She wrote 28 plays, numerous songs, short stories and left a legacy of unpublished works.[4] She was an educator in the public school system, a school principal and a self-taught violinist.
Category: Navigating This Life
You Were Called To Freedom Through Love
Copyright 2017 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Galatians 5:13a ESV, “For you were called to freedom, brothers.”
I do not know when it happened.
But one day recently, I woke up and realized I had a renewed trust in humanity, a greater capacity to love. My heart was so full of emotion that I sat in my bed weeping and writing – trying to capture this beautiful moment with Holy Spirit as my heart came alive.
It’s funny really.
You see, I did not realize my heart was STILL SERIOUSLY BOUND. Yet, there I was feeling tremendous love all around me…., experiencing great breaking and I desperately needed it. What is even crazier – at least for me – is that I could acknowledge my need freely before God in that moment and receive it.
I discovered, that even after all these years in Christ, that I still had a fortress so high around my heart that I was still subconsciously holding up walls, protecting myself. I was still struggling to trust and live in truth concerning where I was. Why or how that happened is not significant right now. What is important, however, is knowing that God wants our HEART’S FREE and he wants us to experience REAL LOVE – not just from an invisible supernatural place in our understanding. He wants us to touch it from a tangible place in the natural including God-appointed relationships. It’s okay to need and desire Christ-centered love. Were it not so, He would have stopped at marriage and not continued with demonstrating Jonathan’s love for David, Paul’s love for Timothy or John’s love for Christ. Mark 12:30-31 (the love God, love one another command) has renewed meaning for me this morning.
There are so many people in the earth who have never experienced love or who have never been loved correctly or at all by parents, caregivers, family, spouses or friends. We have a huge part in demonstrating this through Christ! We must SEE THAT or we have missed the point of our calling! Many people have stood unable to express love to others. They have moved through life… starving. I was one of them – but God’s people let HIM use them. You see, a lack of love creates a hunger deep within… that is far greater than any food and our lust for it gives us all the wrong ideas concerning how to fill that hunger, ease its desperate thirst.
Poem: The House That God Built
Copyright 2016 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Play on nursery rhyme: The House That Jack Built
Reflecting on the Story of Rahab from the Bible
This is the ribbon,
that hangs out the window
in the house that God built.
This is the woman
who owned the ribbon
that hung out the window
in the house that God built.
Young People: Consider These Five Things Before Marriage
Copyright 2016 Theresa Harvard Johnson
There are five things I wish young men and women would consider or take to heart when conidering marriage:
(1) Desire a spouse who has big dreams and visions — and can make solid choices and clear goals to pursue them. You may watch them struggle and fail before they succeed, but you will find a passion in them that “won’t settle” for anything less than what they SEE ahead of them. This could be an indication that they will never settle for mediocre, ordinary or ever get comfortable with life as it is. When submitted to the Lord, you will live the life of a “wise” dreamer — always in search for more, better. This is invaluable in the life you will share!
Loud Holidays & My Son JJ
Copyright 2014 Theresa Harvard Johnson
While many people are celebrating 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day and New Year’s Eve with fireworks, bazookas, gunshots, laser shows and other stimulating activity, my son JJ is generally up all night vomiting, sweating, shaking in fear and experiencing sheer terror and massive anxiety attacks in the midst of all the stimulation from festivities in our neighborhood.
Up until our family received the diagnosis of autism concerning him, we were oblivious to his condition and responses. I’ve since learned that it is human nature not to concern ourselves with a thing if it doesn’t affect us directly. For most people, children like JJ are not apart of their reality — outside of passing them on the street or interacting in another type of environment.
JJ changed all that for us — opening our eyes to a whole new world. Despite the challenges, it has been a tremendous journey of acceptance and love. We have been changed forever by his wonderful life.