, I’ve built a retreat syllabus titled, “Intimacy with Jesus Through Prophetic Art.” My intention is to help Christian Creatives come into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and learn how to live fearlessly using the gifts He’s given us.

The retreat will be held from Thursday evening, September 19 through Sunday evening, September 22 with a departure date of September 23, 2024.
The location is Skyland Lodge in Shenandoah National Park, VA.
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Skyland Lodge is a rustic resort that offers outstanding dining, comfortable accommodations and beautiful opportunities to be outside and experiencing the Lord’s creation.

I have a web page dedicated to the retreat. You can find it at
https://www.judygoddardart.com/intimacy-with-jesus.html 
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Then, if you have any questions, I’d love to answer them for you.
If you’d like we can have a video chat in Messenger, a phone call or a text.

I’m really excited about this new adventure in my life! Skyland Lodge is a place I know and love and I want others to know and love it too!