Lost and Found--Lenora Worth

Have you ever lost something really special, so special that you mourned the loss for a long time? I lost a bracelet about three years ago and I sure did miss that bracelet. I wore it everywhere and considered it a touchstone of sorts. It brought me a peace and calm when I traveled and it gave me instant joy each morning when I'd put it on. I thought I'd lost it on the road somewhere or maybe I'd misplaced it in my home. I even tried to find another one in the discontinued line at Brighton. When we moved to Florida, I went through every purse and jewelry box, hoping I'd find it tucked away somewhere. I remember thinking that maybe I'd put it in a safe place and somehow I'd forgotten where that place might be.

Well, about two weeks ago I was going through a purse I hadn't used in a while looking for something else. (Probably money). I reached into a small pocket and felt something inside. And I pulled out my beloved bracelet! I was so shocked and overjoyed I had to sit down and just look at it for about five minutes. It was a bit tarnished in spots but it was my bracelet. I've used that purse so many times since I lost the bracelet, I couldn't believe I'd never felt inside that tiny pocket.

The lesson here is sometimes we search and search for something "out there" when the real treasure has been right here with us all along. I think God's love is like that. We search for answers out there when His love is tucked away inside each of us to begin with.

I hope you can find some tiny treasures in your life today. They are hidden in plain sight :)

After the Candy, Cards, Flower and Jewelry

This is Merrillee who is thinking about this day after Valentine's Day. The holiday meant for romance has become rather commercialized with the card, candy, jewelry and flower companies all vying for our money. So how do we show romance the other 364, or in the case of a leap year, 365 days of the year? I think romance sometimes comes down to the "little" thoughtful things we do for the people we love.



Here is a photo of an elevator, not the big fancy kind you find in hotels and office buildings, but the kind you might find in a small apartment building. This looks much like the elevator my daughter got stuck in while she lived in Boston. I'm mentioning this because I want to tell you about it as an illustration of doing things for the people we love. At the time, my daughter was dating a young man who spent a couple of hours talking to her through the closed door of the elevator until someone came to let her out. That fellow is now her husband.




You are probably wondering what the above image has to do with romance. I have another daughter, who has Crohn's disease, and she has a good number of medicines she must take in order to keep the disease in remission. Her sweet husband is faithful to remind her about taking her medicine, even when they were dating.




Here is an image of something we might associate with romance and Valentine's Day, but they can be a real delight when they are completely unexpected. My husband gave me a bouquet of red roses when I received a rejection on the first manuscript that I submitted to a publisher. What a special treat! Another bouquet of roses I'll never forget is the bouquet my kids gave me when I won the Golden Heart at RWA in 2003. They weren't at the ceremony because I didn't think there was a chance that I would win, but my husband called them. They were in NY just so the family could get together while I was there. They showed up at the conference hotel with a beautiful bouquet of orange roses that lasted for nearly two weeks even after traveling on a plane all the way from NY to Florida.

So here are some examples of every day things that on the surface don't spell romance, but they are all about love. Do you have a special memory or incident that spells romance to you? Tell us about it.