The verses in Jeremiah 29 that no one memorizes

Hi Mary, what's your address? I have a coffee cup with a Scripture verse on it to send you. 

I replied to my Uncle Paul with my address and "Sounds great! If I haven't already memorized the verse, I will!"

Two days later, this arrived in the mail...

Not quite what I was expecting, Uncle Paul! And no, I don't already have that verse memorized!  I love that he hadn't told me in advance what I would be opening.

Here was part of the letter he sent explaining the cup:

My Sunday school teacher...posts his weekly lessons online, and last Sunday he mentioned in passing that he objected to people quoting Jeremiah 29:11 out of context and putting it on inspirational posters. In the comment section I wrote:

Thank you for your point about people indiscriminately quoting Jeremiah 29:11 ("I know the plans I have for you..."). It's a pet peeve of mine that people cherry-pick the nice verses and apply them to themselves and their audience while ignoring the verses of judgment of wrath and warning. The book of Jeremiah is a great example because it is so chock-full of judgment from beginning to end, and somehow we've managed to find and apply to ourselves one of the few comforting verses in it. I've never seen the words just 7 verses down on a poster or coffee mug: Jeremiah 29:18: "I will pursue them with the sword, famine, and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth..."

And he responded,

Now I want a coffee cup that has  "I will pursue them with the sword, famine, and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth..." on it.

So as a gag I decided to order a custom-made cup with that verse on it, and found that the minimum order was a dozen,...and then had to figure out what to do with the rest of the cups.

-----

So now I am the proud recipient of two of these mugs, and I have also now memorized a verse that few others have memorized. When looking at the context, I ended up expanding the song to include the rest of verse 18 as well as 19 and 20.  It's not as comforting as Jeremiah 29:11, but I think it's still worth memorizing. I want to be someone who listens to the word of the Lord and acts accordingly. God, forgive me for ignoring Your repeated whispers to me through Your Word and in my thoughts. May I hear Your word, and may it change me.

(And here's the link to the song if the embedded video doesn't work)

88 Parks=A Year's Worth of Fun!

88

    As many keys

        as are on a full-size piano,

     the 88 Lexington parks have created

          a symphony of experiences.

In a Covid year that has stolen so much from us,

    a personal challenge 

        to visit all the parks in our city

            has given us 

                purpose in our monotony

                family time while separated from others

                eyes to see the wonders of God's Beautiful Playground

                re-discovery of the rejuvenation of recreation

                and joy in simple pleasures

88

From venturing out during quarantine to Wellington Park 

        in the beginning of May 2020

    to completing the challenge at Hisle Farm Park 

        at the end of February 2021

From walking to Stonewall

    to driving 30 minutes to Raven Run

From the lake at Jacobson

    to the non-lake at Lakeview Park on Lakeshore Drive 

        (at least we've never found it!)

From splashing in the creek and springs at Gardenside

    to riding the ferry across the Kentucky River at Donaldson

From the history of notable people 

        at Clay's Spring and Isaac Murphy Art Garden

    to the history of Lexington 

        at Phoenix Park and McConnell Springs

From the turtle sighting at Pleasant Ridge

    to the snake sighting at Lakeview 

    to the deer sighting at Veterans Park

From climbing the army tank at Veterans

    to climbing the logs at the Arboretum

    to climbing the skate park elements at Valley

    to climbing the big rocks at Deer Haven

    to climbing the horse statues at Thoroughbred

        (Zero "No Climbing" signs -- I promise!)

From the old favorite Shillito

    to the new discoveries of Lou Johnson 

        and Kenawood

        and Mary Todd

        and Liberty

From the undeveloped land at Cardinal Run North

    to all the amenities at Lansdowne-Merrick

From the liberation of our first playground after nine months (Castlewood)

    to the realization at Southpoint and Meadowbrook

        that you don't need a playground to have fun

From the new playground at Johnson Heights 

    to the soon-to-be-demolished one at Southland

From a rainy day at Woodland

    to the snowy days at Green Acres Park and Gratz Park

From our sweaty picnic at Coldstream

    to our icy picnic at Mapleleaf Forest

From the countryside of Masterson Station

    to the heart of the city at Henry Tandy Centennial Park

From the open fields of Kirklevington

    to the woods of Preston's Springs

From the tiny 0.3 acres of Burley 

    to the whopping 734 acres of Raven Run

From the mere minutes spent at Elkhorn

    to the hours over multiple days at Harrods Hill

88

Melody alone; harmony together

Heart-thumping bass; ear-splitting soprano

Sharp black; plain white

Minor keys on the blah days

    and major keys on the zip-a-dee-doo-dah days

Sustained fermatas and staccato moments

All better together

All better together with people I love

88

Worth playing 

    every note

Worth playing

    at every park

Thanks, Lexington, for this awesome parks system

    you've established and maintained!

Thanks, God, for this world of animals, plants, and water

    You've created and sustained!

This collage obviously doesn't contain a picture from all 88 parks -- free collage makers don't let you use that many pictures. I hope to make one eventually, though!

