“When God is at the center, every value flows from God’s heart. We find ourselves loving those whom we could not love, caring about others who did not interest us before, desiring to carry burdens for those we had barely noticed. Everything we own becomes a resource to accomplish God’s desires and dreams.” –Fruit of the Vine

Query: In what ways have your values been reversed because of Jesus’ life in you?

Morning Watch

William Stafford, that kind poet,

once told me how he got up

at 4:00 every morning

to sit in the quiet and wait for a poem.

It always came. Stafford filled notebooks

with the fruit of his attention and freely

shared it with the world. I’m grateful

to have been included in that world.

So here am I, sitting in my own

quiet spot by a window. The morning

grows light before me. Trees emerge

and the far hills. Like Stafford,

I’m waiting. Waiting.

–Nancy Thomas, Close to the Ground