Visit with the Little Boys

We had a visit from our little nephews just after Christmas. These are the little guys we had in foster care when they were 2 years old and 9 months old. We had them for about two weeks while the Lord was making ready their forever home. If you missed it, you can read about that  here.

sweet brothers

Christmas

Christmas...

Just the word conjures up so many memories, so many emotions.

 

The tree, the lights, the food, all the decorations, the carols, the fellowship with family and friends, the traditions.

I just love everything about Christmas!

 

A Birthday and My Frustrations

My oldest child celebrated his 22nd birthday back in April.

This I Know

Just thinking back over the past months of the sickness and surgeries and suffering that seem to have kept coming, one on top of another, we've dealt with in this house...  My God has been gracious. Gracious enough to not allow me to dwell on it, to not linger over it. Gracious enough to sustain me through all of it.

What's On My Mind

I know, it's been kind of quiet here. Not in my house per se, but on the blog front. I've been sick this past week. Imagine that! Didn't I wonder recently if life could somehow possibly slow down a bit around here? God sure has a sense of humor.

I've spent most of my time between doctor visits, and the hospital for tests, and in the recliner nursing a fever and pain. For about two weeks now, I have had a fever off and on, and pain on my left side (front and back), as well as a general pain throughout my whole body. You know, kind of like stiff and aching body parts. I wondered if maybe I am developing arthritis. I wondered if the pain in my side might be appendicitis, but the pain never really was excruciating enough to convince me. I also wondered if it might be kidney stones, but again, the pain level never reached an unbearable zenith.

My Word for the New Year

As I have pondered my goals for this new year, it seems that God has been impressing upon my heart this one thing: Love. Love for Him. Love for my family. Love for my neighbor, my fellowman.

He has engulfed me in His love, and I want to love Him back with all my heart, with all my strength, and with all my soul. I want to spend this year reveling in His love for me, reaching out to others with His love. "We love Him because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

He has been speaking to me about showing His love to others, for I have been slack in this area. I think back to days gone by, when my life really revolved around serving Him, loving Him above all else. Giving of myself, loving others because He commands me to. I asked myself what happened. How could I grow cold over the years? How could I lose my first love?

It makes me sad. To think of me drifting away from my Lord, the One who loves me even when I am so unworthy, so unlovely. To think of me somehow drifting back into the old habits, the old ways, the selfishness that consumed me before He found me, saved me. My heart is breaking thinking about it.

But that is a good thing. A breaking heart means there is still feeling in it. There is still life in it. That it is not so cold, so lifeless, that He cannot revive it. He is drawing me back to Himself. Back to my first love. He is thawing this heart of mine, releasing me from the sin of selfishness that would have me spend my days thinking of me. He is giving me a heart of love. A heart that thinks of others. A heart that thinks of Him. A heart that loves Him.

And in loving Him, he enables me to love others. To love my husband (Titus 2:4), to submit to his leadership
(Ephesians 5:22). To love my children (Titus 2:4), to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), to train them up to serve Him (Proverbs 22:6). To love my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:39).

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:7-10

So, thanks to my bloggy friend, Debbie, who prompted us to ask God for a word (and a bible verse) to focus on for the year. And thank God who answered my plea and gave me a word for this year: love. And the scripture passage I will focus on: 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter).

Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

does not rejoice in iniquity,but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Pondering

Pondering God's wonderfully magnificent creation...

Marveling at His majestic creativity... how everything has an intricate design... how He weaves a beautiful tapestry of nature... just because He can.

Thanking Him for choosing to display His glory, His splendor in such a way that I can enjoy it... enjoy Him.

Reveling in the fact that He has chosen to reveal Himself to me... to make His glory known to me... to bathe me in His mercy and grace.

May you delight yourself in His glory and goodness this day. 

Legacy: A Multi-Generational Promise

A friend shared this video with me and I thought it too good not to share. I was tremendously blessed while watching it. It is a little long, but so worth the time it takes to watch it.

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.