Sarah L. Frantz's Blog, page 5
October 28, 2024
Monday Morning Washing in His Word
Psalm 76
In Judah
You’re known
Your abode
In Salem
A dwelling
In Zion
More majestic
Than mountains
You strip
Away spoil
You weaken
Enemy troops
Your rebuke
Levels all
The earth
Is stilled
By Your
Heavenly utterances
You save
The oppressed
Your wrath
Is mighty
It’s nothing
For you
To cut
Off princes
Inspiring fear
In kings.
October 25, 2024
FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A Time to Tear
by Sarah L. Frantz
I wrote this short story for my mother, Mary Lynn McReynolds, author, wife, mother, and friend. I wove together elements from two of her favorite writers, George MacDonald and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Ten year old Mary Rose is attempting her highest cliff dive, and she wants to do it unwatched by her family. In the dead of night she makes her way to the position she’s been jumping from all day.
In this fantastical tale, Mary Rose meets new friends, Olivetti, a flying typewriter, and Hope, a steampunk-geared metal bird who needs rescuing. As Hope is healed Mary Rose is forever altered as well.
You can learn more about my writing through this blog or you can find me on fb, here, or on instagram here.
Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.
If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!
It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!
Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.
(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)
October 21, 2024
Monday Morning Washing in His Word
Psalm 71
Refuge-Giver
Righteousness-Deliverer
Whisper-Hearer
You save
Refuge-Granter
Fortress-Builder
Wicked-Deliverer
You rescue
Hope-Giver
Trust-Anchor
Midwife-Deliverer
I praise
Refuge-Giver
Lie-Destroyer
Truth-Teacher
Heaven-Filler
Trouble-Deliverer
Heart-Reviver
Honor-Increaser
Comfort me
With the
Harp and
With the
Lyre I
Sing praises,
Holy One
Of Israel,
Lips Shout
I sing
As does
My soul
To you.
October 18, 2024
FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A Time to Let Go
by Ari Lewis
A fantastical “baby chicken” enables a couple to time travel. During their ongoing looping around the unavoidable death of Henny Penny, beloved hen, will the couple face their personal tragedy and move forward or be locked in the grief of their past?
Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.
If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!
It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!
Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.
(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)
October 14, 2024
Monday Morning Washing in His Word
Psalm 66
“How awesome
You are!”
I don’t
Sing hollow
Praise but
Overflowing truth
You keep
Watch over
Us all
You see
Everything we
Do and
Don’t do
You alone
Bless and
Judge rightly
And I
Rejoice over
Your provision
Burnt offerings
Given joyfully
Troubled utterances
Fulfilled vows
Blessed be
God Almighty
He has
Not rejected
Nor removed
Steadfast love
From me
Monday morning washing in His word
Psalm 66
“How awesome
You are!”
I don’t
Sing hollow
Praise but
Overflowing truth
You keep
Watch over
Us all
You see
Everything we
Do and
Don’t do
You alone
Bless and
Judge rightly
And I
Rejoice over
Your provision
Burnt offerings
Given joyfully
Troubled utterances
Fulfilled vows
Blessed be
God Almighty
He has
Not rejected
Nor removed
Steadfast love
From me
October 11, 2024
FROM THE SWING FICTION FEATURE FRIDAY: A Time to Keep
by Teddi Deppner
In this skillfully woven time-travel tale, Leo stumbles across a mysterious death and leans in to the new relationships to alter the outcome back to its original course… as he discovers where “home” is, will his own course be altered as well?
You can learn more about Teddi Deppner here, here, or here.
Ben Avery edited this diverse, edgy, eclectic, thrilling, masterful anthology inspired by Ecclesiastes 3.
If you love an anthology and want to add ours to your library, you may purchase your copy here!
It is available in Kindle, paperback, or hardcover!
Or you can visit my Etsy, Somebody’s Luggage to find single signature author prints by me in hardcover and paperback.
(And please consider following our anthology authors on Amazon and/or Goodreads if this is your jam.)
October 7, 2024
Monday Morning Washing in His Word
Psalm 62
Silent soul
Awaits God
My Rock
And salvation
I am
Not shaken
Assaults may
Visit to
Destroy me
I teeter
Outward blessings
Inward curses
Silent soul
Awaits God
You hold
My deliverance
My honor
Mighty Rock
O people
Trust Him
Pour out
Your heart
Balances weighed
We are
All alike
Merely breath
Heard once
Heard twice
Power belongs
To God
And You
Repay accordingly
September 25, 2024
Faithfulness
My husband and I just got back from our son’s wedding in Colorado. All my children but the youngest drove with their families to attend. They paused their busy lives of work schedules, church, various sports practices as well as schooling to come and be present.
They desired to witness the much-anticipated marriage of their brother to his new bride.
And I spy the fruit of the Spirit we are examining this week — His fruit of faithfulness. I twist it free like an apple from a branch, just like the ones we munched on at the Del Rio ranch. I search it for brown spots or wormholes, but there are none.
Instead, I find iterations of faith reflected across the fruit’s surface and substance — loyalty, constance, resoluteness, steadfastness. And I observe these attributes in my children’s lives — in the cost of taking the time, financial resources, the laying down of their plans to come make fresh memories with one another and enter in to their brother’s joy.
And we all ate and were filled.
From a mountain hike, climbing among shallow caves to laughter at inside jokes. “We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one…”
To going to a local amusement park and choosing their aunt because she looks like she would go fast and screaming “Again, again” as each ride came to a screeching halt. Running to the front of the line to ride again. Just one more time.
To sweet fellowship over meals.
And in a blink of my eye, I am dancing with my freshly married son to Slow Down by Nichole Nordeman, a song which always reduces me to tears. I hug this grown man’s neck knowing his baby days are long since past. Long since. And the fruit of his life is being made new before me in this long-awaited answer to a three decades old prayer.
Underneath his wedding garments, Thy Will Be Done is engraved on his left forearm, a declaration made after his near death car accident on Oklahoma ice-covered roads. It has been the whisper of his heart in each prayer over his singleness and God’s choosing of his station in life — with a help meet or not. He’d surrendered this to his Father’s best plans.
And I embrace the moment fully, gazing into his soft brown eyes. And seeing the love between he and his bride — God’s faithfulness answered. And our faithfulness in gathering together as a family is also fruit grown from God’s love.
And I am so grateful.
Psalm 52:8-9 (NRSV)
“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.”
September 24, 2024
He is the Potter, we are the clay
I see the whorl of His fingerprint on the curvature of my life
Feel His thumbs pressing deep, my clay walls smooth and climb
Spinning on Love’s fulcrum He fills me with His Spirit’s presence
And we are His vessel, His workmanship.
He sees the work of His hands and calls it good.
He remakes us in Christ’s image and we are made good.
His righteousness meets our weakness, clothing us in robes of joy!
This is our Maker’s love.