[Note: We visited all 88 LFUCG parks in the span of a Covid year. While our quarantine began in mid-March 2020, we didn't actually venture out to the parks system until the beginning of May when we walked to Wellington.  Later in the summer, I set the goal to visit all the parks with paved trails, then expanded it to all the parks in "safe" neighborhoods, and eventually, I figured we might as well shoot for all 88.  There are a few more listed on the Parks and Rec website, but some are just community centers or golf courses (or a model airplane facility!).  And there are a couple that are no longer owned by the city, and the list just hasn't been updated (I double-checked with someone who works in Planning and Design for the Parks and Rec department).  We visited #88 at the end of February 2021. Since I had pictures of each one, I wrote blog posts for each (some super long and some super short and everything in between).  These are not meant to be extensive reviews but more a record of our experiences. The links to the posts for all 88 parks are here]     

Lexington Parks - Veterans

Veterans Park (650 Southpoint Dr.)

Location - in Veterans Park neighborhood, near Veterans Park Elementary

Playground? yes (one near a baseball field, one from Rockbridge)

Trails? yes (paved and unpaved)

Other? mountain bike trails, baseball fields, tank!, war memorials, historical, creek, bridge, bur oak

    This is one of our favorite parks in town, but I'll admit that I had way under-estimated this park for most of the time I've lived in Lexington. When we visited parks back in 2015, I judged the parks based on their playgrounds.  The Veterans Park playground has always been small and was replaced a couple years ago. I just assumed that it wasn't that great of a park because it didn't have that great of a playground.

    In late spring 2020 when the big boys were staying with their grandparents for the week, I brought the little boys (then 2 and almost 1) for a wagon walk on the trails. The beauty of the wagon is that I'm not dependent on their endurance as walkers/hikers and can go as long as I want. Not knowing where I was going, I took a paved path that split off into the woods. There, I was amazed at all the pathway possibilities -- there were constant intersections, but I stuck mainly to the wide mown path. We wandered and wandered and stumbled upon a little bridge in a clearing (presumably for mountain bikers). The best find, though, was Hickman Creek -- a wide wading creek suitable for playing and even swimming. 

    I was excited to return later with the big boys. We started on the same path but took some of the side paths, too. They loved the creek as much as I thought they would. On another trip to the trails, we got really turned around (and, of course, that was the day that Calvin got injured, so I ended up pulling a 6-year-old in the wagon, too). When we finally saw some other hikers, I asked them to point us in the way of civilization. Eventually, we followed the creek to the familiar bridge.

    I have so many pictures from our many trips to Veterans Park that I have separate pages for the creek and the tank/playground. These are just mostly of the trails.

This was from my first trip there with the little boys

He loved finding flowers as well as "ticklers" for me 

This is when the big boys joined us

This was off the paved path. Calvin was excited to find this cross because we had just memorized the verse on it -- 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Here's the bridge where the boys like to act out "3 Billy Goats Gruff"

This picture isn't great, but it's the time we saw a deer in the forest

Finding a vine to swing on

This was a hot, sweaty day. I was thankful for the mostly shaded trails

Such a happy boy!

This is where we usually have lunch

They like to squeeze into the hole at the base of the tree. They've done it twice, so I have pictures of both times.

We returned to Veterans Park in February on a warmer but still chilly day

Colson has grown up a lot from the baby who was learning to walk when we first came to Veterans Park.

He was fascinated with his shadow

I usually don't let Cooper ride in the wagon like this, but he likes to see forward

Most of the mountain bike trails are wide enough for the wagon, but this one was a little tricky to navigate

We ended up carrying the wagon up these tire stairs, which led to a paved walking path. We probably could have kept going on the trail, but I wasn't sure

I didn't realize there was a bur oak here, too. We love the one at McConnell Springs. The sign helped me imagine different veterans interacting with that oak tree during any of the wars in America's history. Oh, the stories that tree could tell!

(Note: We visited all 88 LFUCG parks in the span of a Covid year -- mid-March 2020 to February 2021. These are not meant to be extensive reviews but more a record of our experiences. Eventually I will add hyperlinks to all the blog entries here)

Veterans Park - tank, playground

    As a "Veterans Park," there are memorials scattered throughout the park from different wars. There's also a tank prominently displayed at the entrance. There's a tank at the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore, but it has a sign that says no climbing. Here at Veterans Park, the boys are free to climb and explore. 

    There are also two small playgrounds -- one near a baseball field and one on the paved trail, accessible from Rockbridge Rd. We haven't played extensively at either one, so I don't have great pictures yet.

(Here are my other Veterans Park posts about the trails and the creek.)

This is the playground from the Rockbridge Rd parking lot

In addition to the two playgrounds, there are some stand-alone play features along one of the paved walking paths (there's this rock and a swing and a climber)

Veterans Park - Hickman Creek

Hickman Creek at Veterans Park

    This is still such a magical place to me. I had no idea there was a creek of this size at the park, so we happily stumbled upon after meandering through the mountain bike trails.  I was unprepared the first time, but when we returned, we brought creek-stompin' shoes. 

(Here are my other Veterans Park posts about the trails and the tank/playground)

We affectionately call this the "poop face"

I'm used to all this brown now, in the middle of winter, but it always amazes me when compared to the green of summer

There are neat little shells, and I was making a little design with them while the boys played.

Calvin's favorite pose

Helping his little brother, a new walker