Month: January 2012
“You’re Cooler Than Ice!” ღ♣ღ
ღ~♣~ღ “YOU”RE COOLER THAN ICE!”
an Idiom by NiseyK ©
ღ~♣~ღ
“YOU’RE COOLER THAN ICE!“ ~ Who me? Yes you! Well I think so anyway! And I believe I am not the only one who thinks it! So you may as well go ahead and believe it =)
It is a strange little phrase I came up with myself yesterday, a ‘nisey~original’ you might say! Well an original to me and those I have mentioned it to. Which got me thinking about the other ‘idioms’ that mean the same if not similar thing….
Firstly, what is an idiom? An idiom is a group of words in current usage having a meaning that is not deducible from those of the individual words. For example, “to rain cats and dogs” – which means “to rain very heavily” – is an idiom; and “over the moon” – which means “extremely happy” – is another idiom. In both cases, you would have a hard time understanding the real meaning if you did not already know these idioms! I know all about these difficult phrases, as I am currently training to teach English as a foreign language.
So here are the results of the Nisey jury. I decided to only add the nice, complimentary ones I found. Also you will notice a common theme…can you find it? Make a comment at the end if you figure it out!!
CREAM OF THE CROP ~ Hmmm obviously, ‘crops’ don’t bring forth ‘cream’, milk does…..and yet when we hear this phrase we know to assume that what ever it refers to is the best of the pick, and a perfect choice in any setting. Despite the confusion in crops and cream we know it to mean the best and brightest! A nice compliment! If something or someone is in the cream of the crop, they are among the best of a class of things or people.
ICING ON THE CAKE~ When you get more than you bargained for! An added bonus in a relationship or agreement. It refers to an individual as well as an object or situation. If something or someone is the icing on the cake, or the frosting on the cake, it makes a good situation or a good result even better.
MY CUP OF TEA ~ Meaning something one enjoys or does well. When you say “You’re my cup of tea” you mean they are your favorite choice!
(Side note; We here in Ireland love our tea, so if we call you that, you better believe it is special. nisey)
APPLE OF MY EYE ~ Someone or something that one likes a lot. Often a father says this to his little girl. We know this to be true even in the Bible, where God speaks of us as being the apple of His eye! If someone is the apple of your eye, it means you like them very much!
APPLE OF HIS EYE ~ “… for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” Zechariah 2:8 NJKV
THE UPPER CRUST ~ If you are one of the upper crust, you are a member of society’s highest class and one many will want to walk through life with.
CREME DE LA CREME ~ You are again the cream of the crop, and the best of the best by far.
A SHARP COOKIE ~ Someone who is not easily deceived or tricked is a sharp cookie, and someone you can trust.
A GOOD EGG ~ Means you can trust them with anything and rely on their integrity.
YOU ARE THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS ~ Someone who has, or is full of the milk of human kindness is naturally kind and compassionate to others.
HE/SHE IS AS KEEN AS MUSTARD ~ If someone is as keen as mustard, they are very eager, enthusiastic or motivated.
THEY ARE LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD ~ To say that two people are like two peas in a pod, means that they are very similar in possibly appearance or interests. It can also mean they belong together in an intimate way.
YOU ARE WORTH YOUR SALT ~This expression is used to say that a person who does their job well would not be managed without, That they are invaluable and priceless.
LIKE FIRST WATER ~ Something that is of the first water, is an object or person of the finest or exceptional quality. Being compared to a diamond of a person, rare and precious if found.
AS SWEET AS HONEY ~ Means that everybody likes you & you appeal to everyone who knows you.
IN ONE’S SALAD DAYS ~ in one’s youth (This is one I had not heard of before.)
YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH ~ good/basic/honest/ordinary people
EYE CANDY ~ When a person is very attractive, they can be described as eye candy – sweet to look at! A compliment.
NICE AS PIE ~ If a person is nice as pie, they are surprisingly very kind and friendly.
