Saturday, March 28, 2009

College Registration Today

Though not exactly a great day for being out, today was early registration at Brewton-Parker College, where my first-born will be attending this fall. We had to be there by nine, so the oldest of my children and I headed out alone this morning. No rain, but plenty of dreary grey skies covered us on our journey. It was a fun time for us and very informative, as well.

We got the full tour of the college campus this time around. The rain held off for the tour, but once we were on our own, the rain came. Downside to this...my son and I looked like two drenched rats by the time we left this afternoon. And we even bought one of those big umbrellas with the college logo on it at the campus bookstore! Upside to this...the memories I'll always have...the two of us huddled together, my son holding the umbrella over our heads, me stepping in every puddle along the way, lol! It was great!

Well, he's scheduled for the classes he wants to take when fall semester rolls around in August; he's signed up for the dorm he wants to be in, with the room-mate he requested; he's excited about college. Me? I just feel like we haven't yet closed the door on one chapter of his life before opening the door to another. I'm going to try to be brave and not succumb to the tears right now.

God promises His grace is sufficient. I will rest in that.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Holy Things

I have been reading through the book of Isaiah for my quiet time with God in the mornings and I have especially been taken with the description of the seraphs who stood above the throne in Isaiah's vision. "Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying" (Isa. 6:2). The Lord has really impressed upon my heart the importance of this Scripture; therefore, I have been studying it and I thought I would share what I have found. "With two wings they covered their faces." Why would they cover their faces? Obviously they were in the presence of a holy God, and they dared not look at the One whom they were worshipping. In his sermon, "The Vision of God," Selwyn Hughes states, "the implication here is that what we do for God must be done with reverence." I would dare to say that in this day of modern Christianity, we have lost the spirit of reverence. I would even dare to say that is why so many are cynical about Christianity. My bible cross-references Hebrews 12:28-29, "28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire." We are told to serve God acceptably (acceptable by whose standards? certainly not ours) with reverence and with godly fear. When we fail to reverence God, we allow holy things to lose their sacredness and become common. Sadly, all we have to do is look around within the church to see this happening. I am usually one of those people who say, "keep your focus on what's above, not around you" but, if Christians don't rise up and reclaim what has been lost, I fear that the generations that follow will feel the impact a hundred-fold.

Heavenly Father, help me develop respect and reverence for holy things. Help me to worship You in a way that is acceptable to You, not how I think is acceptable, but how You say is acceptable. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Back to Normal ?

Life here is back to normal, I suppose. Granddaddy and Billy have gone back home, back to their normal daily routines. But what exactly is normal? I suppose that depends upon whom you ask. I guess we are definitely not normal, not by the world's standards at least. Anyway...

We tried to get back into our regular weekday routine, but I have been far too groggy to accomplish much in the way of routine work around here. I love the spring weather we are having here in south Georgia, but I declare, the pollen is wreaking havoc upon my sinuses. Hence, the grogginess from the medication I have taken today. However, I am very thankful that aggravated sinuses are my only medical ailments. Far too many around here have suffered from the flu and other viral infections, and have not fared nearly as well. Hopefully, the pollen index will be somewhat lower in the next couple of weeks! It is beautiful weather right now, though.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Outage Schedule is Over

What a joy to be back in church with my husband!! For the past five weeks, he hasn't been able to attend church at all because of his work schedule. Thankfully, the outage is over and he is back to his normal schedule. I didn't realize how lonely church feels without my dh by my side! More than once I was tempted to (and gave into the temptation) to just stay home since he was at work! Really, I only gave in once, because the second time my children were sick. It is nice, though, to have dh back to normal working hours again.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

A Week to Remember

Well, here we are at the end of the week. We leave today to take my father-in-law and my brother-in-law part of the way home. We'll meet my sister-in-law at an interstate connection to drop them off with her.
The week seems to have flown by! The kids have had so much fun with Granddaddy. He always shares some tidbit of his history that we never knew about! Especially interesting was how he was a small child during the Great Depression and the memories he has of the stories his father shared with him of what life was like during that era. I suppose I should have gotten out the video camera and recorded all that he shared with us...lost opportunity now.


We had a lot of fun while they were here....listening, sharing, going. I'm so thankful that my kids have grandparents who take an interest in them. Even though we live so far away and only see Granddaddy a few times a year, we never feel disconnected from him. I know these years are fleeting and I'm so glad that we have an opportunity to make the most of them.


Joy and blessings be yours in abundance!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

What a Day!!!


Yesterday was a very busy day for us! While Granddaddy and Billy are here visiting with us, I try to balance the days with rest and busyness...but, yesterday was an exception. I'm afraid we had far more busyness than rest. But I think they enjoyed the day as much as I did!

We all loaded up and drove to dh's work place (about 30 miles from home) and shared lunch with him on the picnic grounds at his work. It was very beautiful weather for a picnic! Dh works at a nuclear energy facility and they have a visitors center on-site. So we explored that for a little while...very interesting and informative.

Later that afternoon, we drove to the college where my oldest child plans to attend in the fall. We had some more paperwork to fill out and since Granddaddy was here, we wanted him to see the college. Dh met us there and we drove around campus, pointing out the sites to Granddaddy. I've posted a picture of my oldest child, Ryan receiving his scholarship from Mike (on the left) and Greg (on the right). We finished up with supper at the DQ in the big town of Mount Vernon!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day. However, based upon the lateness of the hour at which everyone arose this morning, I'm guessing that everyone was quite tired out yesterday. So we will probably not venture far from the house today!

Joy and blessings be yours in abundance!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Enjoying the Days...

Granddaddy is taking a nap, Billy is watching a preschool program on tv, and my kids are doing math right now, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to write down my thoughts and share a little....

Granddaddy and Billy are here visiting with us for a week! The kids are so very excited to have them here. Granddaddy is my dh's 82-year old dad and Billy is dh's mentally handicapped 57-year old brother. We only get to see them about 4 or 5 times a year. So the kids really anticipate their getting to spend an entire week with them.

It is a little extra work when they are here, but it is so worth it. God has really used this time to stretch and grow me. It gets me thinking about others and less about me.... It causes me to literally run to Him in the mornings, for His strength and help in coping with whatever the day brings. And didn't He call us to serve Him by serving others?

It's also a time of fun and change! We are planning to relax this week, not doing as much school as usual. I do try to do a little school with the kids while they are here, though. I don't want Granddaddy to think I'm raising his grandchildren to be ignorant!

Joy and blessings be yours in abundance!