Tag: Kim Louise Clarke

Play Ball

#inspiration, guest blog, Kim Louise ClarkeToday we have a guest blog written by Kim Louise Clarke

Because my husband umpires, I have the opportunity to watch a lot of softball, which in turn provides a rich source of life lessons. Like the one the other day, when I watched the girl in left field miss a very catchable fly ball. She stumbled to retrieve the ball at her feet and threw it towards first base. But the throw was weak and much too late.

I felt sorry for her as I sat on the bleachers, eating my hotdog, content that I still had a chocolate bar to munch on, wondering how she could have missed the catch in the first place. Sitting and watching all the activity before me, I was risking very little other than gaining a pound or two.

But each of these players, attempting to bat, run, throw, and catch, were risking a lot. Besides injury, they risked making a bad play and setting their team back. They risked failure, self-doubt, and enduring criticism from the spectators.

This is similar to life beyond the ball diamond, where we can choose to remain a bystander watching other’s living their lives. Or we can choose to step out into the life given us, taking risks, knowing that we may meet up with failure, self-doubt, and criticism.

“When was the last time you did something for the first time?” is a quote from John C. Maxwell (American business and investment speaker). It is a great question. When was the last time I tried something new, risked something, or got out of my comfort zone? Am I someone who is ‘playing the game’, or just someone who is ‘playing it safe’?

Kim Louise Clarke hopes her writing will inspire, inform, and entertain. She writes travel devotional memoirs, having published one book, with another to be published soon. Website: www.kimlouiseclarke.com

One at a Time

#inspiration, love, Please welcome Kim Louise Clarke as my guest blogger today. Kim and I met through Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship. Her first book came out in 2016, a devotional travel memoir, entitled The French Collection – Moments with God in Paris.

Outside my friends’ house, I waited for her in my car. Across the street, the movement of a swinging birdfeeder suspended from a tree caught my eye. It was a simple design: an open tray suspended by ropes from a branch about a metre above the snowy lawn.

The cause of the movement came, not from a bird, but from a squirrel rummaging around in the feeder. Nearby on the ground, a bird—a magpie as big as the squirrel—seemed to be pacing as if waiting its turn. No sooner had the squirrel hopped off the feeder to scamper down the road, than the magpie jumped up to see what it could find. And no sooner had the magpie flown away, than a tiny bird that had been waiting on its perch high in the tree, darted in to have its turn.

Because I’ve seen how magpies can torment squirrels, with three of them squawking and hounding one poor squirrel fleeing along a fence, this was like a peaceful scene out of Narnia. It was a short animal dramatization of I Corinthians 13, focusing on love. “Love is patient, love is kind. … It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered” (verses 4, 5).

How appropriate for February, the month of love, to see this reminder of how we should treat others. Even doing the little things, like patiently standing in a cafeteria line, waiting your turn, and letting others go first does not go unnoticed by God. It is by our loving behaviour that He is glorified.

My friend arrived and got into my car. We drove away with me chatting about squirrels and magpies. Having been exposed to one sermon, we drove off to church for another.

You can find out more about Kim through her website: www.kimlouiseclarke.com
To contact her email: writer@kimlouiseclarke.com

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