SWEET AS A GUMDROP ~ This means that someone is very nice or pretty.
A TOUGH COOKIE ~ A tough cookie is a person who will do everything necessary to achieve what they want, a strong person who is determined to be the best they can be.
So did you find the theme? Did you pick out your favorite one or possibly the one you plan to use to remind someone special what they mean to you? Sometimes we forget to compliment our own dear hearts, to see value in our own person. So maybe you can use these to add a little value to your opinion of yourself. Personally I like my own created idiom, “YOU”RE COOLER THAN ICE!”, mainly because you cannot get much cooler than ice, and it has a quirky ring to it.
But there is one that has struck me today, and indeed brought back pleasant memories of years ago, when I first heard it…
YOU ARE THE APPLE OF HIS EYE…
What does this saying “apple of His eye” mean? Many have heard it in the phrase spoken by a father to his daughter or “daddy’s little girl was the apple of his eye”. It’s a phrase that reveals how much someone is loved by another person. It speaks of intimacy, safety, love, warmth and care. It is nice to have a relationship with your father that cultivates this kind of love. Whether you did or you didn’t here on earth, you have a Father in Heaven who thinks you are the “Bees Knees!” and the “Wasps Ankles!” (another one I heard)…actually He thinks you are even more special than these. If He cares about sparrows and knows if even one of them falls to the ground, than how much more does He care about you! The following passage speaks volumes…
“For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” (Deut 32;11)
Are you in a wasteland today? A desert place? A dry and weary land where there is no water let alone ice? Do you need to be protected from malicious tongues or words of slander? Do you need someone stronger than you to encircle you and keep you as the precious one you are?
Earlier when I mentioned this verse, “…he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8) We are reminded that whoever messes with you or treats you without regard, will have God to deal with. You are the apple of His eye, the one He loves and cherishes. He encircles you, wraps His love around you (whether you feel it or not)…He is the One who never slumbers or sleeps, but keeps watch over you. So today, remind your dear heart that you are PRICELESS, precious and the apple of the eye of God! And when you lay your head on your pillow tonight, “REST WELL…FOR GOD IS AWAKE!”
Love Nisey
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A lesson from a Ladybird ✤
A lesson from a Ladybird…✤ ✤
By Denise
The other day, while reading by my window, I saw a lovely shiny red ladybird (in some countries you call them ladybugs)…Anyway it was desperately trying to find a way to the sunny outer side of my window pane – it clung to the glass in search of a door of escape, I’m sure it had one eye on the glass and one eye on the freedom outside…but it failed at each attempt!
I decided to drop my book and help this little tiny creature find it’s way out –
I could see how to set it free far easier than it could, from it’s vulnerable position…so I grabbed a nearby greeting card and slowly approached the hesitant tired bug, planning to help it slide carefully on to a corner of the thin card – At first the little ladybug seemed to work with me and allowed itself to be transported from the glass to the card pretty easily, but just when I had almost lifted it to the desired open window, the little red lady jumped from the card and landed on the window sill below, even further away from it’s original starting position, and must have been quite dizzy from the fall. My next attempt to carry it to the outdoors was even harder….it was now not as trusting as before!
I kept gently trying to slide the insect on to the card, with little whispered promises of “Come on, it’s OK!”
But all failed attempts…resulting in the ladybug falling several times and seeming to be determined to not cooperate with me – On one such fall it landed on it’s shell with it’s legs scrambling in the air for something to hold on to so as to turn itself right-side-up again!! It then ran and hid from me, in a corner, obviously feeling I was it’s enemy rather than a friend.
Eventually after it rested a little it appeared again, I gently slid it on to the friendly greeting card, and whispered softly again to it’s dizzy head…
“Trust me, I’m not trying to kill you – I am trying to set you free!… and Viola! it held on for the greeting card ride, and was soon sliding off the edge of it’s comfort zone into the great outdoors, leaving captivity behind..and finally breathing in the fresh air it had been merely looking at from the other side of the glass…”FREEDOM!” I said to myself as it vanished away into the great green world outside.
I sat back on my bed and thought for a moment about what I had just said out loud to a little trapped ladybug…”Trust me, I’m not trying to kill you, I am trying to set you free…!!”
Hmmmm…Suddenly I felt like a little ladybug myself. Praying for open doors or windows in my life…but running from the hand that can take me there! Or desperate for changes, and searching for a sweeter place than where I feel my feet are right now …but no matter how I attempt to find the right window or door or opening it just seems out of reach for me, but I just have to be still & let someone bigger MOVE ME!!…There are some things you just cannot do alone!
God just wants me to trust HIM – It may hurt, it may be scarey (especially if you are afraid of heights) But if I just hold on and wait then I will see what He has promised…I may not know where I am going next but if I keep the right attitude, and am ready to MOVE when He ‘lifts me’ then He will work out how I get there too! I just have to be available and willing to agree and obey and surrender to whatever His hand plans next…
Are you like the ladybug?…You see where you want to be and the freedom you desire, but you cannot seem to get your legs (or heart) there, or you may have no idea where you want to be except you have a deep restlessness to move in a new direction…either way we all need Him to do the “moving” and as we trust His gentle hand even in pain and confusion, we can be sure that He will cause all things to work out for our good – We may never know what He is doing behind our backs, until He reveals it before our eyes…
There may even be a struggle to believe something is good for us, but He will give us the courage and strength to handle the situations He allows us to walk through…He may even give it back to us completely changed and even greater than it was before!
So I pray that just as I desperately am longing for freedom and direction on the other side of my window pane (and pain) that when He comes with His greeting card to pick me up and move me,
I hope I come running with humility, trust, willingness and excitement to let Him take me where freedom waits! I am glad that God can use the simple ladybugs of my life to remind me that HE KNOWS where I am and how to MOVE me where He wants me to be, and He has provided all the wisdom I will need for when I get there – I hope I never take for granted these lessons from my window sill, that He sends to remind me of His amazing greatness in my life.
May we always want what He wants even in the questions and the waiting!
Please be ready to go when He comes to “Move You”
Love
Denise
Copyright owned by
Author Denise Kennedy
THIS IS A COPYRIGHTED ARTICLE & NOT TO BE COPIED
Thanks! If it is used it will violate my future publishing rights to use it. Denise
God in Dirty Water By ❦ Dawn Hood
❀ ~ Hey Friends, please lend me your eyes and attention, while I introduce you to the wonderful, insightful and brilliant writings of the talented Dawn Chambers Hood. This is Dawn’s debut appearance on my WordPress blog and I hope you will give her a hearty warm welcome, and drop her a comment or two. I love this piece Dawn, beautiful! ~ ❀
♥Peace, Denise
❀ ~ God in Dirty Water
by
❦ Dawn Hood
Standing on the Jordan-side banks of the Jordan River I could hardly contain my excitement. I felt shaky with adrenalin and a joy that was manifesting itself in an open-mouth, squinty-eyed smile on my face. How could a simple body of water invoke such strong emotion? It was a small river, what this Southern girl would even call a creek. And directly across from where my feet were planted I could clearly see an Israeli guard station, flag flying proudly and soldiers watching carefully. No white-capped rush of rapids here, not even a significant current to focus on. But standing here, watching the bull rushes sway gently in the breeze, ‘listening’ to the quiet, I was consumed with the reality of the Word of God. Jesus stood here. In the flesh. Bare feet and soaking wet hair, Jesus was baptized in this same water! Looking around, it occurred to me that the voice of His Father from Heaven breaking this calm stillness must have sounded like thunder.
Leaving my hotel room earlier that morning, I had grabbed an empty water bottle for the express purpose of retrieving 16 ounces of the Jordan River. And now I held in my hands my very own, very personal bottle of history. Jesus said throughout the book of John that He was in fact “Living Water” and those words had never seemed more alive than in that moment. Thrilled with my accomplishment, I carried my bottle up the path and set it down on a section of deck railing to wipe off the excess water. Sealing the cap with masking tape, I placed the bottle in my handbag for safekeeping until I could nestle it safely in my luggage for my trip back to the States. Struck by the sight of my bottle sitting on that simple plank of wood, surrounded by beautiful shade trees, I quickly snapped a picture to send home to my children by email. They had enjoyed being able to see where I visited each day during my trip to the Middle East.
Not until I was back on the tour bus editing pictures on my digital camera did I realize what had been captured in that photograph. There to my surprise was the bottle’s label, clear as a bell, proclaiming Truth in a way only God could orchestrate. Pure Life, the label read, plain white words on a simple blue label. And there, in those 16 ounces of water encased in clear plastic, was a profoundly personal moment for God and me.
Pure Life – the kind of Life that only Jesus can offer. He IS pure life, reaching out to those in need – those who hurt physically, emotionally, and spiritually – offering the pure life of a personal relationship with Him. Alive and real. Not a life that looks pure on the outside, but a life that is pure on the inside because of His sacrifice, His obedience, His heart.
A few days later, my bottle and I made it safely home. It now sits on a shelf in my office where I am reminded that God delights in surprising us with His presence. We need only slow down long enough to look for Him to realize that He is everywhere. I am awed by the realization that the God of the Universe so passionately desires to make Himself known to us. Pure Love. Pure Life.
Written by ❦ Dawn Hood
✈ Choose Life by Bob Carley
I want to introduce you to a great friend and writer Rob Carley ~ He is walking a path of grief after the passing on of his adorable wife Jean, whom we all miss so much! I want to make him my first invited guest blogger ~ I hope you are soul fed! Love Denise
Bob Carley
Choose life!
It’s about the time when on a winters morning the crisp silent air is occasionally jingled by the lonely footsteps of a milk delivery or a newspaper drop or a Christmas party reveler beginning the lonely walk home with party hat askew and tatty Chris Kindle gift clutched tightly in a frozen hand. It’s a time when life hangs between the memories of yesterday and the hopes for tomorrow. In this small parcel of life is the darkest hour. It’s as if the candle of past has been extinguished and we await the burst of light as the match of future strikes and ignites tomorrow’s possibilities. It is a place where all things are possible. Imagination has property here. A shore front property with amazing views but in an exposed setting. In this time ones mind can wish the best or wonder the worst. In this time our hearts can dance or die. We can sing or sink. We can choose life or death. Often our pain or loss screams out an invitation to us to pitch our tent towards hopelessness but a still small voice beckons to us to dwell in what old time gospelers referred to as Beulah land.
My Aunt Charlotte who is now singing in heavens choir used to sing a chorus (there’s a word we don’t use in church now!) and in it was a line
“Oh Beulah land oh Beulah land on heavens higher mount I stand”… that sounds such a glorious location.
It sounds like a VIP area for overcomers, it almost sounds like an exclusive area. I guess it is but it’s more a place we are carried to rather than a place we climb to. Arrival is by right and choice. As Christmas arrives we celebrate the arrival of Jesus who came to redeem a people and give them unrestricted access to heavens riches. He came to bring abundant life to those who choose to follow. He offers us a way to peace and freedom just based on that word gift. It’s a done deal a finished product a total whole shebang! When we were kids and even now when we are bigger kids our mother would often tell us to choose life, what wisdom what simple truth. You see in this quiet hour when the flowing waters of communication are stilled two voices call to my heart, the voice that says all is lost and or the voice that says the best is yet to come. I will choose which one gets my heart.
There is a native Indian tale that says something like this ~ Two wolves called despair and hope are fighting a viscous fight to the death battle. The little boy asks which one will win?
His dad replies whichever one we feed the most! Chose life!
Written by Robert Carley
A Street Called Contentment ♥♥ by Denise
Denise Kennedy❀ 